by M. D. Cooper
“You’re sounding a bit like you’re prophesying all our doom,” Uriel chuckled. “From your own words, they’ve been out there for thousands of years. Other than to thwart potential discovery, why would they deliver this terrible future on us all?”
Even as she asked the question, a small voice in the back of her mind provided the answer, which Garza confirmed.
“They have the Intrepid,” he said.
“The colony ship,” Uriel replied. “You know where it is.”
“We have a number of candidate destinations,” Garza nodded. “We’re scouting them out now.”
Uriel leaned back in her chair and ran a hand through her short hair. Garza had not yet provided any concrete proof that the Transcend and his OFA existed, though she suspected that other than seeing it first-hand, little else would convince her. Any other token piece of technology could just be from some lost vault that Garza had found.
Still, the idea that the FGT had not disappeared—and was, instead, very active—intrigued her, piquing her curiosity, and tickling her imagination. Yet, one question remained. She suspected the answer, but she wanted to hear him say it.
“That explains the ‘why’ of their pending aggression. Now, tell me, what is it—General? Admiral?—Garza, why me? Why the Hegemony of Worlds?”
“General,” Garza replied with a tilt of his head. “To start, you’re not the only stellar nation we’re approaching, and with only a thousand stars within the Hegemony, and perhaps another thousand under your direct influence, you’re not the largest either. But you are the most powerful force in the Inner Stars; there is no doubt about that. Your industrial complex is only limited by the availability of raw resources,” Garza said.
Uriel nodded and glanced at Herin. Access to both raw and refined resources was one of the major reasons she partnered with the Trisilieds Alliance. Their location in the Pleiades gave them access to more raw matter and exotic elements than were present in the entire Hegemony.
Moreover, with her people constantly arguing for conservation, every effort to extract resources in any Hegemony system was met with resistance.
“You have access to unlimited resources,” Uriel said.
“Yes,” Garza replied. “We can supply you with whatever you need, in whatever quantities you require.”
“How many years are we talking about?” Uriel asked. “If the OFA is where you say it is, your inner perimeter must be at least five years away with optimal navigation. Resource production, your return trip, it would be at minimum a decade before you could deliver anything of use. How does that help us get the Intrepid from the Transcend?”
“Would you believe that a scant month ago, I was in Orion space having dinner with our Praetor?” Garza asked.
“If it were anyone else, no, I would not,” Uriel sighed. “We’re so far beyond what can be proven at this point, anyway—sure, why not?”
“I appreciate your candor,” Garza replied. “I don’t expect you to believe my words alone. I want to show you the Transcend, and show you what they are capable of. But it will take some time. First, we need to build a new fleet.”
“A new fleet?” Uriel asked. “Why would we do that?”
Garza leaned forward in his chair. “We’re going to use it to prove the Transcend’s existence, and their true nature.”
SABRINA
STELLAR DATE: 06.12.8928 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Sabrina
REGION: Interstellar Dark Layer near the Virginis System
Three months after Sabrina departed from the Intrepid in search of Finaeus.
“Here’s to being back in the black, and under our own steam, about to get back to civilization.” Thompson said and raised his glass for a toast.
“Back in the black,” Jessica intoned along with the rest of Sabrina’s crew.
Thompson raised one eyebrow while the other lowered. “You’ve never been in the black, not like this,” he said.
Jessica nodded. “You’re right, not like this—not in the dark layer on a small ship like this. But I’ve spent weeks in a single-pilot fighter out at the edge of a star-system, and I’ve probably logged as much time on smaller cruisers as any of you have.”
“She’s OK,” Cheeky said, draping an arm around Jessica’s shoulders. “Jessica and I are best buds now. She gets me.”
“Yeah, in your quarters,” Nance chuckled. “You two were made for each other.”
Nance’s words brought back memories of Trist and their time together at Kapteyn’s Star. After so long, flitting from partner to partner, she had never thought to settle down and marry. But now, Trist was dead, killed by Myrrdan, and she was a widow—a widow at only two-hundred and twenty years of age.
It was unheard of.
She and Cheeky had flirted on several occasions, but they had never slept together. Not that it was any of Nance’s business either way. Still, Jessica forced a smile, appearing nonchalant. “I like to keep myself entertained, what can I say?”
Cheeky ran a hand down her side and Jessica smiled. She kept up a brave face with the crew. Joining them on the hunt for Sera’s uncle Finaeus was a noble cause, but seeing New Canaan and being there for the initial colonization—that was something she had dreamed of for over a century.
Sure, she may not have been an actual colonist, dumped on the ship by Myrrdan in his/her version of a sick joke, but she had gone beyond accepting her fate, she had embraced it.
Tanis better save me a spot on her porch, she thought to herself.
Jessica suppressed a mental grimace. She liked Iris well enough, but she had spent her entire life without an AI embedded in her mind. It was a difficult adjustment to make, while also being on a ship where she wasn’t entirely welcome.
Jessica understood the yearning in Iris’s voice. They both missed their home already.
It also made her wonder whether Iris was ready for this mission. She was the child of a mind merge between Ylonda, Angela, Amanda, and Priscilla. AI often had humans in their lineage, but in Iris’s case, there was more human than AI in her source. She wasn’t sure if it was that, or the rare minds that Amanda and Priscilla represented which made Iris seem different than other AI she had known—not less mature—perhaps more vulnerable.
Iris giggled in response and Jessica turned her attention back to the conversation around the table. She had been following it to a degree, but she was nowhere near as proficient as Tanis when it came to carrying on several simultaneous conversations.
The crew was discussing where in the Virginis System they should dock. The system was well populated and there were over ten thousand stations within its helioshpere. Once Cheeky narrowed the selection to those operating as interstellar trade hubs, the list got much shorter—down to a few hundred.
Cargo suggested, since they did have cargo from their last pickup in Trio—which they had never delivered—that they should find a location less likely to ask questions about the provenance of their wares. Once they unloaded, they could proceed to a more reputable station to buy legitimate cargo.
“Couldn’t we just dump the cargo we have out here in the dark layer?” Jessica asked. “Then we could skip the first stop and just buy our next load. Sera left us more than enough
credit for that.”
Cargo shook his head. “That won’t do at all. We come in here with a registry that doesn’t have a lot of history, a load of cash, and just buy up some loose wares without a destination? That would be mighty suspicious.”
“More suspicious than coming in with a load of goods that are tagged for Edasich and selling them on the black market?” Jessica frowned.
“A lot more suspicious,” Thompson said. “Shit gets shipped to the wrong place all the time—trader’s schedules change, maybe a system along the way is more profitable. You don’t get a lot of repeat customers operating like that, but it happens. Sure, we’ll look a bit shady, and no one is going to want to give us a commissioned shipment, but we can pick up loose wares to sell at a profit elsewhere. It would fit the bill perfectly.”
“Don’t forget,” Cheeky added. “Virginis is right on the edge of AST space. It’s not officially in the Hegemony—but they still treat it like it’s their property. We don’t want to do anything that will attract any notice from them.”
Cargo nodded, so Jessica let it go. Interstellar trading was their business. Tracking down people who didn’t want to be found was hers. Staying off the AST’s scopes seemed like a wise decision.
“I’ll go with whatever you decide. Chances are that our Finaeus isn’t hiding out in the open anyway, so hanging out in the shadows will work just fine for me.”
“I think we should drop our stuff at Chittering Hawk,” Cheeky said, pointing at the holodisplay of the Virginis System rotating above their heads. “It’s got the right sort of businesses listed, and we should be able to get good cred for what we’ve got on board. Then we can go to that planet, Sarneeve, and dock at one of their elevator stations. They manufacture a perfume down there from some native flowers that will sell like crazy at Aldebaran.”
Aldebaran was the best lead Sera had on where to start looking for Finaeus, and their next stop after they established their new identity in Virginis.
Sabrina said.
“Just wait till we’re a long way from here,” Cargo replied.
Jessica nodded in agreement. “Chittering Hawk seems good to me, the sooner we get to Aldebaran, the better.”
“Yeah, but Sera’s uncle was spotted there almost twenty years ago,” Nance shook her head. “Does anyone really think we can find this guy? He could be anywhere—or not even in the Inner Stars, for all we know.”
“Sera seemed to think it was pretty important to hunt him down,” Jessica said. “She believes that the future of New Canaan will hinge on it.”
“Maybe she shouldn’t have told the Intrepid to meet up with her old friends in the Transcend, then,” Thompson said after taking a drink from his glass of beer. “Seems like a shit-show out there. Sure, things are a mess here in the Inner Stars, but they’re a glorious mess.”
He grinned and looked around the table at his crewmates. “Here we can go anywhere we want, see anything, do anything. The Transcend sounds like some sort of forced utopia, all rules and order. None of us will fit in there.”
“We weren’t always brigands,” Cheeky said softly. “Even you, Thompson, you were military in the Scipio Federation. We all fell into this sort of life. This is our opportunity to fall out of it.”
“Yeah? You may have fallen into it, but I chose it,” Thompson replied. “Anyway, we’re dumping out of the dark in an hour. I’m going to review our cargo and sort it for how it’ll likely sell at Chittering Hawk.”
The large man threw the last of his beer down his throat and slammed his hands down on the table. “Time to get to work, people.”
“He likes to exit a room with a bang, doesn’t he,” Jessica asked after Thompson had gone.
“That he does,” Cargo replied with a frown.
The group broke up shortly afterward, everyone departing with a list of tasks they needed to complete before Sabrina transitioned into normal space and began their insystem burn for Chittering Hawk station.
Jessica followed Cargo and Cheeky to the bridge, where she took up her place at the scan and weapons console. Cheeky took her customary pilot’s seat, and Cargo sat in the captain’s chair. No one took up the first officer’s console. Doing that would be a final admission that Cargo really was the captain and Sera wasn’t coming back.
Jessica knew that Sabrina’s crew didn’t want to accept the inevitable when it came to Sera’s future. Even if they took up Tanis’s offer and joined the New Canaan colony—perhaps became traders in the Transcend—there was no way Sera would ever return to the simple life of a freighter captain.
She continued her banter with Iris as the clock counted down to their exit from the dark layer. The system map showed that they would exit just over twenty AU from the Chittering Hawk station, but they would have to accelerate to catch up with it, based on their motion relative to the Virginis System and the station’s path around its host star.
When the time for transition came, her console came alive as scan data flooded in, and the system beacon delivered its welcome message.
“I’ve filed our flight path,” Jessica said. “They seem like a welcoming lot here.”
“I’ve only been through once before,” Cargo replied, “but I do recall them being pleasant enough. Not a lot of questions, either—was a good place for the Intrepid to drop us off.”
; Her primary duties done, Jessica took a moment to look over the system they were entering. Unlike Bollam’s World, Virginis had been terraformed by the FGT. That one difference put Virginis far ahead of the Bollam’s system in terms of prosperity.
Three terraformed worlds orbited the star at the inner edge of its habitable zone, and four more orbited the pair of smaller gas giants at the zone’s outer edge. Beyond those, two large Jovians separated the inner system from the dusty debris disk. At the outer edge of that disk, dozens of dwarf worlds orbited, many with small, artificial stars giving them light.
She investigated further and saw that one of the worlds, a lush garden planet massing twice that of Mars, was encircled by an artificial planetary ring, and all the terraformed worlds had at least one space elevator stretching into space.
“It reminds me of Sol,” she said softly.
“Star’s the right color,” Cargo grunted in agreement. “Even has the same number of orbital rings, but those ice giant planets are in the wrong spot…not that Sol has two of those anymore.”
“I was thinking more about the amount of stuff,” Jessica said. “They don’t have anything like the Cho—not that I can see at least—but I dunno…it just feels like home. I’d love set foot on a planetary ring again. It’s been too long since I left High Terra. I used to go to sleep with a view of Earth hanging over my head.”
“I’ll never get over how many of you colonists are from Earth,” Cheeky said with a soft sigh. “Real Earth, not the new Earth the Jovians made after cleaning up the mess they made…the original deal.”
Jessica had tried not to think of that, of what had happened in Sol after the Intrepid left. Things had been going downhill for centuries, but a decade after the Intrepid had left Kapteyn’s Star, the Sol Space Federation had dissolved in chaos, and war broke out between the major factions. In the end, the Jovians won, but not before they bombed Luna, High Terra, and Earth itself into radioactive cinders.
She still couldn’t imagine what they had been thinking, the hubris required to destroy their own ancient birthplace.