by Mark Wandrey
“Space?” Minu asked. “Yeah, I suppose it is.”
“Plenty of room,” he said, puffing up his chest and looking to the others crowded into the rear of the cargo area. “The galaxy is now our field.” A chorus of huffs and nods came in reply. Minu nodded as well. This could work out well.
Chapter 6
January 12th, 535 AE
Deep Space, Galactic Frontier
The Kaatan slipped out of superlight travel, decelerating into the empty quadrant of space it had visited more than once in the past. Within the silent cocoon of her CIC, Lilith floated and listened with all her senses spread to their limits. Thermal sensors, gravitic sensors and tachyon detectors tasted space for any sign of another presence nearby. For two hours she gently coasted with minimal power, waited, and watched.
“How’s it look?” Minu asked, floating into the CIC almost as silently as the ship entering the region.
“I can detect no signs of other ships presently, or in the recent past,” Lilith told her mother. “There could be a stealth cruiser present and I would not know until it attacked.”
“Since the Tog control all, or most of, those ships, we can assume that isn’t going to be a problem.” Lilith gave the barest of nods. “Move us towards the fleet. I’ll get everyone ready.”
Out of the CIC Minu dropped gently to the floor as gravity returned. She walked down to the main cargo hold. Inside were most of the other beings on the Kaatan. Humans, Beezer and Rasa all mingled together discussing what was coming. As Minu entered the compartment slowly fell silent.
“We’re here,” she announced to a round of cheers (many sounding like huffs and hisses before her translator rendered them understandable). She wasn’t surprised they were excited, even considering the hard work ahead of them. For the last five days as Lilith flew them to their destination the personnel had undergone grueling training in what was going to be expected of them. And it wouldn’t be easy.
“Time to get our teams ready,” she called out. “Lilith will bring us alongside our first candidate and work with our survey group,” he gestured to a series of holographic instrument panels temporarily installed on one side of the cargo bay by the blue crystalline bots the Kaatan grew as it needed. “Once we have our first candidate, we’ll go to work.”
“We are within range,” Lilith’s voice floated out of the air in the bay.
“Thank you, Lilith. Kal’at, please proceed.”
“Yes, boss,” he hissed. Minu rolled her eyes but secretly smiled. He was part of her group now.
She moved to the side a bit to let them work but watched the operation. She’d been here first only 7 months ago, then again later when she’d salvaged a ship to aid in their rescue of Gregg’s abandoned units on Planet K. This visit was similar to her second trip, only grander. For her own plans, and the species. An hour later, the survey was complete.
“The data is confirmed from Lilith’s previous scans,” Kal’at spoke. “There are five transports classed Ibeen remaining in salvageable condition. Three operational Eseel gunboats in autonomous mode. One Fiisk battlecruiser that is almost untouched, and the remnants of eleven Kaatan ships of the line. About fifty thousand tons of other debris remains that cannot be typed at this time that may be parts of other ships or only one ship, but it is too scattered to be certain.”
“Quite the haul,” Pakata grumbled and made a fist with one massive paw. “It is as you said, First Minu!”
“You doubted me?” The Beezer made what she took was a noncommittal shrug so she went on. “Okay, we’ll start with the Ibeen designated Alpha that we are alongside of now.” She turned to Kal’at. “Your primary tech team is ready?”
“We are, boss.” A short way away five Rasa were finishing going over their gear, an impressive stack of rare goods that had cost Minu a mean pile of credits to obtain through secondary and tertiary suppliers to avoid anyone knowing that it went to humans.
“Good. Lilith, commence operation.”
The cargo bay, like most of the interior of the Kaatan, could be reconfigured in an almost unlimited amount of ways. In this case it was moved farther aft, now linked between the two shuttle bays and directly forward of the airlock located between those bays. Forcefields came on in the rear of the operations area, segmenting part of it off that was accessible by the corridor to the airlock.
While Minu had been talking, a team of ten Beezers were busy suiting up in another expensive part of the equipment they’d brought with them. “You know how hard it was to get those built?” she asked Pakata.
“Hard, I imagine,” he said and waved a paw at them. “But they are majestic!” The ten already huge beings now looked twice their size decked out in the space suits. Finding the components for those had been nearly impossible, forcing Ted and his team to construct them largely from scrap. ‘You’d have an easier job making dress suites for Kloth,’ he’d laughed near the end of the operation. But here they were, fifty of them all finished with extended life support and maneuvering units.
“Remember we haven’t been able to test these suits,” she told the team leader, a Beezer named Isook. “I want live telemetry the entire time so we can be ready for extraction. There will be a shuttle in space ready for any emergency.”
“Humans worry too much,” Isook grunted and made a dismissive gesture wide enough that Minu had to duck. “We are tough.”
“We will hold our breaths if necessary!” another of his team said and they all grunted and beat each other on the back.
Minu would have been a lot more confident in their bravado if she hadn’t watched Beezer warriors run from a fight. They talked a big talk, but often couldn’t back it up. “Fine, but do not hesitate to report a problem. I don’t want to lose any of you.”
“Understood,” Issok said and they all moved to the rear. The five Rasa were in their own suits. Unlike the Beezer, she’d been able to find suitable spacesuits for them on the black market and for a bargain price too. Of course the reptiles were an eighth the size of the Beezer, so that might have had something to do with it.
“The Rasa technicians will get critical systems on line as soon as possible. Be aware we don’t know what to expect so keep on your toes.”
“We don’t have toes,” the Rasa team leader said.
“Neither do we,” one of the Beezer added. Minu looked at them in consternation and then everyone started laughing. She knew she’d been had.
“Very funny. Now get to work.”
“Yes boss,” fifteen alien voices said in chorus.
Minu hoped no one saw her smile as she walked away.
The airlock swung open and discharged a stream of beings into the void. The smaller and more maneuverable vanguard of five Rasa led the way, easily using their magnetic boots to walk on the gleaming silver hull of the Kaatan and to one side. A moment later ten Beezer followed them, hesitant at first but quicker after the tested the feelings of zero gravity.
“It can be disconcerting,” the Rasa team leader said as the Beezer adjusted.
They weren’t listening to the small reptiles. The Beezers suit helmets were custom manufactured from five millimeter thick moliplas. A perfect dome with only a dualloy support arm running up from behind their head and over to their forehead to supply a heads up display, or HUD, and help circulate oxygen. It was a full uninterrupted panoramic view. The Kaatan behind and below them took up some space and a kilometer away floated the bulk of Ibeen Alpha, more than a kilometer long, a line of clustered balls with a central shaft, also reminiscent of the Kaatan. Except for that all there was beyond was space, space that extended into the infinite.
Isook turned and looked in all directions, barely breathing. All ten Beezer were doing the same thing, trying to absorb the incomprehensible vastness that surrounded them.
On a private channel the Rasa team leader spoke. “We might have a problem” to Minu.
Shit, she cursed quietly, this was the moment of truth. A lot of planning and money had gone into th
is, and if the Beezer proved inadequate to the task she wasn’t sure how she would proceed. The simple truth was there weren’t enough humans and they weren’t as physically strong as the Beezer. That species was almost ideal for this kind of work.
Outside Isook took a huge breath, spread his arms wide and pushed off the hull. He looked on the monitor like he was trying to embrace the galaxy.
“Space!” he roared. “Do you see it, brothers?”
“I do,” said Pakata, his voice being lent a breathless quality by the human’s translators, “it is magnificent.”
“Our planet feels like a small clearing in the woods next to this,” Isook said. “We are meant for space!”
“We are for space!” they all intoned. It almost sounded like a religious chant Minu had once head.
“Come,” said Isook, pulling his hands in and grasping the protruding controls from his waist. Tiny jets activated and after a moment he was oriented towards the distant bulk of the transport, “Let’s get to work.” And he jetted towards the ship. Without another hesitation, the other nine jumped away and employed their maneuvering packs to fall into a ragged formation.
“Disregard my previous,” the Rasa said and jumped after them.
Chapter 7
January 25th, 535 AE
Ghost fleet, Deep Space, Galactic Frontier
The Ibeen appeared undamaged from a visual inspection a kilometer away. Once the salvage crew landed and began spreading out along the first cargo ball, it quickly became apparent that was anything but the truth. Like the Ibeen Minu and Pip had salvaged months ago using Lilith’s robots, all of the others had various amounts of damage from minor to extreme.
“Surveys are suggesting about ten percent of the hull modules on the Ibeens are unsalvageable,” Kal’at reported by the end of the first day. Isook’s salvage team had gained entry to Alpha and was busy sealing off damaged sections and establishing a working base in one of the modules. A shuttle had delivered oxygen tanks and EPC to provide power. Morale got a good bump the evening of the first watch when the Ibeen’s running lights came alive as the technicians succeeded in bringing the long dead ship to life.
“That modular design is to our advantage,” Lilith told them. “Once central control is established in the ships we can jettison modules deemed not worth the effort.”
“Won’t that leave them in rather unusual condition?” Minu asked.
“If you wish, the ship can be shortened by a ‘stack’ of modules to make it more uniform.” To Minu her daughter sounded a bit miffed, as if she was insulted that the People’s ship would need changing.
“That won’t affect its performance?” Isook asked.
“No, the Ibeen were designed to work that way if necessary.”
“Very versatile,” Kal’at noted. Lilith had given him a look that Minu put down as ‘of course’.
The second day they’d launched two more salvage teams, and the third day the final two were dispatched. As the first week came to a close the Kaatan was once again roomy as only the few humans were left and a couple Rasa technicians. Even Pakata had joined the first salvage team on Alpha, deciding he didn’t want to be left out of the ‘fun’ as they called it.
The Beezer proved to have found a wonderful thing. They reveled in space, having zero fear of flying around outside of the ships even without maneuvering units. They worked until only minutes of life support remained in the suits and did so without complaint.
The bulky suits had to be left behind soon after salvage work began because the Ibeen were designed by The People, more to human stature. Hallways were already crowded for the Beezer without the extra bulk of the maneuvering units. So as they worked in areas heavily damaged, they would simply jump across sections voided to space seemingly unconcerned that a bad jump would send them flying into the abyss.
“They remind me of the Traaga on a high work site,” a Rasa tech noted to Minu on watching them work. “Fearless.”
“Who would have thought they’d be so at home?” Minu agreed. She suspected once word of this got from these Beezer to their fellow species members, there would be no shortage of volunteers for this kind of duty.
Now two weeks into the operation, all five Ibeen had power and atmosphere to most of their interior spaces and one was able to maneuver (if only nominally). The transports had been found to be configured for some sort of mission, but like the one she’d taken before, they were empty now. Not even any bodies, which she was grateful for. Minu had recalled one team worth of Beezer (two from each ship) to start the next stage of the operation.
“We’re almost in place,” Lilith told her as the Beezer were again suiting up in the hold.
“Show us,” Minu instructed. Holographic displays in the cargo bay came alive showing space around them. The largest of many debris fields was slowly growing closer. Unlike many of the other clouds of space junk, all of these parts were in common with both themselves, and with the ship slowing into their midst. It was a graveyard of Kaatans.
“This has to feel funny to you,” Minu spoke to her daughter through the quantum communication link they shared.
“It does, mother.” Lilith wasn’t sure how it made her feel, to drift through the corpses of a score of dead Kaatans. Even ripped apart they were unmistakable in their outlines. Was this her destiny?
“Sensors indicate the ones around us are the most intact,” Kal’at told them.
“Understood,” Minu said and grabbed a helmet.
“Are you sure you want to go out?” the Rasa scientist asked.
“If my daughter is going out, so am I.”
The ship was at station keeping next to a cluster of five wrecks as the bay opened. Out floated the Beezer work squad followed closely by Minu in her space suit, and Lilith. Unlike the others, she didn’t wear a suit. Instead a crystalline bot clung to her back projecting a force field around her and providing life support and propulsion. Minu amazed at how she looked no different than inside her CIC, except now there was nothing except vacuum for untold trillions of kilometers in all directions.
“Doesn’t this make you nervous, dear?”
“Why would it?” Lilith asked, looking at her mother and winking. There was a gleam in her eye that reminded Minu, Lilith was a being born for space. She was out of her element when she visited her on Bellatrix, not out among the stars. She gave her mother another wink and then just like she was swimming in a stream, she propelled herself towards the nearest hulk.
Minu smiled and, using the much more conventional method of the maneuvering unit on her space suit, followed the thin retreating figure.
The team of Beezer, now experienced at working on spaceships after days in deep space, swarmed over the wreck and determined the best place to make entry. The section of ship was about a third of the needle prow and part of the ball. The point was burned off almost smooth, but the rear part looked more like it had been ripped away. It was that section they were working at.
“We have an entry point,” announced the work crew. Minu and Lilith homed in on them, gliding over the Kaatan’s hull. It looked just like Lilith’s ship only to be torn there, or its mirrored surface scored along a dozen meters from energy weapons fire.
“It must have been a terrible battle,” Minu whispered.
“You’ve seen what one Kaatan can do,” Lilith said, looking back at her. Minu only nodded. “There are the wrecks of eleven here. The fleet must have been truly massive for there to be eleven Kaatan.”
“There were more warships?”
“For a group of eleven Kaatan to be fighting together, that there is a Fiisk here tells me it was a combined fleet. In combined fleet actions, Kaatan were assigned as squadron anchors. Their superior mobility linked with pinpoint weapons control complemented the sheer power of a trio of Fiisk and their own complement of ten Eseel gunboats.”
Minu did the numbers in her head. For there to be eleven Kaatan, that meant there had once been at least 33 Fiisk in this fleet, and over 300
gunboats. She whistled silently in her mind, then thought. “I wonder what was in these Ibeen that was so valuable.”
“Whatever it was is gone now,” Lilith said. The Beezer continued to work on the five Ibeen, cataloging their contents and evaluating their condition. Perhaps some clue to that cargo would be determined eventually.
They came around a huge piece of hull bent way out of shape away from true to find the Beezer crew working. They had specially fit hydraulic jacks and levers that allowed them to open the smallest crack to permit access into damaged sections. This was the first time they’d used them to try and gain access to a ship.
The section they were working on was just inside the huge tear that had rent the ship into parts. Most of the interior exposed structure was crushed flat, but a half meter opening could be seen and inside was typical Kaatan corridor. They were struggling to make any progress.
“The structure is incredibly tough,” the crew gang boss told them after they arrived. There didn’t appear to be a wide enough space to wedge the jacks and give them purchase.
Minu shook her head inside the spacesuit helmet. “This isn’t going to work.”
“Let me have some room,” Lilith spoke in her gentle monotones. Everyone turned around to see her floating a few meters away, apparently wearing nothing but a black Chosen jumpsuit with five golden stars on the cuff. The lights from the Beezer’s work suits caught the uniform’s highlights and glinted from the arms of the bot holding onto her back and creating the forcefield.
“Lilith,” Minu said, almost laughing at the idea of this tiny frail woman somehow muscling open the crushed corridor. But something in the way she looked brought her mother up short. Her daughter was never one to have moments of frivolity in nearly any situation. She used her maneuvering unit to move aside. After an additional moment, so did the Beezer.