Theodore opened the inner door and helped her push the cart inside. They closed the hatch behind him and Alice set the pressure to rise a little more than usual. “We can eject him from here?”
“I can make sure he goes out smoothly, and in the right direction,” Lewis replied over the intercom. Manipulator arms slid out of their slots inside the airlock, gripping the stasis tube in the middle, preparing to guide it.
Alice led Theodore and Ayan to the rear hangar door. “Make this transparent if you can,” she asked. She knew the capabilities of smart plating, and that it was possible before the thick metal became so clearly transparent that it looked like it disappeared entirely. “I hate funerals,” she said. “Especially when all the tears have already been cried. I don’t know what to say.” She took in the view for a moment. The Haven Star burned white in the distance. The filters in the plating made it possible to look at it with the naked eye. Loops of fire reached out from the fiery surface of the sun like restless fire serpents before they rejoined the roiling sea of light. “Send him out, Lewis.”
The ship turned, then opened the outer airlock door quickly so the pod escaped with the pressurized air. Guided by the manipulator arms inside, Alice expected it to go directly towards the star. Lewis turned the ship back so they could see the small tube rush towards the Haven System Sun.
Ayan stepped in beside her, linking Alice’s arm in her own. “Talk to him,” she said.
Alice didn’t need any more prompting. “If you were here, I’m sure you’d be one of our best warriors. You’d love this place, Lewis,” she said, half expecting her ship to mistake her.
“I know you don’t mean me, go on,” Lewis said.
Alice cleared her throat and returned her gaze to the diminishing black dot against the backdrop of the white star. “Thank you for saving me. I was a better person thanks to you.”
They watched the dot disappear for several moments before Theodore asked; “May I say something?”
Alice nodded, a tear dropping from her eye. Ayan’s arm went around her, and she was suddenly very happy to have her there. Grief was something she felt keenly before. Lewis’ namesake was a different thing though, she’d worked his loss out over months, many of them spent alone. All she felt at the final admission that there would be no saving him was a sort of overall sadness.
Theodore looked out to the blazing ocean and took a couple steps forward. “There are many words that have eulogized people through the ages, but I only know a few. Some people believe that everything began as energy, then dust. Time passed, and we became as we are; gathered masses of life that we can know and love. We become more than our assembled parts as we enter into the memories of the people we know. Eventually, we pass, leaving our loved ones to remember us. We once again become dust, and long after we are forgotten, the universe remembers. In the final years of its life, suns enlarge, taking us in as fuel before exploding. We, as dust, begin the cycle again. Perhaps some time in a future we can’t imagine, I’ll meet you again, old friend. Perhaps a few of my motes will remember you.’” He turned to Alice then. “I’m sorry, that was a little more scientific than I intended.”
Alice wiped a tear from her cheek. “It was good, thank you.”
The trio watched the container with Lewis’ body inside slowly crossed the no return line, where it burst into flames for an instant before disappearing. “Opaque, please,” Alice said, accepting a self-sterilizing kerchief from Ayan. The rear hangar doors turned black. “You’re really getting better at this mom thing,” Alice said as she wiped her cheeks and nose.
“Thank you,” Ayan said.
The trio retreated to the cockpit of the Clever Dream, where Alice sat in a new, but very similar pilot’s seat. Her hands and eyes reflexively checked their course, speed, scanner summary, system alarm panel and took the controls. “I have control,” she said aloud. That was the new habit, from her Apex training.
“You have control, Alice,” Lewis said.
“I’ve never watched you fly before,” Ayan said. “So much of who you are to me was new before, now it’s like there’s a million things I’d like to learn about you.”
“We’ll make time,” Alice said to Ayan as she slipped into the co-pilot’s seat. “Even with the new systems, everything is laid out where it’s supposed to be. This is great work.”
“Thank you, but it was the Lorander software that took care of most of it.”
“Still, thank you, everything’s still familiar enough for the ship to feel like home. Lewis, plot a seventy minute shakedown course for our fusion thruster systems with Haven Navnet.”
“Proposing several courses now. Receiving our verified flight path,” he replied.
“This is amazing,” Theodore said. “It’s a fusion of manual control and automation. This is a wonderful ship.”
“Thank you,” Lewis replied. “You look quite dapper today.”
“Thank you,” Theodore replied, pleasantly surprised.
“We have a bromance in the making,” Alice laughed.
Ayan couldn’t help but laugh along, and Alice couldn’t help but watch her out of the corner of her eye. There was nothing false or forced about her mirth. She couldn’t remember a moment when she’d seen the woman be anything but genuine. The fusion thrusters engaged, and Lewis offered to take over using a flashing holographic icon. “You have the controls,” Alice said.
“I have the controls,” replied Lewis.
She sat back and looked at Ayan. “What do you want to know?”
“Right now, I’m a little worried, actually,” Ayan’s old style British accent seemed to add more seriousness to the statement. “You have your ship, and I’m sure Haven Fleet will offer you an opportunity for a discharge if they can’t toss you out altogether, which is something many people would block anyway, so you could get out of your contract with them if you wanted. I know you have accumulated a great deal of luxury credits, so you could pay for good housing when you lose your military home, but you could also cash out.”
“I’m not going to take all my luxury credits, turn them in for platinum and leave,” Alice said, a little annoyed at the implication. Theodore sat down at the communications system and watched, his head turning towards one speaker then the next. “I’m with you, Ayan, but Haven Fleet feels untested. I wonder if I can’t do something more important instead of suffering through growing pains with it.”
“We’re trying to turn a rebellion into a structured military so we can use the resources we have properly,” Ayan said. “That’s all. The academy, filling ranks then verifying that we have the right people through qualifications, and finding good commanders is all adding up to that.”
“There’s your first mistake; taking a lot of officers at their word, giving them assignments and then getting them to take their qualification tests. I look at Fleet with what I know now, and I see a glass cannon, or a fresh boxer whose never had a broken nose. One good punch there and he’ll bleed so hard that he’ll paint the mat red then scare himself back into his corner.”
“I always hated that term; glass canon,” Ayan said. “Say you’re right. That doesn’t change the fact that we’re holding a wealth of important technology and we have to protect it or the Order will use it to push across the galaxy. What would you do?”
“We have Freeground Fleet here right now, and experienced Nafalli commanders. Put their ships through the refurbishing line as fast as you can, or train them on our tech and advance people they trust into command positions. Like first officers who have been waiting for a command post on a ship to open up, or much higher ranking people who are willing to take command of a smaller class vessel until they find good captains. They will trust us a lot faster if we use their people to crew the new ships.”
“That’s something I’ve been considering,” Ayan said. “I didn’t think of offering commands to higher ranked officers though, it could work.”
“Put an Apex class on every ship with more than a hundred
crewmembers. Make ten or twenty percent of the crew trainees. That advanced class was too academic. I didn’t get enough time with my cadets or enough exposure to the technology I was studying.”
“Another good idea, though a little risky,” Ayan said.
“You have to push your people harder if you want to be ready for the Order when they come here,” Alice said. “I’ve seen the beginning of an invasion before, and if it weren’t for the Clever Dream, we wouldn’t have gotten out of there in time. If the Order invades like any well directed fleet, then it’ll happen too fast for us.”
“I know,” Ayan said. “Oz and I have been talking about it ever since he got back. He has a dark outlook. I thought he was just mourning at first, but I came around to his thinking. You still haven’t answered my first question though; what do you want? What do you feel you need to do now? I know what it’s like to come through a change and be different. What do you want, now that you’re seeing things differently?”
Alice sat back and looked through the display above her. It was made to look like a cockpit window, but she knew there was a lot of armour and a few subsystems between her and space. The Haven Star was growing distant, they were moving at great speed. Then it came to her. “You’re an admiral, your father is the Defence Minister, and no one would go against both of you, so make me a Captain in your fleet. Full rank, with all the rights, responsibilities and privileges. Give me the right to crew my ship with a team I choose. The last Special Operations Unit fell almost completely apart and most of them didn’t even see combat. Let me form a small unit using the Clever Dream as our ship.”
“I try not to show favouritism,” Ayan said. “People have more faith in the organization that way.”
“There are reasons to make me captain besides my relations,” Alice said with a smirk. “Theo, can you do a search for anyone who has spoken, in person, to an Edxi?”
He turned to the communications station and his fingers started to dance across the controls. “Immediately.”
“Okay, another point; I spent years with Jonas in Freeground Fleet, and I remember most of the journey the First Light took. You want someone who understands our enemy? I know Vindyne, Regent Galactic bought Vindyne. I know how companies like those work inside and out. I’ve been face to face with the Beast and Eve. The biggest reason why I deserve to be Captain is that I was one of the first people to fight this war. I sacrificed my life for it, saving the Triton once, and partially thanks to the Apex program, I have more current training than almost anyone in the fleet. Favouritism? Don’t make me laugh.” Alice crossed her arms and forced herself to stop talking. She didn’t mean to get heated, but her intensity and volume increased as she stated her case aloud.
“No one on the Stellarnet has claimed to meet an Edxi outside of captivity or combat and survived,” Theodore said. “There are encounter logs from people who did not survive, I could play some of them if you like.”
“That’s all right, Theo,” Alice said.
Ayan was enjoying the view above them, a little smile on her lips. “If that paper soldier, Terran, could fail upwards until he was a Commander, then someone with your qualifications should be a Captain. You have to make me a deal, though.”
“What’s that?” Alice said.
“When we discover the location of your father, you will look to the Fleet for your orders. Don’t rush off to rescue him.”
“No deal,” Alice replied calmly. “Sorry, Admiral.”
“I had to try,” Ayan said. “Congratulations, you’re a Captain. I’ll put the filing in when we get back to Haven Shore and you’ll have your rank, and your Special Operations Unit by noon tomorrow.”
“Thank you. You won’t regret it,” Alice said.
“May I apply to be part of your unit?” Theodore asked. “If you still need a doctor.”
“Absolutely, as long as you don’t mind doing communications until we fill the spot.”
“Not at all, can I do anything for you now?”
“Find out where Iruuk is, he’s qualified. I miss him, too.”
“We’re going to have a Nafalli aboard?” Lewis asked. “Interesting. How much do they shed? I can’t find a definitive answer online.”
Forty-Seven
Chief Billy Finn
* * *
Everyone aboard the Nova Concord slept lightly. They made several short wormhole jumps so their exact trajectory couldn’t be tracked, but Finn was keenly aware that the enemy knew their destination. The broadcast had been sent. Captures and scan data of a fleet ready to invade along with the Captain’s report on what they did to delay them. Hiding the Mary artificial intelligence and who unleashed it didn’t seem important anymore.
The Order was after them. They were going to their home, and Finn could feel that realization changing his priorities, keeping him awake. Three of Remmy’s Ranger squad were qualified to watch the engineering deck for any problems, but he walked along the old catwalks surrounding the reactors one more time.
“Can’t sleep?” Captain Valent asked. He wasn’t looking at Finn, but at the three storey tall reactors instead.
“Almost afraid to try, Captain,” Finn replied.
“Everyone’s worried,” Jake said. “I’m worried that I’m getting over it already. I guess I knew it would happen eventually.”
“Can we even defend ourselves if one fleet that size invades the Haven System?” Finn asked. He wouldn’t have spoken to Jake like that before he changed, he realized. There was a lot about the new version of his captain that was different, more approachable. “What if there are two?”
“Or three,” Jake offered. “Or the whole of the Order are coming for us?” Jake leaned on the railing and looked down. “We’ll do our best to win. If that doesn’t work we’ll try to survive. If that doesn’t work, we still win.” He waited a moment before looking up and smiling a little. “It’s Pearl Harbour. That’s what Tamber is. We’ve built our resources on it, put our people there shielded it, and the British even have an outpost on the peninsula closest to our favourite island. They start building next week with our government’s blessing. The Nafalli’s land claim is going to go through, and they’re fighters. Do you know anything about Pearl Harbour?”
“World War One?” Finn asked.
“World War Two,” Jake said. “The Americans were hesitant to join the war against the Axis of Evil but then the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour. From that point on they were dedicated to the fight. Tamber is Pearl Harbour for all those people. The Nafalli who number over a hundred billion as far as we know, the British Alliance, who are concentrating on rebuilding their own territory, and a dozen or so other large and small governments that have stayed out of this so far. If they take Tamber, they kick a hornet’s nest, we’ll make them pay for it dearly, but even worse, they start a fight with everyone who they haven’t already defeated.”
“I’d still rather win,” Finn said.
“Absolutely,” Jake said. “I’ve died enough times to tell you; it always sucks. I’m not doing it again if I can help it.” He pushed off from the railing. “I’m all out of answers for tonight though. Time to finish my walk around the ship, get a good look at her before they feed her to the Solar Forge for raw materials or turn it over to an Aucharian Appreciation Society or something. You should get some rest. Galley’s open if you want something.”
Finn just ate his last chocolate meal bar, so he wasn’t hungry, but he could feel a case of chalk-mouth coming on. “Thank you, Captain,” he said.
“Oh, by the way,” Jake said, mid step. “There’s a request coming your way for Chief Engineer of a new ship called the Merciless. It’s a new design, but I’m pretty sure you’ll master it.”
“Yes, Sir,” Finn said, glad to hear that there was a future for him with Captain Valent. “Thank you, but I have to ask; what about Agameg?”
“I need a new First Officer, so I already sent my crew list for the Merciless with you two at the top. If everyone agrees to join
up, I’ll have my crew.”
“I’m sure he’ll be the first.”
“Actually, Liara was the first,” Jake said. “I think she’s getting a taste for action. Go get some rest, Chief,” he said as he walked off. “And spend a little time out of that armour.”
Finn stood there for a moment, looking at the old reactor in front of him. The transparent section of it made the fire within look green as it swirled in a circle. He would be the only Chief Engineer aboard one of the most watched ships in the fleet. With hurried gestures he looked through his messages and found the schematics for the Merciless. His eyes went wide. It was classified as a heavy destroyer with room for one fighter squadron. Most of the other details weren’t available yet, but they would be when they arrived in the Haven System.
A private message popped up, and he listened. It was Liara. “I couldn’t sleep so I’m in the galley if you want to chat,” she said.
He started walking while he was still looking at his command and control unit, bumping into a railing. “One thing at a time, Billy,” he said to himself. “It would suck if I had to report a long fall, even in this armour.”
He stopped at his temporary quarters and dropped his armour, leaving his vacsuit and basic tools on along with his sidearm on. There were a few platinum pips in his thigh pocket, he was sure he’d be able to get something out of the vending machines they had set up there with that.
The galley wasn’t large, made for thirty or so crewmembers. The lights were low, and Remmy was sitting in a corner with most of his squad. They had snacks and candy piled in the middle of their table like pirate’s booty.
Liara was between the table and the vending machines, and she turned towards him. He didn’t know why, it wasn’t his instinct to do this normally, but he walked directly to her. A warm embrace followed when they met, her arms over his shoulders, a hand slipping up his neck.
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