by R. M. Miller
“Yes Harvest Master, at once.” the sexless aide replied nearly abasing itself as it backed towards the hatchway. The Harvest Master grunts then returned to watching the living world rotating towards a new day, a day which would be hatched in ashes as the world was bathed in atomic fire.
******
The two leviathan harvesting ships slowly gather speed as they head for the systems hyper limit, the three hunter ships accelerate faster but circle to ensure their ponderous charges safety. Behind them a once living world is broken and scarred, seas boiled away, and lava covering the lands beneath a molten blanket of red and black.
******
“Harvest Master, the Processing Master requests a boon of your time.” the sexless aide is no longer almost abasing itself but firmly trying to become one with the deck plate, a wise decision in the Harvest Master's opinion.
“Very well send him in, although I doubt I will be pleased with what he has to say.” Harvest Master briefly considered terminating the drone, but it was at least better trained than his last aide and it was unlikely he would be able to gain a replacement in the near future.
“Harvest Master” Processing Master nearly crawled from the hatchway to his lounge “I regret to inform you that over two in three of the new ship-minds are flawed, a genetic issue we did not anticipate.”
“Explain this 'Genetic' issue, if I am pleased I will not have you stripped of rank and turned into a pilot caste.”
“The new ship-minds all register on our instruments as being gifted, but only a third of them are actual mind readers. The others are some other kind of mind-gifted, experiments have shown some of them are able to move objects with out touching them, others seem to read emotions.”
“Can they be used as ship-minds?”
“No, Harvest Master. The machines can integrate with them easily but the test pilots are unable to establish a connection capable of hyperspace navigation.”
“Terminate the defects, we have no use for them. The others are viable though?”
“Yes Harvest Master. In fact the few that have finished processing seem to work even better as ship-minds than the previous species on record. Their biological functions integrate to a greater degree to the machine interface, and it seems their species at one time evolved for co-operative low level telepathic communications. It seems the telepathy is a recessive trait from a distant predecessor, in essence they are designed to work in groups all telepathically linked.”
“Very well, we will reach the ship nursery ten days from now. Ensure the programming on our newest ship-minds is capable of handling the new capital class war ship.” the Harvest Master waived his lucky subordinate back to his duties, after all a new species of ship-mind always had the risk of new problems.
New Eden System, 2915 A.D
The two massive harvest ships and their three smaller guardians reach the edge of the New Eden star system, one after another they transition into the color filled chaos of hyperspace leaving behind a dead system. Every bit of infrastructure that had supported the sentient species on the second planet has been obliterated, the planet itself bathed in atomic fire until its crust has cracked open and poured searing hot lava across its decimated surface.
Somewhere in SubSpace, 2915 A.D
A small emergency message drone continues its five year subspace journey back to the Sol System carrying a no longer urgent message. No longer urgent yet still important, the question humanity had been asking for thousands of years had finally been answered. Humans were not alone in the galaxy...unfortunately.
Chapter 2
Holding Pens, Harvest Command Ship, HyperSpace, 2915 A.D
Tara regained consciousness in a cell of bare gray walls, diffuse light she was alone and still covered in blood. She didn't even know what time it was, her com-bracelet was still in her bedroom somewhere and Ty's had been destroyed when she was captured. She gathered her knees to her chest hugging them tightly with her arms and whimpered as the reality of her situation came crashing down on her. Ty was dead the thought echoed through her head with the accompanying image of his corpse, laying in the spreading pool of blood she could even smell the sharp coppery scent. That thought made her realize that she could in fact smell blood. Not the old dried blood flaking from her fur, but new fresh blood welling from underneath her claws that she had dug into her own flesh during the horrific image flashback. The small pain of pulling her claws slowly from her flesh focused her mind on the here and now, if she didn't do something to keep her mind occupied she would fall back into the dark pit of despair that loomed beneath her. She decided to focus on trying to find out where she was and maybe figuring out how to get else where. Her cell seemed to be a solid metal box the only opening a small grill set into the middle of its ceiling, faintly she could hear voices through the vent. With extreme caution she lowered her mental barriers searching for other Felden who might be nearby, what she found was static. It was unlike anything she had ever encountered, she could vaguely feel other telepathic Felden beyond the static but she couldn't contact them. She struggled to stand for few minutes before she managed to reach her feet, one hand braced against the wall to maintain her balance. It was obvious and painful where the static was coming from as she yanked her hand away from the wall, on second thought if the wall was emanating the static there was a good chance that the source machine was somewhere inside of the wall. The best part of being a minor Telekinetic was being able to trace wiring to find the breaks, it had made her after school job, a computer repair technician, easier. It was something the more powerful Telekinetics couldn't do, they had a tendency to break the delicate things they tried to work on. The static was a minor distraction, the pain caused by touching the wall was a major one as she slid her hands across the wall in a grid pattern trying to isolate the point of origin. After a excruciating period of time after starting she finally found the blasted thing embedded not in the wall as she originally expected but buried in the middle of the floor.
“Stupid machine, I have a headache from hell now.” She growled to herself panting slightly from the mental strain and physical pain. Grimacing from the effects of the machine she placed her hand on the exact spot of floor which was directly above the machine, it was a rather simple device with a single line for power input and tentacles that sent the output into the walls and ceiling. The single power input was the weakness of the system, she smiled as she delicately disconnected that power line. The static stopped, leaving her in blissful mental silence. She could of course have just shielded the static out but it would have been like choosing to close her eye's against the glare of the sun rather than wearing sunglasses. Besides it was a refuge from the yawning abyss of emotional trauma waiting to suck her back into huddling impotence. Taking a deep breathe she once again reached out to the others, they still had their machines interfering but she was able to punch through the static to the person in the cell to her right.
Hello? Can you hear me? It was the equivalent to a mental shout, necessary but not pleasant given her headache.
Who are you? What's going on? the velvety soft mental voice was vaguely familiar, it took her a moment to place it.
I was the one who told you the aliens were attacking as to what is going on? To be truthful I have no idea, are you by chance also a Telekinetic? it was a slender chance since even if he was it was very unlikely he could do what she had done.
No, I'm a single talent. All I have is Telepathy, a middling level talent.
Damn, I was hoping you could manage to disable your cell's jamming device. I'm going to try to figure out what is going on. Even with the device creating the static disabled in my cell it takes everything I have just to talk to one person at a time. a tiny drop of blood hitting her chest breaks her concentration for a moment, she knew she was pushing her talent to far. That was the downside to a powerful mental talent if pushed beyond the individual limits of endurance, someone would be scrapping brains off the walls with a spatula before too long.
Use care my lady, what ever these alien monsters have planned does not seem to be in our best interest. His mental voice was a bare whisper as she started to move her attention to another cell nearby the name is Hunt by the way, Kevin Hunt.
Tara Carter, I would say pleasant to meet you but given the circumstances. her reply happened as the last velvet touch faded to nothing. She her legs folded underneath her leaving her slumped against the wall panting. She jerked away from the wall remembering how painful it had been to touch before realizing it wasn't anymore, then she leaned against it grateful for its support while she reached out for the telepath to her left. Hello? Can you hear me?
Yes the mind had a refined edge and a definite feminine color and was very strong.
Do you have a Telekinetic talent? If you do, you can break the jammer. Tara relayed the mental image she had made of the thrice be damned jamming device.
Interesting, yes I see what your getting at here. A moment please while I handle the device. Tara waited patiently using the opportunity to take a much needed break. Ah much better, thank you. My name is Rose, Rose Mcdaniel.
Tara Carter at your service. The wall behind Tara disappeared so suddenly she ended up on her back looking up at a trio of aliens, two of them were in armor but the third was wearing what could have been termed normal clothing if not in a style or coloration she had ever seen before. I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut our conversation short Rose, our hosts seem to have decided to visit me.
Well good luck dear, I do hope to hear from you again. I'll try to pass your discovery along. Rose replied gently, she plainly didn't expect that she would ever hear from Tara again but was to polite to say it. The two armored aliens picked Tara up as the third pointed some kind of device at her. It regarded the results briefly then stepped closer raising a hand to touch the trickle of blood from her nose, as its three fingered hand touched her face Tara did what every Telepath swore never to do. She ripped every memory, every thought, every nuance of the aliens life away, in a single breath she mind raped it leaving nothing behind. She immediately regretted doing it, because in her condition she couldn't control the flow of memories if it was even possible to do in the first place. It was like a tsunami wave, she was lost in the information overload unable to process the memories fast enough to escape from it. The blow to the back of her head didn't stop that massive wave, it just brought it crashing down on her that much faster.
******
“The technician is not coming around.” The younger of the two guardians hissed, his partner was securing the new ship-mind to prevent having to damage it further.
“The senior technician for this shift will arrive shortly.” They both looked at the furred ship-mind it seemed to be completely unconscious, they had to hope it remained that way at least until the senior technician arrived.
“What is this? What has happened to this Technician?” The Senior Technician demanded shrilly.
“Senior Technician, this lowly guardian can only tell you that the Technician demanded we accompany him as he searched for an anomaly. His instrumentation led us to this cell, he said the blocking device was dysfunctional. He also seemed very excited by his readings from this unfinished ship-mind. He reached for the ship-mind then they both stiffened and the Technician fell, we subdued the ship-mind and called for you.” The elder Guardian explained as the Senior Technician reached for the dropped scanner.
“These readings must be wrong. We have never recorded a ship-mind with this much strength in our entire history.” the Senior Technician pulled her own scanner out to check the limp ship-mind. “This is ridiculous! You lesser guardian! Stay here with this Technician until the lesser Medic arrives. Guardian you will carry this ship-mind to the fifth processing station, you will remain there until I am satisfied that it is properly integrated to its pod.” Senior Technician was both excited and scared, a ship-mind of this strength was unheard of. If it integrated as well as its lesser brethren it would be a prime candidate for the experimental ship being grown at the nursery they were headed to, the ship wasn't ready to be cut free but it was advanced enough in its growth for a ship-mind to be introduced. Recent theory of ship-mind integration suggested that an early connection, one prior to the ship being cut free, created a tighter bonding. The processing station was prepared with a fresh pod and her assistants were ready with the life support and brain shunts. Once they arrived at the processing station, she shoved her unruly emotions aside to focus on the operation at hand. It was not very often that she prepared a new ship-mind personally anymore but this was a special case. The Guardian placed the ship-mind into its pod, Senior Technician and her assistants moved in to tie the ship-mind to the organic machine that would keep it alive, more importantly the machine that would provide them control over it.
******
Tara was floating, she had finally managed to subdue the alien memories and now she floated on their surface resting. She dipped into the earliest of the memories, being in a tight confined space then fighting to break out. The world broke as he kicked and struggled against the hard walls that split suddenly spilling him out of the tight wet darkness onto a hot gritty surface bathed in eye searing light. The aliens hatched from eggs, she felt an idle sense of interest, grasping for a memory further on. The room was filled with the smaller versions of the unarmored alien, a voice dictated in a language that was almost understandable. She skimmed other memories trying to find more information, she found one where the alien was assisting in its first processing. The body in the capsule was neither one of the aliens nor a Felden, it was short a bright orange colored alien that had six limbs, two sets of arms and a set of legs. She watched as the aliens surrounded the creature inside the capsule and began inserting machinery into it, it became painfully apparent that the goal was to make the smaller alien dependent upon the organic like machinery to live. It was the last insertion that caused her to loose her grip on the memory, they had cut the connection between the brain and the body, connecting the brain directly to the pod in an unnatural binding. Why? What were they doing with the finished... she was unsure what to call it really, product she supposed was the best identifier. Frantic she searched the remaining memories for what happened next, finally near the very end she found what she was looking for. She watched through the aliens eye's as he stared out a window into a shadowy monstrous garden, it took her a long time to realize that the garden was growing in outer space. As the memory unfolded she found herself in awe of the enormity of the unnatural growth, the alien focused on a single pod among many others the same size. She sensed the aliens excitement, he was finally a full fledged Technician, he had a Name and this integration would cement his place in the Ship-Medical Caste. Tara skipped to a point farther along the memory track, the alien was inside a ship he floated in the micro-gravity helping guide a closed pod into a cradle that was obviously meant to hold it. He carefully inserted the nutrient feed from the ship to the pod, others would take care of the sensory and computer connections. A Pilot slid into its chair, not all pilots were drones but this one was, the jack in the back of its skull caused him to shudder. Pilots were the lowest of castes, their bodies contaminated with machines that allowed them to control their ships but that binding also contaminated their minds as they had direct mental contact with the alien ship-minds. The final connection was made and the ship drew the pod tightly into its cradle the surface clearing to show the ship-mind floating in its life support fluid. The ship shuddered as it came fully awake, artificial gravity engaged bringing the Technician to the floor slowly. Tara let the memory flow back into the ocean below her, she knew now, she knew why the aliens had come for her people. They needed new minds to control their ships, semi-organic ships that could travel enormously long distances in a very short amount of time. But the question was why? Why did they need so many ships? She ran idle fingers through the memories, finally one showed her what she wanted to know. They were fighting a war, had been fighting one for a very long time, ag
ainst the orange aliens people. They had run out of known places to harvest the needed ship-minds and so they had sent out scouts to find them a new supply. Unfortunately they had found New Eden, the last view she had of her home world was through the alien's eyes as he watched the cleansers engage burning it to a lifeless cinder. Floating on a sea of alien memories Tara slipped into a fitful sleep, alien memories haunting her dreams as they finished integrating into her mind.
******
Senior Technician finished the final linkage herself, ensuring the neural interface was properly seated before triggering the integration protocols. Slender half organic filaments slipped into the unconscious ship-mind, they tied into the biological functions of the ship-mind taking over many of those functions themselves. The Neural shunt drove its filaments into the brain of the ship-mind, tying into every aspect, and very carefully placing the conscious portion of that mind into a quiescent slumber. As the ship-mind finished integration with its pod, Senior Technician initiated a quick diagnostic. A single aspect was flagged, it had happened with all of the new ship-minds so far integrated, they all showed much more neural activity while quiescent than any of the previous ship-mind species. Idly she wondered what was causing the activity, but since it did not seem to interfere with the control of the ship-mind she wasn't worried. She stepped back as the pod closed sealing into a seamless whole, support technicians slid the ship-mind into a mobile support device clearing the station for the next operation.