Sisterhood of Suns: Pallas Athena

by Martin Schiller

  The reserve batteries were already giving all that they had, and Bel Lissa nodded grimly, and kept her attention on the helm. Although the JUDI was being subjected to astronomical stresses, there wasn’t much she could do about it. The Hriss fighter was still there, pounding away with its railguns like a demon as they dropped together towards the gas giant’s heart.

  “Depth?” she shouted over yet another pressure alarm.

  Maya gritted her teeth and ignored the ache in her ears long enough to see that they were dropping below their maximum crush depth. “6,800 meters,” she hollered back.

  “Good,” Bel Lissa said. “Not much longer now.” She had an evil grin on her face that Maya didn’t understand. Far below them, another band of clouds was rising up to meet them like a hungry river of pure death, dark and foreboding. Their situation seemed hopeless and the Captain’s attitude was inexplicable.

  Suddenly, the chase ended. The fighter’s reactor reached its absolute limit and failed, leaving only a fiery ball of expanding gases and flying debris to mark where it had once been.

  Now the girl understood the significance of the 6,700 mark and felt a wave of admiration for Bel Lissa. It hadn’t been the JUDI’s limit after all, but their enemy’s.

  They were not out of danger, though. Bel Lissa fought desperately with the JUDI to bring her nose back up and for a long terrible moment, it seemed as if the ship was inexorably locked in its embrace with the gas giant’s gravity. But then, with a roar that resounded through her frame, the merchanter tore free and rose back up towards the upper atmosphere. Tears of relief came to Maya’s eyes as she watched the gases thin, and the stars reappear.

  A hand clapped her on the shoulder. It was Zara. “Well, Maya,” she said, “at least you can’t say that life on the JUDI is boring!”

  All that she could do was laugh right along with her—and savor the fact that she was still alive.

  “It looks like we’re alone for the moment,” Bel Lissa announced. The sensors were finding nothing except a scattering of debris. Someone, possibly the Starr, had been in a fight of their own while the JUDI was being chased.

  “Do you think that’s what’s left of the Starr, or the Hriss?” Zara asked.

  Bel Lissa shook her head. “I’m not sure. But knowing Captain bel Jarra and her crew, my credits say that’s what’s left of a few warriors that tried to jump her while we were down below.”

  No one argued with this conclusion, or wanted to linger in the area to find out one way or the other. Without ceremony, Sarah opened a gate and they transited into Null, en-route back to Ashkele straightaway.

  ***

  It was late at night when they landed, but anything but quiet in the Free City. The streets around the spaceport were choked with the Xee and their associates, conducting their yearly Hey-Hey Festival. Although the Xee actively sought the intervention of their departed ancestors in their daily business transactions, they also believed that harmful spirits could affect their profits through acts of ghostly mischief. For this reason, the community-wide event had a great importance to them; its basic aim was to placate positive occult forces, and banish negative ones.

  But in keeping with everything else that the Xee undertook, the Hey-Hey Festival was also big business, and not as straight forwards as it seemed on the surface. Competing merchants paid the Xee priesthood hefty fees to exorcise their homes and businesses, and equally large bribes to curse their competitors with the same evil spirits.

  Once the intended victim learned about this, often through the agency of the very same priests, additional bribes were paid out to redirect the negative entities back onto their opponent, who did the same, and so on into infinity. Months of bribes and counter bribes tended to precede Hey-Hey and the “winner” of such contests, was the one who paid the most, and won the greatest religious favors. This corrupt, but universally-accepted practice, had made the Xee clergy extremely rich and powerful, and the ceremonies that they conducted during Hey-Hey were lavish and lengthy, if only to give everyone concerned a sense of getting their money’s worth.

  After all the years she had spent living in Ashkele, Maya knew that the event would go on all night, or at least until every corner of the Free City had been ritually cleansed, or cursed. She tried her best to ignore the rough clanging of cymbals and the harsh banging of drums sounding outside the port, and followed her weary crewmembers as they stumbled out of the merchanter together.

  “Well,” Bel Lissa said over the din, “we’re home. Just smell that sweet polluted air!” The woman laughed at her own joke and led the way out of the port and over to an omni. There, she inserted the credit chip that the Hriss had given them and pecked out a sequence on the flatscreen. The machine considered her request, and finding it acceptable, spat out four new credit chips. Bel Lissa put one of these into her flight-suit, and handed a pair over to Zara and Sarah.

  She then turned to Maya and solemnly presented her with the final chip. “Here’s your share, Maya. You earned it back there in Nosferatu.”

  Maya took it from her. “Thank you, Captain.”

  She stepped up to the omni and inserting the chip, read the balance. It was an impressive sum, well beyond anything that she might have earned back on Thermadon running scams or stealing.

  The JUDI might just be something I’ll stay with for a while, she thought. The money was just too good, notwithstanding the fact that she’d nearly lost her life earning it.

  “Congratulations on completing your first real mission with us, Maya,” Zara added, clapping her on the shoulder. “Now, you’re really part of the crew.”

  “That you are,” Bel Lissa agreed. “But you’re still a hatchie and I’ll expect you to spend some of your time from here on out training under Zara, and learning what she knows about the JUDI. I’ll warn you now; it’ll be a steep learning curve.”

  “I’ll look forwards to showing you what the JUDI can do, Maya,” Zara said, “She’s a surprising little ship, she is. I might even be able to teach you a few things that even the Captain here doesn’t know.”

  At that, the group picked up their respective kit bags and walked together towards the entrance to the Free City. “I’m inviting everyone over to the Nulltrekker,” Bel Lissa declared. “The drinks are on me.”

  “Sounds good, Captain,” Zara grinned. “Especially if you’re doing the buying.” The JUDI’s Engineer winked mischievously at her superior.

  “Going to the Nulltrekker’s a little ritual we like to do at the end of a tricky voyage,” Bel Lissa told Maya. “You’ll like the place. Best drinks in the city--and you’ll have to agree that the price is right.”

  ***

  The Nulltrekker catered almost exclusively to the crews of merchanters visiting Ashkele. Most of the bar’s clientèle hailed from the Sisterhood though, and just about everything from the music, to its signs, was in Standard.

  “Your first time in here, girlie?” Zara asked as they stepped inside the darkened interior. “Well, never fear, old Zara will see to it you have a good time.” She guided her over to a table and they sat down. The Captain, Maya noted, did not join them, but worked her way over to another table instead.

  “Isn’t the Captain going to join us?” Maya inquired. She didn’t bother to ask about Sarah, who had parted company with them halfway to the bar. She knew that Zara wouldn’t tell her anything, and she didn’t particularly care either.

  “That she will,” Zara replied, “but the Captain has some business to do beforehand. So, what’ll it be?”

  A holomenu sprang up in the air before them, but even though it was written in Standard, the drinks it offered were completely foreign to Maya. She looked at them with a blank expression. “I have no idea what to order,” she finally confessed.

  “Then let your crewmate pick out something for you,” Zara offered, squinting at the menu. “We’ll want something that’s not too strong. Can’t have you training with a hangover.” Then after a moment, “Yes, that’s just the thing!”
She closed her eyes, and two drinks popped up through the tabletop.

  “The bar here works off your psiever,” she explained, taking one of the glasses for herself. “Mind you, it’s convenient, but after you get a few in you, it can turn out to be a pretty expensive set up.”

  Maya nodded and brought her glass to her nose, examining its contents. The bluish liquid smelled sweet and inviting.

  “It’s a Blue Firefly,” Zara said, sipping at her own drink. “Mines a Red Aalfen. Go ahead, give it a try.”

  Maya took a small taste. The drink proved to be positively delicious and she drank some more, enjoying the warmth that suddenly filled her.

  “Well, do you like it?” Zara asked.

  “Yes, I--,” the girl started to reply. But just then, a tiny blue point of light flew past her face, and she swatted at it, inexplicably missing the thing. Then another mote joined the first and circled her head. She batted at the newcomer, and missed it as well.

  “What are these things?” she asked. The Nulltrekker had the standard airdoors and repeller fields to keep out insectoids, so she was surprised to see them buzzing around their table so freely.

  “What are what?” Zara replied.

  “These bugs! Are they supposed to be here? Is this part of the bar?” In Ashkele, just about anything was possible, and for all Maya knew, the tiny blue lights were actually the owners of the establishment.

  “Ah!” Zara exclaimed, suddenly comprehending her, “I should have warned you. They’re not there, girl. You can give up trying to nail them with your hand.”

  “I’m sorry,” Maya said. “What are you talking about?”

  “They’re designed illusions,” her crewmate responded, gently grabbing her wrist as she brought her hand up for another attack. “Your drink has a drug in it that makes you see them. That’s why it’s called a ‘Blue Firefly.’ Each drink here is named for what it makes the drinker see. It’s sort of a trademark of the Nulltrekker, something they came up with in the last few years, and most of the bars in the Free City have copied it. In fact, I don’t think there’s a bar anywhere in this City where you can just get straight alcohol any more.”

  “If you say so,” Maya retorted. The little fireflies certainly looked real enough to her. But at least the drink was soothing, she decided, although its side effects would take some getting used to. She drank some more, pointedly ignoring the illusions as they continued to orbit around her.

  Zara interrupted her with an elbow in the ribs, and inclined her head towards Bel Lissa’s table. “Well, it looks like the Captain’s guest is here,” the Engineer observed. “You might as well order another drink. Inish will be awhile with this one.”

  ***

  Valeri t’Tina sat down without asking for an invitation. Since she was the OAE Sector Chief for the Xee Protectorate, she didn’t need one.

  “So, Captain,” she began, “I see that Sarah isn’t with you. That’s a disappointment. I’d hoped to speak with both of you together, but, I’m sure she’ll contact us soon enough. I take it that our business with the Hriss went well?”

  “Yes, it did,” Bel Lissa replied. ”We even managed to turn a nice profit. Can I order you a drink?”

  T’Tina thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. “Why not? I’m on duty, but who’s watching? I’ll take something light.”

  Bel Lissa placed her order, and after a moment, it popped up through the table.

  “G’nar’varkka went for the torpedo just like we thought he would,” she said. “I imagine the thing will be duplicated before the end of a week and sent out to every Hriss ship in his clan.” Although it was really Sarah’s place to deliver this news, she knew that the Sisterhood spy didn’t mind hearing it from her.

  “Probably,” T’Tina agreed. “Which will make fighting him a lot easier than it has been. In the meantime, I’ll let you know in advance that we may need you for another mission in a few days. I’ll get in touch with Sarah to discuss the particulars if it gets the go-ahead.”

  “Sounds like the usual fun and games,” Bel Lissa commented, toasting her. “Until next time.”

  The agent drained her glass, and departed.

  When she walked over to join her crewmates, Maya couldn’t help but notice that the Captain had a mischievous grin painted on her face.

  “While we were talking, I ordered her a Green Devil,” Bel Lissa said. “It hits a lot slower than most of the drinks here, but it should give her a night to remember, courtesy of the JUDI. It’s our way of saying thank you for that little run through the gas-giant.”

  Everyone laughed at the prank and wished T’Tina an eventful night in her absence. Then Bel Lissa reached into her flight jacket, and withdrew a tiny box. She passed it across the table to Maya.

  “What’s this? “Maya asked.

  “It’s another thank you, from us to you, Maya.”

  Maya opened it and saw a tiny earring, sporting a golden skull.

  “It’s a badge of honor,” Zara told her. “You’ve made your first run in space as a smuggler, and that shows that you are now a member of a very special group of women.”

  “A very junior member,” Bel Lissa cautioned, “but still a member.”

  “Does this group have a name?” Maya asked. “Or do they just call themselves the ‘specials’?”

  Zara laughed. “They like to call themselves by their old Gaian name, Standardized and modernized of course. They’re the ‘Sisters of the Coast. It’s sort of a loose association of fellow entrepreneurs; we help each other out now and again. Another sister sees that in your ear and they’ll know you’re one of them. It can come in handy.”

  That was when Maya realized that she’d seen Bel Lissa and Zara sporting the little golden skulls in their own ears now and again. They were wearing them just then, in fact. Looking at them closely, she observed that their skulls had little stylized bones under their jaws. Zara’s had one, and Bel Lissa’s, two.

  “One bone for a first mate, and two for the captain, right?” Maya guessed.

  “That’s it,” Bel Lissa nodded.

  “So, is this an Agency thing?” the girl inquired.

  “No, girl,” Zara answered, “think of it as a business association that the JUDI belongs to. It’s nothing the Agency is involved in, although they know all about it. Almost all of the ships in our line of work are part of the Sisters, the Belle Star for one. It makes it a lot easier for everyone to get the goods and services they need.”

  “Well, thank you,” Maya said. “I get a ride through a gas giant, get shot at, earn some credits, and now I get to be part of a secret club too! What a wonderful day!” Her companions laughed with her.

  “One other little thing,” Zara added, tapping her earring with her finger, “Always wear it in your left ear. If you wear it in your right, it warns other sisters that someone is not to be trusted, and to be on their gaurd.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind--sisters,” Maya answered, making certain to put hers on properly. Then she raised her glass, and they returned her salute heartily.

  ***

  Maya rose early, and was waiting for Skylaar when she arrived.

  “May morning’s light find and bless you, Cho-sena,” Skylaar said as she came out onto the lawn. Sarah was following behind her.

  “Today, we will practice our normal drills,” the Nemesian stated, “but before this, I would like you to sit and observe something.”

  Maya bowed and took her place on the grass. “Yes, Sena-tai. I would be honored if you would teach me.”

  “To this point,” Skylaar began, “we have practiced under conditions that are normal to any woman, and this is especially true for Sarah. The reason for this has been simple; in order to properly learn the Art, one must first master its basics by working slowly and precisely. Only then can speed and power be added, for without precision they are nothing.’

  “As you know, Sarah’s reflexes have been augmented bio-electronically, as have mine. We will now engage in
a match using our full abilities, so that you can appreciate the difference in performance.”

  Sarah had mentioned augmentation to her, but without going into any details, and Maya had never followed up on it. Now, not quite certain how these enhancements would influence the sparring session, she waited and watched, her curiosity thoroughly piqued.

  The pair bowed to one another, and stepped back. At a nod from Skylaar, Sarah attacked, and Maya was instantly impressed. The woman had been standing roughly four meters from her teacher, and she had simply vanished. Then, in less than a blink of an eye, she reappeared, suddenly less than a meter away. Before Maya’s jaw could even begin to drop in astonishment, Sarah immediately followed through with a punch aimed directly at Skylaar’s face.

  Skylaar was not overawed in the least, and reacted just as swiftly. In a blur of movement that was almost too fast for Maya to even detect, her teacher blocked the strike and whipped around with her prehensile tail to sweep Sarah off her feet.

  Sarah responded with a backwards roll that was more or less at normal speed, and as she came back up on her feet, vanished again only to re-materialize behind Skylaar. Right away, she moved in and caught Skylaar’s neck in an arm-bar, throwing a punch into her kidneys at the same time. The blow was audible, and although Maya expected to see a display of pain, nothing registered on her teacher’s face.

  Instead, the Nemesian replied with a rear head butt. At the same time, she grasped Sarah’s arm and threw her in a motion that was so rapid that Maya only registered it after Sarah had landed, and returned to her feet. The girl was fairly certain that a forward roll had been involved at some point, but except for a shadowy blur, low to the ground, she had not caught any of it.

  Then Sarah did something that made no apparent sense. Once again, she was about three meters from Skylaar, and shouted as she punched into the empty air with her fist.

  But as useless as the gesture seemed, it had an immediate and inexplicable effect. The air in front of the Nemesian seemed to ripple and flatten itself into a tangible wave, and when the disturbance hit her, Skylaar was tossed backwards. She recovered from the impact by throwing herself into a rearwards roll.