by M. D. Cooper
“This place is amazing,” Saanvi said with a smile as Tanis sat down beside them.
“You’ve been around the Transcend,” Tanis replied. “Surely you’ve seen things more impressive than Old Sam here.”
“That’s not it at all,” Saanvi laughed. “This place may be normal for you, Mom, but you have to remember, for me…Earth was little more than a myth to me, like Eden, or Rome. But this ship is from there!”
Tanis wrapped her arm around Saanvi’s shoulder. Their adopted daughter didn’t always call her mom, but when she did it warmed Tanis’s heart like nothing else.
“The ship’s actually from Mars,” Tanis corrected.
“Always with the facts, Mom,” Cary laughed. “The dirt in here is actually from Earth, though, that’s pretty amazing.”
“Yeah, from Canada,” Saanvi added. “The dirt in the other cylinder is from Mongolia, if I remember correctly.”
“I think I recall hearing something about that, back at Mars,” Tanis nodded. “It made the Sanctity of the Sol System folks especially upset. They tried to kill some of our biologists in response.”
Cary nodded. “We learned about that in school. You kicked some serious ass back then, Mom.”
It was strange to Tanis to hear about what her daughters learned in school. A significant part of their history classes were about the Intrepid’s journey, and her part in that story seemed to fill up a lot of the lessons.
“She’s blushing!” Saanvi called out and elbowed Cary. “Mom can be bashful, who knew?”
“What you’re witnessing here, girls,” Joe said with a grin, “is the Tanis in her natural habitat, letting herself appear vulnerable, but don’t be fooled. She’s still dangerous and ready to strike at any moment.”
“Hey!” Tanis scolded. “I bet you’re in those history lessons quite a bit, too, Admiral Evans.”
“Yeah,” Joe nodded. “But I like being in them, going to the classes, talking about our adventures.”
Tanis chuckled. “That makes me feel like Ulysses. I guess this was my Odyssey.”
“Only time will tell,” Joe smiled. “You still could go down as Don Quixote.”
“What in the stars are you talking about?” Cary asked.
Tanis let out a laugh. “They need to spend less time teaching you about me and more time on the true classics.”
“Transcend ship jumped into the system,” she said aloud to Joe. “Linking you in.”
Joe’s eyes grew wide and he nodded. “This’ll be good.”
Elena’s face appeared in their minds and Tanis felt a sense of relief. At least it was someone she trusted—mostly.
HELLESPONT
STELLAR DATE: 02.19.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS Hellespont, Gamma III Shipyard
REGION: Sparta, Moon of Alexandria, 5th Planet in the New Canaan System
Tanis stepped onto the Hellespont’s bridge with Joe and their two daughters in tow. The shakedown crew assigned to the ship was still out on maneuvers, testing another new vessel, but the skeleton crew from the Andromeda came along eagerly.
Especially Jim—it was his daughter who commanded the Hellespont after all.
“Ylonda, are we good to go?” Tanis asked aloud as she sat in the commander’s chair.
“Governor Richards,” a voice said from her right. “I believe you’re sitting in my chair.”
Tanis turned to see Ylonda standing beside her, her silver face wearing an impatient expression.
“Oh, sorry,” Tanis said feeling herself blush again.
“Quite all right,” Ylonda replied as she took her seat. “I had not yet announced that I am keeping my mobile form while in command of the Hellespont.”
“Then we have no ship’s AI?” Tanis asked, unable to feel any other AI presences on the ship over the Link.
“I’m operating as the ship’s AI, too,” Ylonda replied with a smile. “I have real-time, simultaneous linkage with my embedded ship-nodes.”
“You don’t have the wireless interface for that amount of bandwidth—does that mean Earnest finally figured out the fidelity and bandwidth issues with quantum entanglement?” Saanvi eagerly asked from the pilot’s seat where she had settled.
Ylonda nodded. “He has, though I don’t know how you learned he was working on that.”
“You’re not the only one who knows about special projects,” Saanvi said with a smug grin. “Earnest asked for my advice with some problems he was facing when he came over for dinner a month ago.”
“OK, folks,” Joe said from the XO’s seat. “We can all crow about our part in the advent of galaxy-wide, instantaneous communication later. Right now, we still have to get in range of Elena’s pinnace to have a little chat.”
Tanis looked around for an open console. Cary had taken weapons, so she sat at an auxiliary monitoring console. The sight of her two girls taking their places on yet another cruiser’s bridge filled her with pride once more. Someone was probably mumbling about nepotism somewhere, but this was just a simple interception of a friendly ship, deep in the system, and her girls were handy.
Safe as houses.
Bob replied.
Tanis replied.
“Ensign Cary, do we have station approval to release our moorings?” Ylonda asked.
“Aye, Captain, we have approval.”
“Very well. Cast off our moorings, let’s take her out.”
Tanis shared a smile with Joe as they settled back and watched their daughters fly their second cruiser that day.
Once the boards showed green for a successful mooring release, Saanvi targeted the grav pylons mounted to the cradle and began to push the ship out and into its lane. Ylonda offered a few words of guidance, but otherwise, let
the two girls manage the ship’s departure.
Tanis flipped the main holodisplay to show the Hellespont’s bow view, gazing at the dozens of cruisers they were sliding past. It was a fleet any commander would be honored to command. It was the fleet that would guarantee their safety from whatever schemes the Transcend, and any others, would, launch against them.
“Approaching the tunnel, Captain,” Cary said aloud. “We have clearance to enter the shaft.”
“Thank you, Ensign,” Ylonda replied. “Enable our active stealth systems as soon as we enter the tunnel. The outer shield won’t deactivate until station control has verified we are undetectable.”
“Yes, Captain,” Cary replied.
“General,” Ylonda turned to Tanis. “I assume you want to scoop up the pinnace while in stealth?”
Tanis nodded. “I do. We have to assume that the prying eyes out past our heliopause will see Elena’s ship disappear, but not for five or six months. By then, I imagine whatever is going to happen will be long over.”
Over the next few minutes, the ship slipped into the exit shaft, and Jim’s holo presence appeared beside Cary. Tanis watched with a mixture of pride and interest as he went over the systems with her that she would need to test for full stealth confirmation with station control.
The Hellespont already possessed the new systems, which the Andromeda was being refitted for. The ship would still be visible to keen optics at close range, but its ability to warp energy around its hull with minimal distortion was now at least on par with the Transcend cruisers they knew lurked around the edges of New Canaan.
Very soon, they would see how well the upgrades worked up close.
“ETA to interception?” Tanis asked.
“Three days and twenty hours,” Ylonda replied.
“Well, then,” Tanis said as she rose and stretched. “I don’t know about the rest of you—Captain Ylonda excluded of course—but I’m starved. Who could use a BLT?”
A WARNING
STELLAR DATE: 02.23.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS Hellespont
REGION: Stellar Space near Roma, 6th Planet in the New Canaan System
“Shit!” Elena swore as she walked down the pinnace’s ramp. “Here I thought with a Transcend ship, not some Inner Stars clunker, that I would spot you guys sneaking up on me.”
Tanis smiled and shook the woman’s hand. “We’ve been working on some upgrades over the last few years.”
“As I can see,” Elena replied. “I managed to get a peek at this ship when you scooped me in; if I’m not mistaken, this is a new class of ship we’ve not seen before.”
Tanis shrugged in response. “I’m not sure what your eyes out there have and have not seen. It takes half a year or more for news to get out to Isyra and her fleet.”
Elena laughed ruefully. “I wish we weren’t doing that. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy. Want a conflict? Just interdict a world and pile on a fleet or two. Stir it up and see what happens.”
Tanis led Elena across the docking bay toward an awaiting maglev car. “What is so important that you jumped so deep insystem—you never know what you can hit doing something like that.”
“Core-devils, don’t remind me,” Elena shook her head. “Airtha is gaining on the Cradle at a good clip right now. It makes for some seriously high delta-v on entry.”
“And yet, you didn’t rotate and brake after you came through,” Tanis prompted.
“Yes, I’m trying not to draw any extra attention from Isyra and her fleet,” Elena nodded as they got in the train car.
Four Marines wearing powered armor followed them in and occupied the four corners of the car. Tanis hadn’t even realized a platoon was on the ship until Ylonda sent a fireteam down with her to the dock.
“But why bother?” Tanis asked, ignoring Angela’s remark. “When they do see your jump, I’m sure whatever you’ve come to tell me will be old news.”
“That’s the thing, isn’t it…” Elena said. “How sure are you that they don’t have ships inside your star’s heliosphere?”
Tanis leaned back in her seat and shrugged. “One-hundred percent? No. But, I’m damn close to that level of certainty. We can’t see their ships all the time, but we have been able to pick them out and count them over the years. Unless she has a second class of ship that we can’t see…”
Tanis let the statement hang and her right eyebrow rose.
“Pumping me for intel, Governor? Hell…I’m practically committing treason by being here.”
The maglev stopped and Tanis rose from her seat and Elena followed. They walked through a short corridor to a crew lounge on the ship’s starboard side. It wasn’t luxurious, but it was serviceable and private.
Tanis signaled a servitor to bring them drinks—remembering what Elena had preferred from her brief visit on the Intrepid eighteen years earlier.
“Why don’t you start by telling me what Sera sent you to say—though, I think I can guess,” Tanis asked.
“Not a lot of options, are there?” Elena said with a nod before sipping her drink. “Things are heating up between us and the Orion Guard. They’ve allied with the AST and attacked Ascella.”
“What?” Tanis sat up straight. “Attacked how?”
“With a massive fleet—thousands of ships. Only…they were just empty hulls. It was a feint.”
“And it forced you to show your hand. Now the AST knows about the Transcend,” Tanis leaned back and shook her head.
Elena nodded. “So far, the knowledge has not leaked to the general populace, but it will soon enough.”
“Stars, and I thought we’d have another decade or two before Tomlinson came knocking on our door,” Tanis said with a long sigh. “How much time do we have before he gets here?”
“I don’t know, Sera has…worked her way into his inner circle, but he’s grown suspicious of her—for reasons she hasn’t been able to discern,” Elena supplied.
Tanis considered what she would do in Tomlinson’s stead. It would depend on the threat he faced.
“How did General Greer defeat the AST fleet?” she asked. “I assume from your wording that he did win.”
“He did…” Elena paused and Tanis wondered what had happened. “Oh stars,” Elena shrugged before continuing. “You’ll find out eventually. They sent antimatter warheads through the jump-gates into the AST ships. They obliterated them.”
“Sweet black space, they used antimatter?” Tanis exclaimed. “That’s still a war crime, isn’t it?”
Elena nodded. “Yeah, even for us. I have no idea why Sera suggested it…”
“Sera what?” Tanis almost yelled. “They must have contingencies for an attack on a watchpoint that don’t involve detonating antimatter. Once you start doing that…”
“You’re preaching to the choir, here,” Elena said with her hands raised. “I said as much to Sera. She really has no idea why she suggested using antimatter—well, she has some idea. The alternative on the table was to blow the stars and Helen suggested sending the warheads instead.”
“Blowing the stars…” Tanis shook her head. “You guys don’t do things by halves, do you?”
“No,” Elena laughed ruefully. “Not so much.”
“So, AST has joined with the Orion Guard, war is about to explode across human space, the President of the Transcend Interstellar Alliance is probably going to come here in person to demand our tech to give him an edge, and he’s going to do it with an overwhelming show of force intended to cow us into submission. Don’t know when, but probably
in a few months at most,” Tanis said while ticking items off her fingers. “That sound about right?”
“Yup, that about sums it up,” Elena nodded.
“Well, you’re stuck here ’til this goes down. Care to have dinner with Joe and my two girls?”
“You seem…unfazed by this,” Elena said with a frown.
“Elena, I’ve been at this for some time, and honestly, when it comes to war machines, even the Transcend doesn’t build ’em like they used to. Back in Sol, the TSF had a million warships for just one system. I’m aiming to replicate that number.”
Elena spit out her drink. “You have a million warships?”
Tanis shook her head and laughed. “No, not quite so many, but by the time your president arrives, he’ll meet over ten thousand ships of this classification alone.”
Elena wiped her mouth and rose from the table while shaking her head. “Fuck, Tanis, what are you planning to do?”
“Maintain New Canaan’s independence,” she replied. “And before you ask, at whatever cost is necessary.”
“Tanis,” Elena said levelly. “You could join with the Transcend, give them your pico—or better yet, give it to everyone—it would stop this war from happening.”
“No,” Tanis replied. “It would escalate it. The Transcend, Inner Stars, Orion Guard…they’re on the edge of going nova. All we ever wanted was to leave all of humanity’s petty infighting behind, but we can’t get away from it. Our technology has already proven to be too much of a catalyst. I won’t escalate things further.”
Tanis replied.
Tanis shook her head and pushed the thoughts from her mind. For now, she was going to enjoy what would probably be the last uninterrupted meal with her family for some time.