After the design had been captured from a Gizzeen probe during the war, the generator had been rebuilt by the Alliance as a test-bed for a new technology which made for faster travel through the membrane separating the universes. Alice didn’t regret abandoning the knowledge of its working she’d gained from being modified by the Engineers in order to lead a normal life, but that decision was haunting her now as she stared at the wide fins connecting the globe of the generator to the outer bulkheads. She understood the basics of an M-space drive, but not this thing. The modifications made this ship unique, and with the loss of Kongo, there was no other like her to work from.
“I’m not trying to prove anything except how bored I am, Roy,” Alice said, dropping her shoulders in a gesture of resignation. “I just need to do something with my hands.”
“Aye,” Booth replied. “Well then, if you take’m outta yer pockets and put them back to work, we can get this done faster.”
“What’s the use?” Alice replied, crossing her hands over her chest. “They aren’t going to let this old girl fly again.”
“Who ya talkin’ about now,” Booth replied, grabbing the wrench and extending it back towards Alice. “The ship or yerself?”
Alice let out an exasperated sigh as she took the wrench back. Booth was almost as frustrating to argue with as Lee had been…
At the thought of the former captain, Alice felt a surge of anger. She wanted to throw the wrench again, but slapped the metal against her palm, sending a sharp crack of pain through her hand and arm, reminding her she was still alive—and reinforcing the anger. She turned back to the generator and tried to think of the schematics which had once plagued her mind and drove her crazy. It was another point of fuel for her rage, and lent strength to her arm as she found another bolt in need of tightening.
Demsiri’s voice rang out over the sound of the effort. “Neither of you should be that close to that thing. Have you ever seen what one of those can do to a person?”
“Only when they work,” Booth replied, keeping his back turned to the doctor and running a hand scanner over the smooth metal of the globe. “This one don’t, and until it does I intend to stand as close as I damn well feel.”
“I’m surprised you can stand at all,” the doctor replied, stepping closer to the engineer and extending a pouch with a short straw in it. “That leg of yours probably hurts like the devil about now. I brought you painkillers and water. Both are probably a bit stale since we have no power to the infirmary refrigerators, but I just thought—”
“Thank you, Doctor,” Alice said, stepping over and reaching for one of the pouches. “I guess she’s seen better days.”
“She’s a ship of war, and that’s what she’s been through,” Demsiri said, handing out the water to both former crew members and looking around. “Have you ever read up on her history? This ship should have died a hundred times before now.”
“Books are rubbish,” Booth replied. “I’ve lived with this old lady fer years and say she’s as worthy of her reputation as any admiral or general ever walked her decks. I’ll have her livin’ and breathin’ again before they send her fer scrap.”
“I’ll bet you will,” the doctor replied, his eyebrows raised. “Still, I can’t stay here much longer. I need to get Goldstein back to the station. His arm isn’t properly healed and he’s been up on what’s left of the bridge making it worse.”
“How bad is it up there?” Alice asked, not really wanting to know the answer.
“The chair is gone,” Demsiri replied. “Most of the panels were burned in the fire. Josh is trying to activate something. I don’t really understand what he working on, I just know I have to get him repaired.”
“There’s a shuttle coming ‘round at twenty-one hundred,” Booth replied. “I can send the lass back then.”
“I’m not leaving,” Alice replied. “I’m going to stay and help you with this.”
“Alice, I don’t think that’s—”
“I’m not in the fleet anymore, Doctor,” Alice said, snapping her head around to look back at the doctor. “You can’t give me orders.”
“I’m still your doctor, and I thought I was your friend, so take my advice…” the dark-skinned man replied. “Get off this ship and get as far away from here as you can. This place has cost you enough.”
“There’s nowhere to go, Doctor,” Alice said, tossing the pouch back to the man. “In case you forgot, there’s a war going on and we’re losing.”
“War is a losing proposition for both sides,” Demsiri said, anger darkening his cheeks. “Look how much we’ve all lost, how much you’ve lost. How much more do you think you can stand?”
The question caught Alice by surprise. She had known the doctor was leaning towards abandoning the service like she and Booth, but the strength of his conviction was like a slap in the face. Mentally, she ran through the people she had lost, seeing each face, the last being Lee. She wondered what faces Demsiri saw as he thought about the war.
The moment was interrupted by the sound of an internal comm alert, startling in the otherwise quiet generator room, and both she and Booth looked to each other.
“Someone please tell me if this thing is working,” Josh Goldstein said from the speaker. “I’m kind of holding the whole thing together with my bad arm and it’s starting to hurt.”
Demsiri stepped to a wall panel and pressed the button. The light which should have glowed green sputtered and faded. Silence greeted the three as the doctor pressed the button again. Again there was no answer. Josh’s voice echoed again as he repeated the request, ending this time in a mild curse in Yiddish.
“Go inta the main engineerin’ room,” Booth said, dropping his own pouch and stepping towards the door. “That one never worked right anyway. Too much exotic radiation in here. Stupid place for a comm panel.”
The three walked through the clear doorway into the cavernous main engineering section. The smell of smoke and burnt metal was strong in here and reminded Alice again of the damage the battleship had taken. Her rescue with Farthing had almost put them into a similar situation as plasma conduits had ruptured all over the battleship after re-entry. The timely arrival of the Octopod home fleet had kept the damage to a minimum as Chang ordered the ship abandoned.
They walked to the nearest comm panel and pressed the button. This time there was a feedback signal and the button glowed bright green.
“Good job for a pilot,” Booth said into the small panel. “Now if ya could get the engines restarted, that’d be a thing.”
“Uh … sorry,” Goldstein’s voice replied through the thick static. “I got communications and a little bit of the sensors working, but that’s about it. You guys might want to get somewhere else.”
“What’s happening?” Alice said, concern creasing the corners of her mouth. “Is there trouble?”
“I don’t know, really. There was an M-space exit translation and now I’m reading a ship closing on us. I think it’s one of ours but I can’t tell. No one is coming yet, so I guess it’s all okay, right?”
“How big is the ship?” Alice said, her mind producing images of the admiral coming to take them back to the station in irons. “Are they docking?”
“I think they may have already docked,” Josh replied with a note of resignation. “I’m sorry, but I just got things working up here and they aren’t working very well.”
“Can you tell where they’re docked at least?” Doctor Demsiri asked. “Maybe we can meet whoever it is.”
There was a screech of metal from beyond the panel. Alice stepped away from the console, searching for a weapon in case whoever they were they intended harm.
“Does nothing work on this ship anymore?” Farthing asked, struggling with the jammed portal. “I leave for a few months and the whole ship falls apart.”
The sight of Farthing brought a rare smile to Alice’s face and she gave up a cry of delight. His normally white fur was cloudy as though he had been in another fire, and h
is crest was slightly raised. Booth and Demsiri both looked after her as she ran to the door and tried to help the Vadne pry it open. “It was workin’ a few hours ago, ya damn filthy cat,” Booth said, slapping the interior control panel hard. “Ya just have to know how ta hit the button.”
The door slid open, revealing the Vadne captain with a much shorter woman. Her skin was a deep yellow-green. She was holding a data pad in one hand as she smoothed her duty uniform with the other, seeming flustered to be standing inside the derelict battleship.
Maybe it was just standing so close to Alice which was making her nervous. She did have a reputation, and she knew she could be intimidating.
“Farthing, what are you doing here?” Alice asked, stepping aside to let the tall Vadne into the engine room. “I thought you were at Karisia.”
“My mission was successful,” the captain replied, looking at the damaged engineering section. “I needed to speak to you before I spoke to the admiral. I do not think we have much time before Chang comes looking for us, so I must be quick.”
“What is it?” Alice asked, seeing an unfamiliar note of panic in her friend’s eye. “What’s happened?”
“They told me you were important to my destiny and that I needed to see you first,” Farting explained. “I assumed you would be here, so I came as soon as we exited M-space.”
“Who told you what?”
“We are here,” a new voice said. “We have news of the ultimate fate of your struggle and the inevitable outcome. We have committed a grievous error and have come to offer you a choice of futures.”
A tall white being floated solemnly into the room. The white-on-white eyes reflected the damaged room around them, the thick tendrils of translucent hair swaying in an unseen breeze. The creature looked like a very large version of the Engineers she had met before, but somehow more solid and less ethereal. They had been weakened by the appearance of the Gizzeen, but she hadn’t expected this level of solidity.
“What outcome are you talking about?” Alice asked. “You expect me to believe you can see the future now?”
“All futures are the same as all pasts, Commander Bennett. It is your existence we have come to correct.”
There was a strange vibration to the creature. Each time Alice tried to lock on and see the creature closely, the image would slip away and she’d be forced to look elsewhere. She blinked, trying to clear the effect, but it stayed, and she finally reverted to her pilot instincts and tried to recognize the pattern of the alien shape and not the image. This time, she saw the familiar robes and long extensions from the white-skinned head. The voice of the creature was a harmonious chorus in her mind.
“You keep saying ‘we.’ How many of you are there in there?” Alice asked, trying to understand why the tall white creature appeared to be shimmering..
There was a merging of light and shadow as she looked at the Engineer-thing. It seemed to become unfocused. She blinked, not believing what her eyes told her she was seeing. In the space of a few seconds, where the tall creature had stood now hovered more than two dozen of the little aliens she remembered. As she kept her eyes focused, those split into dozens more each. By the time she was sure they were done, there were over one hundred of the small, familiar Engineers in the bay. Each one looked somehow confused as though they were all unsure of what they were doing. That look from the formerly all-powerful beings frightened Alice more than the separation.
“Okay, so that’s how many,” Demsiri said, stepping closer to Alice.
“This is war and wars are won or lost,” said Alice. “Why am I so important? I’m nothing in the scheme of things. I sat out almost a year of this war and no one even noticed.”
“Alice, you can’t think…” Demsiri said, moving closer to the woman before she raised a hand to cut him off.
“You say you committed an error, and that I can accept,” Alice continued. “You’ve been messing in our lives and messing with my head for years, and now you want to … what? Come back in here and apologize? Well, not accepted. Now get off my ship!”
“Alice, hear them out,” Farthing replied. “You don’t understand what they’re offering.”
“We offer a choice,” the restored alien replied. “We are offering to restore the means to rebuild this ship or—”
“Captain,” the woman standing near Farthing interrupted, holding up the data pad for all to see. “We’ve got company.”
“The admiral?” Farthing asked, sure of the answer. “What is he saying?”
“It’s not just him. He’s brought the whole damn Octopod fleet out here and they are surrounding us. He’s ordering us to surrender the Engineers immediately.”
“Alice, if you’re going to do something,” Demsiri said, reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder. “You’d better do it now. I think we’re about to be arrested.”
“You said you could restore the ship?” Alice said, looking at Roy booth. “How? We don’t have time to fix everything, and without the M-space drive we’re dead in the water. Chang’s going to take you with him and we sure as hell can’t stop him.”
“We gave you a gift during your capture by the Ch’Tauk,” replied the alien. “You still have it.”
“You mean the headache and the head full of technical specs?” she replied. “I gave it back. It was driving me crazy.”
“No, you did not give it back. We took steps to keep you from remembering. We can undo what we have done.”
“Captain, we’re surrounded,” the golden woman said. “The admiral is ordering us to stand down and prepare to be boarded.”
“Like hell,” Booth said, limping on his injured leg across the engineering room. “This ship has never been boarded and never will as long as I’m here. Anybody brought a pistol with ‘em?”
“Roy, stand down,” Alice ordered, her voice brooking no argument. “You say I still have the information on how to fix this ship? How? I can barely remember how to turn a wrench right now. How can you do this?”
The creature wavered. Now that she was close, she noticed the smooth skin of its face was now lined with thin cracks, as if the porcelain they were made of was fracturing along a billion lines. The normally expressionless face seemed sad and very old now. They had explained the Gizzeen invasion was taking their abilities away. She realized it must also be taking away their immortality. Despite her hatred of the little creatures, she felt pity for the one who was trying to help.
“You are the one who must make the choice, Commander Alice Bennett,” replied the Engineer. “You must choose to remember the knowledge and the pain.”
“Sir,” the golden woman said again. “Kissinger is being ordered to disengage. What should I say?”
“Tell them we will be right there,” Farthing replied as he moved to the data pad to examine the readings. “Alice…”
“What’s in it for me?” Alice asked the creatures. “Why should I care about this ship anymore? I don’t have anywhere to go.”
“You will need this ship and the knowledge if you are to correct our error,” replied the Engineer. “If you do not, your pain will be greater and the knowledge of what you have lost will consume you.”
“Lost? What am I going to lose?”
“Kissinger,” the woman said again. “The admiral’s ship is docking.”
“Alice, he’s alive!” Farthing said, turning to face her directly. “That’s what they’re offering.”
“What?”
“Captain Lee Pearce is alive, Commander Bennett,” the alien said. “But you must choose the pain if you are to retrieve him.”
15
Walapacku – Octopod Home World
Slightly larger than Earth, Walapacku was a watery paradise largely unspoiled by the effects of industrialization. Its landmasses were mainly large volcanic islands, the settlements above the waterline bordered by long, low, drying sheds where the kelp harvested from the deep waters was prepared and processed into basic foodstuffs across the galaxy. The Octopods l
ived in the shallows around the major islands, venturing out of the water to conduct business or join the militant government in home defense fleets or commerce guilds.
Off-worlders were scarce on this planet and kept isolated when they did arrive. Centuries ago, the planet had been invaded by a race that saw the vibrant green seaweed as the basis for conquest and a new galactic economic empire. In this way, the Walapacku discovered they were not alone.
Intelligent and curious, the Octopods left the shallow waters and lush forests of their home and took the battle to the enemy. Normally solitary swimmers, they learned the value of cooperation and collaboration with a vengeance. The name of the invading race is no longer known; their home world is a barren desert devoid of life.
Infinitely more dangerous predators lived in the seas of Walapacku, and the Octopods had learned how to survive. Their ships were crafted to emulate their predators, and other races soon knew to leave the sleek and efficient killers alone.
Cal was born into a family of workers laboring in the vast shipyard of the northern ocean. He’d looked up from the icy sea as a larvae and wondered about the life of a warrior, but joined his brothers and sisters in the factory until his first mating. His duty done, he joined the warrior guild and learned the art of star-craft. It was still not enough for the young creature, as he wanted to explore beyond the confines of his own system. It was a chance encounter with an engineer returning from duty in Terran space that launched Cal towards the Confederacy and his destiny on board Resolute.
His posting on the aging battleship would have been a disgrace to the warrior’s guild on Walapacku, but to the energetic young warrior the ship was marvelous. Captain Chang, a veteran warrior from Earth’s Pacific basin, had been determined to make the most of the ship despite the condition she had been left in. He had been at the tactical station when the Ch’Tauk had attacked, and had shown his mettle defending the fleet as they fled into deep space. No matter how hard the ship was beaten down, she refused to give up while the battle was being fought. When he heard of the ship’s fate in orbit of his own home world, he was saddened. It was not a fate he would have chosen for the grand warhorse.
Resolute Glory (The War for Terra Book 8) Page 11