Symphonies of Valor

by C. S. Harte

  “You OK, Jonas?” Quip patted his shoulder.

  “It can’t be the Endurance. Give me a second.” Alyana tapped away at her console. She paused the video and zoomed in on the identifiers. “It’s a different ship, but same class as the Endurance. But…” Alyana wrinkled her nose. “That can’t be…”

  “What?” Jonas asked.

  “I searched the serial number against Fleet’s database. There’s no registry of a ship with those markings.”

  “You probably won’t find one,” Quip said. “Not if it’s a covert ship.”

  “Did you scan for life signs?” Jonas asked. “How many people were on board?”

  “Nume was on board.” Alyana looked away from Jonas as she spoke. “Sensors picked up her suit transponder. It wasn’t around long enough for a full sensor sweep. We’re lucky to get as much as we did.”

  “Not Nume…” Quip whispered.

  “We need more information! Don’t you have any more to report? What have you been doing?” Jonas pushed Alyana to the side and worked the terminal himself.

  “Hey!” Alyana yelled. “You could’ve just asked me to move.”

  Quip helped picked Alyana off the ground. “Don’t worry, sweetie. He won’t ever do that again. Right, Jonas?”

  Jonas glanced at Quip, huffed, then nodded.

  “He’s been in a mood lately,” Quip said while straightening Alyana’s flight suit.

  “You must not know Jonas well,” Alyana said. “He’s always in a mood.”

  “VOIDS!” Jonas pounded the terminal with both fists. “They’re gone…” He looked into Quip’s eyes. “Everyone… Nume… Whisper… I can’t find them…”

  Quip pulled Jonas into her bosom. “This risk was always high, and the odds were always against us. Everyone knew this going in. You can’t lose control… not now.”

  “But it’s not over, right?” Alyana asked meekly. “I can try to extrapolate a trajectory. We can find them. We can still save Nume at least…”

  “The timing can’t be coincidental…” Jonas said in a hushed voice. He plopped down onto the captain's chair and slid halfway down the seat.

  “I know that frustration face,” Alyana said. “The vengeful gears in your brain must be fully turning.”

  “The people on that Endurance clone…” Jonas paused as he glanced down at his shaking fists. “They have Nume. We must assume they know why she’s valuable.”

  “Nume can control Guardians,” Alyana said.

  “Yes, and the next question is,” Jonas looked into the eyes of the others in the room, “What do they plan on doing with her?”

  “What does this mean for Whisper, Meomi, and Ori?” Alyana asked.

  “If I were them…”

  “Don’t say it, Jonas!” Quip yelled at him.

  “There’s no reason to keep them alive if they’ve achieved their mission objective.” Jonas rested his face in his hands. “I wouldn’t.”

  “We’re all thinking it, so I’m just going to say it…” Quip stood straight. “You think we’ve already lost. Why wouldn’t you think that? Mimic soldiers are on our home soil. The Commonwealth government has issued a general evacuation order.” She took Alyana’s hand. “And we lost Nume. She’s gone. Without her, there’s no way to execute the rest of the mission. There won’t be any Guardians coming to save us.”

  “It can’t be over…” Alyana wiped a stray tear from her cheek. “I’m sorry… I help let it happen…”

  “Don’t blame yourself, kid,” Quip said with a stiff expression. “We need to run. Live to fight another day. As long as we’re alive, we can still fight.”

  “How…” Alyana's lips trembled. “Where would we even go? Mimics control most of this galaxy. Their mining the entire edge of the solar system. There isn’t a single planet where they can’t find us.” She turned to Jonas. “You can’t possibly be thinking about giving up? Right? It’s not over yet. I won’t let it.” Alyana stomped her foot. “People are still fighting to save Earth… to save our species. We’re talking about the extinction of our race!”

  Jonas stared blankly forward.

  “Right, Jonas?” Alyana hovered over him. “What’s the plan? You always have a plan!”

  Everything was falling apart. The slim odds of saving Earth shifted even closer to zero. Quip was right on many accounts. Earth may already be lost, taking most of humanity with it. Nume was their best and only chance. She was the only person able to connect to the Guardians — the asteroid-sized creatures, that according to Katok lore, was the only force capable of tearing through a Mimic invasion fleet.

  The Mimic sphereships were less than a day away from Mars, steaming toward the Earth Defense Force. In thinking through all the various scenarios, there was no outcome where humanity would survive without the aid of the Guardians. Running was a delay tactic. Going into the voids of space between galaxy was suicide itself. Their best and only chance to stop the invasion was to find and rescue Nume in the next 24 hours and connect her to the Guardians. If every star aligned their way, there was a chance. A small, infinitesimal speck of hope, but one nevertheless.

  Jonas snarled as he stood. He glared at the still frame of the Endurance clone on the main viewscreen. Mimics and their allies destroyed everything and everyone he ever cared about. For that, Jonas wanted them to pay. He wanted them to burn. “All we… All I ever do is run. Running doesn’t work. It never does. Only delays the outcome. If we want to change the ending, we need to force it to change. We need to fight.”

  “Jonas…” Quip reached out to him.

  “That’s the fiery intensity I expected from you,” Alyana said with a smirk. “I can tell by your clenched jaw and the throbbing vein on your forehead that you have a plan. Care to share?”

  The comm station activated as Jonas opened his mouth.

  “Lunar Team to Valor,” said a familiar female voice. “Please respond.”

  “WHISPER!” Alyana screamed. “Voids! You’re still alive!”

  “Alyana, it’s good to hear your voice again,” Whisper said.

  “Whisper, it’s Jonas. Where are you?”

  “We’re at the southeast entrance of the facility.”

  Jonas tapped Alyana’s shoulder and pointed at the nav console. She picked up the gesture and set a course to Whisper’s location.

  “Please tell me Nume is with you,” Quip said.

  “Negative.” Her voice broke. “I’m sorry. They took her.”

  “No…” Quip covered her mouth at the news.

  “Is there anyone else with you?” Jonas asked.

  “I’m here with Meomi and Ori. Ori is badly injured and requires immediate access to a medi-pod.”

  “We’ll be there in 60 seconds,” Alyana said. “Hang in there, Ori...”

  After rescuing the survivors of Lunar Team, Jonas, Whisper, Meomi, and Alyana gathered on the bridge while Quip tended to Ori in the med bay.

  “We need to find Nume,” Jonas said. “Nothing else matters.”

  “I tried and tried,” Alyana said with a frown. “I can’t find the engine signature. I have no idea where it went.”

  Jonas looked at Whisper. “Can we call on Destiny’s Edge again?”

  “I don’t know.” Whisper shook her head. “There isn’t a lot of time.”

  “I know where they are,” Meomi blurted.

  “Where?” Jonas asked.

  “How?” Alyana added.

  “Pull up a star chart of the solar system,” Meomi ordered.

  Alyana shot Jonas a glance before updating the screen.

  “There,” Meomi pointed to an unremarkable section of the asteroid belt. “I know she’s there.”

  Jonas grumbled. “We don’t have time for random guesses.”

  “It’s not a random guess,” Meomi said. “Trust me, I just know.”

  “I would do as she says, Jonas,” Whisper said. “There’s something different about our newest team member.”

  He stared at Whisper for a few s
econds before nodding at Alyana.

  Alyana shrugged her shoulders. “Sure, let’s put the future of our species in a cryptic, random guess,” she mumbled under her breath. “Plotting a course for the general area where Meomi pointed since she didn’t give me specific coordinates.”

  “You two,” Jonas said to Whisper and Meomi, “Follow me into my ready room.” He sat behind his desk and listened attentively while Whisper briefed him on the events that transpired on Lunar, from the battle with the Arachne tank to the resurgence of an archenemy in Raven, and finally, the eventual escape from an otherwise inescapable blast furnace.

  “That was quite a story.” Jonas leaned back in his chair and fixed his eyes on Meomi. “I’ve seen a lot of incredible acts since this war started, but I’m finding it hard to accept you walked through a one-meter thick steel wall without the aid of a portable warp generator.”

  “I was there, Jonas,” Whisper said. “It happened exactly as I told you.”

  “How long has the Aorgarian technology had this effect on you, Meomi?” He crossed his arms.

  Meomi lowered her gaze. “I can’t say with certainty. My body has never really felt my own since I came into contact with the resurrection cube on Gosi Prime. Trust me, I don’t want to believe any of this either.”

  Jonas scoffed. “It’s like we’re inside another Entrent mind trap. All this could be another simulation.”

  “It’s not,” Meomi said. “I just know it’s not.”

  “You mentioned something happening on Earth?” Whisper asked.

  “Look at this.” Jonas changed the screen behind him to show live video feeds from his drones deployed around Earth. In Old New York, a mass of Kels herded thousands of humans into giant pits while other unknown humanoid creatures sorted them into smaller pens. The screen split to include shots of Tokyo where another army of Kels ripped through a crowd of civilians with strange energy weapons without warning.

  “Stop, stop!” Meomi said when the screen changed to show Berlin. “Voidies.” She pointed at the horde of tall aliens with metal plates embedded into their gray, leathery skin and glowing red lights where their skullcaps should be.

  “So you’ve seen these monsters before?” Jonas said as he watched one Voidi punch a hole through a man fighting back. “When and where?”

  “On Dressa.” Meomi described her mission with Captain Thorne, explaining the Mimic’s access to pocket universes and how there were many other species subjugated by them. “I know, it all sounds too crazy to be true…”

  “I’m well past crazy, Captain Hana.” Jonas sighed. “And they’re able to open these portals to other universes anytime, anywhere?”

  “Every planet in every universe has Anchors,” Meomi said. “These Anchors act as nodes that allow travel between different worlds across this universe and others. Earth has at least seven, one on all the major landmasses.”

  “Interesting…” Jonas leaned forward. “Are these Anchors one-way portals? Can it be used to go anywhere or only to another Anchor? I want to know if we can use an Anchor to travel to the mystery ship that took Nume.”

  “I can’t answer that with any authority.” Meomi shook her head. “I wish I could. But I don’t think it works like that. At times, the Aorgarian tech controls me and not the other way around.”

  “I see.” Jonas stood from his chair. “We should reach your coordinates within the hour. Assuming Raven’s ship is there as you predicted, we must prepare for an assault.”

  “Understood,” Whisper said. “Let’s go, Meomi.”

  “Jonas!” Alyana’s voice came over the room speakers. “I have an urgent hail from Admiral Cananach of the Earth Defense Force!”

  23

  Jonas entered the bridge with Whisper and Meomi trailing. His eyes immediately went to the main viewscreen which showed Earth Defense Force Admiral Iseabail Cananach looking pained and disheveled. The Admiral took command of the EDF as the highest ranking surviving officer of the ill-fated attempt by the 5th Navy to combat the Mimic forces in the Jova system. Her expression was sour and her eyes gloomy. There was bruising on her face, and her elbow was tucked into her hip as if she had a broken arm. Behind the Admiral, two bridge crew members frantically tried to extinguish a fire. Red alert lights flashed intermittently. Muffled klaxons droned on in the background.

  “Admiral,” Jonas greeted while his eyes darted back and forth, scanning every detail of her ship. “This isn’t a good time.”

  The Admiral scoffed. “No, it isn’t. I suppose you can say we are in desperate times.”

  “Are you OK, Admiral?” Meomi asked.

  “Captain Hana…” Her eyes brightened for a moment. “You’re alive. I’m glad.”

  “Thank you, Admiral,” Meomi nodded her head.

  “I understand you have engaged the Mimic fleet.” Jonas stared at the Admiral with a pinched expression. “How does the battle fare?”

  “Not good, Captain Barick.” She glanced behind her. “My ship won’t last much longer. Those damn things keep regenerating when we kill them. We’ve already lost a fifth of our navy. When are the Guardians coming into play?”

  “There’s been a hitch, Admiral.” Jonas pulled back his shoulders. “We need more time.”

  “More time?” The Admiral shook her head. “Let me show you something.” She nodded at someone off camera. The viewscreen changed to show a bird's-eye view of the sector. Dots replaced ships on the map with blue dots representing EDF ships and red for Mimic spheres. Gray indicated downed vessels which were scattered throughout the map. A mass of blue dots was leaving the fight. At least 50 of them. The red dots far outnumbered blue ones.

  “You ordered a partial retreat?” Meomi asked.

  “No.” Admiral Cananach let slip a laugh. “Those damn privateers have no backbone. The first sign of loss and they’re giving up.”

  “Tell them there’s no place to retreat to,” Whisper said.

  “What do you mean?” asked the Admiral.

  Jonas tapped the comm terminal, relaying a stream from his drones to the Admiral’s screen.

  “This can’t be?” The Admiral’s mouth gaped open as she watched the clips. “Am I looking at Earth? What are all those creatures? How did they get through our planetary defenses?”

  “Yes, Admiral, you’re looking at real-time videos of Earth,” Jonas said. “Hundreds of cities have already fallen under Mimic control.”

  “I… Shut it off,” said the Admiral while gritting her teeth.

  “As you can see, there is nowhere to run,” Whisper said. “We hold the line, or we perish.”

  “You’re proposing I show this to the cowards running away? Or to the brave ones still fighting?” Admiral Cananach fixed her eyes on Jonas. “It won't have the effect you intended. Morale is already at a critical low.”

  “Tell the sailors that help is on the way,” Jonas said.

  “I hope so, Captain,” said the Admiral. “For our sake, and for the sake of humanity.”

  Jonas nodded.

  “And Captain Barick.”

  “Yes, Admiral?”

  “I never believed the stories about you and your brother,” she said with a frown. “Having met Nolan, I felt the stories to be out of character for him.”

  “Thank you, Admiral. I appreciate that. Valor out.” Jonas gestured at Alyana who closed the comm channel.

  “Fighting is always the better option compared to giving up,” Alyana said. “I can’t believe those privateers are running away.”

  “Most people fear death,” Whisper said. “It’s an understandable position. Humans always seem to revel in the idea of war, but few have the stomach to actually wage it.”

  “According to my simulations,” Alyana tapped away on her console while she spoke, “Mimic sphereships will wipe out the EDF in less than five hours. We don’t have a lot of time, Jonas.”

  “I know…” Jonas lifted his chin and took in a deep breath. “The war is happening on three fronts. The Earth Defense Forc
e is fighting the Mimic fleet near Mars. There’s a ground war on Earth. And then there’s Nume. Of the three, we can only affect the outcome of the last one. That is all we focus on and trust our side can hold on in the other battles. Nume and the Guardians are the only things that can win this war for us. Save her, and we save our galaxy. It’s that simple.”

  “We’re out of time,” Meomi said while blinking her eyes rapidly. “I know Nume is important to all of you, but we have hours, not days left.” Her face reddened as she continued. “There isn’t enough time to find her, rescue her, connect her to the Guardians, and meet up with the EDF. That pathway is closed.”

  “What are you proposing we do then?” Alyana asked.

  “The Aorgarians…” The muscles around Meomi’s face twitched. “They are one of the most scientifically advanced species to have ever existed. They’ve spent the collective intellectual capital of an entire generation into finding ways to defeat Mimics. I can’t explain it fully, but I know I need to be at that battle. I know I’ll be able to help. If we could just get to Mars in time…”

  “You don’t understand,” Jonas said while shaking his head. “You haven’t seen what Guardians can do.”

  “I’ve heard the myth,” Meomi said. “But that’s the keyword, isn’t it? Myth.” She rolled her eyes. “You’re going to rely on some ancient anecdote to save the last remaining members of the human species? Some part of me wonders if you want to kill off humanity as revenge for what Fleet did to you.”

  “That’s going too far Meomi,” Alyana jumped in.

  “No, it’s OK, Alyana.” Jonas held up his hands. “You’re not wrong, Captain Hana. I think about vengeance every day. For me. For my crew. For my family. I want to inflict unimaginable amounts of pain and suffering to those that tore my life apart. And until that happens, there will always be this uncontrollable rage burning within me.”