The Bacals were very much human in appearance; oddly so. The Concord was full of many races, most bipedal and familiar, but other than the dark hair and thick eyebrows, these people could be from the same city as Tom.
A woman fell over crying, and a man helped her to her feet as they approached. Tom surveyed the hillside they’d stopped at and counted over twenty people.
“You came,” a man said, his accent thick.
“You speak the language of the Concord,” Tom said, and the man nodded.
“We learn from a young age. Our Regent, hail his eternal star, has always dreamed of joining your ranks. I suppose he died before it happened,” the man said.
Brax and the guards were beside a group of locals, who were catering to a fallen child. Tom noticed the bloody torn bandage on the child’s arm where part of their appendage was missing.
“I’m Captain Thomas Baldwin of the Concord cruise ship Constantine. We were meant to come as your welcoming party into the Concord, but communications ceased. Now we see why. What’s your name?” Tom asked the man.
He was old, his back slightly bent, but his hair was unusually thick; his eyebrows danced as he spoke, gray speckled through them. He gave a bow of his head. “I’m Unif.”
“And these people? Family?” Tom asked.
Unif’s face grew sallow. “No. We are all mostly strangers. We found each other in the days after.”
“What happened here?” Tom’s voice was grave. “How long has it been?”
“We had our celebration four days ago,” the man said. “The Regent announced we were joining, even though most of us already had an inkling. The word spread quickly.”
“Then what?” Ven asked from directly beside Tom.
“They came from the sky,” the man said before coughing roughly. One of the guards took water from his pack and passed it to the old man, who shared it with those around him before accepting a tiny serving.
"Who was it?" Tom asked him.
“We don’t know. The ships… they were cylinders. They unleashed hell on our city,” he said. “All our systems crashed instantly. Tell me, what of our other nations?”
Tom shrugged, inwardly cringing at the shape of the vessels. “We came here. There’s no communication anywhere. I…” He glanced around at the expectant gazes of the kids and other people huddled at the hillside. “It’s too soon to tell.”
Cylinder-shaped ships. There hadn’t been anything like that for a long time. It had been fifty years since the Statu War had ended, but the Concord had first seen the Tubers raiding a distant non-Concord world almost six decades earlier. The planet had hopes of joining their ranks, but an envoy had yet to travel there. He couldn’t recall the name of the world.
“It couldn’t be,” Tom muttered to himself, and turned his attention to Unif once again. “And they laid waste? What of your…” He tried to remember their vessels’ names, and it came to him. “Your Defenders?”
“Destroyed almost instantly. We never stood a chance,” Unif said.
Brax was done replacing the wounded boy’s bandage with a fresh one, and he’d given the kid a shot, which would quickly heal the harmed area. It was too late to help the loss of his hand.
“Unif, we’re going to help you.” Tom motioned for Brax to join him and Ven to the side, away from listening ears. “Ven, what do you think?” he asked the Zilph’i.
“I think they are speaking their truth, and we are facing an admirable adversary.”
“How so?” Tom asked, not particularly liking the man’s choice of words for the enemy.
“They managed to destroy all electrical components. We fabricated defenses against that a long time ago,” Ven said.
Tom understood. “They likely didn’t have such safeguards in place out here. Until they found out there was this superconductive ore beneath their oceans, this planet was destined for mediocrity forever. What they thought was the best thing that could possibly happen ended up being the opposite. It drew unwanted eyes to their planet. Damn it. If only we were a week earlier.”
Ven crossed his long arms. “Captain, do you think we would have made a difference?”
“I would hope so,” Tom said.
“If it’s the Statu…” Ven started, and Tom cut him off.
“It can’t be. They’re destroyed, Ven.”
“Captain, don’t be so close-minded. The likelihood the Statu were actually destroyed is slim,” Ven said, and Tom’s head began to throb again.
“Look, my grandfather…” Tom’s wrist vibrated, and he tapped it. “Go ahead, bridge.”
“Sir, something is moving away from the ocean. It’s… big,” Treena’s voice told him.
Tom peered toward the water, which was at least thirty kilometers away. Even in the dusky skyline, he could see the outline of the ugly, gargantuan vessel.
“Sir, I think we’ve found the Statu again,” Brax said, his voice surprisingly unwavering.
Eight
The sound of the pulsing ship stopped so suddenly, Tarlen nearly fell over.
“What’s it doing?” he asked Penter, who was sitting along the edge of the cliff, observing the red beams pulling the ore from far below the surface. Waves were huge here, coming to splash all the way up the massive crag.
Penter moved away from the ledge, seeming to come out of a trance. His eyes were wide, his thick brow knotted and furled. “They’re leaving.” His voice was quiet against the lapping water, and both of them stood on the hard-packed cliff, watching as the red light flickered off, the pulsing sound no longer there.
Tarlen expected it to kick in again, to be bombarded by the noise and sights, but it didn’t. The terrible vessel began to move from its hovering position near the water, and it kept moving higher and higher until he could no longer see it in the new night sky.
Were some of his people trapped on that ship? Was his family alive and enslaved? Tarlen felt so helpless as he slumped to the ground, unsure what he could possibly do.
____________
Treena Starling ordered a full alert. The bridge erupted into a bustle of activity as the immense vessel rose from far below.
“This is bad,” Junior Officer Zane whispered from her helm position.
“Identify the vessel, please,” Treena said to Chief Engineer Reeve Daak, whom she’d called from the “boiler room” when the others had departed to the surface.
“It’s not on file, but judging by the appearance… it’s Statu,” Reeve said.
“That’s what I thought,” Treena said. “Weapons ready. Shields at full capacity.”
“Done,” Reeve said from her brother’s usual station.
Treena considered firing everything they had on the ship, but there were too many unknowns. Doing so might spark an all-out war with a race they thought had been dealt with. In this case, she deemed it prudent to wait to see if they drew first blood.
“Shouldn’t we hit them with the big guns?” Reeve asked.
The woman wouldn’t have voiced her opinion so freely if it was Captain Baldwin leading the charge. “If we fire at them, the consequences could be dire for all of the Concord. Stand by.” Treena watched as the vessel rose through the atmosphere and away from Greblok. A dozen or so ships released from its underbelly.
“They’ve sent a contingency of fighters,” Zane advised.
“Zoom,” Treena ordered, coming to stand directly behind the junior officer. The ships were cylindrical, clearly Statu Tubers. “Damn,” she muttered.
She tapped the console in front of Zane. “Captain, come in.”
“Go ahead, bridge.” Tom’s voice was oddly calm.
“Tubers. There’s a dozen heading for us. I’d like to take them down, if it’s all right with you,” Treena said. She had the authority, but with Baldwin’s connection to the Concord’s most vindictive enemy of the last few centuries, she thought it best to get his approval first.
“Tubers. Damn it. Destroy them, Starling, and quickly. Don’t let them get near my
ship,” Tom said.
“Yes, sir,” Treena said. “You heard the man; hit them with everything this prize ship has to offer.”
Treena wished Brax Daak was there. He was the most trained on the new weaponry, but his sister had obviously gone over the notes. Treena took control at the empty helm position and watched as the Tubers were targeted by the ship’s tracking.
“If I may be of help, let me know.” Constantine’s AI appeared behind Treena, his arms crossed.
Three of the cylindrical vessels were destroyed in the first volley, and the rest were being picked off one by one as the cruise ship’s defenses took over. Soon there was only one left, and it jumped from view.
“Where did it go?” Treena asked, trying to see it on the localized sensor map.
Reeve glanced over. The viewer changed camera angles, displaying the long alien ship attached to them. “It jumped into us, hitting our guests,” she said quickly. The fire was quickly suppressed, as it found no oxygen to consume. Constantine’s passenger ship remained intact, but it was damaged at the tail end, near the cryopods.
“We have to save them,” Nee said, coming to his feet.
“Go. Suit up. See what you can salvage,” Treena said, wishing their expedition team would return.
The huge alien enemy vessel continued to move away, but no more Tubers came at the Constantine.
“Do we engage?” Reeve asked Treena, and she tapped her finger on the console, trying to decide if she would risk their crew on the departing Statu warship.
____________
“Take us lower,” Tom told Brax. “There.” He pointed toward the cliffside, where two figures stood staring out at the dark ocean. The moon reflected off the deep water’s volatile surface. Tom wouldn’t have believed the sight if he hadn’t witnessed the vessel leaving with his own two eyes.
“Captain, I think it wise we evacuate and return to our ship. The Concord is going to…” Ven began.
“The Concord needs to uncover exactly what happened, and these two would have seen it. Starling can take care of our people for another few minutes,” Tom barked.
Brax set them to the rocky crag, aiming a headlight toward the figures. Tom exited the expedition ship, raising a hand in a universal sign of greeting. “We’re here to help!” he shouted over the sound of their engines and the constant barrage of water against the cliff wall.
“Thank the Regent,” a burly man said, shuffling over to Tom. Beside him stood a thin boy, dark hair and eyes on both of them telling Tom they were definitely locals.
“What happened?” Tom asked, nodding toward the water.
“They mined something. We saw it rising from under the waves, through a red beam and into the ship,” the boy told him. His Standard was well spoken, with a hint of an accent.
“Captain, we need to leave!” Brax shouted as he ran from the ship. Ven was behind him, pointing at the dim skyline.
“Is that…?” Tom recognized the silhouette of the Tuber even from this distance.
“They’re the ones that attacked us. They killed our families. They’re all gone,” the boy said.
Tom saw a flash of pain over the older Bacal’s face, his thick brow bunched in anger. He pulled a gun from his holster and ran toward the edge of the cliff as the Tuber neared them.
“Come on, we have to evacuate,” Tom said, tugging on the boy’s sleeve. The kid fought his efforts, shouting at the departed man.
“Penter, get over here!” the kid yelled.
Penter fired his small pistol toward the incoming ship, and Brax moaned, racing across the stone ground toward the local. He fired his own much larger XRC-14 at the Tuber as he called to the Bacal man.
Tom was already at their ship, Ven hopping in first, then dragging the kid inside. The Tuber was growing closer, and Tom wished Brax would either destroy the thing or come to his senses and run. When he realized neither of those options was being taken, Tom made a decision. “We have to fight the Tuber.”
Ven nodded, lifting Cleo from the ground. It was too late. Even from here, their raised position above the cliff, he saw the constant pulse of Brax’s weapon as it fired at the Tuber, the red blasts hitting a shield on the cylindrical ship.
“Ven, take them down!” Tom yelled, but a moment too late.
A beam cut out from the bottom of the Statu fighter, hitting Penter and Brax. One minute they were there; the next they were gone.
“Damn it! Ven, attack!” Tom ordered, but the Zilph’i didn’t obey.
“Sir, the Statu initiated a molecular Mover, not a weapon. If we destroy them, we cannot retrieve Lieutenant Commander Daak,” Ven said with little emotion.
Tom had almost forgotten about the Movers. “Bring us to Constantine.” In a short hour, they’d learned what happened to their new Concord partners, found out their old enemy hadn’t been wiped from existence as they’d thought, and Tom had managed to lose one of his executive lieutenants. It wasn’t a great start to his first week as a captain.
____________
“Where’s Brax?” Reeve asked the second the captain stepped onto the bridge.
Treena saw the pain in the woman’s eyes.
“They took him.” Tom didn’t explain further. “Did you see the last Tuber come from the surface?”
The chief engineer nodded, her red eyes brimming with tears. “Yes, Captain.”
“They used a Mover,” Tom said, and the kid stepped around him, startling Treena.
“They took my friend Penter too. They might have my sister. They might have a ship full of my people still alive. They’re going to make slaves out of them,” the boy said, his words almost too quick to discern.
“Slow down,” Treena told the kid. “Captain, this is huge. The Statu are back. We have to engage.”
Baldwin shook his head. “We can’t. Not when they have a ship full of Bacals.” He glanced at the boy from the corner of his eye. “Not to mention the main reason the Concord wanted them to join in the first place.”
“The ore?” Treena was fuming. “You’re going to let them escape because they’re carrying a load of conductive metal?”
Tom clenched his jaw in an already familiar gesture. He was telling Treena to stop testing his patience. She didn’t care. Too many people had died at the Statu’s hands. Her own lineage had more than their share of horror stories surrounding the bastards.
“You know it’s more than that!” Tom shouted. Treena followed his gaze toward the zoomed-in image of the Statu ship. It smoothly glided farther away, in the direction of the moon, as a blue glow began beneath the vessel. The entire long ship shifted directions, making room for the massive thrusters on its underside. They pulsed: once, then twice, and the Statu vessel vanished.
Treena felt helpless as the ship escaped them. “We should have attacked. We shouldn’t have let them leave.” Constantine had them outgunned. That was the entire point of such a flagship. It was designed so they never had to worry about being overpowered again. It was supposed to be a new era, one of peace, but the Concord had been prepared for the worst.
“Then it’s a good thing all our crew members are tagged, isn’t it?” Tom wagged his eyebrows, and Treena jolted upright. He was right! This was new, and some races had objected – primarily the Callalay – but at this moment, Treena could understand the value.
Ven was already at the helm, using the computer to locate their chief of security. The map zoomed out, then farther. The path moved in a straight and definitive line.
“They’re moving beyond the Border,” Treena said, her hands clenching the top of Ven’s headrest.
“Then that’s where we go,” Tom said. “Starling, come with me. We need to contact Admiral Hudson. Where’s the doctor?” The captain looked around, and Treena realized she’d almost forgotten the attack on the alien vessel in all the excitement.
“Captain, our passenger ship was damaged by a suicidal Tuber. Doctor Nee went to see what they could salvage in regard to the cryopods,” she told him.
>
“Of course he did. Ven, you have the bridge. Starling, let’s see what we’re dealing with.” Tom started for the door when the kid’s voice called out.
“Can I come with you?” the boy asked.
Nine
“What’s your name, kid?” Tom asked the Bacal.
“I’m Tarlen, sir,” he said, standing tall.
“Hurry along,” Tom said, rushing through the corridors, the kid on his tail.
“Shouldn’t we send him home?” Treena asked as they raced toward the cargo hold on Deck Five.
Tom shook his head. “There’s not much left for Tarlen there any longer, is there?”
“No, sir. I want to help find your friend, and mine. Don’t worry, Penter is a guard. He’ll take care of your man,” Tarlen said.
“That’s good, because the moment he wakes up from the Mover’s effects, Brax is going to be one angry Tekol. I wouldn’t want to be on his wrong side when that happens,” Tom told Tarlen.
The elevator stopped, letting them out on Deck Five, and the three of them entered the cargo hold to see Doctor Nee shouting orders. There were twenty or so crew members moving back and forth from the hatches, dragging cryogenic pods from transport ships.
“Report, Doctor,” Tom said loudly enough for Nee to hear even among the clamor.
Doctor Nee turned. His usually perfectly-styled white hair was messy, his cheeks ruddy. “Captain, we managed to salvage over half of the pods. I hate to say it, but the others were destroyed in the attack. The ship is sealed off again, using a patch, but the damage was already done.”
Tom flinched. They’d found an alien race and had managed to allow harm to befall them while the aliens were under their protection. It was going from bad to worse. He tried to think of a way to explain all of this to Admiral Hudson but failed at the moment. It was going to be a hard conversation.
The cargo hold was huge, thirty meters high, and twice as long and wide. There were nearly fifty cryogenic pods spread out in neat lines along the floor, their power sources stacked behind them. Tom didn’t want to ask how painstaking of a process it had been to move them all here. The crew seemed exhausted from the endeavor.
Baldwin's Legacy: The Complete Series Page 9