Carbon Life

by HR Ringer

  He looked as if he was about to change the way it was arranged on his datapad, leading Xiùlán to say, “Leave it as it is, Private Hamilton. Chinese names are written surname first, followed by the given, or personal name. What’s shown there is correct.”

  Hamilton looked up at this officer and was momentarily mesmerized by sable brown eyes… eyes that seemed capable of looking straight through him. He was surprised to see a pleasant smile, even as he realized she was at least ten centimeters taller than he was. “Of course, Ma’am. Ahh, I was instructed to meet and accompany you to your meeting with my captain… if you wouldn’t mind following me?”

  “Lead on, Private.”

  * * *

  Hamilton guided them unerringly through the warren of hallways, stairs and elevators to a rather posh suite of meeting rooms near the embassies; pausing in front of a massive pair of double doors, he entered a code on his omnitool, then stepped back to wait as the interface changed color in a continuous crossfade from red to yellow to green. As the door opened, the private indicated Yuán should precede him with a nod of his head and a wave of his hand. Inside the circular lobby with the door closed behind them, Hamilton moved to another door, upon which he knocked twice before opening it inward.

  “Staff Lieutenant Yuán Xiùlán is here to meet with Captain Cody.” Yuán stood silently waiting as a man of average build and looks and sporting captain’s bars on his collar rose from behind the desk, its surface littered with numerous datapads, files and paper.

  His smile was pleasant enough as he extended his hand towards her; Xiùlán took three steps forward and clasped the offered hand with her own. “Lieutenant? I’m Bill Cody… William if you want to be formal. There are some that have even called me ‘Wild Bill’, but only after everyone’s knocked back a few drinks. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  A bit overwhelmed by his introduction, Xiùlán nodded as she pumped her hand twice and said, “Pleasure to meet you, Captain.”

  Waving her to a chair beside a square meeting table, he asked, “May I get you something to drink, Lieutenant? Coffee... or tea?”

  Taking a seat at the table, she replied with a smile, “A cup of tea would be most welcome, Captain, thank you.”

  Cody picked up a plain serving tray containing a teapot, coffee carafe, cups and creamer, set it in the center of the table, then poured a cup of tea for Xiùlán, followed by a cup of coffee for himself. Setting several datapads on the corner near her left elbow, he took a sip from his mug as he sat down. Placing one of the datapads in front of her, he began to explain why he had wanted to meet with her. “I’ve been given command of a brand new frigate, Lieutenant… set to launch in two weeks. I’m currently assembling the people I need to crew her, and I’d like you…” after pausing a moment to activate the datapad, he continued, “… to be my executive officer.”

  Xiùlán managed to suppress the emotional turmoil Cody’s statement had engendered, thinking, ‘What the hell? XO? On a new ship?’ as she replied, “Sir, I’m not sure I heard you correctly. You’re offering me an XO’s position on a new ship? I’m shy a pay grade at least, Sir… probably two… barely made staff lieutenant just thirty-two months ago. Ship’s exec is usually a position held by a lieutenant commander.”

  “I know that, Lieutenant, and if the state of the galaxy… at least our portion of it… was closer to normal, I’d be hard pressed to convince upper brass of the wisdom of pulling you off the Tokyo.” Cody took a sip of coffee as he looked through the information scrolling past on the datapad’s view screen. “I've had several meetings with Admiral Hackett during construction of the Hong Kong II; when I first asked about you, he showed me your redacted personal file. I talked until I was blue in the face, but he wouldn’t budge… told me if I wanted you as my exec that damned bad, I would have to trust that the blacked out portions of your record included some truly amazing stuff.” Sipping a bit more coffee, he raised one eyebrow inquisitively and asked, “Was he right? Is that portion of your record hiding special training and accomplishments?”

  Xiùlán held her mug in both hands as she sipped her tea. Setting the mug on the table, she focused directly on Cody’s eyes and quietly responded. “I don’t think of my training as truly amazing, Sir. I can say, without violating the NDA I signed, that I do have some rather extensive training in computer science, and combat, both hand-to-hand and weapons training, and I was sent on a number of missions…” ‘One in which I damn near died!’ came the thought, “… while still in the program. The training I’m receiving on the Tokyo involves all the things a ship’s captain needs to know to be successful.”

  Cody smiled at her last statement as he responded. “I’ve seen what you’ve been doing on the Tokyo, Lieutenant… it may be rather impolitic for me to comment on that, since the implication is I’m being critical of your current captain and leadership, but I truly believe your talents are being… well, I won’t go so far as to say they’re being wasted, so much as being underutilized. Truth is, a cruiser is simply too damned big – there are too many people on board – for a person’s talents to truly stand out.”

  Xiùlán mulled this over as Cody finished his coffee and set the mug on the tray. Continuing his thought, he said, “A frigate, on the other hand, has a small enough crew to enable a person to reach their full potential in, I don’t know… let’s say it would be less than half the time it would take on a cruiser.”

  He leaned back in his chair, hands clasped on the edge of the table, and looked at her. “I’m going to cut to the chase, Ms Yuán. The admiral has given me a bit more latitude in filling my crew roster than I’d normally expect; poaching good crew members from other ships is normally frowned upon, but the Hong Kong II needs the best the Alliance has to offer. You make an official request for a transfer from the Tokyo to the Hong Kong, I’ll promote you as soon as the paperwork is complete. Do a good job as my XO and you’ll be a staff commander in twelve months. I hope you’re interested, because I can’t make the offer any sweeter than that, Lieutenant.”

  Xiùlán was nearly overwhelmed by the generosity of the offer being put to her. It was a struggle to keep her emotions under control as she responded in the only way a person with good common sense could respond. “I’ll file the request with Captain Tyler as soon as I’m back aboard the ship, Sir… and… thank you, very much. Your offer is more than generous… I would be foolish to take a pass. I’ll do a good job for you, Captain.”

  Cody grinned. “I’m sure you will, Lieutenant.” He stood and offered his hand, repeating his words as she reciprocated. “I’m sure you will.”

  * * *

  * VANCOUVER, BC · SYSTEMS ALLIANCE SHIPYARD *

  * TUESDAY, 23 MAY 2186 *

  It was a pleasant, late spring day in Vancouver, British Columbia. Specialist Samantha Traynor was sitting on the outer edge of the Normandy SR-2’s deployed hanger bay ramp, taking a short break from her job of reconfiguring the entire communications system of the ship; her main task involved relocating the QEC nodes from the former conference room amidships on deck two to a new, secure location at the stern on the same deck. She was also lead consultant for the installation of the real-time situation display in the newly created war room, right outside the QEC chamber. The conference room was now located next to the inner hull on the ship’s starboard side; all three of the newly created compartments were only accessible through a checkpoint that would be guarded by a pair of Marines once the ship was crewed.

  As she tipped her head back, she closed her eyes to enjoy the warmth of the sun shining full on her face; it made her think of Xiùlán, on an Alliance warship out in space, somewhere in one of the many systems where humans had established colonies. Sam had yet to hear if her Inamorata had completed her transfer from the SSV Tokyo to the SSV Hong Kong II, newly commissioned as a replacement for the original frigate of the same name, destroyed in the Battle of the Citadel in 2183. Traynor had attempted to contact Yuán several times during the past three weeks; after
having been able to chat with her on a monthly basis during her time on the Tokyo, it was rather troubling that she was suddenly unable to connect with her Inamorata. Each message she sent had been returned with an error attachment stating ‘Recipient not found’; the only conclusion she could draw was that the progressively tightened security measures since the recent destruction of the Viper relay had finally affected personal communications.

  At a chime from her omnitool, the specialist reluctantly got to her feet and strode back up the ramp into the dimly lit hanger bay. She had to concentrate on where she was placing her feet as she moved towards the elevator at the aft end of the large hanger; once inside, she entered her passcode and requested deck two. As the double doors hissed closed and the car began its brief ascent, she thought again of Xiùlán and their last time on leave together, sharing Xiùlán’s bed in her parent’s home in Shanghai. ‘That was a little slice of heaven,’ she thought, ‘only it was for too short a time.’ And now, to not really know on which ship Xiùlán was posted…

  The sound of the elevator doors sliding apart interrupted her reverie; pushing off from the side wall, she walked out into the CIC and turned to the right in order to enter the short hallway leading to the newly enhanced checkpoint. With a slight smile, she nodded towards Private Westmoreland, then Private Campbell at the far end of the ‘chokepoint’, as she liked to think of it. While walking past the clear walls of the conference room, she noticed Major Kaidan Alenko speaking with Flight Lieutenant Moreau – Joker, as he was known far and wide – and the ship’s VI, code named EDI. Traynor couldn’t hear what was being said, and it didn’t really matter, Maybe they were planning their first shake-down flight – the Normandy was undergoing a massive internal transformation, set to be complete in a space of just under four months – a shake-down flight would be essential to insure all the systems, both new and pre-existing, had been properly integrated with each other. By most estimates, the ship wouldn’t be completely flight-ready for five weeks after ‘shake-down’, as there were unsecured power and communications cables everywhere, both on the deck and hanging from the overhead, even in the new war room and newly revamped CIC. The ship could be flown – it just wasn’t buttoned up.

  Returning to the QEC compartment, she moved to the rear of the imaging platform to finish working on one of the three projection attenuators. It wasn’t difficult work – for her, anyway – but it did require her to be a hundred percent focused; by the time Traynor was finished for the evening, she was more than ready for a cold beer, a hot meal and a hot shower… in that order... followed by an appointment with her bed.

  * * *

  * WEDNESDAY, 21 SEPTEMBER 2186 *

  “Hey Specialist – have you heard the latest?” Traynor was passing through the passageway checkpoint on her way to the war room. She looked at Private Campbell and waited. “It’s all over the ANN – there’s been a massive influx of batarian ships in the Exodus Cluster – so many that officials at first thought it was an invasion. Turns out they’re all refugees – they’re claiming that the Hegemony’s fleet has been attacked – that Khar’Shan and other planets in the Harsa system are being bombarded from orbit.”

  Traynor was absolutely stunned. “What the hell, Sarah? Who would be foolish enough to attack the Hegemony? It’s rumored they’ve been building warships ever since they closed their embassy on the Citadel and withdrew back to the Kite’s Nest in 2171.”

  Campbell smirked as she replied, “Not who, Specialist – what. Everyone has a different opinion, but it is a known fact that all the comm relays in Harsa have either been severely damaged or destroyed, making for sporadic communications in the system. And the batarians entering Exodus even include a few military vessels and personnel.”

  Traynor shook her head in dismay. “That cannot be a good thing, Private. If whatever is attacking them follows them to the Exodus Cluster, that’s just a two-relay jump from our own system, never mind our colonies there… or Arcturus Station. Sonovabitch! Nearly every warship we got is based in those two systems – all we have here is the Fourth Fleet.” After a brief pause, she added, “Never mind getting this ship ready to fly - we have to get this ship ready to fight.” Moving towards the war room with renewed purpose, she said over her shoulder, “I’ll see you later, Private.”

  * * *

  * WEDNESDAY, 27 SEPTEMBER 2186 *

  The morning sky in Vancouver was ominous shades of grey, promising an early shower or two, which would most likely be followed by a steady rain. Sammy was wearing a hooded rain jacket, as she expected to be walking home in a late afternoon drizzle.

  Traynor had been working ten-hour days for the past week – since learning of the mysterious attack by unknown forces in the batarian home system of Kite’s Nest. She had the two QEC terminals working – one connected with the node in the hills outside of Vancouver, and the second one with its paired node aboard Arcturus Station. Additionally, the supplementary nodes set up in the Vancouver bunker were working quite well with their paired terminals at various points around the globe.

  It had been a bit complicated to pull off, but each of the Vancouver nodes was now capable of relaying their reception to an outgoing terminal in the same bunker. It wasn’t as seamless as could be desired, but Sammy had been on a mission ever since going to work on the Normandy… she would be damned if she couldn’t do everything possible to ensure comms between the fleet admirals and the several HQ locations on Earth. The assault in the Kite’s Nest had added a new sense of urgency to her work – a shitstorm was coming, and there didn’t seem to be any way to duck it, or outrun it.

  She had just reached the repeater terminal in the CIC – this would provide real-time data from the situation terminal in the War room – when the planetary defense alarms began wailing outside. Bringing the ship’s external sensor array online, she tasked the galaxy map projectors to show the images that were being streamed to the war room. She also initiated the recording devices as she punched up the internal comms. “Flight Lieutenant! We need to get this bird in the air – now!”

  EDI’s smooth voice came back over the speakers. “Agreed, Specialist Traynor. We can see a limited amount through our viewports. I have sent a notification to Major Alenko and Admiral Anderson. They are on their way to the landing zone from the Defense Committee offices. Admiral Hackett has mobilized all the fleets. The base on Luna has stopped reporting in. UK HQ has gone dark as well.”

  Traynor had her first look at the forces assaulting Vancouver; there were reports coming in from all over the planet. Seeing the Reapers for the first time, she finally knew… all the tales she had been told as a child of monsters in the dark were really true.

  She was getting ready to reconfigure the galaxy map projectors when the elevator doors opened behind her and a male’s voice said, “Sitrep, Specialist.” Thankfully, Major Alenko had made it to the ship.

  “Lieutenant Moreau is prepping the ship for departure, Sir. Even though the ship is pretty well automated, I’m not sure we have enough crew on board to fly ‘er and fight ‘er.” She paused for a moment, then asked, “Is Admiral Anderson on board, Sir?”

  “Negative – he was with Shepard in the Defense Committee office.” A brief pause, then seemingly to the air around him, he said, “Joker! We’re a sitting duck down here… Get this bird in the air and evade their fire!” Without waiting for an acknowledgement, he turned towards Sammy and continued, “Building got blasted pretty hard, so I came here when I couldn’t get back to them. Anderson said he and Shepard are heading for…”

  They both grabbed the railing in front of them as the Normandy’s inertial dampeners lagged slightly behind Joker’s extreme high angle lift-off and rolling departure from the dock. As they gained altitude and speed, Alenko started to continue his explanation when Traynor brought one hand to her ear as she held up the other. “Hang on, Sir.” After a few moments, she toggled a control on her console, routing the external comm-feed through the speakers in the CIC.

&
nbsp; The unmistakable voice of Admiral Anderson filled the area. “Major Alenko, we’re in sight of the spaceport. ETA: three minutes.”

  Kaidan responded immediately. “We made it to the Normandy. Taking heavy fire… Oh god!” Looking at the display in front of him, he raised his voice to include Joker. “They’re gonna take down that cruiser! Evasive Maneuvers!”

  Traynor cut the feed before she could hear Anderson’s response; Joker had the Normandy well away from the cruiser when its eezo core exploded, enveloping the unfortunate vessel in a massive, white-hot explosion. The shock waves, hitting the Normandy from the rear starboard quarter, actually shoved the ship sideways and higher, as if a giant hand had swatted it like an annoying bee. It took only a moment for Joker to regain control, but the cruiser’s EM blast had temporarily scrambled communications with the ground.

  As Traynor worked to reestablish comms, Alenko stepped up on the platform at the rear of the galaxy map. “Joker! Be ready to go grab the admiral and Shepard – they’ll most likely be at the edge of the bay.”

  “Copy, Major.”

  As they circled the area, Traynor expressed amazement that the machines weren’t targeting them, to which Alenko responded, “They’re Reapers, Specialist. And I’m guessing the Normandy is still equipped with the IFF device we used to pass through the Omega-4 relay. The Reapers ignore us, because we ping as if we were one of them.”

  Traynor nodded her understanding, even if she wasn’t sure what the hell an ‘IFF’ was, or why she hadn’t seen it within the ship. As she thought about Alenko’s explanation, Anderson’s voice came over the speakers again.

  “Normandy, this is Anderson… do you read?”

  Alenko answered, “Admiral. What’s your location?”

  “By a downed gunship in the harbor.” A brief pause, then, “I’m activating its distress beacon. Send support. We’ve got wounded down here.”