Stealing Endeavour: Book 1 of the Forever Endeavour, Amen Trilogy

by Martin Tays

  “Huh.” Moses turned again toward his guest. “I would think the ring would be more even. Why is it clumped like that?”

  “Moses?” Sandar zoomed in on the planet’s surface. “Look again.”

  He obediently looked back to the image. The planet seemed to be fairly earth-like… about half or a little over covered in water, assorted continents… and ringed with… “Are those craters, Sandar?”

  “Yeah. All around the equator. Some big ones, too. I’ll bet there’s some pretty damn big ones underneath those oceans, also.”

  “Wow. They all look pretty recent, geologically speaking.” He looked over to S’Nhu-gli. “How far back do your people’s records go?”

  “Far enough to record the disaster, if that is what you are asking.”

  Mattie spoke up from the helm. “Your planet used to have a moon, didn’t it?”

  “Indeed. Indeed, it did. One approximately the size of your Luna. This was, of course, before the Coming.”

  Moses looked puzzled. “The coming?”

  “Yes. The Coming of The Interloper.”

  ☼

  “Can we make this quick, Moses? I’m kinda busy.” Cath said as she pushed her way into the bridge.

  Moses hesitated, then shook his head. “Probably not, no.”

  Cath took in the bridge. Moses looked grim, the alien seemed, well, alien, but all the rest of the crew looked pole axed. Mattie appeared stunned, and both Sandar and Ami were crying. She looked back toward the captain. “What the hell…?”

  “Cath, um, there’s something you need to know.”

  “I get the feeling that I don’t want to know it.”

  Moses nodded. “You’ve got that right. Tell me, when you remove a Band-Aid, do you tend to peel it off a little at a time, or do you just yank it off?”

  She cocked an eyebrow at him. “I’m a yanker. You should know that.”

  “Yeah.” Moses replied. “I just wanted to hear you say it.” He turned and pointed toward the vid window. “It’s not your fault, first off. Not yours, not Brendan’s, not anyone in the build crew.”

  “What’s not my fault?”

  “The probe. Jason. There’s a reason it stopped in this system. Remember how it interacts with mass?”

  “Yeah.” She nodded, staring at the image on the screen. “Poorly.”

  “This…” Moses pointed. “Is S’Nhu-gli’s home planet. Up until about a hundred years ago, it had a moon.”

  For a brief moment Cath just stared at Moses. Then her eyes widened and her head shot around to look at the screen. Slowly, she turned again to look at S’Nhu-gli. “No.” The alien just nodded in a distractingly human fashion.

  “No.” She repeated, looking again at the scarred planet on the screen.

  “Cath, it’s not your fault. It was a one in a billion accident.” Said Moses.

  Cath ignored him and spoke to the alien. “How… how many?”

  “We have never been able to generate an exact number ― there was too much damage. But our best estimates put the number of casualties at around thirty five million.”

  Cath turned white. She slumped in midair, for once looking every bit as old as she was. Sandar unfastened her safety belt and pushed over to Cath, drawing the unresisting engineer into her arms.

  Moses quietly cleared his throat. When he had Ami’s attention, he pointed to the now abandoned nav station. Ami nodded, pushed over and safed the console.

  “Bridge to medical. Doctor Smith?”

  “Yes, captain?” Came the reply.

  “Could you please join us on the bridge? I believe your services may be required.”

  “I see. On my way.”

  No one spoke further until Smith entered the bridge. Moses just pointed at the engineer, who hung, still unresponding, in Sandar’s embrace. “I’ll explain why, later, but she’s had quite a shock. Is she okay?”

  The doctor queried Cath’s nannies using his pcomp, then looked at the resulting data. He shrugged and twisted to look back toward the captain’s chair. “Somewhat, yes. Elevated levels of epinephrine, initial tachycardia symptoms treated by the nanite’s arrhythmia protocols. Fast thready pulse, and her blood pressure’s through the roof.”

  “You mean she’s having a heart attack?”

  “Had one. Or would have, without the nanites.” He keyed a series of commands into his pcomp. “I’m releasing a vasodilator into her system, and of course a sedative. I believe we should get her to the medical pod.”

  “Well, duh.” Said Moses. He looked over at Sandar, who was gently cradling Cath’s unresponsive head to her breasts. “Sandar? Can you handle that? Do you need some help?”

  Sandar looked up, eyes blazing, and snarled. “No one else touches her.”

  “O… kay. No problem. Doc? Please keep us informed.”

  Smith nodded and went over to Sandar. She growled, literally growled, then ― very reluctantly ― allowed him to assist her. They carefully maneuvered Cath’s still unresponsive body off the bridge.

  For a long moment no one spoke. Then Mattie spoke up without turning. “Well, that went well.”

  Moses put his hands over his eyes. “Jesus.” Ami came over and gently rubbed the top of his head.

  She grinned wryly, looking down at the top of his head, and finally spoke. “Moses? Promise me something?”

  Without removing his hands, Moses replied. “What’s that?”

  “Please. Never remove a Band-Aid from me.”

  Moses looked up, finally, a ghost of a smile on his face. He reached out, grabbed her hand, and squeezed it. Hard. “You got it, babe.”

  ☼

  “There she is. Right on schedule.”

  On the viewscreen the eye-aching knot of the warship’s warp bolus, which ― having outrun its own image ― had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, vanished abruptly. In its place the warship hung.

  Accompanying it was a blare of noise across most communications spectrums as every transmission attempted by the ship during its voyage was released from the now vanished warp volume at once.

  Moses winced and wiggled a finger in his ear. “Remind me to let them know about that little problem, will you?”

  “You’ve gotta admit, it makes a neat party trick.” Leo said from maneuvering. Since Cath had gone to the medical pod, Leo had been running engineering single handedly. The strain was beginning to show.

  “Leo, when was the last time you closed you eyes?”

  “Both of them?”

  “Yeah. At once. To sleep.”

  Leo shrugged. “Not quite sure. I know my nannies are whining about giving me another booster.”

  “I’ll be there in ten to relieve you.” Replied Moses. “I’m sure there’s buttons back there I haven’t had a chance to push, yet.”

  “Oh, thanks. That’s gonna relax me and let me go to sleep.”

  “Six hours. Minimum. You got that? I can have the doc knock you out, you know.”

  “Yeah, yeah, sure. You just want a chance to ravish my unconscious body.”

  “Not if you had tits on your back and I had a jar of Vaseline. Bridge out.” Moses looked over at Ami, who was staring at him with an appalled expression on her face. “What?”

  “You’re a sick, sick puppy, Moses.” Supplied Mattie helpfully from the helm. “And we’re getting a transmission.”

  “From the warship?”

  “No, from Emperor Ming. He’s demanding our unconditional surrender.”

  “No more movie nights for you. Put ‘em on.” There was a moment of silence, then a wash of static as the audio only transmission arrived from the alien vessel. “General Kar Uhtah?”

  There was a brief muttered conversation over the air, then “The general wishes to inf
orm you that that’s K’Har-atah.”

  “Right. Kar Uhtah. Tell him I said ‘howdy’. I trust your journey went well?”

  “Yes, Lord M’Hoses. We journeyed excellently. Is my father well?”

  S’Nhu-gli spoke up. “Yes, child. I am well. I am quite surprisingly well, in fact. We will discuss why, later. I hear you have been practicing your English.”

  “Yes, Father. The instructioning material provided by the human A’Hmee has been very helpful. Though I feel the urge to sing my responses, now.”

  Moses Spocked an eyebrow at Ami. “Sing?”

  Ami smiled. “The closest thing we had available in the ship’s records to instructional material were some old Sesame Street recordings. Twenty third century revival episodes ― the ones they made on Mars.”

  “The ones with Bradburrie, the Martian?”

  “Yep.”

  “Oh, dear.”

  “I have becoming quite enamored of the small furry one named Oscar.” Supplied T’Han-mri over the link. “He looks a bit like my father.”

  “Acts like him, too.” Supplied Moses helpfully.

  “Have I just been insulted?” Asked the priest. Several people around the bridge nodded. “Oh. Very good, then.”

  “Father, may I come over? Because we are done using the warping drive I have not the need to remain here on the warship. I would like to join you.”

  S’Nhu-gli looked questioningly at Moses. Moses shrugged and replied “Why not? the more, the merrier.”

  The alien priest then looked over to Ami, who said “And the translation of that Moseism is ‘yes, she may’ and please, and thank you.”

  S’Nhu-gli then looked up and spoke. “Come ahead then, dear, and bring a bottle of J’hibsum wine, if any remains on the ship. I have been telling my friend M’Hoses, here, of how wonderful it is. I would like for him to taste it.”

  “Um.” Said Moses. “That’s the stuff that’s made in an animal, right?”

  “It spends part of its fermentation cycle in a kraat’s third stomach, yes. Does this bother you?”

  “No, no, of course not,” he replied, shuddering. “Why should it possibly bother me?”

  S’Nhu-gli’s muzzle wrinkled. “After you insisted I consume that insect vomit I thought it would be appropriate to return the favor.”

  “Hey! You said you liked that honey!”

  “Indeed. As you will like the wine. Friend M’Hoses, would I lie to you?”

  Moses grinned. “Of course not. You’re the most trustworthy weasel I know.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Ami sighed. “T’Han-mri? Sweetie? This is Ami. Ignore these men and come on over. We’ll be happy to see you.”

  “And I will be happy as well to see you, friend A’Hmee. I will be there shortly.”

  “Sounds good. See you soon. Endeavour out.” She looked over toward Mattie, who cut the circuit.

  “Okay, people, we probably need to get a course plotted to Tarn… Tan… to his planet.” Moses turned to the helm. “Mattie? Think you can handle it, or should we get Sandar up here?”

  “No, no, I can do it. Not that you could drag her out of the med module at the moment, anyway.”

  “True. Not without a net and a trank gun, anyway.” He unfastened his safety belt and pushed away from the chair. “Mattie, you’ve got the bridge. I’m going back to relieve sleeping beauty in engineering.”

  “That’s two lies in one statement.”

  Moses looked over at Ami. “You realize I’m going to tell him you said that, right?”

  “I’m his sister. He’s heard me say worse.”

  He smiled. “Probably. Keep me posted, and let me know when the shuttle gets here.”

  “You’ve got it.” She paused, then grinned slyly. “Lord Moses.”

  “Damn. I was hoping that’d go by without comment.”

  “With this crowd?” Mattie grinned. “You have got to be kidding me.”

  “You people have been hanging around with too many bad influences.”

  Mattie smiled. “Yeah, but what could we do? You are the captain ― we couldn’t very well leave you behind.”

  Moses almost made it off the bridge before cracking up.

  ☼

  “Shipwide. Bridge to all. Please verify all stations ready for warp.”

  “Life support ― ready for warp.”

  “Damage control ― ready for warp.”

  “Engineering ― I still can’t believe we’re going to keep calling it that.”

  Rafe looked up at the vid window from maneuvering. “Mad, please. I think it’s as silly as you do. But it’s better than the governor’s recommendation.”

  Madeline shuddered. “The Valentine Effect? Okay, you’ve got a point.” She switched to a really bad fake Scottish brogue. “Engineering ready for warp, Cap'n! Please don't give me bonnie bairns a rogering!”

  “Don’t make me turn this spaceship around, young lady. Shipwide out.” He suppressed a grin and looked around the bridge. “Helm?”

  “Ready, sir.”

  “Navigation?”

  “Course laid in and available to the helm.”

  “Excellent.” The pause was almost undetectable before he turned and continued. “Fire control?”

  Sam looked over from her station, shoe-horned onto the bridge by life support. “Fire control is ready, captain.”

  “Goody. I mean… good. Good.” He nodded sharply, then turned to the new chair installed beside the captain’s on the bridge of the Excelsior. “The ship is prepared in all aspects for warp. Sir.”

  “And about time, too.” Celestine Grace looked around the bridge. “The sooner we start, the quicker we can catch them. You may proceed.”

  “Bridge to engineering. Standby, Madeline.”

  “Standing by.”

  “Helm?” Abbey Obaseki, at the helm, turned to look at Rafe as he pointed forward. “Engage.”

  Rafe ignored the cry of ‘geek!’ from the still open engineering window and looked at the forward view. A small knot appeared at the center, a knot of disorientation that expanded with a disconcerting rapidity to fill the viewscreen. Around the bridge people flinched back unconsciously from the screen.

  Abbey turned from his controls. “Warp drive engaged, captain.”

  “Thank you, and kill that damn view. It’s making my eyeballs scream… thanks. Shipwide. Secure the maneuvering watch. set normal watch rotation, section green. Department heads to the mess deck for a meeting. Well done, everyone. Shipwide out.” Rafe looked back again at Grace. “Well, that went well.”

  “Did it? It seemed… remarkably anticlimactic.”

  “Trust me. In a spaceship, ‘remarkably anticlimactic’ is the way to go, every time.”

  “I suppose. I shall be in my cabin.” Grace unfastened his safety belt and, with a remarkably lack of his namesake attribute, pushed off toward the hatch.

  Rafe shook his head and looked back around the crowded bridge. Finally, he let his eyes light on Sam. He smiled. “So, coming to the meeting?”

  She grinned in return. “What, listen to a half dozen department heads squabble for hours over power priorities and who outranks who? Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

  “That’s whom, as in ‘who outranks whom’, dear.”

  Rafe turned to the still open vid widow from maneuvering. “Nice to see those elocution lessons are finally paying off, Mad. You’re the Chief Engineer. I expect to see you there, too.”

  “Oh, crap.”

  “That’s what you get for eavesdropping. Bridge out.” The vid window disappeared. Rafe pushed off from the command chair and crossed over to where Sam was safing the fire control station. She pulled a chai
n from around her neck and turned it in a lock on the panel, then put it back on, tucking the key inside the top of her coverall.

  “You know, this is where Moses would make some smartass comment about ‘lucky key’.”

  “But you won’t.”

  “Nope.”

  “You’re above that.”

  “Yep.” Rafe turned back toward the helm. “Mister Obaseki, you have the conn.”

  Abbey turned and nodded. “I have the conn, aye, sir.” As Rafe pushed through the hatch, he continued. “Captain’s off the bridge.”

  Rafe paused outside the bridge hatch and sighed. Sam, coming through, looked at him thoughtfully. “You don’t like all this proper stuff, do you?”

  “You know, I thought I would. Really. But…”

  She smiled. “But it seems a bit silly, now?”

  “It’s stupid. I know.” He shrugged and looked over at her. “But I keep wondering what Moses would think of all this.”

  “You’re worried about him, aren’t you?”

  “Yes. No. I don’t know.” He shrugged again. “Moses is a survivor. He’s capable of remarkable feats of self-preservation. But I wonder if maybe he’s bitten off more than he can chew.”

  “You mean from them…” She pointed out in the vague direction of where the signal had come from. “Or from us?”

  “Yes.” He shrugged. “Both, I guess.”

  Sam turned and touched him on the shoulder, stopping him. “Do you really think they’ve met someone out there?”

  “They had to have done so. And they’re not just abo’s, either. There’s too many warp signatures coming from the area around Ascella. They’ve got FTL, too. Hell, they may be more advanced than us.”

  “Now that’s a pleasant thought.”

  He smiled. “I don’t know. Maybe it is. Mankind’s never known a time when we weren’t top monkey. It’d be a learning experience to get knocked off the top rung.”