Storm Fleet

by Tim Niederriter

  “Guess we’ll see.”

  “It’s annoying, but when a situation changes, sometimes so do we.” Dara shook her head. “Let’s go.”

  Yajain glanced back at Animal 4512. The great spider began to right itself slowly. Yajain followed the others into the narrow passage where they entered the cavern and the creature couldn’t follow.

  They took the passage to the pillar’s exterior where the tumbler waited hanging in the outer arc field. Cold mist hung in the air beyond the pillar’s edge. Where the pillar ended, the abyss began, an infinite distance up and down, only spotted by the shapes of other pillars in the distance, barely visible, despite their vast size, through the thick fog.

  The team’s rough weather tumbler floated in the pillar’s arc field. The tumbler’s sleek shape became jagged with small fins along the sides that moved to keep the tiny vessel stable against the winds of the mist. Yajain and the others activated their arc lifts. They swam through the hazy, bottomless void to reach the tumbler’s open rear hatch.

  Arc fields only extended a short distance from each pillar and made Yajain nervous no matter how used to flying outside the shell she got. She took the grips on the inside of the rear door, then deactivated her lifts and looked back. Without active lifts, the arc field would do nothing to stop the endless fall. She recalled the truth of an old rhyme she had learned as a child.

  Don’t look too long into the mist, you’ll have an age-old problem.

  No matter how long you stare or fall you’ll never find the bottom.

  Thrusters burned. The tumbler soared around the curved side of Ebarrai Pillar and then angled toward the Solnakite’s position, eighty kilometers away. Yajain rode in the tumbler’s cabin across from a viewer. Her poncho, damp with condensation, lay folded in the seat beside her with the disabled set of hunter’s ears clustered on the top.

  She checked the chronometer on her wrist, listening to internal climate systems.

  Fifty kilometers from Solnakite’s position the dense stands of enormous pillars that made up this part of the Abdra Cluster appeared and disappeared in the misty air outside windows of transparent steel. Each pillar could be as small as forty kilometers in diameter but many were far larger. All descended into the mist as far as anyone would ever know and climbed just as high in the opposite direction.

  They held up the universe, according to one popular science program Yajain watched as a child.

  A single solna burned blue as it circled into view around one pillar. Yajain tracked the creature. She’d always been fascinated with solnas and other scanner organisms. The one nearby looked like a burning a blue serpent about a kilometer long, features obscured by its own luminescence, curving around a ghostly white pillar. A fiery aura surrounded the creature, burning a path through the omnipresent mist. Clouds condensed kilometers above the creature, forming a foggy halo.

  The heat from solnas gave life to many animals and plants including humans. Another relic of her mother’s science programs for kids. Yajain may not have become interested in biology and medicine without them.

  Many kilometers from the blue solna, a flock of birds flew as tiny specks in the distance. Outside the arc field of a pillar, without wings, one would fall forever through freezing mist into the bottomless abyss of the universe. Birds never feared that.

  Dara reentered the cabin from the tumbler’s cockpit. Blessed with gentle nuinn features, the lead surveyor made elegance look easy. She fit in among nuinn far better than Yajai, whose Ditari heritage seemed obvious to most.

  Dara’s looks, coupled with her fame as a biologist gave Yajain plenty of reasons to envy her. At fifteen years Yajain’s senior, she had earned the respect of the scientific community. This was not her first long-term survey mission, unlike Yajain.

  The junior team members stopped talking amongst themselves when Dara appeared. Everyone looked in her direction.

  “We’re cleared to dock with Solnakite in a few minutes. Get ready to unload, people. We could receive new orders and I’m not gonna get barked at for being slow. Captains and admirals don’t care about farmers, apparently.”

  The rest of the team exchanged mixed glances. They were all nuinn scientists, and each at least a few years older than Yajain. No matter how slow the team moved, each of them had a safe position thanks to their races and experience.

  For Yajain this survey had been a dream leading her to the frontier. Abdra Cluster was the last expanse at the end of the great Kadarhan Corridor's vast network of paths. Everything beyond this cluster was new, not just to Yajain, but also as-of twenty years ago, to the human race. The settlements in Toraxas Cluster and beyond beckoned as recent colonies in otherwise unexplored space.

  Their survey hung close to making history. Even someone with Yajain’s disadvantages could see a career boost from exploring further. She hoped her chance wasn’t about to be squashed.

  The survey would have to reach beyond the well-known expanses. Four clusters were heavily inhabited beyond Abdra, but all had been settled in the wake of the war. Most of their areas went completely unexplored. Life flourished wherever solna light reached.

  The survey’s mission could be in jeopardy.

  Minutes of speculation set Yajain on edge. Without the facts, there was no telling what just happened. Could another war have begun in the central clusters? An assassination in the imperial family? Anything was possible.

  During the last great war, when Yajain still lived at Kaga with her parents, almost every armed ship from both sides had gone to fight.

  The tumbler inclined its flight path. Dara took the seat across from Yajain. The hum of the engines built as they accelerated through clear air.

  Dara leaned toward her across the aisle.

  “I can tell you’re worried. We’re not giving up on the survey without a fight.”

  Yajain asked, “How much do we know right now?”

  “Not much,” Dara said, “But we’ll find out.”

  In answer, Yajain circled her heart, the old reef dweller sign of making an oath. Dara did the same. Despite sometimes being tactless, and despite Yajain’s envy of her, Dara was her best friend in the explorer fleet. Yajain fastened her seatbelt and chest straps.

  The Imperial Dilinum Ranger, Solnakite, picked up the tumbler on docking lines and guided it into the bay. Being tugged by forty meters of jerky cabling magnetized by electric charge did not make for a comfortable ride. However, it made for the fastest catch the Solnakite could manage outside the arc field surrounding a pillar.

  Every second counted somewhere.

  The tumbler handled rough conditions as well as its specialty required, but the jolt of the cables still nauseated Yajain. She gripped the belts that crossed her seat, staring at her locked hands to and tried not to become sick from the lurching motion.

  Dara spoke to the pilot as Solnakite reeled them in, directing him where to land once they entered the docking bay.

  At eighty meters-long, Solnakite was just a bit smaller than the average Dilinum Ranger deployed with fleets throughout the empire. The ship had enough space for a small crew, a few defensive weapons, and a powerful array of sensors. Rangers were among the smallest fleet vessels to use fabricated cores for power, modeled on the natural ones at the center of each pillar. As a result, they had their own arc fields for lifts to work.

  The presence of arc always came as a relief after being locked to the seat of a tumbler for safety.

  Thunderous air rushed along the length of the tumbler as cables snaked the shuttle into Solnakite’s belly dock. The charge left the cables and the tumbler settled gradually on a curtain of thruster-fired gas until landing. Yajain was grateful for relief from the uneven motion.

  She climbed to her feet and picked up her folded poncho and hunter’s ears as the tumbler’s aft hatch unsealed. The docking ramp lowered and Yajain walked down it. Her sister, Lin was more comfortable with ships than Yajain. When Lin had still had her original legs s
he had also been better at maneuvering with arc lifts.

  Yajain learned more than biology and medicine when she had studied at the academy. She had also made friends with an officer from the fleet program whose father served as senior captain in the survey fleet. Thanks to her, Yajain could have flown the tumbler but preferred having a real pilot at the helm even if it meant not knowing when they would change course.

  Captain Kebrim Ettasil waited in his white uniform with the heavy epaulets each in the shape of the hooked beak of a banner bird. The captain was often pale and tended to sweat, but far more importantly, had solid judgment. He nodded to Yajain as she stepped off the ramp.

  “Doctor Aksari,” he said, “Doctor Merrant said she wanted to talk. I expected as much.”

  “She’s still inside,” Yajain said. “Captain, do you know anything about this emergency yet?”

  “It’s not war.” Ettasil puffed out his cheeks with a breath and sighed. “If it was, we’d be moving the other way. As it is, there has been some sort of disturbance down the corridor to Toraxas. At the moment, I’m not privy to exact details.”

  “Then, where are we headed?”

  Ettasil appraised her with raised eyebrows.

  “Lambri, the transit hub for the corridor to Toraxas Cluster.”

  Yajain raised her eyebrows right back at Ettasil. If the mission was being called off, they should be recalled to the central clusters, not sent out further. Something unusual was going on. Regardless, she might yet get beyond Abdra if she stayed with the fleet.

  Dara marched down the ramp carrying a toolbox in one hand and her cold clothes over one arm. She nodded to Ettasil.

  “Captain, why are we being recalled?”

  “Emergency beyond the Lambri Corridor.” Ettasil touched the comm link plugged into his ear. He waited for a moment, listening to someone on the other end of the wireless. “Follow me, please. Both of you.”

  Dara and Yajain exchanged curious glances, then set down their supplies on one side of the hangar. The captain led them through the ship and up two levels past the core chamber to his office near the bridge. He keyed the door open and let them inside first, then sealed it behind them.

  He rounded his smooth black desk in the center of the bright office and sat down. He motioned for Dara and Yajain to sit. Neither did. His voice came out in another sigh.

  “I’m sorry, but our entire survey fleet is being re-purposed.”

  Yajain’s brow furrowed.

  Dara put her hands on the desk and leaned over it.

  “The Castenlock too? Why? What’s going on?”

  Ettasil looked up at her, noticeably paler than before.

  “It wasn’t anyone’s plan, doctor. Fleet Command contacted Castenlock and informed Captain Gattri that every imperial and alliance ship in Abdra is to report to Lambri for transit to Toraxas. I only heard an hour ago myself. Apparently, a large storm has broken against the outer clusters.”

  Yajain stared at the captain.

  “How large?”

  “Large enough to strike all four outer clusters at once, and hard.” Ettasil pushed a reading pad toward Yajain and Dara. “All the details we know are there.”

  “So if we want to continue the survey, what are our options?” Dara’s gaze intensified on Kebrim.

  Ettasil forced out another breath and paled even more.

  “I don’t know what you can do.”

  “You know damn well, Kebrim,” Dara said.

  “Doctor, I-”

  “You know we can appeal this, and we should. Our survey is vital. You know that too.”

  Ettasil’s brow creased. He folded his hands on top of the desk.

  “Not this time, Dara.”

  Dara deflated slightly at the captain’s tone. Yajain looked at the senior surveyor, found her thoughtful, and then turned to Ettasil.

  “Captain, why are you so certain?”

  “It’s an Imperial Order. I don’t know why, but the Empress personally gene-signed the transmission. She’s sent intelligence agents to join the fleet on our way to Toraxas.”

  Dara slumped down into a chair.

  Yajain’s adrenaline pumped, perhaps another tell she wasn’t fully nuinn. Ditari customs in their own pillars were of protector and challenger, not of governor and citizen but Yajain had never lived among her father’s people. Regardless, people expected a temper from her.

  Only one person never did. Mosam. And he was long gone, along with what peace he had brought her. Yajain kept her eyes on Ettasil’s face. She hoped her expression looked even rather than angry.

  She folded her arms.

  “This isn’t over,” she said. “We’ll have an appeal ready by the time we reach Lambri.”

  Ettasil shook his head.

  “I don’t know how much good it will do, but I’ll do my best to back you.”

  “Thank you, captain,” Dara said stiffly.

  Yajain nodded. Dara’s tone meant she was running low on patience at the moment.

  Ettasil tapped the comm link ear-piece.

  “Bridge? I’m on my way.” The captain stood up from his chair, pushing it back on the roller bolted to the floor. He turned to Yajain and Dara. “We’re already moving. Lambri in twelve hours.”

  The twin yellow solnas of Lambri circled one high above and one far below the settlement. Both shone on the side of the pillar facing Yajain as the lower one appeared through a gap in the cloud cover.

  Lambri Pillar’s brown stone gleamed in wrinkled ruts worn by wind and dust blown from other pillars. The visible part of the pillar descended, three hundred kilometers in diameter and studded with lights and ports until mist covered the view completely. Only the dull gleam of a solna beneath the clouds filtered through.

  Here and there docking arms radiated from passages in the pillar, reaching out like steel tree branches reflecting yellow light from the solna above the settlement. Ships came and went from the docks. The view of the huge explorer Castenlock grew larger and larger before Yajain’s cabin viewer as Solnakite drew nearer.

  Castenlock, flagship of the small survey fleet Yajain joined almost six strands ago departed the center of the empire on an agricultural exploration mission. Now the mission could be at an end. Castenlock’s long shape hung in the invisible arc field of Lambri. Only the total stillness of the ship’s position gave away the presence of the arc supporting it.

  The ship’s hull of reddish metal with steel maneuver fins was dotted with reflective window panes, domes, and silvery sensor pods. Clusters of towers emerged from the ship at four bulges, one every hundred-and-fifty meters back from the helm on a nearly seven-hundred meter-long vessel.

  Yajain rose from her chair, stretching as she walked to the center of her room, lucky to get a full cabin aboard the Solnakite. Space in a ranger like this one always came at a premium. For that reason, even a full cabin stretched only five or six meters across.

  One of her father’s vare blades hung on the wall opposite the bunk, a slender short sword of pale metal with a black grip. Her clothes lay folded on the footlocker at the foot of her bunk. A mirror fixed in a steel frame on the wall above it reflected Yajain’s pale form, as she passed it and picked up the heat suit. She hoped the imperial agents would appreciate practicality over appearance because she didn’t have anything elegant in her locker.

  She dressed in a white shirt, light pants, and a gray jacket. The Solnakite banked and then angled upward toward the Castenlock. Below the huge explorer, the other two rangers from the survey fleet glided in front of Lambri’s gleaming side. Yajain barely glanced at the two smaller ships before turning from the viewer and walking to the door.

  It slid open at her touch of the pressure pad and she stepped out into the corridor that ran along the top deck of the Solnakite. Dara met her halfway down to the tumbler bay, along with other members of the survey team.

  She smiled at Yajain.

  “Ready to debate the finer
points of scientific procedure with some old paranoids?”

  One team member chuckled.

  Yajain shrugged.

  “We can always hope imperial agents will be reasonable.”

  “Oh, we can hope anything we want,” Dara said. “Reality tends to differ.”

  “You’ll do fine. You’ve argued this kind of thing before, right?”

  “A few times. Usually, my appeals work.” Dara winked, then led the way onto the tumbler, where the pilot, a little bandojen man wearing his reddish crustacean-like shell over his flight suit and standing no more than a meter and a half tall, joined them.

  He smiled at the team.

  “Where to, Doctor Merrant?”

  “Castenlock. They’ll have a central dock waiting for us.”

  “Right then. I have a flight path to finalize.” The man bowed his head, doffing his gray flight cap. Then he scuttled off to the cockpit.

  Yajain took her seat with Dara and the tumbler’s door sealed behind them. They shot toward Lambri and Castenlock, leaving Solnakite behind. They only waited a few moments before docking again in a bulbous launch bay on the Castenlock’s midsection.

  A junior bridge officer met them at the dock, told most of the team the schedule of shuttles to Lambri, and then led Dara and through the domed docking chamber to the central corridor of the ship. They flew on their arc lifts down the length of the bustling vessel past small arc movers carrying heavy loads and people through the ship. Here and there, other crew members were performing maintenance, most of them even-featured nuinn or pale, shadowy-eyed kyteps from the central clusters.

  Explorer-class vessels functioned as cities that traveled between pillars.

  Yajain and Dara arrived at the entrance to the forward bridge of the ship, where the junior officer led them into the conference room adjoining it. The conference room was mostly taken up by the broad ring of a black table with a holographic map display in its center. Beyond the table, by a huge window overlooking Lambri’s brown walls, Captain Firio Gattri cast his stooped silhouette against a pane of transplastic.

  The junior officer saluted the captain, then backed his way out of the room.