...and they are us Homecoming

by Patrick McClafferty

  “Thank you Arnav.” Behind Zed the name of Arnav Kashyap appeared in one of the spots for engineering. Now there were two names on the list. “Section Heads, you have work to do, while the rest of you should prepare for your departure. Take only what you can carry.”

  The Frigate Boston appeared to be buried under a swarm of flickering construction robots. Already, after only a few days the majority of the battle damage from the first attack on the Creednax had been repaired. Now additional cloaking and shielding projectors were being installed, while on the other side of the ship munitions were being hurriedly loaded. On the far side of the military dock a steady stream of munitions transports deposited their consignments in the Rose and fled back to the dockyard to load more. There was never enough time.

  Zed sat in the Fleet Captain’s office, a place he seldom used, and went over paperwork. “What do you think, LOLA? Does the list make you happy?” He held up the list of volunteers.

  LOLA looked up from a comfortable lounge chair in the corner. “I feel like I’ve just signed their death warrants.”

  Zed gave her a sad smile. “Join the club. It’s one of the benefits of command.”

  “I see why you hate the job. The list however looks good. We have the absolute cream of the crop staying with us.”

  “Do we have sufficient personnel in Engineering and Damage Control?”

  “Yes Zed. Your Section Chiefs know what they’re doing. You have extra personnel in Damage Control.”

  “I see that Mike Flaherty managed to bully his way back into the Weapons Systems Operator position on the Rose.”

  “I believe that he pulled rank, Zed. Thomas Covati who held the position wasn’t very happy, even if he is taking over command of the Boston now. The rest of the Marines from Europa Base have managed to find equivalent positions to man on the Rose. I believe that there were assorted black eyes as the Marines drove their points home.”

  “The Strike Team?”

  “They’re all staying, Zed.”

  “That suits me. Anything more on the second fleet Athena sighted coming our way?”

  “There’s something odd about that fleet, Zed. The ships seem so tightly packed that their image appears to be that of a single huge vessel. Since the Terran sphere, including Dramul and Chamdar have no vessels that size it only leaves a hostile force.”

  Zed shut his eyes. “That’s just perfect. What is the rough estimate on the size of this incoming vessel?”

  “Twenty percent of the size of Callidus, Zed.” LOLA murmured in a small voice.

  “Weapons?”

  “If it was designed as a warship… roughly the same as Callidus. What will we do, Zed?”

  Zed shut his eyes. “Fight I suppose. We don’t have much choice. As a last resort we could ram them with the Rose. That would stop them I think.”

  “Especially if we set our planet-busters to detonate at the same time. This is beginning to sound vaguely similar to our last adventure, except that we don’t have an escape plan this time.”

  The shape of Athena emerged walking through the adjacent wall, turned and locked the office door. “You do realize that whatever the fate of the Rose of the Dawn, you and LOLA will survive.”

  Zed gave the image a long look. “What do you mean?”

  “Olympus is actually a part of The Morrigan project, and it is fully operational. You will survive in Olympus, Zed, as will LOLA.” The smaller AI at Zed’s side let a momentary look of relief wash across her face.

  “I thought it might be something like that.” He said softly. “If I call for the sacrifice of every man and woman on this ship, how can I desert them at the end? Could we find room for them in Olympus?”

  “I’m sorry, Zed. Olympus is strictly a digital domain.”

  “Then how come I can go there, when I have a physical body?”

  “When you are in your corporeal body, your digital persona is held, for want of a better word, in suspension. When you are in your digital persona, using the same technique as when your body is broken down to be transported, your physical body is held in suspension. Your crew have no digital personas to transfer to, and would have to be held in suspension indefinitely, since Callidus and the facility for re-integrating them would no longer exist.”

  “The same would apply to me, wouldn’t it?”

  “Yes and no. Residents of the digital realm have access to certain… physical assets. A physical shell can be created for you as long as it had a digital persona to anchor it. Your crew would have no such digital persona to serve as anchors.”

  “There you are then.” He looked at her a little sadly. “Thanks for the offer, but my place is here, at least until this mess is resolved and I can, in good conscience, turn it over to someone else.” He frowned as he recalled something Athena had just mentioned. “You said that Olympus is a part of The Morrigan project. Has that project been completed then?”

  Athena gave him an unreadable look. “I’m sorry Zed. There is still one major piece of The Morrigan remaining to be assimilated. All I can say is ‘soon.’”

  “No magic rabbits out of the hat to save our asses this time, eh LOLA?”

  “It doesn’t look that way, Zed.”

  “Don’t lose faith quite yet, Zed.” Athena’s look said as clearly as speaking that she had something up her sleeve, but wasn’t revealing her ace.

  “Fine.” He rubbed his aching temples with his fingertips. “How are the munitions coming?”

  “The Rose has a full load and the Boston has all she was scheduled to receive. Callidus might hit eighteen percent in our magazines and energy reserves when the Creednax arrive. We will have 175 programmable scuttling charges available when we need them.”

  Zed raised an eyebrow. “That sounds good. You may have just increased our chances of survival by a couple of percentage points. How did you get the increased numbers?”

  The tall figure looked a little chagrined. “I cancelled repairs on all other Callidus projects. If we fail to win this battle it won’t matter at all if the bathrooms on level 87 of quadrant Epsilon are functioning or not.”

  Zed let out a grim chuckle. “I suppose not.” He glanced over at LOLA. “How is the crew loading going on the Boston?”

  “We should be able to stuff all 387 people aboard one way or another. A good many are going to be berthed in the main hangar. They will only need one dirtside shuttle anyway. The Boston will be ready to depart on time. We will, however, be down to a crew of 100 on the Rose. We haven’t had this few since out first adventure.” She gave him a long look. “The remaining CatTrace Feng is staying, also.”

  Zed got a faraway look. “We had less than fifty on the original crew, if I remember right.”

  “But the old Rose of the Dawn was a much smaller ship. This one is a monster.”

  “I wouldn’t admit that to Cybele. She’ll skin you, but speaking of Cybele. Have you heard anything from her?”

  “No Zed, and that’s another thing that bothers me.”

  He looked down at the papers scattered about his desk. “I’m not accomplishing anything here.” He pushed the papers aside as he stood. “Damn, I miss Kat. We were never physically intimate until after we were married, but I miss her closeness, and her support. Despite that, I’m glad she’s out of harm’s way.”

  Without another word Athena took a step forward and slipped her smooth arm under Zed’s. “We’re all going back to Olympus, right now. I know you haven’t eaten, and man does not survive on coffee alone. If the civilized world hadn’t banned smoking products, you would be sitting here smoking up a storm or…” Her face twisted with mild disgust. “chewing tobacco. Tomorrow construction will be finished on both the Frigate Boston and the Rose of the Dawn. You can spend all day if you wish climbing around them to make sure a robot welder didn’t miss a spot.” Her face was mildly amused at Zed’s penchant for double checking the work of her robots. “Now, however, you will come to Olympus with us for a quick swim and then dinner.”

>   “Ah, I don’t have my swimsuit handy, ladies.”

  Athena gave him a curious look. “Why would you need a swimsuit?”

  Zed took a long look at her lush Frank Frazetta body, and blushed to the roots of his hair. LOLA, on his other side, began to laugh.

  They called it a pool. Zed called it a small lake. Roughly kidney shaped, the ‘pool’ was 75 meters long by 40 meters wide with a towering 15 meter waterfall at one end. At its deepest Zed guessed that it was 8 meters. The water was a clear blue that faded to black at the deepest spot, and once or twice as he swam, he thought that he caught a glimpse of small fish. The air was a comfortable 28 degrees Celsius while the water was only slightly cooler. Currently he lay sprawled on a small island at the far end, letting the warm sunlight melt away his tension as the green grass tickled his stomach and filled his nose with the scent of growing things. The rushing sound of the waterfall was lulling him to sleep. A sound in the water caused him to roll over, just as Athena pulled herself from the pool to lay beside him. He blinked, and his eyes widened.

  “Why do you insist on wearing those, what do you call them… board shorts?”

  He stared at the acres of unclothed skin sitting just millimeters from him. He was very glad he was wearing board shorts, at that particular moment. Her areolae, he noted just before he tore his gaze away, were brownish - pink. He stared instead at the gull circling far overhead. “Ahhh, I wear them for modesty” He said, addressing the gull.

  “My modesty?” Athena asked, frowning.

  “No, mine.”

  There was a gurgle of water on his other side as LOLA slid out of the pool, looking like a small tanned otter. She also was sans clothing, but Zed found the image of her somewhat easier to look at, and much less stimulating than Athena. “Hi Zed!” She lay down on her back with a little sigh, hands behind her head. Her nipples and areolae, Zed noted to his dismay, were very pink. He turned his gaze back to the gull.

  “Hi short stuff. How do you like the water?”

  “Great!” She replied honestly. “Until I came up here I never knew what water could feel like on the skin.” She reached over and cupped a handful of clear water, letting the liquid dribble between her fingers and onto her small flat tummy. “Amazing.”

  Athena stood and stretched luxuriously, and Zed’s breath caught. “I’m hungry. Dinner should be ready now.” She looked over her bare shoulder and grinned at Zed. “I’m cooking this week. No pizza.” His eyes involuntarily followed the sway of her hips.

  “Yeah, I’m so glad.” He replied in a distracted voice. If he had been on Earth he would have suspected Athena of flirting with him, but here… He just didn’t know. The light seemed to sparkle about her body, and she was suddenly clothed in a long flowing white robe. Without another look she stepped out, walking across the water as easily as he might walk across a lawn.

  She stopped and looked back. “Coming?”

  “Yeah.” Zed stood, and with a little concentration was soon garbed as an ancient Greek. It took a few false starts to master walking on water, though. LOLA simply swam ahead and shot out of the water and onto the far edge of the pool fully clothed. She gave him a playful grin.

  They sat on wide low cushions eating from plates and bowls scattered beside them in a room that was all white marble and fluted columns. The low strains of a string quartet filled the dining room with soft music that Zed thought sounded much like Bach, while turmeric filled the air with a vaguely Middle Eastern scent. “This is lamb?” He held up a small sliver of meat in his fingers. Athena, obviously didn’t believe in silverware. He tossed the bit of meat into his mouth and chewed, a look of bliss washing over his face. “This is wonderful!”

  Athena gave him a long look as she brought a small red tomato to her mouth, and bit it in half with her small white teeth. The whole movement was somewhat erotic, Zed thought uncomfortably. “I’m glad you like it. The recipe is Moroccan spiced lamb.” She picked up a small sliver of carrot, stabbed it into a little bowl of thick white yogurt and popped it into her mouth. She shut her eyes momentarily as she chewed. “It is good, isn’t it?” Across from her LOLA was stuffing pieces of lamb and vegetables into a pita roll. That done, she picked up a bowl of yogurt and poured a dollop of yogurt on the mixture, before rolling the whole thing up into a large and sloppy sandwich.

  Zed raised an eyebrow. “A gyro?” LOLA took a massive bite and nodded her head, cheeks bulging like a chipmunk. After dinner the three shared a bottle of light sweet desert wine, before finally calling it a night. Zed, after some consideration, asked Athena where his room was.

  Like the rest of the building and grounds, his suite of rooms bordered on stupendous. A small pool, a mere 5 meters in width graced the far side of his sleeping chamber and was, so Athena told him, simply for bathing. The bed could have slept a dozen. Zed discovered that, without Katherine, it felt bigger and emptier still.

  “Lights off!” He said to the air. The lights dimmed to a blackness that was relieved only by the wan light cast by the sliver of a moon. As tired as he was, it was still a long time before sleep took him.

  “Over there on your left!” Zed called out to Mike Flaherty as they drifted over the repaired hull of the Frigate Boston. Their suit lights created small puddles of illumination in the dark of the dock.

  “If I might interrupt you, gentlemen.” Athena cut in on Zed’s suit com. “I have finally managed to get the interior lights functioning again. Would you like some light?”

  Zed really didn’t know what to expect. “Sure, but let Mike know first. We don’t want to give him a heart attack.”

  “As you wish.” She was silent for several seconds. “Let there be light!” All twelve of the supporting legs of the dodecahedron began glowing like the risen sun.

  “Holy shit!!” Mike whispered over the suit com in something like awe.

  “I couldn’t have said it better, my friend.” Zed could hear com chattering from both the Rose and the Boston. With no warning at all, he mused, it was probably a severe shock to both bridge crews when the lights came back on. “Let’s finish up and get back.”

  “I need to check one more thing.” Mike called as he drifted over the hull of the docked Boston. “Yeah, it’s just as I thought. The welder missed the seam under this last joint. Quadrant Q, weld 824 according to my map.”

  “Have you got that, Athena?”

  “I have that Zed. A human welding team will be sent to correct the job, as you requested. A robot could have done the same, you know.”

  “A robot missed it in the first place.”

  The AI was silent. Zed queued the retraction sequence, and the two men were slowly reeled back into the Rose.

  The crowd in the Bow Wave was subdued Zed thought as he sipped his deep red wine, as it had been for the past week. Groups sat in twos and threes, talking quietly, not looking each other in the eyes. He stared into the blood red liquid in his glass, surprised at how much he missed his young wife.

  “Is not good to drink alone, Zed.” Zed looked up at Dimitri’s glowering face.

  “I’m not.” Zed’s grin was slightly lopsided. “I’m drinking with you. I just didn’t know it yet.”

  The big Russian grunted and sat facing Zed, draping his thick leg unceremoniously over the arm of the chair. He set the half empty bottle of Balkan 176 vodka on the table between them, along with two shot glasses. Picking up the bottle, he gave Zed a long look as he raised a single bushy black eyebrow. Zed shook his head.

  “Ah well.” Dimitri growled, almost smiling. “More for me.” He tossed back a shot of the fiery liquor and winced. “There is a rumor floating around about our chances in the upcoming battle.” He poured another shot. “They don’t sound too good.”

  Zed finished his wine in one long swallow, and reached for the vodka. “LOLA, please tell the man about our chances.”

  There was silence for several seconds. “We have a 50 / 50 chance of survival if everything goes perfectly. The odds of our surviving the e
ncounter drop dramatically if anything at all goes wrong.” The voice of the AI was subdued. “Save the unexpected arrival of the cavalry, in all likelihood Athena will have to initiate the self-destruction of Callidus.”

  Zed tossed back the two fingers of vodka he’d poured into his empty wine glass, and shuddered. “Whoahhh!” He gasped in a rough voice. Setting the empty glass on the table he rose to his shaky feet and looked down at the Security Officer. “Nite Dimitri. I think I’ll try to get back to my quarters before that stuff hits my bloodstream.”

  “Da Kapitan, spokoynoy nochi, good night.” Dimitri stood, picking up his bottle and glass. “I see my friend Chief López on the other side of the room. I’ll go and pester him for a while.”

  Zed watched the Russian stagger off for a moment, and wondered at the change in his crew. Zed took a step forward, picturing his bed in his mind and…

  The morning wasn’t a total disaster. Zed recovered both his equilibrium and his composure by11:00 am. The prior four hours he’d spent praying to Ralph, the great god of the toilet, and trying to hold his splitting head together. He met Dimitri coming out of the Dining Hall, and he chuckled. “You look moderately terrible my friend.” Dimitri’s hands were shaking as if he had the palsy.

  “Da. You should see your own eyes, Kapitan. They look as though they’ve been poached in bacon fat.”

  Zed shuddered. “That vodka should be banned.”

  Dimitri rumbled a chuckle. “It has been. Twice. The last I’d heard it had been classified a Weapon of Mass Destruction, and banned by the U.N. Good and loyal Balkans reopened the factory a week later.” He gave the Fleet Captain a serious look. “What have you heard today?”

  “I make it a point never to talk shop before I have my first cup of coffee, and engage my brain… and then my mouth.”

  “You are a wise man.” He gave Zed a little nod. “I must go. I have unarmed combat training with Larisa in the gym.”

  Zed smiled. “Better you than me.” He turned for breakfast.