Warpath

by Randolph Lalonde

  “But it’s one way,” Jake said. “You take people in and learn from them, but your people don’t join us the same way.”

  “Is that what you think?” Oru said with an amused smile. “The thought never occurred to you that some of my people find living in sectors of the galaxy dominated by humans irresistible. You would be surprised at how many Lorander people you’ve met.”

  “That gets me thinking,” Jake replied.

  “I’m sorry, I could answer questions about my people for days, but I am short on time. Before I go, I need to tell you that there are worlds in the Iron Head nebula, civilized worlds that haven’t been taken by the Order of Eden. You can find allies there, some of whom may be critical to your success in this war. Save Freeground, but don’t ignore a good opportunity if you find one.”

  Jake was irritated at not being able to ask more questions, he wished the meeting would continue for the whole afternoon, and he knew the sense of calm he felt in that cave would be gone as soon as the meeting was over. “Can you tell me anything else that will help us defeat the Edxi. The Order I can fight, but I know they’re hiding the Edxi from the galaxy.”

  “Humanity only believes what it can see, what it can experience,” Oru said, standing up. “You can tell everyone that the Edxi are using worlds in this galaxy for their broods, sacrificing millions of humans and other species while they’re at it, but they will not know how dire the situation is until they feel sympathy for the victims, until they see the savagery of the brood. You only have to tell your people exactly where it is happening and show them the right recordings. Look for a story that makes you personally outraged and saddened at the same time, then share it.”

  “I understand,” Jake replied.

  “I knew you would,” Oru said. He looked from the placid pool to the cave entrance. “You know, this spring leads to the water table. It wouldn’t take much effort to pump water from here to there,” he gestured towards the hard baked dirt. “Add some minerals to the water and a forest will grow out of that inert terraforming crust.”

  Jake glanced at the pool, then to where Oru was standing only to discover that he’d disappeared. His command and control unit was immediately busy downloading hundreds of gigabytes of data. “Well, good luck Oru, and thank you.”

  Chapter 36

  Stop Shots

  The medical bay of the Revenge seemed cramped. There were nine treatments beds and two surgical bays from what Finn could see. He knew from the specifications that it was next door to a large briefing room on one side, the brig on the other, and a small officer’s wardroom at the end. All those walls were made so they could collapse, and grow the medical bay into a much bigger trauma centre. He silently hoped that he wouldn’t see the need for that.

  Remmy and Ashley came through the main doors, the chattering of crewmen and women in line in the hallway outside came through the door with her while it remained opened. “I mean, I get this whole, clock-stopping thing, and I think it’s time, I’m old enough to be this age forever, but the birth control?” Remmy was saying. “If all the women are getting their eggs scrambled, I don’t know why the guys need a vasectomy.”

  “We’re not getting our eggs scrambled, they’re just going to stop dropping for a while,” Ashley said, sitting on the treatment bed beside Finn. “Heya,” she said, bumping his shoulder with hers. “Getting your stop shot?”

  “Okay, so you’re not losing anything, but you still can’t have kids, so why us guys too?” Remmy replied.

  “Because guests and people off this ship may not have proper birth control,” Ashley said. “Crewmen on leave inseminating small populations aren’t going to help win the war. It’ll just make visits back that way more awkward.”

  “Do you really think we run around the galaxy, using our willies as a loose lady detector?” Remmy asked.

  “I remember those old science fiction shows you showed us on the Warlord. That captain you idolize would stick it in a power socket if you put lipstick and a dress on it,” Ashley replied.

  Finn couldn’t help but laugh at the mental image. He felt much less nervous about the stop shot. He knew there were adverse reactions in a small number of patients, otherwise their command and control units would synthesize the dose they needed, and there would be no reason for the visit to the med bay.

  “Okay, that’s a bad example,” Remmy said, holding his hands up. “Humans hadn’t even been to the moon yet.”

  The door opened and a tall medical technician with a dark beard and darker hair strode into the room. “I’m Ensign Levine,” he announced to them. “Sleeves up, everyone. You are the last officers not to have your stop shots, and there are about three hundred enlisted crewmen waiting. He picked up an injector the size of his forearm. “My bots are stuck in a loading bay, and they’re having trouble finding my med techs, so it’s just me right now, unless you can train one of those skitters to pop people in the arm with this thing?” he asked Finn.

  “That’s not really what they’re made for, but-“ Finn said, looking at the injector a little closer. The business end was the same as the painless devices he’d seen before, it just had an extra large reservoir for medication.

  “Oh, don’t worry about its size,” Ensign Levine said, gesticulating with it as he spoke. “Won’t even feel like a bug bite.”

  Remmy was staring at it, horrified. “Why is it so…”

  “Convenient?” he asked as he nonchalantly touched it to Finn’s shoulder. He felt a cold sensation on the small spot for a few seconds, but there was no pain. “There’s enough medication in here to treat two hundred women and three hundred men with stop shots. It’s a miracle, really,” he said, suddenly spinning on his heel and touching it to Remmy’s arm. “Gotcha!”

  He held it up in front of Ashley, who bared her shoulder for him. “Here you go,” he said as he touched it to her arm. “You may be in for a little swelling for a couple hours, but that’ll be it. You are not going to have a bad reaction, I can tell already.”

  “What about us?” Remmy asked, alarmed.

  “Oh, men can have a bad reaction within the first three minutes after the injection, after that, you’re clear. You will stop aging, and the nanobots are already on their way to cut and tie your vasa differentia. You won’t even notice.”

  “But, side effects?” Remmy asked.

  “Well, there’s always the possibility that your testicals will panic and jump up right into your abdomen. You’ll sound like a nine year old, but you’ll have the singing voice of an angel.”

  Remmy looked terrified and confused, and Finn couldn’t help but let the silence extend for as long as the medical technician allowed, which was almost too long. Ensign Levine slapped Remmy on the thigh and said. “Nah, that’s never happened. The worst you’ll get is some irritation because some nervous men develop the unconscious need to scratch or grope themselves. Other than that, the only thing you’ll notice is the absence of any little ankle biters after a few years with the same partner.” He checked his command and control unit, stared at it for a few seconds then said; “and you’re all good! No adverse reactions, see ya in three years if you want to breed when your service is done.”

  “You are an evil man,” Remmy said as he left.

  “Leave the door open on your way out, I have to do that to a few hundred more today,” he called after him. He looked to Finn then. “Seriously, if you could do something about the medical bots in the loading bay?”

  “I’ll send a message down, get them to deliver them sooner,” Finn said.

  “All yours, the officers are all taken care of,” Remmy announced to the crewmen and women at the door. The long line shuffled forward as people started entering the med bay. He turned to Finn and Ashley “I’m off to make sure I was assigned a top bunk. I’m in a room with three other guys.”

  “Good luck,” Ashley said as he took a turn down a narrow corridor to the left.

  “Headed to the bridge?” Finn asked.

  �
��Yahuh,” Ashley said. “I have to start the longest pre-flight check in history. How can a ship half the mass of the Triton have a list twice as long?”

  “Everything important is new, and everything else is reconditioned,” Finn said as he turned down a corridor to his right. He couldn’t help but look at the welds in the ceiling and floor. The quality was incredible, there were no flaws anywhere he’d been in the ship since the Solar Forge and the bots it used had its way with the Revenge. It had gone in one end as the flawed, damaged Blessed Mission, and come out perfect on the other side. That was with the exception of the sections of the interior that had to be built while they were under way.

  “Ah, I read that the checklist will get shorter as we go, that makes sense,” Ashley said.

  “You okay?” Finn asked. He’d never seen her have difficulty reasoning through the why and how of ship systems.

  “Just a big morning. Your speech was wonderful, by the way,” she told him. “After we finished there, I had to say goodbye to Zoe.”

  “How is she?” Finn asked.

  “Growing by the minute. I think she really likes living in the same section of the Everin building as the rest of the nefalli. She’s going to have a great time. She didn’t want to let go though. When I left, I mean.”

  “She understood you’d be gone for a long time?” Finn said.

  “Yes, when Panloo explained it to her. I’ve never seen Zoe cry like that before.”

  “All the more reason to get our mission done quickly,” Finn said. They passed a bank of lockers and suspended their conversation as a crewman and woman argued over which locker they were assigned at full volume. He couldn’t resist but to turn around, step over the threshold and force silence to fall as a crewman further down the locker compartment called; “Officer on deck!”

  “At ease,” Finn said. He looked at the locker they were arguing over and pushed the top door. It popped open. Then he pressed the bottom door, which opened as well. “There are two lockers here, not one. The top one is Row E, the other is Row D. Read your intro packets, pay attention, stow your gear, and get to your stations, we depart in two hours, twenty minutes.”

  “Sir, yes, Sir,” said both of them without much enthusiasm.

  “You will address the Chief properly!” shouted an enlisted man who was in the middle of sorting his possessions into a locker.

  “Sir, yes, Sir!” the pair repeated, standing at attention.

  “At ease,” Finn said, leaving the locker compartment and continuing on. “I’ll never get used to that.”

  “I think you will,” Ashley said. “You’ve changed. You’ve grown up.”

  “Maybe,” Finn replied. “I think I just understand how important discipline is now. There are thirteen grades of enlisted people below me. I didn’t realize how powerful that was until I looked at the full command chain.”

  “I know, this is the military,” Ashley said. “No more changing vacsuit textures on duty, I always have to set a good example, and we’re in charge of so many people. More you, though.”

  “Yeah, Agameg and I seem to be in charge of forty percent of the crew in one way or another. Anyone wearing uniforms with blue, white or white and blue is one of ours. Thank God Ayan is going to help out for the first while.”

  “From the Triton?” Ashley asked. “She’s a crazy multitasker.”

  “I’ve seen over the last few days,” Finn said. “I don’t know where she finds the time to sleep.”

  “Speaking of which, have you seen your room yet?” Ashley asked.

  “I have a sink, a cupboard, two drawers, a single bed and a locker. Oh, and a door, which is more of a luxury than expected. Agameg’s quarters are right against mine, exactly the same.”

  “Oh, you too, huh?” Ashley said. “Looks like Chiefs and Lieutenants get about the same digs. Well, except for the Lieutenants across the hall. I got a peek, they’re two to a room, so they miss out on a row of cupboards and get a few more feet for an extra locker.”

  “What about Minh?” Finn asked. The noise of the forward berthing finally started to fade as they approached the main hallway. It was the widest place to walk on the ship other than the hangars or supply loading areas.

  “His quarters have an extra closet for his flight gear and some weaponry, but somehow the ceiling is shorter. His head brushes the roof, and I have to duck a little.”

  “I always thought you were taller,” Finn said with a smirk.

  “A centimetre,” Ashley replied.

  “All stand at attention and check your nearest viewer, please,” announced Lieutenant Commander Liara over the public address system.

  “Oh, here we go,” Ashley said.

  Finn was already standing at attention, and elbowed Ashley, who snapped to as soon as she realized that she was surrounded by crewmembers that had dropped everything they were doing to do the same. A display appeared on the black and white walls every three metres.

  On the display, Ayan was standing beside a simple control stick inside the Solar Forge with Jake beside her.

  “I present Haven Shore Founder, Captain Ayan Anderson. She is doing us the honour of christening the ship,” Liara continued.

  “Oh, this means we’re late,” Ashley whispered through lips she kept mostly still.

  “We’re just de-tethering from the Solar Forge, they won’t miss us for a few minutes,” Finn replied in the same fashion.

  A fellow in ancient butler’s finery handed Ayan a bottle of Black Sail Rum, and she held it up so everyone could see for a moment. “Oh my God, that’s Frost,” Ashley said.

  Finn took a closer look as the butler opened a small round cover, and she carefully dropped the bottle inside. “You’re right!” It disappeared, and a few seconds later a green light turned on beside the joystick.

  Half the images in the hallway showed a close up of the bow of the Revenge, so the name could be clearly seen. “The rig Captain Anderson is using to launch that bottle against the hull was developed by Chief Frost, and built by our crew.”

  “I name this ship the Revenge. May she conduct our sailors and soldiers safely to and from war. May she be a beacon of hope to our allies, and a dreaded nightmare to our enemies,” Ayan said as she carefully aimed the launcher. She pushed the trigger and the bottle surged forward from the launcher.

  “Is that even fast enough to break?” asked a crewman to Finn’s left.

  “Oh, God, she missed,” breathed another.

  Finn watched as the bottle moved through empty space. For a moment it looked as though it would miss its target entirely, striking on some random part of the ship or, even worse, flying past it entirely.

  A new view angle revealed that it was indeed close to the target, and the bottle of old fashioned rum shattered right in the middle of the last E in Revenge. “A perfect shot! Now the last tethers will release, and we will be free of the station. We are officially ready for final prep,” Liara announced. Finn could barely hear her over the cheers and applause of the crew.

  Captain Valent and Captain Anderson kissed briefly, and then they walked away in a hurry. The displays along the corridor disappeared, with the show over, but people were still applauding. “Square away, and to your stations!” Finn shouted, even though he was smiling. He glanced at his command and control unit. “Yeah, we’re running late now.”

  “Race you to the bridge?” Ashley asked, lurching into a run.

  “Make a hole!” Finn shouted as he chased after her, and the crewmen and women moved aside to let them rush by.

  Chapter 37

  The First Hour In The Chair

  There was no extravagance aboard the Revenge. It was true that Jake had moments where he wished he still had the Warlord, but by the time they were under way, heading out of the solar system under power alongside the Triton, he started to fall in love with the simplicity of his new ship.

  Knowing you’d done everything you could to improve the design of a ship in the schematic stage, and experiencing the s
hip first hand were two different things. The centre of the ship had the narrowest hallways and the most cramped spaces. The corridors were wider closer to the outer hull, where heavy equipment, supplies, munitions, and larger groups of crewmembers had to move on a regular basis. The ship was made to go into war, to take damage, and the triple hull design certainly made that clear. The original design of the ship by Regent Galactic was actually much better than Jake would have guessed. The touches and modifications that Ayan, Jake, and a few other crewmembers made to the blueprints were mostly to accommodate the ship’s extended purpose. The Battlecruiser was converted into a carrier. Two hangars with short launch bays and extra armour plating made the ship look much more significant. More powerful weaponry that drew very little power but required more space for ammunition gave the ship better survivability in a multi-target fight. He felt confident that the ship would be able to protect the crew, but he was aware that there was much left to do.

  The crew quarters had been cleaned up, the computers were replaced, they added the bridge in the middle of the ship, and there were some other minor changes, but, for the most part, the inside of the ship hadn’t changed much.

  There were a few problems that he had to work out with the Admiral before they made it past the furthest asteroid belt from the sun, however. The bridge of the Revenge was almost centremost inside the ship. Some of the design and layout reminded him of the First Light, with the least important components nearest to the outside of the vessel, most of the crew and critical components under multiple layers of armour.

  The narrow bridge felt older than he expected, with dark floors, secure doors on the sides, and an escape hatch at the rear that led to five man pods. Some of them still had to be installed, one of the drawbacks of finishing things while they were under way. Navigation and scanning departments had their consoles at the front of the bridge, tactical to his left, engineering and damage control to his right. Right in front, but several steps down from the captain’s seat were the communications consoles along with operations and three other stations. Each department was given two stations, and there were another four behind his captain’s seat. It was only cramped if everyone stood up at the same time.