by James Palmer
Admiral Sheldon arched an eyebrow. “What in the worlds are you doing there? You’re supposed to be halfway to Zephyr by now.”
“Yes, well, we were investigating why the colony there had stopped transmitting.”
“We’re well aware of that, Hank. Another one’s gone missing, hasn’t it?”
Kuttner stared at her image. “What do you mean, another one?”
Sheldon sighed, adjusted her crisp white and gold uniform front. “What I’m about to tell you doesn’t live your ready room.”
Kuttner nodded. “All right.”
“There have been several colonies along the fringe that have just up and vanished. Orbital stations too, mostly corporate mining concerns.”
“Why doesn’t anyone else know about this?” asked Kuttner.
“The Fleet doesn’t want to start a panic,” she said. “Special Operations is aware of the situation and has launched a full investigation. As for you and your ship, you have an appointment you’re late for.”
“I’m afraid it’s not as simple as that,” said Kuttner.
“Why not?”
“There’s been an altercation with the Draconi,” he said. “When we arrived at Verdant, one of their ships was also parked in orbit around the other side of the planet relative to our position. They accused us of not only destroying the Verdant colony, but several of their colonies as well. They opened fire. We had to defend ourselves.”
Admiral Sheldon slumped in her seat, crestfallen. “Casualties?”
“A few minor injuries on our side, some damage to the ship. But the Draconi vessel was completely destroyed.”
Admiral Sheldon cupped her face in her hands for a moment before looking at Kuttner. “All right,” she said. “Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to proceed to Zephyr as originally ordered. You’re going to retire. You’re going to go somewhere sunny and get tan, and you’re going to forget all about this.”
“That’s it?” said Kuttner.
“You want to be court martialed?” Admiral Sheldon asked, her dark eyes wide. “Let Fleet handle it. We believe the Draconi are behind this. And their presence at the Verdant disappearance confirms it.”
“I want to help,” said Kuttner.
Admiral Sheldon smiled then, but it was a placating smile. “Come on, Hank. You’ve done your duty for king and country. Let us get those cold-blooded bastards for you.”
“I just think—” Kuttner began, but the Admiral cut him off.
“I don’t need you to think, soldier,” she said, forcefully. “I need you to do. Now get your ass to Zephyr before you get in any more trouble.”
Before Kuttner could offer further protest, Admiral Sheldon cut the connection. He was left alone in his ready room.
Chapter Six
Hostiles
Bushes thrashed at his face, roots snagged his boots, but still Commander Hamilton ran. He saw the flick of a green-black tail as the Draconi moved deeper into the jungle. Hamilton ran after it, hands held in front of his face to keep jungle branches from slapping into him, until he emerged in a small clearing. He looked around, panting. The jungle was eerily quiet.
A heavy form exploded from the trees that ringed the clearing, landing atop Hamilton. He tried to reach for his gun, but a taloned foot had his hand pinned to the wet earth. His eyes took in his attacker. A Draconi, female was straddling him, holding a short, curved blade at his throat. He took in her uniform, noting that it was not the garb of a solider.
“I don’t like having pointy things shoved in my face,” he said.
The Draconi gave him a predatory sneer, licking her sharp teeth with her thin tongue. Hamilton noticed an area on the left side of her head that looked as if it had been scoured by something abrasive.
“You speak Standard?” said Hamilton.
The Draconi cocked her head to one side, as if she were either considering his question or wondering which part of him was the most delicious.
Hamilton heard the heavy thrash of the marines as they ran toward his location.
“They’ll be here soon,” said Hamilton. “And they’ll shoot first, then ask questions. I’d like to do things the other way around.”
The Draconi’s head shot up and forward, nose sniffing the jungle. It looked back down at him a final time before easing off of him.
Hamilton climbed to his feet. “Thank you,” he said, coughing.
Dutton and his marines erupted from the jungle just a few feet away, weapons raised. “Move out of the way, Commander,” said Dutton. “And we’ll light this bastard up.”
“Not gonna happen, Sergeant,” said Hamilton, raising his arms as if in surrender, his eyes still on the Draconi. “We need answers.”
“But sir—”
“Stand down, Sergeant,” Hamilton said evenly. “That’s an order.”
“Sir, I really—”
“Do it!” Hamilton commanded, and the big marine finally acquiesced, him and his men lowering their weapons.
“That’s right,” said Hamilton to the Draconi. “You’re among friends here. The war’s over. We just want some answers. Do you speak standard?”
The Draconi stared at him for several tense minutes before replying. “Yes, human” she said.
Hamilton smiled. That was something at least. “Good. Listen. We just want to find out what happened to our colony.” He took a step back, careful to keep his body in between the Dragon and the marines’ line of fire.
“I’m Lieutenant Noah Hamilton of the LS Onslaught. “What’s your name?”
“I am Drizda,” she said.
Hamilton gave her a wan smile. “Nice to meet you. You’re not infantry, are you?”
“No. I am scientist caste.”
Hamilton nodded. He assumed as much from the markings on her uniform. During the war, much of his time with Special Operations had been studying Draconi culture, as much of it as they could glean from their hostile encounters with the species.
“I wish to communicate with my vessel,” Drizda said.
Hamilton frowned. “I’m afraid that’s not possible. Your ship engaged us in battle, and we had no choice but to destroy it.”
Her reptilian eyes widened. “Lies!”
“I’m afraid not,” said Hamilton. “Try to communicate with them. You’ll see.”
Drizda touched the cuff of her uniform and spoke something guttural, unintelligible. It was more like an animal growl than speech.
“Nothing,” she said, hanging her head. “I am the last.”
“Your face,” said Hamilton, pointing toward the area on the left side of her head. “What happened?”
She touched it, then pulled her four-fingered hand away quickly, as if it burned. “I am clanless,” she said. “Cast out.”
Hamilton said nothing, hoping she would elaborate, but she didn’t.
“Why are you here?” he said.
“Some of our colonies have been attacked, like this one.” She extended a hand in the direction of the crater. “We tracked a strange energy signature to this system and found the devastation here. I was sent down to investigate, along with those soldiers.” She pointed to her left, toward the dense jungle where the bodies of her compatriots lay.
Drizda sniffed quickly, then clicked her teeth together. “They cast me out, and now I am the only one left.” Her teeth clacked together a few more times. Hamilton recognized this as the Draconi version of laughter. Apparently Drizda had a profound sense of irony.
“We came to investigate because this colony stopped transmitting. Your friends aboard the Claw didn’t believe us.”
Drizda nodded. “You would not have attacked your own colony,” she said.
“No. Of course not. But we didn’t attack your colonies either. You have to believe me.”
“I believe you, human. This technology goes far beyond what either of our races possess.”
Hamilton nodded. That knowledge was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it let both of their races off t
he hook. On the other, it implicated a far more powerful enemy.
“You’re welcome to return to our ship with us,” said Hamilton. “Perhaps you can help us figure out who or what did this.”
“As your prisoner?” she asked cautiously.
“No, no,” said Hamilton, waving his hands. “As our, um, guest. A scientific adviser, if you will. When this is over, I’ll make sure you are delivered safely back to your people.”
“I have no people,” said Drizda sadly. “I am clanless, remember?”
“You know what I mean,” said Hamilton.
Her tongue flicked twice from her mouth, almost too fast to be noticed. “What choice do I have, mammal? I will go with you and help you.”
“Help us,” Hamilton corrected.
“Help us,” she repeated.
“Sir,” said Dutton. “I must advise against this.”
“I appreciate your input, Sergeant,” said Hamilton. “Please see our guest to the shuttle.”
“First I demand she be disarmed,” said Dutton.
Hamilton nodded at the big marine. To Drizda he said, “Please turn over any weapons.”
Drizda nodded, handed Brannon her knife. She carried no sidearm, as was fitting for her role as a Draconi scientist.
“All right,” said Hamilton. “Let’s shove off.”
Chapter Seven
Unexpected Guest
“I hope you’ve got a good explanation for this, Commander,” said Captain Kuttner as he watched his first officer enter the Onslaught’s ready room with a female dragon in tow, flanked by marines Dutton and Ellison.
“I do, sir,” said Hamilton. His uniform was sweat-stained and covered in minute green splotches. The marines too looked ever the worse for wear.
“You guys look like hell,” said Kuttner. “All right. Give it to me.”
Hamilton gave a full sit rep, including everything they had learned from their brief survey of what little was left of the colony. Drizda sat quietly at the other end of the meeting table, her taloned hands folded in front of her, while Dutton and Ellison hovered at either side of her like heavily armed bookends.
“You think she’s telling the truth?” Kuttner whispered.
“I do, Captain.”
“What’s wrong with her face?”
Hamilton glanced at her self-consciously before answering. “Her clan sigil has been removed. She is for all intents and purposes without family.”
“Think she could be loyal to us?”
“I am a scientist,” said Drizda across the table. “I am loyal to the truth.”
Hamilton nodded to her, hoping she would take that as an apology. “She does not believe we destroyed their colonies, sir. I don’t know if that’s choosing a side, but I’ll take it.”
“Who do you think did this?” Hamilton asked Drizda.
Drizda shook her head slowly. “I do not have enough data to say,” she said. “It would help if I could study the damage to one of your colonies more closely. Perhaps I could at least work out their methods. Maybe even determine where they would strike next.”
Captain Kuttner frowned. “All right. Because right now, our two peoples are pointing the finger at each other.”
“I know,” said Drizda.
“What do you need from me?”
“A computer terminal,” she said. “Access to any and all investigative research your people have acquired.”
Kuttner nodded. “You’ll have it. This is a warship, so our scientific capabilities aren’t much, but you’re welcome to them.”
“Sir,” said Dutton, gritting his teeth. “I must respectfully disagree. This is an enemy combatant. Her colleagues tried to kill us.”
“Your objection is duly noted, Sergeant,” said Kuttner. “But this is no enemy combatant. Our races are at peace. And I aim to make sure they stay that way.”
“But, sir!”
“That’s enough, Dutton,” Kuttner commanded. “Now put those slug-throwers away and stand down until you’re needed.”
Dutton slowly lowered his weapon, which had been subtly trained on Drizda’s head since she sat down, then glanced at Ellison, who did the same. They left the ready room without another word.
“That could have been awkward,” said Hamilton.
Kuttner turned in his chair toward him. “Dutton isn’t wrong to be concerned. I’m putting this one all on you, Hamilton. From now until Drizda leaves this ship, she’s your responsibility.”
“Yes, sir,” said Hamilton. “But there is also the slight matter of our orders. We’re to proceed to Zephyr.”
“I know damn well what our orders are, Commander. I’m ignoring them. At least for now. This old war dog isn’t ready to be put out to pasture just yet. Besides, I think the fact that you’ve brought a member of the Draconi onto our ship changes things a bit.”
“What are we going to do?” Hamilton asked.
“Give her whatever she needs. I want to know what the hell is going on out there, and why the Navy would rather mothball us than let us help stave off another war.”
“Sir?”
Kuttner told Hamilton the details of his conference with Admiral Sheldon, and about the other colonies that had been attacked. Then he stood with a groan. “We need to know where they’ll strike next.”
“I may have a way,” said Hamilton. “Well, it won’t tell us who will be hit before it happens, but we can know immediately after.”
“How so?”
Hamilton gave a sly grin. “After we returned to the ship, I took the liberty of asking Lt. Brackett to monitor the black channels.”
“You what?”
“I used to be Special Operations, remember? I know the codes they use to encrypt messages. As soon as Fleet knows another colony has been attacked, so will we.”
Kuttner smiled and clapped his first officer on the shoulder. “That’s my boy. But if anyone finds out, I didn’t know about it.” He gave a sly wink.
“Mum’s the word, Captain.”
Kuttner exited the room. Hamilton rose from his seat and looked at Drizda. “Let’s go get you set up.”
The Dragon nodded once, and the two of them left the ready room together. As they started up the passageway, Hamilton’s cochlear implant chimed. “Yes?” he said.
“It’s Lt. Brackett,” said a familiar female voice. “You wanted to know when I heard something on the black channels.”
“Yes,” said Hamilton. “What is it?”
“A remote space relay lost contact with the Severus colony nineteen hours and forty-seven standard minutes ago,” she said.
“Tell the Captain,” Hamilton commanded. “I’ll be up there as soon as I can.”
“He’s already been informed,” said the communications officer. “Course laid in for the nearest Q-gate.”
“Good. Hamilton out.”
To Drizda he said, “Next stop, the Severus system.”
Chapter 8
The Swarm
“We’re approaching the Q-gate.”
Hamilton sat in the command chair, his eyes studying the main viewer intently. He always ordered a visual whenever they were entering a Q-gate on his watch. He never got tired of looking at them.
The Q-gates had been left behind by a highly advanced, yet long-dead race known only as the Progenitors. Impossibly large, and always located in the L1 Lagrange point of a main sequence star, the Q-gates had allowed mankind to see and explore much more of the galaxy than they would have otherwise. By passing through one of the giant diamond-shaped structures, they could move instantaneously from one remote region of space to another, crossing thousands of light years in an eye blink.
Appearing as little more than a vague spec against the brightness of the star they were nearing, the Q-gate grew steadily larger. It was composed of some dull gray metal. Early metallurgical analysis had determined it was some type of fullerene alloy, but their best scientists were no closer to figuring out how to make it themselves than they were when the gates were
first discovered more than one hundred standard years ago. They floated silent, implacable. A monument to the mysterious race that had created them.
The gate loomed large in the viewer now, and Hamilton studied it as he had dozens of times before. It was free of any external lighting or ornamentation. It was only by accident that a science vessel attempted to communicate with it and figured out how to activate it.
“We’re in communications range,” said Brackett. “I’m sending the tones now.”
Hamilton knew the five musical notes that would wake up the gate by heart, and he silently hummed them as they grew close enough that they could no longer see the giant diamond of the gate, only the empty space in between, which shimmered and distorted like ripples in a pond as the gate received the tones.
“Sending out-gate tones,” said Brackett as she transmitted the tones for the gate the wanted to come out of, in the Severus system.
The space before them shimmered even more, until it was replaced by a different arrangement of stars and planets. They were in one solar system and staring into another separated from them by more than fifty-seven light years.
“Connection established,” said Hudson.
“Enter the gate,” commanded Hamilton. “Notify the Captain that we’re entering the Severus system.”
The transit was over in less than two minutes. When they were done they had passed through a second gate connected to the first via some form of quantum entanglement.
“Pulsar navigation confirmed,” said Hudson. “We’re in the Severus system.”
“Picking up a lot of tightbeam chatter,” said Brackett, her slender fingers flying over her communications console.
“Source?” asked Hamilton.
“In orbit around Severus,” she said.
“There must be a ship here investigating what happened. They sure got here fast.”
“Maybe too fast,” said Gunner Cade. “They’re under attack.”
“What?” said Hamilton. “On screen.”
“We’re still too far away for a good visual,” said Hudson.
“Get us down there then, full speed. Get me visual as soon as we’re within range. Brackett, what ship is that?”