by Kal Spriggs
“And then you lost it,” Alannis shook her head. “Again, I'm sorry.”
“It is history,” Chuni said. “Now we are a scattered people, looking for a home. Now, we believe, is the time to return.”
“What about the Protectors, do you think they're still out there?” Alannis asked.
Chuni hesitated, “There are whispers in the fleet, after the first attack, that this must be the wrath of the Protectors. That we have drawn their wrath again for our presumption.”
“What do you think?” Alannis asked.
“I think the ones who attacked us are mortal. That the beings who have the ability to warp shadow space would be able to shatter our fleet without the use of ships... or if they must, then we could not hope to damage or destroy their ships as we did this enemy. I think we don't know who they are, but we will learn it in time.”
“Don't worry,” Ashtar said, “We've got our best and brightest working on the wreckage we found, I'm sure they'll figure it out soon enough.”
Yeah, Alannis thought, our best and brightest... if only in their own minds.
***
“No! I'm not going to do it and you can't make me!” Rory shouted.
I hate my life, Ensign Elvis Medica thought to himself. He'd had the best engineering scores of his class, the pick of any ship in the Fleet. He had thought that picking the Constellation would be a challenge, that learning the new technology of its systems would be a learning experience. I could have done anything with my life and here I am, babysitting these two nitwits.
“All you need to do,” Elvis said, “is look at this one device, okay?”
“You don't understand,” Feliks said. “We are very, very busy, yes? We will get to this pet project of yours later.” Feliks looked back down at his chess board and moved a piece.
Elvis lost the last ragged edge of his patience, “Look, you two idiots. This isn't some pet project. The people who used this device, they attacked a Ghornath fleet. We could run into them at any moment, they might have the ability to tap into ansible communications... we have to be able to fight them and we don't know anything about them!” Elvis was done with playing nice with these two. Rory just walked over people and Feliks just ignored them.
“Yes, yes,” Rory waved his hands, “you're very concerned, I get it, okay? But this is all small stuff, it is peanuts! We're dealing with world-ending things, here, end of the world, humanity endangered, that sort of thing. We're far too busy to help. Besides, I don't even need to look at that, I could tell you what it was when you brought it in.”
“It is really quite trivial,” Feliks said. “Rory, it is your move.”
Rory moved a chess piece, “Why don't you go and do whatever it is that you navy types do when you aren't bothering us?”
Elvis gritted his teeth, “Look, I don't think you have any idea about what this thing is, that's why you don't want to help. You just don't want to be exposed as frauds.”
Rory and Feliks both looked up from their chess game. “Frauds? Frauds?!” Rory demanded.
“Oh, you really should not have said that,” Feliks shook his head.
“I'll have you know,” Rory shouted irately, “that I have seven Masters Degrees in engineering and four PhD's in applied sciences! I have more accumulated knowledge in my head than you can even begin to contemplate.” He rose from the table and moved to the work bench. “This thing? This thing is so simple you could figure it out yourself if you'd bothered, instead of foisting it off on me!”
“And me,” Feliks muttered, “it always gets pushed onto me when he doesn't want to look at it.”
“I was told to give it to you two,” Elvis said.
“Oooh,” Rory waved his hands in the air, “He was told, he's a military mind, he just does what he's told... tell me, did you even look at it before you brought it in?”
“Yes,” Elvis snapped, “I did, there's some circuitry, it looks like a computer or something, it's not designed like anything else we've seen, so I figured it was alien.”
“Right,” Rory threw his hands back, “it's funny looking, that means it must be of alien manufacture. It isn't as if some idiot engineer somewhere didn't just design it to look different because he felt like it, or because the pieces he had on hand were shaped different, or just because he was drunk and couldn't draw a straight line that morning.”
Rory rotated the device until the access panel was facing upwards. “What is this?”
Elvis Medica sighed, “It's an access panel.”
“And this?” Rory demanded pointing at the fastening bolts.
Elvis gritted his teeth, “it's a fastening bolt...” he trailed off as he noticed the bolts were of standard human manufacture. “It's a human fastening bolt.”
“Ah, he begins to understand,” Feliks said without looking up from the chess set. He moved a piece, “Your move Rory.”
“Pawn to Knight Three,” Rory said. “Should be checkmate in six moves, five if you move your king.” He pulled off the access panel, “All the parts inside are human manufacture. I fed it power at standard voltages and I even got it to boot up. It's an engineering module off a computer console. That's it, Ensign. Nothing special. The parts and pieces are assembled to match a specific parameter, out of human parts. The rest of the junk you and your enlisted men brought... that's all human manufacture too. The serial numbers are filed off, but it's all made with standard components you could get on almost any human world.”
“But...” Elvis shook his head, “the people who attacked the Ghornath... they're human?”
“He didn't say that,” Feliks said from the chess set. “He said that they used parts manufactured on human worlds.” He leaned his king down, “Another defeat.”
Rory rolled the engineering module away and Elvis winced as it wobbled on the edge of the table, but the work bench's tractor beams caught it and prevented it from falling. “The software isn't human constructed, though,” Rory said. “Whoever the attackers were, they wiped the code on this thing. I only managed to find a few traces of it and Feliks and I have been running simulations for days trying to reconstruct it.”
Feliks pointed at a console next to him, “To date, we have run over sixty-four thousand comparisons with human and alien software. If there is any way to identify the origins of the code on the machine, we'll do it.”
“So, Ensign, can you kindly go bother someone else? In addition to running that we're also simulating technology extrapolations for the Ghornath, trying to figure out what they might have started with and lost in their exile and what kind of technology these “Protectors” of theirs might have.”
“Yes, sorry,” Elvis shook his head, he felt like an idiot. “What's the chess board for? Is it some kind of sixty-four bit decryption technique?”
“This?” Feliks looked up, “oh, no, we just like to play chess.”
***
Captain Daniel Beeson looked up at the tap on his hatch.
“Sir, Lieutenant Busch reporting,” the communications officer said.
“Come in,” Daniel said, “close the hatch behind you, please.” He waited as she toggled the hatch behind her and the came to parade rest in front of his desk. He had little doubt that she knew why he'd made this appointment with her. She should be nervous, or anxious, or possibly even afraid. She wasn't. There was an edge of almost... smugness to her posture, as if she thought she was finally where she had wanted to be.
“Lieutenant,” Daniel said, “I've called you in because the XO is disappointed in your overall performance. There's been some marked issues with not just your overall work, but also with some of your behavior as an officer.”
Her face hardened as he spoke. “Do you have anything to say for yourself?” Daniel asked.
“Sir,” Lieutenant Busch said, “I think that most of the XO's disagreements with my behavior come back to a clash of personalities. I think if I reported more directly to you, you would see that my performance is unquestioned.”
Daniel's eyebrows lowered dangerously. She had just insinuated that Commander Bowder either had a personal grudge against her or that he was unable to allow her to perform her duties. Either way, he thought, that's the opposite of trying to improve the situation.
“That's not how things work in the Fleet, Lieutenant,” Daniel said. “You report to the XO and he reports to me. Now, this counseling session will serve as your final warning. I'm giving you this final opportunity to improve your overall performance, if you don't...”
“Sir,” she interrupted him, “I'm sure that I can show a marked improvement to my performance if you had me work directly under you.”
At first he was so shocked that she had interrupted that he didn't catch her meaning. Then he flushed as he did realize what she meant. “Are you insinuating sexual favors in return for a favorable evaluation, Lieutenant?”
“Sir,” she said with a smirk, “it is entirely within regulations that two consenting adults have a relationship as long as it doesn't directly affect the chain of command. It's also been shown that sex can improve overall morale and mental performance.” She gave a slight shrug, “if you see some improvement in my work quality as a result of a personal relationship I developed, then who would I be to disagree?”
Daniel stood slowly from his chair. “Lieutenant, allow me to make this abundantly clear. I don't know what kind of chickenshit ship you came from or what miserable failures of leaders you served under, but I will not tolerate that kind of behavior here.”
Lieutenant Busch flushed with anger, “You're rejecting me?”
“I'm rejecting a gross disregard for regulations and a severe failure in your personal and professional ethics,” Daniel snapped. “And I'll remind you that just for insinuating a willingness to violate General Order Seventeen and Twenty Three, I could press charges and have you court-martialed.”
Her face went pale, “Sir...”
“Lieutenant, I'm not finished,” Daniel snapped. “I called you in here for what was already a fairly serious set of failures on your part. Your behavior here has only reinforced my belief that you are not fit for the uniform you wear. Upon our arrival back in United Colonies space, I will push to have you removed from the service. I'm giving you official notice that I have recorded this session and I will submit the recording to the Judge Advocates in order to proceed with full, formal charges.”
“You can't do this...” Lieutenant Busch protested.
“No,” Daniel shook his head, “You can't continue to disgrace the uniform. For now, consider yourself confined to quarters. I will inform the Master of Arms to revoke your security access and enforce confining you to the ship.”
“What did I do wrong?” Lieutenant Busch protested.
“The fact that you don't understand is probably the worst.” Daniel sat down at his desk, feeling a bit hollow as he let go of the anger. “Clearly, Lieutenant, someone in your chain of command failed you, possibly at numerous points in your career. We are a professional military organization, there is no room for favoritism or fraternization.”
He stared at her face and he didn't know whether he was glad or disappointed that she still didn't seem to understand. Perhaps if she'd shown remorse or regret it would have been worse. “You are dismissed, Lieutenant.”
****
“Ensign Giovanni,” Commander Bowder snapped.
Alannis backed out of the control access panel and popped to attention, “Sir!” She was covered in grime and sweat, she'd been at the repairs for the past five hours. Not that she needed to be so involved, but she wanted to know how the weapons systems worked, so she had cornered Petty Officer Muna and convinced him to let her help.
So far, at least, she thought she'd been a help. At least, Petty Officer Muna had stopped grumbling after she pointed out several worn conduits that needed replacement.
The XO had a scowl on his face and he looked like even more like a grumpy bear with a toothache than normal. “You haven't answered your comm, Ensign.”
“Sorry, sir,” Alannis said. “I've been buried in that control panel for the past few hours, I hadn't noticed it chiming.”
“Hmm,” Commander Bowder growled. “Well, I suppose you were doing your duty. Still, while I applaud your dedication, it would behoove you to pay a bit more attention.”
“Sir,” Alannis nodded, feeling sweat trickle down her back and between her breasts.
“Well,” Commander Bowder said. “You've been transferred back to the communications department, effective three hours ago.”
“Sir?” Alannis asked in shock. What did I do wrong? She wondered. Had she screwed something up? Is Lieutenant Commander Douglass unhappy with my performance?
“It's not meant as a punishment, Ensign,” the XO read her expression. “You're being assigned as the department head. Lieutenant Busch has been relieved. You are the only officer aboard who has trained on the Constellation's communication systems. You've got your work cut out for you.”
Alannis's eyes went wide.
“Quite the promotion to head of department, Ensign,” the XO said, “don't screw it up.”
***
Chapter VIII
Unknown System
(Status Unknown)
November 30, 2407
The Constellation emerged into the star system and immediately alarms began to wail.
“Sir, we've got major radiation warnings!” Lieutenant Cassat called out. “I'm picking up extreme solar activity. It looks like a pair of close-orbit binary stars.”
Daniel winced at that. Most such star systems were notoriously unstable. It wasn't uncommon for them to experience major solar storms and flares, to the point that humans generally avoided even transiting through such a system unless absolutely necessary.
He looked over at Leader Chuni, who squatted near the communications console, “It is fine, Captain,” she said. “Your defense screens and radiation screen should protect the vessel from the worst of it until we reach the base.”
Daniel frowned, but he waited as she directed Ensign Giovanni on where to send the codes. Lieutenant Cassat looked extremely unhappy at having most of his sensors locked down. Really, even their basic navigational sensors would be enough to give them enough information on the system to discern a location... but there was no way that Daniel would agree to locking those down as well. Especially not in a close-orbit binary star system, he thought to himself.
“We have clearance, Captain,” Ensign Giovanni said. “They've transmitted entry coordinates.”
“Good, let's get moving,” Daniel said.
They had emerged near a planet and he had assumed that it would be their destination. He wasn't wrong, for their course plotted for the dark side of the planet. With nothing more than basic navigational sensors, they couldn't detect whether the planet hosted any kind of biosphere or not... though Daniel would be surprised if it did. The bombardment of high energy particles from the binary stars would make long-term survival extremely hazardous.
As they came into the planetary shadow, Daniel felt his breathing ease a bit. The radiation counters dropped rapidly. In fact, they dropped more than he would have expected, which suggested that not only did the planet shelter them, but it also must have a seriously powerful magnetic field.
“We are certain it is your people giving us orders, right?” Daniel asked of Chuni.
She nodded, “They have the right codes, sent and received by laser transceiver. Also, Ensign Giovanni confirmed that Strike Leader Burbeg has arrived.”
“He beat us here, huh?” Daniel asked.
“He was able to take a shortcut,” Leader Chuni said. She seemed to have better control over her emotions than most Ghornath he had met, she didn't give anything away. No wonder they sent her over here, he thought.
“Right, then,” Daniel said. “What do we do now?”
“Sir,” Ensign Giovanni said, “We're receiving a transmission from the planet's surface.”
“Send it through,” Daniel sai
d.
A familiar human face appeared on the screen. Kandergain, Daniel thought, well, I did mention it would be nice to have a psychic navigator.
“Captain Beeson,” Kandergain said. “It is good to see a United Colonies ship. It's been a while.”
“Ma'am,” Daniel said. He didn't know if she had any kind of military rank, but it never hurt to be polite. “We didn't expect to see anyone but Ghornath here at their base.”
Kandergain grinned, “Their base, is it?” She shook her head, “Well, there certainly are a lot of them around here. Strike Leader Burbeg told me what brought your ship here. I can assure you that your vessel should be safe here in geosynchronous orbit, so if you want to send crews down to get some fresh air, feel free.”
“I was under the impression that time is a limiting factor,” Daniel said.
“Oh, I'm sure you can wait a couple days,” Kandergain replied. “If nothing else, I'm certain whichever poor Ghornath they put aboard your ship would like a chance to stretch out a bit.”
“Fine,” Daniel said. He felt there was something else behind the psychic's words. Whatever it was, though, he doubted she'd tell him directly. “We'll drop shuttles for the surface if you'll provide us with coordinates. Are we still on sensors blackout?”
“Optical sensors only, not that most of the rest of your sensors will be of much use,” Kandergain said. “Between the magnetic interference and radiation, there's not much you'd be able to see anyway.”
“Okay,” Daniel said. He nodded at Kandergain, “We'll draw up a rotation for the crew. Would you like to come aboard, ma'am?”
“I'm afraid not. If you come down, I'd like a chance to talk with you,” Kandergain said. “Also, I have a mail packet that needs to go to the United Colonies. I was going to send it through other means, but you're more likely to get it to where it needs to go.”
“Right,” Daniel said. As she cut the call, he wondered just what he had gotten himself into... and just how bad things were if Kandergain were involved.