Shifting Infinity (ISF-Allion Book 2)

by Patty Jansen

  Melati didn’t actually see much of that, and had to depend on reports from others. She spent those days with the team in one of the dockside offices, helping to get the computer system back in working order. She and Ari led a bunch of hypertechs who would have to continue this work after they were gone. At night, they would order food from the rumak and sit around an emergency lantern on the dockside walkway.

  “It’s like camping,” Hasegawa said, but no one had ever been camping, since camping required going outside, and Majoa muttered that he said that just to boast that he had been camping. He said that he didn’t, and she said that he—

  Melati cut in. “Stop arguing.”

  Majoa nodded, but she muttered, “He’s boasting anyway.”

  “When I was little, my father used to take me with the prospecting crews. We’d go in this giant truck, and they’d have inflatable tents that they’d set up and we’d sit around a light, just like this. Just because it happened on Europa, does that mean I’m not allowed to talk about it, because, you know, everyone on Europa is rich and should shut the fuck up?” He spread his hands.

  “No one can help where they were born,” Melati said in a low voice. In the past few days, the team had already found out far too much about where she grew up. “It’s our last night as a team. Can we at least pretend to be friendly to each other?”

  Majoa snorted. The talk continued until people went to bed.

  The emergency light belonged to Hasegawa, and he was the last one to leave. Melati and Kya got up, but Melati let Kya go ahead to the office where they all slept on the floor.

  “Whatever they say, I appreciated having you on my team,” she said.

  He met her eyes in the yellowish glow of the emergency lamp. His irises were grey but looked golden. He hadn’t shaved for the past few days, but beard growth was limited to his mustache and chin.

  He lifted one corner of his mouth. “You’re not bad as a team leader, either.”

  She had other thoughts and things she wanted to say, about that silly incident with Jas, about introducing herself properly. He learned quickly. He had never called her the New Jakarta girl again. Nor had he attempted to touch her.

  She held up her hand, and he did the same. Then she slapped his hand as pilots often did. “We’ll see you when you return.”

  * * *

  The next morning, Melati went to see her family, and she found a whole bunch of hypertechs at the rumak, and Uncle was actually talking to them. Of course they were Fatima and Iman and the crowd.

  “What happened to the enforcers?”

  “They’re gone. I’m not sure I want to know.” Although the truth would come out in a very public trial of Sep Kerakis which would be held on New Hyderabad.

  “And the Allion people?” Uncle asked.

  “They tried to take over the station, failed miserably and spent ten months putting on a brave face. Most of the people we had to fight were delirious with hunger.” As she said this, it also explained the state Moshi had been in when he arrived. Those civilians they had found in the command room were probably colleagues of his.

  Grandma said, “And you got that man that everyone was looking for?”

  “Yes. Sort of.” She carried her PCD with her and would not let anyone else touch it.

  “Well,” Fatima said. “I thought it was kind of . . . cute. Here I was expecting that I’d be the first one to be married.” She glanced aside. Iman had changed the visor on the helmet so that she could see through. He smiled at her.

  “Do you think they’ll breed?” Iman asked, nodding at the pocket where she kept the PCD.

  Melati knew that he was joking, but the thought made her shudder.

  “She’s a construct. Back then they needed to take hormones before they attempted.” Nothing was said about construct mindbases, though. Nor was anything said about what it was that had infused this single Kessler construct with the intelligence and the determination to pursue her lover through computer systems for two hundred years. Hadie Kessler had already brought life to a lot of mindbases.

  Maybe it was the greatest love story ever, or the most amazing jail break. At any rate, when they got to the Felicity, she was going to put that PCD in a safe, lock it and throw away the key.

  “You will visit us again, won’t you?” Uncle said.

  “Of course.”

  “You’ll be invited to our wedding,” Fatima said.

  “If I can get away.” Melati wasn’t sure about that. The siege might be over, but it was quite likely that the production of war constructs was going to go ahead anyway. She’d looked forward to looking after the Browns. They were different from Grimshaws. For one, there were usually a lot more girls.

  “Bring someone when you come,” Fatima said. “If you have someone in your life.”

  “I’ll bring Moshi, but don’t dare think that there is anything going on between us.” What would happen to him was far from clear.

  “Why not? He’s nice and very reliable. He deserves someone.”

  “I’m just not interested.”

  “In him?”

  “In anyone. I’m done with all that nonsense. Trying to find a husband, trying to beat off interested guys. I’ve had enough,” and as she said this, Melati realised how much this was true. “The military suits me fine. I like the lab, because it’s a place where I and the work I deliver count more than the fact that I’m not married, or the fact that I’m small and brown.”

  “But you’ll be lonely.”

  “I’ll be just fine.” There was Ari, Jas, Karmee, and even Sengkia. She doubted she’d seen the last of Joshaya either. If any of them got rotated out, there would be other people with different histories that she could learn from.

  * * *

  When Melati came back to the Felicity and walked out of the lift from the hall to the habitat, a whole bunch of people were waiting there. She was wondering why they’d needed to go to the hall—the pilot had said there wouldn’t be another shuttle leaving until the next day, but they all started cheering as soon as she came out.

  “Here is our hero!” That was Dr Chee.

  Everyone clapped. There was Sengkia, Karmee and the others.

  She protested. “Everyone helped. It wasn’t just me,” But they wouldn’t be deterred.

  All of her boys were there, including Jas—who had gone back to the ship soon after they had taken control of the station. He held his arms around Esse and Shan’s shoulders. It seemed like those two had each grown a hand’s width since she’d been away.

  They held a dinner, where rather more than the allowable quantity of alcohol was consumed, and Dolchova said that for once she would turn a blind eye, as long as they weren’t being noisy in the corridors.

  Moshi was also there, dressed in unmarked grey clothing.

  From Karmee, Melati learned that the fragments had indeed almost taken over the ship, and that they had to pull out of the chase of the two Allion ships because of that reason. Melati could imagine Dolchova’s face when she heard that.

  * * *

  In the next few weeks, Melati helped organise a caretaker council for the station. ISF sent habitat engineers and they helped restabilise the atmosphere.

  Melati went back a few times, once on a ship that contained seeds, punnets of plants and six dozen chickens.

  Who was going to run the station? The question soon turned to: who had the experience?

  The Taurus Army had already said that this incident terminated the agreement they had with New Jakarta, and they refused to come back.

  The station was officially public infrastructure. It did not belong to anyone and could not be sold. Anyone could run it.

  A couple of people came together when it became clear that the station’s short-term problems were over and they needed to start planning to return the mining plants to production.

  The mood in the station was: “We know how to do the mining. We don’t need any enforcers to tell us.”

  They would sti
ll have to hire people to fly the shunts and operate the machines. No, they would have to hire people to teach them how to fly and operate the machines. Were there any Hasegawas in the system who could teach them?

  Uncle was elected as commercial manager of the station. He asked Melati to come back. “You’d be excellent as director.”

  “I’m sorry, Uncle, but my place is with the big ships now.”

  He looked sad, but said he understood.

  Many of the New Pyongyang refugees wanted to stay. They decided that the rumaks were going to move to better premises than before in the BC block and the dockside, because New Jakarta was going to have the best food and best guesthouses anywhere in the system.

  Negotiating with the hypertechs was harder. Most of that happened in the den in the prayer room. Melati and Kya managed to negotiate that any hypertechs on the council would have to uncover their eyes in meetings.

  It was exhausting but satisfying. Everyone was watching with interest, everyone had an opinion. This was the first time that the worker population was taking over the running of the station. New Jakarta would be independent.

  * * *

  A few weeks later, back aboard the Felicity, Melati was working in the lab when a message chime went off. She checked the messages and read, All staff are requested to attend a general announcement in the mess hall. Signed by Dolchova.

  This was it. Plans for the Felicity’s rumoured planned departure from the system. Melati had already made the decision that she’d go with the ship, but this was final. She might never see her place of birth again.

  She followed the stream of crew, both Fleet and Force, to the canteen, where everyone crammed together to get as many people in the too-small space as possible.

  Dolchova started with the announcement that they had all expected: the Felicity was to move to the edge of the system to monitor traffic and communication from other systems. She didn’t say so, but she meant Tau Ceti. On the way, the ship was to put in at New Hyderabad and dump most of the remaining Force crew, who would concentrate on re-establishing a base at New Jakarta. She didn’t say dump—the term was allow to disembark—but it was the same thing. Melati was getting ready to protest about being separated from the rest of her CAU team, when Dolchova said there were a few other announcements from Cocaro, and that they would take questions after.

  Cocaro came to the front of the room. She had to step over legs from people who were sitting on the floor. She looked around the room and nodded in a few directions while remaining silent. It was awkward.

  Then she spoke. “The past ten months have not been easy for Force personnel and anyone who worked under our directions. You have been my inspiration and my reason to carry on. Every single one of you.”

  It was silent in the hall. Displays of emotion were rare enough in the force that they carried enough impact for people to notice. “We have won the right to restore the base, and will rebuild as soon as we can. Personnel is already in training to do this. What I’m going to say today is not about this. First of all, you are aware that I will be leaving for Sarajevo soon. I’m sure there has been much speculation about this.”

  There was some murmuring amongst the audience. There had indeed been some speculation, that she was to be relieved of her task after letting the New Jakarta situation get away from her too quickly.

  “It is called a ‘Service Visit’, something higher ranking staff are subjected to regularly. There will be an inquiry about the taking of the New Jakarta base by Allion, but all of that will be done remotely and will not require my presence. There is, however, one item that will require my presence.”

  Everyone was listening now.

  “Last year, after we successfully escaped New Jakarta, the annual award nominations were due. The command thought that it was appropriate to nominate one of our staff for the Vauxhall medal.”

  God. Melati felt sick.

  The level of murmur increased.

  “The application was rejected, but in the light of recent events, we asked Sarajevo to reconsider. This morning I received this letter.” She pulled out a PCD and activated the screen.

  Cocaro read. “It is my pleasure to announce that the Vauxhall Medal for exceptional bravery outside the area of duty will be awarded to . . .”

  People looked around the hall to see who this person was. Melati’s heart was thudding.

  “. . . Lieutenant Melati Hermann Rudiyanto.”

  The whole audience in the mess hall broke out in cheers, even the people around her, most of whom were flight personnel.

  “Lieutenant Rudiyanto, please come to the front to receive your temporary token.”

  As in a dream, Melati walked among the crew, who made a path for her, all of them cheering. Hasegawa was clapping. Dr Chee cheered. Ariwas yelling her name at the top of his voice and a few of his flight tech friends copied him.

  All Melati could think about was how Grandma would tut-tut and tell him to behave in more seemingly fashion. But she would be just a little bit proud of her, wouldn’t she? Likely not. Grandma didn’t care about ISF or any kind of armed forces. Uncle would be the same. But then would Ibu and Pak have cared if they were still alive, even if just a very little bit?

  It didn’t really matter. This was hers and being with ISF was her decision.

  She reached the front of the room, where Cocaro shook her hand with a disturbingly sincere expression on her face. She showed Melati a pin with the famous Vauxhall V symbol and proceeded to attach it to the chest of her jacket above the sorry row of patches that Melati had collected during her years of service.

  She handed Melati a foil bag that contained extra ribbons and patches for her other uniforms, and then stepped back and saluted.

  It was all very weird.

  “You make me proud.” Did Melati imagine it or did her eyes glitter?

  Cocaro addressed the crew again. “Lieutenant Rudiyanto will accompany me to Sarajevo for the official ceremony.”

  Melati could hardly believe it.

  Sarajevo. Earth?

  She was just a little brown barang-barang girl.

  Then two other thoughts: Mecca. And Indonesia.

  * * *

  Things went a bit crazy after that. It took a few days before people stopped clapping her on the shoulder and congratulating her.

  Melati sat in the mess at lunch, when someone put a tray opposite her and sat down.

  Joshaya Hasegawa. He had congratulated her before so he wasn’t here for that reason. Indeed he dug in the inside pocket of his jacket and placed an insignia on the table in front of her. Melati knew a few of the pilot decorations, but this wasn’t one she knew. But it was obviously something big for him. “Congratulations.”

  “You have no idea what it means, do you?”

  “To be honest, no. But that’s my fault. I will look it up. I haven’t seen that one before.”

  “That’s because there are not many people who wear it. It’s for a big bird assignment. I get to be a co-pilot on the Interstitial.”

  She frowned. “But that is . . .”

  “That’s the interstellar bird that you will be taking to Earth. During the trip, your life is going to be in my hands.”

  “How many co-pilots do these ships have again? Six or seven? You have a very high opinion of yourself, Lieutenant First Class Hasegawa.”

  “Yup.” He smiled. “You’ll get to call me Captain.”

  Melati had always thought that he was serious when he said things like this, but now she understood that he was just a bit of a joker.

  “I’ll have a three year round trip out of it and it includes a full year of Earth leave while you do your touring and boring visits.”

  “It’s not boring.”

  “Ha. While you visit Sarajevo, I get to lie on the beach.”

  “I’m going to appreciate everything about the visit.”

  “Even the stuffy generals?”

  “Even them. I’ve never been to Earth.”

 
“Nope. Me neither. I like the sound of this ‘beach’ much better.”

  They both laughed.

  Melati had heard about this thing called a beach. She should tell him that there were a lot of beaches in Indonesia with things like palms and coconuts and crabs and that these were things you could eat and some were things you needed to catch first and that if he wanted, he could visit those beaches with her.

  But she wasn’t going to ask him now. He’d be insufferable with the boasting.

  She could already hear him carry on to his pilot mates, I got a date to the beach with the bravest lass in the Fleet.

  And it wasn’t a date in the usual date kind of way. It was just that he made her laugh and was a decent man, and he understood the way she lived and how on Earth certain things might freak her out. She had a year to ask him. During the long and boring trip out there, she might still change her mind.

  Or she might not.

  A Word of Thanks

  THANK YOU very much for reading Shifting Infinity.

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