by David Adams
Liao went to call Summer to Operations, but as she reached for the intercom she realized that she was already there, sitting in the corner and reading. Melissa walked up to where she was, her curiosity getting the better of her. She hoped it was a technical manual... or something work related.
“You got here fast.”
“Mmm?” The redhead looked up, regarding her Captain. “Oh, yeah, well...”
“I know you’re not meant to be on duty now, but you are meant to be sleeping if you’re not.” A pause. “What are you reading?”
Summer handed the paperback to Liao. "It's called The Touch of Tears," she explained.
"Oh, that?" Liao chuckled, "From what I hear it's more popular than Harry-fucking-Potter these days. Just don't read it when you're on the job."
Summer gave a dramatic sigh, tucking the voluminous book under her arm. "...Fine. Anyway, technically speaking aren’t you meant to be in bed too, Captain?"
“I couldn’t sleep. I never can before the big operations.” Liao gave a wry grin. “Or before Chinese New Year for that matter... I’d stay awake, trying to count down the hours until midnight... just like I am now, I suppose.”
Rowe regarded her, raising a red-haired eyebrow. “That’s not good,” she observed, “since it means you’ll get tired... Tired Captains make mistakes.”
“I don’t make mistakes,” Liao proclaimed, grinning down at the redhead. “That’s just one of the advantages of being Captain. You’re never wrong; in the event you say or do something incorrect it’s actually the universe, itself, which is wrong.”
“Technically,” Summer began, “while you are the Captain of the Beijing, your naval rank is only Commander. So that rule doesn’t apply yet.”
“Oh little grasshopper, how much you have yet to learn.”
Rowe grinned. “Did Confucius say that, Captain?”
Liao returned the expression in kind. “No... I did.” She reached down and patted the woman on her head. “You can steal the quote, don’t worry.”
Rowe laughed. “I’m just sorry I didn’t have something snappier to come back at you.”
The Chinese woman smirked down at Summer. “Aww, now, don’t be bitter. Bitterness is like taking poison and expecting someone else to die. You should learn to let these things go!”
“Was that Confucius?”
Liao put her hands on her hips, smirking and raising an eyebrow. “Charlie Chaplin. Just because I’m Chinese doesn’t mean everything I say somehow relates back to Confucius...”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Snickering, Summer went back to her book and Liao walked over to the centre of the mostly-empty Operations room. In a few hours it would be full of the best crew the human species had to offer – and they would launch the first real strike against the aliens who had killed so many. They would capture or destroy the Forerunner... Then, armed with the knowledge taken from its remains, they would take the fight to the Toralii.
A red blinking light on the tactical console drew her attention. From the rear of the room came the shout of the swing-shift Communications officer whose name did not immediately leap into memory.
“C-Captain Liao! Radar contact!”
Liao whirled about, her eyes wide. “Where?”
“Directly in front of us! Right at the L1 jump point! Mass: twenty thousand tonnes, approximately. Configuration unknown. Multiple smaller contacts!”
Twenty thousand tonnes. The size of a capital ship. Liao practically ran to the man’s console, putting her hand on his shoulder and watching his readings. “Is it one of ours?”
“Negative, Captain. The Sydney and the Tehran are both accounted for and in position... optics confirms it’s Toralii.”
There was a slight pause as the Communications officer read information from the console. Shocked, he twisted in his seat, glancing over his shoulder to the Captain.
“Sir... they’re transmitting a signal. The Toralii are hailing us.”
Act IV
Chapter X
“A Pretty Little String of Pearls”
*****
Operations Room
TFR Beijing
Orbit of Earth
“The signal’s coming in on 121.5 MHz. Recording...”
“121.5? The military distress and advisory frequency?” Liao blinked in confusion. “Put it on speaker.”
A voice – thin and robotic as though artificially generated – filtered through the whole of the Operations room. It spoke in unaccented and inflectionless English, intoned evenly and without emotion.
“...erran type six starship. This is Warbringer Avaran of the Toralii Alliance Vessel Seth’arak. Respond on frequency Four. Two. Eight. Point. Six. Attention Terran type six starship. This is...”
Seth’arak. In Toralii the word meant “Herald of Woe”. Or perhaps it was the “Herald of Misfortune”... Liao did not remember. She made a mental note to ask Saara about it later.
Liao took her hand from her officer’s shoulder. “Put me on UHF 428.6.” As the man worked, Liao turned to the rest of the Operations room and picked up the ship’s intercom.
“Captain Liao to all hands. General quarters, general quarters, general quarters. Report to action stations... this is not a drill.”
She closed the link, turning to the swing-shift tactical officer. “All reactors to full power. Load all missile tubes, charge the hull plating, and prepare to engage on my order.”
The Communications officer nodded to her, indicating the channel was ready. Liao picked up the long-range communications handset – a curved handset device similar to wireless headphones – and put it up over her head, adjusting the mouthpiece so that it was comfortable. She took a breath, then keyed the talk button.
“Toralii Alliance Vessel Seth’arak, this is TFR Beijing, actual. While I can’t physically speak the Telvan Toralii dialect, I can understand you if you go slowly and use simple words. Hopefully your machine will not be necessary.”
There was a brief pause where Liao heard nothing. She almost motioned for the tactical officer to fire. In the background the rest of the Operations crew poured into the room, a few buttoning up uniforms as though they had been at ease. Liao noted how quickly they had come... Most, like her, had not been asleep. Sleeplessness before a large operation was not uncommon.
And then the voice came. A voice which was so like, and yet so unlike, Saara’s; it was deep and gravelly.
["You understand our language... an impressive trick, Captain Liao."]
Liao tried not to let the fact that the Toralii Captain knew her name upset her. She frowned, struggling with the language, trying to digest his words. When he had finished speaking, Liao focused her mind and tried to get her response accurate. She had to focus so hard on understanding him that preparing a reply was difficult.
“One of many, Warbringer, I assure you.” She cleared her throat. “...But to business. Toralii Alliance Vessel Seth’arak, you are in violation of the Sol system’s sovereignty and I demand you leave immediately or deadly force will be employed against you.”
The voice of Warbringer Avaran echoed through the Operations room like the ghosts of the dead speaking to the living. It was poetic and vague and Liao knew her mental translation was imperfect; fortunately, they were recording the transmission and Saara would help her translate after the fact.
["Brave words from a brave little creature. We know you are hunting the Forerunner. If you have honour, and a sense of self-preservation, you will cease development of the Voidwarp technology and surrender yourselves for judgement for the murder of the crew of the Toralii Vessel Tir’aran.”]
The Tir’aran was Saara’s vessel. Liao was slightly amused by the use of the term ‘murder’, which was one word she knew. It seemed as though all sides in a conflict regarded deaths to their own as murder, and enemy deaths as “losses”, “damage”, “victories”, or other such euphemisms.
“Firstly, our mission objectives are classified.” Liao saw no advantage to confirm
ing their suspicions.
["Classify whatever you like. Your lies won’t shield us from the truth.”]
“Secondly, Warbringer, regretfully the Tir’aran violated Terran space, much as you are doing now, and was destroyed for that trespass. I suggest you learn from their example. Thirdly, the Tir’aran was a vessel registered to the Telvan, not the Toralii Alliance, so our quarrel is technically with them.”
["We come not to quarrel.”]
Liao considered, closing her eyes a moment. All eyes in the room were upon her; she focused, choosing her words carefully.
“Then state your purpose. Why are you here?”
["We bring your people a message... an ultimatum.”]
Liao considered, her finger twitching as it held down the talk key. “Which is?”
["Dismantle your Voidwarp technology, scuttle your warships, and surrender yourselves to judgement and sentencing for the murder of the crew of the Toralii Vessel Tir’aran. Failure to comply will result in your destruction and the destruction of billions on your world as we obliterate your species from orbit. Ask the prisoners you obviously have taken if my promise is empty. Transmit your answer on this frequency and the Forerunner will jump away and relay it to the rest of our fleet.”]
There was the shortest of pauses.
[“You have forty rotations of your planet, Earth, to decide. Choose... wisely.”]
With a wink the blip on the Beijing’s radar disc winked out and the radio made no noise aside from the faint hiss of static.
For a moment there was silence on the Operations room, until Summer’s voice broke the spell.
“...Wow. I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but he sounds like a prick.”
Liao couldn’t help but chuckle. A prick indeed...
The Communications officer pointed to his screen, waving over the Captain. “Captain Liao? I think you should see this...”
Liao stepped over, and when she saw what he was pointing to, a slow, eager grin crept over her face.
*****
Conference Room Two
TFR Beijing
Orbit of Earth
Half an hour later
“I think our course is very clear.”
Liao folded her arms, clicking the ‘next’ button on her remote control. The floor to ceiling monitor assigned to the far wall changed, displaying a giant clock. “Forty days, so we have some breathing room at least... but not much. We’ve got a month and a bit before the Toralii Alliance want their answer. We have to go on the move if we want to beat the clock.”
Summer raised her hand. “Does that mean we’re abandoning the pursuit of the Forerunner?”
Commander Iraj spoke up. “No. In fact, capturing that is more imperative than ever. We need its on-board computer so we can figure out what jump coordinates it knows, so we can start planning a counter-offensive.” The Iranian man paused, regarding Rowe for a moment. “If we gave you their computer, mostly intact, you’d be able to understand it... right?”
Summer rolled her eyes. “Phht, no…Okay, first of all, even on Earth, even with very similar computer types – such as x86 vs, say, SPARC – the differences between them are so great they can’t inter-operate, generally, without a compatibility layer. Between systems with an even bigger gulf between them - like ARM and a stopwatch - there’s basically zero likeness. Between anything I’ve experienced before and a Toralii machine... inconceivable differences.”
Iraj just grinned. “Well, then, I’m going to rely on your cunning intellect and brilliant mind to make them work. The Captain and I have full confidence in you.”
The man paused a moment to let Alex, who was late, come into the room. When he was settled Liao spoke again, switching the topic back to business.
“Anyway, so, yes, we’re still going after the Forerunner. I suppose now is as good a time to tell you all as any... When the Seth’arak – that’s the Toralii ship I spoke to earlier – jumped into the system to issue their little ultimatum, they sent a signal to the Forerunner. More importantly, the Forerunner sent one back. Because the signal was conventional radio and therefore subject to the speed of light restriction, we were able to figure out exactly how far away the Forerunner was. No direction, of course, but if we know the distance all we had to do was just draw a big circle and see what jump points it intersects, which we did. So, essentially... we now know what jump point it’s been hiding at. It’s out by Mercury, probably hiding all this time using the Sun’s radiation.”
Summer nodded. “Well, capturing the Forerunner won’t be easy. As we said earlier, this plan of yours – sorry, I mean ours – is a long shot... if it will even work at all...”
“Doesn’t that mean it’s a sure thing?” Liao gave a playful grin to the red-headed woman. “If someone says it’s a long shot but it just might work?”
“Actually,” came a voice from the entranceway to the conference room which turned all heads its way, “sometimes these things are easier than they seem...”
It was James Grégoire.
“Welcome aboard, Captain,” Liao offered, doing her best to keep her tone professional and suitably distant. Summer’s smirk almost unnerved her but she kept herself together for the moment. “Although I’m not sure what you mean...”
“Well, while you were having a chat with the charming Toralii gentleman earlier, I couldn’t help but notice that there was a second jump-in at that point, at the L2 point on the far side of the moon. I guess that signal he sent to the Forerunner was a message asking it to jump near him and give its report.”
Iraj tilted his head. “The L2 point – right where the Tehran was stationed?”
James chuckled and nodded. “Our strike craft scrambled and caught it before it finished. We hit and disabled its jump drive due to some fancy shooting by the head of our strike wing, a charming fellow who goes by the name of Spectre. Then we – casual as you like – simply cruised in and picked it up. It’s being shipped over to your science team as we speak, since ours still hasn’t been fully assembled yet.”
He just grinned at the stunned faces in front of him. “Completing your missions for you before you set out, huh? You slackers on the Beijing really need to pick up your game...”
*****
Captain Liao’s Quarters
TFR Beijing
Orbit of Earth
Four hours later
“‘Pick up your game?’ Really? I can’t believe you!” Liao gave him a playful swat on his dark rump. “You’re on my ship, Mister Grégoire, so you better show me and my crew some respect.” Liao rested over his back, cuddling down on top of him, her sheets damp with sweat.
“Hey, technically I outrank you,” he murmured, squirming underneath her. “You should be showing me respect...”
Liao snickered. “Eeeh, technically smechnically. I can kick your arse any day.”
“You could not.”
Liao smirked, nipping his ear. “Stirring for a fight, mmm? What are you, sixteen again?”
“I feel young as a spring chicken again when I’m around you. Didn't I say that already?”
Liao rubbed his sides, giving a squeeze from atop him. “I forgot.” She gave a cheeky snicker right in his ear. “Sometimes I forget important things you tell me.”
“That’s a good quality for a Commanding Officer to have. Forgets important things... perhaps I should inform Fleet Command. I’ll put it right here in my report. Ahem, Commander Liao - for she’s not yet made Captain on account of being far too short and cute – frequently forgets important things. Further, she’d rather have a nice chat with the aliens than sneak away some of their tech... But hey, she’s great in the sack, so what’s not to like?”
“You’re never going to let me live that down are you,” Liao purred, squeezing him tight enough to dig her nails in, “and I’m much better than great.”
“Mmm, indeed. By the way, I have something for you.” James wriggled around underneath her, squirming away and falling out of bed. He reached f
or his discarded pants.
“I thought we already did that...”
“Something else. Something pretty, and something even more definitely against regulations.” He fumbled around with the pockets for a moment, producing a long, thin box. “Ah-hah!”
Liao’s eyes widened curiously. “So that’s what was in your pocket. I thought that was just you getting all excited when I took off my top...”
“Mmm, yes to both as a matter of fact.”
Standing up, naked, the man beckoned her to do the same. Confused, she did.
“Okay. Stand in front of the mirror, like this – yep, just like that – and close your eyes. … tight. No peeking.”
Liao stood there with her eyes closed. She felt something cool and smooth slide around her neck, and then she felt James’ hand giving her a playful slap on the backside. “Okay, open.”
She did so. A thin strand of pearls, all white except for the lowest and largest one which was black, rested comfortably around her neck.
“James, it’s... it’s beautiful! But we’re fifty thousand kilometres from the nearest oyster, where did you get this?”
She twisted the black pearl in-between her fingers, admiring it in the mirror.
“Let’s just say I put in a special order. A friend of mine slipped it into the CO2 scrubber refit. I specifically ordered a longer string than normal, and they’re fairly small pearls so you can wear it under your uniform and nobody will ever see it.
Liao laughed, glancing down and admiring them directly, beaming widely. “Heh. You’re not going to want to do something stupid like sketch me wearing this – just this – are you? Because there’s no model-T Fords on this boat...” She paused, putting a finger to her lips, her smile becoming a coy smirk. “...Although there IS Saara’s fighter...”
Before James could answer, the radio crackled and called Liao’s name. Giving a sigh, the woman walked over, picked up the device and pressed the talk key.
“This is the Captain, go ahead.”
“You are not going to fucking BELIEVE this!”