Endless Blue-ARC

by Wen Spencer

  Turk grunted. "If Hardin doesn't know that the seraphim are nefrims then he's only seeing Ethan's work as a way back home."

  Mikhail nodded. "But it worries me that Hardin lied to me when I told him what our mission was and asked him what he knew about Fenrir's engine."

  "He paid for everything," Turk growled lowly and started to pace. "He had to know what was going on."

  "Exactly," Mikhail said.

  "Why would he lie?" Tseytlin asked. "We have a spaceship with minor damage and intact warp engines. You'd have to be blind not to know how rare that is here."

  "Because we're Russians," Inozemtsev said.

  If it had been Mikhail in Hardin's place, he would have joined forces with an old classmate. Was Inozemtsev right? Had Hardin lied because the Svoboda wasn't a United Colony ship? No. Mikhail had stated that their orders originated from the U.C. High Command. Inozemtsev stirred restlessly, reminding Mikhail that his crew was waiting on him.

  "Hardin's motivation will have to remain unknown," Mikhail made a note to go back and consider it. "We have to consider him 'hostile,' but I don't think he's working with the seraphim. If he and Ethan Bailey were both working with the seraphim, Ethan wouldn't be encrypting his work. Since Ethan is the one that started the work with the express purpose of communicating with them, let's assume he's the nefrim collaborator."

  "Hardin funded the work," Mikhail returned to the chain of events. "But he wasn't there when the Lilianna arrived with Eraphie onboard."

  "Assuming she didn't lie to you." Turk growled.

  Mikhail couldn't see any benefit for Eraphie to hide a connection to Hardin, but Turk was right, he had to stay skeptical of everyone and everything, least he blind himself. He had to make some assumption, though, to follow threads of thought. "If what the Baileys are telling us is true, Ethan needed two ships to do salvage on a seraphim ship. He arranged for the people he trusted most, his family, to meet him at Fenrir's Rock instead of working with Hardin. I don't think its coincidence that the Lilianna arrived while Hardin was elsewhere. If things had gone the way Ethan wanted, his family would have been on their way long before Hardin returned."

  "Do you suppose the navigation system on the nefrim ship is intact?" Tseytlin suddenly asked.

  They all stared at Tseytlin dumbfounded. In fifty years of war, they'd never been able to capture a nefrim ship with its navigation system intact. Unlike human ships, the nefrim engines didn't record jumps. They had never been able to tell where the nefrims were jump from. The coordinates of the nefrim home worlds were still unknown.

  "They couldn't have the self-destruct alarmed while jumping," Tseytlin said. "We've ascertained that weakness in their self-destruct mechanism. If they jumped in here like we did, no enemies in sight, there's no reason to arm it, and then—bang—they could have bought it just like us."

  "Oh Christ, if its is . . ." Kutozov gasped out what they were all thinking.

  "Motherload!" Inozemtsev murmured.

  "I think finding the nefrim ship just moved to the top of our priorities," Mikhail said.

  "I think, sir, that these might be map coordinates and dates." Moldavsky pointed to symbols on the encrypted notes. "These symbols here are minotaur numbers." When Mikhail looked surprised that she knew, she added. "Becky was teaching the minotaur children hopscotch in the hanger. They marked the grid in chalk and used minotaur numbers. They use hexadecimal instead of base ten. So this set of symbols are two numbers separated by a non-number character. They could represent longitude and latitude. And here, in the corner, someone has translated this other set of symbols into a human date YYST."

  One of the first things that was explained to them once the Rosetta crew started working with them was "Yamoto-Yamaguchi Standard Time." All spaceships kept Earth Greenwich time. But with the odd time dilation, each newly-arrived ship soon discovered that their clocks and calendars matched no other version in the Sargasso. Apparently the close as the human landings had ever come to war was over time standardization. In the end, they settled on adopting Ya-ya's clock and calendar. The Svoboda was still trying to determine what the dilation would mean in regards to their return.

  "Eraphie said that the seraphim ship was in minotaur waters," Mikhail said. "This might be a listing of wrecks that the minotaurs know about. One of them might be the ship we want."

  Moldavsky made a sound of disgust as she flipped the paper over. "There's dozens."

  Mikhail nodded. He nearly asked Turk to check to see if Ethan had given the Rosetta the location of the salvage, but then just made a note to ask himself. What would be ideal was tracking down Ethan and trying to pry the truth out of him. Eraphie said he went to Mary's Landing. Mikhail paused, considering. "If Ethan had a workshop here in Ya-ya, and both the Rosetta and Red Gold are on their way to Fenrir's Rock, why would Ethan go to Mary's Landing?"

  "It doesn't make sense," Turk agreed. "The Baileys hate Mary's Landing. When we were out in the middle of nowhere with a failing engine, Paige refused to even consider going there, even though Mary's Landing was closer."

  "Eraphie couldn't believe Ethan decided to go," Mikhail said. Eraphie had said that Mary's Landing made up debts to enslave anyone with adapted genes. Hardin claimed that almost everyone out of Georgetown fell into that category. As a newcomer, though, Hardin had nothing to fear from Mary's Landing. "I wonder if Ethan had a choice. Hardin was fronting a lot of money for the project. What if Mary's Landing was Hardin's silent partner? Hardin kept it secret because the Baileys wouldn't work with Mary's Landing. Everything went smoothly and the project was nearly at a successful end."

  Turk understood where he was going with the logic. "Mary's people go to check on the engine and a fight breaks out as Ethan realizes who is paying for the work. Somehow during the fight, the engine gets activated and warps out ahead of schedule."

  "Yes. Wait. No." Mikhail frowned. Something wasn't meshing. "It . . ..It couldn't have been Ethan that started the fight. He was outside the blast zone."

  "That blows a very good theory." Tseytlin complained.

  "Maybe," Mikhail thought a moment. "What if it was a Bailey but not Ethan? The Lilianna arrived just hours before the engine warped out. What if they're the ones that started the fight?"

  Turk nodded. "They go looking for Ethan to tell him that they've arrived, they end up on the engine while he's not there, and discover who is funding the project."

  Mikhail made a note that he would have to show Captain Bailey a picture of the dead Red to see if she could identify him. "Afterwards, Mary's Landing has leverage on Ethan to force him to go with them. Eraphie said that he had a minotaur and obnaoian with him, so some of his technical team survived."

  "So we go to Mary's Landing and use our orders from the United Colonies to force them to turn Ethan Bailey and his team over to us?" Kutuzov said.

  His crew was ready to fight someone, anyone. He could see the eagerness on their face to grapple with something other than the laws of physics, bare elements, language differences, and inscrutable but peaceful aliens.

  "Mary's Landing is pre-United Colonies." Mikhail hurried to put a damper on that. "As such, it has no reason to cooperate. At the moment, it's a virtual unknown. Both Ethan and Hardin are operating covertly. Ya-ya and Fenrir authorities and most of the civilians were totally unaware of Hardin's activities. We have no justification for treating the entire landing as hostile—yet. We need to gather information and perhaps do a reconnaissance before attempting anything."

  They nodded, obedient but a little disappointed.

  "Hardin said he was coming to Ya-ya after he left Fenrir's Rock. We need to find out where he is. It's possible that he went to Mary's Landing instead and retrieved Ethan Bailey." Mikhail wanted to talk to Hardin before they escalated to armed confrontation. "Tseytlin, see if you can recreate that translation machine. Worse case scenario, we ask the seraphim ourselves what they want. Moldavsky, translate out those coordinates. Amurova, run every test you can think on the minotaur childr
en. We'll be leaving them here when we leave, so I want to gather as much information as I can before we go. Turk, see if you can figure out some type of weapon that might work on our unwanted guests."

  Tseytlin held up a finger. "I have a few ideas on that line."

  Mikhail indicated that Tseytlin should pair up with Turk. "Kutuzov, you have command of the ship, I'm going to talk with Captain Bailey. Keep on top of the repairs. I want us in fighting shape and ready to leave as quickly as possible."

  * * *

  Paige's fight with Turk had her family all spooked. True to his word, though, Mikhail had sent Rabbit to her, complete with his gear, which he didn't have to do. The combat suit alone was worth hundreds of yen. Whatever Turk might feel or not feel, Mikhail was obviously interested in maintaining a relationship with the Rosetta.

  Rabbit was truly a dear thing. Once she managed to convince him that she wasn't angry with him for shooting at her, he relaxed and focused on fitting in. He was very good at it, better than Turk, and didn't even trigger Mitch into displays of dominance. The only thing was that with two sets of teenage lovers onboard there was no way she could ignore that she was all alone. That stupid idiot.

  The very worst of it was knowing Turk had taken all the abuse that the cat fancier had dished out to him but had lashed out at her and her family. For whatever reason he could withstand abuse but he couldn't extend common courtesy to the people that rescued him, protected him, loved him . . .

  Paige blinked at burning in her eyes, determined not to cry over the lout.

  The Rosetta had a new engine. They were nearly done with all their repairs. And they had money left over for supplies. The Svoboda was also nearly completely repaired and knew where to find other translators. Paige was tempted to bolt from Ya-ya and save herself the pain of having to deal with Turk again.

  As if summoned by her thoughts of him, Mikhail hailed her from the dock.

  "Permission to come aboard?" Mikhail didn't even have a guard with him. Then again, the Svoboda was close enough to spit on.

  "Come on up, Misha," she used his nickname to show that she wasn't mad at him.

  He came up onto the deck and watched as they passed materials down through the halls for finishing up the crew quarters. "This is the last of your repairs?"

  Paige nodded, not sure what to talk to him about. She would not ask how Turk was.

  "I was hoping that Ethan might have given you a location for the ship he wanted you to salvage."

  "No. He said he'd talk details when we got to Fenrir's Rock. Radios are not the most private way to talk. Discussing a find means that anyone listening in could decide to beat you to the claim. A hundred thousand miles is a long way to go to find out someone stole the salvage out from under your nose."

  Mikhail nodded, his disappointment showing on his face.

  "Why do you ask?" she asked.

  "The seraphim are the bodhisattvas of the nefrim. Eraphie said Ethan told the Lilianna that it was a seraphim ship they were going to salvage."

  Paige studied him hard. He was telling her the truth. He wasn't sure if he should trust her completely, but he needed her. And what's more, he wanted to trust her. She nodded. "I talked to Ethan a couple times before my radio died. We went over general details like how deep down the ship was, what equipment we would need—those kind of things. He wanted to know if I'd ever dealt with a bull of a certain Holt. I hadn't. I figured that the Holt was close to the salvage but I didn't want to ask on the open air. I asked if we were going to be trading with him, and Ethan said that we were and I should do homework on him."

  "If the Svoboda went to see why the seraphim wanted this nefrim ship salvage, will we need to interact with the minotaur?"

  Paige groaned and covered her eyes with her hands. She should have bolted.

  "We will." Mikhail guessed from her reaction. "You don't really want to come with us."

  She sighed and ran her hands through her hair. "Misha, Misha, Misha. You're going to need my whole fucking ship. You don't have the equipment and know how to salvage a spaceship out of several hundred feet of water. Hell, do any of your people even know how to swim?"

  He shrugged. "I—really don't know. I can. Turk can." But he didn't offer up anyone else.

  She so didn't want to say yes, but it was hard, knowing that Mikhail was doing this for no other reason than to fight the nefrims. "Let me think about it."

  "We also need to find Hardin's ship, the Red Gold. He might be here in Ya-ya, or he might have gone to Mary's Landing to get Ethan."

  * * *

  It was fairly easy to cross-check the harbor authority logs with the local gossip to find out that the Red Gold hadn't been in Ya-ya for weeks. She radioed Mary's Landing, and asked them to connect her with Ethan or Eraphie. It was fairly standard practice and shouldn't have raised a commotion. The cagey answers she got, along with crude attempts to pry information out of her, suggested that Mary's Landing was lying.

  It would take time to find someone in Ya-ya who might be able to connect her with an reliable source at Mary's Landing. Until then, it was a rare clear day in Ya-ya, so she took Mikhail, a young female ensign, and a guard—a Red by the name of Coffee—to the top of Yamaguchi.

  "There is something intrinsically wrong about climbing around on the outside of a spaceship without a spacesuit on," the ensign complained as they scaled up the outside of the Yamaguchi via ladders.

  "If it makes you feel better, we can go back and get you a spacesuit." Mikhail's eyes showed that he was teasing. Paige covered her mouth to keep from laughing as the ensign already seemed annoyed.

  The top ridge of the Yamaguchi was the highest point for a hundred thousand miles. As Paige hoped, the view was clear all the way to Mary's Landing, thousands of miles down the axis, and a few hundred in the direction of the spin. There was a large storm front sweeping in from the Counterspin. It extended down the negative for hundreds of miles, but most likely it would miss Mary's Landing. The ensign had a day to study Mary's Landing until the top of Yamaguchi became unsafe.

  As usual, the sight of Queen Mary IV mesmerized the newcomers. The cruise liner was built to impress and it was sad to know that, three generations after it vanished, it was still the largest, most stunning ship ever created by man. Especially since it was inhabited by people with a very civ outlook at life.

  If Mary's Landing was Hardin's backer, then Ethan had done more than just destroyed Fenrir's Rock when he sent back the engine. He'd started a cascade of events. Mikhail's arrival was just one of many reactions. Hardin and Mary's Landing now knew it was possible to travel back to normal space. The United Colonies knew there was a place of mystery. And they had the engine. Even if Mikhail never returned, and Ethan refused to cooperate further with Mary's Landing, the pressures of the Nefrim War would still cause the United Colonies to send more ships, only next time they might have modifications made to the engines.

  The door was open. There was no shutting it.

  The question now was what would be the best future for her family, and everyone that had adapted blood? If Mary's Landing gained control of that door, and managed to keep control of policies set, then adapted and their offspring would stay things to be owned. New Washington was only slightly better, as they might see offsprings as free born people. Under Viktor, the Novaya Rus Empire had already banned the production of Blues as immoral. Turk was proof that Reds could be considered free. And Mikhail, as the next Tsar, had offered protection.

  Clearly, it was in her family's best interest that Mikhail be the one to control the door.

  The Hak had said that she couldn't stand still in the ocean. That she would be carried either by the current or pick her own course. If she wanted the best for her family out of this, then she had to help Mikhail.

  "The Queen Mary wasn't that heavily armed originally." Mikhail finally broke his awed silence.

  "When you have a habit of kidnapping your neighbors, you need big guns to discourage people coming and taking them ba
ck."

  "I suppose." Mikhail murmured. "Moldavsky, feed what you can into the rendering program."

  "I probably can find people that can tell you details of the harbor. People here in Ya-ya tend to be pure human. And Ya-ya is too big of a bite for Mary's Landing to chew. Ceri might be able to tell you a little about the layout of the ship, but it's hard to say. She was very young when she left, and from what I understand, Blues really don't have run of the ship."

  "I happen to have all the deck plans of the ship," Mikhail admitted.

  "You do?"

  "Because of Viktor. I had a slightly morbid curiosity about how my first self died."

  "He didn't die in the crash. He . . ." She caught herself before finishing.

  "Killed himself. Yes. Eraphie told me." Mikhail pulled a photo out of his pocket. "I hate to ask you this, but do you know this person?"