Breaking Point

by David Alastair Hayden

  “Your girls, Kyralla and…”

  He might as well tell her. She knew what Oona was, and he was at her mercy. And he in no way sensed any ill intent toward him or the girls. “Oona.”

  “Why don’t you take them along with you?”

  “Too risky. You saw what happened with the Tekk Reapers. They’re staying with…” He shook his head. “Sorry.”

  “You don’t trust me?”

  “Not that much.”

  “Fair enough. It’s not like I’ve told you everything.”

  Tamzin twirled a bit of pink hair in her fingers. “And your wife…”

  “Died fourteen years ago, when Oona was born.”

  “She died in childbirth?” Tamzin asked incredulously. “How is that possible? Were you stranded somewhere?”

  “The mothers of hyperphasic messiahs always die in childbirth. It unpreventable, and the cause is unknown.”

  “Did you love her?”

  “Very much.”

  “And I bet since then all you’ve had is a couple of random one-night stands?”

  “You’re really grilling me.”

  “Yes,” she said with a devious smile. “Now answer the question.”

  “I wouldn’t necessarily say random.”

  “And Oona doesn’t stand a good chance of surviving?”

  “No,” he replied softly. “It’s…it’s highly unlikely.”

  “And your other girl?”

  "Kyralla is different. Her whole life is ahead of her. And with her talent and skill, she could move on to do something amazing."

  “Is she old enough to be out on her own?”

  “Yes, but as long as Oona is… They will stay together as long as possible.”

  “Do you ever think about the future? About life once they’re adults or…whatever.”

  “I can’t bear to. Oona…since she’s…”

  “Likely to die? For someone who reads other peoples’ emotions, you’re not good at dealing with your own.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “You don’t have any room to talk.”

  “I don’t read emotions. In fact, I’m bad at reading and having them.”

  Galen wasn’t about to argue that point. “I don’t like to think about it, so I try to live in the present as much as possible. I make contacts that might help her one day and search for special resources, and that’s as much of the future as I can bear to embrace.”

  “I understand,” Tamzin said. “I stick to living in the present, too.”

  Galen chuckled. “Please, you live in the past. That’s why you’re trapped here.”

  Tamzin leaped to her feet, her eyes smoldering. "You ass! I may be trapped here, but I live in the present!"

  She stormed off the bridge.

  Galen shook his head. All things considered, that had gone better than expected. Most of their conversations ended with arguments, but it was taking longer and longer to reach that point.

  He would have to go make things right with her before bed. He didn’t want to leave things like this, not before she—

  Tamzin stormed back onto the bridge and stopped in front of him. Her emotions were roiling so much that he couldn’t decipher any of them. She took a deep breath and seemed to come to a decision.

  Galen braced himself, fearing she was about to become violent.

  “I’ll show you living in the present, jerk face.”

  Tamzin ripped off her clothes and stepped toward him.

  “No one has ever gotten this close to me. No one!” She slipped off her panties. “I don’t let them. But you…you know what I’m feeling anyway. So I’ve told you more than I’ve ever told anyone and…”

  Galen tried to stammer out a reply, but he couldn’t manage to get any words out.

  She placed her hands on the arms of the chair and leaned toward him, her earthy scent and slender form making his heart pound. “I want you to take me.”

  “Um…where?” he asked, shocked.

  “You said you’re only living in the present. Prove it.” She leaned in and whispered in his ear. “Take me here. Then take me…take me somewhere…anywhere…” A tear fell onto his cheek. “Take me away from this ship. Show me a future, Galen Vim. Save me.”

  He put one hand on her waist and ran the other along the back of her neck. He didn’t want to consider a future. And he didn’t want to do this with her. He really didn’t. And yet… He did want her and maybe—right now—he needed her.

  The thing about being an empath was that since you were always aware of emotions, you learned to hide your own from others. And unfortunately, that made it easy to hide them from yourself.

  There was something about this wild young woman that attracted him, and it was pointless to keep denying it.

  “I will help you leave here and show you a wider world,” he promised.

  She pulled back, wiped away a tear, and then brushed a finger along his lips. “Do you think…do you think you could love me…someday?”

  “I…I don’t let people into my life, Tamzin.”

  “I’m already in your life. And I know about the girls. I could help you protect them, you know. And maybe…maybe I could make you happy…”

  “I think…I think maybe…maybe you could.”

  “But could you love me?” she asked pitifully, eyes welling with tears.

  Poor Tamzin. He wanted to help her. She needed him. And, if he were honest, he needed her. He was so tired of being alone. If she were hiding from the past, then he was hiding from the future. Maybe they could live in the present together.

  “I could love you,” he admitted.

  She smiled and let out a tiny laugh. Then she thrust herself against him and bit his bottom lip.

  He pulled her into a deep embrace.

  Galen woke on the small mattress in the ship’s “living room.” He rolled over, but Tamzin was gone.

  Alarmed, he sat up, blinking sleep from his eyes, and scanned the dimly lit room. She wasn’t in here. He listened carefully, but the ship was silent save for the hum of the air filtration system.

  A bit of panic set in. Surely she hadn’t left in the middle of the night without saying goodbye. Assuming it was still the middle of the night. Without a chippy, a window, or a functioning ship’s AI, it was impossible to tell.

  He got up, slipped on his pants, and stepped out into the corridor. A shaft of sodium-colored light was shining out from one of the rooms Tamzin always kept locked. Curious, he padded forward.

  As he got closer, he heard Tamzin whispering. Keeping to the wall on the same side as the room, he crept slowly forward. As private as she was about these rooms, he did not want to let her know he was there.

  Apparently, the door was damaged, because it hadn't closed all the way. He couldn't risk going all the way up to the door, but luckily, a large mirror on the wall inside the room and opposite to him revealed most of the interior from his angle.

  The walls were painted a pale green. A blanket decorated with flowers covered the bed. A video frame showed a repeating image of frolicking kittens. Various gadgets and games lined a shelf. It was apparently a child's room. Tamzin's no doubt.

  Still naked, Tamzin was kneeling on a rug in the center of the room. With her side facing the mirror, she couldn’t see him spying on her. Despite desperately wanting to know her secrets and intentions, he felt a pang of guilt for invading her privacy.

  But then he spotted the miniature stardrive cupped in her hands. A gleam of crimson danced across its black surface. She started talking softly again. She seemed to be addressing the cube.

  “I know you need me to leave, Papa. And now, for the first time, I want to. But I’m still so scared. This is the only home I’ve ever known. It’s where Mother died. It’s where I grew up. And I’m afraid of going out into the galaxy. I’m afraid of serving you.”

  She paused, as if listening to the other side of a conversation, then continued.

  "Of course, Papa. But what you've asked of me is not easy. I d
on't want to disappoint you, but there are some things I won't…that I can't do."

  Tamzin paused again, her features twisting into a deep frown. “It’s not because of him, I swear. Papa, he’s a good man. I think I love him.”

  After a moment, Tamzin huffed. “Maybe I do know what love is, Papa.” … “Then maybe I will find out.” … “You’ve been urging me to leave for years. You should be happy.” … “So what if he’s the reason why?” … “Of course, I will Papa.”

  Tamzin stirred as if agitated. “I would never do that, Papa. Not even for you.”

  After a long pause, Tamzin bowed her head, and a tear rolled down her cheek. “I’m sorry, Papa. Please, just don’t ask me to ever do anything unkind toward him or anyone he cares about.”

  Tamzin’s shoulders and head sank as if in defeat. “Yes, of course, I will always obey you, Papa. Your will be done in all things.”

  The cube stopped gleaming. Tamzin placed it on the floor and began to sob.

  For a moment, Galen was stunned. Then he came to his senses. He did not want her to know he’d overheard…whatever that was. He padded swiftly back to the living room, stripped off his pants, and got back into bed.

  He lay staring at the ceiling, utterly bewildered. Was she more nuts than he had believed? Or actually talking to someone in wraith space? No, that didn't make sense. If there was someone to talk to in wraith space, she could simply travel there. And who would be anywhere nearby?

  She had said she didn’t want to do anything unkind toward him and that she loved him. But then she said she would do whatever this “Papa” wanted her to do. Was she thinking of betraying him, or possibly Oona? On the orders of a figment of her imagination?

  Galen focused on his empathic sense. What had she been feeling in the room? Fear mixed with love and sadness plus that clinging feeling she had toward the ship and the cube. There was nothing definitive he could decipher from that tangled mess of emotions.

  Tamzin entered, and he pretended to be sleeping until she shook him awake. “Galen, I need to leave now. But I promise I will return.”

  He rubbed his eyes and took her hand. “Let me go with you.”

  “It’s too dangerous. Let me arrange a way for us to escape—together.” She knelt and kissed him. “Trust me. Please. We will help each other leave this place, okay? This is my part. You will have to play your part soon enough. Leaving this ship behind won’t be easy for me.”

  He nodded and agreed to wait, not that he had any choice. She was the only way out.

  Tamzin grinned, and in the dim red lights, as always, she looked devilish. But after the bizarre half-conversation he'd just witnessed, the effect was even creepier than usual.

  25

  Kyralla Vim

  Imagining that she was weaving through a debris field while evading enemy fire, Kyralla guided the Outworld Ranger through a set of complicated maneuvers without any help from the ship’s AI. She wanted to get a feel for flying on her own, in case she ever had to.

  After an hour, she began to lose focus. Eventually, her mind wondered. Realizing she’d spent nearly half an hour idly flying, she deactivated the engines and slouched back into her seat.

  “Madam, I have good news.”

  “I’m all for good news right now, Rosie.”

  “I spent the last hour having a productive discussion with this ship’s rather rude though surprisingly advanced AI. And I think I’ve worked out a way to turn this vessel into a flight simulator.”

  Kyralla set upright. “Seriously?”

  “Seriously, madam.”

  “Rosie, you’re the best!”

  “Thank you, madam.”

  “How would it work?”

  “The ship has a rudimentary training protocol that allows you to simulate flying. The ship will pitch, yaw, vibrate, and in all other ways respond as if you were flying it, only without actually moving. Meanwhile, the simulated situation will appear on the viewscreen ahead of you.”

  “Rosie, I could’ve been using that all along!”

  “The simulations the ship has available are basic, madam. Their purpose is to teach you how to pilot the ship if the AI is inoperable.”

  “How’s that bad?”

  “No combat scenarios, madam. Or anything remotely dangerous, as we would define it these days. The programs available are atmospheric entry, landing and takeoff, debris navigation at a cautious speed, and docking with numerous vessel types and stations. You wouldn’t have any problem handling any of those scenarios. Also, the viewscreen projections are not as immersive as you might like.”

  “So it’s designed for students?”

  “Precisely, madam. But if we combine what the ship can do, along with an appropriate VR experience, then we can provide a better simulation, given the right datasets.”

  “We tried VR already, and it didn’t work out.”

  The VR experience using her HUD and simulated sounds had seemed like a good idea, but the programs they had were almost as basic as those the ship could do. And no matter how much she manipulated the ship's controls in response to what she saw in the VR display, it didn't feel right. Everything was slightly out of sync no matter what Rosie did. On top of that, there was no way for the ship's AI to participate.

  “With assistance from the Outworld Ranger’s AI, I have linked the responses from the VR to the viewscreen and the ship’s training protocols, removing all lag in the process.”

  “That still leaves us with just a set of basic maneuvers.”

  "If only I could smile now, madam. Thanks to the update Silky shared, along with a few hacking tricks he taught me, I was able to break into a Federation military training outpost and steal some combat VR programs from their simulators. Now we can mimic any number of combat scenarios, and the ship's AI can work in tandem with you while the ship itself responds as if you're actually doing those things."

  “Rosie, I could kiss you!”

  “You’d have to remove me from the socket first, madam. And if you do, please, no tongue. I’d rather keep my circuits dry.”

  “That was a decent joke, Rosie!”

  “My personality core has expanded, madam. I’m more human-like. Of course, I’ll never have Silky’s full sentience. But don’t tell him I said that, please.”

  “Why?”

  “He doesn’t think he’s there yet, and he’s sensitive about it.”

  “Um…okay.” Kyralla stifled a yawn. “How soon can you have all this up and running?”

  “At least an hour, madam. Why don’t you take a nap? When you wake, I’ll have things ready for you.”

  Kyralla settled into her chair. “Maybe just a half hour nap…”

  She woke over an hour later and checked on the others while making a few circuits of the ship to get her blood flowing. Oona was getting some much-needed sleep. Tekeru and Bishop were laboring over the Tezzin skimmer car. Damage to the cargo bay had ruined some of Bishop's progress on it. Seneca was fussing about cleaning up the ship, and Octavian was sorting the scattered mess of boxes, artifacts, and equipment in the other cargo bay.

  She considered having a bite to eat then shivered at the thought of tasting anything they had. She drank some water and returned to the bridge.

  She dropped into the chair and grabbed the controls. “What have you got for me, Rosie?”

  “A dogfight against two Z2 starfighters, madam.”

  “Will that be challenging?”

  “It shouldn’t be for you, madam. This is a test run for the simulation system as much as anything. I have more challenging scenarios prepared for you later.”

  The viewscreen switched over to a simulated feed, showing an oblong moon and a red-orange planet in the distance. Rosie started her VR experience, projecting the same view directly into her retinas. Simulated nondescript people now crewed the other stations on the bridge. Kyralla had focused so much on piloting that she hadn’t even considered the need for additional crew members during a combat simulation.

 
; “The virtual crew members, what should I expect from them?”

  “At first, madam, I uploaded the default crew members provided by the simulation dataset. However, I decided that wasn’t the best way to go. So instead, I analyzed the performances of the others during our escape from the Ekaran system and our encounters against the Star Cutters, the pirate ship, and the World Bleeder starfighters. It wasn’t much to go on, of course, but it allowed me to create profiles more in keeping with what you will actually be working with, as opposed to trained military personnel.”

  Kyralla nodded and chewed on her lip. “Remove Siv and Mitsuki from the simulation but keep Oona, Bishop, and Tekeru.”

  “What purpose will that serve, madam?”

  “We…” Kyralla pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath. “We don't know how their mission is going and if they’ll… I just think it’s a good idea to prepare for the worst and to train with what I know we have available.”

  “The changes have been uploaded, madam. Ready when you are.”

  “Let’s do it.”

  A laser raked across the Outworld Ranger’s force field, draining it to less than one percent. Then twin plasma bolts pierced the shield and struck the hull.

  “Weapons disabled,” the ship’s AI announced. “Breach in cargo bay two.”

  Kyralla slammed the accelerator forward and pitched the ship, but too late. A railgun shot blasted through engineering.

  “Stardrive disabled. Fusion core in meltdown. Backup batteries at thirty-percent.”

  She pulled on the control stick, but there was no response. The ship continued to pitch.

  The last two Z2's came around and fired their plasma cannons. Four bolts streamed toward the ship, and there was nothing she could do about it. The shots struck the bridge, and everything in Kyralla's view went white.

  She released the flight controls and slammed her fists against the console. “Damn it!”

  “Had enough, madam?”

  The flames of anger and frustration nearly made her say that she wanted another go at it, but fatigue was settling in, and a third try wasn’t going to make a difference right now.