by Ryk Brown
Doctor Chen studied her data pad for a moment, skimming through the young man’s latest test results. “I don’t see any medical reason to keep you from returning to your duties…”
“Yes!” Josh exclaimed under his breath.
“…On the condition that you start slowly and don’t overdo it,” she added.
“This is the Aurora, Doc. When do we ever do anything slowly?”
“Please, don’t remind me.”
Josh looked across the treatment room at the unfamiliar man sitting on the edge of the bed. He had been sitting there quietly, not talking with anyone and watching people come and go the entire hour Josh had been receiving his infusion. “Who is that guy?”
Doctor Chen turned slightly, looking over her shoulder. “His name is Tony. Lieutenant Commander Nash brought him and his friend back with her from Earth.”
“Is he injured?”
“Cuts and scrapes mostly, but his friend is still in surgery. She was in pretty bad shape when they landed.”
“A girl? What happened to them?”
“Something about an ambush when they were being picked up.”
“He doesn’t look good,” Josh commented.
Doctor Chen looked at Josh, noticing the concern on his face. “Maybe you should speak with him,” she suggested. “You still have to wait fifteen minutes for the nanites to disperse throughout your system before you are free to move around at will.”
“I wouldn’t know what to say to him,” Josh said.
“Just introduce yourself; ask how he’s doing. Talk about whatever he wants to talk about. Just distract him from worrying about his friend. That alone would probably help.”
Josh looked at the doctor. “Didn’t know you were a counselor as well.”
“Part of the job,” she said. “I’ll check back with you in fifteen minutes.”
Josh waited for the technician to finish taping up his arm, then stood and walked across the room toward Tony. As he approached, Tony looked up at him, his eyes full of doubt and fear. Josh recognized that look. It was the same one that Kaylah had worn for the first few days after Josh had regained consciousness. “Hi, I’m Josh,” he said, extending his hand toward Tony.
“Tony,” the stranger answered, shaking his hand.
“You okay?” Josh asked, pointing at the bandage on Tony’s forearm.
“That’s nothing,” Tony answered. “Just a cut.” Tony looked at Josh’s arm. “What about you?”
“Me? I was all messed up: subdural something, broken bones, radiation burns. I was out for like a week or something.”
“Wow. You look like you’re doing pretty well, then. What were they giving you,” he asked, pointing at Josh’s bandaged IV site, “medicine or something?”
“Just another batch of nanites. I get a new batch every few days now.”
“Really? They gave some to my friend when we landed. What are they, exactly?”
“Nanites? I don’t really know for sure. They’re some kind of microscopic robots they inject in you. They use this scanner to program them to fix you up inside.”
“How many do they put inside you?”
Josh scratched his head. “Huh, I never really thought to ask. Millions, I think.”
“Do they hurt?” Tony wondered.
“If you have a lot of them all working in one spot, sort of. They feel like little needles poking you on the inside.”
“That doesn’t sound fun.”
“You get used to it,” Josh said, sitting down on the end of the bed. “It helps if you keep yourself busy doing something. Keeps your mind off them.”
“They said something about the pain when they injected her with those things,” Tony said. “They seemed worried about it.”
“I think people from Earth feel the nanites more than others. For some reason, they don’t bother the Corinairans. I suppose it’s because they’re the ones who made them.”
“Corinairans?”
“People from Corinair?” Josh said. “Oh, yeah. You wouldn’t know about them, would you?”
“What, is it a planet or something?” Tony wondered. “I heard there were old colonies of Earth nearby.”
Josh laughed. “Corinair is not exactly nearby.”
“Is that other doctor, the one with the funny accent… is she from Corinair?”
“Yeah. That would be Doctor Galloway. She’s really good. Of course, all the Corinairan doctors are really good. From what I understand, they’re more advanced than the doctors you have on Earth.”
Tony looked at Josh. His eye squinted, and a confused look crossed his face. “So you’re not from Earth, either?”
“Me, no. Never been there.”
“But you’re not from Corinair, right?”
“How’d you know?”
“No accent.”
Josh nodded. “I was raised on Haven.”
“Is that near Corinair?”
“A few months ago, I would have said no, but now that I’ve traveled all the way to Sol, Haven seems really close to Corinair.”
“This is getting really confusing,” Tony said. He looked around the room, hoping for someone that might offer some information about the condition of his friend.
“You’re worried about your friend, aren’t you?” Josh said.
“Of course I’m worried about her. No one has told me anything since I got here—except for you, that is.”
“Listen, I know this probably sounds stupid, but I’m telling you, the doctors here do amazing stuff. They’ll take care of her. And whatever they can’t fix, the nanites can.”
There was a long pause. Finally, Tony sighed. “I hope you’re right.”
Josh looked around, unsure of what to say next. He glanced at the time display on the wall. He still had five minutes to kill. “So, what’s your friend’s name?”
“Synda.”
“She your girlfriend or something?”
“No, nothing like that. We used to spar together in the gym, back before the Jung invaded. Until a week ago, I hadn’t seen her in months, not since the invasion.”
Josh turned his head toward the hatchway. In the corridor outside, he could see Captain Scott talking with two strangers in EVA suits. Two medical technicians joined them and led the two strangers away, after which the captain stepped through the hatch and walked toward Josh.
“How are you doing, Mister Hayes?” the captain asked as he approached.
“Great, sir,” Josh answered. “Never better.”
“That’s what I want to hear,” Nathan answered. “Have you seen the doc?”
“She’s somewhere around.”
“I’ll be back in a moment,” Nathan said as he left to find Doctor Chen.
After Nathan left, Tony asked, “Who was that?”
“That’s the Aurora’s captain.”
“Aren’t captains usually older?” Tony wondered.
“I suppose. I haven’t met many myself,” Josh answered. “Captain Scott’s pretty good, though.”
“Scott? As in Nathan Scott, the president’s son?”
“Yeah, but I thought he was a senator or something,” Josh said.
“He was elected president of the North American Union just after the Aurora was reported lost. A lot of people say he won with the sympathy vote due to the loss of his son.”
“I didn’t even know there was such a thing.”
“What?”
“Sympathy votes.”
“You don’t have them on your world?”
“We don’t even have elections on my world.”
Tony squinted, becoming curious. “Where exactly is your planet?”
“Haven’s not a planet; it’s a moo
n orbiting a gas giant. It’s in a system just outside the Pentaurus cluster.”
“I have never heard of the Pentaurus cluster. Where is it?”
“Using Earth’s coordinate system, I couldn’t rightly tell you. We had to convert everything over to the Takaran’s galactic coordinate system in order to work with the new navigation systems they installed.”
“Well, how far is it from Earth?” Tony wondered.
Josh laughed. “About a thousand light years.”
“You traveled a thousand light years?” Tony asked in disbelief. “You must have amazing ships.”
“We came in this ship,” Josh said, “in the Aurora.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” Josh said, somewhat boastfully. “Her jump drive is amazing.”
“Jump drive?” Tony wondered, his eye widening.
“It allows us to instantly jump through light years of space… all in a single instant.”
Tony’s jaw was hanging open. “That’s unbelievable!”
“That’s what I thought at first,” Josh admitted.
“And it can jump a thousand light years?”
“Actually, no,” Josh corrected. “It took us seventy-five jumps to get here. What with recharge layovers and all, it took us a few weeks.”
“It’s still incredible.” Tony looked at Josh. “So what do you do around here?” Tony asked.
“I’m a pilot,” Josh bragged. “I used to fly this ship, but lately, most of my flying has been in the Falcon.”
“What’s that?”
“The Falcon? It’s an old deep space interceptor we fixed up. We use it mostly for recon missions.”
“Sounds exciting.”
“It can be,” Josh said, “but most of the time it’s just boring, short jumps.”
“The Falcon has a jump drive as well?”
“Yeah. It used to have linear FTL, but they yanked it to make room for the jump drive instead.”
“Does it have weapons?”
“Of course,” Josh bragged. “It has a missile bay and a nasty-ass plasma turret in the nose. Unfortunately, we don’t get to use them very often.”
“They don’t use it in combat?” Tony asked.
“Sometimes, but mostly we just jump in, cold-coast through a system, collect information, and hope no one spots us.”
“Is that how you got injured? Someone spotted you?”
“Something like that, yeah.”
Nathan came back into the room, interrupting the conversation. “Are you ready to return to duty, Josh?” he asked as he approached.
“Hell yes… I mean, yes, sir,” Josh exclaimed. “I’ve been practically living in the simulators…”
“Yeah, I know. I’ve seen your flight performance reports. They look pretty good.”
“I’m not sure what the doc will say, though,” Josh admitted.
“I’ve already spoken with Doctor Chen. Although she would prefer that you had another week or two, she gave you the green light.”
A huge smile came across Josh’s face. “Just say when, Captain.”
“Report to flight prep. Loki’s already there waiting for you.”
“What’s the mission, sir?”
“Lookout duty,” Nathan said. “Not very exciting, I know, but we need eyes on Earth to let us know if the Jung send any ships out our way. Loki’s got the mission parameters and flight plan.”
“Sounds exciting enough for me, sir,” Josh said. “Anything to get back in the cockpit again.”
“I had a feeling you’d say that.”
“Thank you, sir,” Josh said as he rose. He looked at Tony. “Don’t worry; your friend will be all right. You’ll see.”
Tony nodded his thanks at Josh as he departed. He looked at Nathan.
“No word yet on your friend?” Nathan asked.
“No, sir.”
“Lieutenant Commander Nash will be up shortly to check on you. Meanwhile, I’ll see if I can’t get an update for you.” Nathan patted Tony on the shoulder as he turned to depart.
“Thank you, sir,” Tony said, watching the captain as he departed.
* * *
Vladimir, his team of four technicians, and two Corinari security troops entered the compartment in the Celestia’s aft section where the data cores from the Ark had been stored for the last few months. Ensign Tillardi and Lieutenant Commander Kovacic followed closely behind. As they entered, two EDF marines stood, snapping to attention as the lieutenant commander entered the room.
Vladimir looked them over briefly. They were wearing combat pants and T-shirts, both of which were fairly worn out after months of constant use. They still wore their sidearms, and their automatic weapons were slung over their shoulders, but they had long ago abandoned their body armor and headgear. “As you were,” Vladimir ordered as he approached the carefully secured carts containing the data cores. “Are these the data cores?” he inquired, already knowing the answer.
“Yes, sir,” one of the marines answered smartly.
“Is it true, sir?” the other marine asked, breaking military protocol by speaking. “Are you guys from the Aurora?”
Lieutenant Commander Kovacic smiled. “It’s true. The Aurora is hovering less than one hundred meters off our port side. We’ve been ordered to move the data cores over to her as soon as possible.”
Vladimir moved closer to the carts carrying the cores. He looked at the third man standing by the carts. The man was younger, on the slim side, and without the same mannerisms as the other men. He seemed somewhat nervous. “I am Lieutenant Commander Kamenetskiy,” he told the young man. “I am the Aurora’s chief engineer. And you are…?”
“Yanni Hiller.”
“You are not EDF.”
“No, sir. I work for the Ark Foundation.”
“Why are you here?” Vladimir wondered.
“When we received orders to evacuate the cores, my supervisor ordered me to stay with them no matter what.”
“All the way to Metis?”
“I’m not sure he knew where they were going when he told me to stay with them.”
Vladimir looked at the marines. “Is this true?”
“Yes, sir,” the first marine answered. “The only time he leaves them is to use the head. We were in the shuttle that picked them up from the Ark facility. They were under attack by the Jung when we arrived.”
“And you’ve all been here guarding these cores since then?”
“Yes, sir,” the first marine said. “Those were our orders as well.”
Vladimir couldn’t help but laugh. “I am impressed,” he told them. “You may continue to remain with the cores if you wish. You’ll be happy to know that the Aurora does have better accommodations.”
“I’ll be happy if they have clean uniforms,” the second marine said.
“I’m sure they can find something for each of you,” Vladimir promised. “These men will help you move the cores to our shuttle for transfer to the Aurora,” Vladimir explained as he signaled his technicians to start moving the cores.
“Excuse me, Lieutenant Commander,” Yanni said. “The cores are very sensitive. They are one thousand years old, after all. They must be handled very carefully.”
“I assume that is why your supervisor sent you with them,” Vladimir said, “to see to their proper handling and storage.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Do you also know how to retrieve data from these cores?”
“Retrieve data?”
“Yes. We will need to copy everything on these cores into another storage system, something more current… more robust.”
Yanni was speechless. “Sir, that would take years, possibly decades, especially if the data must be un
compressed as it is copied. The amount of capacity needed would be enormous. That is why we have only been transferring what we need. Earth simply doesn’t have the computer capacity to copy everything from them.”
“I believe our allies have the capacity required,” Vladimir assured him.
Yanni looked confused. “Our allies?”
Vladimir looked at the marines. “Gentlemen?” The marines moved toward the carts to disconnect the cargo nets covering them and holding them securely to the deck.
“What allies?” Yanni asked again as they prepared to move the cores.
* * *
Jessica and Major Waddell walked into the cargo bay that was being used as the Ghatazhak’s headquarters aboard the Aurora. The large bay had been emptied of all its contents other than the shipping container that had once held the Ghatazhak and their gear.
“What the hell?” Jessica mumbled as they entered. All about her were young men of nearly identical size and proportion. The only way to distinguish one man from another was by their facial features, hair color, and eye color. They were spread out around the room. Some were partaking in organized calisthenics. Others were studying computer terminals. There were even several of them sitting in rows of chairs watching what appeared to be Takaran entertainment videos.
As she stood there looking, four men entered from behind her, greeting her politely and with perfect military decorum as they passed.
“Where the hell did they get all this stuff?” she wondered.
“The captain has supplied them with whatever he could spare in order to keep them separated from the crew for the time being.”
“I’m not surprised,” Jessica said, “considering how many Corinairans these guys slaughtered.” She looked at the major. “I’m surprised you’re so calm about it. They put some serious hurt on your company back on Takara.”
“These men did not do so,” Major Waddell corrected. “The men you speak of did not survive.”
“Good point. So you’re okay with this?”
“Honestly, I would prefer they were not here. However, I must admit that thus far they have proven to be most effective.”