James climbed up the ramp to the shuttle, but stopped in the open hatch to look out at the empty bay. Brenda wasn’t coming; he knew that now. With a sigh and a heavy heart, he sealed the hatch and made his way toward the cockpit. He was a damn fool. Brenda was everything he had ever wanted in a woman. She was funny, and passionate, and clever, and oh so beautiful. He loved her more than anything, so why had he let this wall develop between them? Their last argument had been the worst.
Brenda had tried to make Colgan let her accompany him, but the captain said letting a civ carry the mission was bad enough, he wasn’t about to make the situation worse by adding another. The ensuing argument had nearly caused Colgan to send Commander Groves on the mission instead, but even he knew there was a greater chance of success if someone familiar with Bindar’s work was there to operate the translators. Brenda knew that as well as anyone. The sneaky woman had studied up while helping James prepare for the mission. She knew as much if not more than he did now, and she had tried to use that to persuade Colgan to let her go with him. It hadn’t worked.
James took his place in the pilot’s chair and activated the lander’s systems. “Alpha One ready for take-off,” he announced over the comm.
The view-screen lit and Lieutenant Ricks appeared. “Alpha One, stand by for final instructions.”
“Okay… I mean, copy that, Canada. Standing by.”
Ricks grinned.
A moment later, Captain Colgan came on. “I’m depressurising the bay now.” He turned to nod at someone out of view and then turned back. “Be careful out there, James. I don’t want to lose you.”
“I don’t want to lose me either,” James said with a grin. He sobered a moment later. “You’ll look after Brenda if something should happen. It won’t of course, but if it should?”
“She’ll be fine. I’ll see to it.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Colgan nodded and the screen darkened.
James took a deep breath and released the docking clamps. The lander was a dream to fly in simulation. Nice acceleration and good handling. The real thing was different enough to make him bite his lip as he eased it over the deck toward the hanger doors. As he approached, they cranked open to reveal the blackness of space populated by chunks of rock moving slowly by. As expected, Canada was already underway. He firmed his grip on the yoke.
“Here goes nothing.” He throttled up the lander’s main engine and shot out of the bay like a missile.
As soon as he was well clear of Canada, he eased back on the throttle and turned his ship toward the asteroid she had been using to hide from Chakra. He couldn’t see the alien ship yet, but he didn’t waste time. As soon as he was close enough, he used his manoeuvring thrusters to align the lander with the asteroid, before programming the computer to maintain the shuttle’s position. The Shan should detect him easily.
With nothing to do until the Shan arrived, he decided to make himself a snack. He had missed dinner earlier. Brenda hadn’t felt like eating after their meeting with Colgan, and neither had he. They had both been too upset. Brenda had locked the bedroom door against him, and hadn’t even said good bye when he left for the boat bay.
He unbuckled his harness and floated across the cockpit toward the hatch. Landers like this one were too small to have gravity generators, but they did come equipped with a galley. As he approached the hatch to the main cabin, he glanced at the cases strapped to the deck behind the co-pilot’s seat. They contained the gifts he and the others had put together for the Shan. One of them was filled with compad translators, while others were full of picture books and other things designed to teach Shan about the Alliance. The largest contained Williams’ master unit, or what he called The Box of Crap. James grinned. Only he knew why Williams called it that.
He opened the cockpit hatch.
Brenda floated a short distance ahead of him. “It’s only me,” she said brightly.
James gaped. “I don’t believe it. How the hell did you get here?”
Brenda grinned. “Magic.”
“But I looked…”
“I was in the locker,” she said hooking a thumb over her shoulder at her hiding place.
“You’re going back!”
He turned and pulled himself into the cockpit.
“No I’m not.” Brenda kicked against one of the seats and launched herself in pursuit. “Canada must be out of range by now.”
“Brenda please. I need you to be safe.”
Brenda pulled herself into the co-pilot’s seat. “And I need to be here. If you want to be a hero, that’s fine, but I’m staying.”
James gritted his teeth. “We’ve been through this. We agreed it makes sense for me to go.”
“Oh no you don’t. You agreed, I never did and you know it.”
“But you said—”
Brenda finished strapping in. “I said I understood the point you and the captain were making, not that I agreed with it. You are the odd one out, you can be spared, and you do want to do it. All that’s true, but I love you and I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
“I’ll get the, Captain.” He strapped himself in and searched the controls for the one he needed. He was so flustered he couldn’t find it. “He’ll make you see sense.”
“It’s that one,” Brenda said pointing to a single control among dozens of similar buttons and switches.
“I remember my training, thank you.”
“Well do it then.”
“All right, I’m doing it!” James glared, and Brenda smirked. “Alpha One to Canada; respond please.”
“Canada copies.”
“I have a problem here—a stowaway.”
Lieutenant Ricks’ jaw dropped. “A what?”
“What is it, Mark?” Colgan said out of view of the pickup.
Ricks turned away from the monitor. “Professor Wilder says he has a stowaway, Skipper.”
“For the love of God, who would be stupid enough to… where’s Professor Lane?”
“I don’t know, Skipper.”
“She’s here,” James called.
Brenda grinned and waved at the monitor.
Colgan was snarling something. “…have his damn hide. I told him to watch her dammit. All stop! Prepare to reverse course…”
“Contact,” a voice sang out. “Bearing one-eight-zero. It’s Chakra, Captain. She’s coming fast.”
“Sound battle stations,” Colgan barked and the wailing alarm sounded. “Put Wilder on screen.”
A moment later, the captain glared out of the monitor at Brenda. His face was red with rage, and she swallowed nervously. She opened her mouth to explain, but he began first.
“Chakra will have you in…” Colgan looked aside then back. “Three minutes if she doesn’t blow you out of space first. I can’t stay, and we’ll lose TBC lock any second. For Chrissakes don’t mess it up or I’ll—”
The screen turned to fuzz.
Signal Lost
James flicked a switch and the screen darkened. He turned slowly toward Brenda with his jaw clenched and stared at her in silence.
Brenda shifted in her seat. “I’m glad we’re together. Glad do you hear?”
“I hear you. I love you more than life, Brenda. I wish you had stayed aboard Canada. It’s not safe here.”
“We live together, or we die together…” she giggled. “I sound like a character in Zelda and the Spaceways.”
“Let’s hope we’re still around for the next episode,” James said peering out of the cockpit window looking for their guests.
14 ~ The Chase
Aboard Chakra, Shan System
“He’s running,” Tarjei shouted in her excitement.
Tei’Varyk flicked his ears in agreement, but why run every time, why not fight? Every time Chakra found him, the alien tucked his tail and ran. And what about the other one? Firing into his ship should have made him mad enough to fire back, but he hadn’t. Why? He chewed his whiskers in agitation. Why, why, why? He hissed
and spat as if tasting something he didn’t like. Unanswerable questions always left a bad taste. He hated that!
“Search for the asteroids as we discussed,” Tei’Varyk said. “When you find the closest one of the right size, we will get there ahead of him and be waiting. He will not escape us this time.”
“I hear,” Tarjei said. “Lairs to your screen.”
He studied his displays. “Remove any he has used before, Tarjei. I don’t think he will chance using them again.”
“I hear and comply.”
Tei’Varyk noted the first ten or so had disappeared, but already there were numerous asteroids on his display and more appearing as he watched.
“Remove target asteroids that would require him to backtrack in order to reach them.”
“I hear,” Tarjei said and did as he asked.
“Good, very good.” There was an asteroid almost exactly on the alien’s current heading. “I believe I have him. Jakinda, new course—”
“New contact!” Tarjei said as the bridge alarms signalled an unknown target ahead.
“Silence that!”
“I hear,” Jozka said and the alarm fell silent.
“Is it another light fang or a heavy?” Tei’Varyk asked intently. The aliens might be lying in wait for him.
“Neither, Tei. The target is at station keeping, and in the open a short distance from the alien’s previous hiding place. The asteroid was occluding Chakra’s eyes, but he sees him clearly now. It’s small, no weapons of any kind.” Tarjei looked up from her controls in confusion. “It seems to be a cub lander.”
“That doesn’t make sense…” A cub was useless in space. It was only carried aboard to ferry crew to and from a planet or mining base. “What’s it doing now?”
“Nothing, Tei. It’s waiting for us to kill it.”
“Let us do that then,” Kajika said eager to kill something after so long on the hunt with little to show for it.
“I hear, Tarjei,” Tei’Varyk said ignoring Kajika’s lapse in discipline.
He understood Kajika’s feelings, but he didn’t want to be hasty. He might learn the secret of the alien FTL they had witnessed. Although it seemed unlikely a cub would have the ability, there might be something interesting. He had to choose soon or he would over fly it. He hesitated a moment longer then turned to Jakinda.
“Bring us alongside the cub.”
Hisses of displeasure surrounded him and Tarjei looked at him in worry. He flicked his ears at her keeping his face bland and she grinned.
“I will take this gift they have left me, and I will learn what they’re about. I know where the alien fang will hide, do not worry. Look ahead in harmony and obey.”
“I hear. Commencing deceleration,” Jakinda said.
Aboard ASN Canada, Shan System
Colgan sighed as Chakra decelerated. “It worked.”
“So far,” Groves qualified. “You should have let me go, sir.”
“I didn’t know you spoke Shan, Francis,” he said in mock surprise. “You should have said. It would have saved a lot of work!”
“We have the translators and—”
“XO, I’m no happier than you are, believe me, but Wilder can speak Shan enough to get by, and the translators are untested in the field. Besides, Professor Singh estimates gaps of at least thirty percent in the tapes.”
They weren’t really tapes of course. The so called tape was actually a complex bit of programming that no one but Bindar Singh understood. The program itself resided on a chip in the translator’s master unit, and used an algorithm of Singh’s own devising to access a huge database of Shan and Human words.
The result was a master unit connected by a modulated carrier wave to compads that could, theoretically, allow a Human to converse with a Shan. There were so many things that could go wrong with the system, that Colgan felt almost physically ill thinking about it.
“I understand the reasoning,” Groves said. “But civs are like sheep. They need a sheep dog to protect them.”
Sheep dog? He grinned. “I’m the sheep dog?”
Groves laughed. “Well, I’ve heard rumours you’re as hairy as one.” Everyone chuckled at the by-play, and tension eased throughout the bridge. Groves and Colgan exchanged knowing smiles and then settled back to business. “Orders, sir?”
“Steady as she goes, XO. We hide and wait for Wilder to get in touch. He knows how.”
“Aye, sir,” Groves said and went back to her station at Scan.
Professor Lane had guts, he had to give her that, but she might well have ruined the operation. Wilder had been keen to go, but how keen could he be now that his lover was with him and in danger? He only hoped Wilder could overcome the handicap and still pull it off.
“Chakra is ninety metres from the lander, Skip,” Groves said and then nodded. “Chakra is at full stop.”
Colgan leaned back and crossed his legs. “Very good, very good indeed. Helm, continue on course.”
“Aye, sir,” Lieutenant Wesley replied.
Aboard Chakra, Shan System
“Chakra, at station keeping. Alien cub to his starboard,” Jakinda said.
“Range to target one-hundred heikke,” Kajika added, but his earlier outburst did not re-materialise. He was only reporting on the condition of the target, as he should.
“I hear,” Tei’Varyk said. “I will suit up and investigate this gift. Kajika, you will attend me. Have Tei’Unwin and Kon’stanji informed.”
“I hear,” Kajika said in excitement.
“I hear,” Jozka said and spoke quietly into his pickup.
Tei’Varyk turned to Tarjei and then glanced meaningfully at Kajika. Kajika was so frustrated; it had to be relieved in some way. A little spacewalk seemed just the thing. Tarjei flicked her ears to show she understood, but she was far from happy about it.
“Tei’Unwin and Kon’stanji come,” Jozka said.
Tei’Varyk stood and headed for the hatch. “Let us go now, the alien is far away and the cub awaits us.”
Aboard Lander Alpha One
Brenda’s knuckles whitened as she clutched the arm of the acceleration couch. “Oh, God, they’re coming over.”
James nodded but he was preoccupied. Brenda had seemed unafraid, but he heard the fear in her words. Some people used God as part of everyday speech without really looking at what that meant, but never Brenda unless severely stressed. Reducing Him to a mere word, an expletive quite often, seemed wrong to him, but even he did it on occasion. Where was reverence, where was simple respect in that? God wasn’t something Brenda spoke of to him, though he knew she was a believer from her trips to Canada’s chapel. When she unconsciously said it straight out like that, he knew she was scared.
“The outer door is open.”
Brenda nodded but didn’t take her attention from the monitors displaying the huge alien ship. “Have you checked the Box?”
“It’s fine. I’ve triple checked it, but you could try your compad again if you want.”
“Good idea.” Brenda fumbled at the pocket on her right thigh. She snarled in frustration when the flap refused to cooperate with her. She was getting madder than hell with it when James intervened.
He reached out and captured her hand. “Shush, it’s all right. We’re together.”
Brenda stopped fighting the flap to look into his eyes. “Forever?”
“Always.”
Brenda leaned forward and they kissed for a long moment.
The insistent beeping from the instrument panel brought James up for air.
“They’re here.”
“At least they have courtesy, these aliens,” Tei’Varyk said.
“I don’t like it, Tei.” Kajika ignited his thrusters for a short burst. “I will enter and hunt for danger.” He drifted forward toward the open hatch.
“Be not so hasty. I am Tei, not you,” Tei’Varyk said with his muzzle rumpling in annoyance. “When you are Tei, you may advise me, not before. We go in together.”
/> In the end, Tei’Varyk managed to enter a few tails in advance of Kajika, but that was merely courtesy taking over at the last moment. Kajika could not, even after all he’d said, ignore his ingrained habit of deferring to a superior. Once inside, they looked around for a way to proceed. Kajika suggested cutting through the inner door with their weapons, but a blinking light next to the outer door solved the problem.
Tei’Varyk pressed the red button and the outer door slid shut. With a pleased nod, he noted a breathable atmosphere slowly replacing the vacuum of space within the airlock.
“We can breathe the alien atmosphere at least. That is good to know.”
“Why?” Kajika asked as the inner door began to slide open.
“It says we have something in common…” Tei’Varyk broke off when he was confronted by his first sight of a face so obviously not Shan.
This was the first time a Shan had met an alien since the Murderers of Harmony had annihilated almost ninety percent of them so long ago. Utter shock held Tei’Varyk immobile, but Kajika was a hunter first, last, and always. His reflexes were the best—he was the claw of Chakra. His paw came up smoothly with his beamer held ready, and his first claw twitched.
The weapon bucked, and the alien flew back.
“Noooo!” Tei’Varyk howled as the alien bounced limply from the seats and into the overhead.
“I killed it for you, Tei—” Kajika began.
Tei’Varyk shouldered Kajika aside and snatched his weapon away. “You have dishonoured me,” he howled with hackles bristling with rage. “Chakra is dishonoured!”
“But it’s alien.”
“Can’t you see? It’s not of the Murderer’s race you brainless cub! It’s too small, and where are its fangs and weapons?” Tei’Varyk growled and aimed the beamer between Kajika’s eyes. “I should kill you for this.”
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