She did. And then they set about departing the empty patch of interstellar space the Wallfish was currently racing through—although with no close point of reference, they seemed to be sitting perfectly still.
Once the ship was properly chilled, the Markov Drive wound back up, the familiar whine sounded, and they entered FTL.
6.
The twenty-eight hours passed in cold, quiet, and dark. Kira and Falconi spent most of their time apart, in their cabins, keeping as still as they reasonably could, to avoid producing extra heat. Likewise, Itari retreated to the port cargo hold, and there the alien held itself in watchful stillness.
A few times Kira met with Falconi in the galley for meals. They talked in hushed tones, and the meetings felt to Kira like the slow, late-night conversations she’d had with friends in school while growing up.
When they finished eating, they played games of Scratch Seven. Round after round, and sometimes Falconi won and sometimes Kira. Unlike before, they didn’t bet questions but rather tokens they folded out of wrappers from their meal packs.
During the last game, Kira broke the silence and said, “Salvo … why did you buy the Wallfish?”
“Hmm?”
“I mean, why did you want to leave your home? Why this?”
His blue eyes gazed at her over the tops of his cards. “Why did you become a xenobiologist? Why leave Weyland?”
“Because I wanted to explore, to see the universe.” She shook her head, rueful. “Sure got more than I bargained for.… But somehow I think that’s not why you left Farrugia’s Landing.”
He turned over one of the shared cards stuck to the deck. A six of clubs. Added to her own hand, that gave her … four sevens in total. “Sometimes it’s not possible to stay home, even if you want to.”
“Did you want to?”
A slight shrug underneath his thermal blanket. “The situation wasn’t great. I didn’t have much of a choice. You remember the uprising there?”
“Yeah.”
“The company was screwing folks over on their benefits in all sorts of ways. Disability. Worker’s comp. You name it. Things finally reached a boiling point and … everyone had to take sides.”
A slow realization dawned on her. “You were a claims adjuster, right?”
Salvo nodded, but with some reluctance. “That’s how I really came to understand how people were getting swindled. Once the protests started, I couldn’t stand by and do nothing. You have to understand, these were people I grew up with. Friends. Family.”
“And after?”
“After…” He put his cards down and rubbed at both temples with the tips of his index fingers. “After, I couldn’t bear to stay. Words had been said and actions had been done that couldn’t be forgiven. So I buckled down, saved my money for a few years, and then bought the Wallfish.”
“To escape?” she asked.
“No, to be free,” he said. “I’d rather struggle and fail on my own than be coddled as a slave.”
The conviction in his voice was so strong, it made the back of Kira’s neck prickle. She liked it. “So you do have principles,” she said in a softly mocking tone.
Salvo chuckled. “Careful now. Don’t tell anyone or you’ll give them a bad impression.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” She put down her cards. “Hold on. I’ll be back in a moment.”
Salvo watched with a questioning look as she left the galley. Hurrying, Kira returned to her cabin, fetched her concertina from under a blanket of the Soft Blade’s living tissue, and then headed back.
When he saw the concertina, Salvo groaned. “What now? Are you going to make me listen to a polka?”
“Hush,” said Kira, using the brusque response to conceal her nervousness. “I don’t know if I remember all the fingering, but…”
Then she played him “Saman-Sahari,” one of the first pieces she had ever learned. It was a long, slow song with what she thought was a beautiful melody. As the languid music filled the air, it reminded her of the greenhouses on Weyland, of their fragrant scents and the buzz of pollinating insects. It reminded her of family and home and much that was now lost.
Tears filled Kira’s eyes in spite of herself. When she finished, she stayed where she was for a long while, staring down at the concertina.
“Kira.” She looked up to see Falconi gazing at her with an earnest expression, his eyes gleaming with tears of his own. “That was lovely,” he said, and put his hand on hers.
She nodded and sniffed and laughed a little. “Thanks. I was afraid I was going to make a mess of it.”
“Not at all.”
“Well then.…” She cleared her throat, and then with some reluctance, freed her hand. “I suppose we should call it a night. Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day.”
“Yes, I suppose we should.”
“… Goodnight, Salvo.”
“Goodnight, Kira. And thank you again for the song.”
“Of course.”
7.
Kira was climbing along the Wallfish’s central shaft, after checking on Itari in the hold, when the jump alert sounded and she felt a subtle but noticeable shift in the ship’s position. She checked the time: 1501 GTS.
From overhead, Falconi’s voice sounded. “We’re there. And we’re not alone.”
CHAPTER II
NECESSITY III
1.
The Wallfish had emerged from FTL near a brown dwarf: a dark, magenta-colored orb devoid of moons or planets. It dwelled in the void outside Cordova-1420’s heliosphere, a lonely wanderer orbiting the galactic core, spinning round and round in silent eternity.
By the equator of the brown dwarf hung a cluster of twenty-one white dots: the ships of the Knot of Minds, positioned such that the mass of the failed star shielded them from any FTL telescopes aimed at them from Cordova-1420.
The moment the Wallfish had silenced its Markov Drive, Falconi triggered the wake-up procedures for the rest of the crew (with the exception of Gregorovich). It would take the Wallfish four hours to match speed with the Knot of Minds; more than enough time for the crew to defrost and down the food and fluids they would need to be functional.
“We’ll talk when you get here,” Tschetter had said in response to their hail. “It’ll be easier with you in person, Kira, when you can communicate with the Jellies directly.”
After the call, Kira went to the galley to greet the crew as they straggled in. None of them looked particularly good. “Survived another one,” said Sparrow, wiping her face with a towel. “Oh yay.”
Nielsen appeared even worse than Falconi had, although she displayed none of the symptoms of cryo sickness. She had a twitch, and there was a thin tightness to her lips, as if she were in pain. It was, Kira suspected, a return of the first officer’s old affliction.
“Can I get you anything?” Kira asked, sympathetic.
“No, but thanks.”
The Entropists joined them also. They came stumbling in, garbed in a replacement set of gradient robes, arms wrapped around each other and a haggard look on their faces. But they seemed calm at least and sane, which was an improvement. Their time spent in cryo appeared to have dulled the shock of having their hive mind broken. They never moved more than a meter away from each other, though, and they were always touching, as if physical contact were somehow a substitute for the mental connection they’d lost.
Kira helped heat and serve food to the group, doing whatever she could to smooth their recovery from hibernation. As she did, Vishal sat with Nielsen, put an arm around her, and spoke to her in a quiet voice. Whatever he was saying seemed to ease the first officer’s distress; she kept nodding, and some of the strain vanished from her posture.
When they were all seated with food and drink, Falconi stood and said, “There’s something you should know.” And then he briefed them on the situation with Gregorovich.
“How horrible,” said Nielsen. She shivered.
“You going to thaw him out?” Sparrow asked.
“Of course,” said Vishal. “I will do everything I can for him.”
“Glad to hear it, Doc.”
2.
Four hours later, with everyone awake, if still somewhat groggy, the Wallfish docked with the Jelly flagship: a large, gleaming orb with a dozen or so gun ports ringing its rounded prow.
Along with the crew, Kira hurried off to the airlock. Only the Entropists stayed behind in the galley, nursing warm drinks while huddled over the holo-display. “We will watch from—”
“—from here,” they said.
Despite Kira’s wariness toward the meeting, she was eager to get it over with so that—one way or another—she would have a sense of what the future would hold. Right then, she didn’t have the slightest idea. If they ended up returning to the League, would she go into hiding? Turn herself over to the UMC? Find a way to fight the Jellies and the nightmares without ending up stuck in a cell somewhere? Maybe she would head back to Weyland, try to find her family, protect them.… The lack of certainty wasn’t a feeling she liked. Far from it.
She could tell that Falconi was wrestling with a similar disquiet. He’d been unusually taciturn since they’d arrived at the brown dwarf, and when she asked him about it, he shook his head and said, “Just thinking, that’s all. It’ll be nice to have this behind us.”
That it will.
The Wallfish jolted as the two ships connected. The outer airlock rolled open, and on the other side, a membrane retracted to reveal one of the Jellies’ mother-of-pearl-esque doorways. It rotated to reveal the three-meter-long tunnel that led into the Jelly ship.
Waiting inside the Jelly ship was Tschetter and, as Kira quickly identified from the scents wafting her way, the tentacle-adorned shape of Lphet.
“Permission to come aboard, Captain?” said Tschetter.
“Permission granted,” said Falconi.
Tschetter and Lphet floated inward and took up positions in the airlock antechamber. [[Lphet here: Greetings, Idealis.]]
“Good to see you again, Major,” said Falconi. “Things were getting pretty hairy back at Bughunt. Wasn’t sure if you were going to make it.” Like the rest of the crew, he was armed, and his hand never strayed far from the grip of his blaster.
“We almost didn’t,” said Tschetter.
Nielsen said, “What happened to the—what was it you called it, Kira—the Seeker?” At the mention of the ancient danger, a shiver ran down Kira’s back. She’d wondered that herself.
A flicker of distaste crossed Tschetter’s face. “It fled Bughunt before we could destroy it.”
“Where is it now?” Kira asked.
A slight shrug on the part of the major. “Wandering among the stars somewhere. I’m sorry; I can’t tell you more than that. We didn’t have time to go chasing after it.”
Kira frowned, wishing otherwise. The thought of a Seeker set loose among the stars, free to pursue whatever cruel agenda it saw fit—free of any oversight of its creators, the Vanished—filled her with dread. But there was nothing she could do about it, and even if there were, they had more pressing concerns.
“Well, isn’t that the best fucking news,” said Sparrow in a tone that matched Kira’s mood.
Falconi lifted his chin. “Why did we have to meet in person, Major? What was so important you couldn’t say over the horn?”
Even though it couldn’t have understood Falconi’s question, the Jelly answered: [[Lphet here: The currents are against us, Idealis. Even now the shoal of your Arm prepares to attack our forces gathered around the neighboring star. The attack will surely fail, but not without great losses on both sides. The empty sea will run with blood, and our shared sorrow will be the Corrupted’s gain. This tide must be turned, Idealis.]] And a scent of earnest supplication suffused the air. Behind her, Itari rubbed its tentacles and turned a fermented yellow.
Tschetter tipped her head toward the Jelly. “Lphet was just telling Kira something of the situation. It’s worse than you might think. If we don’t intervene, the Seventh Fleet will be destroyed and all hope for peace between us and the Jellies lost.”
“The League tried to kill you,” Nielsen pointed out.
The major never faltered. “It was a reasonable choice given the circumstances. I don’t agree with it, but from a tactical standpoint, it made a certain sense. What doesn’t make sense is losing the Seventh. It’s the largest standing fleet in the UMC. Without it, the League is going to be at even more of a disadvantage. Any serious attack and the Jellies or the Corrupted will be able to overrun our forces.”
“So what do you have in mind?” said Kira. “You must have an idea or we wouldn’t be talking right now.”
Tschetter nodded, and the Jelly said: [[Lphet here: You are right, Idealis. The plan is a desperate leap into the abyss, but it is all that is left to us.]]
[[Kira here: You can understand my other words?]]
She tasted nearscent of understanding. [[Lphet here: The machine that your co-form Tschetter wears translates for us.]]
The major was still speaking. “Unfortunately, the Premier’s decision to take out the Knot of Minds has ruined our original plan. At best possible speeds, the Seventh Fleet will reach Cordova-Fourteen-Twenty within the next few hours. Once it does, they’ll come under fire, and it’ll be difficult to save them. That, and finding a way to establish peace between us and the Jellies is going to be dicey. Very dicey.”
Kira looked at Falconi. “Could we send a message to the Seventh before they reach Cordova? Warn them? Tschetter, you must know a way to contact them on military channels.”
“It’s worth a shot,” Falconi said. “But—”
“Won’t work,” said Tschetter. “We don’t know where exactly the Seventh is. If Klein is smart, and he is, he won’t be bringing the fleet in on a straight shot from Earth. It would be too easy to cross paths with a Jelly ship that way.”
“Can’t you locate them with your FTL sensors?” Kira asked.
Tschetter gave her a rather unpleasant smile. “We’ve tried, but they’re not showing up. No idea why. The other Jellies certainly haven’t found them. The Knot of Minds would have heard.”
Kira remembered something Colonel Stahl had mentioned. “On Orsted Station, the officer who debriefed me mentioned that they had some way to keep the Jellies from detecting the Seventh.”
“Is that so?” said Tschetter with a thoughtful expression. “Before I was captured, I remember there were rumors coming out of the research divisions about experimental techniques for hiding a ship in FTL. It had something to do with generating short-range signals—basically white noise—that would disrupt any active scanning attempts. Maybe that’s what he meant.” She shook herself. “It doesn’t matter. The point is, we can’t find the Seventh Fleet in FTL, and once they drop back to sublight, the Jellies are going to jam the system. No signal that’s fast enough to reach the Seventh in time will be powerful enough to punch through the interference. Besides, I doubt they would listen to anything we had to say.”
Kira was starting to feel frustrated. “What are we talking about then? Are you going to fly off and fight alongside the Seventh? Is that it?”
“Not quite,” said Tschetter.
Falconi interceded with a raised hand. “Wait a moment. What was your original plan, Tschetter? I’ve never been entirely clear on it. The Jellies outrun and outgun us from here to Alpha Centauri. Why did they need us to help them off their head honchos? Seems like we would just get in the way.”
“I was getting to that,” said Tschetter. She tugged on the fingers of her skinsuit, pulling out wrinkles on the back of her hands. “The plan was—and still is, I might add—for the Knot of Minds to escort one of our ships past the Jelly defense perimeter. The Knot will say they ca
ptured the ship while raiding the League and that it has valuable intel on it. Once in, the Knot will ID the target, and we blow up their leadership for them. Simple as that.”
“Oh, just that,” scoffed Sparrow.
Vishal said, “Such an easy task. We could be done by dinner.” He laughed hollowly.
A ripple ran the length of the Jelly’s limbs. [[Lphet here: We wish your help, Idealis.… We wish your help in killing the great and mighty Ctein.]] And a mélange of sickness, pain, and panic clogged Kira’s nostrils, as if the Jelly had become physically ill.
She couldn’t conceal her shock at its words. [[Kira here: Ctein is here?]]
[[Lphet here: Indeed, Idealis. For the first time in four ripples and uncounted cycles, the huge and terrible Ctein has uprooted its many limbs so as to oversee the invasion of your planets and the crushing of the Corrupted. This is our best and only chance of toppling our ancient tyrant.]]
“Kira?” said Falconi, an edgy tone in his voice. His hand drifted closer to the grip of his blaster.
“It’s okay. Just … wait,” she said. Her mind was racing. [[Kira here: Is this why you wanted the League’s help? To kill the one and only Ctein?]]
Nearscent of affirmation. [[Lphet here: But of course, Idealis. What else might we have wanted?]]
Kira shifted her gaze to Tschetter. “Did you know about this Ctein they’re talking about?”
The major frowned. “They mentioned its name before, yes. I didn’t think it was of any particular significance.”
A disbelieving laugh burst forth from Kira’s throat. “Not of any significance.… Thule.”
Falconi gave her a glance of concern. “What’s wrong?”
“I—” Kira shook her head. Think! “Okay. Hold on.” Again, she addressed the Jelly: [[Kira here: I still do not understand. Why not kill Ctein yourselves? Your ships are better than ours, and you can swim closer to Ctein without arousing alarm. So why have you not already killed Ctein? Do you want us to be…]] She couldn’t think of the Jelly concept for blame and instead finished with, [[known for the deed?]]
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars Page 74