Homeward: The Ship Series // Book Three

by Jerry Aubin

  “Of course, Boss. Thank you.”

  The Crew walked toward the hatch leaving Imair and Rege behind. As he walked to his private compartment, the Boss received an inbound message on his Plug. It was Alpha.

  “I have important information to share, sir.”

  38

  You were right.

  Zax entered the mess hall for dinner and almost bumped into Kalare as she was leaving. They stared at each other awkwardly for a moment until she grinned and spoke.

  “That was some trip, wasn’t it? I have to stop visiting planets if I’m going to almost get killed every time.”

  Zax’s heart almost burst in response to Kalare’s warm tone, and he laughed deeply. “Yeah—what are you…two out of three with near-death experiences on the surface?”

  She echoed his laugh, and then they waited in silence again until it became uncomfortable. “Well, I’ve got to get going.”

  Zax nodded and, shoulders slumped, started to walk toward the food stations. He hadn’t gone two paces before Kalare called out.

  “Wait!”

  Zax turned back and was enveloped in Kalare’s arms. It was so unexpected that his muscles froze, but the shocked paralysis wore off quickly and he soon returned the embrace. They held each other for somewhere between an instant and an eternity. She backed away, and her blue eyes glistened with tears.

  “I’m sorry I’ve shut you out, Zax. I’m just so worried about you getting demoted again, or worse, and I don’t know what to do with my feelings. It seemed better for a while to remove the risk of getting hurt by pushing you away intentionally. That’s how I lived for all those years before we met, though, and I’ve realized now I don’t want that again. I want us to fix this, OK? Can we talk about it tomorrow morning? Breakfast—just like we always used to?”

  There was a lump in Zax’s throat, and he only managed a nod in reply. She beamed back at him. It had been far, far too long since he’d seen that glorious smile, and he basked in how good it made him feel. She gave a small wave and walked away.

  Zax approached the food station and debated whether he should have nutripellets or solid food. They had jumped away from the planet for safety as soon as the shuttle landed but hadn’t yet announced the next Transit. He grabbed heaping portions of his favorites after deciding to treat himself to a real meal after the stress and excitement of the surface trip. He walked to his usual table and attacked the pile of food with gusto.

  A few mins later Mase shuffled to the table dragging his injured foot even more than he had down on the planet. Zax greeted him.

  “What happened? It looks like you’re limping more than you were earlier.”

  “Yeah—I hurt it even worse when we scrambled to the shuttle. I was afraid of getting left behind and carted away by the ants. The adrenalin kicked in. I’m scheduled at the medbay first thing tomorrow morning.”

  The boy sat down and stared at Zax for a few secs. He pushed his tray aside and leaned in.

  “Zax—you’re not going to believe what I have to tell you. I promise that I’ve checked it fifty different ways. I’ve confirmed everything. Do you trust me?”

  Zax nodded his head, but Mase shook his.

  “No, Zax, I really mean it. Do you trust me? With your life? You won’t be able to un-know what I’m about to share with you. I don’t want to tell you any of it unless you’re certain you’re ready to believe without hesitation.”

  “Whoa! That’s a pretty tall order. Yes—I trust you, Mase, though I’m likely to have a million questions about anything you tell me which is as serious as you’re making this sound. That’s because I’m going to need to understand it fully, not because I don’t trust you. OK?”

  Mase stared at him for a few secs before he finally spoke.

  “A while back you told me about the different encounters the Ship has had with unknown spacecraft. You said you believed they were all related to the human fighter from that video you released.”

  Zax nodded and Mase continued.

  “That whole discussion got me wondering about how to prove you were right. And that’s what I’ve done.”

  Zax’s jaw dropped. His heart seemed to pound in his throat, and he found himself unable to breathe as if it were actually blocking his airway. He slowly pushed his tray aside and stared at the boy while saying the only two words possible.

  “Tell me.”

  Mase took a breath and then started.

  “You know how I’ve hacked into the AI that manages the Leaderboard. I’ve always assumed similar techniques would work for accessing other AIs. I never had good reason for doing so. Until you told me those stories.

  “It ended up being a lot harder than I would have guessed. I discovered that all the systems use different security protocols. The complexity and challenge of breaking into them increases exponentially based on the sensitivity of the data involved. I got into the Replicators pretty quickly and had fun making stuff without getting charged for usage.”

  A group walked by and Mase paused for a moment until they were no longer within earshot.

  “My goal was to get into the Threat and Scan and Flight historical records. The detailed history is only accessible if you have a legitimate reason to see it. And we know the Omegas can classify anything they want to hide with even higher levels of security. I figured the only way to really prove or disprove your suspicions was to get full access to all of the low level, raw data records. It was infinitely harder to get those than to crack the Leaderboard. I did it. I was ready to talk about it the other day. You blew me off.”

  The boy grinned. Zax wanted to punch him, but he maintained his patience and waited for him to continue.

  “I figured out how to chain my entry attempts across multiple systems. I linked where I needed to and gained full access to all of the records. You were right. The fighter in your video is the same type of craft that attacked the Ship at the white dwarf star. It’s also the same type of craft that was at that planet a few months ago when we jumped out of the system before you had a chance to identify it. And it’s also the same type of craft that launched the missile that brought down my shuttle earlier today.”

  Mase paused to let it all sink in. Zax wanted desperately to breathe, but it was impossible. You were right. The words bounced around in his mind. He had always known, but now there was proof. Mase spoke again.

  “Wait, wait—there’s more! It wasn’t a single human fighter that destroyed our tanker and all those fighters at the white dwarf. The records recovered from one of our destroyed fighters revealed that a massive craft entered the system after we jumped out. It was that mothership which destroyed all of ours. That mothership is exactly the same type as the one that attacked the Ship earlier today!”

  Zax wanted to scream. Both from anger and excitement. There were two questions left.

  “Is it possible to see who accessed this information?”

  Mase nodded. “Yes. The Captain and Flight Boss accessed everything about your video and how it related to the ship from the White Dwarf. The Boss also reviewed all the information about the planet encounter from a few months ago. He has already viewed the data from today.”

  “You’re absolutely certain about everything you’re telling me?”

  “Yes. I’d stake both of our lives on it.”

  39

  Let's set the course and start tomorrow.

  Imair greeted the Boss as he sat down in the seat across the table in her quarters. She pushed her dinner to the side without having had more than a couple of bites.

  “Quite a day, don’t you think, Boss?”

  “Yes, Madam President. It certainly was.”

  Imair gave the Boss a good, long look, and he met her gaze without so much as an extra blink. “What can I do for you tonight? As you can imagine, I’m feeling pretty worn out. The folks in medbay told me I should try to spend some extra time in bed the next few days.”

  “A couple of items, ma’am. I’m curious why I wasn’t part of
the discussion when you decided to get Plugged In.”

  “Do you think I should have asked for permission?”

  “Certainly not, ma’am. You’re in charge and can do as you see fit. I just would have expected that I’d be informed. If nothing else, we could have been communicating by Plug all of this time.”

  “It’s good to hear you reinforce that I’m in charge, Boss. Major Odon and a number of his Marines don’t appear to exactly agree with that assessment. In fact, word from Rege is they almost let me bleed out when I got shot.”

  The Boss shook his head. “Ma’am—I’d advise you to not seek any amount of self-worth based on the opinion of Marines. There is no one a Marine truly respects other than another Marine. There have been plenty of times when they’ve expressed opinions about me as negative as they hold for you right now.”

  “Fair point, I suppose. Anything else bothering you?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I’m worried you were issuing critical orders to the Ship about emergency procedures without consulting me first. I’ve always understood your intent was to allow me to continue to keep us safe. That’s hard for me to do if you’ve issued orders I’m not aware of. Particularly when those orders contravene those I’ve already given to my staff.”

  “Here’s my challenge, Boss. I totally agree that you know what is best for the Ship based on 5,000 years’ worth of Crew experience and training. That experience is missing a critical component, however, and that’s how the civilians factor into the equation.

  “Now here’s where you’ll want to tell me that you’ve had lots of training about civilians. And I know you have, particularly when it comes to controlling them and putting down uprisings. Those are valuable skills, and, frankly, I may ask you to put them to use again on my behalf. For right now, though, I still need to use a softer form of power to influence what is happening with my ten million fellow civilians. You may feel your Mini-Boss would take over without missing a beat if the Ship had left us behind earlier today, but there is no Mini-Imair with anywhere close to the same ability. Without me, it all spins out of control.”

  “Ma’am—is there anything you’ve hidden from me about what is happening in the civilian sectors?”

  Imair considered whether she should let the Boss into the loop about her concerns around Rege and how they had been further exacerbated down on the planet. It would be a good opportunity to strengthen the trust in their relationship even further, but instead she saved the information for another time.

  “I think you have all the knowledge you need around that right now. It bears repeating, though, that I’m very worried about the long-term stability of our civilian population. We’ve continued to ration out morsels of hope for the past couple of years, and that has kept things from spiraling out of control. But I have tremendous concerns about how they might react to what we learned earlier today.”

  “Which part, Madam President?”

  “That ants are traveling the galaxy and rounding up humans for some unknown reason. Look—there are three positive outcomes to this journey that can solve our civilian problem. The first is if we manage to actually find these other humans and learn they’ve built a star-faring culture on some amazing planet that can also support the billion inhabitants of our Ship. That outcome would be even better if we were to learn it was Earth which had somehow recovered and was capable once again of supporting life and sending people to the stars.”

  The Boss interrupted. “Ma’am—you don’t seriously believe we would find Earth habitable, do you? We know from our history that its death was imminent when the Ship launched, and it left with the brightest people who might have been capable of saving the planet.”

  “I know, Boss. I’m not as stupid as I think you give me credit for sometimes. In fact, I don’t believe there’s any reasonable likelihood we’ll ever even find the other humans. My guess is that fighter from the famous video is an incredibly rare specimen whose creators we’d never locate in a billion years of trying. So that leaves us with the final positive outcome as the most likely. We’ll eventually return to one of the spectacular planets we’ve colonized in the past. One of the nines or tens that will support everyone on the Ship. We’ll settle it and call it New Earth.”

  The Boss paused before asking his question.

  “Ma’am—if you think that’s the most likely outcome, why don’t we just take that course right now? I wouldn’t settle on the planet we just left given what we’ve learned about the ants, but there are others within a few years’ journey which are equally attractive.”

  “It’s a question I’ve been wrestling with, Boss. I think it boils down to one word—hope. My Revolution got its start when that video made its way around the Ship, and people got it into their heads that we were no longer alone. A feeling of belonging is a powerful weapon, and a hope to find others from our tribe became a key part of how we made people believe in our uprising. What made that hope particularly powerful was the image from that video which showed the picture of Earth.

  “Perhaps people from the Crew see pictures of our homeworld frequently as part of your coursework, but prior to that video most civilians had never uttered the word Earth, much less seen an honest-to-goodness picture of it. If finding other humans was the spark for our Revolution, then potentially finding them back home on Earth was the fuel that fed its fire.”

  Imair stood to finish her thought. Her belly was starting to throb again and she found that standing was slightly more comfortable than sitting.

  “If my people lose their hope, then I fear we’ll all be in trouble since hopeless people are the most dangerous people. I’m confident we can eventually replace the hope for other humans and the hope for Earth with a new hope for a New Earth, but we need time for the situation to improve for everyone before we attempt that transition.”

  “That makes sense, ma’am. You’ve mentioned the importance of hope before, but this puts it all in much better context. It also explains why you’ve held back on the news you haven’t been willing to share with all of the civilians.”

  “With all of that in mind, Boss, what would you advise we do now?”

  The Boss was quiet for a couple of min and Imair grabbed a piece of fruit which she tossed from hand to hand while she waited. She eventually tired of the game and threw the apple into a wastebin just as the Boss finally spoke.

  “I’ve thought things through from every angle, ma’am, and my advice is that we should head directly toward Earth. Checking these old colonies isn’t doing anything for us but causing headaches, so let’s stop. If our best outcome is to wean civilians off Earth as the answer to their dreams, then let’s start that process as fast as we possibly can. I’ll work with Alpha to understand which of the colonies closest to Earth represent the highest quality planet for habitation, and we’ll be prepared to move onwards as soon as everyone has had a chance to see the deadness of our homeworld with their own eyes.”

  “I agree. Let’s set the course and start tomorrow. We’ll need to figure out whether we tell the civilians that we’re going to stop checking colonies, or if we keep that hidden. I’m not sure which is the better approach at this point.”

  A chime signaled that someone was outside. Imair called out permission to enter, but the hatch didn’t open and she called out again.

  40

  I can take care of what's needed next.

  Zax’s hand was poised above the handle. His legs shook and his heart beat furiously. There was no going back once he walked through the hatch, so he took a couple of extra beats to be certain of his resolve. He finally pushed it open, entered, and immediately regretted his decision.

  The Boss was in the compartment with Imair.

  “Hello, Zax.” The Boss smiled at Zax as he rose from his chair. “I assume you came to her quarters for President Imair, and you don’t need me for anything.”

  Zax’s mouth had gone bone dry at the sight of the Boss, but thankfully the man’s implied question must have been rhetoric
al as he turned back to Imair without waiting for any answer.

  “Get some rest over the next few days, ma’am. I can take care of what’s needed next.”

  The Boss turned and walked out. The hatch shut behind him and Zax was alone with Imair. She sat down.

  “Hello, Zax. Please forgive me if I act restless while we speak. I’m uncomfortable when I sit and uncomfortable when I stand, so I’m trying to figure out which position is the least worst. What can I do for you?”

  Even as the civilian smiled at him, Zax’s resolve wavered. Was he doing the right thing? Was she someone who wanted to serve and protect everyone on the Ship, or just another partisan playing for power? Sometimes working with the Boss and sometimes against him depending on her own needs of the moment? There was only one way to find out. With one last deep breath, Zax charged full speed into the unknown.

  “The Ship has repeatedly encountered human spacecraft. This includes the fighter that destroyed the shuttle and its mothership which attacked the Ship earlier today. The Boss has known since the very beginning and has kept it hidden from everyone except the Captain. I think he tried to kill me and my friend Kalare two years ago to keep the truth hidden. I believe the only reason I’m still alive is because I released the video of the human fighter I discovered. Once it was out there, they couldn’t very well kill me because it would look too suspicious.”

  Imair stood up. She waited for a few secs as she bobbled on her feet, and then sat down. She moved to try standing again, but then she leaned back instead. She took a long drink from her glass of water before pointing at the seat the Boss had just vacated.

  “Sit down, Zax. Let’s start from the very beginning. Talk to me like I don’t know anything because there’s a good chance I don’t know a lot of what you’re going to tell me.”