by Max Dane
“At ease,” said Finn.
He moved to each of them and shook their hand, “That was the bravest rescue, I have ever seen.” He stepped over to Hale, who was holding his broken arm in a sling, “I intend to recognize your extreme acts of valor when we return. I am pleased and honored to have you on this ship, Mr. Hale.”
Turning to face them again, he added, “And you, Mr. Amador, and of course you, Commander. Well done.” He saluted them and then turned to find the girl that had started everything. “Madelyn, who is Madelyn?”
A tall girl, with brown hair and blue eyes, stood up.
“Are you Madelyn?”
She nodded.
“I am Captain Finn Holt, welcome aboard my ship.”
He bent down, and she hugged him fiercely around the neck. Whispering in his ear, she said, “Thank you, Captain; thank you for saving us.”
He held her tightly and stood up, cradling her in his arms.
He glanced over to see Micha, Amador, and Hale still saluting him.
Looking around, he saw the children were doing it, too.
Returning to the bridge, Julian was joined by two engineers and another researcher. Finn walked up to hear what they were saying.
“I believe it will work, sir; we’ll know in about sixty seconds.”
Julian was watching an empty screen intently, the rest all looked over his shoulder. Suddenly, the control interface for the Trumpeting Horse filled the screen. Tentatively, Julian selected the option for navigation and the sub-heading for astronomy. They cheered as data filled the screen.
Clapping loudly, Julian turned around and saw that Finn had joined them. “Captain, we sent a crew over to reattach power to the command center in the shuttle. It’s mostly still intact, and on the chance we could get their piloting or navigational systems running, we tried to boot up their computers.” He pointed to the screen, “Look, Finn, we’re downloading the data now. With this information, we should be able to find our location and add the final cloud path to the model.”
Finn patted him on the shoulder, “Excellent work, Julian.”
Late that night, after Finn had gone to bed, he awoke suddenly to hear a loud knocking on his door. He threw on a robe and went to the door. Opening it, Julian walked past him, “Finn, good, you’re up. I found it, Finn; I found it.” He was very clearly excited about something. Finn sighed and closed the door. Julian sat down at Finn’s table and activated a small holographic projector. Finn joined him as the model of the galaxy began to form. Arrow after arrow materialized representing each path recorded for the harvester clouds. And as each one did, another group of stars would dim. Finally only the constellation of Ursa Minor remained.
Julian paused the animation and looked at Finn, “We found our location, Finn. This system is part of the constellation Andromeda; this star is Almach.” He turned back to the hologram and hit play. The last arrow appeared, and the last stars dimmed, all but one.
“Yildun,” he said in a tone that Finn thought sounded like awe, “The harvesters are trying to return to Yildun.”
“So, that’s where the aliens are?”
“Yes, the resources they’ve harvested are being gathered at that point.”
“So, what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” he said. There’s something about that system we have to emulate. As you said to me once, Finn, that is the safest place in the galaxy. The aliens would have to have some safety measure, an infallible safeguard to prevent the harvesters from taking their worlds as well, something so basic, and so reliable, that it could never fail.”
Finn studied the model, “Before he died, Alex said the answer was in the sun.”
“I don’t think he meant ours,” said Julian, “he must have meant their star.”
Julian repeated it, “The answer is in the sun.”
“Oh my god, I think I get it.”
He jumped up and ran to the door, only briefly hesitating to say, “Thanks, Finn,” before rushing out. Finn walked back through his bedroom, to the shower. Ignoring the time, he thought, ‘I want to see this,’ and hurriedly turned the shower on.
Julian shouted across the lab, “That’s too much, Eric; look at the data. It has to be identical.” The young assistant rubbed his eyes and yawned, “I know; just give me a moment.”
Only a short while ago, he was sleeping very soundly in bed. Now, barely awake and still wearing his sleep clothes, he stumbled to the oscillator. Through blurry eyes, he set the frequency to match the astronomical record of Yildun, a white main-sequence star from the Ursa Minor constellation. Julian was adjusting a transmitter to mimic the photometry of the star. “I have the exact breakdown of elements on file for Yildun. This should be a perfect copy.” As Eric slowly dragged himself from input to input, Julian darted about like a hummingbird, never resting more than a few seconds.
Finn walked in wide-awake and excited to see what had Julian so worked up.
“Hi, Finn, have a seat by the window over there; we’re knocking out the last few details right now.”
Finn nodded and headed over to the window he was pointing at, realizing suddenly that it was the same room where Alex had sacrificed himself, not so very long ago. He was reluctant to look through the window, for fear of seeing Alex’s harvested face, staring back. Refusing to sit down, he said, “Julian, does it have to be this room?”
“I’ve already collected the sand from in there; only the harvesters from Alex’s sample are there now. We need them for the test.”
Finn returned to the window and quickly looked inside. The floor was clean, revealing no remains of either Nath or Alex. Finn relaxed and sat down to wait. In the adjacent lab space, there was a table bearing various components, most of which looked like they had been hastily shoved together. Practically flying between them, Julian said, “Eric, read the last numbers to me.”
“Twenty-two and point one, five, nine.”
Julian cursed, “Useless piece of- ”
He ran to the table, disconnected a piece and threw it, sending it skidding across the floor. “Eric, go take the one from the astronomy team, hurry!”
Without a word, the man left at a quick jog through the far door. Meanwhile, Julian pushed a cart with wheels over next to Finn. “This is an EM transmitter, exactly like the ones we mounted outside. Well, almost exactly, I’m changing it to emit a series of vibrations.” He pointed it at the small sample room.
“Finn, are you familiar with asteroseismology?”
Finn nodded, “Yes, but I only know that it’s a way of identifying stars.”
“That’s right,” he said, adjusting the settings on the transmitter. “You see, every star has a unique, rhythmic pattern of brightening and dimming, triggered by the turbulent rise and fall of hot gases on the star’s surface. These generate vibrations which penetrate deep into the galaxy to become resonating tones that perfectly describe the star's size, composition, and mass.” Julian paused and smiled, “Why, you could almost call it, ‘celestial music’.”
Running back to retrieve a power supply, Julian returned a moment later. “We’re going to use the same concept we used to mask the ship with the EM signature of Hydrogen, but this time we’re going to replicate the stellar sound waves of Yildun.”
Just then Eric returned carrying a new component, “They’re going to be upset when they find this missing.” Julian ran over to him and took it, “After what you and I do here, it won’t matter.”
Quickly, he plugged it into place and adjusted the output. Then he stood back, studying the arrangement briefly before walking to the window next to Finn, “Maybe you should cross your fingers.”
Finn nervously watched as Julian looked back to his assistant, “Eric, please begin the transmission.”
“Transmitting in three, two, one, now.”
Inside the room, it looked as if nothing was happening. But then, little by little, in the very center of the room, a bit of gas began to form. Visible against the white w
all behind, Finn could definitely make out something, a greenish, brown vapor. Julian jumped up and down clapping. “Finn, come here,” and he ran to a monitor in the adjacent room. “They’re doing it, look!”
Finn wanted to be excited but wasn’t sure what was happening.
“A little help, Julian?”
“Yes, of course; look here, this readout indicates that the gas in the sample room is a mixture of several elements.”
Finn read the list on the screen, Calcium, Phosphorous, Magnesium, Sodium, Potassium, Chlorine, Sulfur, and several more.
“Finn, these are the elements found naturally in the human body.”
“I’m sorry, Julian, but I still don’t understand.”
“These are the harvesters that killed Nath and Alex. They harvested these atoms from both of them. By transmitting the stellar sound waves of Yildun, we have triggered their response. They think they’re home, Finn. They’ve just released their cargo.”
“The stolen atoms?”
“Yes!” Julian ran to another monitor, “Alex was right, don’t you see, Finn? He surmised that the only constant in a solar system is the star. Everything else can change, the planets, the moons, the gasses, everything, but not the star, not until the day it dies. The only truly infallible protection would be to make the harvesters recognize their home star.”
Julian stopped cold, “Oh my, look at this.”
Finn and Eric walked over to look at his screen. It was the display of the actual harvesters through the microscope array. Finn could see that after each one released its atom, it stopped moving and fell apart.
“They’re dying,” said Finn.
“Well, technically they’re disintegrating. They were never truly alive, but the effect is the same.”
“Julian, you did it!” Finn hugged him and swung him around. “I don’t believe it, Julian. You did it!”
“Back home, they can build ships and satellites designed to transmit this on a much grander scale,” said Julian.
“We have to tell them.”
Finn hugged him again, “Oh, Julian, you did it!”
“WE did it, we all did it. But the man I think deserves the most credit is, Alex.”
“To Alex Stiles, the man who beat the scourge!” They toasted from a bottle Finn had been saving from a victory on the Ajax, years ago. The bridge was filled with officers and crew, and even the children. A huge clamor for victory swelled from the bridge all the way through engineering. Everywhere, in every room and corridor, the crew of the Athena Rising celebrated.
Finn handed Keating a glass and filled it to the top.
“When you’re ready, Mr. Keating, take us home.”
Chapter 12
Fire is the origin of stone. By working the stone with heat, I am returning it to its source.
- Andy Goldsworthy
The trip home was uneventful. The dissident warships in Bunda posed no threat, floating dead in space, almost certainly consumed by the harvesters. Happy not to have another fight on his hands, Finn didn’t stop to check. Time had become the enemy; he needed to stop the people at home from burning the infected star systems. By now they would have prepared the bombs and were probably loading them up for use. In theory, they would wait until the Athena returned, until the mission reported back. But fear was the dominant force across the League, so the Athena Rising raced at full speed, all the way home.
During the trip, Julian reprogrammed the EM mask to transmit the stellar signature of Yildun. Reports showed, that in every system they passed, the harvesters in range of the Athena’s transmissions were releasing the stolen matter and disintegrating. Everywhere they flew, they left a path free of the harvesters in their wake. For the first time since he left in the Ajax to escort Dr. Layton, he felt good; there was hope. ‘Alex would’ve enjoyed the ride home,’ he thought.
Micha spent more time in the medical bay with the children of the dissidents, than she did on the bridge. He didn’t complain. She found peace in their survival; their lives obscured the death and horror that brought her here.
Julian spent the rest of the trip preparing his data for the authorities, both the Science Council and the Fleet Admiral. It began as a joint effort between the two, and he was determined to share the success as a common victory.
When they finally reached Canis Major, the Athena Rising once again met the blockade, commanded by his friend, Ben. Barring the way, the great ship, Shiva, hailed them, “Captain Holt, please hold position for Fleet Commander Hollister.”
Seconds later, Ben’s face was on the screen, looking stern, strained. Finn thought he’d never seen such anguish in his friend. “Finn, you know the protocol; I can’t let that ship pass. You are considered to be contaminated, and therefore a threat to the League of Worlds.”
“Ben, you sound terrible. What’s happened since we left?”
“Levant fell, and Pyxis is showing signs of infection. Now there’s a second blockade protecting New Brazil over on the other side. Finn, Mary is trapped in the colony at Pyxis.”
Mary was his daughter; Finn hadn’t seen her in years.
“I understand, Ben; we’re holding position. Listen, Ben, we did it. Our mission was successful. We beat them, and we can tell you how, tell everyone how.”
Ben’s eyes welled up, “Finn, are you sure?”
Finn looked over at Julian, “Dr. Yates, please begin transmission of our data.”
Turning back to Ben, he stood up and walked to the screen, “Ben, we are transmitting the technique for eradicating the scourge. We’re also sending a design for building the necessary hardware. You have to get this information to the authorities as fast as you can. You can save the people at Pyxis; you can save Mary, Ben.”
“We’re receiving your data now. I have to go, Finn. Please wait here while I take this back to Fleet. I’m taking it myself. I’ll see you when I get back.”
Finn nodded, and the screen returned to the forward view. He watched as the Shiva turned around and raced off, leaving him with the rest of the blockade. Julian walked over next to him, “I think things are to going get very busy, very quickly, Captain Holt.”
“I think you’re right, Doctor Yates; I do indeed.”
The days passed quickly after that. The colony in Pyxis was saved, the first of many victories. Fleet ships bearing huge transmitters recovered system after system. The League rejoiced and knew peace for the first time since it all began. At last, the Athena was approved to return home, and Finn and the crew were welcomed as heroes. Along with Micha, Julian, and the rest of the crew, Finn was honored and celebrated in every corner of the League. And the name of his ship, the Athena Rising was quickly known by children everywhere, as they told stories of the mighty ship that had saved them all. At one particular dinner, Finn was given a toy, a model of the Athena. He laughed when he saw that it had bigger engines and a lot of missiles. With a grin, he nodded and said it was it was just like the real thing.
Eventually, he was able to arrange the memorial for Alex. As a field appointed officer, he merited recognition from the Fleet Headquarters. And although Alex only served for a short time, the acknowledgment for his sacrifice was appropriate. Finn thought he would have approved. Standing three meters high and carved from obsidian, the marker read, ‘Dr. Alex Stiles, the Impossible Man, who saved us all. May your conscience finally be at peace.’
The celebrations slowed, and the time together began to diminish as Julian was called away to affairs in the Science Council, and his crew enjoyed their leave. Micha returned home, leaving Finn alone in the Fleet Headquarters at Earth. His calls to Jacob Radke had gone unanswered for nearly a month.
Until today.
“Captain Finn Holt,” said the Rear Admiral, as he met Finn in one of the many strategic planning rooms of the Fleet Headquarters.
Finn walked quickly, grinning and bypassing the Rear Admiral’s outstretched hand. Grabbing him about the shoulders, Finn hugged him, “It’s very good to see you, Jacob; I was afr
aid something had happened when you didn’t return my calls.”
“I’m fine. I’ve been called away, but I’m back now. Congratulations on an excellent mission. You did it, Finn, and we are all grateful.”
Finn, still grinning broadly stepped back and shook his hand. “Thank you, Sir, it was quite an adventure.”
“I read the logs, Captain. There were a lot of unorthodox moves out there, in the face of some unbelievable circumstances. You did well, Finn, and I’m proud of you.”
“Thank you, Jacob.” Together, they walked to a large picture window that looked out over the Earth below. “How are you faring? With all of the parties and celebrations, I mean.”
“Well, all of that has mostly ended, Jacob; honestly, I’ve been feeling a little lost lately. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do next.”
Jacob smiled at him, “Yes, well, since you report to me, I suppose I should give you an order or a directive, something like that, yes?”
Finn didn’t know how to respond.
Standing there feeling very confused, he said, “Yes, Sir?”
Jacob laughed. “I think I should give you a choice, Finn. For all that you have done to prove yourself, I think you should decide your next move. I can tell you that the Fleet has lost a lot of ships during this disaster. The Admiral himself suggested that I should promote you to Fleet Commander and build you a big, new battleship to fly around in. You would be an icon of the Fleet, the officer who faced impossible odds and won. Frankly, it’s not a bad idea.”