by Scott Baron
“Is it just me, or are these guys kind of unimpressive for aliens?” Sarah said. “I mean, aren’t they supposed to swoop in and save the day and be all kinds of technologically superior?”
“You’d think so,” Daisy replied. “But it really looks like we’re the more advanced aliens this time around. How do ya like them apples?”
“I like apples,” Sarah said. “But this fucking sucks. These idiots just screwed the whole mission.”
Celeste, calming down but still obviously upset, was telling the interlopers very much the same thing.
“Your blind attack just interrupted our ambush. We had an entire fleet of rebel ships ready to engage from within their ranks, and you shut the whole thing down and let them escape,” she said angrily. “And now they’re safe behind their defenses. And the satellite system draining our warp systems is now reinforced by hundreds upon hundreds of smaller ships surrounding them.”
“Again, I apologize for the misunderstanding,” the alien replied. “But now we have combined forces to our advantage.”
“We just lost the advantage,” Celeste countered. “And who the hell are you people, anyway?”
“We are the Kathiri. And I am called Nazira.”
“Is this your entire fleet, Nazira?”
“No, but it is all of the craft ready for battle and worthy of this fight. And as they great philosopher Proonan said, ‘My friend is one who fights my enemy.’”
“Yeah. The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Celeste replied. “Heard it before.”
“It seems some wisdom is universal,” Nazira said. “Now, let us move past this regrettable misunderstanding and proceed to form a new plan to defeat the Ra’az Hok.”
“Well, they were on the verge of losing their defensive system powered by those satellites, until you showed up. Now it’s protected, and they know we’re here,” Celeste said.
“Why are these satellites so important? They are quite small, and do not appear to contain any armament.”
“Because they block warp tech from working anywhere near here. Didn’t you notice when you jumped in here?”
“We were busy engaging the enemy,” Nazira said, a worried look crossing her face as she turned her attention to a series of readouts that undoubtedly were confirming what she had just been told.
“These guys really are clueless, Daze.”
Seems that way.
“So what are we going to do now that they’ve screwed the mission?”
I really don’t know, but we need to position ourselves to make sure we don’t get flanked. The Ra’az are on their home turf, and it’s only a matter of time before they launch a counterattack.
Daisy studied the positions of all the ships in the fleet. With the smaller Ra’az ships still buzzing among them, taking shots when they could, it would take a little bit of time and one serious distraction to reposition their assets the way they’d need them, she realized.
“Freya, get Celeste on the line.”
A moment later, the two women were connected on a secure band.
“Daisy, I assume you were watching that,” Celeste said with an exasperated sigh.
“Yeah, but we’d best ignore the spilled milk right now, if we hope to recover from this. We need a distraction to give us time to reposition. Joshua’s sending you the new battle plan coordinates now.”
“You have an idea?” Celeste asked.
“Yeah, but it’s a bit out there.”
“After what just happened, it can’t possibly be any worse. Do what you need to. I’ll have my people get ready.”
“Okay. I’m on it,” she said, signing off.
Daisy rose to her feet and straightened her clothes, brushing loose strands of hair out of her face.
“Okay, I’m ready. Freya, can you call up the Ra’az queen on comms?”
“I’m sorry, I could have sworn you just said you wanted her to call the Ra’az queen?” Sarah said, her questioning eyebrow arched high.
“You’ll see,” she replied. “Can you do it, Freya?”
“Uh, hang on, there’s a lot of interference,” Freya replied. “Joshua, can you relay my signal through their piggybacked comms?”
“I’m pretty sure I can,” he said.
“Okay, then,” Freya said. “Yes, Daisy. We can do it. But are you sure that’s a good idea?”
A grim smile found its way to Daisy’s lips.
“I’m afraid we don’t have much choice.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
“Are you sure you’re up to this?” Sarah asked as she quickly twisted her sister’s hair into a tight, professional, and military-styled braid. “You’re not looking so hot.”
“Yeah, I’m just a little nervous, is all,” she replied. “I’ll be fine.”
“Freya, you haven’t––” Joshua started to say.
“Daisy will do great, Joshua. Just you watch,” she interrupted, shifting her attentions to Daisy. “Okay, we’ve secured a direct line with the Ra’az queen. Are you ready?”
Daisy rolled her shoulders and cracked her neck, bouncing slightly on her toes, like a prize-fighter preparing for a big bout.
“Okay,” she said, stopping her movements and settling into a firm stance. “Put her on.”
The Ra’az Hok queen was a large creature. Larger than any Ra’az she had seen yet, but from what Daisy could see, she was just a particularly big creature and not the actual progenitor of her entire species.
She was clothed in opulent robes, the fabric of which appeared to be woven of precious metals, adorned with gemstones and what appeared to be interwoven elements of tech. Around her neck hung a series of gem-encrusted pendants, and on each forearm sat a massive bejeweled power gauntlet.
The only other being visible on screen was a single Chithiid loyalist, head hung low in deference to his queen. He bore the loyalist brand on not one, but all four of his shoulders, and his clothing was more akin to that of a courtesan than a military conscript.
“I seek parlay with the leader of the Ra’az Hok people,” Daisy said in as steady a voice as she could muster. “I am Daisy Swarthmore, the one who vanquished the Ra’az Hok from the planet Earth, my homeworld. Do you speak for your planet?”
The queen sat impassively, while her loyalist servant whispered in her ear. Her expression remained one of regal boredom, but a flash of anger seemed to have sparked in her eyes.
“I think he just told her you were the one who booted them from Earth,” Sarah noted. ”And she looks pissed.”
Good. Let her be, Daisy silently replied. I want her entirely focused on me.
The Ra’az ruler barked a guttural reply, speaking to her servant, but eyes locked on Daisy.
“My queen represents all Ra’az Hok,” the loyalist translator replied. “She demands that you lay down your arms and surrender to her indomitable will.”
“We are attempting to have an open and honest discussion,” Daisy replied. “Will your queen not speak directly to me?”
“Her Mightiness does not speak Chithiid. It is beneath her to speak it. She does not stoop so low as to soil her tongue with our foul language.”
“Oh boy,” Sarah said with a sigh. “This one’s gonna be a handful.”
But we can play off of her power trip, Daisy replied.
“So it is a Chithiid who speaks for her?”
“I am merely the vessel conveying her will.”
“Then convey this,” Daisy said. “I have had our fleet stand down to speak woman-to-woman with your queen, yet your ships still attack ours. Is this how your queen negotiates?”
The loyalist’s eyes wavered slightly in discomfort, yet he translated Daisy’s words. The queen seemed to ponder the small human’s precocious statement a moment, then decided to see how things would play out with her odd opponent. She reached up and clutched her smallest pendant, depressing two of the little gemstones on its surface.
Daisy didn’t hear the recall signal, or even register it on her systems, but the
ships buzzing in her fleet immediately withdrew, flying back to rejoin the main body of the Ra’az vessels.
“Her Magnificence has recalled her craft,” the Chithiid translated. “Those vessels are but a tiny portion of the fleet she possesses. She can crush you at will. Her forces are vast. They are powerful. They are––”
“Okay, I’m going to have to stop you right there,” Daisy interrupted.
The translator looked shocked. No one dared interrupt the queen’s servant. No one. Not ever.
Here goes nothing.
“I have already told you, I am Daisy Swarthmore. I am the firestorm that crushed the Ra’az Hok forces and drove them from Earth. I fought your forces at the Chithiid world of Taangaar and won.”
At this, the loyalist blanched a little.
“Yes, that’s right, Loyalist. Your homeworld has been freed of Ra’az control and is under my protection. You tell your queen.”
The Chithiid regained his composure and repeated the message to the Ra’az ruler. She listened, her face a mask of stone, then gave him her reply.
“My queen says she admires your bravery, but you lie.”
“Freya, transmit the images of our fight at Taangaar, and make ’em good ones. Let them see us kicking their people’s asses.”
“Sending now,” Freya replied.
Daisy stood by a moment, watching the expressions of the queen and her loyalist as they observed the record of their forces’ defeat.
“You see, now, what we have done to your ships at Taangaar. We possess the technology to destroy the Ra’az world. To wipe your people from the universe,” Daisy said forcefully, pausing a moment to let the words sink in. “You speak of laying down arms, but it is I who have pulled my forces back to graciously give you this opportunity to surrender.”
The queen laughed as she heard the translation.
“My queen says this is a bluff. If you possessed so deadly a weapon, you would have already used it.”
“We do not believe in genocide.”
He quickly relayed the message. The queen sneered at the screen.
“We do,” her translator replied.
Daisy felt her stomach flip. The strain was finally catching up with her.
“Daze, you okay? You’re looking a little green,” Sarah noted.
I’m fine, she replied, focusing all of her attentions on the creature on the screen.
“Despite all that has happened, we do not wish to extinguish your species’ light. We could come to terms. An agreement. Your world needs resources, but there is no need to invade and kill when we could peacefully co-exist. Our people could even collaborate to explore together, discovering new worlds to approach––peacefully––to establish trade and sharing of resources.”
At this, the queen laughed. It was a foul sound, one full of bile and hate, where a laugh should be brimming with mirth and joy. She then gave her servant a message to relay.
“The Ra’az Hok do not collaborate. They do not need your assistance or trade. They are all-powerful, and conquer worlds as if it were child’s play. They take what they want and leave behind only blood and tears. It is the Ra’az Hok way. Ask any Ra’az, from the lowest drone to Her Highness herself, and they will tell you the same.”
Daisy grew pale and wavered.
“Daze, you okay?” Sarah asked, concerned. “You want me to get you some––?”
Daisy suddenly lurched forward and vomited a stream of bile onto the command pod floor.
Shit. Talk about bad timing.
“You need to end this call and have Celeste take over. The strain’s getting to you.”
No, I can handle this, Daisy silently replied, standing up straight and wiping her lips with the back of her sleeve.
The Ra’az Hok queen squinted a little as she looked closely at her vid screen, then said a few words to her servant.
“My queen says she sees you are with child.”
“No,” Daisy replied. “It was just a bad meal shaken by the explosions of us destroying so many of your ships.”
“Uh, Daisy?” Joshua interrupted.
“Not now, Joshua,” she hissed.
“Freya, are you going to tell her?” he continued.
“Tell me what? I’m negotiating, here.”
“Well, about that pregnancy thing,” Freya said, uncomfortably.
Daisy felt her stomach flip again, though this time it was most certainly caused by what she just heard rather than her body itself.
“You can’t possibly mean...”
“Yeah, actually,” Freya quietly replied. “A few months along, now, actually.”
“And you knew? How?” she asked, shell-shocked.
“Basic health scans showed it, so it was pretty obvious. All the AIs knew, more or less. We just thought it wasn’t our place to say anything,” Freya replied.
The Ra’az queen, though she did not understand the human language, did understand the look on Daisy’s face as she spoke to her shipmates.
“My queen’s suspicion is confirmed. She says you are a weak human and would have been an unfit mother, had she allowed you to live. But that is not to be. She will kill you and all you love, and will revel in the death of your unborn offspring.”
The threat to Daisy’s child made something snap deep within her. “You’re fucking dead, bitch! You hear me? I’m coming for you!” Daisy shouted, enraged, then cut the feed.
“Well,” Sarah said, “I don’t think I need a translation from Chithiid to get the gist of that.”
“We’re going to kill them,” Daisy said, grimly. “We’re going to kill all of them.”
“But that’s genocide, Daze. You said that––”
“It’s literally us or them, Sis. There’s no other way, so I say it’s them.”
Sarah took Daisy by the arm and steered her to her seat. Freya’s maintenance droids were already cleaning her vomit from the floor. In just seconds it was spotless and good as new.
Sarah sat down next to her and took her sister’s hand.
“So,” she said.
“Yeah. So,” Daisy replied.
“But I thought Mal said that genetically modified humans couldn’t reproduce organically.”
“I thought so too,” Daisy said. “But even so, Vince and I have been careful. At least I thought we were.”
Sarah let out an amazed sigh.
“Damn. It shouldn’t even be possible, Daze.”
“I know. But nature, uh, finds a way,” Daisy said, a small grin managing to find its way to her shocked lips.
“Freya, are you sure this is accurate?” Sarah asked.
“Yes, Sarah. My standard medical scans of all crew are quite accurate.”
“No mistakes, then?”
“None.”
“Freya’s right,” Joshua said. “Even the lesser ships have good enough med tech to pick up something like that.”
Sarah leaned back in her seat and smiled at her sister.
“Well, shit, Daze. I guess it’s time for us to find you some looser combat pants,” she said with a little sisterly snark. “You’re gonna blow up like a balloon,” she laughed.
“Funny, coming from you,” Joshua quipped.
“What do you mean by that?” Sarah asked.
“Joshua!” Freya hissed.
“Oh, sorry. I thought she knew.”
“Thought I knew what?” Sarah said, a sinking feeling forming in her gut.
“Oh,” he said, at a rare loss for words. “Uh, well, you see, um––”
“Holy shit,” Daisy blurted. “Her too? Freya, you knew?”
“Well, it wasn’t my place to say anything, Daisy,” she replied.
“No way,” Sarah said, jumping to her feet and pacing the pod. “There’s no way. I mean, Finn and I have only––I mean, it’s been less than a week!”
“My scans show it as well,” Joshua said. “Again, common AI knowledge.”
“No. Impossible,” Sarah said in denial.
“Tell
her she’s forgetting something,” Sarah said.
I can just put the neuro-band on. Gimme a sec.
“Nah, just tell her. Say the words ‘wedding party.’ She’ll get it.”
“Uh, Sarah? Other You said to tell you, ‘wedding party.’ Does that mean anything to you?”
The pacing woman froze in her tracks.
She had shared her memories with her bodiless self. All of them.
“We got a bit tipsy, is all,” she said, but deep down, she knew what they had done. In a rush, the blurry memories came flooding back. The Harkaways’ beach wedding, the party, the drinking and dancing, and then afterwards.
“Sonofa––” she said, sliding into her seat, stunned. “Goddamn, I need a drink,” she finally said.
“So do I,” Daisy concurred.
She opened the small cooler compartment below the console and reached inside––right past the booze, straight to the back of the storage space, grabbing a pair of electrolyte pouches, handing one to her sister.
“To unexpected surprises,” Daisy said.
“Fuckin’ A,” Sarah said.
The sisters clinked the beverage containers together in a shell-shocked toast.
Chapter Thirty-Four
The Ra’az queen may have talked a tough game, but their ships remained in a defensive position around their world, their warp-canceling satellites safely tucked behind them.
The combined invading fleet, newly reinforced with the arrival of the dozens of Kathiri craft, lay waiting just inside the edge of the asteroid field. The nearly victorious sneak attack utilizing the captured Ra’az ships had been so close to success before being disrupted by their unexpected new allies. Now, all they could do was make the most of the situation and come up with a new plan.
Joshua came aboard Zed’s massive ship to replenish his tacked-on power cells, while the rest of the commanders in the fleet discussed their options from the relative safety of their battle-ready command pods. While they all preferred meeting face-to-face, they knew they had to be ready to react at a moment’s notice.