Worldship Files: Cityships

by Erik Schubach

Mab's tits, it was a madhouse.

  I strode toward a stocky middle-aged human of maybe a hundred, with a rugged look and salt and pepper beard that matched his shoulder-length hair. Mac wore a severely outdated exoskeleton with exo-assist braces which I'm sure are just for show, since if he was who I believed he was, his strength hasn't been degraded by extended exposure to the low gravity provided by the centrifugal force of the rotating D-Ring.

  His gruff voice was growling out to a Leprechaun who was a senior magi-tech engineer by his uniform markings, “Of course the ship doesn't have any structural fatigue, why is that a problem? I take care of my Underhill.”

  The Leprechaun looked frustrated as he looked up to the taller man, though he was just as stocky. “We have to run diagnostics again. This old Ore Runner can't show no degradation of materials or systems, so the scans must be off.”

  Mac bent down so they were face to face and he growled out in a very threatening manner, his face painted with anger, “What must be off is you... off my ship. You ran your diagnostics three times, another scan is going to do nothing but delay our departure.” He glanced my way then did a double-take. “Ah, just in time, young Miss Shade has arrived, you know, the commander of this mission. If you have a problem, take it up with her.”

  I shot him a pained and betrayed look, the old bastard. The Leprechaun brought himself up to his whole three-foot seven and motored over to me like a man on a mission as he stroked his long red beard. “Lieutenant Shade. Seamus Stoutwart, chief engineer of Ready Squadron. Tasked with certifying the flight readiness of the Underhill here. There are some inconsistencies with the...”

  I held up a stopping hand and said to the irritated man, “First, it's a pleasure to meet you Chief.” Then I motioned toward the smug-looking Captain of the Underhill. “This unruly offworlder has a Greater Fae who keeps the vessel in prime condition.” Then I widened my eyes and asked in challenge, “Isn't that right, Mac?”

  He narrowed his eyes dangerously at me. He could go suck vacuum. I wasn't going to reveal his precious secret, but I sure could needle him about it. He said gruffly between his gritted teeth, “If the girl says it, then it has to be true now, doesn't it?”

  Seamus looked between us as we had a glaring contest, then looked at his electronic holo-tablet, shook his head, then said, “Well that would explain a lot. I've never seen a remnant in such pristine condition. I should have known something was up with that. Not that I've been able to go over the systems of many remnants since Exodus, mind you.”

  I smiled at the man who was still looking between Mac and me as I prompted, “Then we're cleared for departure?”

  He sighed then said to his tablet, “Mother, the Remnant vessel Underhill, hull number AJAX-43, cleared for departure.”

  Mother replied mechanically, “Affirmative, vessel AJAX-43 cleared for departure on a diplomatic and humanitarian mission, Project Goodwill.”

  I thought to her, “Mecha-dweeb.”

  “Hush now, the adults are speaking.”

  I mentally flipped her off, just to get an actual AI snort back.

  Then the Leprechaun broadcast on the common frequency. “All personnel not assigned to Project Goodwill, the Underhill is cleared for launch. Please disembark now.”

  I stepped beside Mac as he stood there obstinately crossing his arms over his barrel chest and glaring at everyone abandoning ship like rats. I leaned over and bumped our shoulders. He smirked then bumped me back. I chuckled. “You just need to know how to talk to them. People skills. You should look the term up.”

  He chuckled as people kept coming up to me to transfer reports, cargo manifests, and personnel cabin assignments to my wrist console, and had me sign off on it all with my thumbprint and quantum encoding verification. “You're a rare breed, Shade.”

  “One of a kind.” My quip was more true than I wanted to admit. My customized genetic coding was what made me what Rory called the next evolution of Human. Her biggest failure had also been her greatest accomplishment.

  Once everyone who needed to depart had done so, our side of the airlock was sealed and locked. Then I looked at Mac. “So, where is everyone assembled?”

  His smile almost split his face in half as he said, “The conference room in the business center.”

  I furrowed my brow, trying to picture a space large enough to... if I had been drinking when I made the realization, I would have spewed it all over. Graz figured it out when I did and said to the old man in a smarmy tone, “The brothel.”

  He winked at us and tapped the side of his nose. “Shall we go get the dog and pony show over with?” He offered his arm and I took it, and almost skipped down the corridor toward the lifts with him as I imagined the looks on the faces of the politicians we were shepherding.

  When I looked back, I swallowed hard when the ship's clairvoyant, Madame Zoe, poked her head out of her cabin, and the withered old lady smiled at me in that all-knowing way she had that creeped me the hells out. Why did she elect to stay on board like a lot of the business owners on the ship?

  I looked away as we reached the lifts but turned to the side corridor instead. Mac grabbed the railings of a ship's ladder and slid down lithely to the next level. I followed suit as Graz just buzzed ahead of us. I had to hide a smirk, the bright neon and laser lights and a flashing arrow pointing out the brothel was still unapologetically lit.

  I'm sure Mac did it just for the shock value to the straight-laced politicians who pretended they never visited any of the Remnants for all the questionable activities they offered that were frowned upon on the world.

  We moved up to the open entry doors, where guards were stationed. Then I spun when my heads up detected motion, but I was already moving when the hair on the back of my neck stood on end and I caught the mirrored blade pointed at my back.

  As weapons of all sorts powered up as the guards reacted, I just beamed a smile at the woman with the mirrored skin that looked to be liquid metal the way her blade reformed into her hand. I leaned in to kiss her cheek, “Mir! You stayed onboard?”

  She smiled, ignoring the weapons pointing her way. “Of course. I still don't know how you do that, Knith, I didn't make a sound and barely even disturbed the air when I moved.”

  I looked around and said, “Hey, settle down boys and girls, she was just saying hi.”

  They slowly lowered their weapons.

  If my guess was right, after seeing her fight before, she wasn't just a call girl at Jane's brothel. I believe she's Mac's personal bodyguard and assassin, so of course, she stayed aboard.

  The woman, who went full cyber with total body replacement was, as always, moving gracefully and seductively, her liquid chrome reflective body distracting as hells. Keeping you off guard and discounting the lethality I know she possessed.

  We stepped inside and Jane, the Faun who owned the brothel, met us at the door, looking as cute and innocent as ever. Though I knew she was a shrewd businesswoman. She had me in a side to side hug before I could react, her big doe eyes beaming with her smile. “Knith! Welcome. Everyone is assembled and waiting for your review of the mission.”

  She released me and blinked at me in anticipation. I said, “By all means, lead the way.” Then I said to the shimmer in the shadow trying to make my eyes slide off of it, “Hello Captain Delphine, please join us.”

  Delphine snorted and her obfuscation spellwork dropped. Mother fairy humper, she was decked out to the nines in a hybrid dress armor and Ha'Real receiving robes. Damn, she looked a lethal combination of dangerous and sexy. “The Winter Lady told me not to waste the magic on a don't look here. You must tell me how you...”

  I lied, pointing to my helmet. “Latest magi-tech.” Rory always warns me not to reveal my partial immunity to magic nor that I could see through all but the most powerful of spells and glamours. For some reason, it would put a target on my back, as if it were a threat to all magical races or something. I didn't get it myself.

  Gr
az snorted. I gave her the stink eye. Then we went into the 'conference room', and I was surprised that besides all the gaudy and delicate fabrics draping down all the walls, it actually looked like a modern conference room. Huh.

  The next twenty minutes were grueling. I'm not a public speaker and didn't have answers for most of the questions since a mission like this has never been undertaken before. And I was relieved when everyone was sent to their temporary quarters to secure for launch.

  I found myself, Graz, Delphine, Mir, Mac, and Secretary Y'nell of the State Department, who was in charge of the diplomatic portion of the mission, on the bridge of the Underhill. I narrowed my eyes in accusation at Mac.

  The man just beamed a toothy, shit-eating grin at me. The flight controls and displays on the bridge were the most modern systems available, the type used by the Ready Squadron. They looked so out of place on an antique relic from another time.

  How the hells had he even acquired the tech all around us?

  He ignored me and said, “Mother, if you will open a channel to Leviathan traffic control?”

  Bot-Mother stated, “Channel open.”

  The man sat in the ancient-looking pilot's chair, grasping the manual controls and said, “Belt yourselves in, everyone, or you'll be decorating my walls.”

  Then on the open channel, he said, “Ore Runner AJAX-43, the Underhill, to Leviathan traffic control. Requesting clearance to depart using flight plan T-137.”

  “Traffic control. Underhill, you are cleared for departure, Ready Squadron escort inbound.”

  He looked around to see everyone but Mir was strapped into a seat. Mir looked as if her feet had melded with the deck plates. Then he flipped a couple of switches, I could hear the hard-seal to the airlock retracting, and music started blaring at a deafening volume, a selection from the anthropological archives Mother identified for me as ‘In The End’ by a band called Linkin Park.

  Then we were all slammed back into our seats as the G-Forces piled on. It was exhilarating and my heart was pounding in time with the music as Mac just grinned like he was a predator on the hunt as the World passed below us as he climbed above the Stacks and turned us on a sweeping course back and away from our home.

  I could see in the cockpit windows, two Ready Squadron fighters settle in for the long flight ahead of us as the G-forces finally equalized as we reached cruising speed. Mac cut the engines and motioned me over. I unbelted and drifted to him, grabbing a handhold on his chair as he tapped the maneuvering thrusters to rotate us on the x-axis.

  I wasn't the only one to gasp as the Leviathan came into view as we hurtled through open space away from her. By the gods of the cosmos, she was so very beautiful. Mother made a pleasing sound in my head, then the anxiety hit me like a meteoroid strike as she started shrinking in the distance.

  We were in open space. Away from the protection of the Skin, away from the world we knew. Mac laid a hand on my arm then rotated the ship back around, the holographic overlays on the windows showing two bright points of light then. Our destination.

  I just stared at those spots of light as Mac started some lights strobing and a strange oooaahh alarm sounding. Before we could ask, the ship started rotating on her z-axis and the alarms and lights stopped after a few seconds and he called out over the intercom, “Gravity rotation maneuver complete. Ok boys and girls, you can unstrap and stretch your legs near the bulkhead if you need.”

  Ahh, that's what it was. Ingenious, were all Remnants capable of artificial gravity like that? Here in the rotational axis of the ship, we were still weightless, but the farther out from the axis, the more gravity we would have. I started to look away from the windows before the swirling starfield made me nauseated, but then the AI algorithms of the navigation package of the vessel made the windows go opaque and projected a stable holographic starfield view and our destination.

  I cocked an accusing brow at Mac. How had an antiquities dealer and possible fence for stolen items on the world come across some of the most cutting edge nav equipment I've ever seen? He just shot me a cocky smirk.

  Chapter 6 – Heart and Soul

  The next three days were the longest days of my life having to listen to all the diplomats squabble over the faster than light Rammasan QEC coms. What the hells were they thinking? This was a theoretical First Contact scenario with an unknown group of people from outside the world. What did they expect was going to happen?

  You can't forge treaties and trade agreements and, I kid you not, entertainment production agreements on an expeditionary meeting like this. We just wanted to get them faster communication equipment and assess their vessels' space worthiness, and the health and disposition of the people aboard these Cityships that looked like floating relics of a bygone era that were somehow still flying through space, damaged and patched up in hundreds of locations.

  Ok, I see the irony of that, as we were currently flying in a relic of a bygone era too. But at least this one was inexplicably in the same shape it had been when it had aided in the construction of the Worldship so long ago.

  It would still be a month before the ships came into a parking orbit around the Leviathan as their dirty fusion drives slowed them down from their intercept speed. They had been slowing down for decades and the relative speed of closure was finally imminent. It takes a lot to slow the mass of something their size, and even more to slow the Leviathan.

  While the politicians were playing, well, politics, Mac, myself, and Secretary Y'nell were in contact with the Cityships on an eight-hour time schedule. The closer we got the less lag time we experienced.

  We weren't in flight for more than fifteen minutes when the Ready Squadron ships checked in. I instantly recognized the voice of the Captain of the fighter ship waggling its wings next to us. “Ready squadron flight, this is Ready-1. We've matched course and are actively scanning the flight path for any incoming or floating debris, you're safe with us. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.”

  I growled out an accusation into my helmet, “Mother!?”

  She was suspiciously silent, but I swear I got the impression the smug and smarmy AI was smirking. Did she enjoy making me so uncomfortable? I verified the check-in, maybe not as professionally as I should have. “Why Commander Myra Udriel, what a pleasant surprise. What brings you to our neck of interstellar space?”

  My very ex-girlfriend from my college days was one of the most accomplished pilots in the Ready Squadron. One Mother seemed to enjoy watching me squirm in my signature awkward manner around.

  Myra, purred, her catlike mannerisms matching the feline augments she modified herself with long ago. “Well when you called last night to request me to head the escort wing for your mission, how could I refuse?”

  I muted the channel then growled, “Mother! How could you? I told you I didn't like you using my voice.”

  “Don't be such a baby, Knith. You needed Ready Squadron escort, and she is one of the best. I worry about you taking so many chances, like now, flying so far from the safety of my hull. So I can sleep better knowing Myra has your back.”

  “You don't sleep. Woman, you're an AI.”

  “Semantics.”

  I switched the channel back on. “Good to have you. I'm sorry but this is going to be the most boring week of your life.”

  Graz was repeating over and over as I spoke, “Hello Myra, hello Myra, hello Myra...” Until I flicked her wings.

  But Myra just replied in a purr, “Hello, Graz.”

  Graz beamed then buzzed off, disappearing into a vent to go get into whatever mischief she could.

  To help pass the time, I went jogging each morning in the heaviest relative gravity I could find. Mir, Delphine, and the Fae Lord, Yar, from the Summer Court, who was Delphine's reciprocal, joined me for my runs and then for sparring afterward.

  It was clear that Delphine and Yar wanted nothing more than to tear each other's heads off. So Mir and I made sure they never sparred with each other after the fi
rst time they had me mag-banding both of them to the deck until they calmed down.

  To my surprise... or maybe not, Mir proved to be more formidable than either Fae had anticipated, as she bested them every time. Physically, she was a match for a Greater Fae, as long as they didn't use magic of course.

  Whenever I was in my cabin, which was next to Mac's, I was inundated by calls from civilians who wanted me to check about trading raw materials or services with the Cityships even though we still knew nothing about them. Was everyone looking for an angle to make a profit from the arrival of more humans from Earth?

  I kept referring them to the Secretary of Commerce on the world, so their requests could be routed through the diplomats here on the Underhill if they hold merit.

  It was when we were twelve hours out on day three that Mac arrested our roll, and the windows crystallized again, that had me plastered to those same windows, as the points of light took shape and were growing steadily in our view as we hurtled toward them.

  I know they aren't as big as a Worldship, but mother fairy humper were those lumbering hulks massive, and impressive.

  Then Mac started talking as many of the passengers crowded into the cockpit to see the vessels we were approaching, “Those look like the old shipyard stations for the workers of the construction fleet that orbited around the Earth as the Leviathan was built. They've been heavily modified. It looks like they have a rudimentary scaled-down version of the original world-drives before the Fae helped redesign them into a more efficient magi-tech design that didn't throw around all that dirty fusion radiation.”

  I looked at the man accusingly and he innocently said, “What? I've studied the construction of the Worldship extensively over the years.”

  He was so full of shit, I could smell it from where I was floating fifteen feet away from him. He was talking like he was recalling a long-forgotten memory. I looked around at all the people in the space then sighed and told him, “Remind me to call bullshit on you when we're alone.”

  The look of amused mischief on his face spoke volumes to me, though it seemed to confuse everyone else but Mir. I pointed a warning finger at her, but she just blinked her gorgeous mirrorized eyes and struck a seductive pose. “Would it hurt you to put some damn clothes on, woman?”