“The enemy in that war you fought in?”
“Yes. It’s why I joined up. I was young and naïve and somehow thought I could avenge her death.”
“You couldn’t because you lost the war?”
“No, we won – but there’s no vengeance to be found in war. Turns out, it doesn’t work that way.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Good. I hope you never do.”
They walked in silence for a minute, with Naiche alert for any signs of peerazu. When she told Moira, they should be heading back, the girl suddenly blurted out, “I should have gotten to know my parents. They wanted to. Parents get the chance when their child has completed three age-cycles, but I rebuffed them.” Decker didn’t know what to say so she asked why. Finnegan explained, “It’s simply not done. It makes you look…unusual.” She hesitated before admitting, “I hate being the odd one out. I get grief enough about my red hair and being so short.”
“What? Your hair is so obviously auburn.” When she’d gotten the laugh she’d hoped for, Deck urged, “You need to meet my friend Blythe Brodie. She’s short, she’s got purple hair, and she is pure awesome.” Moira smiled but it soon dimmed so Decker said, “It’s not too late to bond with your parents. You can try again when we get you all back together.”
Finnegan stared at the ground, objecting, “I am too old. It would be considered especially peculiar after all this time.”
“Nonsense. My father and I were estranged until I was twenty-eight, which is much older than your…umm…four age-cycles. And look at us now.” She could tell Moira was about to ask for an explanation, so she said, “It’s a long story. I’ll maybe tell it to you some day.” She returned to the subject, advising, “Besides, if you really want to know your parents, it shouldn’t matter if it makes you look ‘peculiar’. You’re going to have to start thinking for yourself, you all are, once you’re on Uniterrae. There’ll be no…all-knowing-givers handing out high-tech goodies and smoothing the way for you. But on the plus side, there’ll also be a lot of new experiences and paths open to you.”
“If the people of Uniterrae think for themselves, then why do you all dress exactly alike?”
“Where did you get that idea?” Finnegan waved a hand at Decker’s navy-blue jacket and pants. “This is a uniform! Only people in the UDC wear this. And we only wear it on-duty.”
“But you at least get to decorate it as you see fit?” Deck was mystified until Moira pointed at the double silver stripes on her wrists and pant legs which marked her as a first lieutenant. “I noticed you and Commander Kennedy have silver bands while Priya Kapoor and Yenlin Quan have red bands on theirs.”
With a gentle laugh Naiche explained, “Those are rank insignia – not decorations. Silver stripes for senior officers, white stripes for ensigns, red stripes for enlisted personnel. You get more stripes as you advance up the chain. That’s why Con has three and I only have two.” Decker didn’t bother mentioning the braided insignia of command officers.
“Is that a path open to me? Could I become part of your Defense Corps?”
“If that’s what you want, then absolutely. And there’s still a lot of paths within the UDC. You could be a scientist, an engineer—”
“Could I do what you do? Protect people?”
“Well, let’s not get too carried away….” When Moira glared at her, lips in an exaggerated pout, Naiche smiled, saying, “That wasn’t sarcasm – that’s called teasing. It’s something you do with friends.”
Finnegan stopped short and stared at Naiche. “You consider me as a friend? Is it proper to call you by your informal name now?”
“Sure – you can call me ‘Deck’ if you want. Now, come on, I’ve gotta get back and check on my other friend.”
Chapter 9
Love, Courage and Wisdom
“But the one who has love, courage and wisdom moves the world.” Ammon Hennacy, The Book of Ammon
Early the next morning Kapoor and Quan arrived at the Featay village and assisted Decker in transferring Kennedy to the Aurora. Naiche and Kay paced around outside his treatment room until Dr. Uddin exited and allowed them admittance. The Aurora medic, Eric Baseman, was nowhere to be seen. As far as Decker could tell, he appeared to have gladly ceded complete control of his Med-bay to Uddin.
She found Con sitting up, with Aqila in the chair next to him, holding his hand. Aqila jumped up and hugged Decker. “I finally get to thank you in person!”
While Naiche assured her no thanks were necessary, she watched Kayatennae rush over to the bed and give Con a gentle but through evaluation by nose. After explaining, “He’s been very worried about you,” she asked Kennedy how he was feeling.
Con moved his right leg under the blanket, saying, “I can do this without pain – does that answer your question?”
Naiche pointed at the line running from the med-infusion module to underneath the blanket. “You sure it’s not because of that?”
Laughingly, Con protested, “Way to spoil the moment,” and eased the leg back down slowly. “Yesterday is kind of a blur – but from what I remember, the Aurora crew were completely mistaken about the Featay.”
“We can add that to the growing list of things they were wrong about, but yeah, it seems like the Featay are decent people who got handed a pretty raw deal.” Decker acquainted Kennedy and Lateef with the history of Tolu she had learned from the Featay, then asked Aqila, “Have you figured anything out about the peerazu? I’d love to help the Featay find a better way to ward off attacks.”
“The only thing I’ve determined so far is that those animals are, genetically speaking, armored, belligerent killing machines.” Lateef shook her head. “That gamma ray burst did a really weird number on their evolution. They devote an incredible proportion of their metabolism to aggression and fighting but I’ve yet to figure out that they get in return.”
“Territory?” Con guessed.
“You’d think,” Deck said, “but the Featay say they live and breed only in the mountains. They show up down here just to wreak havoc.” She asked Lateef, “Is there a genetic mutation for being an asshole?”
Before Aqila could respond, Con jumped in. “There has to be – how else would you explain Croker?”
Deck’s answering laugh died out quickly. “I gotta run,” she said, “I’ve got some unfinished business to take care of.” To avoid questions about the exact nature of that business, she suggested, “You two deserve more private time together, anyway.”
While she gave Con a quick farewell hug, he said, “I know you’d rather I ignore it, Deck, but the fact remains – you saved my life. Thanks.”
She answered, “Anytime, Boss,” and slipped out of the room, followed by Kayatennae. In the corridor she met up with Uddin and asked for his medical opinion on Kennedy’s condition.
The doctor reported, “He’s doing quite well. Your quick work and that medicine the Featay supplied saved his leg. Without that, I’m pretty sure I would have needed to amputate. Now, it looks like he won’t even lose any functionality. I’m hoping to release him for duty in a couple of days.”
While rolling up her sleeves, Naiche said, “Good. Then you won’t mind me sending another patient your way….”
“If you’re talking about First Mate Croker, I’m going to strongly advice you not to do anything rash.” Uddin put a gentle hand on her arm. “You should know that he’s very sorry.”
She smiled down at the stout, affable doctor, but nonetheless insisted, “Not half as sorry as he’s gonna be.”
“Do you really think this is what Commander Kennedy wants?”
“Considering how pissed off he is about that stunt Croker pulled – I don’t think he’ll mind.”
“What about your…what about Captain Ricci? Don’t you think such an act of petty vengeance from you would disappoint him greatly?”
“Maybe – but it sure as hell won’t surprise him.”
His usually genial expression replaced by a scowl
, Omar stated, “All right then – how about this? Moira Finnegan was here a few minutes ago gushing about how forgiving you are, letting her off the hook for her, quote unquote, extreme stupidity—”
“Moira is little more than a child!”
“They all are, Decker. Haven’t you figured that out? For all of his bluster and arrogance, Croker has had practically no real-life experience beyond this mission. I don’t know why the Lignatians did it, but they sent this crew out woefully unprepared for…well, anything.”
Reluctantly, Decker felt the truth of Uddin’s assertion flow over her – washing away her fury with it. She sighed and nodded, admitting, “Okay – you got me. That was the one.”
“Good. Now how would you like an assignment more worthwhile than beating up Croker?”
“Hard to believe there’s anything more worthwhile than that, Doc, but I’m game. What is it?”
“I’d like to know more about that medicinal paste the Featay gave you for Con’s leg. Based on his rapid recovery, it seems to have remarkable therapeutic properties – properties worth studying.”
Relieved to have something to occupy her time, Deck agreed to petition the Featay for a sample of the paste. She went to locate Lindstrom and inform him of her intentions. When she and Kay found him in his temporary office, conferring with Maddox, she apologized for the intrusion.
In a slightly amused tone, Lindstrom asked, “You’re not here to self-report an infraction, Lieutenant, are you?”
When she assured him that she wasn’t, Naiche thought for an instant that he seemed disappointed but wrote it off to projection on her part. She explained that she was going back to the Featay village to see about obtaining a fresh portion of the therapeutic paste for Dr. Uddin.
Maddox interjected, “Is this wise? I know the Featay extended basic kindness to you in exchange for the help you gave their child but the fact remains – they attacked our scouting party without cause.”
“They had cause.” All three of them looked up to see Finnegan standing in the doorway. “We set up camp in their ayptach field. It’s one of their most valuable crops, so they fired some warning shots to scare us off, that’s all.” Moira asked Decker, “Did I forget anything?”
“Nope, that’s pretty much the whole story.” She turned to Lindstrom saying, “I shouldn’t be gone long, sir. I’ll check in with you when I get back.”
Upon attempting to leave the room she found her way blocked by Moira. “Can I go with you to get the sample of the paste?”
“Uhh…” She looked at Lindstrom. “Any objections, Commander?”
“With Kennedy temporarily out of action, you’re in charge of Tactical, Decker. I’ll leave that up to you.”
Naiche really didn’t want a civilian tagging along but she didn’t have the heart to disappoint the eager girl, either. Figuring the worst that could happen was the Featay would refuse their request, she agreed and they headed for the village together.
***
After Decker left his room, Con talked Aqila into staying for a while. She happily indulged him and stayed by his bedside chatting for an hour and playing a few hands of holo-poker on their hand-held computers. She then reluctantly kissed him good-bye since she needed to get back to her work in the lab.
Con swiped to his messages on his hand-held and saw a recent communication from Deck. Wondering what fresh news she could have for him already, he found that she was off to the Featay village for a sample of that gunk they’d rubbed on his leg. Kennedy dashed off a note of approval. He had a vague memory of the relief that medicine had afforded him and therefore saw the worth in this mini-mission.
There was a knock at the door and Con said, “Come on in,” assuming it was his lunch tray. He was mildly surprised to see Abigale Maddox enter but assumed the captain was there to check on his condition – not an unexpected occurrence as he was a patient in her ship’s Med-bay.
At his behest, she took a seat and began by inquiring into his well-being. She seemed greatly relieved at his favorable reply. “My chief aim in visiting you today, was to offer my sincere apologies for the behavior of my crew. Prince and Vania are much grieved that you were injured – they acknowledge that it was due to their negligence. They both wished to offer their apologies in person, but I thought it best if you were not overwhelmed with visitors so early in your recovery.”
“Thank you, Captain, but I hope you’ll understand if I’m not quite ready to say all is forgiven. Maybe when I’m back on my feet again.”
“I completely understand, but I will insist on telling you that both of my crew members are extremely ashamed of the situation they put you in. Particularly Prince, who recognizes now that he was most at fault.” Maddox hesitated, and leaned forward slightly. Almost conspiratorially, she continued, “I’m afraid he’s not quite the man he wants to be – or even tries to be. It’s not entirely his fault; he was simply unprepared for the realities of our situation. We did many simulated missions in preparation but….” Maddox sighed and shook her head. “…apparently it was not enough.”
With a somewhat cynical huff of amusement, Kennedy nodded in understanding. “The first captain I ever served under, Captain Pulaka, had a saying about that. ‘Simulated battle training is great – as long as all you ever run into is a simulated enemy.’”
“A very astute adage.”
Smiling at the distant memory, he agreed, “She was a very astute woman.”
“I suppose I should have been a more astute woman in choosing my crew – but I cannot see that my other available choices were much better.”
“Why is that?”
“Most of the people who the Lignatians chose as fitted for this mission, were quite young and inexperienced.” Maddox stared sadly at the distant wall, her gaze unfocused. After a moment she turned back to Kennedy. “The trip to New Earth was intended to be an uncomplicated journey so they concentrated more on genetic fitness, rather than mission fitness, I’m afraid.”
“Genetic fitness as pertaining to having children?”
“Yes. I do understand their concern – to successfully colonize New Earth, a growing population would have been a high priority.” She sighed wistfully. “It is well for you on the Lovelace that having children is not a concern. Your crew can focus purely on mission fitness.”
Kennedy sat up straight and threw his shoulders back. “Well, some of us do have children, you know. Our ship’s pilot, Tanja Petrović, recently had a daughter.”
Oblivious to the metaphorical wound she’d poked, Maddox asked, “Oh, this I did not know. You have children on your ship?”
“No, we can’t bring children on missions….” Con couldn’t stop the strident note that crept into his tone as he continued, “But they can be left with family, or there’s a great childcare center at The Rock.”
Maddox stared at him uncertainly for a moment; finally, she smiled and nodded. “Yes, it sounds very much how we rear our children. I gave rise to two that were reared in a nursery-collective. I don’t know them that well, but they are fine people, I understand.”
With a touch of unnecessary vehemence, Con insisted, “It’s nothing like that.”
“Perhaps not.” She stood up and gave him a slightly forced smile. “I suppose I have much to learn of the ways of Earth. I will let you get some rest, now.”
After she’d left, Kennedy ran the conversation over in his mind and winced at his idiocy. He picked up his hand-held computer while wondering if he should later issue an apology to Maddox or simply let her think his irrationality had been due to the strong meds being infused into his body.
***
It turned out that the Featay healers were willing to give Decker a sample of the tree bark, which was the main ingredient of the healing paste, called leckma. Ekno had been about to harvest more since they’d depleted most of their stock in treating Con; the humans were invited along to observe the task. Decker expected them to head towards the forest but instead, they were led deeper into the va
lley. Along the way, Ekno pointed out the ruins of the city, Featah, where the Featay had once lived shielded as the Maykure still did.
Decker was surprised to find that the bark was gathered as small flakes from underneath the scrubby trees that produced it. Ekno explained that it was nearly impossible to remove the bark from the trees directly, without destroying them.
Upon examination, the bark flakes proved to be as hard as granite. Decker rolled one around in her fingers, asking, “How do you mash it up?”
“From keeping use of cherpcha.”
“Cherpcha?” Deck confirmed. “What is that?”
Ekno’s explanation of the object in question wasn’t enlightening to the humans, so the Featay promised to show them later. During the gathering process Decker noticed some immense white tubes running from the abandoned city through the gorge and seeming to disappear underground.
When asked about them, Ekno responded, “You mark the float-ways. In seasons earlier, Featay kept use of them, traveling to homes of Maykure and Intabet. Tales are kept that in the star-burst times, they held service great and always. The times of my knowing and still that of our elders hold no memories of float-way travel.”
“Oh,” Decker said, “those are the ways of travel, you were talking about last night.” After Ekno confirmed this, she asked, “Why are they so dangerous? Have they collapsed in places?”
“No, the tale is kept that all remain unbroken but grew consumed by veil-worms. Since the arrival of the veil-worms, the float-ways hold danger great.” That account had to be repeated several times until Decker accepted that Ekno was actually saying, “veil-worms.”
“What do they look like? Have you ever seen these worms?”
“No, but still all Featay who seek travel in the float-ways in seasons recent knew attacks. Death came to most.”
The Risks of Dead Reckoning Page 10