by Aaron DeMott
“Oh good. Looks like we made it in time,” he said.
Nilre smiled and leaned her head against his shoulder. Bast saw the look he gave her and took a sudden interest in cleaning her paw.
“Are you okay?” Tomed asked, his voice soft.
“Yes,” Nilre mumbled. “Major Hood arrived just in time. I had kind of a lousy day, though.”
“Let’s go get something to eat.”
Tomed swung his feet around the side of the bed and stretched as he stood.
Bast glanced up. “Food? I wonder if they have fish.”
After a quick meal, Bast and the two Psygens joined Rrrark and Captain Trenton in the briefing room just down the hall from the bridge. Bast stood next to Rrrark as Tomed and Nilre sat opposite the captain.
Captain Trenton waited for everyone to be seated before he spoke. “Good to see you up and about again, Psygen Tomed.” He nodded to Nilre. “It’s a pleasure to have you with us as well, Psygen Nilre.”
Nilre inclined her head in greeting.
“Rrrark just finished his report on the events at SeQish.”
The captain nodded at Rrrark, who then briefly reviewed what had happened for Tomed.
Tomed leaned back in his chair. “We agree on our first priority?”
Captain Trenton nodded. “We’re already on our way to Alkask at maximum speed. Major Hood is giving his marines a briefing on the situation as we speak.”
“I’ve contacted Queen Meer” Rrrark said, “—and the high Council has ordered the clans to dispatch scouts to watch for the pirates. They’ve agreed to let you handle the pirates with Bast and I as your guides.”
Tomed yawned and then stood up. “Well, I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m taking another nap before we get to Alkask.”
Chapter 9
Bast walked beside Nilre down a maze of corridors on their way to the Goddard’s shuttle bay. The Psygen woman had changed her outfit again. Bast was used to humans constantly changing their garments by now, but the concept still fascinated her. This outfit was entirely black and looked like it was designed to be worn close to the skin. Either that or it was some kind of paint. Perhaps she’d better read up more on human culture.
Bast trotted up closer to Nilre. “So, what’s this outfit for? It’s not as flow-y as the ones you usually wear.”
Nilre frowned and shivered. “No, it’s not. I’m not terribly fond of it, but it’s made from a special fabric that resists cuts. It’s also designed to blend into different surroundings.”
Humans seemed to have an outfit for any occasion. Bast preferred her fur. She was so lost in thought she almost missed when Nilre turn down a side corridor. She quickened her pace to catch up just as Nilre stopped in front of a large reinforced door.
“Is this the shuttle bay?” Bast sniffed at the door. “I wasn’t paying attention to where we were going on the way to the med bay.”
“Yes, it is.” Nilre pressed a code into a panel that was recessed in the wall to the right of the door.
Something inside the door clanged loudly, and then it slid open to the left. Shuttles lined up along one wall, and some sort of smaller craft were parked on the other side of the bay. Two groups of marines formed a line in front of two of the shuttles, while several crewmembers clustered around a third.
Bast caught movement out of the corner of her eye and looked up to the catwalk that ran the width of this end of the shuttle bay. An officer entered the enclosed room in the middle of the catwalk.
“That’s the control room.” Nilre pointed up at it. “The officer on duty there works with the Operations officer on the bridge to co-ordinate all the traffic safely in and out of the bay.”
“Oh, I see,” Bast said. “Do you mind if I look around for a while?”
Nilre glanced at the group of people around the third shuttle and then up at the officer in the control room. Neither seemed to notice her. “We have some time yet before the shuttle is ready. An alarm will sound when we’re about to drop out of hyperspace. You’ll want to head back toward that shuttle then.” Nilre pointed to the third shuttle from the door. “Just be careful not to touch anything, please.”
“Okay, I’ll be back by then, and I won’t touch anything. Thank you,” Bast said.
She turned around and flicked her tail in excitement as she padded to the far end of the shuttle bay.
She’d gotten a close enough look at the shuttles on her ride up from SeQish; but she’d never seen anything like the other craft. The clear elongated dome at the top seemed like the pilot’s seat. The long front of the craft didn’t end in a point like many of the humans’ jets. Instead, it ended in a box covered with tubes and needle-like metal things that poked out in every direction. The rear end was just as boxy, with even more and larger pokey shapes.
Bast wondered what it could be. Most of the human craft she’d seen so far had sleek lines—nothing like this. She sidled closer and sniffed at the front of the craft. It smelled metallic with hints of carbon and a few gases she couldn’t identify. She walked along the side and examined it and then ducked under to the other side between the landing gear.
Her whiskers prickled as she passed a large bulge behind the pilot’s seat. She stopped and leaned closer. There was definitely some kind of electrical source behind that bulge. She hadn’t a clue what all the other things could be.
Bast headed back toward the door to check out some barrels that smelled interesting. She paused mid-step and jumped about a foot in the air when she heard a series of loud beeps ring out followed by a small shudder in the floor. Bast looked around for the source and then remembered what Nilre had told her about the alarm. She spotted Nilre near the entrance ramp to the shuttle, and loped over to join her.
Bast had just reached Nilre when the door to the shuttle bay opened. Rrrark entered, followed by Tomed. Bast had to stifle a giggle when Tomed yawned. Rrrark looked around for a moment. His ears pricked up when he spotted Bast and Nilre, and he headed over to join them.
“Well, did we miss the fun?” Tomed asked.
“We’re just coming into orbit of Alkask, if that’s what you mean,” Nilre answered.
Tomed glanced at Bast, then Rrrark, then back to Nilre. He shrugged.
“Sorry. Just trying to lighten the mood.” He waved Major Hood over to join them. “We’re taking the first shuttle down to the same clearing we landed in when we were here before. Rrrark has arranged for Master SarrOw to meet us at the edge of the Great Forest. We’ll discuss the situation further once we get there. One of the shuttles full of marines will be landing shortly after we do. The other shuttle will stay in orbit in case we need them to land elsewhere on the planet.
“When we dropped out of hyperspace we detected a hyperspace distortion signature that indicates that the pirates are here already, but we haven’t yet found their ship. The Goddard will continue scanning from orbit and contact us when they find it. Any questions?”
No one said anything, so Tomed waved the Major toward his shuttle and led the Meskka and Nilre onto theirs. Bast scampered ahead of the others to get a seat near the front. She laid across two seats and strapped herself in—more or less. She craned her neck around to get a good look out the front window of the shuttle. The shuttle bay wall to her left had split down the center and the gap inched wider. By the time the shuttle started to move forward, the massive door had opened completely. The shuttle lifted a few feet off the floor and glided forward without a sound. It stopped in front of the door and rotated ninety degrees to face outward. Alkask rotated slowly in the blackness in front of them. Bast’s whiskers tingled the moment the shuttle passed through the force field. They seemed to hang motionless for a moment before they hurtled to the planet below.
Bast didn’t mind traveling in human shuttles. The grav-jet they rode when they first arrived on Earth though were just awful. The shuttles were nothing like that. It almost seemed like Alkask came towards them instead of the other way around.
The first thin
g Bast looked for was the Great Forest. A quick glance told her they were above the opposite side of the planet. She was familiar with the landmasses from her studies as a kitten, but this view wasn’t anything like a map!
The eastern edge of the Great Forest came into view at the same time the shuttle lurched as it entered the atmosphere.
“We’re about fifteen minutes from landing,” Tomed said.
Bast crouched down in her seat and attempted to tighten the straps. Landings could be bumpy.
Bast jumped out the door of the shuttle and bounded toward the forest when she saw Master SarrOw emerge from the brush at the forest’s edge. She stopped short. She was sure the brown and black striped Meskka next to him was the one who had accused Tomed of killing the pirates without a trial at that first dinner a few months ago. Now, he wore a large emerald on a chain around his neck.
Rrrark, is that…
“Yes. A Ranger of the Council,” Rrrark answered aloud.
“Hmm?” Nilre asked as she stepped down from the shuttle.
“They’re something of a cross between your policemen and soldiers,” Rrrark said. “The Rangers enforce the law on Alkask, among all the clans. They answer only to the Great Council.”
Master SarrOw stopped in front of Bast and Rrrark. They bowed down, ears flattened to their heads, and waited for Master SarrOw to nod before they rose. Bast glanced at the ranger who stood next to her master and then looked away quickly.
Master SarrOw turned and nodded at him. “This is Hrrarr, Ranger of the Great Council. Our Council has been informed by scouts Rrrark and Bast of the threat and has decided to let you handle the matter, as it as an internal affair of yours, and there are no treaties governing such occurrences between our peoples. The Council has assigned Ranger Hrrarr to escort and assist you in the matter. Once you have finished, the Queen of the Mer-ahsh requests an interview.”
Master SarrOw bowed to Tomed and Nilre. “Now that the formal matters are concluded, I wish you luck. The pirates are in two different groups. We have sent the information we have to your ship. Hrrarr will show you to the first group.” He bowed again and darted back into the forest.
The first shuttle of marines had landed by the time Master SarrOw disappeared into the woods. Tomed waved Major Hood over to them.
“Major Hood, this is Hrrarr, Ranger of the High Council.” Tomed bowed to Hrrarr. “He’ll be showing us the first group of pirates.”
The Major saluted Hrrarr. The ranger, in turn, blinked. Bast felt the fur on her tail and at the back of her neck stand up. She willed it back down. This wasn’t starting well.
“About how many pirates are in the other group?” Tomed asked.
“A small force. Around twenty,” Hrrarr said.
Bast wondered if he always sounded like he was growling, or if he was especially upset about the pirate invaders.
Tomed nodded to Major Hood. “The second shuttle of marines should be able to handle them, right?”
Major Hood nodded and moved off to call the ship.
A few moments later he re-joined the group. “They’ll take care of it. How many in the larger group?”
“Around one hundred.” Hrrarr looked over his shoulder. “They are about eight hundred strides from Khaal Mer-ahsh. How fast can humans run?”
“Nilre and I can keep up with Bast and Rrrark.” Tomed glanced over at Major Hood. “The others can’t move as fast. It’s going to take them about an hour to get to the khaal.”
Hrrarr growled something that Bast didn’t quite catch.
Bast looked at Hrrarr then back at Rrrark.
“If we’re in a hurry…” Rrrark started to say.
“They are aliens. For all we know…” Hrrarr and Rrrark both stopped speaking and turned as one to look at the humans. After a moment, they both turned their heads to look at the forest again.
Bast flattened one ear. From the ear, eye, and tail movements, it almost looked like they were still talking, and she felt she could almost hear thought-speak, but no matter how much she strained she couldn’t make out the words. Was this another of the advanced techniques that Rrrark had hinted at?
Rrrark pawed the grass. He glanced up at Hrrarr, and then stared off into the forest again.
Hrrarr growled low in his throat and addressed the humans. “Follow me. You must tell no one of what you will see.”
He turned and led the way into the forest. Tomed and Nilre followed behind the Meskka as Major Hood raised a hand and waved his marines forward.
Tomed lifted what must be the twentieth branch out of the way. They had been following Hrrarr down a partially overgrown side trail for about five minutes now. Tomed hadn’t noticed this particular side trail on his first visit to Alkask. Why were they on this trail if they needed to hurry? He came to an abrupt halt and put a hand on Nilre’s shoulder.
“Yes, I feel it too.” She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself.
Major Hood raised his fist in the air in a signal for the marines to stop. “What’s wrong?”
Tomed opened his mouth to answer when Hrrarr called back from ahead. “You must hurry. We’re almost to the Clearing.”
“Clearing?” The Major lifted an eyebrow.
Nilre looked at Tomed. He shrugged and lifted the branch in front of him. He waited for her to go forward and lowered the branch behind him.
Tomed felt the sensation coming from in front of them increase in strength. It felt almost like static that clung to his clothes and a slight pressure in the air. He lifted the next branch out of the way and ducked under it. Hrrarr stood in a small clearing with Bast and Rrrark. A tree had fallen atop a rock where the trail resumed at the other end of the Clearing. There was just enough room to walk underneath it.
“This is the Clearing,” Hrrarr announced after the last of the marines entered. “Step through one at a time.”
He turned and walked beneath the fallen log—and disappeared.
Aboard the von Braun, location unknown
Jake grunted as he heaved the last crate onto the pallet. He walked behind the pallet and tossed the strap over the top of the crates before he returned to the front and secured it. He stood and stretched and then ambled over to the door and punched a button.
“Cargo hold to the bridge—the last of the supplies are secured.”
“Acknowledged. There’s a fiber junction in repair tube forty-two, section forty-seven B that needs to be spliced.”
“I’m on it.” Jake let go of the button and sighed. He’d spent his whole time aboard the von Braun loading cargo or making repairs.
“The least the pirates could have done was steal a ship that was ready to leave spacedock,” he muttered as he walked over to a locker and grabbed a toolkit on his way out of the cargo bay.
Jake eventually found repair tube forty-two. He popped the hatch open and crawled inside. Since the ship was supposed to have been completely retrofitted for the SeQish, none of the doors or access hatches had been labeled. After the first time he got lost, he’d loaded the ship’s schematics onto his belt-comp. The ship was supposed to have a holographic interface system to guide him—naturally, that wasn’t installed yet either.
The crawl way ahead wasn’t lit. Jake checked his schematic.
“Figures,” he muttered to himself. Section forty-seven B was in the dark area ahead. He dug a flashlight out of the tool kit and crawled forward.
Jake removed the access panel for the fiber junction. All the strands were there with their ends neatly taped over. Not a one of them was connected, and they all looked the same. He pulled out a scanner and a splicing tool and began to connect each of the strands to its correct partner.
Eight hours later, Jake collapsed into his bunk exhausted.
“I think I’ll have to charge Tomed more for this,” he muttered into his pillow just before he drifted off to sleep.
Jake woke to the sound of a loud high-pitched beep. He groaned and rolled over. The computer terminal beeped again. Jake tried to ign
ore it, but the infernal thing continued to beep. He sat up and glared at it. It kept beeping. He thought about throwing a pillow at it but decided it would take too much energy—and not stop the beeping anyway.
He yawned and staggered over to the terminal. After he pushed the flashing button, the message came on the screen. Apparently they were at a mining colony to pick up more supplies. He skimmed the rest of the message and then stopped and re-read the last paragraph. After the supplies were loaded, the crew had one hour to relax at the bar in the colony’s main settlement. Today was looking up.
Jake dropped into a booth and popped the top off his beer. He took a long draft and set the bottle on the table as he leaned back and sighed. He was definitely going to charge Tomed more for this job. He hadn’t worked this hard in years. He sat and sipped at his drink until the rest of the pirate crew were too drunk to notice anything and then reached down and pulled a small comm unit from his boot.
He paused to gather his thoughts before he composed his message to Tomed. The only thing he’d really found out since he’d joined the pirate crew was that they were taking on a lot of supplies. He entered a message about the types of cargo and a list of stops made so far. He took another sip of beer and frowned. Perhaps if he was the only one of the crew back early, sober, and volunteering for more work, he could learn what they were up to. Jake gulped down the last of his drink and dropped a few coins onto the table. He looked wistfully toward the bar for a moment. The memories were starting to surface again. Whatever work he found to do had better be more mentally distracting than loading cargo. He shook his head and made his way to the door.
Jake walked up the ramp to von Braun’s starboard air-lock and pressed his thumb against the scanner set into the wall beside the door. It beeped and slid open. No one seemed to be on guard. From that Jake guessed the security systems were fully operational. He’d have to be more careful.