Resilience

by Fletcher DeLancey

  “Who do you think you stepped on?”

  “Dr. Wells. She’s so furious I don’t think she’ll ever speak to me again.”

  Of all the possible reactions, she didn’t expect Lhyn to laugh.

  “You think you’re failing because you pissed off the woman whose temper is legendary? If that’s your metric, everyone’s failing. Ekatya pissed her off two days ago.”

  “But they’re still talking, aren’t they? She thinks I betrayed her trust. She’s not the kind of person who comes back after that.”

  “Did you? Betray her trust?”

  “No! I just...told her a truth I should have kept to myself.”

  “Can you tell me what happened?”

  She shook her head. “That really would betray her trust.”

  Lhyn’s fingertips pushed beneath her shirt collar, then traced up the length of her throat. “I wish I could help, but honestly, I used to get myself in trouble all the time for telling too much truth. It’s one of the reasons I love living on Alsea.” Gently rubbing a cheekbone ridge, she added, “The best advice I can give is to wait. Give her time to come down from her mountain and think more clearly. She knows you wouldn’t hurt her on purpose.”

  “Does that matter? Whether the hurt is accidental or on purpose, it’s still there.”

  “Does it matter when someone hurts you by accident during a sparring match?”

  Rahel wasn’t at all sure that was the same thing, but Lhyn was right. She couldn’t do anything but wait.

  24

  Communication

  There were several more outages during the night, one temporary loss of environmental controls, another flood, and zero Resilere sightings. Captain Serrado had called a section chief meeting first thing in the morning to brainstorm for new ideas on how to capture them.

  Rahel’s quarters were not in an area hit by a general outage, but the lift in her corridor didn’t respond. She reported the failure to the main operations desk and walked to the nearest chase entrance. Surely the injunction against using chases and brace shafts didn’t apply to a senior officer who had been called to a meeting?

  A niggling voice told her that it probably did, but she was too happy to be back in the chases to pay it much attention. She took a deep breath and smiled at the thought that the scent of machine oil was now associated with peace and relaxation.

  Despite keeping a careful eye out, she saw nothing unusual in the chases. The door to the brace shaft was a little sticky, and she made a mental note to report it—later, when she couldn’t be told to leave.

  Standing in the shaft felt like coming home. She stood on the landing, eyes closed, and reveled in the welcoming hum and gurgle of machinery. The Phoenix might have a few unwanted parasites, but she was healthy and breathing normally.

  Her eyes popped open at the sudden wave of loss. Someone else was here.

  She braced herself against the railing, leaned out, and looked upward. There was no movement on the ladder or any of the five landings above her. Below, the shaft descended for another twenty-four decks and appeared to be empty.

  But the loss was still there, and now she could feel that it was coming from lower down.

  She swung onto the ladder, started to slide, and stopped herself.

  Sudden movements were guaranteed to startle any Resilere that might be hiding in here. She had her Enkara seawater, but the idea of having to use it held no appeal.

  She pulled her feet back onto a rung and slowly climbed down to the next landing. No one was there, but the emotions were stronger.

  The second landing was unoccupied as well.

  On the third, also empty, the emotions were so powerful that whoever was broadcasting this had to be right here. It was as if they were invisible.

  Her mind caught on the thought.

  No, it couldn’t be.

  Could it?

  Clinging to the ladder just above the landing, she began a visual sweep of the brace shaft walls, looking for anything even a hair out of place.

  “Shekking Mother,” she whispered when it came into focus.

  A Resilere was attached to the wall two meters above the landing, partially covering the control pad that toggled the ladder access plates. It even sported the vertical lines that made up the edges of the pad.

  And it was the source of the emotions.

  “You are sentient,” she murmured. “And a long way from home.”

  She couldn’t help feeling sympathetic. Here she was, an invited member of the crew with one person dedicated to helping her fit in, yet she had still spent most of last night desperately missing home and the ease of living with people she understood. This creature had been torn from its home and thrust into a foreign environment entirely against its will. No wonder it—

  She stood on the weather-worn boards of Dock One, the heavy, salty air of Wildwind Bay ruffling her hair. The western horizon was sharp as the edge of a blade, cutting a line between sea and sky, while the east was pink with sunrise and full of lowering clouds laden with rain. Behind her, the bells of Whitesun Temple rang out the time, a sound she had always loved—

  The vision faded. She stared in shock at the Resilere, now looking nothing like a control pad. It was rounded, more elevated on its ten tapered arms, with greenish lights playing beneath the surface of its dark, translucent skin. The lights sparkled and flashed in a rapid pattern she couldn’t follow, then slowed before ceasing altogether.

  Had it shown her that vision of home?

  If so, it could read her thoughts.

  I won’t hurt you, she thought as clearly as she could.

  There was no response.

  Belatedly, she realized she had thought in High Alsean. Did the language matter? But she couldn’t think in Common; she could only speak it with the aid of her lingual implant.

  A moment later she laughed at herself. Of course the language mattered, and unless this creature was a Resilere version of Lhyn, it wouldn’t understand High Alsean or Common. It would understand its own language. Yet she had been drawn here by its emotions—and the vision had come after her surge of sympathy.

  She had never learned to project emotions. That was a skill reserved solely for high empaths. But she had been in the room when Salomen Opah was tutored. She had heard the instructions and knew the basics.

  For the first time in her life, she tried to push emotions out of her body.

  Protection, safety, no harm . . . safe, safe, protect . . .

  The vision took her by surprise. One moment she was in the brace shaft, the next she was—

  In a detention cell, wrapped in her mother’s arms and caught in such a storm of weeping that she could not hold herself up. The relief was overwhelming; she felt safer and more protected than she could ever remember. Her mother was here. Finally, her mother was here, and she would never let go—

  She blinked, astonished at the strength of the memory. She had been just shy of her seventeenth birth anniversary when her mother came to get her out of detention, and she hadn’t remembered it that clearly in a long time.

  Lights flashed across the Resilere’s skin, then faded again.

  “Great Goddess above,” Rahel said. “You’re talking to me.”

  25

  Breakthrough

  Ekatya drummed her fingers on the armrest, growing more irritated by the second. Commander Lokomorra and eleven section chiefs sat around the briefing room table, many still in low conversation while others glanced expectantly at the door.

  Rahel was five minutes late, and if there was one thing Ekatya did not tolerate in her officers, it was tardiness. She was about to make the call when her internal com activated.

  “Sayana to Captain Serrado.”

  “First Guard,” Ekatya said in an even tone. Every head at the table turned to look at her. “You’re late. What’s holding you up?”

  “Um. A conversation.” Her voice was hushed.

  “A conversation? We’re waiting for you in the briefing room a
nd you’re chatting in the corridors?” She could hardly believe her ears; this didn’t sound like Rahel at all.

  “Not in the corridors. In a brace shaft.”

  “In a—”

  “I’m talking to a Resilere.”

  Ekatya’s brain froze. She glanced at Dr. Wells, whose eyebrows rose in question.

  “Where exactly are you?” she asked.

  “Brace shaft J, deck nine.”

  “Phoenix, display the security cams for brace shaft J, deck nine, in the bridge briefing room. Direct my com there as well.”

  A chorus of gasps and murmurs greeted the two views of Rahel crouched by the railing of a brace shaft landing. The cams were over the doors on opposite sides of the landing, each viewing her from the side.

  On the wall near the ladder was a Resilere. It was not camouflaged, and much too close to Rahel for comfort.

  “I’ll get a team together.” Cox pushed back his chair.

  “That would be a mistake,” Rahel said softly. “Captain, please don’t let anyone come in here. It’s not attacking me because it knows I won’t hurt it. If anyone else comes in broadcasting aggressive emotions, I’ll get a face full of goo or it will run away. Or both.”

  “Stand down, Commander Cox.”

  “Captain—”

  “We’ve been hunting these for three days with no luck. This is our best chance to learn about them. First Guard, explain what you meant by talking to it.”

  “I will, but first—can you patch this call and the cam footage to Lhyn? I need a linguist.”

  “Phoenix,” Ekatya said, “include Lhyn Rivers on this call and send the briefing room display feed to my quarters. Lhyn, this is a public call. Our display should be changing in a moment.”

  “Okay. What’s going—fucking stars! What is she doing?”

  Rahel smiled. “Good morning, Lhyn. I met a friend.”

  There was a heavy pause. “You’re completely insane.”

  “If you could feel what I’m feeling, you’d wish you were here. The Resilere are sentient and empathic.”

  That set off a cascade of quiet but vehement voices, Kade Jalta’s rising above the rest.

  “How in flaming Tartarus is that possible? Does she know what she’s saying?”

  “I do know what I’m saying.” Rahel shifted slightly, causing a collective intake of air as everyone waited to see if the Resilere would attack.

  It didn’t move, but a series of greenish lights flashed across its rounded body.

  “Did everyone see that?” Rahel asked.

  “Bioluminescence,” Jalta said. “The researchers saw it when the Resilere were guiding their hatchlings to the water.”

  “I think it asked if I’m all right.”

  “Are you kidding us with this?” Cox grumbled.

  “Why do you think that?” Lhyn wanted to know.

  “I was getting a cramp in my foot. The Resilere could sense my discomfort. I just had a memory of my childhood friend asking me if I was all right.”

  Jalta leaned forward. “You think it communicates with you telepathically?”

  “I think it communicates with the bioluminescence, but I can’t understand that. I can understand its emotions. That’s how I found it—I sensed it feeling lost.”

  “Can you sense other animals?”

  “I’ve never heard of anyone sensing animals.”

  “I have,” Ekatya said. “But it was the two highest empaths on Alsea. If Rahel is sensing this Resilere, that’s a good argument for sentience. How do you know it’s empathic?”

  Rahel looked pained. “I was, um . . . I was feeling lost, too. When I sympathized with it, I had a vivid memory of a place back home that means a lot to me. Then I tried to project a sense of protection, to tell it I wouldn’t cause harm, and I had another vivid memory of my mother protecting me. It’s using images. Memories. My memories.”

  “It can’t do that if it can’t see your memories,” Jalta pointed out. “Which would indicate telepathy.”

  “Not necessarily,” Lhyn said. “Rahel’s memories may be her interpretation of its communication. Their languages are too different. If one speaks in sounds and the other speaks in light, they don’t have a common frame of reference. Except for emotion.”

  “Then Rahel’s memories are a form of translation?” Ekatya asked.

  “It’s a strong possibility. Or the Resilere may simply be reflecting her own emotions back to her.” Her voice shivered with excitement. “Which is often the first step in communicating across a language barrier—repeating what you hear. Rahel, have you heard it make any sounds?”

  “No, but I’m in a brace shaft. There’s a lot of background noise.”

  “It makes sense that the Resilere would use light,” Jalta said. “It’s visible for a good distance both above and underwater. Sound doesn’t carry nearly as well in air. But it carries a long way underwater. The number of marine species that communicate through sound is . . . well, when you get up into the more intelligent species, it’s practically all of them. I’d be surprised if the Resilere didn’t use sound as well.”

  Commander Kenji spoke up. “You need a frequency analyzer. Something that can detect and quantify the various sound frequencies in the area, so you can separate mechanical noises from the Resilere. I have the equipment, but First Guard Sayana wouldn’t know how to use it.”

  “I would. We also need to be recording the bioluminescence from closer and above, not just the security cam views. And we need detailed notes on the exact nature of the emotions Rahel is sending and sensing, and the memories she’s experiencing as a result.” Lhyn’s inhale was audible on the com. “I need to be there.”

  Ekatya forced herself not to react, to stare straight ahead at that display as if her heart hadn’t fallen out of her chest.

  “Lhyn, no,” Rahel protested. “It’s a brace shaft!”

  She was worried about claustrophobia? Lhyn could have her skull melted if anything went wrong!

  “I’m aware of that. But if you think I’m going to let Kane Muir ruin my chance at a historic event in linguistics, you don’t know me at all.”

  Ekatya closed her eyes. Lhyn rarely referred to her torturer by name. That she did now was a good indicator of how strongly she felt and how unlikely it was that she would let anything stop her.

  “This is a bad idea,” Cox said. “First Guard Sayana’s empathy might be the only reason she’s safe in there. Dr. Rivers won’t have that protection.”

  “She’d have mine,” Rahel said thoughtfully. “I think I could tell the Resilere that she’s a friend.”

  You think? Ekatya wanted to shout.

  “We’re still not sure what motivates them,” Cox said. “We don’t know why they ripped the throat out of that crew member on the Tutnuken.”

  “I have a theory on that.” Dr. Wells spoke for the first time. “We’ve had two attacks on the Phoenix—”

  “So far,” Cox muttered.

  “—both of which were instigated by sudden movements, and only one of which was fatal.” She shot him a quelling look. “That one involved a bleeding wound on the victim that the Resilere went after. Doesn’t it make sense that the victim on the Tutnuken also had a wound?”

  “Pretty hard to get a bleeding wound on the throat,” Cox said. “It’s not something you tend to smack into things.”

  “But he was trying to make repairs in zero gravity. Lieutenant Kitt told us that the captain didn’t put much effort into emergency drills. What happens to a crew member who’s panicked about the state of his ship and the deaths of his colleagues, and working in a difficult environment he’s not trained for?”

  “He’d be banging all over that room,” Commander Zeppy said. “Bouncing off corners and edges and losing tools.”

  Wells pointed at him approvingly. “Yes! I think he injured himself, and that’s what the Resilere went after. As long as Dr. Rivers and First Guard Sayana are extremely careful about staying free of bleeding injuries—and I m
ean not even scraping their knuckles on the ladder—they should be fine.”

  Ekatya glared at Dr. Wells, whose only reaction was a slight flinch around the eyes.

  “I’m just waiting for all of you to realize that my safety isn’t the concern here.” Lhyn’s voice was perfectly calm. “The concern is that this ship is under quarantine. It’ll stay that way until we can get the Resilere off it. How long do we have before they cause a problem with the fusion core that we can’t fix? Or wipe out both the main and redundant environmental systems in a section? We have a chance to communicate with them. It could be as easy as asking them to let us take them home.”

  “We do know exactly where they came from,” Kenji said. “My analysts pieced together enough of the nav logs to get the coordinates where their shuttle landed on Enkara.”

  “I’m going in. All I need is the equipment.”

  And my permission, Ekatya thought, but that seemed to be a foregone conclusion.

  “You should take some of the mineral blocks, too.” Dr. Wells was avoiding eye contact with Ekatya. “The better fed that Resilere is, the less likely it is to do something unexpected.”

  “They didn’t eat them before,” Rahel said.

  “We were using them as bait before. They might feel differently if it’s a risk-free offer.”

  “I agree with Dr. Rivers’s risk assessment,” Commander Lokomorra said. “She’s also the most qualified person we have for this. We shouldn’t waste too much time discussing it.”

  Ekatya was happy to discuss it for the rest of the day. The longer they waited, the better chance she had of that Resilere simply walking away.

  And then she’d never hear the end of it from Lhyn.

  She looked at the display, where Rahel sat in apparently peaceful companionship with the unmoving Resilere.

  “First Guard,” she said. “I’m putting the safety of Dr. Rivers in your hands.”

  “Understood,” Rahel said quietly.

  “Dr. Wells, I want you ready at that brace shaft door in case anything goes wrong. Commander Przepyszny, I’ll be accompanying you and Dr. Rivers as far as we can go. Commander Kenji, get her equipment ready as soon as possible.”