Fifteen
Tarlen woke to a gentle shaking of his shoulders and blinked away the sleep from his eyes. “Nee?” he asked, seeing the white-haired doctor over his bed.
“It’s time,” Nee said, a smile spread across his handsome face.
Tarlen bolted from the patient bed, tossing the heavy blanket to the floor as he darted from the room. Nee laughed, following close behind, and they moved from the rear of the medical bay to the surgical chamber.
The doors slid open, and Vicci was there, standing in front of someone, blocking his view.
“Belna!” Tarlen called, hoping the surgery had been a success.
Vicci stepped to the side, and there was his sister in a patient gown, sitting on the table, her eyes still pure white. He slowed, chin lowering to his chest. “It didn’t work,” he said softly.
“What do you mean, Tarlen?” It took him a moment to realize the voice came from her mouth, not the speakers beside the bed.
“Belna… is that you!?” He ran to her, and she slid off the bed, landing on uneasy legs. He caught her in an embrace and lifted her from the ground.
“Be careful, Tarlen,” Nee warned, and Tarlen set her on the floor.
Belna stared at him with blank eyes and smiled. “It worked. I can think, and move, and speak again. You have no idea how scary that was, but you came for me. You saved me from that dreadful planet and never gave up.” She hugged him, squeezing until he could hardly breathe.
“This is unbelievable. Thank you, Doctor Nee, Doctor DeLarose.” Tarlen turned to see the two faces smiling widely at the two Bacal siblings.
“We’re going to send you two to Earon with Vicci, where she’s going to insert pigmentation for Belna’s eyes and run more applicable tests. We want to ensure this is a permanent fix,” Nee said, and Tarlen nodded along.
“That’s good.” Tarlen was fully aware that Constantine was heading off to war today, and maybe it was for the best that he and his sister were remaining behind. Her awareness was fresh; he didn’t want to lose her again. Not after they’d lost so much in the initial attack on Greblok.
Belna shook her head. “I appreciate what you’re saying, but I can’t go.”
“Why not?” Tarlen asked.
“Because there are too many people over there that need our help,” she said.
“What are you talking about?” Nee asked. “Over where?”
“On the Statu world.”
“We already … dealt with them,” Tarlen said, recalling the destruction as they’d killed so many of the brainwashed slaves.
“Not them. There are more. I was in a facility briefly. I saw the people, but they weren’t Bacal. There were ones like… him.” She pointed at the Kwant doctor. “And there were humans, like Vicci here. Some with bald heads and ruts on their foreheads. And tall thin ones. So many.”
Nee crossed the room and grabbed Belna’s cheeks softly with his gloved hands. “Are you saying there are Kwants as slaves over there? And others?”
She nodded. “They don’t seem like slaves. I heard one of them call themselves Groups. They hardly spoke Standard. They clicked.”
“They clicked?” Tarlen asked.
“Yes, like the Statu.” Belna’s hand was shaking, and Tarlen feared the worst.
“Maybe we should stop; she’s nervous. She’s had too big of a day,” he said, but Nee kept asking questions.
“They spoke like the Statu. Were they young, old?”
“All sorts of different ages,” Belna said.
Doctor Nee turned almost as white as his hair. “How many? How many did you see?”
“There were thousands, but that was only one area. I think there might have been more,” she told him.
Tarlen tried to understand what he was hearing.
“Someone find Captain Baldwin, now!” Nee shouted out the door at Kelli.
____________
“This changes everything, doesn’t it?” Reeve asked.
With the technology R-emergence had created, they might be able to recover and repair the Concord slaves, and because of that, this had turned from an all-out battle to a rescue mission. Tom rubbed his head and looked around the room.
The executive crew was all present, and he’d wanted to discuss it with them first, before bringing their findings to the rest of the fleet. “Belna was sure there were pockets of these Groups all over the planet. She overheard a conversation in Standard when they’d first arrived. It sounded like not all the slaves they held were too keen on being rescued. Many of them still displayed their iris color, and yet chose to fight alongside the Statu.”
“It’s a textbook syndrome, if you ask me,” Nee said. The doctor sat at the opposite end of the meeting room table from Tom, with the twins on the right side, and Ven and Treena on Tom’s left.
“Can you explain?” Tom asked.
“Throughout history, there have been many cases of a group of people being invaded and enslaved, the captors treating them well enough for the prisoners to entertain the notion that they’re being cared for, even loved. The enslaved have the delusional sense that they’re in the wrong and deserve their fate, ensuring they’ll do anything for the invaders, even kill or die, perhaps.” Doctor Nee folded his hands on his lap and shrugged.
“I didn’t know you were a therapist too,” Brax said with a smirk.
“I may be wrong,” Nee said.
Ven tapped a long finger on the table, drawing Tom’s attention. “What is it, Ven?”
The Ugna appeared surprised to be called on, or maybe he’d been deep in thought. “I’ve been thinking a lot about the Statu since our meeting last night. I think with this new information, I have a theory.”
Tom was glad everyone was concentrated on this problem. They were going to need all the skilled minds they had to solve the issue. “Can we hear it?” he asked when Ven didn’t continue.
“The Statu arrived six decades ago, and we fought them for ten years, correct?” Ven asked.
“That’s right,” Brax replied.
“We always seemed to be fighting on even ground, never with the odds completely against us. They would send a few warships into a system, draw us in, then leave or end up being destroyed, quite often obliterating our ships simultaneously.
“They also attacked a lot of planets early on, leaving craters and destroyed cities, which we now understand meant they used their Movers to steal thousands, or tens of thousands, of slaves. They then used these slaves to control more warships and kept repeating the same motivations the entire time. Eventually, they used a wormhole and departed, after Yollox.”
“And then they came back a few months ago. This is common knowledge, Ven,” Tom said, trying not to sound short with the Ugna. Tom was growing weary of the discussions and wished the mission was over already, before it had begun.
“To obtain the ore.”
“So they could return with the ability to make wormholes?” Treena asked.
“I think they have a formidable population,” Ven said.
Tom leaned forward. “We were over there. They had a dozen warships, and we destroyed a few, even stole one. We understand the ships’ capabilities and the trick of the slaves. We’re prepared for them.”
Ven didn’t appear to buy it. “It doesn’t add up. They came the first time to steal our people. They waited two generations before attacking Greblok.”
“Are you implying they were aware of the mineral under the Bacal ocean, when the Bacal didn’t even know it was there?” Treena asked, and Ven nodded.
“I believe so.”
“Yephion told us their neighbors were devious. Imagine how many of these Groups they could control between those two planets. And if they had thousands then, what if they made them breed?” Brax asked, and Tom cringed at the thought of all the slaves being made to procreate.
Reeve frowned in distaste. “That is plausible, and some of them would be third-generation captives. Those would be the ones speaking Statu and believing in th
e cause.”
Tom’s headache was growing worse with each passing theory, and he drank deeply from his glass of water. “If all of this conjecture is true, what’s the worst outcome you can think of?”
Brax glanced at Ven, then back to Tom. “If this was their plan the entire time, they might have a veritable army and fleet over there. We didn’t check the neighboring planet for warship construction. And what about the twelve that came from the depths of that system when we arrived? Where were they coming from? We were in such a time crunch; we had no way to investigate.”
“Maybe we should open the wormhole and send a scout,” Reeve suggested.
As much as Tom liked the idea, it wouldn’t work. “Then they realize we’re coming, and we have no element of surprise. As it stands, they likely expect us, but they have no clue when we’d come. And since the generator was created so quickly, we’re probably far ahead of their estimations. We can’t do a reconnaissance mission, unfortunately.”
They were scheduled to leave in four hours, and if this speculation was even close to reality, he needed to speak with the admiral as soon as possible. He stood, tapping his knuckles on the table as he walked past his crew. “Prepare what you can. Brax, make sure our weapons systems are attuned to any of the vulnerabilities we learned from our stolen warship.”
“Captain, we checked those a dozen times,” Brax told him.
“Check them again, and bring Reeve with you. We can’t have any errors.” Tom left them chatting amongst themselves and went to find the admiral.
He found her on Shu a half hour later, talking with Rene Bouchard. He waited outside her office on the bridge, shifting from foot to foot while seconds stretched to minutes and minutes to a half hour. Eventually, he located Commander Shu, and the young Callalay must have heard the importance in his voice, because Admiral Benitor opened the door moments later, her gaze meeting Tom’s.
Rene exited her office, visibly rattled. He’d recognize that look anywhere. He wondered if she’d tried to transfer her command of Shu. That wouldn’t do them any good.
“Baldwin, in here. We don’t have much time now, do we?” Benitor waved him in, and Tom shut Rene’s office door behind him.
“Admiral, we may have some news…”
She lifted a finger, stepping closer to him. She was a good half-head shorter than he was and at least three decades older, but she still caused him to react at the movement. “Did you think we wouldn’t find out?”
Tom swallowed hard. It was clear he’d been caught, but it might not be about Luci. “You’re going to have to be clearer.”
She cast her gaze to the door and brought out a device he’d never seen before. It was half the size of her palm, and she pressed a button on the edge before placing it in the center of the desk. “We can talk freely without fear of being heard.”
“You think Rene is bugging her own office?” Tom asked.
“I think that this ship has the AI of a very intelligent woman, and one of the best captains this damned Concord has ever seen, and Bouchard has a checkered history with authority.”
“Then why did you name her captain?” Tom asked. “Was it the whole human thing, because Tess Longshade seems to think…”
“Tess Longshade needs to watch what she says before she ends up beside Harris,” Admiral Benitor said quickly. He’d never seen her this agitated.
“Look…”
“The girl. We’re aware she isn’t on Bolux Nine. What did you do with her?” The subject change caught Tom off-guard, and he uttered some nonsense. “Tom, I vouched for you after Greblok. I really did. There were some that wanted to string you up and blame your grandfather for the aftermath of the Yollox Incursion, but I stood by you and your name. Don’t make me regret it, please.”
She sat down, and he saw her years adding up in her posture, in the way her skin sagged around her eyes, and he nodded, sitting opposite her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t have many options.”
“You could have done what we asked and left the girl with Seda.”
“If you knew me at all, you’d have expected it,” he said.
She smiled: not a happy gesture, but one of resignation. “Perhaps it might be better this way. On Bolux, she was sure to die, but we might need bait one day.”
“Bait? For what?” Tom asked.
“Keen.”
“He’s not going anywhere, Admiral. What are you…”
“It’s come to my attention, from one of your crew members, that Keen is privy to key contacts outside the Concord’s reach.” The sparkle had returned to her eyes.
“You mean the angry aliens he bartered with, trading stolen Concord property for technology?” Tom had heard enough. “Why can’t you let the mother have the girl and keep them contained somewhere instead?”
“I heard you had a relationship with Seda. Is that true?” she asked, and Tom slammed his palm on the desk. Benitor didn’t so much as flinch at the action.
“What in the Vastness does a crush from twenty years ago have to do with anything?”
“Everything, Tom. Everything. The girl stays where you stashed her.” The admiral didn’t advise if she was aware of the location, and Tom wasn’t about to offer it, so they proceeded to stare at one another.
“Come back alive, Baldwin. Contrary to what you think, I support you and always will. You have a good heart, even better than the old codger had when he was at it,” she said. “You leave in three hours. Make it count, Tom. Finish this war.”
He sighed, the fight gone from the room, and he told her about their new theory. She listened with care and disagreed with the hypothesis.
“What if we’re right?”
“We don’t have the people. We’re rebuilding. You can’t be right, and if you are, you have to win regardless. You have the two finest vessels the Concord has ever seen. You have the element of surprise and a fantastic crew. You can do this, Tom. If there’s any hope left, it’s you.”
Tom rose, deciding the meeting had to be over. “I’ll do my best.”
“Effort equals results. Give your all; you shall receive as much in return.” Benitor came to stand by him, and she set a hand on his arm. “Tom, there’s one more thing. I’m giving you a promotion for this mission. You are now Fleet Captain, the direct leader of Captain Bouchard and all twelve Ugna vessels. We can’t have any more subordination in this unified battle.”
Tom stood proud and nodded his understanding. “I think that’s for the best.”
“These events have been culminating for some time. Let’s see us begin fresh when you return. I have a fun mission for you next,” she told him.
“Not going to tell me what it is?” he asked.
“In due time.”
____________
Treena watched the wormhole expand to life; the swirling colors were even more beautiful than the one the Statu had created. The rift was focused, the spectrum array breathtaking to behold. It was also the single most daunting thing Treena had even seen.
Even though her real body was up in her suite, the hands of her artificial body shook. Real habits were difficult to break.
Shu was in position beside them, the twin vessels flanked by the dozen smaller vessels of the Ugna fleet, and everyone was waiting on Fleet Captain Baldwin’s word. Treena sneaked a peak at the man as he paced the bridge, hands behind his back, his posture perfect, his eyes set in the slightest of frowns. She’d known him for a long time, and there was no one she’d trust to lead them as much as Tom.
Reeve’s voice carried from the boiler room, where she was in contact with Harry on the cruiser connected to the generator. “Captain, the wormhole has stabilized. Waiting on word from the probe.”
Treena and the rest of the crew lingered impatiently for word that they were targeting the proper system, and she ran her gaze across the executive team. Brax was in his spot on the left edge of the bridge, his hands anxiously flexing. Ven remained in the main helm position. She was really beginning to like the odd man, eve
n more so since he’d opened up slightly around everyone. His ideas and theories about the Statu had been well-calculated, but that didn’t stop her from hoping he was wrong.
Lieutenant Darl had taken Zare’s position after she’d proven herself a traitor to the Concord. A small part of Treena felt saddened by her suicide, but she tried not to give it a second thought as she once again watched the wormhole.
Constantine’s AI observed it all with a sort of bemused grin on his face, his arms crossed as he stood at the right side of the bridge.
“Captain, we’re good to go. The wormhole is stable and is leading us to the Statu home world.” Reeve’s voice held a nervous tinge.
“Very well. Ven, send communication to the others. This is Fleet Captain Thomas Baldwin,” Tom said. The admiral and Prime would be listening, along with any Concord officers on Earon Station, and Treena listened intently as her captain spoke. “We’re about to embark on something I wish we didn’t have to do.”
It was starting out rocky. He turned to look at Treena and offered a confident expression before facing the screen again. “The Statu threaten our way of life. They’ve ruined worlds, stolen our people, killed our families. I consider our mission as one not of vengeance for the lives we’ve lost to the Vastness, but one of thanks for their sacrifice. It’s unknown what happens when we die” – he paused and glanced at Ven – “but I’m prepared to risk my own life to save the people of the Concord. Today, we end the War our predecessors couldn’t or wouldn’t, and tomorrow, we start over with new leadership, new ambitions, new partners like the Ugna. We each have a legacy, and today, we start ours.”
Brax nodded, sitting firmly in his seat, and Treena sensed the mood on the bridge improving. She gazed at the captain with admiration, as the others all did.
“Ven, lead the charge. Until we meet in the Vastness,” Tom said, ending the communication.
“Until we meet in the Vastness,” the entire crew on the bridge echoed, and the captain returned to his seat beside her as Ven brought them toward the wormhole.
“How’d I do?” he asked from the side of his mouth.
Baldwin's Legacy: The Complete Series Page 74