by M. D. Cooper
Elena’s eyes were wide, and her voice pleaded with Sera to understand. “They were going to let you live, let us go off together somewhere and forget all this bullshit, just be us.”
Anger burned through Sera’s veins and she leapt up and raised her hand, finger pointing at Elena, ready to tear into her former partner. Then, she stopped and lowered her arm, turning away.
“Sera! Sera, please! They’re going to win. You can’t stop them, where the Transcend has politics and power grabs, Orion has a belief. A belief that humanity should live in harmony with the galaxy, not to subsume it, not to transcend it. Its strong, it drives them like nothing in the Transcend. They’re going to win….”
Sera turned back to Elena and approached the bars on the outside of the cell, wrapping her hand around one.
“If I win against Airtha—whose fanaticism far outstrips Orion’s—I will do everything in my power to stop this war. Kirkland has nothing to fear from rogue picotech anymore. I will stop all research and let New Canaan retreat into their insular society.” She looked up and peered through the bars at Elena.
“There’s no reason why these two ideals cannot co-exist. Why does everyone in the Transcend have to diminish to match Orion? We let people live as they wish, we don’t enforce a…a… lower level of living just because some people don’t want to see humans ever ascend.”
“That’s not what it’s about,” Elena said with pleading eyes. “Airtha represents the end result, a malevolent entity that wishes to enslave and control. Now that Jutio is gone, it’s even easier to see that. AIs in our heads, bodies modified so much that we’re more machine than human…we aren’t human anymore, Sera. We’re things! The Transcend did that to us, made you and I weapons, instruments—and it spreads…”
Elena rose from the cot and approached the bars, her skin changing color to match Sera’s.
“You did this to me, you did it because you think it’s OK for humans to force their own evolution.”
“I did it to keep you safe,” Sera said. “By your faulty logic, I evolved you to make you better able to survive in your environment. We’ve long passed the point where we let random mutation and slow evolution push our species forward, but this is an academic argument…I didn’t come here to debate philosophy with you.”
“Then what did you come for here, Sera? Do you need to know when? How long? Is that what this is about?”
Sera nodded slowly. “Yes, I suppose that’s all.”
“It was after you were exiled. I couldn’t believe what your father would allow to happen to his own daughter. The man was evil, plain and simple. We can debate philosophy all day long, but you can’t argue that with me. What did he say when he tore Helen from your mind? Was he kind and loving? Or did it reveal who he really was?”
Sera tried to push Elena’s words out of her mind, she didn’t want to remember that conversation with her father. How cold he had been. But it was impossible, how he described Airtha as something he owned…no…he must not have known of her schemes. He really did believe he possessed her.
She brought her mind back to Elena’s statement. “From the moment you came to me on the Intrepid, back in Ascella…our whole time together back in the Huygens System…on Airtha. The whole time you were trying to turn me?”
“I wanted to show you how much I loved you. So that when the time came for us to have this conversation, you’d listen. There’s still a chance for you to do the right thing. Sue for peace with Orion, then we can leave this place, leave all these troubles forever…”
Sera felt a manic laugh rise in her and she forced it out in her search for some sort of catharsis.
“Seriously, Elena? Do you think that Tanis Richards will roll over just because I ask her to? Do you think that everyone in the Transcend will just lay down their arms because I say so? To them, the Orion Guard has destroyed entire worlds, burned systems to ash.”
“You have to!” Elena cried out, balling her hands into fists. “You have to stop this war—surrender to Orion, there’s nothing anywhere worth all this bloodshed!”
Sera didn’t have a response. It wasn’t that she disagreed with Elena, she just didn’t know how to do what Elena was asking. “I can’t…it’s impossible, I don’t know how.”
“Then find a way,” Elena stepped forward and reached a hand out toward her, pressing it against the field.
In that moment, the only thing Sera wanted in the entire galaxy was to hold Elena in her arms—but she couldn’t. Not just because of the field separating them, but because her place at the head of the Transcend demanded that she didn’t.
It demanded that she do her duty.
“I will find away,” Sera replied. “But it won’t be through surrender. When they see what Tanis is capable of, Orion will back down and we’ll have peace.”
She stared longingly at Sera, her mouth working silently. “Then I suppose we have nothing further to discuss,” Elena said sitting back down on her cot. She turned away and faced the wall. “Please, go now…I…I just…please go.”
Sera thought about responding, about throwing something in Elena’s face, but there was nothing left, she didn’t harbor any ill will toward her former lover anymore, just dismay at how deluded she was—and shame in herself for never seeing it before.
“Goodbye, Elena,” Sera said quietly before she turned and took a step, looking over her shoulder, trying to think of one last thing to say. But Elena had curled up into a fetal position, her shoulders heaving as sobs wracked her body.
A long, silent sigh escaped Sera’s lips and she walked away, wiping the tears that flowed down her face.
JOY RIDE
STELLAR DATE: 04.01.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: High Carthage
REGION: Carthage, New Canaan System
“Cary!” Saanvi called out. “Where are you going?”
Cary turned around and looked at her sister and best friend in the world. “I’m going to get on a ship,” Cary replied. “They need everyone up there who knows how to fly, and you and I know how to fly. Now come on.”
The look on Saanvi’s face was not promising. She had always been that way, but growing up under their mother had reinforced that. Their mom liked rules, and she like people to do what she said. Cary preferred to think of herself as a more balanced combination of her mother and father—though she admitted that both of her parents’ rebellious sides appealed to her more.
“We have orders from Mom to go planetside and get in Landfall’s bunker. She knows what’s best for us,” Saanvi said as she approached. “You know that.”
Cary sighed and took Saanvi’s hand. “Sahn, Mom wants to protect us, and that’s her job as our mother. But you and I are eighteen now. We’re adults, and we can do what we want to—what we need to.”
“Seriously, Cary? What sort of dream world do you live in? Mom runs everything here. She tells adults what to do all the time—it’s her job. Being adults doesn’t mean we don’t have to listen to her.”
“Yeah? Well maybe it’s about time that Mom didn’t get to tell everyone what to do around here.”
Saanvi’s face fell, and Cary regretted the words the moment they passed her lips. She often wondered why it was that Saanvi seemed to have a stronger bond with her mother than she did. Her flesh was her mother’s flesh, she had many advanced genetic traits and mental abilities from her mother—hell, she was born a class L1 human, far above the standard L0. Something which was exceedingly rare without extensive pre-natal genetic modification.
But at least ninety percent of the time, Saanvi—who she loved more than anyone in the world—had always seemed closer to their mother. Maybe it was the whole thing she’d heard about being too alike.
“Cary,” Saanvi said, her tone conciliatory, “you may be right, Mom does tend to throw her weight around. But she always does it for the good of the colony, and she always gets results. She knows what she’s doing.”
“Yeah…I know. I’m sorry,” Cary replied
. “You know I didn’t really mean what I said. I love mom, and she’s a great leader—and everyone keeps voting her in, so they must like her, too. But you know that when it comes to us she doesn’t think like a leader, she thinks like a mother. We have to prove to her that we are adults and can be trusted with responsibility.”
Saanvi took a step back and raised an eyebrow. Though her skin was dark—her hair jet-black, and her eyes a deep brown—she pulled off the expression in a way that looked identical to their mother’s.
Cary took a moment to wonder how Saanvi managed that before she braced herself for an assault from Saanvi’s logic.
“And you think that stealing a starship is going to be how we prove to her that we’re trustworthy?” Saanvi asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“When they see what we can do, how you and I can Link our minds together, they’ll know that we should get our commissions and join the fleet. We don’t need to go to the academy. We’ve spent our lives preparing for this,” Cary replied.
“I think it’s going to have the opposite effect,” Saanvi sighed. “But you’re going to do this with or without me, aren’t you?”
Carry nodded. “I am, and we both know you can’t take me down. Are you going to report me?”
The two sisters stared at each other for a full minute.
Saanvi finally relented, “No. No, I won’t report you, and I better come with you. If you get killed and I’m still alive and knew about your hair-brained idea, Mom will skin me alive. Better if we both die together out there.”
Cary embraced her sister. “That’s the spirit! OK, let’s go.” She turned and continued down the corridor that led to the station’s east shuttle bay.
“What’s your plan, anyway?” Saanvi asked as she hurried to catch up to Cary. “All the empty ships up there are run by AIs. Probably Judith or Symatra. Neither of them are going to let us just commandeer a ship.”
Cary flashed a grin at her sister, the one that looked like her Father’s and utterly disarmed everyone—one she practiced frequently in the mirror. “Remember a few months back when we played that prank on Alan?”
“Yeah, the one that almost got us kicked out of school and nearly ruined our lives? I do seem to recall it,” Saanvi muttered.
“Well, I hacked the COMMSAT network to pull it off, and I left my little back door in there. If we’re challenged, we can just tell them to look up our orders. When they do, they’ll get re-routed and find some nice orders from Mom putting us in command of a ship.”
“Putting who in command?” Saanvi asked pointedly. “Someone has to be the captain.”
“Me, of course,” Cary grinned. “I have a temporary field rank of lieutenant, and you’re an ensign. You’re the XO.”
Saanvi sighed. “Why am I not surprised.”
* * * * *
The one thing Cary had not anticipated was how busy the shuttle bay would be. She hadn’t thought to add orders to supply her with a shuttle, and Sam, the dockmaster, wouldn’t check any systems that hit the COMMSAT network.
“Great plan,” Saanvi said and poked her sister in the shoulder as they stood just outside the dock’s entrance. “Well, I guess we can call it a day and head down the strand like we’re supposed to.”
“Saanvi, really. When have you known me to give up so easily?” Cary chided. “Watch this.”
Without looking back to see if Saanvi was following, she strode out onto the East Dock, toward where Sam stood arguing with a shuttle pilot.
“I don’t care if your grandma is on the next shuttle in from the habs and you want to take her down to the surface yourself. You have a supply load to carry down, and every AI is already tasked with running the fleet out there, so they can’t do it.”
“Sam, c’mon, Gran is all I have left. I lost my dad at Bollam’s and my mom stayed behind in Victoria,” the pilot entreated. “I need to be with her.”
“You need to be out there keeping the colony safe,” Sam said with a deepening scowl. “Everyone here has made more than their share of sacrifices. You’re not special. Now get in your shuttle and take it down!”
“No, Sam, go fuck yourself, I quit. I’m going to ride the strand down with my gran.” The pilot added a few more curses for good measure and stalked off.
“For fuck’s sake!” Sam threw his hands in the air and then caught sight of Cary and Saanvi approaching. “Sweet stars, what did I do to deserve this? What do you two want?”
“I overheard that guy leaving you high and dry, Sam,” Cary said in her most conciliatory tone. “Saanvi and I are supposed to get planetside ASAP, and we’re rated to fly that shuttle.”
“You don’t even know which shuttle I need taken down,” Sam replied.
“Well, we’re rated to fly any shuttle you have docked here,” Saanvi interjected. “It would be easy for us to run one down.”
“Rated? More like berated. Last time you were in here, you stole the replica fighter your father was working on and went joy riding around the moons. I’d be fool to let the two of you in any cockpit here.”
“We flew the Andromeda into Gamma IV a few months back,” Cary said. “And the Hellespont after that.”
“We just want to do our part to help out,” Saanvi added and Cary gave her a smile, grateful for the assist.
Sam looked them both up and down and then his eyes flicked to the left as he accessed the Link. “Hmm…well, you’re not lying about that, and I do need someone to run that shuttle down. OK, you can help, but you get that shuttle down and head to the bunker. I won’t have it on my head if something happens to you.”
“You got it!” Cary replied, distracting Sam by grabbing his hand and shaking it vigorously. It wouldn’t do for him to see the pained expression on Saanvi’s face. “Which is our bird?”
Sam pointed to a freight hauler sitting in a cradle five hundred meters away. “There she is. She was out for service before this little crisis hit, and had an iffy port maneuvering thruster. It should be fixed now, but no one has had the time to take it for a test run. If you have any issues—”
“Spin ship on its axis and use the starboard thrusters,” Cary replied. “Don’t worry, Sam. We can manage it.”
Sam looked like he was having second thoughts, but another pair of pilots walked up and started arguing with him about routes and Cary took the opportunity to grab Saanvi and dash off toward the freighter.
“Maybe we should just fly it down,” Saanvi said. “They’re going to notice when we take this thing near one of the cruisers up there. Besides, how are we going find one that’s worth boarding? Half of them don’t even hold atmo.”
“I have it all sorted,” Cary replied as they hopped a dockcar that was hauling a load of cargo in the direction they were headed. “When we board, I’ll use my backdoor in the COMMSAT network to pull status reports from the ships as they pass through. There’s gotta be one that’s in good enough shape for us to take.”
“You better make sure that you do something about the queries that Sam is going to run. You can bet he’s going to keep tabs on us to make certain we make it down,” Saanvi added. “You know…if anything happens to us, Mom is going to kill him.”
“Saanvi,” Cary looked her sister in the eyes, trying to quell her worry. “Nothing is going to happen to us. Mom’s never going to let anyone get this close to Carthage. She’s won every space battle she’s ever commanded.”
“You know, she’s only commanded two major fleet actions,” Saanvi said. “And none anywhere near as big as this one is shaping up to be. Things could go horribly wrong.”
“And you worry too much, Saanvi. Stasis shields, picobombs, there’s no way we can lose.”
Saanvi didn’t reply and Cary could tell her sister was worrying about what was to come if the enemy fleets reached Carthage. She also knew that if she kept trying to encourage her, it would only upset Saanvi and she may call the whole thing off. For now, it was enough that they were together and headed toward—not away from—the actio
n.
When the dockcar neared their shuttle, named Fair Weather, they hopped off and trotted toward the ship. It wasn’t too big, just a hundred meters long. A fraction of the Andromeda’s size, and even less of the Hellespont’s. However, none of the warships could take a vessel the size of the freight hauler into their docking bays, so they’d have to figure out what to do with it once they got to their ship.
Cary could tell Saanvi was thinking the same thing by the frown she wore, and the twist of her lips, but she didn’t say anything. Cary wondered if that meant her sister had come up with a solution to the issue.
They walked across the gantry to the ship’s port airlock, and Cary passed her token to the ship, praying that Sam hadn’t changed his mind. Her fears were assuaged when the airlock cycled open and they girls stepped in. The ship’s inner lock was closed, and while they waited for the ship to cycle them through, the two girls pulled shipsuits out of a sealed locker and slipped into them.
It was unlikely anyone would see them, but wearing shipsuits made them look a lot more official than Saanvi’s shorts and t-shirt, or Cary’s dress.
“Welcome Cary and Saanvi,” the ship said audibly as the inner airlock cycled open.
Cary cast Saanvi a worried look.
“Hi, Fair Weather, Saanvi said audibly. “I’m passing you override code 98RF-A1. Physical pilots taking full control of all systems for manual piloting.”
“Thank you, Captain Saanvi,” the comp replied. “Falling back to passive failover mode. Happy flying!”
“Chipper thing. Nice touch with ‘captain’ there, Sis,” Cary commented as they walked down the short passageway to the cockpit. Once they reached its narrow confines, they strapped into the seats and ran through a pre-flight check.