"Admiral."
Lying on the bed beside Nell, Bei looked up at Shang'hai. Something had excited his Chief Science Officer. Dragging a hand through his hair, he sighed. He hoped it was good news for everyone and not just some fascinating science mathematical formula explaining the life cycle of scarab beetles.
Although in his quarters, Shang'hai remained close to the entry door. Smiling brightly, she bounced on her heels as excitement flushed her wide cheeks. "The last of the command staff is boarding the Starfarer."
Security Chief Rome's large bulk filled the space behind her. "They'll reach the ready room in five minutes."
At exactly one hour after Nell's speech. Had the stress done this to her? Bei swept his fingers across Nell's forehead. Her body temperature had dropped from forty degrees Celsius to a more moderate thirty-eight. Still one degree above normal, but she had stopped convulsing. Rolling off the bed, Bei focused on Doc Cabo. "Stay with her."
The green barrel chair Doc sat in creaked as he scooted closer to his patient. "Aye Admiral."
Bei straightened his uniform and looked down at Nell's sleeping form, tiny on the large mattress. The fever dotting her pale skin egged on his anger. Humans were too fragile for space travel. How the hell would she survive settling an alien planet? Her brow wrinkled as her arm moved under the blanket, reaching for the spot he'd recently vacated.
Doc activated his MedPak. The green sensor moved up and down her body. "I'll let you know if there's any change, Admiral."
Nodding, Bei strode from his room, flanked by Rome and Shang'hai. The chief's irritation jostled with Shang'hai's excitement for dominance in the wireless array.
"Bei, you're allowing your flesh infatuation to cloud your judgment." Rome raked his hand through his short, blond hair as he walked down the hall toward the elevator. "Doc's services would be better utilized in Sick Bay."
Bei winced at the reminder of the injured Syn-En. Although he hadn't forgotten his men, Nell's arrival had filled his thoughts since they'd found her. It was as if she'd climbed into his cerebral link and made herself at home. Still, that didn't mean he trusted her. The more innocent citizens appeared, the more treacherous they proved to be. He knew that lesson well. Too bad it did nothing to curb his lust. "We have to keep Nell alive."
Rome snorted. "At the expense of our own kind? Now you sound like a citizen."
Idiot! Shang'hai pinged the chief through the WA. "Nell Stafford is a symbol. Everything we've been taught since our induction has been about citizens. As much as you and I want freedom, the younger soldiers are still eager to serve, to prove themselves to the citizens."
Bei grunted in approval at his engineer's logic. Freedom was an abstract notion, but Nell was concrete. Something the Syn-En could see and touch. Bei rubbed his thumb over his fingers, remembering the feel of her skin and the soft texture of her hair. Well, maybe not touch. "You've decoded more of the flight recorder."
"Yes?.No." Shang'hai twirled her fiber optic cable around her index finger. "We've decoded the writing on her stasis unit."
"And?" Rome poked her shoulder, nearly sending her into the hall wall.
"And something completely unexpected. With your permission, Admiral, I'd like to save that until the meeting." Shang'hai's voice shook. "This is something you have to see to believe."
Bei allowed her enthusiasm to wash over him. "Good news then?"
"Amazingly so." She skipped a step. "I'll never look at Nell Stafford the same."
Neither would Bei, but he doubted it was for the same reason. His groin tightened at the memory of their time in the cargo bay. Her arousal had quickly become his own. So much so, he wondered if Doc had missed something in his scans. "Is it something I need to know now?"
He trusted his men, but he didn't know if he wanted another surprise.
"Don't worry, Bei." Shang'hai's eyes glittered. "It's good news. I swear."
At a bend in the bare, gray hall, three Syn-En crewmen fixated on their com screens. Spare parts littered the floor near their feet, no doubt meant to repair the broken relays in the wall. Instead of working, they replayed Nell's speech. Her smiling face beamed out at them from the screen as she uttered those amazing words.
Chief Rome scrubbed his hands over his broad Germanic features. "Great. Three more skin junkies."
Bei glanced at his head of security. Rome had been stripped of his captaincy when his team had arrived too late to save a powerful citizen's kidnapped son. No one could have prevented the tragedy. The boy had been killed when he'd been snatched. Yet Rome had been blamed and the grieving parents had demanded a court martial. The Syn-En had allowed a letter of reprimand and a demotion for the head of the mission.
How deeply did the Chief's resentment run and would it jeopardize the new mission or Nell's safety? "I think it is her words that have them enamored, not her form."
At first Bei'd been irritated that she had ignored Shang'hai's prepared speech and had interpreted her resistance as citizen arrogance. But then, he'd registered her distress when she looked at the prompt. He'd never considered the possibility that she couldn't read. Ignorance couldn't explain it; those words she'd spoken were a thousand times better than anything they wrote. Everything she'd said hit him on a visceral level, and he wasn't the only one affected.
Now, the atmosphere aboard the Starfarer was lighter, charged with excitement. More of his crew must have realized what the collapsed wormhole meant than he'd thought. Perhaps a higher power looked after the Syn-En and had sent Nell to them at this critical moment.
"Are you questioning the admiral's loyalties, Chief?" Shang'hai stressed both titles as they stopped in front of the elevator doors.
"No, Commander," Rome shot back, stabbing the up button. "Bei is more Syn-En than anyone aboard, but that means he'll do just about anything to prove we're as good as the citizens."
The elevator doors snicked open and Bei entered the closet-sized space. "Nice to hear your faith in me is so unshakeable."
The chief and Shang'hai squeezed inside, bracketing him. Their wide shoulders brushed Bei's.
"You've saved my ass more times than I can count." Rome smiled. "But I worry. You've cut yourself off from Syn-En flings, and then there was the Faso interlude and?" He shrugged, flashing his palms.
Bei stifled his irritation. The problem with growing up with your executive staff was they considered your personal life part of their own and tended to speak their minds. Not that they would disrespect him in front of others. They had been trained too well. But they also noticed small changes, like not participating in after mission comfort rituals.
"Stop nagging him like an anxious grandma." Shang'hai reached around Bei's back to shove Rome against the elevator wall. "Lots of the old Syn-Ens don't participate anymore."
"Old?" Bei straightened. He was in the prime of his life. So why had the orgies left him feeling more alone instead of part of something bigger?
Ignoring Bei, Shang'hai twisted to face Rome. "He has to conserve his strength. His legendary prowess in bed with several influential female citizens got him his promotion to admiral. The first Syn-En admiral."
Rome grinned back and slapped Bei on the back. "That's a benefit when half the appointment committee are women and want a one-on-one interview with our Syn-En Stud."
Bei ground his teeth together. He had hated the nickname since Rome gave it to him when they were both sixteen. To hear it now and used in connection with those morally upright hypocrites on the review board? Hell, his reputation had almost cost him the appointment to the Admiralty, especially when the female citizens started comparing encounters.
Shang'hai's almondine eyes narrowed. "You're one to talk about stud service. You've slept with half the women in the Fleet. That's why Havana didn't want anything to do with you."
Rome glanced over his shoulder as if expecting his lover, Commander Keyes, to be nearby. "I wouldn't have slept with the others if she'd just once let me in her quarters. Hell, I knocked practically every night for two years."
Shang'hai set her fists on her full hips. "So it's her fault?"
"That's enough," Bei spoke softly. Their banter had fulfilled its purpose. Their emotions had been dealt with and they could move onto the next step. He doubted either expected what he was about to do, but then they'd been too busy with the citizen to look at the wreckage.
Both soldiers clamped their mouths closed and stood in parade stance. "Aye, aye, Admiral."
Bei nodded, proud of their serious demeanor. Still, that comment about his age stung. He waited until the elevator slid to a stop. "As for my citizen conquests, you're only half right. The Councilmen had very unhappy wives."
The chief's and Shang'hai's shock lit up the WA as the doors opened.
Rome set his hand on Bei's arm. "Be careful with her. I have a feeling even your experience won't help you with this citizen."
Shang'hai rolled her brown eyes, clamped onto the chief and dragged him onto the bridge. "Come on, Grandma Rome."
XO Penig sat in the command chair in the center of the semi-circular bridge. Syn-Ens repaired five of the six damaged hubs arcing around the room. A fresh-faced, red-haired recruit manned the Science hub to the right of the elevator doors. His fiber optic cable pulsed blue, but the LCD above his station remained dark.
The fleet's XO rose to his feet when Bei walked in. His head twitched when he saluted, proof that he needed more repairs. "Admiral on the bridge."
Stepping onto the deck, Bei returned his XO's salute. "Status, Penig."
"All captains are in the briefing room, as requested, Admiral."
"Shall we join them?"
"Aye, Admiral." XO Penig's head jerked to the right as he turned left. "Lieutenant Dublin, you have the bridge."
"Aye, Sir. I have the bridge," the red-haired Lieutenant Dublin confirmed.
Bei motioned for Chief Rome and Shang'hai to precede him through the double doors off the bridge. Excited chatter greeted him as he entered the rectangular ready room and scanned the occupants. Forty faces turned toward him as Bei stood on the threshold. Many he recognized, but most of the older Syn-En captains were absent. Had their class three enhancements failed? He turned to his XO, remembering that only the upgrades by a civie had kept the old Syn-En's brain from frying in a surge.
XO Penig's stride was jerky and tentative as he moved the five yards across the floor. "It looks worse than it is. I just need a few mobility programs reinstalled."
Bei nodded and carefully blanked any emotion from his face. Come to think of it, Bei had been the last Syn-En in the fleet to have requisitioned upgrades. Even the younger Syn-Ens had sixth generation bionics. No one else aboard had seventh generation although they had been approved four months before the start of this mission. "Civilian Smith's upgrades worked then."
"Saved my life." Penig patted the back of his neck as he entered the ready room off the bridge. "And they're compatible with the newer software."
Bei leaned close to his XO as the doors shut behind them. "Do you suppose the old war horses would be interested in similar modifications?"
XO Penig pinched his bottom lip. "We lost ten in Operation Blowback. Their hardware just couldn't take the overload. Three more are critical. The civie thinks he can save them but?" Penig smoothed the fringe of white hair on his pale head. "My presence might convince the rest that Smith can be trusted."
"Good." Bei watched as one of the younger officers vacated her seat and slid the gray chair toward the XO. She sat on the floor in the fourth row of the executive staff.
Chief Rome worked his way to the back of the room to stand near the collapsed metal conference table leaning against the bulkhead.
Bei returned his attention to his second in command. "Oversee the rotation, but you're to be repaired first. The Fleet XO should set the example."
Penig's joints creaked as he lowered himself into the chair and slowly wheeled it against the wall at Bei's back. "Nothing like being a guinea pig for the cause."
Chief Rome frowned as he glanced around the room.
Bei knew who his security officer sought. "Status of Commander Keyes?"
XO Penig set his hands on his knees and gingerly leaned back in his chair. "She'll be rebooted in two hours."
Rome winced. Shit! She said she was undamaged. Damned hardheaded woman.
Pings of sympathy passed through the WA.
Bei added his own to the mix. "Rebooted?"
Setting a neural link to its factory settings was a lot like stuffing a candle in an electrical outlet. You never got the results you wanted but did receive a nasty shock for your efforts. Add that everything got routed to pain sensors first and Commander Keyes would be hard pressed not to take off Bei's head.
XO Penig studied his reflection in his black boots. "She kept trying to move, so I powered her down. I don't think the chief has allowed her to get much sleep when she's off duty."
Hey, now, don't blame me, Chief shot back across the WA. She gets her required four hours, just not all at once.
Snickers rumbled through the officers as they picked up the exchange.
Tension bit into Bei's shoulders as he surveyed the assembled Syn-En leaders. With what he was about to propose, he doubted their good humor would last long. "I'll brief Keyes when she wakes."
XO Penig scratched the white stubble on his chin. "Ahh, the pleasures of command."
Pleasure? Hell, volunteering to talk to someone who'd just rebooted was a masochist's wet dream. Bei waited for the chatter to fade before addressing the crowd. "Thank you all for coming."
They nodded in unison.
"Before I begin, if you haven't already done so, I'll need a list of supplies on hand, status of all repairs, plus the names of the fallen." Using the WA, Bei accessed the CIC and called forth his avatar. The little digital man crawled out from behind a mound of data bundles and began to sort and prioritize the information.
"Aye, Admiral," the Syn-En chorused and the WA filled with other presences as those who just received their battlefield promotions sent the requested updates.
Biding his time until everyone looked at him, Bei noticed that the noise on the WA faded to background levels. Every Syn-En was listening. "Now as to the question of Citizen Nell Stafford, Engineer Shang'hai will fill you in on what we've learned so far."
"Thank you, Admiral." Shang'hai rose from her seat on Bei's left. A holographic projector lowered from its cubby hole in the ceiling and a telescopic lens zoomed out, projecting an image of Nell's stasis chamber.
Bei stepped to the left and stood on the opposite side of Penig, allowing the picture to cover the double doors.
Shang'hai flipped open the nail of her index finger and a red dot appeared on the image of the stasis unit. "During our search for the traitors, we discovered the citizen. Her life pod had apparently been scooped up with the debris of the Perseus. Nell Stafford is a one hundred percent organic human from Earth."
A curly haired man in the back row leaned slightly forward. "I don't recognize the writing."
"It's encoded." With her pink hair standing on end, Shang'hai smiled. "Mathematical equations on the right side and text on the left. The math helped us translate the message."
A woman in the front row stretched her legs into a patch of empty space and fingered her lieutenant's insignia. "If Earth sent it, why was the message a secret?"
Before Shang'hai answered, Commander Brazil slammed his fist into his palm. The red button on his collar flashed in the dim light of the ready room. "What does it matter what citizens do? Admiral, are you really remaining in charge of the Fleet?"
Bei pushed away from the wall. Although wearing the red meant Commander Brazil had been charged with playing Devil's Advocate in every executive meeting, the role could become quite tedious especially when someone relished the role as much as Brazil. "Yes, I am in charge."
"And our mission?" Commander Brazil gestured, his lean brown hand nearly smacking the captain next to him upside the head. "How are we to get to Terra Dos with
the wormhole collapsed?"
Bei had to get them to see Nell as a person not as a citizen before he moved onto the purpose of this meeting. The quickest way to do so was by using her name frequently. Taking a calming breath, he addressed his men. "Nell Stafford's stasis chamber was scheduled to exit the wormhole sixty thousand kilometers back."
Beside Bei, XO Penig rocked forward in his seat. "We missed the event horizon?"
"No." Bei took his time and held the gaze of the most senior officers for a moment before continuing. "There is no exit event horizon."
Commander Brazil scratched his head. His white scalp winked in the furrows of his black hair. "Then how was the citizen to exit?"
Bei looked at Shang'hai. She practically jumped up and down to answer. He nodded, giving her permission to once again take control of the debriefing.
She offered everyone a toothy smile and clasped her pale hands together. "The right side of Nell Stafford's stasis chamber contains information on how to create an artificial event horizon."
Bei's own astonishment and relief joined the other emotions bubbling through the WA. Nell had tried to tell him before she passed out, but how could she know? A fissure of unease trickled down Bei's plated spine. And who had sent her to save the Syn-En? A buried memory stirred. Save the World, why did it ring a bell now?
A young woman lieutenant braiding three of her fiber optic cables asked, "When will we exit the wormhole?"
Shang'hai's face fell for a moment. "Soon, we hope. The math is extremely advanced and the code isn't making it any easier, but we should have it cracked within the day and find out if it's feasible given our energy reserves."
"Why don't you just ask the citizen?" Commander Brazil crossed his arms over his broad chest and set his pointed jaw. "They always know everything."
Nods rippled around the room.
Bei glared at the Commander until the man looked down and started memorizing his fingerprints.
Before Bei said a word, Chief Rome spoke from the back of the room. "Nell Stafford is not in any condition to be interrogated."
"Citizens were not made for space travel," someone piped up from the group on the left.
"Blue," another whispered as snickers blossomed in remembrance of Nell's vomiting.
Shang'hai shook her finger at the gigglers. "Nell Stafford risked everything to get here. To save us."
"Just looking after their investment." Commander Brazil's black eyes flashed.
"Not exactly." Shang'hai glanced from the crowd to Bei, a question in her brown eyes.
Bei's unease grew. What had the writing on the left side of the stasis unit said? Frustration clawed at his control. With the WA open for everyone in the fleet to hear this meeting, he couldn't very well ask his engineer what she meant nor could he shut down the WA without questions being raised.
Chief Rome strode through the crowd and faced down Commander Brazil. "Nell Stafford is genuinely concerned for us. She died so Faso would stop blowing up Syn-En life pods and that gave the admiral the opening he needed to prevent her from targeting fleet ships. Given Nell's natural state, the Doc didn't even know if her death would be permanent. She believes everything she said and that includes her drive for justice."
The crowd quickly shut up. Even the WA quieted.
Bei felt the swell of admiration for Nell, the Syn-En admired sacrifice for a duty and having a civilian willing to die for them was both humbling and unusual. He hoped it survived the next piece of information. Using his connection to the CIC, Bei focused on the bent piece of metal bisecting Nell's stasis unit and zeroed in on the planet emblem. "There's more. Earth knew the wormhole had collapsed when they sent us on this mission."
Anger boiled through the room to the accompaniment of smacking body armor. Calls for justice simmered in the WA. Bei acknowledged them, knowing they mirrored what he'd felt when he'd discovered the probe's wreckage in his cargo bay.
Shang'hai's brow wrinkled as she tilted her head and considered him.
Elbows on his knees, XO Penig rested his chin in his palm. "How do you know this?"
Bei pointed to the metal band across Nell's stasis unit, then projected the Jane's entry about the probe on the door panel next to the image. "I found pieces of the probe that had supposedly made it to Terra Dos in the debris in cargo bay eight. Obviously it didn't self destruct in the planet's atmosphere as we were told. Indeed, it seems to have smashed into the end of the wormhole. No doubt a fate the citizens hoped we'd share. The Syn-En were sent to die, not to colonize a new world."
Confusion reigned in the WA. Bei felt their frustration and incorporated it into his own. Six months had passed since the start of the Terra Dos mission and not every Syn-En had been aboard. What had happened to those Syn-En who'd stayed on Earth? "I don't know the fate of those we left behind, but I suspect that any attempt to warn or rescue them would be in vain."
"So we just give up?" Commander Brazil sneered.
"Never." This time Bei scanned the room, meeting everyone's gaze briefly and allowing them to feel the depth of his determination before continuing. "We will find out how to punch out of this wormhole. While we're doing that, we'll build a few more Starflights using our evac suits. After the new ships are completed, we'll return to Earth and discover the fate of those who remained behind."
"Too bad we can't return and eliminate all citizens and the UEN Council." Commander Brazil echoed the sentiment in the WA.
Bei nodded, but with the fleet in its current shape, Earth would cut it to pieces. The Starflights would provide a means to evade their sensors, look for their people and then hit all of Earth's major defenses before returning here. "We have a choice to make. As representatives of your crew, you must speak for them. Because Earth has broken the covenant between citizen and Syn-En, I propose we declare our emancipation, become not Syn-En but citizens of a new world. This world. Terra Dos."
Bei brought up the picture of the green and white planet found on Nell's flight recorder.
Doubt and hope warred for control of the crowd's faces. As usual, Commander Brazil translated for the WA. "Since Earth condemned us to death, why should we trust the citizen?"
Shang'hai stepped forward and brought up a picture of Nell dressed in her Syn-En uniform. "Because Nell Stafford isn't a citizen, as we know it, nor is she a representative of the United Earth Nations."
"Not a citizen?" Chief Rome pinned Shang'hai with a puzzled glance. "Sensors register that she's completely organic."
"And she is," Shang'hai agreed, "but Nell slept for over a hundred years in a stasis chamber waiting for us to find her. The information she came with will save us."
Commander Brazil scrutinized Nell's picture. "How is that possible?"
Shang'hai switched projected images to the wormhole. "We know that a wormhole bends time and space. It is possible that our futures selves used the time factor to send a message into the past, trying to reach us in the present and provide us with the information needed to save the majority of us. Obviously, they went a little too far back in time."
Bei's mind reeled from the implications. "We sent her?"
"The advanced design of her stasis chamber matches the ones designed by our Science personnel during this trip. Many of the mathematical formulas inscribed on the unit were only discovered since we began our journey and studied the wormhole in depth, plus the material of her stasis chamber isn't from Earth, Mars or any of the asteroid mines." Having made her point, Shang'hai brought up the image of the unit. "The text says, 'We send her to you in your hour of need. She is the key to preventing extinction, the hope of our race. Treat her well and she shall Save our World.'"
"But why would our future selves choose a citizen, especially one so fragile?" Commander Brazil rubbed the furrows in his forehead. "Why not warn us before we left Earth?"
Shang'hai shrugged. "None of the equations leads me to believe we can predict when we'll exit the wormhole. Our future selves may have tried to warn us, but ended up going back too f
ar and decided this chance was better than none."
Bei brought up a mission statement from the first Syn-En Vade Mecum. "Nell Stafford joined the Save Our World Foundation voluntarily. As many of you know, Save Our World was the original slogan for the Syn-En."
Bold black letters confirmed Bei's words.
"Why would anyone volunteer to come here?" A lieutenant spoke from the back.
"She's from 2012." Shang'hai brought up a new data stream. "The time stamp on her flight recorder and Doc's biometric tests confirm diseases and immunities from roughly that time period."
"2012?" Chief Rome whistled. "Hell, if only half those stories are true, we could have chosen any number of people."
Bei nodded. If the Syn-En had truly instigated the mission they would have found others to increase their odds of one getting through. "Maybe we did and she's the only one who survived."
Silence reigned as they all considered the implication of Nell risking her life for their own, not once but twice. It went against everything the Syn-En had been taught. Yet, it also afforded them a guilty payback. Bei kept the knowledge that Nell hadn't known the exact nature of her mission to himself.
"I'll need a vote on Syn-En emancipation from United Earth Nations, the Council and her citizen subjects." Bei felt their fear and determination in the WA.
XO Penig rose slowly to his feet. "Admiral, if I may. I motion for a verbal casting."
"I second." Commander Brazil also stood.
"All in favor?" Ayes chorused. "All opposed recording the vote?"
Silence.
Bei surveyed the crowd. "Then I put the vote regarding emancipation to the command staff of the Syn-En fleet."
Bei's XO stepped forward. "Captain Cassis Penig of the starship Starfarer votes in favor of emancipation."
The lieutenant at the back of the room rose. "Lieutenant Commander Geneva Laos of the Beagle class transport Ursa Minor favors emancipation."
One by one the command staff stood to record their vote, renouncing the pledge binding the Syn-En to the service of Earth's citizens and the UEN Council. With one voice, the leaders committed themselves to the settlement of Terra Dos.
Twenty minutes passed before Bei registered his vote, the last in the unanimous bid for freedom. Elation and fear buzzed through those assembled.
Bei straightened and opened a com channel to all ships. "Admiral Beijing York, commander of the Syn-En Fleet does hereby declare all synthetically enhanced humans and every modified civilian assigned to her service emancipated from the yoke of the United Earth Nations and her Council. The crew, support staff and their families are endowed with all rights as fully enfranchised citizens."
After a stunned period of silence, the WA exploded in joy.
Their course was set. There would be no going back. Earth would view the votes' outcome as desertion perhaps even treason, both crimes punishable by death. Bei opened the doors connecting the ready room with the bridge.
Lieutenant Berlin looked up from his place at the helm, his skin pasty against his red hair. "Admiral, we're getting a communication from the Supreme Council of United Earth Nations. It's coming from just inside the event horizon."
Syn-Ens owe their allegiance to citizens first.
Then, in order of importance, civilians, duty, honor,
and, finally, their comrades.
Never should personal wants or needs displace the proper order of things.
Syn-En Vade Mecum
Chapter Nine
The Syn-En Solution (SciFi Adventure) Page 9