The Legend of Corinair

by Ryk Brown

  “But that was only because we were being fired upon.”

  “Maybe so,” he admitted. “But the Earth needs our jump drive to defend herself. And while helping the Karuzari in exchange for technology might not get us home any faster, turning tail and running home may take longer than the Earth can afford to wait. And if that is the case, then a few more days in the Pentaurus cluster won’t change that. And it might even make us better equipped to make that journey home, should we decide to do things your way.”

  Jessica looked at Nathan out of the corner of her eye, as she knew what was coming, just as Cameron did.

  “Tug, I would like you and Jessica to work out a plan on how we might best achieve both our goals in short order. I’m not saying that I’m committing to the idea, but I would like to see some ideas on the matter before I decide.”

  Tug looked at Jalea and then Jessica, before turning his eyes back to Nathan. “As you wish, Captain.”

  “Dismissed.”

  There was a slight pause before everyone stood and began to make their way out of the room.

  “Doctor, a word?” Nathan asked. Abby sat back down as Nathan waited for the room to clear. Satisfied that they were alone, he spoke. “What I’m about to discuss is classified, for our ears only. Is that understood?”

  “Of course.”

  “You still have the suicide implant?”

  “Yes.”

  “I need you to rig a booby trap on the jump drive.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Something that will not only fry the thing, but also wipe all data from your system’s main frame. Program an authorization code with a thirty second delay to execution. Set it up so that only you or I can activate it. Can that be done?”

  “Yes, sir. It shouldn’t be difficult. But why—”

  “There’s one more thing I need from you, Abby.” Nathan leaned forward and looked her dead in the eyes. “You are the only person alive who understands this technology. Am I right?”

  “Yes, sir. The project was highly compartmentalized for just that reason.”

  “That’s what I figured. If one of us scuttles the jump drive, I’m afraid you’ll also have to activate your suicide implant. It’s the only way to ensure that this technology does not fall into the wrong hands.”

  Abby stared at Nathan for what seemed like an eternity. She had contemplated the possibility of having to take her own life to protect her world since the day the suicide implant was placed into her tooth. But suddenly, the likelihood of that moment actually coming to be was a distinct possibility. “I understand, sir.” Her answer was more instinctive than cognitive. After another long moment, she spoke again. “My I ask, why now?”

  “Let’s just say that I’m not sure who to trust.”

  “Do you think we’re walking into a trap?”

  “The thought has crossed my mind,” he admitted.

  * * *

  As he walked into the mess hall, Nathan immediately noticed something was different. Not only were there more diners there, but the place was actually clean. The chaos of the last week, combined with a drastic lack of crew, had resulted in an eating environment that had been in dire lack of attention. It wasn’t that the crew were slobs, it was simply that no one had the time.

  Apparently, the stranded workers from the harvesting team had the time and had taken it upon themselves to give the room a thorough cleaning after they had finished prepping all the molo. Nearly all of the surviving workers were sitting down to eat, as were nearly a dozen of the crew. In fact, Nathan couldn’t remember the last time he saw so many of his crew in one place, other than in the main treatment room in the Medical section.

  The room smelled inviting as well, with the smell of what had to be a molo-based dish of some type wafting from the galley to the left of the mess hall. Nathan made his way over to the service window, nodding at diners as he passed.

  “Good evening, Captain,” the Volonese woman said to him from behind the serving counter. “Would you like some stew?”

  “Yes, please.” Nathan watched as she dished up a hefty bowl of steaming hot stew. There were big chunks of what he recognized as molo, along with a few other vegetables that Tug had provided. It was all swimming in a dark-brown broth that smelled quite pungent as she handed the bowl to him.

  “Kala bread?”

  “Huh?”

  “Would you like some Kala bread?”

  “We have bread?”

  “Of course,” she said, a smile on her face. “You can’t have stew without bread,” she told him as she handed him a roll bigger than his fist.

  “Thank you,” he said, placing the warm roll on his tray.

  “Nathan.” Vladimir stepped up next to him at the service counter. “I heard our guests were cooking something,” he exclaimed as the woman handed him a bowl of stew and a roll. Vladimir took a long sniff of his stew. “Oh, I tell you, after eating the food on Haven, I was not looking forward to eating more escape-pod food.”

  Nathan and Vladimir left the service counter and made their way across the room toward an empty table in the corner of the mess hall.

  “So, how are the repairs going?” Nathan asked.

  “Fine. Not too much was damaged during the last battle. Lost some more rail guns, got some more holes in the outer hull. The inertial dampeners are still not up to full power. But all the main systems are working. Propulsion, power, life support, maneuvering, they are all good.”

  “I’d really like to get the torpedo systems working again.”

  “Nathan, you only have two torpedoes left. We can manually load them into the two undamaged tubes and fire them manually if need be. There are more important things to work on.”

  “Such as?”

  “Most of my people are working for Doctor Sorenson, making sure the jump drive is working properly. She is most concerned with the telemetry from the emitters. She claims that having to make jumps without knowing how many emitters are working is giving her gray hairs. The rest are working with Allet to get all rail guns working at better-than-original specifications, thanks to Allet’s improvements.”

  “Well, that’s good news, at least. We’re probably going to need them.”

  “Why? Where are you taking us now?”

  “Someplace called Corinair. It’s on the other side of the Pentaurus cluster.”

  Vladimir continued to devour his food at more than twice the rate of Nathan. “What is there?”

  “Apparently, they have some sort of rebel base there. And get this, it’s inside an asteroid, no less.”

  “Inside?”

  “Yeah. According to Tug, we can fly right in and park. They have some kind of repair and refit facility there.”

  “Interesting idea,” Vladimir said as he tore off a piece of his roll and popped it into his mouth. “So, you are considering using this facility?”

  “Yes. I gotta tell you, though. It makes me a little nervous.”

  “Why? Because you have to fly into a cave?”

  “No, because it could be a trap.”

  “You are being paranoid, Nathan.”

  “You trust them?”

  “Of course not. But if they wanted to capture the ship, they could’ve done so long ago. This ship is not as secure as everyone seems to think it is.”

  “Well, that’s comforting.”

  “My point is, I do not believe their intention is a hostile takeover.”

  “I hope you’re right. I sure wouldn’t mind fixing the hole in the bow. Flying around with a hole in our hull just doesn’t sit well with me.”

  Nathan noticed Tug and Jalea entering the mess hall, along with both of Tug’s daughters. “It’s got to be hard for them,” Nathan commented, gesturing toward Tug and his girls. “Losing their mother and their home all in one day.”

  “Deliza seems to be handling it pretty well,” Vladimir said.

  “Really?”

  “She was following me around engineering, asking me questions for m
ore than an hour. She said she was bored sitting in her cabin. She’s a very smart young lady. And she is much easier to understand than Allet.”

  “Maybe you should put her to work.” Nathan said, only half joking.

  “I just might,” Vladimir said in between spoonfuls of molo stew. “I can use all the help I can get down there. And who knows, she might teach me some new tricks, yes?”

  Nathan had to smile at the image of his larger-than-life Russian friend taking lessons from a demure sixteen year-old girl on how to fix the ship’s systems.

  “You know, this molo stew, it is not too bad,” Vladimir commented as he finished the last of his serving, sponging up the remaining broth with his roll.

  “That’s good, because we may be eating a lot of it for awhile.”

  “More stew, sir?”

  “Yes, please,” Vladimir exclaimed, his mouth still full of bread as he leaned back to make room for the Volonese woman. She filled her ladle and deposited its contents into his bowl. Vladimir admired the woman’s ample bosom as she deposited a second scoop into his bowl, then looked at Nathan, his eyebrows bouncing up and down twice in rapid succession as a grin formed on his face. Nathan just shook his head slightly, smiling back. Despite all that had happened to them over the last week, Vladimir hadn’t changed a bit.

  “My compliments to the chef,” Vladimir exclaimed. The stew, it is Ochen vkusna.”

  “Spaseeba,” the woman answered.

  Vladimir’s mouth dropped, as did his spoon. “You’re Russian?” He was as excited as a little boy on his birthday.

  “Nyet,” she told him.

  “But you speak Russian?”

  “I speak many languages,” she stated proudly. “Sadly, though, my Russian is not very good.”

  “I will teach you, then,” Vladimir promised. He quickly brushed off his hands on his pants before offering it to her. “I am Vladimir. What is your name?”

  “Naralena. My friends call me Nara.”

  “Then I may call you Nara?”

  “We shall see,” she answered coyly.

  “Ah, there is hope,” Vladimir exclaimed victoriously.

  “You have an interesting accent, Naralena. Where are you from?”

  “Volon, Captain. The same place you pretend your ship is from.” She suddenly dropped her accent and started speaking in what Nathan recognized as perfect Angla. “The accent was more for the benefit of your friend. I can use many accents.”

  “That’s an unusual skill.”

  “I was a translator before I was sent to Haven.”

  “Really? How many languages do you speak?”

  “At last count, I believe it was eight.”

  Nathan almost choked on his stew. “You speak eight languages?”

  “Fluently, yes. But I can also communicate in several others, only not as well.”

  “That’s quite impressive.”

  “Thank you, Captain. But it is not as impressive as you might think. I was genetically skewed to have a talent for languages.”

  “I see. Nevertheless, I am still impressed.”

  The woman smiled politely as she left to check on the next table of diners.

  Vladimir leaned forward in order to be discreet and smiled. “I think I’m in love.”

  “What, again?”

  “Captain. Chief.” Josh addressed as he and Loki stepped up to the table, their dinner trays in hand. “Mind if we join you?”

  “Not at all, gentlemen. Have a seat.”

  “Thought you might like to know, we’ve got one shuttle all checked out and ready to go,” Josh told him as they sat down and prepared to eat. “And between the harvester and the other shuttle, we should have enough used parts to keep the remaining shuttle flying for some time as long as we don’t get shot at too much.”

  “We’ll try to keep you out of the line of fire,” Nathan promised. He noticed a confused look on Vladimir’s face. “Didn’t I tell you?” he said to Vladimir. “I hired these guys to be the flight crew for the shuttle. This way, we won’t have to depend on strangers for rides.”

  “And they are not strange?” Vladimir said.

  “Well, he is,” Loki admitted, pointing at Josh.

  Vladimir let out a chortle. “Listen, I’ve flown with you two. Trust me, you’re both insane.”

  Both Josh and Loki watched the big Russian’s facial expression cautiously until they were sure he was kidding.

  “Did you say that you can use parts from the harvester for the shuttle?” Nathan asked.

  “Sure,” Josh answered, as if it were common knowledge.

  “They’re both made by the same manufacturer,” Loki explained. “Many of the systems are identical.”

  “Makes sense,” Nathan said as he scooped up the last of his stew.

  “Captain,” Josh started. “I was wondering something.”

  Nathan noticed that Josh looked a little apprehensive, as did Loki. “What is it?” he asked.

  “No offense intended, but if this ship is from Earth, and we all originally came from Earth, why is that most of our technology is more advanced than yours?”

  Nathan thought for a moment. “Well, you’ve all heard about the Legend of Origin, right?”

  “Sure,” Josh said, looking at Loki who nodded as well.

  “What does it tell you about what happened on Earth?”

  “Just that there was some terrible evil that drove humanity deeper out into the galaxy.”

  “Well, that’s a pretty vague description, but fairly accurate.”

  “So, what really happened?”

  “Well, it happened about a thousand years ago. At that time, there were five more worlds that had been colonized and fully developed. There were also about a dozen or so fringe worlds that had recently been settled. I guess you could say it was similar to the Pentaurus cluster, except a little more spread out, over about 100 light years, actually. But then there was a plague—the Great Bio-Digital Plague. That’s what we call it. This plague started as a computer virus that rapidly spread throughout the various networks on Earth and then eventually out to other worlds.”

  “The terrible evil was a computer virus?” Josh asked. “How is a computer virus such a threat?”

  “Back then, most people regularly used cybernetic implants to link their brains with computer systems. Through these implants, the digital virus would cause chemical reactions in the brain that would create a biological virus—a sort of super-cancer—that would rapidly reconfigure cells in the body and cause them to grow out of control. The result was rapid disfigurement, both internally and externally. It had a mortality rate of over ninety percent. And once it became biological, it was also contagious. To make matters worse, it constantly transformed itself, making it impossible to combat.”

  “Damn,” Loki muttered. “Who would create such a thing?”

  “No one ever found out,” Nathan told them. “Once the plague started spreading, everything rapidly fell apart. Economies crumbled. Infrastructure fell apart. Governments collapsed. People went crazy with fear, rioting, looting, killing each other in order to survive. In less than a decade, eighty percent of the population of the Earth and the Core Worlds had either died or left. If it weren’t for a small percentage of the population that seemed to have a natural immunity, the Earth and the Core Worlds would probably still be abandoned.”

  “But I still don’t get why our tech is more advanced,” Josh said.

  “With so few people left on Earth, there were not enough people to keep things going. Industry quickly ground to a halt, and within a century, the population of Earth became more tribal and agrarian. They were just trying to survive. Within a few generations, technology became nothing more than useless garbage. And since books had all been converted to digital format centuries earlier, there were no records of what once was. Everything was basically forgotten. What little was remembered was passed down through the generations through stories more than anything else.”

  “How d
id you guys rebuild? I mean, obviously you did, or else we wouldn’t be talking right now.”

  “Slowly, over many centuries. Most of our technology had to be rediscovered, relearned. We still had some memory of what we had been, but we’d forgotten a lot of the basics. Quite frankly, it was difficult. We lacked the population needed to support rapid industrial and technological advancement. And our health care was also sorely lacking. At the rate we were progressing, it would’ve taken us at least another five hundred years to get back out into deep space.”

  “So how did you make the leap?”

  “The Data Ark,” Nathan said.

  Josh and Loki looked at each other. “The what?”

  “A hundred years ago, archaeologists uncovered a massive underground complex in northern Europe. It contained all human history, culture, religion, and science, for as far back as human history had been recorded. With the knowledge contained in the Data Ark we were able to advance our civilization as much as three hundred years in only a century.”

  “What about all of us?” Josh asked. “How did we get out here?”

  “Well, we’re not really clear on that. It seems that only the very beginning of the plague was recorded in the Data Ark. Once it started getting out of control, the facility was sealed for fear of contamination. But what we have been able to piece together is that there were a lot of last minute expeditions carrying refugees trying to escape the plague. At first, they were trying to seek refuge on fringe worlds that had already been settled. But when the plague started showing up on those worlds as well, they started closing their doors to refugees. So the refugees must’ve gone farther out into the galaxy. There were quite a number of habitable worlds that had been cataloged and scheduled for exploration at the time. But to my knowledge, none of them were this far out. How your people ended up all the way out here is as much a mystery to me as it is to you.”

  Josh was deep in thought as he considered what Nathan had just told them. It was an uncharacteristic expression for the young man, whose face was usually quite animated. “But our tech is not that much more advanced than yours,” Josh observed. “I mean, if we’ve had a thousand years to build on while you all were back to pooping in the woods—we should be a lot more advanced.”