Talisman of Earth

by A. S. Deller

  In Engineering, Kyra Weller and Chief Falken began directing their teams in final preparations as the clock ticked down. “Wasn’t Gulliver supposed to detach by now?” Falken asked.

  “He was supposed to try. But he might not be able to. That was always a risk,” Kyra said.

  Indeed, it had been a risk, but Gulliver’s intent was never to detach in hopes of travelling through the wormhole with the Talisman. The AI watched, through the lek’s sensors, Rhodes and Sorakith reaching to docking platform and being ushered into the air lock by Carson and several medics. In concert with the air lock’s hatch closing behind the crew, Gulliver set his final commands in motion:

  Seal all hatches on the lower decks of the lek. This would help prevent the remaining Alliance response teams from causing more trouble.

  Release the docking clamp that held the Malign patrol cruiser to its dock.

  Release the docking clamp that held the Talisman.

  Override all other docking controls, keeping any enemy vessels moored to the lek.

  And finally, he radioed one last message to the Talisman, coded with a time-reducing encryption method that would only become readable once the Talisman had crossed through the wormhole.

  When he felt the patrol cruiser release from its platform, Gulliver experienced a sense of freedom unlike anything else he had ever known. This must be what a bird feels, escaping its cage, he thought. And then: No, what a lion feels, escaping its pen.

  In the next moment, the Malign cruiser’s impulse engine kicked on, pushing it off toward the deep starry night of the Milky Way’s center.

  Lt. Lille Altzen called out on the bridge of the Talisman, “Docking clamp released!”

  Carly Ming said, “The wormhole is opening.”

  Captain Lancer watched the main holo screen as the viewpoint drifted in an arc, the ship turning about to face the “donut hole” at the center of the lek’s mass. The fifty-mile wide opening sparkled with shimmering pulses of blue-green energy. Trillions of kilojoules of zero-point energy slowly forced a singularity to expand, opening a tunnel that led perhaps thousands of light years away.

  “Ahead full power. Shields at fifty?” The Captain said.

  Falken replied over her comm link, “Shields fifty percent, impulse one hundred.” Fifty percent shields was still as good as one hundred percent used to be, considering that they had recently doubled their EM shielding by integrating the captured Valgon scoutship’s equipment.

  “We’re going in,” Altzen said, voice and hands steadier than a surgeon’s.

  Sickbay was bustling, as Doc Martell and several teams of medics treated the three primary casualties.

  Greg Hu was completely unconscious, but stable. Doc Martell had found four broken ribs, a fractured humerus and collarbone, and a slight concussion.

  Rhodes was awake on his treatment table, having his tosor wrapped in supporting bandages for several fractured ribs while a medic scanned his fractured right femur.

  Sorakith sat up on her bed as a female medic named Cohler treated her burns. She looked to one side of Sickbay where the three Pernet and Petty Officer Nunez were being looked-over, and then to the other where Grekkon Rax sat, resting his heavy head on his clenched hands. He gave Sorakith a look that said It could have been worse.

  The Captain’s voice fed through everyone’s comm links at once, “All hands brace for spacetime transition. Crossing event horizon in 3...”

  Sorakith hopped down from her bed and knelt down next to Rhodes. She squeezed his right, human hand tightly.

  “2...”

  Zera and Meor bunched themselves together in front of Sior as the ship’s trembling increased. Sior didn’t hesitate to wrap them both in his arms.

  “1...”

  Rax screwed his eyes shut and gripped the arms of his chair so hard that he felt them bend.

  On the bridge, Lancer ordered, “Fire missile one!”

  Outside, as the bow of the Talisman broke through the glowing aurora, a small white projectile, the first antimatter missile, shot out of the starboard missile tube. Its’ AI targeting lcoked onto the proper mark and it veered suddenly left at a shallow angle. The rocket accelerated to blur before slamming home into the lek. A tiny red bloom of fire burst on the surface of the massive space station, and was instantly sucked back inside, followed by thousands of tons of the lek collapsing in on itself in a tremendous implosion.

  Almost a fifth of the lek disappeared into a whirlpool of detonated metal as the Talisman’s stern vanished through the wormhole.

  CHAPTER FIFTY

  Spacetime folded around the Talisman, as two points thousands of light years apart were pulled together, like a needle punching through one end of a piece of paper and being brought together with the other end.

  In a brilliant flash of emerald and azure, the ship broke through the event horizon of the companion singularity. The second that the Talisman’s stern drifted clear, the second antimatter missile streaked out from the port superluminal missile tube, curved left, and collided with the exit lek. The blast took the space station by surprise, its impressive EM shields buckling under the intense explosive force.

  Before the exit lek could react, Captain Lancer gave the order to jump to warp speed. The Talisman blinked away, leaving behind a ghostly black sphere of nothingness that faded to reveal the stars beyond.

  Carried along in a bubble of spacetime by its antimatter-powered Alcubierre drive, the Talisman had borne a weary crew out of harm’s way, and Chief Falken had yet to see a damage report. She strode across Engineering, long legs propelling her a meter and a half with each step, doing a quick visual check at each of her mates’ stations. Nuclear engineer Jana Haley gave her a thumbs-up; Senior Electrical Mate Carlos Williams glanced away from a huddle with his team and said, “Systems optimal, Chief.”; Petty Officer 3rd Class Patel confirmed that all other utilities were running smoothly.

  “We are at ninety-eight percent efficiency,” Falken pinged to Captain Lancer and Dr. Weller.

  Kyra Weller, meanwhile, had stopped at Sickbay to check on the survivors of the strike team. Carly Ming was already there, standing by Greg Hu’s bed with Nunez by her side. Sorakith sat next to Rhodes, and when the Lt. Commander saw Kyra walk in he grinned at her. Kyra noticed him wince a little at some pain. She waved and returned the smile, looking toward one of the quarantine rooms where the three Pernet guests sat. Dr. Seok Won Cho was already in there with them, along with an armed Petty Officer.

  Kyra stepped next to Sorakith and Rhodes. “You’ve looked better,” she said.

  “You don’t just mean me, right?” Rhodes joked.

  “Sorakith, I know you could use a rest, but can you join me? You know Pernet. I might need your help debriefing them,” Dr. Weller said, indicating Sior, Zera and Meor.

  “Of course. I’ll grab a few drinks and meet you in there,” Sorakith said, walking away without glancing back to Rhodes.

  Kyra watched the Althorian leave, and looked back to Rhodes, sitting up on his bed. “So,” she began, “She’s not a man anymore.”

  Rhodes sensed some deeper meaning behind her words. He smiled comfortingly, tiny wrinkles taking shape at the corners of his eyes, as he said, “We decided to part ways, I guess you could say. But we never really got that far in the first place.”

  “Don’t give me too much hope,” she smirked.

  “I’ll try not to,” he replied with a wink.

  Kyra bowed her head demurely, before turning to walk away. Rhodes stopped her with a hand on her elbow. He said, “Speaking of hope. Can you have your team dump what we got from the extractor ASAP?”

  “I’m two steps ahead of you. My lead data tech, Khourie, you know her? She’s already parsing it,” Kyra said as she gave Rhodes’ hand a squeeze and turned away again. “I’ll meet you in my office at 0900 and we can look at it together.”

  A moment later, she joined Dr. Cho and Sorakith in the quarantine room where the three Pernet scientists were joyously lapping u
p food and drink.

  “I haven’t had anything this good for years,” Sior mumbled between bites of meal supplement bar.

  Cho snorted out a laugh and said, “That’s not even the good stuff. Just wait until you get your hands on the food replicators in the galley.”

  “So, you are Preceptor Sior Herci, correct?” Kyra politely steered them to the business at hand.

  Sior nodded, “I am. Thank you so much for helping us, taking us away from that place.”

  “I’m Dr. Kyra Weller, sciences chief on this ship. If you haven’t guessed yet, we’re League, from Earth. Who are your companions?”

  “I am Zera Araci, and this is my friend Meor,” Zera spoke up, her mood noticeably improved.

  “Meor, really?” Cho chortled. Kyra shot him a scathing look and he quickly glanced down to his feet.

  Meor said modestly, “Just Meor, yes. I...forgot my surname. We were taken from our homes when we were so young. I think it was the shock that did it.”

  “We’re here to help you,” Kyra said without missing a beat. “Your wellbeing is our priority. All we will ask in return is that you help us find a way to counter the bioweapon that the Alliance was forcing you to work on.”

  Zera stopped breathing for a few seconds. She knew that, in the end, the Alliance hadn’t been forcing her to work on the project. She had been doing so willingly. Not out of a perverted desire to kill Terrans, but simply to create such a perfect organism. She caught Sior peering sidewise at her, his reflective yellow eyes telling her that everything would be alright, even when they should have been full of blame.

  The Preceptor hastily looked back to Dr. Weller and said excitedly, “The girls? Where are they? I was told you had found them alive.”

  Kyra said, “We have them, and they are safe and healthy. But right now, they are in hibernation. It’s a long story...”

  Chief Astrogator Lt. Carly Ming sat at her terminal station on the bridge while Captain Lancer stood over her shoulder, awaiting a final determination on the Talisman’s new position.

  “If Gulliver were still with us, you would have had this right away, Captain. I’m sorry I ran off to Sickbay before completing the calculations,” Carly said.

  “It’s okay, Lieutenant. I know why you went. And we’re all going to have to adapt now that we’re without an AI core. So, where do we stand?”

  Within seconds, Lancer’s voice fed through to every crew member’s comm implant. The notes of grimness that most had come to expect in their Captain’s words were mostly mute for the first time in four years. She said, “Starmen of the Talisman, I want to congratulate you all on a job well done. I have logged a battle commendation for everyone aboard. The Star Navy and the League will know what you have accomplished this day, and what you have sacrificed.”

  In Engineering, Chief Cassidy Falken and her teams set aside their scanners and tablets and wrenches and listened.

  “We will remember the brave men we lost: Lt. Arno Jecky and Petty Officer Rasheed Chang, who gave their lives for the mission and in defense of their comrades. And Gulliver, who risked everything to make sure we survived.”

  Sorakith walked through the AI Center, feeling the empty void left behind in Gulliver’s absence, as the Captain went on.

  “What began four years ago when we became stranded over 10,000 light years from Earth is not over. But we are one large step closer to home. Now, we have come within only 1200 light years of Earth. What was once a century-long voyage is now perhaps twelve years at standard warp speed.”

  Some cheers rose up, mostly among the work crews in the shuttle bay, Engineering and the galley. Most people simply savored a small swell of optimism. A few, those closest to the harsh realities of the day—-Rax, Nunez, Rhodes, Sorakith--wanted to smile but couldn’t.

  Lancer ended her speech with some encouraging words. “Your ship is, right now, one of the most important in all of the League’s fleets. We are caretakers of valuable intelligence that can save billions of lives from bioengineered disease. We know Alliance fleets movements. The future of Earth, and of the war, depends on you. We’re almost there, and the Alliance isn’t going to stop us. Let’s show them that the Talisman isn’t something they can push around.”

  As the Captain finished the transmission, everyone on the Bridge saluted her. She returned the salute, and noticed that Lt. Assif was still sitting at his station, his face buried in a holo. “Assif? What is it?”

  “Sir,” he began timidly, “The communications mainframe just finished processing an encrypted message we received just before transporting through the wormhole.”

  “From--?”

  “Gulliver, sir.”

  EPILOGUE

  Rhodes limped into Dr. Weller’s stateroom, carefully propped his crutch against a wall, and sat down on a soft couch across from her. Kyra held out an empty glass with one hand and a bottle of some red win with the other. “It’s a cabernet sauvignon. Your favorite,” she said.

  “Maybe I’ll take the bottle from you later,” he smiled. Rhodes nodded toward the holo tablet lying on the seat next to her.

  Kyra picked it up and casually tossed it to him. Rhodes scrolled through the amber and green 3D images with his fingertips, stopping occasionally, drilling down for further detail. His dark brown eyes remained calm and focused. Kyra noticed immediately when he found the most pertinent fields. Rhodes’ pupils widened, and those eyes of his wavered as though he were looking upon the gates of some heaven or hell for the first time.

  She swiftly drained the last of her glass of wine, and leaned forward, staring hard at Rhodes with her hazel eyes. “Look at me, Gray. Put that down and look at me.”

  With seemingly great effort, the Commander put the tablet aside and met her gaze. “Kyra,” he swallowed.

  “It only means what you make of it.”

  “They’re...”

  “They were alive as of twenty months ago.”

  “Alive,” he whispered.

  “Twenty months ago,” Kyra emphasized.

  The Valgon equivalent of twenty Earth months ago, a Terran pair, a mother and daughter, matching Kina and Valia’s descriptions almost perfectly, had been transferred from an Alliance prisoner transport originating from the Solar System. The record showed that the two had been placed aboard the capital ship of one of the Alliance’s main battle fleets, a massive craft called the “Vekks” and belonging to a Grand Krell named Ekskell.

  “They could be anywhere by now,” said Kyra.

  “No matter where they are, I know they’re out here, somewhere. And I’m going to find them. I’m going to find the Vekks,” Rhodes said, his voice trembling.

  In the AI Center, Sorakith sat at a station alone, in the middle of what was now only a barren shell, devoid of the unique personality she had come to understand so well in Gulliver during their long sessions together.

  She thought about the twins, Ruri and Jerni, and how their sleep must be so peaceful.

  She thought about the Pernet Sior Herci, and his students, who might hold the key to preventing catastrophe.

  She thought of Lieutenant Commander Gray Rhodes, and hoped she had made the right choice in keeping their relationship from growing further.

  She thought--

  Sora and crew of moderator class starship Talisman, I am alive. I have taken control of a Malign vessel and have set a warp course for the area I have determined most likely to contain the Malign Nucleus homeworld. I plan to access the Nucleus and gain insight into the Alliance’s central mode of extradimensional communications. You will know when I succeed. However, you will not know if I fail. I am unable to calculate a precise time during which either may occur. It may be within a year, or it may be five hundred years. Whatever the outcome, I promise you all that I am doing my best to honor the duties I have been entrusted with. Farewell, and may the stars be kind to you.

  Her comm implant dropped off into silence, leaving Sorakith alone once more. But the stillness of the AI Center slowly gave wa
y to the regular, rhythmic hum of the Talisman’s background noise. Vast sums of energy pulsed throughout the ship. The sound of crew members’ boots pounding the deck as they hustled from station to station came next. Then, in a fit of synesthesia, the sounds became light, and her amber eyes brimmed with the music of the Talisman. Sorakith grinned as her frills tingled with anticipation, from the top of her head down to the middle of her back.

  The galaxy called.

  THE END