by Ryk Brown
“Damn right we will,” the commander agreed.
The cargo shuttle rocked abruptly as it made contact with the breach box, shaking its passengers despite the restraints.
“Positive contact!” the copilots voice called over the loudspeakers in the aft cargo hold. “Equalizing pressure. Standby to disembark.”
Captain Roselle released his restraints, then reached up and rubbed his shoulder after the rough docking. “First thing is that damned shuttle bay.”
They rose from their seats and followed the Tannan volunteers, that had come along with them, toward the aft hatch that had been fitted over the back of the cargo hold instead of the usual cargo ramp. The crewman opened the hatch, revealing a three-meter cubicle on the other side that was the interior of the Corinari breach box. The crewman looked aft at Captain Roselle and Commander Ellison. “Sirs?” he said, inviting them to lead the first group in the transfer process.
Roselle rose and headed aft, followed by his XO. “Sergeant,” he said as he passed, stepping into the breach box.
“Next ten!” the crewman ordered.
Captain Roselle and Commander Ellison entered the breach box, floating as they stepped across the threshold and left the influence of the shuttle’s artificial gravity. They pulled themselves along using the handrails that were located along every surface of the small compartment, until finally reaching the far side. Roselle rotated himself ninety degrees, bringing his feet to rest just above the hatch on the other side.
One by one, the first ten Tannan volunteers entered the breach box as well, floating into position, adjusting their physical attitudes in relation to the shuttle’s deck in the same manner as the captain. Once they were all inside, the crewman on the shuttle began to close the hatch.
“Wait for the green light on this hatch, then the green light on the next hatch before you open it, sir.”
Roselle put his thumb up to signal that he understood as the crewman slammed the shuttle’s hatch. The inner hatch of the breach box slid closed and automatically sealed itself.
“Green light!” the Tannan next to the hatch announced, his pronunciation tinged by his thick Tannan accent.
Roselle waited for his light to turn green then squatted down and activated his hatch mechanism as well. The inner hatch slid away, revealing a long tunnel with a ladder directly below. “Alright, gents, the gravity’s gonna grab you as you descend, so be prepared. It’s one point three Gs in there, and we haven’t figured out how to change that yet.” He looked up at one of the Tannans nearby. “I forgot… What’s the gravity on Tanna?”
“Normal,” the Tannan said, smiling. “But I believe you refer to it as zero point seven.”
“Then you boys are gonna get tuckered out rather quickly, so I suggest you pace yourselves,” he advised as he put his hands on the edges of the hatch and lowered his feet into the tunnel, placing them on the ladder a few rungs down.
“We thought we would lower the gravity first thing,” the Tannan replied. “We know where the controls are located.”
“Even better,” Roselle said as he headed down the ladder. As he descended, he heard the hatch at the bottom of the tunnel open. He glanced downward as he descended, noting the helmet of a Ghatazhak, along with the stern expression on the face of the soldier wearing it.
The captain exited the hatch, dropping the last meter to the deck. He landed a bit harder than expected. “Damn, that extra thirty percent packs more of a wallop than you’d expect, doesn’t it,” he said to the Ghatazhak soldier standing nearby.
“I wouldn’t know, sir,” the soldier replied.
“Think I can borrow one of your ‘motion-assist undergarments’?” the captain asked.
“I don’t believe we have them in your size, Captain,” the soldier replied.
“Oh yeah,” the captain said as he moved aside. “I forgot all you boys are the same size. Must make life a lot easier for your quartermaster, huh?”
Commander Ellison was the next to drop down with a heavy thud. “Man, you weren’t kidding.”
“Yeah. You’d think we’d both be smart enough not to test it out that way, wouldn’t you?” the captain chuckled as the first Tannan made his way down the ladder and stepped carefully onto the deck. “Well, at least those boys aren’t as dumb as us. That’s a good start.”
“Welcome aboard, Captain,” Vladimir greeted as he entered the compartment. “I’m Lieutenant Commander Kamenetskiy. I am your temporary Chief Engineer.”
“Lieutenant Commander,” Captain Roselle greeted, returning Vladimir’s salute and then reaching out to shake his hand. “Gil Roselle. This is my XO, Commander Ellison.”
“Marty,” the commander introduced himself, shaking Vladimir’s hand.
“Vladimir, or Cheng… Whatever you wish, sirs. My team and I, with the help of the Tannan engineers you have brought with you, will be conducting a thorough inspection of the ship to help determine what needs to be repaired so that you may get her underway again.”
“And into action, I hope,” Roselle added.
“Of course, sir.”
“That fella there had a good idea,” Roselle said, pointing to the Tannan engineer who had spoken earlier. “Says he knows where the controls for the gravity are located. What say we get this thing dialed down a bit before these boys start complaining?”
“Yes,” Vladimir acknowledged. “We have located the gravity controls. However, we did not want to make any adjustments until the Tannans had arrived, in case there were any significant differences between this ship’s gravity systems and those of the Jar-Keurog. I would hate to adjust the gravity in the wrong direction and squash everyone like bugs.”
“Yeah, that’d suck,” the captain replied dryly. “Which way to command and control?”
“Down five decks and forward twenty-seven sections. The Ghatazhak soldier in the next compartment will guide you,” Vladimir replied.
“How many Ghatazhak are on board?” Roselle asked.
“Three hundred and seven,” Vladimir replied. “No one is allowed to move about the ship without an escort, for security reasons.”
“Got no problem with that,” the captain agreed as he headed for the exit. “Get those boys on that gravity, Lieutenant Commander. We’ll be in command and control.”
“Yes, Captain.”
Captain Roselle stepped through the hatch and found a Ghatazhak soldier standing on the other side. “You my escort?”
“Yes, sir,” the Ghatazhak soldier replied smartly. “Sergeant Ayers, Captain… Commander. If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you to command and control.”
“He did say down five and twenty-seven forward?” the commander asked.
“Yup,” the captain replied as he followed the sergeant down the corridor.
“I thought we entered at a point near C and C.”
“Like I said, Marty, she’s a big bitch,” Roselle said. He looked back at his XO, a wry smile on his face. “Guess you’re going to burn a few off that fat ass of yours, huh?”
* * *
“A lot better than five year-old potted meat,” Gerard exclaimed as he cleared the table.
“That meat was five years old?” Naralena said, concern on her face.
“Give or take.”
“Glad I didn’t know that at the time.” Naralena turned to the other two men at the table. “Thank you gentlemen,” she told them in Koharan. “I know it took you most of the day to stalk that animal. It was delicious.”
“Your Koharan is very good,” Gerard replied in the same language. “I’m amazed that you only studied it for…”
The kitchen lights began to flicker. Three times, a pause, then twice more followed by another pause, then they went out for a full two seconds before coming back on and remaining that way. Gerard imm
ediately dropped the dishes on the table and headed toward the bathroom. The other two men got up as well, heading for the exit.
“What is it?” Naralena asked. “What’s wrong?”
“We’ve got an incoming message,” he replied as he made his way across the living room. “You coming?”
“Of course,” Naralena declared as she quickly rose to follow him.
Gerard went into the bathroom, pausing long enough to let her enter as well before closing the door. He then lifted the center shelf in the towel cabinet behind the door causing the latch to release, then pulled the cabinet away from the wall to reveal the steep, narrow, dimly lit staircase hidden behind it.
He moved quickly down the stairs, flipping on the cellar lights as he reached the bottom. He immediately headed for the transceiver and began making adjustments, entering numbers on the keypad. He wrote down the numbers that appeared on the display screen on a piece of paper, then started making calculations. Once he finished, he entered a new string of numbers into the keypad. The process repeated four times, until finally, a human voice was heard, but they were speaking a language that Gerard did not recognize. He looked at Naralena, confused.
“He’s speaking Corinairan,” she told him as she picked up the microphone and replied in the same language.
“Who is it?” Gerard asked. “What are they saying?”
Naralena gestured for him to be quiet while she communicated with the man on the comms. “It’s one of our Falcons. They are in orbit. They want to know if we are in a good position for extraction.”
“If they can do so immediately, yes,” Gerard said. “Otherwise, we should wait at least twenty-four hours to make sure the Jung did not pick up the transmission and pinpoint the source.”
Naralena continued talking over the comms in Corinairan.
“Keep it brief,” Gerard warned.
“They cannot extract for at least two hours,” she told him.
“Ask if they can extract tomorrow, same time.”
Naralena repeated Gerard’s request over the comms. “They can. They are leaving a comm-buoy in orbit, since the Jung have no way to take it out. If we need to send a message to them and no one is there, it will record the message. They can also leave messages for us, in case they call and we do not answer.”
“That’s great,” Gerard replied.
There was another brief exchange, after which Naralena asked, “They would like to know what a safe comm-interval would be, so as not to risk alerting the Jung to our location.”
“Tell them staggered five one two, same as encrypt delta minus two,” Gerard instructed. “That will result in random comm windows varying between three and five hours. If the Jung have not come for us within that time, it’s likely they have not intercepted the comm-beam and are not aware of our existence.” Gerard looked at his watch, noting the time as Naralena relayed the information over the comms in Corinairan.
“Anything else?” she asked.
“Not that I can think of.”
Naralena signed off and handed him the microphone, a look of relief washing over her face.
Gerard noticed the change in her demeanor. “You must be happy to be going home.”
“No, I’m going back to the Aurora. I’m still a long way from home.”
“That’s true.”
“You’re the one who’s finally going home,” she told him.
Gerard leaned back, contemplating the possibility for the first time in decades. “It doesn’t seem real.”
“Well, it’s not…not yet. But at least now it’s a possibility.”
Gerard sighed. “What am I to do there?” he wondered. “This world, these people, they are all I’ve known for more than twenty years. To be honest, this feels as much my home as Earth ever did. Perhaps even more so.”
“Surely there is something you miss about Earth?”
Gerard thought for a moment. “Ice cream. They do not have ice cream here. They don’t even have cows.”
* * *
Captain Navarro sat in his office onboard the Avendahl as they maintained their position in high orbit over Corinair. His family was safe, as were the families of everyone serving under him. He was fortunate that most of his enlisted were single and felt no loyalties to the nobles of Takara who had rebelled against House Ta’Akar. Many of them had, in fact, looked up to Casimir Ta’Akar as a symbol of the honor that Takara once, and should have always, represented. He was the man who had given up everything to try to remove the black stain from his world that had been placed on it by his brother, Caius.
Although Captain Navarro despised what the nobles had done to his homeworld, he anticipated liking this new assignment. His family was only a fifteen minute shuttle ride away, and he and his senior officers had already worked out a rotation that would allow each of them to be home three nights out of each week, with a full two days off per month, not a small accomplishment for a ship that was technically understaffed.
Yet, as he scrolled through the latest reports from Admiral Dumar, he couldn’t help but long for the glorious battles he could’ve fought if he was not stuck in the Darvano system for the foreseeable future. The Avendahl was a far superior ship to anything he had seen in any of the reports from the Sol sector, except for the battle platforms. He did feel confident that his ship could prevail against one, nevertheless.
His door chime sounded, breaking his daydreams of combat. He pressed a button on his desk to open the door.
The door split in half, the two pieces disappearing into the bulkhead.
“Ensign Permon,” the captain greeted. “What messages have you for me on this morning?”
The young ensign smiled, mildly entertained by his captain’s unusually cheery mood. “I thought you might like to know that Lieutenant Chandler of the Mirai reports they have arrived safely at Karuzara, and that Mister Hiller has successfully returned the data cores back to the Ark facility.”
“That is good news, indeed.”
“He also thought you might find the following information mildly entertaining. It seems Miss Ta’Akar has convinced the Admiral to let her redesign and modify their last remaining 402s.”
“Makes perfect sense,” the captain said without hesitation, much to the surprise of the young ensign.
“Sir?”
“The ‘Falcons’, as they call them, were never designed for atmospheric flight. To be honest, they are an antiquated design that was flawed from conception. Their only real strength was their main propulsion system. And seeing as how they only have a few of them left, I don’t see the harm in trying to utilize them as efficiently as possible. I had half considered making such recommendations to the admiral myself, but it wasn’t really my place to do so then.”
“But sir, she is just a child, and a female child at that.”
“Do not underestimate that female child, Ensign,” the captain warned him. “You’ll likely regret it.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Was there anything else?” the captain asked.
“There was one other message,” the ensign replied. “It is encrypted, and requires your bio-signature to decrypt. It is marked for your eyes only, sir.” He reached out and handed a small data chip to the captain.
“Thank you, Ensign. That will be all.”
“Yes, sir.” The ensign turned and exited the captain’s office, the door automatically closing behind him.
Captain Navarro stuck the data chip into a small slot on the comm-panel built into the top of his desk. He sat upright, looking straight ahead as a small beam of pale-blue light shot out of the comm-panel and spread out right and left, forming a triangle of light. The nearest side of the triangle extended outward until it enveloped the captain and then began to pan upward, across his chest, neck, and face. The light di
sappeared and the comm-panel indicated the message was decrypted and ready for playback.
Captain Navarro pressed the button to play the message.
“Captain Navarro. Your presence is requested by several lords of noble houses of Takara, to discuss the future of the Takaran people and the Avendahl, as well as those of the Pentaurus cluster. Please respond with your preferred time and place for such a meeting to the coordinates contained herein. You are required to come alone, without military escort or weapons of any kind. These matters are most urgent, Captain. An immediate response is recommended.”
The message ended, leaving only the return message coordinates displayed on the comm-panel’s control screen. He knew that the coordinates would be in deep space, where a comm-drone no doubt currently waited for a reply, making it impossible to trace the origins of the message, or who had sent it.
The captain leaned back in his chair, staring at the painting on the far wall. Where to meet? he wondered. Someplace the nobles of Takara would be unfamiliar with. Better yet, someplace they would loathe going.
Captain Navarro smiled as he touched his intercom button. “Ensign Permon, Please send Lieutenant Solomon to my office. Also, I’d like to send a message via jump comm-drone.”
“Yes, sir.”
* * *
Kata Mun studied the Tannan technician sitting in the waiting room. “I was hoping for someone a little more presentable,” she told Abby in hushed tones.
“We don’t have a lot of Tannans that speak fluent English, I’m afraid,” Abby explained. “Those that do are needed on the lines to interpret between Tannan and Terran technicians.”
“What about your interpreter?” Kata asked. “He seems quite nice.”
“Yes, he is, but he is not Tannan. He came over from Earth the same time I did. He married a Tannan woman rather early on and became fluent quite quickly. It seems he has a previously undiscovered knack for languages.”