by Thomas Fay
‘Sir, the graviton flux generator is unable to maintain a stable field,’ Mason said.
‘Alright, turn it off. We don’t want to unbalance it any further.’
‘Yes, sir.’
I felt myself lifting up in my acceleration couch the moment Mason deactivated the graviton flux generator. The artificial gravity inside the ship dissolved to nothing and we found ourselves in zero gravity.
‘Roger D, are you alright?’ I asked. Receiving no response, I twisted around, careful not to send myself into a spin. Roger D was floating in his acceleration couch, held in place by the safety restraints. Droplets of blood were drifting around a gash in his forehead. The tiny beads of dark red coalesced into perfect spheres in the absence of gravity. I cast a questioning look at Jeni. She shot me a look that spoke volumes. Then she unfastened her restraints.
‘I’m on it,’ she said.
Tightening my safety restraints, I looked around. I found myself looking directly at Dayna.
‘Not bad for a mechanic,’ she said.
‘Thanks. What now?’
‘We’ll head back to the Dyson Alpha star port to lodge the claim and patch up the ship.’
Not surprisingly, the mention of Dyson Alpha made me think of Selize. The pain in my skull had subsided after my brief telepathic contact with her. Now, the pain oscillated between being barely noticeable and a sharp stinging sensation somewhere at the base of my skull.
‘She’s waiting for you,’ Dayna said.
‘Selize?’
‘Yes.’
I nodded. A low moan alerted me to the fact that Roger D had regained consciousness.
‘Are you alright?’ I asked.
‘I’ve survived worse. You did good back there. I hope, once you’ve taken care of what you need to, you’ll stick around for a while?’
‘Sure, but only if you promise we’ll take on some more interesting missions in the future.’
‘We’ll do our best,’ Roger D replied, smiling.
‘What about Lars Marvik?’
Roger D’s smile disappeared.
‘I’ll take care of Marvik. Let’s just say he’s not the only one with powerful friends.’
I nodded as my gaze travelled across the floating space docks towards the UEP gateway leading back to Dyson Alpha. My first mission with the Helios Ark had certainly been a lot more eventful than I could have ever expected. Somehow that paled in comparison to my impending reunion with Selize.
10.
I stood outside Selize’s quarters. A million thoughts flew through my mind as I contemplated what I was going to say. None of them seemed quite right.
Suddenly the door opened and there was no more time for thought.
Selize stood in the doorway. She was dressed in a stunning full-length gown of some exotic material that revealed more of her amethyst skin than it concealed. Her hair was up and her crystalline eyes appraised me with an expectant look.
‘Yes?’
‘Selize, I—’
‘You’re extremely sorry for the way you treated me and desperately want me to take you back?’
‘I, umm—’
‘And you’ve realised that you can’t live without me and you want to be with me forever?’
‘I—’
She leaned forwards and kissed me. My senses were overloaded with the experience of physical contact with her. It felt like every single neuron in my brain was firing at once. It was like a high but unlike anything I had ever experienced before.
She stepped back and smiled.
‘It’s alright. I know you wanted to come back to me as quickly as possible.’
‘How?’ I asked, surprised.
‘I’m guessing by now you’re beginning to understand the bond between Centaurians and their chosen partners? Well, a similar bond exists between all Centaurians.’
‘Dayna?’
Selize nodded.
‘Yes. Even though our own bond was still forming, through her I had a direct link to you which was abruptly severed when they injected you with that neural inhibitor.’ She shuddered at the memory. ‘You can’t imagine how unsettling it is to have our link disrupted like that.’
‘I’m sorry, I had no idea.’
‘I know, John. Please don’t do that again.’
‘I won’t. Selize, I—’
‘What is it, John?’
My eyes narrowed as I tried to form into words what I was thinking. ‘When we were hit and I blacked out … I was falling and then … I was here with you.’
‘Even at such a great distance I felt the pain and confusion in you when you were attacked. That allowed me to break through the weakened inhibitor and give you the strength you needed to save yourself and the crew.’
‘That’s incredible!’
‘It’s only a fraction of what’s possible with the bond between us,’ Selize said, suddenly serious. ‘But there are ways of breaking the bond, permanently, if this really isn’t what you want.’
She fell silent as her eyes stared up at me in expectation.
Smiling, I took her in my arms.
‘No, Selize. This is exactly where I want to be.’
‘I was hoping you’d say that,’ she breathed. I locked my lips onto hers. The door to her chambers slid shut behind us as we moved inside as one. Reaching the bed, I had already unfastened my grey one-piece when a sudden thought struck me.
‘Wait a second. If all Centaurians share a bond and you could perceive me through Dayna then does that mean ...?’
Selize looked at me for a long moment before replying.
‘Would it really matter?’
‘No, I guess not. It’s just not something I really want to think about.’
‘Then don’t,’ she said, pulling me down onto the bed. As I fell eagerly into her embrace I couldn’t help but wonder just how many Centaurians were watching us. A moment later, I took Selize’s advice and stopped thinking about it.
Outside the star port the meteoroid storm had subsided. Chiron’s azure surface shimmered once more with the reflected light of Alpha Centauri’s stars.
****
Several hours later, I woke up. Selize was asleep on the bed, the sheet draped across her naked form. I smiled as I watched her breathing steadily.
I stood up. Walking quietly to the panoramic viewing panel, I took in the spectacular view as the frozen moons rotated silently around Dyson Alpha. A Trojan Transport passenger ship maneuverer into docking position with the star port, the exotic Vasnikov particles dissipating into the vacuum of space as the UEP gateway powered down behind it.
I remembered arriving on a similar ship. A journey which had taken two standard days travelling between UEP gateways from Earth to Luna, then Mars and Jupiter, to the edge of the Sol system, then to the Epsilon Centauri shipyards and finally to Dyson Alpha. The same journey had taken the first Expeditionary Fleet almost eighty standard years. The seven Morpheus-class ark ships had carried two thousand men and women on a one-way trip to establish the first gateway to the Alpha Centauri system. Or so I had learned during my time at the Space Navy Academy.
The Space Navy. It had been such a large part of my life for so long that it felt strange to be out. No more command structure, no more following orders, no more covert operations. I realised that a part of me missed it. But then I remembered the reasons for my leaving, including the growing realisation that the Space Navy was purely an extension of the UEP’s political agenda. This included keeping the millions of humans living in orbital installations, space stations and asteroid bases under control. Even worse was their use of experimental and highly volatile augmentations and enhancements. I remembered the space marines so stimmed out of their minds they blindly went to their deaths and the Raptor pilots so heavily augmented and chemically infused their nervous systems deteriorated by the time they turned thirty. One pilot in particular had changed my view of the Space Navy forever.
Lieutenant Vanessa Gage.
I clenched my fist
s as I remembered the single line of text in a Space Navy bulletin listing her as KIA. What a joke. I knew the truth. Vanessa had not been killed in action—she had succumbed to the debilitating effects of her augmentations at just thirty-two years of age. The UEP and the Space Navy jealously guarded the secrets of neural and chemical augmentation and enhancement. It made their ground troops and pilots unstoppable against normal human beings and formidable against the known alien species. But the price had been high. Too high for me.
My eyes focused on the frozen moons. Chiron rotated slowly, its exosphere catching the light of Alpha Centauri’s stars, as the star port passed into the night side of Dyson Alpha. I glanced back at Selize. She was still asleep, her skin shimmering with that ethereal quality unique to Centaurians.
I felt the weight of my past slowly falling away. Not disappearing, that was impossible with everything I had experienced during my time with the Space Navy. No, it would always be a part of me. But when I focused on Selize, on my new life, I found I could at least set it aside. The Centaurians were truly amazing.
And dangerous.
My Lazarus implant was the most advanced counter-infiltration implant the Cybernetic Augmentation Research Institute on Luna, CARIL, had ever developed. Even with it I had barely managed to break free of Selize’s hold on me. I could only imagine what someone without any shielding would experience.
As much as I was against the Space Navy’s augmentation program, my Lazarus implant had saved my life on several occasions. I pictured it as a cold, hard metallic casing around the soft tissue of my brain. In reality, it was a nano-filament mesh penetrating into parts of my brain, designed to block any external influences. The fact that my telepathic bond with Selize seemed to be able to bypass it was alarming, to say the least.
It also raised a number of questions—questions that I would have to address at some point. The most concerning of all were Selize’s telepathic abilities. No one knew what the Centaurians were really capable of or if they were able to read minds. For now, I would have to trust that my augmentation would prevent Selize from accessing the memories and highly classified information I carried inside my head.
My life depended on it.
PART II: SIRENS TRIAL
11.
The light from Alpha Centauri’s stars shone through the viewing pane as I slowly opened my eyes. My dreams had been uneasy, haunted by images of beautiful sirens pulling memories out of my brain with their slender, delicate hands. I suspected it was the result of my Lazarus implant trying to prevent the Centaurian telepathic bond from taking a permanent hold. I found myself sympathising with Odysseus, the mythical Greek hero. Certainly these modern-day sirens were no less dangerous and I found myself beginning to worry about what the telepathic bond was doing to the neural pathways inside my brain.
‘Finally! I thought I was going to have to call someone from medical to come down and take a look at you,’ Selize said.
‘What time is it?’ I asked, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. The image of the mythical sirens perched upon the jagged shore of a mist-shrouded island was still fresh in my mind. My hand involuntarily swept through my hair, checking to make sure my skull was still intact.
‘It’s ten to nine,’ Selize replied.
‘What?! I’ve got to meet Roger D in the bar in ten minutes.’
Selize reached over and ran her hand delicately across my chest. I experienced a moment of dizzying euphoria as the sense of her touch was amplified by the telepathic connection between us. It was as if I was experiencing what both of us were feeling.
‘Do you really have to go?’ she asked in that breathless whisper of hers that sent shivers down my spine.
‘Yes,’ I said, squirming out of her reach. I got out of bed. The floor was cold. Every fibre of my being was crying out for me to get back into bed. I could still feel her touch, its after-effects lingering on my skin and in my mind.
‘You sure?’
‘Selize, you know I’m not going anywhere. I’m yours for however long you want me.’
‘You do realise Centaurians mate for life?’
‘Yes.’
She smiled.
‘Good. Go play space mechanic.’
‘You’re incorrigible.’
‘I try.’
I walked into the bathroom cubicle and activated the sonic shower. The faint tingling sensation across my skin was never as satisfactory as the feel of running water. Never felt quite as clean either. Given the cost of mining and shipping water, only truly wealthy space dwellers could afford to bathe in H2O. That was one thing I missed about my time spent on Earth: showers with running water.
Stepping back into the main room, I retrieved my grey one-piece and slipped it on along with my tool belt. Grabbing my ID badge, I turned to say goodbye. My words caught in my throat. Selize lay stretched out on the bed, half covered by the sheets. The amethyst glow from Alpha Centauri’s stars bathed the entire bedroom in a surreal aura—Selize, at its centre, an alien princess.
‘Changed your mind?’ she asked.
‘What? No, I was just …’
Selize smiled.
‘Nice try. I’ll see you later.’
I pressed my thumb against the activation pad on the wall. The door slid upwards with the faintest hiss of air. As I stepped out into the corridor, Selize’s voice spoke directly into my mind.
Be careful.
12.
I walked into the Dyson Alpha star port’s bar. Chiron, the largest of the frozen moons, was visible through the panoramic viewing panel running the length of the bar. Moving past several moderately intoxicated patrons, I made my way to the private booths. Sitting down, I waited.
The bar was quieter than usual. Most star-port personnel and residents were asleep or at work. Those in the bar were mostly crews and passengers that had arrived from different time zones. For them, it wasn’t morning. Not that there was really such a thing as morning on the star port. Dyson Alpha’s distance from Alpha Centauri’s twin stars and the planet’s rotation gave it a day-night cycle of twenty-eight standard hours. It was certainly more manageable than some of the asteroid bases I’d been stationed in with their glacially slow rotations and weak gravity.
The voice of Tarnee Caldern announced the latest developments across colonised space.
‘We have now received confirmed sightings of Space Navy ships massing around the gateway to Tau Ceti, leading to continued criticism and calls for withdrawal from the system. Many have raised concerns that the Space Navy is involving itself in an escalating civil conflict. Others point to the Space Navy’s intervention in the Proxo-Centaurian war, which ended a ten-year conflict and restored peace to that region of space. Certainly, Alpha Centauri has prospered and become a key system for trade and commerce but little is known of the Proxians, with only isolated bases and star ports open to outsiders. In other news, the price of Jovian wine is expected to remain high for several more weeks as exports resume following the end of the stand-off between the UEP and Icarus.’
Five minutes passed and there was no sign of Roger D.
After ten, I began to look around. I was about to leave when somebody sat down across from me.
‘That seat’s taken,’ I said.
The man had raven-black hair, a deeply tanned complexion from excessive solar exposure and grey eyes. A faint smile spread across his thin lips.
‘Yes, by me. Roger D sends his apologies. He couldn’t make it,’ the man said.
I became instantly alert. My eyes scanned the bar. Two men standing near the exit stared back at me. I shifted my attention to the man seated across from me.
‘Lars Marvik, I presume?’ I asked.
‘You’re smarter than you look,’ Lars replied.
‘What do you want?’
‘And direct. I like that. You should join my crew.’
‘No, thanks.’
‘Didn’t think so. Such loyalty to someone so undeserving.’
‘What do you mean?�
�
‘Oh, haven’t you heard? Your friend Roger D’s been arrested for piracy. It’s a charge the authorities of Dyson Alpha take very seriously.’
‘Piracy? If anyone is guilty of piracy, I’d say that would be you.’
Lars’s smile widened.
‘Now, now. Let’s try and handle this without resorting to name-calling.’
‘Sure.’
My gaze flicked to the two men near the exit. They looked like standard hired thugs, a little overweight from too much time spent in low gravity. That and the fact that they stood together near the main exit, leaving at least two other exits open, told me they were amateurs, the type that looked intimidating but could seldom stand up to someone who had been properly trained. Space Navy combat training was extreme, to say the least. I still carried the scars to attest to that, including a couple of bones that hadn’t healed quite right despite extensive surgery to knit them together. Deflecting a lunar scythe with only standard body armour for protection was definitely not something I would ever try to do again.
‘Whatever you’re thinking, don’t,’ Lars said. He lifted the handgun he was holding just enough so I could see it. It was a low-powered laser, commonly used by star-port security. It was dangerous to unprotected humans and unshielded electronic devices but safe enough to use inside pressurised star ports. Still, I was surprised he’d managed to smuggle it past the star port’s sensors.
‘Alright, you’ve made your point. I can’t go anywhere, so I guess I have to hear you out,’ I said.
‘You really are a lot smarter than you look. I want the profits from that last claim you lodged and I want you out of this region of space. Permanently.’
‘And if we don’t agree?’
‘Then Roger D gets shipped off to a deep-space penal colony. I’ve heard the ones in the Sirius system are particularly nasty. You have until tomorrow morning to decide.’
Lars stood up. Motioning to his men, he made his way out of the bar.