by M. D. Cooper
Jessica watched her daughter reach out and shake Cheeky’s hand.
“I remember from the introductions,” Cheeky said with a smile.
“Rare,” Tanis said with a wink. “Most people glaze over pretty fast once they get halfway down the line. But Moms and Dad always did say that you had a keen eye.”
“That’s me,” Cheeky said with a laugh. “Keen-eyed Cheeky, gotta have it to fly Sabrina.”
“I have to say,” Tanis said around a bite of her own burger. “The fact that Sabrina is right over there, arm wrestling Troy, while she’s your ship, is more than a little confusing.”
Cheeky shrugged. “It can be, but you get used to it. Most of the time, if we’re talking about ‘Sabrina’ we’re talking about both the AI and the ship—or she thinks we are, which is about the same thing.”
“What was that?” Sabrina called out. “These ears are weird. I can’t hear everything all at once. Do you need me for something?”
“As you were, Sabs,” Cheeky called out. “Show those kids how it’s done.”
“You got it, Cheeks,” Sabrina called back before turning to Misha. “Mish, where are you with that salad? I want to finally taste your cooking.”
Jessica grinned as Sabrina’s spikey black hair jerked back and forth as she turned back to her bout with Troy.
“I can’t believe you all came to visit,” Jessica said.
“Well,” Cheeky said around a mouthful of burger. “Everyone except for Finaeus—who has been acting a bit weird lately.”
Cargo snorted from where he sat on Jessica’s left, and Cheeky shot him a look. “What?”
“Nothing,” Cargo said, rubbing his nose, “Just got a bit of cinnamon from the bun in my nose. I’m OK.”
Jessica wondered what that was about, but decided not to turn over any stones until later. Instead she asked, “Why didn’t Finaeus come into The Dream?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Something like ‘I won’t have any half-ascended pseudo AI jamming me into its false reality to alter my mental structure however it pleases.’,” Cheeky said, making her voice sound gruff and grumpy.
“He’ll be sorry he missed the spread,” Cargo said.
“Don’t forget the part where he said that he’d give us all brain scans when we get out,” Nance added from the next table over.
“Oh, yeah, that too,” Cheeky said with a nod. “Like I said, he’s been weird.”
Jessica shook her head. “Sounds pretty normal to me.”
“So, twenty-six—” Cargo began to ask before he was interrupted by Trevor calling out, “Who wants a second burger? Iris, do we have more buns?”
“Yes,” Iris replied with a wink and pointed at Cheeky. “Will hers do?”
“What?” Cheeky asked. “Since when did you grow a sense of humor, Iris?”
Iris grinned and high-fived Amanda. “You can’t have all these kids running around and not learn to appreciate it. Besides, I’ve been waiting to use that for years.”
Several of the crew and kids called out for seconds and Iris ducked into the house to grab some rolls from the chiller.
“Uh…so twenty-six years then, eh?” Cargo asked again.
“Almost twenty-seven,” Jessica said with a nod. “Iris and I carried them to term.”
Cheeky whistled. “I always said you had child bearin’ hips. But pushing out eight babies? How real is it in here?”
“One hundred percent,” Jessica said with a grimace. “Trevor clearly got the better end of the deal.”
“Except he had to deal with both of us,” Iris said as she walked past. “I was pretty easygoing, but Jessica had craaaaavings.”
“Oh yeah?” Cheeky asked, wiggling her eyebrows. “What kind of cravings?”
“The normal ones. Pickles, sausage—no! Not that kind of sausage! There are children present.”
“Pffft,” Tanis shook her head. “Like you can talk, Mom.”
“I’m your mother,” Jessica said. “It’s different.”
The light banter continued for several more minutes before Trevor finally got to join them, a burger in one hand, and a beer in the other.
“So how long you guys been here?” he asked.
“Not long,” Cargo replied. “About an hour, I guess. Eleven gave us the grand tour he gave you guys, and then we talked about things a bit before coming in here to get you.”
“To get us?” Jessica asked, glancing around at the tables where her kids and crew were all gathered.
Some were listening in on their conversations, others were listening to Terry talk about her life on Serenity. Another group was sitting with Piya and Erin as they told of some recent adventure.
She knew this life would come to an end someday, but she didn’t expect it to be so soon. Jessica had expected to grow old with her children, not to see them barely raised.
“Orion is coming,” Cargo said. “They were already massing an assault force when we came in. We may have delayed them for a bit—we disturbed Things in the dark layer—but they’re coming.”
“Things, or things,” Jessica asked.
“Things with a capital T,” Cheeky confirmed. “I may never go into the dark layer again.”
“Damn,” Jessica said in a soft whisper. “How long will the FTL route be unavailable?”
Cargo shrugged. “Finaeus said he’s not sure. He’d never seen so many of the creatures before. He said they may take hours to settle down or maybe weeks.”
“What ‘Things’ are you talking about?” Tanis asked.
“The dark layer isn’t uninhabited,” Jessica said. “Creatures live in there. They’re not widely known. We just call them Things….”
“And Eleven’s deep FTL route into this system is practically ringed with them,” Cargo said. “To be honest, I’m not certain if Orion will stand down even if that route is closed. There were a lot of ships out there, and they weren’t all arrayed in one place. If they come in, they’re coming in from everywhere at once.”
Jessica let out a low whistle, meeting Tanis’s eyes. “Are you ready?”
“Mom, we were born ready,” Tanis said with a wink.
BASTIONS
STELLAR DATE: 11.20.8938 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Manhattan, Star City
REGION: Star City System, Perseus Arm
Jessica rubbed her fingers together as she rose from the pod where she had experienced The Dream. She looked at the time displayed on her HUD and saw that only forty nine hours had passed since she had settled into it.
I bore eight children, and raised sixteen of them to adulthood in two days…
A long sigh came from the pod next to her, and she looked over to see Trevor rising from his. He sat on the edge and stared at her, a deep sadness in his eyes.
Jessica rose and stretched out her arms, falling into his embrace as he stood.
“Thank you,” she said as tears streamed down her face. “I…I can’t….”
Trevor stroked her hair, burying his face in the top of her head. “We made some good kids. I’m going to miss them…oh stars…maybe we shouldn’t have….”
Jessica lifted her head and looked into Trevor’s eyes. “Don’t say that, Trevor. Don’t you ever say that. I know I fought this at first, but we talked about it over the years. I wouldn’t trade anything for it. Anything. You made the right call.”
Iris said.
“I’m going to miss having you around, Iris,” Trevor said. “I mean, you’re still going to be around, but it’s different.”
Trevor reached behind Jessica and squeezed her ass. “I gotta admit, having two shiny heinies around certainly was nice.”
“Trevor!” Jessica admonished.
“There aren’t any c
hildren here,” Trevor said with a grin. “We’re well and truly alone.”
“Oh stars,” Jessica said with a long sigh. “I don’t remember the last time that happened.”
“And you will stay with them for a time?” Jessica asked.
“I almost pity Orion if they try to attack,” Trevor said with a rueful laugh. “The kids are going to spank them so hard.”
Eleven said, his tone appreciative.
Jessica nodded as she and Trevor walked out of the dream chamber—which still had several other dreamers in it, their bodies connected to life support systems.
If Jessica hadn’t known better, she would have thought the people in the pods had just lain down, not that they had been in The Dream for millennia.
An illuminated pathway on their HUDs guided them out of the building, and onto Manhattan’s streets. The sun was setting, and Jessica could barely comprehend that this was only three days since they had landed on Star City.
“Jess!” a voice called out, and Jessica saw Cheeky running down the street toward them, the rest of the crew following at a more sedate pace.
Cheeky crashed into Jessica and wrapped her in a fierce embrace. “You’re insane, sister mine. Totally insane. No more running off on your own!”
Jessica laughed. “Cheeks, last time I ‘ran off’ it was with you!”
“Well, that was OK, but no others anymore, OK?”
Jessica nodded. “OK.”
“And you!” Cheeky turned to Trevor. “You’re supposed to be the calm, reliable one. The voice of reason. You agree to come here and to turn Jessica and Iris into baby factories?”
Trevor smiled “Nice to see you again, too, Cheeky.”
“Are you still you?” Finaeus asked as the rest of the crew caught up. His expression was one of complete skepticism. “I can’t tell you how ill-advised it is to let some foreign entity rapidly accelerate your mental processes. It can create neurological strain. I will need to ensure you will not face any degenerative effects.”
“So you say,” Finaeus replied. “I’ll be the judge of that. Trevor, Jessica, please return to Sabrina with me so that I can check you over.”
“No,” Jessica shook her head. “We’re going to check on Tanis first. Make sure she’s OK, and then the rest of the children as they get installed.”
Finaeus opened his mouth to respond, but Cheeky quelled him with a look. “Very well, but when that is done, I want you to check in.”
“Sheesh, you’re as bad as Nance,” Jessica said with a wink.
Nance snorted. “Jess, I’m right here.”
“I know,” Jessica said with a grin and turned toward the tower that Eleven had indicated on her HUD as being Tanis’s new home.
She understood Finaeus’s concern. It was legitimate, but at this point what was done was done. She also couldn’t say that she didn’t feel different, because she did. Very different. Very, very different.
Tanis’s tower was only a few blocks away, also stretching a kilometer into the sky. It had the same steps and pillars as Eleven’s, but when they entered, the number above the far door was 1.
“Fitting,” Trevor said with a laugh. “Tanis always had to be in charge.”
“You have no idea how fitting her name is,” Jessica said.
The rest of the crew followed them through the door where the long shaft hung in the tower, a brilliant green with traces of white light streaking across its surface.
“Do we call you ‘One’ now?” Trevor asked with a fatherly smile.
Cheeky laughed. “Your namesake is going to love you if you ever meet, Tanis.”
The light in the room pulsed, the illuminatory version of a shrug.
“Are you not worried about Orion?” Cargo asked.
They spoke for several more minutes, chatting with Troy as well, and then Amanda once she came online.
They were still conversing as the crew walked back to Sabrina to get some rest, when Eleven interrupted their conversation.
Jessica and the crew were closer to Eleven’s tower, and they rushed up its stairs and through the foyer. Jessica all but flung herself off the platform and felt The Dream encompass her.
She was suddenly standing on a platform in space, the Stillwater Nebula behind her, and the galactic rim ahead. The rest of the crew appeared—minus Finaeus—and then the children began to appear as well.
Tanis was first, followed by Amanda, then Troy. Within a second, all but four were standing on the platform. Then a young man—who Jessica somehow knew to be Eleven—appeared, a kind smile on his face.
“This feels good. It feels so right,” he said. “Why did we never do it like this? We remained solitary when we fought.”
“We fight as a team,” Tanis replied. “We’re missing Peter, Kira, Jason, and Aeryn. What’s their ETA for installation, Eleven?”
“Please, call me Yohan. They will be in their towers within ten minutes. Theirs were the furthest away from Manhattan Island.”
Tanis nodded. “Troy, Amanda, I want you to work with Kira and Sarah to run the beams from Aggie. It’s going to suck with the light-lag, but you’ll just have to predict the enemy’s flight paths, but Aggie has more power that Essy, so we’ll have to rely on you for the big hits.”
“Aggie and Essy?” Trevor asked.
“Yeah, can you believe they never named the other neutron star? Well, they called it ‘the primary’ but that’s cumbersome. They aggregated onto it, so it’s Aggie, and Star City is a mouthful, so that one’s Essy.”
Iris laughed. “Works for me.”
Jessica looked out toward the insystem FTL exit and saw a thousand Orion ships moving away from the point as a new group began dumping out of FTL.
“Why have you not yet attacked?” Yohan asked. “You could rake their exit point with the beams, it would destroy many of their ships.”
Tanis turned to Yohan and nodded. “Perhaps. But if you look, you’ll see that each wave is exiting further back because they’re worried about hitting the wreckage of other ships. We could walk our beams back, but they probably have probes popping in and out of the DL giving the best exit points.”
Yohan nodded. “I can see this. But you could still destroy many of them.”
“I want to destroy them all at once.” Tanis said. “The closer to Star City they come, the less light lag works
in their benefit, and the more targeted our shots can be. We can fire longer with more certainty of hitting more of their ships.”
“I’m trusting you with the lives of my people,” Yohan said, his brow furrowed.
“Our people,” Tanis said. “We grew up with them. Everyone we know and love in the entire galaxy is here on Star City. We will not fail.”
Jessica saw the rest of her children nod as they summoned consoles for themselves. Though they were really AIs, they were still used to operating physical controls and devices from their time in The Dream.
Jessica pondered that. What did it mean? She wasn’t sure that it mattered. So long as her children were safe and content, and strong enough to defend themselves. Then she was happy for them—even if they would eventually part.
The Orion Guard ships were still four AU out, but were closing fast, powerful engines on cruisers, dreadnaughts, and destroyers, pushing the ships faster as they raced toward Star City.
After several minutes, time seemed to speed up, until the enemy vessels were less than one AU from Star City, just seven light seconds away.
The Orion ships were now spread in a great arc as they approached, the individual ships as far apart as possible. Though, as Tanis had predicted, now that they were closing with Star City, their formations were beginning to tighten once more, the distance between the disparate Orion ships shrinking steadily, making for more effective defensive shots.
As they had waited, the last of the children had arrived in their new homes, and now Star City’s sixteen new Bastions, as well as the last of its original protectors, stood ready to eliminate the encroaching threat.