The lead whale easily matched Seasprite’s movements, and came on.
"Brace for impact!"
There was a slight pause before a massive impact, and the ship shuddered. The whale had collided with the ship broadside on. All of the team were now on the floor.
Jamie was back up and clinging to the console, the ship groaned as the whale pushed past the ship. He quickly scanned for damage.
"Shields down!"
Snark had jumped back up, even though he’d hurt one side, and one of his arms hung at an angle.
"Compensating. We need to get them back up!"
The ship still had forward momentum, but had been pushed around by the collision, and the whales’ passage past them. They were knocked out of the direct path of the pod, which passed by them, close enough to cause Snark to wince.
They found Anna had been knocked unconscious, in spite of her suit being in full protection mode, but Patters and Sissness got to their feet as quickly as possible. Brindle had collided with the bulkhead, and was bleeding from a cut to her head, but was conscious.
"Still want to play with them?" Snark asked Sissness.
Sissness didn’t reply, but looked determined.
Patters secured a lock on the lead whale.
"Fire?" she asked Jamie and Snark.
"Fire!" they both said simultaneously.
Nothing happened. Sissness had jumped at Patters, and knocked her to the ground. They were both on the floor.
Jamie took over the weapons controls from his panel. His finger paused as a lock was secured with the lead whale again. It was turning to come back, some sort of liquid streaming away behind it, the front of it now looking injured. He used a missile this time, altered the trajectory to explode just in front of the whale, and fired.
The missile exploded, and the concussion knocked the whale off course this time. It paused and slowed, and came to a hover close to the ship. It seemed to be looking at them.
"Call me Ishmael," said Jamie, as if to the whale.
Snark looked at him, baffled.
The whale hung suspended in space.
The Seasprite continued on its deflected trajectory.
A loud, low, but haunting cry came over the coms. It was plaintive and expressive, like the cry of a seabird, only much lower, but mournful, and soulful all at the same time.
Patters walked to the helm, and stopped the ship.
"What are you doing?" yelled Snark.
"You never leave a wounded animal behind. You either kill it, or help it if you can."
"How can we help it?" asked Jamie.
"Wasn’t our medical bay improved?"
"That thing is not going to fit in a care unit," said Sissness.
"Ha, ha," responded Patters. "Didn’t you check out the upgrade? We have a doc droid now. Can't we send it over there to treat the whale?"
Jamie thought for a moment. He started hunting through menus on his PC.
"Done."
A salvage droid appeared in front of the ship, with another strange looking droid riding on it. The whale eyed the small thing approaching it, but didn’t do anything.
They watched a vid of the doc droid spraying something on the injured area. The wounds closed, and the liquid stopped leaking from them. The salvage droid turned to return to the ship.
Another loud, haunting cry came through the coms, but this one seemed less mournful. The whale turned, and followed the pod.
"Damage report?" asked Snark.
Jamie and Patters, who was back at her console, pointed out areas of minor damage to the hull. Snark sent a repair droid out to assess the damage, and put the ship back on course at normal cruising speed.
Jamie knelt beside Sissness, who was holding Anna’s hand. Anna groaned, and her eyes fluttered and opened.
"My head," she said, and promptly leaned over and threw up.
When finished, she wiped her mouth, grimaced, and looked up at Jamie and Sissness.
"What happened?"
Jamie smiled at her.
"I think we just had an encounter with Moby Dick," he said softly.
The others looked perplexed, but Anna laughed, winced, and held a hand to her head.
"At least we came out of it, more or less in one piece," added Snark, holding his damaged arm. "Maybe rather less than more."
Patters went over to Snark, while Brindle arrived with some water for Anna.
"Let’s get you to a care unit," Patters said to Snark.
Anna tried to get up, but failed, so Jamie picked her up in his arms, and headed for the medical bay after Patters and Snark.
Brindle looked at Sissness.
"Hope you know what you were doing," she said.
"It was important. They were innocent beings in their own territory. We were the intruders. He was just protecting his family."
"Some family." Brindle looked at Sissness speculatively, and touched her wound tentatively. It had stopped bleeding. "At least it worked out ok. It could have ended quite differently."
Sissness said nothing, as Brindle followed the others.
Fourteen
Brother Paulus was not happy. This caused the Brother in front of him on the vid to not be happy either. In fact, Brother Steadfast was very unhappy. He had a number of things to be unhappy about. Not only was he reporting failure, Brother Paulus had turned out to be close enough for a real time conversation.
"So, the unfortunate Brother on the ground at Poker station failed in his mission to kill the pirate, and prevent the humans from learning about us. This whole episode does not reflect well on you at all, Brother."
Brother Paulus’ tone left no doubt as to his displeasure. Brother Steadfast licked his lips.
"He did his best at short notice…"
"His best was sadly lacking. Just as well for him he died in the attempt."
"I…"
"Yes you."
Brother Paulus sat back in his chair, but his glare fixed on Brother Steadfast even through the poor quality of the vid.
"You are responsible. You lost control of Brother Gall, even though it was clear he was going to desert. You let him get away, and into the hands of that pirate." Brother Paulus had trouble pronouncing his name, so he left it out. "Your incompetence has meant our enemies have vital information about us, the sect as a whole, and particularly about our knowledge of the Destiny Stone."
"I know it looks bad, but I…"
"You’re recalled." Brother Paulus was dismissive, and waved a hand in the air. "I'll be there in a few hours. Get a shuttle, and meet me an hour out from Padua Prime." Brother Paulus suddenly sat forward, and focused his black eyes in a sneering gaze. "And don’t think you can be like Brother Gall and desert. You’ll take your punishment like a true member of our faith. Or I will personally hunt you down."
Brother Paulus cut off the transmission.
He sat back in the chair again and considered. This was bad news, but not the worst. The situation could be salvaged. If the humans and their cat offsiders knew some names, and some information about them, so be it. Things would change, and the information would soon be out of date. Such as Brother Steadfast’s name. Soon it would not matter at all.
He was getting no further in the search for the Destiny Stone, though. They had no leads on where to search for it, apart from follow the humans, and wait for an opportunity to snatch it away. He had the feeling Brother Prime would not be satisfied with this as a plan at all. No, he knew he wouldn't. He needed progress, and something positive to report, and soon.
The cells reporting on the Seasprite as it moved through their areas, had reported them as heading into the New Territories. This is what the Brotherhood called the area of space they hadn’t really explored. There was a plan for expansion into the area, and the calling of new souls to the cause, but they were waiting to consolidate their power in the areas they had infiltrated so far. Maintaining Brothers, cells and sects across sector ten and sector eight was taking a lot of their resources, let
alone thinking of further development.
He was sure Brother Prime was counting on using the Destiny Stone for his own personal power as well as this new growth. And Brother Paulus intended to help him achieve this, to further his own interests. He could not fail in this project.
He needed a plan. He needed it now. He selected a secure channel, and opened the link.
Fifteen
"We need to think like the Brotherhood, like this Brother Paulus who is tracking us. What would they be doing now to find us, and what are their options? That way, we can be ahead of them, anticipate what they’re going to do, and be prepared to counter them."
Snark was lecturing Jamie and Anna.
The three of them were in the lounge, Anna nursing a large bruise on her head, and a nasty concussion, and Snark with his arm in a sling. While the care unit which had been augmented to treat cats as well as humans had repositioned the dislocation, he needed to keep it strapped for a while to complete the healing, and also to prevent jarring it, causing pain and potentially more trouble. They'd both been very unlucky. Anna's civilian suit had stopped her being killed, but hadn’t prevented her being hurt. Snark's improved suit had actually worked against him this time. The small hop it produced shifting the momentum of any hit, had bounced him into a worse obstacle, resulting in his shoulder being driven in a direction it wasn’t designed to go in.
"That’s all verra well," said Jamie. "But we don’t know where they may have sects, cells, or operatives where we’re headed."
"That’s ok," joined in Anna. "If they don’t have them in place now, they’ll get them in place. They’re just as hooked as me in finding the Stone."
"If I was them, I’d follow us, and just wait to step in and take it from us when we finally find it," said Snark.
"Yes," agreed Jamie. "So, we have to either give them the slip, or make sure they can’t take it from us when we finally find it."
"Or perhaps they just capture us, torture us for the information we have, and then take over the search from there," said Anna.
"I dinna think they’d want to kill the goose that lay the golden egg," replied Jamie.
"No," reasoned Snark, "but there might be little method to their madness."
Anna sighed.
"It’s doing my head in. It hurts too much already."
Jamie looked surprised for a moment, and began searching menus again. He looked at Anna.
"You do know," he pinged her, "you have pain control in the medical monitor of your PC, don’t you?"
He'd spent a lot of time exploring his new PC, and the medical monitor had fascinated him. Anna looked surprised for a moment, her face went serious as she concentrated, and finally smiled as she found the setting, and upped the available pain suppression.
Snark looked at them both suspiciously, wondering what they were up to.
Brindle arrived with some not-tuna and cheese tacos, which they all helped themselves to with gusto.
"I feel a little guilty," said Anna, crunching on tacos. "We’ve left you to feed us, and I’ve done nothing to help."
Brindle shook her head.
"It’s no trouble. It’s my forte. And just because we’re travelling in space on a crazy mission, doesn’t mean we don’t still have to eat."
"It’s much appreciated," said Snark. "I don’t know why we didn’t think to bring a chef right from the beginning."
He smiled, and took another bite of his taco, crumbs and juice falling down his front. He embarked on a period of intense licking.
The others made agreement noises. Brindle looked pleased, and went out with the empty plate.
"Ne’re-mind the Brotherhood," said Jamie. "What’s our plan?"
Anna sighed, and licked her fingers.
"We keep going to the Scylla system. We have the coordinates from the information from the cave, but I’m still trying to translate the Russian message. Sissness has developed a cool version of the interpreter program, and is going to try to untangle it a bit more."
"We should really stop somewhere and check for any serious damage, from our encounter with the whales," suggested Jamie.
Snark nodded.
"But, where?"
"We can always stop at the next habitable planet, station or moon, and just ask."
Jamie absentmindedly rubbed at a stain on his t-shirt. Anna laughed.
"That’s right. Keep it simple."
"Patters is on the bridge. Let’s go and see where we are," Snark suggested.
They all trooped out and entered the bridge, where Patters was on watch.
Patters had the navmap opened up to show the system they were crossing. It was updating constantly as the sensors reached further in.
"It’s a fairly standard looking system," she said. "With one exception. There's a gas giant in the inner system, with moons which might be inhabited. Otherwise fairly normal for a system with no viable planet in the sweet zone."
"There don’t seem to be any stations I can see," added Snark.
"No stations," confirmed Patters. "But there are definite signs of technology coming from one of the gas giant's moons, and what looks like a polluted atmosphere."
"Any sign of communications?" asked Snark.
"There seem to be a number of satellites in orbit. No weapons platforms."
"Hmmm."
Jamie double checked what she'd said, using his PC connection to the console. He didn’t find anything else to add.
"Do we orbit or not?" he asked.
"Not," said Anna.
"Yes," said everyone else.
Jamie shifted their course to come into an equatorial orbit. As they began their first orbit, breaks in the pollution and cloud cover revealed sprawling cities, and what was apparently a space port. There didn’t seem to be any space ships in orbit, or coming to or going from the moon. So, there didn’t seem to be a reason for the space port.
The coms console beeped, an audio only channel opened, and a voice came through the bridge speakers.
"Carfarques e prinko gallas," the voice said. "Cenquades e pollos."
"The language is obviously not programmed into our translator," said Snark.
There was some static, and voice started again.
"Greetings and salutations," the voice said this time. "State your business."
"This is the Seasprite, on a friendly trade mission," said Snark. "Who do we have the pleasure of addressing?"
"I am the Pratarch of Homeworld," the voice stated.
Obviously the translator was literally translating where it could, and leaving in the titles for the language being used. Snark recognised it might be a derivation of a trader patois of bat language.
"Greetings Pratarch of Homeworld. I am Snark, of the Cat Homeworld."
There was a pause.
"It is our very greatest pleasure to make your acquaintance, oh exalted one."
Snark looked in surprise at the others.
"Err, thanks," said Snark, slightly taken aback by the formal and effusive language.
"Your fame precedes you," added the Pratarch. "Snark is known throughout the trading worlds of the Edge. We are overjoyed to meet you in person."
"Likewise," said Snark, mystified, but rather pleased.
"Don’t let it go to your head, oh exalted one," laughed Jamie, sotto voce.
"We have made arrangements at our Space Port for you to land there. A welcoming committee is being prepared as we speak."
Snark was lost for words. Anna piped up.
"I am Anna, a colleague of Snark’s. We are very pleased at the welcome we are receiving."
"Any colleague of the exalted and illustrious Snark is more than welcome."
They signed off, with instructions being forwarded by a strange form of email, which Seasprite had to convert for them before sending to the coms console, containing landing procedures and protocols.
"I’ll call Sissness. Let’s see if we can’t get some further information about this lot," said Jamie.
&n
bsp; "The navmap doesn’t have an actual name listed for this moon, or any of the planets. The system doesn’t seem to have one either," offered Patters. "And nothing about Snark being lauded as the conquering hero."
She smiled and shook with muffled laughter.
"Bloody team," huffed Snark, in a more usual tone. "None of you appreciate greatness when you see it."
There was general laughter at this, and Snark went off to organise the shuttle.
The shuttle had been overhauled before they left the Cat World, and was now in much better shape than when they'd flown it to Perdita. It still looked its age, but at least now they had confidence it would take them anywhere safely.
Anna, Snark, and Jamie boarded the shuttle. Sissness and Brindle stayed behind in the ship with Patters. Sissness had learned quite a lot of the ship’s systems in the time she'd spent in the ship, and not researching, and Jamie was confident she could handle most situations bar a large-scale fight, with Patters there. Besides, Jamie was up for a visit to a new planet, and didn’t want to be left behind on Seasprite.
Sissness had found out some more information about the system. It was home to the Panesh, a species who looked something like a cross between a goat and a deer to the humans, with the usual four-legged centaur-like bodies.
The species had technology, but weren’t natively as advanced as some other areas of the sector, with no real space capability of their own. They had some ships, bought from traders, and no real weapons capability. Traders sometimes came this way, and ships from further within 'the Edge', as this area of space was known locally, but this was no major trade hub, more than a bit off the beaten track for most traders. Snark had never been here, or close.
Anna was thinking this was more a jaunt to satisfy everyone’s boredom. However, she was also intrigued to meet the goat-deer creatures, and had put her normal frustration and impatience on hold.
Snark was intrigued they knew his name and 'fame'. Jamie was less impressed, and kept making snide remarks about 'the exalted one'. Patters kept her thoughts to herself, while Sissness enthused at the prospect of a new species and civilisation, even though she wouldn’t meet them. Brindle was silent on most things, and although slightly miffed to be left behind, was in the process of concocting a particularly difficult dish, so could use some peace and quiet for a change.
Destiny Stone (A.I. Destiny Book 4) Page 8