by Kal Spriggs
“Please, just call me Chuni,” the Ghornath responded. “We are of similar rank, so formalities are unnecessary.” She said that with a brisque tone, as if her military rank meant little to her. Interesting, Alannis thought, it's like she's from a higher caste, but as far as I know, most of the senior ranking Ghornath died between the Nova Roma attack and the Chxor occupation.
“Very well,” Alannis said, “then call me Alannis.”
“Of course,” Chuni said. “I command a team of Chigathi-Ho. It would translate to something like... Honor Guardians”
“Honor Guard?” Alannis asked.
Chuni looked over and she nodded the affirmative, “It is our powered armor squad.”
Alannis's eyebrows went up, “that is a very prestigious position, I'd imagine. How did you earn that?”
“As you humans say, with lots of 'Blood, Sweat, and Tears.'“ Chuni responded. “I started out on a Ghornath Privateer and worked my way up.”
Alannis nodded, “What do you think of our ship?”
“It is very low,” Chuni said dubiously as she had to almost kneel to get through a hatch. “But I approve of the weapons. It was good to see the weapons fire shred the enemy attack craft.”
“Thanks,” Alannis said. She couldn't help but give a smile, “I was the one who got to fire.”
Chuni paused and looked at her for a moment, “Truly? You are a warrior then? Forgive the question, but I assumed that humans tried to keep their leaders away from combat.”
“It depends on the humans... much as I'm sure it depends on the Ghornath in question.”
Chuni gave a harsh laugh, “True enough. My thanks, then, for your excellent shooting.”
They came to the drop shaft and Alannis led the way in, the counter gravity assisting her movement up the shaft. To her surprise, Chuni's awkward waddle became a graceful, flowing movement as soon as she had the room to move. The eight-limbed alien swarmed up the shaft and Alannis had to work hard to stay ahead of her.
She didn't miss the grumble from Chuni as they came to the exit. “We're nearly there,” Alannis said helpfully.
“Yes,” Chuni replied. “I can hardly wait.”
Alannis led the big Ghornath onto the bridge. “Captain,” Alannis said, “this is Leader Chuni of the Chigathi-Ho.”
“Leader Chuni,” Captain Beeson gave a nod, “Thank you for coming aboard, sorry about the accommodations.”
“I understand, Captain,” Chuni replied. “I served aboard a captured human ship for some time, I will adapt.” Captain Beeson gave Alannis a nod and she led the Ghornath warrior over to the navigation station. “Ah, a very nice system,” Chuni said with a nod at Lieutenant Forsberg.”
“Uh,” Lieutenant Forsberg said, “Thank you?”
Chuni began to type in the sixteen digit alpha-numeric coordinates. Alannis politely turned her back. “That should do it,” Chuni said.
Lieutenant Forsberg glanced at his control panel. “The computer is working on it, ma'am, probably it'll take ten or fifteen minutes.”
“Closer to thirty,” Chuni grumbled, “It is a difficult course to plot from here. We will have a long journey I am afraid.”
“Well,” Captain Beeson said, “Leader Chuni, perhaps Ensign Giovanni can show you to the quarters we prepared for you? You should be able to stand up there at least.”
“That would be good,” Chuni said. “Let me know if there are any issues.”
Alannis led the way out. They'd prepared a storage space for her, complete with a salvaged Ghornath bed taken from some of the wreckage. Hopefully it would do.
“So,” Alannis said as they left the bridge, “would you be interested in training with our Marines? I practice with them when they do their training.”
“You train with your warriors? That is a good thing for a princess to do.”
“I'm not really a princess,” Alannis said. “I'm technically second in line for the throne, after my niece, but I'm sort of the forgotten sister.”
“But you serve!” Chuni objected. “You will gain honor. Your nation's warriors will know your name. You are a true princess, I am sure that your brother the Emperor will have his daughter follow your example.”
Alannis snorted, “I doubt that my brother would want his daughter following my example... but thanks.”
“I would like to train with your Marines,” Chuni said after a long moment. “It is good to take the measure of one's allies and I would not want my fighting skills growing dull over the voyage. Perhaps when we reach our base, you and your warriors may train with the Chigathi-Ho.”
“Maybe,” Alannis said. She wondered what Ashtar would think of that.
***
Chapter VII
UCS Constellation, Shadow Space
November 20th, 2407
“You know,” Daniel said, “its voyages like this that I miss having a handy psychic navigator to take shortcuts.”
“Sir?” his XO looked up from the central plot.
“Oh, don't mind me, just whining,” Daniel said flippantly as he stood from his command chair and walked over. “Back when the Emperor was just the Baron, he had that psychic... what's her name... Kandergain?”
“I don't know, sir,” Commander Bowder said. “I do remember that crazy shadow space jump we made to pincer the Balor.” He shivered, “It was like shadow space went mad... no thanks, sir, I like my shadow space gray and featureless.”
Daniel looked at the screens, which showed the strange, gray on gray emptiness. Daniel never thought it looked featureless, it was almost like one could just barely see things moving, but never quite make out what it was...
He shook off the thought and looked down at the display, “So, how is our training exercise going?”
Since the Goronto was on a slightly different course, they couldn't communicate during the voyage. The navigational computer put their travel time around nineteen days, which would put them dangerously low on food, down to only twelve days of rations after their journey to the Gebranyr system. While that might be enough to get to another inhabitable world to take on foodstuffs, it also might not. On short rations, they could stretch that out so he wasn't too worried, but it was still an element of concern.
“They're sharpening up,” Commander Bowder said. “I think our little pirate encounter was enough to get them all thinking about the seriousness of the stakes but not enough to shake them.”
“Good,” Daniel nodded, “Any signs of combat stress or fatigue?”
Commander Bowder shook his head, “No. Ensign Giovanni was the one who fired and she seems to have taken that well. She's remarkably steady, but that might be because she's seen more combat first-hand than most of the rest of our crew.”
Daniel nodded at that. Other than himself and Forest Perkins, and possibly Ensign Shan, she had probably seen more people die at close range than anyone else aboard the ship. Well, he amended, Gunny Tam and Staff Sergeant Witzke have both been in the thick of it too.
Still, for as much combat as the United Colonies had seen since its founding, much of his crew was new and they hadn't been in the thick of it. Until their encounter with the pirates, none of this had been quite real for them.
Nothing like knowing someone wants to actively kill you to focus your thoughts.
“I think we'll see a nice boost to our training scores.” Commander Bowder said, “Hopefully we can keep them up throughout the crew and fight complacency.”
Daniel nodded, “Good. Let me know if any of the crew needs some personal attention.”
His XO hesitated, “About that, sir.” Daniel waited patiently, and when his XO spoke, he heard the reluctance, “I'm not sure that things are going to work out with Lieutenant Busch.”
“Oh?” Daniel asked. The last he had heard, she had straightened out after the last counseling session the XO had with her.
“She's been making some rather... snide comments, sir. About the mission, about the Ghornath, and about the idea that her department is basi
cally on lockdown. Nothing that can be directly construed as mutinous, but all of it in poor taste and of questionable value.”
“I see,” Daniel said. “You want me to talk to her then?” For the XO to get him involved, it meant that he didn't know what else to do. The direct threat of repercussions to her career had apparently not changed her attitude. In all likelihood, that meant that she was past the point of rehabilitation. When they returned to the United Colonies, Daniel's evaluation of her would suggest discharge, pretty much regardless of how she shaped up after this.
“If you can make time, sir,” Commander Bowder said in a low voice. Clearly he wasn't happy with the situation. The thought of destroying anyone's career didn't sit well with him.
It wasn't a decision to make lightly. Granted, there was a chance that the Fleet would decide to retain Lieutenant Busch and reassign her to another command for another chance, but Daniel doubted it. They were hurting on experienced and capable officers... but the general attitude was that if someone didn't really want to be there, then to let them go.
Apparently he would have to remind Lieutenant Busch of that fact.
***
“Down, get down!” Staff Sergeant Dawn Witzke shouted. “Damn you, Carl, I said get down!”
She knew the gunfire was only simulated, but it sounded like there was an entire enemy squad firing at them from down the corridor. Training rounds buzzed overhead like malignant wasps.
Medical Specialist Carl Thornton gave a yelp as one of the rounds caught him. “I'm good, I'm good!” He shouted. Three more rounds hit him and he fell soundlessly to the deck.
“Give me some cover fire!” Dawn shouted. The remains of her squad opened up as she darted out and grabbed Carl by the drag strap and pulled her corpsman to safety.
“I have had enough of this crap,” she muttered. “Mark, use the plasma rifle.”
“Staff Sergeant?” Corporal Mark Wandrey asked in surprise.
“I said do it!” Dawn barked.
The plasma rifle had a “training” setting. Normally it fired a magnetically contained beam of super-heated ionized gas. The training setting dropped the density of its firing chamber so the ionized gas was only scalding hot and painful.
The training setting also occasionally misfired and it had been known to send a full strength blast on occasion, if the user didn't notice the signs before they squeezed the trigger, they could actually kill someone.
Since the damned things occasionally blow up in combat, she thought, it's just as well that their users have some reason for caution in training.
A plasma rifle blowing up was why she'd spent three years learning how to walk again. She hated the stupid things... but she wasn't about to let these jokers stop her squad short of their objective.
“Fire in the hole!” Mark shouted. He opened fire with the plasma rifle, calm, patient shots that Dawn approved of. Shots like that wouldn't cause the magnetic coils to overheat and fail, causing the entire weapon to detonate like a bomb.
No return fire sounded and Dawn waved at her people to move forward.
They rushed the last twenty meters of corridor and she saw them skid to a halt as they saw a very angry Ghornath squatting waiting for them. “You got me,” Leader Chuni growled. “You may continue.”
Great, Dawn thought, I pissed off a two-hundred and fifty kilogram alien. She would worry about it later, “Squad,” she shouted, “assault the final objective, move it!”
***
Alannis bit back a giggle as she saw Chuni dabbing ointment on red spots on her hide. “I take it you got the plasma treatment?”
“From Second Squad, yes,” Chuni rumbled. “They were remarkably persistent. First Squad bypassed my position after my attack.”
“Yeah, but then they ran into my ambush,” Alannis grinned. After the grueling fight had dragged on almost to the point of stalemate. Granted, First Squad had taken heavy casualties from Chuni initially, so when Alannis had set off her antipersonnel “mines” she had eliminated most of their combat effectives. They'd still taken her down, but that wasn't the point. The point was pushing them hard and Alannis was starting to run out of nasty tricks.
“You two gloating in here?” Ensign Shan asked from the hatch.
“What?” Alannis grinned, “Me? Gloating? I am shocked, shocked I say!”
Ashtar gave her a squinty look, “That's from some old entertainment vid, isn't it?”
“Movie,” Alannis said, “Old movie.” She sighed. Like her brother, her grandmother had addicted her at a young age to classic films. Lucius had tended towards the humorous, but she'd enjoyed more dramatic and historical shows. “Culture is wasted on some,” she sniffed theatrically.
“My culture has elements that date back over three thousand years,” Ashtar said.
“Well...” Alannis said, “at least I don't hang out with stinky Marines all day.”
Ashtar rolled her eyes, “Actually, you do. And unlike you, I didn't volunteer for this.” She shook her head, “To think, I signed on to the Fleet to get away from ground combat. My mother always warned me that I'd take a bullet if I wasn't careful, and she would know, she had the second sight.”
“Well, if it's any consolation, you're pretty darned good at it,” Alannis said. “Your Marines are getting really good.”
“Oh, they are,” Ashtar nodded. “Which is good, because I don't want any of them dying on me... and we have no idea what we're getting into, no offense Leader Chuni.”
“None taken,” Chuni responded. “I wish we knew more.” She hesitated, “Would it help, do you think, to hear stories that I was told as a child?”
“About these 'Sacred Stars'?” Alannis asked. When Chuni nodded she looked at Ashtar, “I don't see how it could hurt. Maybe it will give us something to go on.”
“Perhaps,” Chuni said. She seemed reluctant somehow. “I suppose I should start with the Protectors.” Her voice became subdued, “They discovered my people's homeworld many generations ago. They had run from a threat, a great enemy. When they found my people, they wanted to defend us, so they created a wall, a barrier around the star cluster which contained our homeworld. They created but one entry: the Gates of Hallidas. They did all this to protect our race and they only asked one thing in return: that we trusted them and never left this paradise that they had created for us.”
“Okay,” Alannis said, “so is this some kind of barrier in shadow space, is that why there's only one way in?”
“That is what we believe,” Chuni nodded. “The legends are very old, though.” She sighed, “Our leaders under the Protectors were the Nogathi... it translates to the Blessed. The Nogathi were the most gifted among the Ghornath. They were taught the most advanced sciences and some were even possessed of what humans consider psychic abilities.
Alannis's eyebrows went up at that. She hadn't realized that Ghornath even had psychics.
“Our people spread throughout the Sacred Stars. There was the Fields of Targonis, a system with three inhabitable worlds, each with endless plains filled with wild Drothir and huge herds of Roon. Then there was the Gardens of Maar, with lush growth and cool forests, filled with Agama and Telona.”
Her voice had gone soft as she spoke, “Many of our warriors labored at the Forge of Angrahad, where they built mighty warships and weapons to defend our home against the enemies that the Protectors had warned us about. And then there was Argolim.”
“Argolim?” Alannis asked.
“In legend it is now known as the Wastes of Argolim,” Chuni said. “At one point it was the central base for our fleets, where our warriors prepared to fight the Great Enemy... and it was from there where the greatest of our Nogathi ordered scouts to travel out the Gates of Hallidas... against the wishes of the Protectors.”
Chuni took a long time to speak after that. Her hide had gone an odd shade of purple, one part regret and one part shame and one part... something else. “The Protectors saw the scouts and they followed them back to Argolim. They
saw then the great fleet that the Nogathi had our warriors and scholars built and in their wrath, they shattered it, killing hundreds of thousands of our people. They had ordered us to stay in safety and we had prepared to venture out against their wishes.”
She shook her head, “In punishment, they ordered the survivors and those Nogathi who remained into exile. We had so wanted to see the outside universe that we never would return home. They loaded the Nogathi and their followers into the surviving ships and sent us through the Gates of Hallidas. On their orders, we were never to return unless led by one of the Nogathi or their descendants.”
“What happened after that?” Alannis asked.
Chuni looked down at the ground, “It was a perilous voyage. Many of the Ghornath died. The Nogathi, feeling that they were to blame, were always the first in danger and many of them died. The handful that survived, they eventually became our Royal Family, the line of our Emperors. Some others founded a monastery, where they tried to teach their abilities and knowledge, to pass it on to others... though they met with only mixed success.”
“And the Nova Roma Empire killed the Emperor and his sister,” Alannis shook her head, “my God, I'm sorry.”
“My people's story is one of sadness,” Chuni said.
“Okay,” Ashtar said. “So why haven't you people tried to go back until now? Did you lose the way or something?”
Chuni pulled a small holographic projector out of her bag. It immediately projected a constellation of stars in the air. “These are the Sacred Stars. This symbol, the six points that make it up, is the crest of the Royal House and from Ghornath Prime, you can see the star cluster.”
“So... you knew where it was all along?” Alannis asked in confusion.
Ashtar sighed, “The Protectors... they're like gods, right? They ordered you to leave so you never returned.”
“That is part...” Chuni nodded. “Another part is that it requires a Nogathi to lead us. The Royal Family never felt it was time and the others... they were focused on atoning for their sins. We eventually rebuilt our civilization, and then...”