***
Astralis
“All hostiles have been eliminated, ma’am. Astralis is clear.”
Tyra felt some of the tension in her chest release. “That’s a big relief, Commander. How are repairs to the hull breach in Fallside going?”
“The Academy solved the problem. Literally. The whole building broke free and got sucked into the breach. It plugged the hole and repair bots welded it into place. Rescue efforts are underway to see about extracting the survivors trapped inside.”
Tyra shook her head. “Incredible. We’ll figure out how to make more permanent repairs later. Do we have any idea about casualties yet?”
“According to ship’s sensors, our population is down by more than five million. Most of those people were from Fallside.”
Tyra blinked. “That many?” There were only nine million people in the entire city of Fallside. That meant more than half the people who’d lived there were now dead. She shuddered to think what her beloved city must look like now. “The Resurrection Center is going to be working around the clock to bring that many people back.”
“Aye, it will. What are your orders, ma’am?”
Tyra took a moment to consider that. “We stay where we are and lick our wounds. Prioritize getting the reactors online so we can turn the gravity back on. And keep jamming outbound comms. We don’t know if they planted a tracking device somewhere.”
“Aye, we’ll do that, ma’am.”
“I’ll get in touch with the other councilors and see about long-term plans, but with any luck, the Admiral and Chief Councilor will be cleared for duty soon.”
“Hopefully, but it may be a while before that happens.”
“Time will tell. Thanks for the update, Commander. Keep me posted.” Tyra ended that comm call, and a split second later another one started ringing inside her head. She answered it with a sigh. “Acting Chief Councilor Ortane speaking.”
“This is the Resurrection Center. We have a priority update for you, ma’am.”
Tyra’s brow furrowed. She hadn’t lost any loved ones. Besides Lucien and the girls, the rest of her family was back in the Etherian Empire. “What’s the update?”
“We received a manual memory dump from you before Astralis jumped away, but it didn’t come from you, exactly... the transmission source was from somewhere off Astralis. Do you know anything about that?”
“Are you sure the memories are mine? Maybe there was some kind of mix-up.”
“The ID code and encryption checks out. The memories are definitely yours. I could look into them if you want to make sure, but I’d need your permission for that.”
“No, that’s fine. Hold the data in my archive. I’ll be down to check it out as soon as I can.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Again, Tyra ended the comm call. Lucien stood in front of her, his green eyes wide and his brow furrowed. “What was all of that about?”
“The acting commander called to tell me the aliens have all been eliminated.”
Lucien’s shoulders slumped. “Thank Etherus for that.”
Tyra arched an eyebrow at him. “You mean thank the Marines.”
He waved a hand to dismiss that distinction. “What was the other call about?”
“It seems like my clone from the Inquisitor may have transmitted her memories to Astralis before we jumped away.”
“What?” Lucien shook his head. “Well... what are you going to do about that?”
Tyra shrugged. “Assuming it’s true, I’ll likely have to integrate her memories and consciousness with mine.”
“You don’t have to do anything,” Lucien replied. “This is unprecedented. We’re not supposed to have simultaneous clones, so there are no laws to govern what should happen when we do. She’s lived eight years without you! You won’t even be you anymore if you integrate with her.”
“Actually, she only has about a month of memories that are different from mine. She spent the rest of the time in stasis. Any changes to my personality would be very minor.”
“Still...” Lucien shook his head. “We need to think about this. Maybe you should be cloned and she should be revived in a new body.”
Tyra frowned. “That might set a dangerous precedent for others to start copying themselves. Besides, would you want a copy of me running around on Astralis? What if she decides to fight for custody of our kids? Or tries to steal you from me.”
Lucien frowned. “No one would give her custody, and she wouldn’t be able to steal me. Besides, are you the kind of person that would try to steal someone else’s husband?”
Tyra narrowed her eyes at him. “It’s a gray area for both of us since it’s technically still me. How can you cheat on wife with your wife?”
“Ever hear of role-playing?” Lucien asked, with a crooked smile.
“Ha ha. I was being serious. You can’t be sure that you wouldn’t like her better. It’ll be me, but eight years ago. The exact same woman you met and fell in love with. How do you know you wouldn’t like her better?”
Lucien’s smile flickered as he appeared to think about that.
His expression said it all. He would prefer that Tyra. Of course he would.
Putting those thoughts out of her mind, she went on, “Regardless of the personal consequences, legally this comes down to consent, and since we can’t get Captain Tyra’s consent, we’ll need to get a ruling from a judge before I do anything.”
Lucien nodded slowly and held out his hand to her. Theola mimicked him, holding out one of her hands, too. “All of that can wait. We need to see if anything is wrong with Atara first.”
Tyra took Lucien’s hand and allowed him to guide her back into Atara’s room. Doctor Fushiwa was there, along with two more nurses, and a probe technician with his probe machine. Tyra released Lucien’s hand and hurried to her daughter’s side, pushing Doctor Fushiwa out of the way.
“I’m scared,” Atara whimpered.
“It’s okay, darling,” Tyra said, and grabbed her daughter’s hand. “You won’t feel a thing.” She rounded on Doctor Fushiwa. “What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded.
He flinched and confusion flickered through his eyes. “You gave your consent...”
“And you couldn’t wait five minutes for us to get here before you got started?”
“I’m sorry, ma’am. I didn’t think—”
“Damn right you didn’t think.”
“Do you want a moment alone with your daughter?”
“And draw this out more? No, let’s get it over with.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Turning back to Atara, Tyra said, “Everything’s going to be fine, sweetheart.”
Atara had the bedsheets pulled up under her chin. She’d managed to un-tuck them, and now they were floating above her in the zero-G environment. “You promise?”
“I promise,” Tyra replied, and squeezed Atara’s hand.
“We’ll be right here,” Lucien added, and walked around her bed to take her other hand.
The probe technician finished configuring his machine and said, “We’re ready. Atara, would you please start counting backwards from ten?”
“Ten, nine, eight, seven...”
Chapter 16
Astralis
Atara’s eyes rolled up in her head and her eyelids fluttered shut. Her eyes roved rapidly behind their lids, as if she were in the middle of a REM sleep cycle.
“I’m going to begin by asking you a few questions, Atara,” the probe technician said. “What happened to you when the alien touched you?”
“He said he was going to kill me.”
“But he didn’t.”
“No, because I told him that if he killed me, my daddy would kill him.”
“And how did he react to that?”
“He said that his name was Lucien, and he was my daddy.”
“What did you say?”
“I told him he was a liar, because my daddy would never hurt me. And he said he was only joking about kill
ing me.”
“Did you believe him?”
“I don’t know... maybe.”
“What happened next?”
“He asked me about grandpa Ethan.”
“What did he want to know?”
“He asked if grandpa was a good person.”
“And what did you answer?”
“I said yes. I’ve never met him, but my dad’s told me stories.”
“And then?”
“He didn’t say anything else, but I could feel him there, watching me.”
“Can you still feel him?”
“No.”
“Has he said anything to you since you woke up?”
“No.”
“Did he do anything to you while he was in your head?”
“No... I don’t think so.”
“Okay, Atara. Thank you for your help. I’m going to download the data from your brain now. When you wake up, you’ll be back with your parents and your sister.”
“Okay.”
The remainder of the procedure was silent, and didn’t take more than a few seconds. The technician raised his visor and nodded to them. “We’re done. She should wake up at any moment.”
“How long before we’ll know the results?” Lucien asked.
“Given the volume of data to sort through... at least two or three days.”
“That long?” Tyra asked. “You expect us to wait two or three days before we can take our daughter home?”
“Assuming we have a home to go back to,” Lucien pointed out. Tyra turned to glare at him and he held up his hands in defense. “Not the point. I get it.” He turned to the doctor. “Isn’t there something you can do to get her released sooner?”
Doctor Fushiwa glanced at the probe technician, and the technician gave a slight shake of his head. “I’ll see what I can do, but for now you should make the most of your time here. I’ll have the therapist you requested meet with you to assess treatment options for your daughters.”
Lucien nodded. “Thank you.”
The medical staff turned and left the room. A few seconds after they’d left, Atara’s eyes cracked open.
“Did they find something wrong with me?” she asked.
“No, sweetheart. There’s nothing wrong with you,” Tyra said and leaned down to kiss Atara’s forehead.
On the other side of the bed, Theola started screaming in Lucien’s arms. She was hungry and needed changing. Tyra looked pointedly at Lucien.
“I’ll go get her a bottle and a clean diaper,” he said, and headed for the door.
“Try maternity,” Tyra suggested, and he nodded. Turning back to Atara, she looked for a chair she could pull up to sit beside her daughter’s bed, but the only chair was floating up near the ceiling in the far corner of the room. No point sitting down in zero-G anyway. She stood beside Atara’s bed, stroking her daughter’s hair and answering questions that only a five-year-old would ask.
“Is daddy a murderer?”
“Why would you ask that?” Tyra replied.
“Because he killed the alien with his name.”
“It’s not murder to kill someone if it’s in self-defense. He was protecting you and your sister.”
Atara nodded slowly. “Are the aliens going to come back?”
“We’ll make sure they don’t.”
“How do you know if they got them all?”
“Because Astralis has sensors that can detect every living thing on board. We know exactly how many people there are on the ship.”
“Aliens, too?”
Tyra smiled. “Yes, Aliens, too.”
“I feel like he’s still here, watching me.”
Tyra’s brow furrowed. “When the technician asked you, you said you couldn’t feel him anymore.”
“I did?” Atara asked.
“Yes. It’s just your imagination, honey, don’t worry. Nobody’s watching you.”
Atara nodded slowly and appeared to relax. Her eyelids grew heavy, and her eyes drifted shut. Tyra watched her with a worried frown.
It wasn’t strange that Atara didn’t remember the questions the technician had asked—no one remembered what happened during a mind probe. But what was strange was the discrepancy in her answers during and after the probe. It was supposed to be impossible to lie during a probe. Had Atara somehow defeated that, or had she simply told the truth as she saw it in the moment?
Tyra hoped those feelings of being watched really were just Atara’s imagination.
She glanced at the door, willing the therapist to hurry up. Whoever it was had their work cut out for them.
All of a minute later, the therapist did arrive, as if she’d somehow read the urgency in Tyra’s mind, which was ironic, because this particular therapist actually could read minds.
“It is good to be seeing you again, Tyra.”
“Troo?” Tyra said, looking the Fosak up and down. She was covered in black fur. Prominent fangs protruded from her upper jaw, and huge green eyes blinked as she approached.
Tyra held out her hand in greeting, and Troo offered a three-fingered, two-thumbed paw in exchange. The alien grinned with a mouth full of sharp teeth. Standing on her hind legs, Troo was almost as tall as her.
“It’s been a long time,” Tyra said. “You’re working as a therapist now?” Troo and Lucien had a long history together, but they’d lost touch over the years.
Troo nodded once. “Yes, I is being therapy now. I see that you is being politics.”
“A politician,” Tyra corrected. “Councilor of Fallside.”
Troo nodded, and released her hand. She walked to Atara’s bedside and hissed quietly as she gazed down on Atara. “She is being largeness now. How many years?”
“Five,” Tyra said.
“What happens to her that she is needing to speak with me?”
Tyra explained what had happened, and Troo listened carefully.
“I is needing to touch her mind to feel her pain,” Troo explained.
Tyra nodded her consent. “Do you need me to wake her first?”
“No, that is not being necessary,” Troo whispered as she placed a hand on Atara’s forehead. The alien’s green eyes drifted shut, and she mewled softly.
“There is much anger...”
Tyra nodded, her anxiety mounting. “What else?”
“Pain... hatred... death. Your daughter is deeply troubled...”
Tyra was saddened to hear that. It made sense given what Atara had been through, but she’d hoped the emotional damage wouldn’t be that bad. “What do you think we should do? Erase her memories?”
“We is speaking in a dream now. She says that she is being scaredness... and that she is not being alone.”
“Did she say who is with her?”
“I is asking her...”
“And?” Tyra prompted.
“She says it is Death that is with her, and that he is to be coming for us all.”
Chapter 17
Astralis
Troo spent nearly half an hour working with Atara, during which time Lucien came back with Theola, his police chief’s uniform covered in spit-up.
“Zero-G feeding is not recommended,” Lucien said before she could ask. Then he noticed the furry therapist standing on the other side of Atara’s bed. “Troo? Is that you?”
The alien turned to him with a grin, and he walked over to give her a one-armed hug. Theola took advantage of her proximity to stroke Troo’s fur.
Troo withdrew, hissing, her nose scrunched up, and eyes accusing. “You is being wetness! And you smell like rotten fish.”
“It’s good to see you, too,” Lucien replied, still smiling. He turned and nodded to Atara. “How is she?”
Troo shook her head. “She is not being well. She is thinking someone else is being with her, someone called Death.”
Lucien frowned. “Is that true?”
“I is not feeling any presence besides hers,” Troo replied. “I is thinking it to be a symptom of her trauma, a suggesti
on that the alien made perhaps.”
“Well, we’ll know soon enough,” Lucien said. “The mind probe will tell us exactly what changed inside her head.”
Troo nodded and pointed to Theola. “What about this one? She is new. Is she to be needing treatment?”
“That’s Theola,” Tyra supplied. Troo had never met her.
Lucien nodded. “She’s still badly frightened.”
“May I?” Troo asked, and extended a paw toward Theola’s forehead.
Lucien nodded, and Theola giggled and squirmed under Troo’s paw. She grabbed it with both hands, and tried to push it away.
“Shhh... be calmness little one,” Troo said as her eyes drifted shut, and Theola subsided. “She is being more resilience, this one.... She is not understanding what she saw, but she is having great fear of the blue ones.”
Troo’s eyes popped open.
“That’s it?” Tyra asked.
Troo nodded. “She is to be fine. Her fear of the blue ones may be giving her nightmares, but I is not thinking there to be any other lasting effects.”
Tyra sighed. “That’s a relief.”
“Thank you, Troo,” Lucien said. “Since when did you become a therapist?”
A comm call trilled in Tyra’s head and the comms icon flashed in the top right of her ARCs. “Excuse me,” she said, and walked by them to the window in the far corner of the room. A curtain of icicles hung from the top of the windowsill, glittering in the sun. Far below, stretched frozen forests and icy lakes. Thankfully, Winterside was cut-off from Fallside by the shield walls that contained the climate zones on Astralis, so none of the chaos from the hull breach had touched the city.
“Acting Chief Councilor Ortane speaking,” Tyra said as she took the call.
“Chief Councilor, this is Doctor Fushiwa.”
“Doctor, any news from Atara’s probe yet?”
“I haven’t checked. I’m calling about an autopsy we performed on one of the aliens. I thought you might want to know what we found.”
“I see. Go on.”
“It might be better if I showed you. Can you meet with me now?”
“I suppose.”
“Good. We’re down in the morgue. Sub Level two of the hospital. I’ll send the location to your ARCs.”
Dark Space Universe (Books 1-3): The Third Dark Space Trilogy (Dark Space Trilogies) Page 35