by James Palmer
Leda floated in darkness. The only light came from a panel on the side of the alien probe. She was cold, and the air was getting stuffy. Beside her the probe hummed and sang, and she wondered if it knew she was a biological lifeform that needed warmth and a breathable atmosphere. She also wondered if she could hold out long enough to be rescued, realizing she had probably just exchanged a quick, death for a slow one.
The Swarm probe began singing more excitedly now. The tenuous neural connection they somehow shared sent waves of emotions to her, making her mind reel. What was it saying? There was an overwhelming feeling of recognition, safety, belonging. Home. Brothers.
Leda smiled. The other Swarm probes. They had found them.
Good old Noah Hamilton. He said he’d find and rescue her. He just never said how.
There was a bump as the giant bucky-ball that enveloped them bumped up against something. She heard machinery drilling through the curved wall opposite her, heard movement. Fresh air soon filled the small space, and it was warm.
“Thank you,” Leda murmured.
Leda felt the sphere being tugged in one direction.
You safe. Home safe. The probe sent.
They were jostled about as the fullerene sphere bounced around once more, Leda slamming into the probe more than once. Suddenly their weightlessness vanished, and they fell to the curved floor, the probe almost toppling over. It held itself upright on a set of undulating mechanical tentacles.
A small shaft of light appeared in the top of the sphere and slowly expanded as the skin of the bucky-ball vanished back into its constituent atoms. In moments she was left huddling on the floor of a strange alien vessel, the air hot and humid.
A squad of perplexed Draconi warriors stared down at her. They looked as if Leda had just hatched from one of their eggs. Hamilton stood behind them next to a female Draconi with a fresh scar on the right side of her face.
Hamilton came over and extended his hand. She took it and he hauled her up.
“I am glad to see you,” said Leda, glancing around. “Where the hell am I?”
“You’re aboard a Draconi ship called the Razor,” said Hamilton. “It’s a long story. I’ll explain later. Right now we have a war to stop.”
Leda glanced at Drizda, who was staring over her left shoulder. She turned to see the Swarm probe resting on its manipulators, humming softly.
“How did you communicate with it?” Drizda asked.
“I don’t know,” Leda said. “It just touched me, and…” She scratched at her right temple, causing Drizda to glance at it.
“Look,” said the Draconi. “Subcutaneous circuitry.”
“What?” Leda touched the itchy spot. She couldn’t feel anything other than the incessant itch.
“Yeah,” said Hamilton. “It must have created some kind of nano-scale neural connection in your brain.”
“Well,” said Leda. “That’s not the strangest thing I’ve heard today.” She glanced sidelong at the probe. “It wants to go home, rejoin the others.”
Drizda nodded. “Everyone back to the command deck. When we’re clear, open the shuttle bay.”
“Yes, Grand Leader,” one of the reptilian officers growled.
Leda turned to look at the probe one last time. “Thank you again,” she said quietly before following Hamilton and the group of Draconi out of the shuttle bay.
“Did you really just hijack a Draconi vessel?” Leda whispered to Hamilton as they returned to the command deck.
“Not exactly,” he said. “Like I said, long story.”
“No doubt.”
They walked a few more steps. Led couldn’t believe how hot and humid it was aboard the ship. It was worse than being cooped up in that sphere.
“Where’s Straker?” Hamilton asked.
“I don’t know. He might be dead, but he might have managed to escape before the Armitage blew apart.”
Hamilton nodded grimly. “We’ll worry about him later.”
“He could still have some followers out there,” said Leda. “And that’s not all. I-I saw the Chaos Wave.”
“You what?”
“The probe showed me what happened to the world of its creators. That’s a long story too, but suffice it to say, the Chaos Wave is real, and it’s coming.”
Hamilton sighed. “I was afraid of that. Well, at least we’ll have advance warning this time.”
As they entered the command deck, Leda wondered if that advance warning would be enough to stop them.
The Swarm was still clustered in the main viewer, pulsing in unison as if a single living organism. It was quite beautiful. “The Swarm is sending us a message,” said Lt. Brackett. “They are sorry for what they have done, and have been restored to their true purpose. They wish to go in peace.” Brackett looked at Hamilton and Drizda. “At least that’s the gist of what they said.”
“Well,” said Hamilton, “we can’t very well put them on trial for murder. They were malfunctioning machines.”
“We have enough to worry about without them,” said Drizda. “And they cannot help us any longer. Tell them they can go.”
Brackett sent the message. “They promise to never harm our interests,” she said after a long moment. “But they are curious about us. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of them.”
“Yes,” said Leda. The neural connection was still there, but it was fading, weakened by the great distance between her and the original probe. “I think they’ve atoned as best they could.”
They watched as the Swarm departed the system on gets of charged particles. Hamilton wondered if he would cross paths with them again.
43 To the Stars
Commander Noah Hamilton smoothed the front of his crisp, new uniform and stared up at the alien building. It was gray and formidable, topped with narrow spires capped with curving talons. The emblem of the Egg Mother decorated the wide space above the arch that straddled the entrance. It had been there for six standard months, and he still didn’t think he would ever get used to it. Then again, he didn’t think the Draconi would ever get used to it either, as they were not the kind to set up embassies on alien worlds, walking among his kind as equals instead of conquerors.
Hamilton took it as a good sign. Times were changing, and if the Draconi could change, then certainly his species could as well. But he wasn’t there to gawk at alien architecture. He was there to see an old friend.
“Drizda,” he called across the wide avenue as he converged on their agreed-upon rendezvous point.
The lean reptilian figure turned at the sound and waved as Hamilton moved through a small crowd of uniformed men and woman toward her. She was wearing a gold sash over her crimson uniform and a predator’s smile.
“Hello, Commander,” she said. “It has been a long time.”
“Too long,” agreed Hamilton. “But it’s not Commander anymore. It’s Captain.”
He pointed at the epaulets pinned to his collar.
She clicked her teeth approvingly. “Congratulations. Captain.”
“I see you got a promotion as well,” he said. “What’s with the sash?”
“I am the League’s Head Science Liaison,” she said, stumbling a bit on that last word. “I have also been reinstated with my clan.” She turned her head to the left, touching the fresh tattoo there.
“Wonderful,” said Hamilton.
“My controversial work is being reevaluated. It will take many cycles to change their minds. But it is a beginning. What of you?”
“They gave me my own command. I’m shipping out on the Zelazny within the hour.” He pointed toward the huge beanstalk near the fleet yards that would take him into orbit, where a shuttle would carry him to the brand new Quasar class rail gun ship currently in high orbit over the planet.
Drizda’s vestigial wings fluttered slightly. “Captain Kuttner would be proud.”
“Yes, I rather think that he would,” said Hamilton. He was going to miss the old man. He still hadn’t been able to open t
he bottle Kuttner had given him and drink a toast to the old man’s memory. Things had gone non-stop since the battle of Artra, which had more or less ended in a draw. Between the two of them, Hamilton and Drizda had been able to tightbeam enough admirals and Draconi grand leaders to call a temporary truce until they could figure out what was going on. It helped their cause a great deal that Grand Leader Koro of the Talon, whom they had helped offload the eggs from the deep space hatchery and escape the Swarm, finally showed up to the party. Koro’s testimony was pivotal in calling off the battle. There were still some minor skirmishes in other parts of League space, fires that would take several standard months to put out. Meanwhile, their real enemy was fast approaching. If they could convince the powers that be of that fact.
“I hope our two peoples can continue to work together,” he said.
“As do I.”
“Well,” said Hamilton, consulting his wrist slate. “I need to shove off. I’ve got a new ship to shake down.”
“Where will you go?” said Drizda.
“Well, for starters, we’re going to Citadel to meet with the Admiralty. They still have a lot of questions about what the probe showed Leda concerning the Chaos Wave. From there, who knows? It would be nice to do some exploring, now that the war is over Especially if some alien menace is on its way here.”
Drizda nodded. “Perhaps my kind should do the same.”
“Well, I could use a good science officer.”
Drizda clicked her teeth. “Thank you, but I cannot resign my post. My people need me here.”
Hamilton smiled. “Look me up if you change your mind.”
“Be careful out there, Noah Hamilton.”
“I will.”
Hamilton trotted off. He was already running behind, and it wouldn’t look good for a new ship’s captain to be late, especially since he still had one last stop to make.
Leda met him at the door of her barracks, resplendent in her white and gold dress uniform. Hamilton thought they looked like matching penguins.
“You ready to go?”
She sighed deeply. “As ready as I’ll ever be. I’ve been dirtside too long. It’ll be nice to get the stars under my feet again.”
Hamilton regarded her for a long moment. The spiderweb tracery of minute circuitry was still there, just beneath the skin of her right temple. The docs who examined her said it would probably go away in time, but so far it hadn’t. It remained a constant reminder of the bizarre affair they had just gone through. Had it really only been six standard months? It felt like only a few weeks had passed since that distress beacon.
“Good,” he said. “Let’s go.”
Leda shouldered her duffle as she followed Hamilton out into the bright sunlight. “I’m still wondering why you picked me, of all people.”
“You know how to handle yourself in tough situations,” said Hamilton. “Who knows what we’ll find out there? I want one of the best officers I’ve ever served with by my side.”
Leda smiled. “You’re just saying that.”
Hamilton grinned back at her. “You got me. Really I just need someone to help me drink this bottle of scotch.” He tapped a lump in his uniform pocket.
Leda smiled. “I could drink you under the table any day, Captain.”
As they hopped onto the moving sidewalk that would take them to the beanstalk, Leda couldn’t help thinking about the importance of their mission. What would they find out there? In her mind’s eye she could still see the planet of the Makers, the shadow passing over it and destroying every trace of life there. How could they stop something like that?
“There’s only one way to find out,” she murmured as they jumped off the conveyor and lined up for the beanstalk.
END
Get a Free E-book
Sign up for the mailing list and read the prequel for free!
About James
James Palmer is an award-nominated writer and editor of science fiction, pulp adventure, steampunk and more. He has written articles, interviews, columns and reviews for Strange Horizons, The Internet Review of Science Fiction, and Tangent Online. He is perhaps best known as co-creator and editor of the shared world alternate history giant monster anthology series Monster Earth.
A recovering comic book addict, James lives in Northeast Georgia with his wife and daughter. When not writing or reading space opera, he can be found blogging about writing, indie publishing and 80’s pop culture. For more examples of his work—and to sign up for his free mailing list—visit www.jamespalmerbooks.com.
Get Ix Incursion, the next installment in the Chaos Wave series.