“Yes sir,” Charlie said with a devilish grin running across his face.
The ship next to the Excalibur detonated as two heavy cruisers engaged the Atlantic from behind. My eyes were wide with shock. The cruiser group was engaging the fleet because they had allies from within.
“Admiral Harper of the Excalibur, this is Rear Admiral Beverly Herschenberger, fleet commander, Charlie Epsilon. I am only going to say this once. Power down your weapons and return through the gate. By the time you make it back to Earth, you will have new orders waiting for you.”
“My orders are to interdict your cruiser group, and see to it that you return to Earth to stand trial for high treason. You are in no place to be giving me orders, fleet commander,” the admiral replied with cold steel in his voice.
“This is your last chance admiral. You have already lost one ship, and that was your only warning. Join… or die.” Her tone caused me to shiver.
“All loyal ships form up and engage hostiles. Take evasive action. Fire at will! Fire at will!” Admiral Harper shouted.
The Excalibur took a good hit. Its hull pulsed and warped against the penetrating light but she held. She moved down and away, taking evasive actions just in time to avoid a second ion cannon blast.
The battle lines blurred. Only the traitors knew whom to fight and it was hampering the Second Fleet. There was chaos everywhere, but there was a lopsided math to it, the loyalists had the numbers, but the rebels had the will. Slowly, two coherent forces were emerging from the chaos.
"What are you waiting for commander? We'll hold the line; you get out of here!" the Admiral said over the comm channel.
The Excalibur charged in, her ion cannon pushing back on her thrusters. She looked like she was going to ram the far flanking cruiser, but at the last possible moment, she cut her engines, the cannon reversing the thrust, sending the ship up relative to her target. She released a flurry of tracking mines, which latched onto the opposing ship’s hull. With a brilliant flash The Condor-1 was no more.
“Thanks for opening the door for us admiral,” Charlie said. "Mind the fireworks; we’re going in hot."
"You be careful Omega-621 and bring back good news for us. Excalibur-Harper out!"
We screamed around the battlefield, moving through the debris of the ship the Excalibur had just destroyed. Harper was playing strategic, taking out the ship in the farthest wing relative to us to give us a flanking chance around the battle.
We flew down and low, other ships moving to engage while the rest protected us. Charlie had us in the debris field of a dead ship, bodies flying over the hull, along with debris, flotsam and jetsam of the fleet, using them as our shield. We were almost at the gate when my heart sank. The two Challenger Class ships, including the Bangalore, the one that had destroyed the Atlantic, were moving to interdict our path. If they engaged us, well, we could turn and run, but we couldn’t jump, and we had to jump, we had to get away.
Charlie had me punch in the coordinates as the ship made its way for the gate. A Hail-Mary play, this was all or nothing.
He was trying to thread the needle, charging in before the two Challenger Class ships could get an effective lock on us, but it was a risky proposition. Still, it was the only play we had. Helplessly, I saw the Challenger ships grow larger in the window.
Nothing could have prepared me for what happened next. The UEAS Hammerhead came up from below and engaged with her rail guns and a full torpedo spread. She was one of the oldest ships in the fleet when I was on active duty, but in that moment I could see why they hadn’t retired her. The rounds pulsed through the habitat ring of the Bangalore, causing massive damage. Quickly the old ship pivoted away just as a massive explosion occurred. The Bangalore was no more.
The other ship could no longer ignore the Hammerhead as it moved relative to our path, refusing to yield. I saw its enemy open up on the venerable old girl, just as we made our jump.
We hit the gate at half-speed and a brilliant flash of light enveloped the LRRC, quickly giving way to the deepest darkness I had ever known. We were seemingly lost in a featureless black abyss that didn’t even allow for the perception of movement. Almost as quickly as it began though, it ended. A sudden flash of light and I felt a deep relief as I again saw stars.
The ship took programmed evasive action, as neither of us would have been quick enough to react to the situation on the far side of the gate. We slammed out of Alpha Psi gate to starward hub 5-Bravo. The ship slowed and we adjusted our trajectory for our next jump.
We had descended into chaos.
The monitoring station was adrift. Small cruisers were engaging each other in open combat. It was then that we knew, this madness wasn't limited to Charlie Epsilon. Our worst fears had been realized. Central Command was compromised.
There was a coup underway.
Charlie wasted no time. We again engaged thrusters before any Earth First ships could catch up to us and tore through the gate portal. We were on a mission and now more than ever, we had to be successful.
A bright flash and we were again out in open space. The LRRC jerked up and away, lurching us in an ascending arc away from the Mendian ship. We had come out too hot and too close, almost slamming right into her. Charlie quickly recovered his bearings and took the controls. We were safe.
I sagged down in my chair, my body already complaining about the rough treatment of the harness that held me in place while the ship pulled impossible G's. Without that new Higgs Field Manipulator we would have been paste on the bulkhead, but we almost were anyway. Smoothing my fur down, and checking again out the port to make sure I wasn’t in Hare Valhalla, I closed my eyes and waited for the contact protocol.
Charlie shook me and said, "Well Snow, aren’t you going to say anything?"
Suddenly I remembered. It was up to me to make contact with them first. In all the excitement I had tripped over my protocol. I tried to center, took a few deep breaths, and nodded to Charlie.
"Honored host! I am Ambassador Snow Dawkins, from the planets of Centioc One and Earth. I come at the request of your mighty people, so that I might give audience, that both parties may see a brighter dawn." The words streamed over my heads-up display, making it much easier for me to read through it.
I looked over at Charlie who gave me a thumbs-up sign and suddenly leaned over and fuzzled my ears. I whispered, "stuff it Charlie" with mirth in my eyes. I was getting way too good at dealing with near-death experiences and disasters.
The comm system came back to life of its own accord, just as it had eight years ago aboard the Danube. They had dropped all our systems except life-support. It was their way of saying hello.
"You honor ussss with your wordssss and presences," the voice hissed through the intercom. "Welcome ambassssador."
"Honored host, we humbly request the honor of docking with your great ship, so that we may speak face to face," I said, hoping I wasn't about to start the first interstellar war.
The response was in action, not words. Our ship began to move as the stars suddenly appeared prismatic and distorted. Somehow, we were being pulled toward the Mendian ship. Charlie cut our engines and doubled-checked to make sure the systems that the Mendians had powered down would remain that way. This was a technology neither of us had ever seen before.
The Mendian ship grew larger and larger in the window and I became able to discern more details about the ship. Its outer hull was much like the LRRC, smooth and organic, but a beautiful rich black that made it almost invisible against the darkness of space. Tiny oval windows betrayed tiny points of light that looked like twinkling stars against the blacker than night backdrop of the Mendian house ship.
Just ahead I saw a massive opening dematerialize in front of me. There was no door, a space simply appeared where it was needed, revealing a gigantic shuttle bay. I marveled. The Mendians didn't do anything small.
We came to rest inside the cavernous shuttle bay. From what we knew the smallest Mendian ship was about ten times t
he size of the Roam, and this ship was far larger. Inside was flotilla after flotilla of ships, all seemingly designed for a different purpose, and appearing expertly maintained. We came down in a special section away from the other ships.
"Well, here we are. Do you think they’re gonna knock first?" Charlie said.
"I doubt it. We need to follow protocol. Open the boarding doors," I replied, trying to be calm.
"Aye, aye, ambassador.” And with that the doors lowered.
I dodged into the bathroom, dragging Charlie with me, and got a quick brush, and made sure I looked well-groomed. Space combat is hard on the fur and bits of it stuck up here and there, remnants of the few times it stood on end out of sheer terror. I straightened my collar, took a deep breath, and hoped for the best as I made my way for the ramp.
There is no graceful way to descend down a ramp as a quadruped, but I did my best to try. Charlie followed slowly behind me as I ran through the protocols in my head. Briefly my thoughts drifted to a school play in seventh grade and I was quickly reminded that I had always hated public speaking. I swallowed hard and made my way forward.
The Mendians were all waiting at the bottom of the ramp. They were dressed in ceremonial robes wearing swords that shone with polish and deadly intent, with hilts made of bone that seemed purposely notched. I tired not to think about that; right now I had to be on mission.
By Earth standards, they were not beautiful, possessing bodies of tubular shape like snakes, with chitinous armored scales and fierce draconian heads. They held their arms out front the way I did my paws, but that was where the similarities ended. While they dangled in front of them, they possessed a shocking amount of range of motion. I was tiny compared to them, with the smallest one being at least two and a half meters tall and twice as long. Slowly one of them slithered towards me.
"Welcome, Ambassador Snow Dawkins, welcome Shifted One, you honor us with you presence." The Mendian bowed. He did not have the same hiss as the comm officer. Practice, I thought.
"Yess I do practice my English. Thank you for noticing, Shifted One."
I blinked. I had thought that not said it, hadn't I? I shook my muzzle slightly and cleared my head. The Mendian kept that interested smile that all reptiles seem to possess, his purple eyes observing me with great curiosity.
"You are welcome, sir, and thank you for having us. We are very honored to be your guests." I was almost winging it now. He had thrown my entire game off.
"Do not worry so much. We do not stand so much on protocol here. We are very, very honored to meet a Shifted One of the Earth House, and who is this behind you?"
"This is Lieutenant Commander Charles Stevens. He is my staff and my assistant on this mission."
"Welcome, honored Lieutenant Commander Charlesss SSStevens Sssstaff Assisssstant" The Mendian said. His hiss was back. This was getting strange. What was going on?
His reptilian eyes again met mine, revealing a bemused curiosity.
"Thank you, and thank you for bringing us aboard. We are your honored guests,” Charlie said in reply.
"Allow us the honor of providing you with quarters, and of making my introduction. I am Darnack of the House of Lethine."
"Truly we are humbled by your generosity. Please lead the way," I replied.
I noticed Charlie had a look on his face of heavy concern as we exited the shuttle bay. Something was troubling him but there was no space in the official protocols for him to take me aside. It was too early in the mission to be having these headaches and I felt a growing concern as to whether I was going to be able to succeed at all.
“Do not worry so much, Shifted One. We know your ways are not our ways. You do us great honor having worked so hard to prepare, but we are not these fearful monsters, even though our appearance, to you, may give that impression.”
I halted in the middle of the hallway and the delegation stopped as well, crowding around me.
“Either I am going crazy or you just read my mind,” I said.
“Snow, what in the hell...” Charlie said.
Darnack held out his three-fingered claw. “No, no, ssshe is fine, lieutenant commander there issss no need for alarm. Sssshe is not accusssstomed to speaking within our Link.”
“Link? What's a link?” I asked curiously.
The Mendian reached down and tapped my head and then looked up at the ship. “You interest me. You are fearful, but curious. Both patient and impatient. Intriguing... Our ship links our machines, the ones inside you. They help us... understand each other.”
“Charlie, I can hear him, inside my head. He’s telling me that my nanites link me to the ship and provide for communication,” I explained, relaying the info I had just received.
“Oh, that’s just perfect.” He actually looked a bit white.
“Do not worry Snow, all we can do is communicate, there is no need to fear. Now shall we continue to your quarters?” Darnack replied, with practiced patience and genuine amused interest.
“I suppose.” The whole situation still felt eerie. I tried to put it out of my mind but it ate at the edges still.
“You will grow accustomed to the Link in time. Now, this way please,” Darnack said and began slithering down the corridor.
We arrived at the door to our quarters and Darnack showed us in. The room was opulent and well apportioned, brimming with every luxury.
"This is simply too much. You do us a great honor with these quarters," I said, bowing graciously to my host.
"No, we wish this, Shifted One. You do us honor with your presence. You do honor to all houses. We will leave you now, to get settled in, as your people say. We will meet again tomorrow morning. Please use the communications device if you have need of us,” Darnack said, bowing again.
“Thank you, sir. Good evening,” I replied. Darnack nodded and the delegation left. We were alone.
Charlie practically pounced upon me. “Are you OK Snow? Are you all right?”
“Yeah Charlie I’m fine. I could hear him clear as day, like he was talking to me. It took me a while to figure out.”
“This is very bad news, Snow. Do you have any understanding of what this “Link” could mean to the Earth First movement, not to mention our own government?” I had never seen him so nervous before.
“Oh you mean the possibility, however remote, that the morphics could be potential security breaches for the government? Yeah, it had crossed my mind,” I replied, a bit annoyed.
“Snow, if the wrong people got hold of this information it could destabilize the treaty; it would give ammunition to Earth First, possibly shift the balance of power. Hell, this could even give them an excuse to deport every morphic off Earth in the name of national security.”
“Whoa there, conspiracy boy, calm down. He said the ship was integral to facilitating the Link, so I think that it only works here. Secondly, you know as well as I that there is no reason to go off half-cocked here. It's a tool for me as much as it is for them.”
“You have a point. What did you... sense from him?” Charlie probed.
“Well, I’m new at this but he was bemused and fascinated, and I think excited, by this whole thing. He could read my instincts and thoughts really clearly and seemed to be fascinated that we had worked so hard to learn the protocol. Aside from the fact that he looks like a gigantic wyvern ready to eat me, I felt no threat from him at all.”
"I still don’t like this. You’re supposed to be our ambassador; we can't afford for you to be compromised. At least you don't have any information too sensitive in your head. "
“You think that might be the point, Charlie?”
“What do you mean, Snow?” he asked quickly.
“Well this is all shooting in the dark, but if somehow the Mendians knew I had shifted, they might have known I was out of the military too. Maybe they requested me because they knew this little bombshell would make us nervous. I don't know, nothing is ever easy with them,” I replied thinking back to the first contact on the Danube.
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“I know, Snow. I've read the reports on them,” Charlie reminded me. “One thing is for sure, though…”
“What’s that?”
“This mission is already yielding some major answers for us.”
“What do you think I should do for now?” I asked.
"Just try to think happy thoughts," he said, teasing me.
"Stuff it, Charlie," I sighed.
Chapter 22
The quarters they had provided us were opulent and beautiful, resembling a luxury hotel’s presidential suite back on Earth. In spite of the opulence and the luxury something seemed off about it all. At best this room was a very close, but ultimately an imperfect, reproduction of an earthly space. There were irregularities in the wallpaper pattern and in the distribution of the rooms. For example, both offices had their own washroom and our bedrooms, while comfortable and well appointed, had no closets.
"Charlie, since I’ve been gone, has a Mendian ever been to Earth?"
He scoffed, looking over at me. "Hell no, are you serious? It's just as your files say, the ambassador was recalled years ago. No Mendian has ever been to Earth."
"Then how do they know what a hotel room looks like?"
He looked thoughtful for a moment, puzzling it over in his head. "I don’t know. They’ve always shown a remarkably complete knowledge of humans and human culture, but you’re right. This is eerie. Still, there are rumors that would explain it, but I don't know how it could be possible."
"Like what Charlie? You don't seem the type for unfounded speculation."
"Well the more fanatical groups believe the Mendians have infiltrated us, used morphic technology to live on Earth as humans, but I don't see how they could have. I mean, sure they have the technology but we can detect a shifted person. Someone with those kinds of nanites in their system would definitely set off bells at any med bay or secure check point."
“Wow. I can almost understand it,” I said.
“Understand what?”
“What it must feel like on Earth right now. All of these questions, and no answers that satisfy. I doubt they even know they’re doing this to us, Charlie. When I was in the Mendian’s mind, his thoughts… There wasn't any concern. There was very little strategy. There was just...” I stopped, trying to find the right word.
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