The lift door opened and she was face to face with the woman she’d come to see. Ayan was in her black and silver Admiral’s uniform, looking at a holographic projection that only she could see. Everyone around her only saw a scant haze of light coming from the command and control unit on her left wrist. She stepped out of the elevator and noticed Alice, looking her up and down and nodding. “I see your orders are about to go through.”
“They’re classified above my level,” Alice said. “I don’t know anything, only that I’m out of the Apex Program, and am to await orders.”
“You won’t be disappointed in where you end up if you keep your mind open,” Ayan said. She turned to her entourage. “Go on ahead, I’ll catch up.”
The Major and two Lieutenants accompanying her moved on, leaving Ayan and Alice alone. “Is there an expedition coming together to go after the Revenge?” Alice asked quietly. “Am I part of it? Is that why I’m blacked out?”
“You’re not blacked out,” Ayan said, alarmed. “You remember the trainees who you saw in briefings, the ones who had their hoods up so you never saw their faces? They were blacked out until training completed, you were never blacked out.”
“Who were they?”
“They were all officers from other military organizations, fallen ones. Aucharians, Nodins, and more than a dozen others. Even a few old Vindyne commanders who saw their entire sector fall apart. They volunteered for full memory scans so their loyalty could be verified, it’s a secret program that will fill out the Haven Fleet’s middle ranks while we keep filling Apex and other Officer training programs. They took classes with you and attended briefings while they got their qualifications, cloaked most of the time.”
“Okay, that’s creepy, but I get it. I always wondered why there were so many empty seats around. So, I’m not blacked out, I’m just in the dark.”
“The uniform you’re wearing is only assigned to Special Operations. The Admiralty has decided that you have nothing left to prove in or outside of the classroom. When you’re fully activated, you’ll learn more, and expect to be involved in classified missions, if not right away, soon enough.”
“So, who won the bidding war for me?”
“Lieutenant Commander Robert Terran for Captain Frederick Coran. They were both blacked out officers for a while, qualifying early for a command. Captain Coran is a great commander and has already assumed command of the Eagle, a hybrid Regent Galactic and Haven Shore carrier. The refit isn’t complete, they won’t be ready for a week. I don’t know what your assignment is going to be while the ship is unavailable.”
Alice noticed that they were within a scrambling field, something Ayan must have turned on while they were talking. No one would be able to understand or record what they were saying unless they were within half a metre of them. “What’s the mission?”
“You’re staying close,” Ayan said. “I couldn’t play a part in the decision, but I support their thinking.”
“So there is going to be an expedition to find the Revenge, and I’m not going to be part of it.”
“I’m sorry, Alice,” Ayan said. “You’re capable of being a great asset to a rescue, but everyone knows your head won’t be clear. You could be a danger to yourself, maybe worse. No captain who we were assigning to the expedition was allowed to bid on you.”
“So, you did play a part in deciding to keep me here,” Alice said.
“No, I abstained. There’s nothing I’d rather do than get aboard the Clever Dream with you and go after the Revenge, but I know that would be self-serving, and cooler heads will get the job done better. There is one thing I was able to do for you just minutes ago, by the way. The Clever Dream is yours again. Your new command will require a ship, so I made sure the Clever Dream was put at the top of the upgrade list and that you’d have full ownership and control by the end of the day. The upgrades will take longer than that, but I think you’ll like what we do.”
Hearing that helped. She didn’t normally want Ayan the Admiral, her new biological mother to pull strings for her, but if it got the Clever Dream back, if she got to be with Lewis again, she couldn’t see the harm. It wasn’t enough. The thought of having to stay near the Haven solar system while a whole expedition went after her father and the crew of the Revenge made her want to scream on the spot. Her instincts told her to find a way to go after them, but her services were promised to a higher cause, and she knew there was a lot of work to do in and near the solar system. It was up to her to prove that all the time and effort the fleet spent on her wasn’t wasted. Besides, she knew Ayan loved her father as well, and if she wasn’t pulling every string she had to be a part of the expedition, if she had that kind of restraint, then Alice had to fall in line. “Thank you, Admiral,” she said. “I’ll go where I’m told, do my best on whatever assignment I’m given. Thank you for getting me the Clever Dream.”
“I’m glad I could help a little. I know you’ll put your ship to good use and having Lewis will help you come back in one piece,” Ayan said. “You know I’m always on your side, right? I’ll give you anything I can.”
An update appeared on Alice’s comm unit telling her that she was to report to the War Forge at twelve hundred hours. The directions would take her into the bowels of the massive station, to the end of one of the smaller manufacturing lines. “I know,” Alice said, looking up at her mother. When the framework system that brought her to life the last time was removed, she made the subconscious choice to combine Ayan Anderson’s DNA with her fathers to remake herself one last time. That only made Ayan her biological mother. It made sense, even though it wasn’t entirely likely. Ayan had betrayed Jacob’s heart, breaking their relationship off for months to have a fling with another man. It was something that Alice still didn’t understand, but Ayan and her father were close again, doubtlessly getting back together.
Alice would never forget that Ayan turned away from her father, but that didn’t stop her from liking the woman. Ayan was an accomplished thinker and survivor, two things Alice respected deeply, and she was generally kind. It never seemed forced either; Ayan seemed to have more patience and kindness as she became more successful, something Alice had never seen before. An example of that was right in front of Alice then, as Ayan regarded her with concern. “I know you’ll work for my best interests,” Alice said. “Just don’t pull too many strings, I’d like to do a few things on my own.”
“Don’t worry, after getting you the Clever Dream and pushing it to the top of the refit list, I’m all out of string,” Ayan said. “I’m in your corner anyway. Remember that, okay?”
“I will,” Alice said, stepping into a hug. “Thanks, Mom.”
“I’m proud of you,” Ayan said as they stepped apart.
“I know, thank you,” Alice said. “I’m going to force myself to get some sleep, I didn’t get to bed last night.”
“I have emergency meetings and inspections filling my schedule, but between you and me, I wish I could go back to bed,” Ayan said with a wink. “The Triton is going into the War Forge’s main manufacturing and refit line at eleven. I’ll be meeting Oz then, I’m sure he’d love to see you. I can send a shuttle down to pick you up.”
“That sounds good, I’ll see you then.” The two parted and Alice made her way back to her house, deep within the protected military housing complex in the Haven Jungle. She took her own advice and used a mild dose of medication to force herself to sleep.
Two
The Last Man
* * *
For fourteen days everyone thought Ensign Zac Levine died in the blast that put a hole through the port side of The Revenge. Jake looked through that through-and-through wound more times than he could count as he worked with the rescue crews, interfacing with the bridge from where he was, digging for crewmembers in the rubble. Whatever weapon was used didn’t just cut a hole through their ship, but once it burned through the hull it forced material away from it, widening that wound.
Three hundred and eig
hteen people were dead, and Jake thought they were finished with the rescue effort until that morning. Several meters away from where the medical bay once was, faint life signs were detected. A concentrated scan revealed that it was Ensign Zac Levine, that he was intact inside his sealed suit, and that he was in deep stasis.
Jake led the effort as the crew cut their way to him, and after nearly two hours he saw a fully intact hand clad in a white glove. “We’ll get you out of there, Doc,” Jake said, making a mistake that Zac would have corrected if he were conscious. He was a medical technician, not an actual doctor, but he was the most highly trained medical officer the Revenge had.
They got closer to getting him loose, and that meant that the cutting slowed down, or at least it always seemed that way. Jake worked with his team, helping them cut through a twisted support beam that, from its markings, was from several meters down a hallway that no longer existed.
Everyone was still sealed in their suits, the section they were in was open to space. If any of the rescue team leaned back, they could see through the top and bottom of the ship’s hull. The walls of the standard wormhole they travelled through lensed the stars, turning and stretching the light passing through the threshold.
The support came loose, and the rescue team handed the debris back so it could be handled by the pair of crewmembers who was assigned to salvage whatever they could while they cut and pulled broken pieces of their ship away.
Jake examined the warped deck plates in front of him and compared it to the scans on his heads-up display. “These must have protected him from most of the concussive damage, but they’re not doing anything now.” He said as he concluded that it was safe to pull the metal plates away.
“Hey, guys,” Zac said groggily. “How long was I under?”
“Longer than you expected, I bet,” Jake said. The rescue team stripped enough loose debris away to reveal most of Zac.
He shared his cocoon of metal and plastic with one of his narrow-bodied assistant bots. The pipe-thin body had been bent slightly, and the head was on his chest, still attached. Zac’s hand rested on it as though he was comforting a child.
“Can you move? It’s safe, just start slow.”
“Yeah,” Zac replied, “one sec.” He carefully handed the body and attached head of his robotic assistant to Jake, who passed it back to the next rescuer. “She’s still intact, just in power-saving mode because she got detached from her base, so don’t recycle her.”
“No problem,” Jake said, attaching a tether to Zac’s chest then taking his hands. “Come on out.”
“I’ve got a little stasis fog in the head, but I’ll be good to join in on the rescue effort in a few minutes,” he said as he was gently pulled from the debris.
“You’re our last rescue,” Jake said. “We thought you were dead.”
“Your medical bay is gone, man,” said one of the rescue workers behind Jake. “Sorry. But hey, Nurse Thingy survived,” he said, holding up the stalk and head of Zac’s robotic assistant.
“Careful, she might not have real feelings, but it took me a long time to program her,” Zac said as he gingerly took the robot’s remains from his rescuer. He looked through the hole in the upper hull, then the lower hull and shook his head. “We lost a lot of people. Is there anyone I can help?”
“The survivors are stable,” Jake said. “But they could use someone with a better trained eye. You’re lucky we found you. Rescue efforts ended yesterday, you could have been trapped in there until we got back to Tamber. The transmission systems in your suit were destroyed when you got buried in this mess.”
“Thanks, Captain,” Zac said.
“Thank Stephanie and her people when you get the chance. She had her people do a focused scan so we could figure out how to dig in and get you.”
Three
Swimming in The Dark
* * *
Alice’s rest was cut short when an emergency signal was sent up her am from the small, flexible communications band she wore around her wrist at night. It took effort for her to open her eyes, they felt like old, heavy hangar doors, and she sat up as soon as she read the message. There was a briefing for HF Eagle officers in twenty minutes, at ten o’clock local time. “Holy crap!” she shouted, leaping out of bed and nearly falling on her face as her active blanket was hesitant to let her go. The gift from her biological mother, Ayan, was incredible when you wanted to get to sleep - the thick temperature adjusting blanket embraced the user - but she was discovering that they were difficult to leave in the morning. “Roomie, pour me a breakfast Pep and start the shower. Hot, high pressure!” she told her house artificial intelligence as she popped a denta tab into her mouth and leapt into the hard spray of the shower, chewing and scrubbing. “Call an automated shuttle that’s cleared to go to the War Forge and tell it that I’ll be about three minutes.”
“Right away, Alice. I’ve analyzed your sleep cycle and have determined that you did, indeed get enough rest to function adequately during the day. I have to say that your schedule is in conflict with the hours you kept during the last five days, however. Going forward, you may want to go to bed earlier so you can have a more active morning.”
“Who asked you?” Alice asked before spitting the leftover foam from the denta tab and wiping her mouth. “Is the shuttle coming?”
“An automated shuttle will arrive in two minutes and thirty-three seconds.”
“Bring up a map leading me from where I’ll be docking with the War Forge to the briefing room. Holographic, large size,” she ordered as she pulled her uniform from the cleaning closet and started putting the thin under suit on. “Auto, please.” In response to her request, the fabric stretched over her and sealed up to the neck as she grabbed her jacket from the closet, kicked her boots out so she could step into them and closed it behind. As she pulled the heavy jacket on she memorized the route she’d have to take through the War Forge to get to her briefing, noting that the War Forge’s manufacturing systems were more than half complete, and the rest of the massive station was already host to three fighter squadrons and thousands of new inhabitants. It had already eclipsed the Solar Forge in size five times over.
With her route firmly in mind, she checked herself in a full length mirrored wall in the bathroom and finished straightening her uniform, then quickly brushed her hair. “I need a cut. More like a bob, something easy to manage.”
“That would look good on you, youthful and fun,” Roomie replied.
“I was thinking practical and easy to maintain,” Alice said as she emerged from the bathroom. “Make the bed,” she ordered as she marched through the bedroom.
“Yes, Alice.”
“There you are,” Alice said as she snatched her frosty drink from the kitchen then rushed through the living room, through the broad sliding door and onto the landing pad. With a firm draw on the straw, the thick, green, mint flavoured morning drink made her tongue tingle. Pep was something Iruuk had on his favourites list, and she had it a few times during training, when she felt she was low on energy, but it was her first time having it since she moved down to Tamber.
Half the drink was gone by the time a small armoured shuttle set down. A smooth, uplifting rush of energy replaced the ragged sleepiness that threatened to slow her mind and body down. The shuttle ride to the War Forge was uneventful. Alice sat in the rear seat closest to the passenger door, finishing her drink and looking for anything that may tell her more about her assignment.
There was nothing new about her specifically, but she discovered that the HF Eagle, the ship she would be serving on, had thousands of refugees from the Sol System assigned to it. They arrived while she was in training in a small fleet of freighters and starliners. They were called the Red Alliance, a disbanded group of fighters from Mars and the many stations that orbited the planet. They joined Haven Fleet, were tested, trained and she didn’t notice. It was another event that proved something that Alice suspected for weeks; that Haven Fleet was growing faster tha
n any one person could track.
There was more information about the Sol System, but it was still unverified, so it hadn’t gone public yet. What she could see thanks to her clearance level told her that there was some kind of final attack on Earth. Her heart sank as she viewed a holographic image of the planet shrouded in dark clouds, dressed in oceans that were more brown than blue. It had been rendered unliveable again, and all the evidence pointed to radical groups that once worked to restore the precious world.
Earth was never a place she consciously wanted to visit, not seriously, but seeing that the green and blue jewel, the origin point of her species was in ruins once again was heart rending. Even she knew that it took centuries to restore the planet to a state of balance and good health, she couldn’t imagine the people who did that undid all their own work. Alice hoped that Haven Fleet would fail to verify the image she saw, the longer it took for that news to reach the primary data networks, the better. Knowing that Earth was in such a terrible state again was horrific, it was as though there was less hope in the galaxy.
The shuttle docked with the War Forge and she turned the hologram off. Alice dropped the nearly empty cup of Pep into the recycler and rushed through the station at a march to the briefing room. After spending some time training there, the glossy black and grey walls, the clean dark blue and white floors were unremarkable to her, especially after what she just learned. It took effort to put it from her mind, she could look into it when she wasn’t required to focus on an important briefing.
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