Books One to Three Omnibus (Armada Wars)

by R. Curtis Venture

“What exactly is this?”

  “Steak Shalleon,” said Euryce.

  “I know they call it that, but… what is it? What’s the Shalleon part?”

  “I have no idea. As far as I could tell, there was nothing in it unique to the Shalleon system. Maybe that’s where the cows came from.”

  “Justification enough,” he said.

  Hakuri placed a small cube of sinfully greyed beef into his mouth, chewed, and winced.

  “What I wouldn’t give for them to serve some authentic Japanese cuisine for once.”

  “That would be nice,” Euryce agreed. “It would certainly make a change.”

  “Maybe I’ll mention it to the chef.”

  “Do it,” she said. “Tell him you’re homesick.”

  Hakuri looked straight at her, bewildered.

  “I’m not actually from Japan,” he said. “I’m from Bennethium, born and raised.”

  “Sorry, I just assumed…”

  “Yeah, you did.”

  Euryce’s cheeks began to burn.

  “I really didn’t mean anything by it—”

  Hakuri sniggered. “Chill out, I’m just messing with you. You think you’re the first person to make that mistake?”

  “Oh my worlds, you had me there. I thought I’d really insulted you.”

  “Naw.”

  “I didn’t realise the Hakuri family came from Bennethium.”

  “They don’t. They are from Japan, and that’s where they’ve hung their hats for centuries.”

  “But you just said you were born and raised…”

  “Yeah, with my birth family. I was adopted by the Hakuris.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realise you were an orphan.”

  “I’m not.”

  Euryce thought she must have looked utterly perplexed, because Hakuri took one look at her face and burst out laughing. Once he had recovered, he began to gesture with his knife.

  “Okay. So my own family, back on Bennethium, they have relatives on Earth, right? Most of them living in the City of Japan. The current president of Hakuri Corp had no male heir. Two years ago he decided to adopt someone to fill that role, and I was presented as a good choice. I’ve got all the necessary talents, and I’ll do better with the Hakuris than I ever could with my own family.”

  “You were adopted… as an adult?”

  “Exactly. It’s a tradition. Been happening for a long time now; over two millennia.”

  Euryce tried to wrap her head around the idea. She had always prided herself on knowing a great deal about the alien cultures humanity had dealings with, and being able to recite all the species which Earth had exported to the colonies, and yet here was a distinctive cultural practice of her own species and she had had no idea it ever existed.

  “The best part,” Hakuri said, “is that I don’t even have to marry my sister.”

  “Marry your sister?!”

  He laughed again at the look on her face, and nearly choked on his food.

  “The usual thing these days is for the adopted male to marry the first daughter, hence why our family names are so old. It’s not very fair to the daughter — especially if she was looking forward to running the family business — but that’s traditionalists for you. Anyway, Miss Hakuri really didn’t like me. Ran off to Shuul with her lover.”

  Euryce did not know what to say.

  “So, y’know, I’m rich and available.”

  “Oh,” she said. “Right. You know I’m seeing someone?”

  “On the crew?”

  “Yes,” she said. “Someone on the crew.”

  “Is he going to be around for a while?”

  She hesitated to answer.

  “Sorry, I don’t mean to put you on the spot. It’s just that one very rarely meets people like you, and I kinda always plan long-term.”

  “I don’t really plan who I want to fall for,” said Eilentes.

  “No, but what was that thing you said in Ops? You take control of the processes shaping your life? I can’t think of a bigger life-shaping process than a serious relationship.”

  Euryce had no choice but to nod in agreement.

  “So is it serious?”

  Euryce opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by fast movement in her peripheral vision. Before she could even register how startled she was, Hakuri was on the floor.

  “Find your own woman.”

  “Danis!”

  Euryce leapt to her feet, her chair banging back against its sliding rails, and bent down to help Hakuri. He was flat on his back with a bloodied nose.

  “Leave him to it,” Danis said. He pulled at her jacket. “He got what he needed, the cunt.”

  “Get off me, Danis,” shouted Euryce. “Leave him alone.”

  “Him or me, Euryce.”

  She stood and faced Danis, seething with anger. More than anything, she wanted to slap the big idiot hard across the face. But there would be consequences for this attack; even if he kept his job, he would be transferred. No need to add her own name to that list.

  “Go. The fuck. Away.”

  Danis nodded slowly, eye-balling her as if she had confirmed a question he never asked. He backed off, turned to leave, and shouted over his shoulder.

  “You and me are done.”

  “Yeah,” Euryce shouted back. “No shit.”

  — 16 —

  Intervention

  Eilentes waited with Caden while the Proctor’s shuttle made its short journey from Fort Laeara to Disputer. With the other ships of their task force already waiting for them at the fortress, Captain Thande had suggested it would be a waste of valuable time for them to dock just to pick up the envoy.

  The shuttle passed between the vast hangar doors of the port-side flight deck, its formation lights winked off, and it settled carefully on one of the pads. Vapour pooled beneath it.

  “So,” Eilentes said. “Working with a Viskr.”

  “Yep.”

  “Going to be pretty weird, huh?”

  “Yep.”

  “Don’t want to talk about that?”

  Caden continued to stare through the window of the observation lounge, leaning against the rail and gripping it with both hands. He had not said much to her about the envoy, other than the fact that they would be conducting the Riishi mission with him along as an escort, and she sensed that he was not yet decided himself on what he felt about it.

  “Not really,” he said at last.

  “I suppose it’s about to become academic,” she said.

  She watched the people leave the shuttle, the Viskr among them plainly obvious. His loping, bird-like gait and flattened, diamond-shaped head meant there was no way he could possibly blend in. The group walked across the flight deck, following an illuminated path to the nearest security gate.

  “Doesn’t he need to go through decon?” Eilentes asked.

  “He’ll have done that on the fortress,” said Caden. “Come on.”

  They left the observation lounge and walked along a passageway which ran along the flight deck’s inner edge, working their way around to the security gate. When they arrived, they found the group had already passed through.

  “Shard Caden, Sir,” said one of the officers from the shuttle. “May I present Proctor of the Faith Toord Sylk Caecald.”

  “Hello,” said Caden.

  Eilentes cringed at the greeting. ‘Informal’ did not quite cover it.

  “Hello,” said the Proctor. His link — or at least, the Viskr equivalent of a link — gave him an unexpectedly human voice. The true vocalisations which the link’s output masked seemed both sharp and wet.

  “I’ll leave you with him, Sir,” said the officer.

  “Thank you, yes. I’ll take it from here.”

  The officer walked back through the gate, and wished them the best of luck under his breath.

  “So,” said Eilentes. “Welcome to the Disputer.”

  Caecald looked at Eilentes with his black eyes, and she felt as though
she were being scrutinised. His wide, flat face tilted from one side to the other as if he were sizing her up. He turned his attention to Caden.

  “The subordinate is of you?” He said.

  Eilentes looked at Caden, saw the confusion on his face, and wanted to laugh.

  “Yep. Good luck,” she whispered.

  “This is my subordinate… sorry Euryce. She is Lieutenant Euryce Eilentes.”

  “Long was the wait at the meeting.”

  “Umm… I don’t understand.”

  Eilentes had moved back until she was sure that the Viskr could not see her, and now struggled not to crease with laughter. She had assumed — as Caden probably had — that between the Viskr’s link and their own, communication would be a relatively straightforward matter. But this was just too weird.

  “At the meeting … the wait … will be long?”

  “Caden,” Eilentes gasped. “I think the link is only programmed with whatever basics were figured out from message intercepts. You’re gonna have to figure it out.”

  “How the hell did that nitwit chamberlain know what he was on about? Seriously. Any idea what he’s saying?”

  “Don’t hold me to this, but I think he’s saying he has waited a long time for this meeting.”

  Caden smiled at her, turned back to Caecald, and nodded.

  “He won’t understand nodding, dumbass.”

  “You,” Caden pointed at Caecald, “waited a long time for this meet-ing.”

  “Yes, yes, yes, yes,” said Caecald’s link.

  The monotone chant was too much for Eilentes. She laughed out loud.

  Caecald whipped his head towards her again, cocked it at a sharp angle, and waited until she had stopped making noise. She saw herself reflected in his eyes, and wondered what was going on behind them.

  As soon as she was silent, he snapped his attention back to Caden.

  “What words have she make?”

  “That was laughter,” said Caden. “She was amused.”

  Caecald looked at her again.

  “Amused by me,” Caden added.

  “The subordinate ‘Lieutenant’ will be too extra.”

  “Did he just say what I think he said?” Euryce asked.

  “What do you think he said?”

  “Basically, ‘three’s a crowd’.”

  “You can be a bit too extra, to be fair.”

  “Okay, fine. I know when I’m not wanted. But you two should probably go somewhere else; hanging around in corners talking gibberish to each other is going to get you locked up.”

  “The subordinate ‘Lieutenant’ will have words too maximum.”

  “You’re not wrong, Caecald,” said Caden. “Too maximum by half.”

  “Oh my worlds,” said Eilentes. “I’ll see you later.”

  She left them to it, went to the security gate, and showed her holo to the guard on duty.

  “I need to requisition a craft for the mission,” she said.

  “Speak to the deck chief,” said the guard. “She’s usually in her office at this time. Over there.”

  Eilentes walked along the painted safe route at the edge of the deck, in the direction the guard had indicated, and eventually came to an open hatch which had the word “Chief” spray-painted crudely next to it. She rapped on the bulkhead next to the opening, and stepped inside.

  “Hello?” She said aloud.

  “Back here,” came a voice.

  She stepped carefully over the mechanical debris which covered half of the floor, and into a side-room.

  “Whatcha need?”

  It was the same striking woman who had advised her that she could not fly the lander on the Guathelia mission, and she was up to her elbows in engine oil.

  “Oh, hey,” said Eilentes. “Yeah, I need a lander. One I’m actually allowed to fly.”

  “Ahhh, you’re that pilot knocks around with the Shard, yeah?”

  “That’s me. Lieutenant Eilentes.”

  “Chief Jalleck. Sorry, didn’t know who you was before. Not that it would have changed things.”

  “That’s fine.”

  “You just need the one? You sure? Heard we’re flying straight into the hornet’s nest.”

  “It’s fine. We’re going to redeploy to the Night’s Shadow, and make the last leg of the journey with them.”

  “Oh. Birds from Disputer not good enough now?”

  “It’s not that, really. It’s just… Disputer and her birds will be pretty busy watching our asses.”

  Jalleck nodded sagely. “They’ll do a grand job of it too.”

  “I certainly hope so.”

  “You take number four,” said Jalleck. “She’s just been refit. All new turbines, latest skin-printing, new mission pods. Tough little bitch, that one.”

  “That sounds ideal. Thank you, Chief.”

  “Any time. Sorry I couldna helped you before like.”

  “Wasn’t really your decision, was it?”

  “Well, I coulda jumped the bird’s brain and got you logged on, but then I’d have had my ass kicked all over my own flight deck.”

  “I certainly wouldn’t want that,” said Eilentes.

  “You and me both.”

  Eilentes left the chief behind and spent some time checking over the lander she had been promised. It was much like all of the others she had used, only it had that new ship smell. She checked she could log on as an operator before leaving.

  Back on the flight deck, she pressed her link and placed a call to Bruiser.

  “Lieutenant Eilentes?”

  “Hey Bruiser. Where are you? We need to start prepping for this mission.”

  She heard the clank of metal on metal in the background.

  “Gym compartment. I was about to leave. I will meet you. Where are you?”

  “On the flight deck, but I’m going to pay a visit to the armoury; I have some bits to pick up. You might want to take a look at some of the lists Throam used to use for different mission profiles.”

  “I will do so … where are they?”

  “Meet me at the armoury,” she said, “and bring your holo.”

  • • •

  “This had better be quick,” said Caden. “We’re due to leave any minute now.”

  Brant looked hurt.

  “Just some news from the Vavilov,” he said. “Thought you’d want to know.”

  “I do, and I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound impatient. I just spent the last hour having my brain rewired.”

  “Rewired?”

  “The Viskr envoy has joined us. The links are… shall we just say ‘inadequate’, as far as live translation goes. We basically had to teach each other how to understand simple phrases.”

  “Huh. I would have thought we had a pretty good understanding of the Viskr languages by now.”

  “The vocabulary is fine,” said Caden. “Nothing really wrong there. But grammatical translation sucks. And as for cultural idioms — forget about it.”

  “Sounds like a real laugh.”

  “Yeah. I pretty much have to listen to the gibberish his link puts out and then rewrite it inside my head. He has to do the same thing. Hopefully it will become second nature after a while.”

  “Do you honestly think that’s likely?”

  “I’ve done it before. It’s tiring, but it works. So what’s the news?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Brant said. “The scientists on Vavilov are ready to start distributing the template for their antibody test. They’re going to databurst it to every military command in the Empire.”

  “That’s fantastic.”

  “There’s more. They also found a common factor linking those people who don’t appear to have become full Rasas. Between the blood samples from Castigon, that kid Omin, and a handful of others, they think that people who have been directly exposed to the Blight might have gained a degree of resistance against the Rasa virus.”

  “Really? How helpful.”

  “Guess it’s kinda lucky that pan-Imperial
vaccination programme never went ahead.”

  “Well, that idea was just a political move really. How does it work then? This resistance deal.”

  “Don’t really understand it all myself, but I can send you the report. They don’t go into a lot of detail to be honest; I think it’s more a correlation than anything else right now. An interesting commonality which ‘merits further study’, and so on.”

  “I guess it’ll be something to do with antigens,” said Caden.

  “Okay… well then you already know more about it than I do.”

  “Do me a favour, Brant. Tell Vavilov to perform a few random jumps after they send that databurst. I have a feeling someone will try to shut them up.”

  “You think they’ll be at risk?”

  “Of course. Anyone can triangulate a ship’s position from an all-network databurst. There will probably be Sleepers throughout the armada who won’t want the people on Vavilov to continue being alive.”

  “Good point. I’ll tell them, but they might be reluctant. This whole inaccurate wormholes thing is starting to freak people out. They’re all terrified of getting their ships enmeshed.”

  “Well it’s risk that, or get killed by Rasas. Their choice. I’d much prefer them to live long enough to continue their research, personally.”

  “Doing it now,” said Brant. He tapped away outside the frame of the holo.

  “Any word from the Lovelace?”

  “Just some preliminary data. The Shaeld Hratha, apparently, are adapted to be both fossorial and arboreal.”

  “They evolved to burrow, and live in trees?”

  “Apparently so.”

  “How does that work?”

  “Maybe they have really big, really soft trees back home, which they burrow into.”

  “Works for me,” Caden said. “What about the eggs?”

  “Some were dead. But they’re being used to inform the development of a nutrient mix.”

  “Nutrient mix? They’re going to let the others hatch?”

  “How else are we going to study them?”

  Caden found the idea unsettling, but the fact was that Brant was right.

  “Hmm. Guess there’s no other way.”

  “Look at it this way,” said Brant. “It means we won’t have to try and capture any adults.”

  “There is that, yeah.”

  “Also, they have no genitalia.”