by S. H. Jucha
The last two shuttle deliveries of passengers for the Freedom landed in Deck-12’s Bay-6, and crew members hurried to unload the eighty-four Librans, urging them out of the bay while other crew grabbed grav-lifts and emptied the bellies of stowed supplies and personal effects.
After the shuttles’ departure, hatches were sealed and station supply lines detached. Captain José Cordova stood on the bridge with Tomas. No two men were more relieved than they. It had been eight years since they had begun their endeavor, and this had followed six years of negotiations with Leader Stroheim. Those negotiations had finally succeeded when news of Bellamonde’s usurpation by the alien ships reached Libre’s FTL station. They had eight years to build two ships that could house all of the Libran: Independents and House Bergfalk. And they had done it, or at least they had done it by half. The Unser Menschen had yet to launch.
On Captain Cordova’s orders, Cordelia began to edge the city-ship away from the station. From an outside observer’s viewpoint, the massive ship didn’t appear to move. An hour after first activating the ship’s maneuvering jets and emptying the compressed air tanks by half, Cordelia was able to engage the giant ship’s engines at minimal power. Since the engines were untested, Cordelia was careful to monitor them closely as she constantly increased power. Once she had cleared the station, ships, and satellites, she brought the engines to 80 percent power and began to pick up speed. The Freedom chased the slow-moving freighters.
As the Freedom’s engines engaged, Julien sent,
-24-
Late in the evening on day seven, the Stern Vagabund arrived in system. Captain Azasdau requested an immediate conference with Alex, while Rosette sent the relevant vids to Julien.
The SADEs pulled in the Leaders and subordinates for Alex.
The individuals in conference watched the mass of silver ships circle the mother ship.
It was Mickey, the engineer, who found the anomaly first.
In this vid, the group watched as one ship slid through an iris hatch and another positioned itself just outside the opening while the rest of the drones continued to circle.
Mickey exclaimed,
Asu replied.
It was to Cordelia’s and Z’s credit that the moment they heard the Admiral ponder the vids, they began scanning for images of the swarm circling the mother ship without waiting for a directive. Within moments, they had scanned the files and had found none.
It was a statement that Asu felt very proud to hear.
Mickey felt he was losing the thread of the conversation.
There was silence on the comm. Most believed the Admiral was deep in thought, so they waited, but Alex was waiting too.
Alex desperately wanted the answer to the question and was thinking furiously how to get it. The information might buy them some advantage if they had to fight their way out of the system. Alex was studying the system’s assets when an answer occurred to him.
Captain Azasdau’s first thought as he heard the Admiral make use of his observation of the mother ship was a private one … I told you I was going to tell the Admiral about your odd habit. But the question he voiced was the one on everyone’s mind:
Alex closed the comm and everyone went back to work.
* * *
Outside a Bau Ein storeroom that had just been emptied, Alex sat down on the deck where he was. The supplies from the storeroom had been transferred to the Unser Menschen. As he communed with the SADEs, Étienne stood watch beside him.
Since the launch of the Freedom, Étienne had resumed his duties as escort to the Admiral. When Étienne had prepared to exit that city-ship just before it launched, he had experienced, in quick succession, two heart-tugging moments. The first came as he emptied his temporarily assigned cabin. A couple and their two children were standing in the corridor to move in behind him. He stepped around them and collided with a runner. Amelia had come to say good-bye and had been dashing down the corridor at high speed, afraid she might have missed him. After she recovered, she eyed him for a moment, threw her arms around his waist, hugged h
im fiercely, and dashed off, back the way she had come.
If ever I am fortunate enough to have a child, little one, Étienne thought, I could do no better than wish she’d be like you. Moments later, as he took a lift down to the shuttle deck to join the remainder of the exiting Rêveur crew, Renée had signaled him.
<Étienne, have you been assigned another duty yet?> Renée had asked.
Now he stood beside Alex, who sat on the deck, his uniform splotched with lubricants, nanites gel, and something with an odor that defied identification. The uniform hadn’t seen a refresher in days.
This was one of the moments that Julien had come to intensely dislike.
None of the SADEs responded. There seemed nothing appropriate to say.
Z replied.
Alex sat contemplating the possibility that they were fighting to load half the Librans onto a ship that might never launch in time. He wanted to cry; he wanted to scream. But it wasn’t only Z that hadn’t told him. No one else had said a word. Maybe they’re right, Alex thought. Maybe there’s a point where it’s all too much.
Alex smiled at that. Z was all about the math and the code. People were just too messy for him.
Z’s statement would have been humorous, if it wasn’t so deadly accurate. Alex had worked to build a single day of padding in the timeline for the launch of the city-ships, and the Unser Menschen was going to consume the entire safety margin.
Alex was considering their circumstances.
Julien’s calculations took only several ticks to complete. It took much longer for him to relay his answer to Alex.
When Alex couldn’t think of a thing to say, he changed subjects.
After Alex closed the comm, he sat back down on the deck, thinking for a while. Z had been right. There was nothing he could have done, and they certainly didn’t need an anxious Admiral leaning over their collective shoulders. His thoughts drifted back to the people on the ground. It suddenly struck him that they were being denied a choice. Up until now, everyone would be expecting to go, and the loading of passengers had been a very orderly affair. But what if they knew that not everyone might be lifted? Alex thought.
* * *
Tatia jerked upright in her cabin bunk. She had laid her head down only an hour ago and had quickly passed out, but she had been woken by an insistent pressure in her mind.
“It’s alright, Admiral,” she mumbled out loud, then realized her mistake.
Tatia lay back, thinking of her people whom she had left behind, struggling to save thousands of Librans. A few days after she had refused the promotion to Senior Captain, she’d wondered if she had made the right decision. While she respected Andrea Bonnard, Tatia had begun to realize that she brought much more to the job than she gave herself credit for.
* * *
Alex couldn’t help but smile. Fiona was as Tatia advertised.
Alex sent, awed by the woman’s perceptiveness.