by S. H. Jucha
Hector was relieved that Descartes’s choice of the Méridien twins was being well received by the queens and wasats.
Hector sent with determination.
The SADE heard numerous chuffs of support. Then he sent,
3: Probe Signal
Nyslara communicated privately with Pussiro. She had her own thoughts about how to rescue Nata, but Pussiro was the wasat. Any queen worth her title knew when to rely on her nest commander. Although the nest structures had dissociated, the power of the Dischnya still flowed from the queens and the wasats.
“Pussiro advises that two queens and their wasats would make the optimum number to confront the nest queen who has captured Nata,” Nyslara said. By evoking Pussiro’s name, she’d effectively ended further conversation. “Obviously, Pussiro and I will be one pair. There is danger in this mission to Sawa, which is why I’m choosing to take Choslara and Hessmas, if they’ll consent.”
Queen Choslora received Hessmas’s assent, and she chuffed to Nyslara.
To the furrowed brows of the more senior queens, Nyslara responded, “The Dischnya’s future requires guidance. If, for some reason, our negotiations are unsuccessful, and they result in our deaths, it will be necessary to have seasoned queens to take my place.”
Nyslara’s words had a chilling effect on every queen and wasat, including those staying and those going.
“Choslora, make arrangements to quickly depart,” Nyslara directed. As the pair hurried out of the room, she turned her attention toward Sissya and Posnossa, the other two queens in the meeting. “Questions?” she asked.
Sissya, who was the most opinionated of the senior queens, was dumbstruck.
Nyslara chuffed humorously. “Perhaps, you can appreciate the weight of my decisions,” she said, eyeing Sissya. “I’ll offer you one piece of advice. Never forget the single reason for the opportunities that have allowed the nests to crawl out of the tunnels, occupy the surface, and travel into space.”
“Dassata,” Posnossa volunteered.
“He’s the epitome of the humans, but we’re fortunate that we’ve developed past the need to depend on one individual,” Nyslara said.
“Then we continue our alliance with Omnians and, especially, Omnia Ships,” Sissya added.
“There, you have my advice,” Nyslara said. Without another word, she rose, exited the meeting, and cracked her tail with determination, as she made her way into the corridor of the new marketplace fourth floor.
Nyslara exited the building, with Pussiro close behind. She connected with Choslora and found her and her senior wasat, Hessmas, waiting by Nyslara’s traveler.
Nyslara chose Choslora for several reasons. She was one of the youngest queens who’d taken part in the Fissla, the queen’s meeting that had adopted Alex Racine’s offer of peace. Nyslara admired Choslora for her facile mind. The younger queen had been a fierce adopter of Omnian technology. The Dischnya’s first market had been her concept.
Pussiro had argued for two queens and their wasats. Nyslara thought that a presentation by a mature queen and a youthful one might make a better impression on the Sawa nest queen.
The four Dischnya boarded the traveler, and the pilot, a Dischnya flight academy graduate, lifted for space. Captain de Long’s Trident waited for them in orbit.
* * * * *
Hector ran through scenarios for several minutes. Most of them considered whether he or the admirals should play a greater role in Nata’s rescue. Recalling Admiral Tatia Tachenko’s advice to him, he dismissed the idea. He’d delegated the best individuals to manage the problem — the twins and the queens.
Ellie’s ongoing after-action meetings and an update on the NNEMP tests required Hector’s attention, and he walked quickly toward the conference room. He’d just taken a seat, when he received a priority signal.
Lydia and the admirals were surprised to see Hector’s face briefly freeze. It was the reaction of a newly released SADE who inhabited his or her first avatar.
The conference table’s holo-vid lit, and the audience watched images play. There was no sound.
“What are we looking at?” Alphons asked.
“Imagery from a probe,” Lydia supplied.
“One of ours?” Adrianna inquired.
“Yes,” Hector replied. “Alex’s fleet left it in the Vinium system.”
“Uh-oh,” Ellie uttered. The admirals regarded her with knitted brows, and she added, “It was placed in the system of a peaceful race called the Ollassa. They communicated through Julien that they were determined not to expand beyond their World of Light, as they refer to their planet. Alex ordered a probe launched in the outer rim to warn of adversaries approaching the system.”
“Why was Alex wary of intruders?” Alphons asked.
“It’s a long story,” Ellie replied, “but we discovered that a Nua’ll sphere had passed through their system.”
“A peaceful race was at the mercy of the Nua’ll?” Adrianna queried. Her ire at the thought was evident.
“The evidence that Alex, Renée, and Julien collected with the help of Scarlet Mandator —”
“Who?” Alphons asked, interrupting Ellie, which earned him narrowed eyes. “Sorry, Admiral, I’ll investigate the archives later.”
“The Ollassa threw hundreds of small transports at the Nua’ll’s bullet ships. Apparently, when the sphere started losing its warships, the collective decided to abandon the system,” Ellie finished.
“Unarmed transports,” Adrianna repeated, seeking clarification.
“I did say they were a peaceful race, didn’t I?” Ellie gently remonstrated.
“Black space,” Adrianna whispered softly.
“Hector, why has the probe been activated?” Ellie asked.
“Transmission from the probe began when movement was detected outward of the far belt,” Hector replied. “The data accompanying the imagery records a transit signal.”
“If this is a real-time transmission, then we won’t see what initiated the probe until the ship approaches the system,” Lydia noted.
“Any chance that the detected energy signal might not be from a ship’s transit?” Alphons asked.
“None, Ser,” Lydia replied, “and I must inform you that the energy level detected by the probe is an order of magnitude greater than a city-ship.”
“But this is a single ship, correct?” Ellie inquired. “I mean, it isn’t a cluster of ships packed tightly together?”
“It’s a single
ship, Admiral,” Hector confirmed.
“Then we have to wait for the ship’s approach to the system to identify the nature of the intrusion,” Ellie said. “Let’s move on to the latest NNEMP test.”
When the discussion about the weapon tests finished, Hector requested a private conference with Ellie.
They retired to Hector’s suite. The collection of rooms had been decorated by Lydia to accommodate humans, SADEs, and Dischnya, when Alex had found the rudimentary furnishings inadequate.
“Admiral,” Hector said, as they were seated, “I’ve paid particular attention to the manner in which Alex operates. He’s unafraid to adopt new mantles in response to changing conditions. Before Admiral Tachenko left, she appointed me as this fleet’s admiral, but I think that was a misnomer on her part.”
In response to Ellie’s frown, Hector added. “I’m not impugning Admiral Tachenko’s decision. I accept that the fleet’s actions are my responsibility. However, despite the fact that she titled me fleet admiral, you and I know that I’m not a warrior.”
“Hector, you’ve capable people to execute your orders,” Ellie protested.
“Tatia said the same thing,” Hector said, “but there will come a time when communications with you or your rear admirals will be challenging, if not impossible. What then?”
Ellie knew where Hector was leading, but she chose to wait rather than advance the conversation and possibly hurt the SADE’s feelings.
Recent events dictated the need for Hector to immediately make the change he’d been considering. Accepting the decision’s logic helped him understand the challenges Alex faced every time he’d adopted a new title and handed off more responsibilities. In some ways, it felt like personal diminishment, but that was only if the individual coveted personal power and glory.
“Do we have an understanding, Fleet Admiral Ellie Thompson?” Hector asked, smiling gently.
“We do, Hector,” Ellie said, rising to shake Hector’s hand. As she left, she paused in the suite’s doorway, and she said, “Hector, Alex would be proud of you.”
Inside the SADE, emotional algorithms rose in response to Ellie’s praise.
The announcement of the title transfer went out to the fleet. Ellie immediately followed the message with one of her own.
* * * * *
Neffess sat nervously in her pilot’s seat. She ached to descend and search for her friend, but her annuals as a pup under Nyslara’s and Pussiro’s guidance had taught her to moderate her emotions and listen to those with wisdom.
Neffess urgently wished to explain to Petite why Nata had dropped planetside. She wanted to defend her friend in the hopes that something could be said to ameliorate the trouble that Nata had created for herself. But she knew it was useless. Borrowing from a comparison, Nata had entered the green, Omnia’s dangerous polar region, where no Dischnya dared venture.
Within several hours, Étienne’s squadron retrieved its fighters and rendezvoused overtop Sawa.
Neffess stayed in position, while the travelers exited their warships and covered the surface surrounding the location of Nata’s abduction.
Telemetry examined every square meter of surface within a ten-square-kilometer area. Anything that moved on the planet was recorded, noted by controllers, and shared among the command.
Within the immediate area, more than thirty hatches were identified.
Descartes requested Étienne order his travelers to widen the search.
After reviewing the new telemetry, Descartes contacted the twins.
Aboard Alain’s warship, the twin linked the Dischnya to the conversation.
Descartes quietly acknowledged the new attendees. Then the SADE explained the imagery.
Étienne and Alain linked to the massive data banks aboard the Our People.
Hector detected the twins’ searches, and he swiftly supplied the links to the data files that had been recorded when Alex first visited Sawa.
Ellie was added to the conversation by Lydia. She understood what the twins were intent on finding.
Aboard the Tridents, the bridge audiences watched Hector match the multiple sites of the stepped structures that Alex and company had visited with the structure that Nata had dropped planetside to observe.
When a match occurred, Hector sent,
The Dischnya snarls were clearly heard, and Descartes dived into the historical files to understand the sentiments.
From the corner of his eyes, Alain observed the queen’s tails stuck stiffly in the air. The tips harshly twitched just short of cracking the air.
When the conference call ended, Ellie linked to Étienne.
With time before the rendezvous at Sawa, Alain chose to meet with his Dischnya guests.
“Queen Nyslara,” Alain said, after everyone was seated at his cabin conference table, “I can appreciate your anxiety about Nata’s predicament. However, let me remind you that Nata is a lieutenant in our fleet. This is a military operation to recover one of our young officers.”
Nyslara and Pussiro turned their dark eyes on Alain. Their stares were direct, and they expected the senior captain to relent.
Choslora and Hessmas sat still, waiting for the contest of wills to end.
Finally, Nyslara’s tail flagged. “We can be assets,” she said, indicating with a dark-nailed finger the four Dischnya.
“Important assets,” Alain allowed, and like that, the impasse was broken. “You remember Sub-Commander Waffala’s remarks about us, our ship, and our appearance on the surface.”
>
“Yes,” Pussiro replied. “Waffala told us of the nature by which Chona Ceefan ruled her nest through coercion, intimidation, and retribution.”
“A perversion,” Nyslara remarked hotly.
“Ceefan or the new queen will use Nata’s capture as a sign to the nest that the soma must prepare for invasion,” Choslora reasoned.
“While taking the opportunity to keep the truth hidden from her soma and bargain with us,” Hessmas added.
“We must preserve the Sawa queen’s pretense,” Nyslara said, with determination. “If we expose her untruth, we could lose whatever negotiating advantage we might hold.”
“In that case, it would be best to meet her and her wasat in the edifice and away from the tunnel hatches,” Alain reasoned.
“We continue our pretense until such time as we suspect deviousness from the Sawa Dischnya,” Pussiro said. “Then it will be time to act and act decisively.”
4: Captive
Nata felt her legs yanked out from under her. She was unceremoniously dragged through the hatch. It happened so fast and with no regard for her safety that her head banged on the metal opening. To say she was grateful for her helmet was an understatement.
Four Dischnya warriors carried Nata by her arms and legs through dimly lit tunnels. Bioluminescent fungi grew on the walls, and pups tended the growths, sprinkling a liquid on them.
The pups halted their efforts and turned to stare at Nata in horror, as she was carried past them.
Alex’s recommendations about visiting Sawa came back to Nata. She hated that he’d been right to warn the Omnian Dischnya not to visit their home world. Despite the desperate situation, Nata was more angry than worried.
Cold logic replaced the seething emotion that had flooded Nata’s mind. Her memories swept her back in time. She was no longer an Omnia Ships’ lieutenant carried underground by Dischnya. She was a wild one, who’d been captured by Faustus’s minders and was being hauled through the bowels of the great ship New Terra. More than once, she’d escaped from the minders, and she’d escape again.