by Damon Alan
Thea laughed. “You certainly don’t let it go to your head, do you?”
“Confidence is a prime requisite for leadership, something I’ve just been reminded of. Losing Navin has rattled my very being, but I have to make his loss worth something.”
“Navin was a great man. I wasn’t close to him like you, but I recognized a future leader,” Thea agreed. “And I can see your pain.”
“I do not want to talk about that.”
“Of course you don’t. That would imply you needed someone else to help you,” Thea said.
Sarah sighed and shook her head. “We were doing so well for a moment.”
“What do you want from me?” Thea asked. “A yes every time you speak?”
Her first instinct was to say yes. But that would be a lie. She thought about what Thea was to her. A friend since the death of Merik, although a cranky one. A counterpoint to her ideas, and once in a while Sarah had to admit the doctor was right about a thing or two. Occasionally she made Sarah refine her ideas to a higher level, improving tactics or closing a potential hole.
“Well, crap,” Sarah finally answered. “I guess I want you to be just what you are.”
“Not much choice about that,” Thea replied. “If you want to take this tiny ship and go flitting about the galaxy trying to save the universe, you do it. But you better not bring the problems back to Oasis, Admiral, or you will let a whole lot of people down.”
“I’m trying to make a deal with Bannick Komi. Stop being so dramatic.”
Thea closed her eyes and shook her head. “He will stab you the first chance he gets. Even if he gives you ships and crews, he will lace those crews with people loyal to himself.”
“That’s a good point,” Sarah agreed, although she’d already thought of that as a contingency and had a plan to counter it. “We can get our crews elsewhere, outside of Komi space, if that’s what it takes. Don’t forget, the adepts can pick out the spies. We will have a loyal fleet.”
“Just be careful,” the Mayor said. “We’ve come too far to lose now.”
Civilian thinking. Any respectable military leader knows that loss is easy, winning is hard. Loss can strike a minute before victory is secured.
“I’ll order us dinner,” Sarah offered. She gestured toward Thea’s meeting room. “Dine with me. Let’s enjoy the view of the lagoon and not talk business.”
“Might as well enjoy a good meal. You’re going to do what you want anyway.”
“Probably,” Sarah agreed. “But I’d feel bad about it if I didn’t have your blessing. Therefore, I’m bribing you with food.”
“As good of a bribe as any,” Thea admitted. “Let’s hope the press doesn’t find out I’m so easily corruptible.”
Chapter 7 - Admiral’s Personal Log
03 Ors 15332
AI Lucy82A recording, Admiral's personal log, personal archive: Galactic Standard Date 16:29:53 03 ORS 15332
Personal log entry #1964, Admiral Sarah Dayson, origin Korvand, Pallus Sector.
Current Location: Refuge, Jerna City, New Korvand. Habitation #731, Admiral Dayson’s quarters.
Stress kills. I’ve had stress my entire life, since practically the first moment I told my parents I was joining the military. And when I say stress kills, I don’t necessarily mean me. Navin died for my worries. A remote chance that the Komi would sequence the DNA of two dead adepts forced me to risk combat with two cruisers.
The ridiculous part of the story, of course, is that it wasn’t the cruisers that killed Navin. It was space debris.
[A deep sigh]
And now Halani is gone as well. She’s done far more than the two years required to be a citizen here, so she doesn’t even have to come back. Stress. I need her in the machine, killing Hive with me.
[A laugh]
Killing Hive with me. It sounds stupid. Like children chasing glow bugs in a dark field.
[Another laugh]
I think that thanks to Salphan, Thea is a bit more on my side. A bit more relaxed in regard to letting me set the military priorities. And no, she doesn’t really have a choice, but the last thing I want to be with her is insubordinate. But there is a higher need than obedience here.
[Fourteen seconds of silence]
The Stennis is still being repaired and updated. When he’s done, I’ll move my flag back to my ship. The Sheffaris, while amazing, is proving too risky. The debris wouldn’t have penetrated my battlecruiser. But the armor on a destroyer just isn’t the same.
[The sound of liquid pouring]
I’m starting to like tea. It’s not wine, but I have resisted the turn to that demon once again.
I’ll be spending a few days here in the city, taking some recreation time with Salphan, and seeing the people who matter to me.
Scratch that.
They all matter. But the ones that I know and share history with. I need to see them to remember why I have to go back to the galaxy.
Because it’s ugly there.
[A sigh]
End the log, Lucy.
Chapter 8 - Confusion
Sylange, while wishing to rest with her family, felt a tug in her mind that wouldn’t let go. She wanted to know more about the humans that this universe created to maintain stability here. They seemed oddly unstable for an organic entity created to keep things in order.
Finally, after several chimindiks of restlessness, she couldn’t help herself.
She phased to the location where she’d left the humans she’d previously saved.
The system was full of electromagnetic signals, she’d really not taken the time to notice that before. She turned the back of her carapace toward the star and darkened it to absorb energy. From her underside she extended her sensor arms, threading them to maximize her input from the surroundings.
Four human-occupied vessels were closing on her position.
Probably to thank her for saving their own.
She waited, studying the rest of the system. It was filled with humans on two habitable planets. The organics also dwelled on or in thousands of artificial environments, placed on various rocks around the system, from small asteroids to moons. And strangely, in purpose-built habitats that floated freely in space. That such a fragile creature would build such a vulnerable structure to live in spoke volumes about their courage. How often did they die when their bubbles of life sustaining gaseous chemicals were pierced by errant debris floating about the system?
A signal in the radio band of the electromagnetic spectrum caught her attention. “— Target is not responding to hails. Request permission to fire.”
What’s this?
“Permission granted. Nuclear release codes are provided in sub-carrier.”
The four ships approaching her were communicating with a larger vessel a short distance behind them. From what she knew of the human language, nuclear meant two things. A weapon that wantonly released the energy of fission or fusion, or alternatively it also meant the controlled release of fission or fusion in a containment vessel. Primitive power methods used by primitive beings.
Were they planning to attack her? She’d saved their peers. This made no sense.
Small fusion powered lances separated from the four ships and then winked out of existence. She’d seen the weapons the machines use do the exact same thing, in a moment they’d reappear close to her position if she was the target.
Like clockwork the missiles appeared a short distance away.
They were attacking her.
She considered what cause they would have to do so but couldn’t find a good reason. She’d shown nothing but good will toward these creatures. She assumed her behavior would result in an attempt at mutual understanding from them, not hostility.
The lances rushed toward her. She’d let them impact to make the humans understand the futility of their actions.
Detonations. The energy washed over her carapace, which turned reflective to shunt most of the radiation away. The bit that absorbed into the shel
l was shunted to storage for her own use, filling her with a sense of elation as warmth flooded into her body.
The effort to divert away that much energy was, despite her adaptability, risky. Her conscious efforts were consumed for the moment, leaving her vulnerable as she was unable to divert thought away from the task at hand. Blind and unaware of her surroundings, she took a few chimindiks to recover her senses as the radioactive haze faded away. As she did, she wondered why there was an attack on her. She’d saved these creatures. Emotions of betrayal and revenge welled up in her. Enraged, she phased to the larger vessel, the source of the majority of the radio transmissions, and the one that she assumed ordered the attack.
It was two times her size, but that was of no matter. She grabbed part of the ship’s structure with her manipulating arms, then unsheathed her cutting arms and began destroying the ungrateful creatures. Again and again she plunged into the containers of the vessel, the gas the humans needed to survive leaked into space around her. Her sensor threads laced through the ship; when she encountered a human, she shredded it.
The smaller human ships erupted in a blaze of radio energy, probably calling for help.
That wouldn’t save them. Soon the vessel in her grasp was a lifeless hulk, drifting in a decaying solar orbit.
The four smaller vessels were closing on her position. Brave, she’d give them that.
She pushed the large ship away from her, floating freely for a moment.
Should she destroy the little vessels as well?
No. She wouldn’t be the one to further a division between the two species. Let the humans learn the futility of their attack when they surveyed the damage she’d already done. If they didn’t learn, more death would be needed.
Chapter 9 - Sendoff
07 Ors 15332
Sarah felt ready for whatever came. She was taking her ship into harm’s way once again, with Kuo as her XO and Heinrich in engineering. Heinrich, no doubt, would be pushing the crew to their limits. Algiss manned the nav/weapons station and Sergeant Stornbeck now occupied the comm station.
It was an excellent crew, and she was glad to have them, although seeing someone occupy Seto’s spot was a jolt with each glance that way. That wouldn’t last long. A few days and Stornbeck would be as much family as any other bridge crewmember she’d ever had.
They were pushing toward their target. After three jumps toward Komi, the crew seemed to be working like a well-tuned rocket. A big part of that was Ensign Algiss, who seemed to have a good rapport with Emille. They were friends by adept standards, on a first name basis.
“When you’re ready, Mister Algiss,” Sarah said. “Take us into the hornet nest.”
“Transferring to the Komi system now,” he said.
The star pattern on the screen changed as the Sheffaris made its final jump to their destination. A bright yellow primary lit the space of this star system. Sergeant Stornbeck was on passive sensors, she had some experience in that regard from the Schein. Data rapidly appeared on the main screen as the powerful sensors filled in the information regarding planets and other orbital bodies.
Admiral Cothis was in a gravcouch, restrained to prevent any problems. “There are two terraformed planets,” he said. “The inner one is a farming world, with population strictly controlled to minimize agricultural land loss to city sprawl. The outer is the urban heart of the Komi empire, marginally habitable, but mineral rich. A program of atmospheric manipulation keeps it warm enough for liquid water.”
Sarah stared at him with a mix of coolness and contempt.
He seemed to want to prove he was useful. Maybe afraid she’d actually space him if he stepped out of line.
Unlike all other missions they’d flown in the Sheffaris, she commanded this one with her sidearm strapped to her side every waking moment. If the Komi did somehow get on the ship, she’d not go lightly.
The restraints she had on Cothis probably made him feel helpless, which he pretty much was. His gravcouch was set up to isolate him from the rest of the crew both visually and aurally if he became a problem. If he flailed too much, the medical diagnostics at his station would sedate him. She’d mentioned all of that when he was strapped in, of course.
A new gravcouch embraced her at the command station, the old one having been destroyed. A wave of determination surged through her as she remembered why it was new, and that she was in command. Because of the people ruling this system.
“Admiral,” Algiss said, interrupting her thoughts. “I have combat at,” he marked the strategic display on the main screen, “this point. The conflict is large, and in the plane of the ecliptic at the indicated spot. FTL missiles and nuclear weapons are being used.”
“How close can we jump and observe without being detected?” Sarah asked.
“That’s Bannick,” Cothis said. “You need to help him, not remain hidden.”
“Shut up, Admiral,” Kuo ordered. “I will not tell you more than once.”
Cothis huffed but kept quiet. By now he had to believe most of Sarah’s crew wanted his blood.
“There is a comet,” Algiss reported, “about two hundred thousand kilometers from the fight. If we transfer in close enough, we’ll register as a fragment. As long as we don’t drop into the coma, we’ll be safe, and we can then use thrusters to get into the comet’s shadow relative to the battle. We’ll have to be careful, the battle is near the star and the comet will be active.”
“Excellent plan,” Sarah said. “Make that happen.”
Thirty seconds later the small ship transferred again. The comet loomed large on the main viewscreen.
“Eighteen kilometers off the surface,” Algiss said. “Taking us in closer.”
“Nicely done.”
The young navigator put the ship precisely where he wanted it. The comet loomed a few hundred meters below them. A jet of gas shot into space and arced over the Sheffaris providing even more cover for the tiny ship. In the distance a few flashes indicated the location of the battle. Flashes at this range that could only be one thing.
Big nukes. Ship killing bombs, with high radiation yields.
“The four vessels in position A,” Kuo put an indicator on the screen, “are attacking a single heavy cruiser sized vessel.” He put up another point. “That ship lagging behind the four destroyers is a command battlecruiser. It is likely directing the smaller attack ships. Standard Komi procedure from what I can tell.”
“Zoom in on the single cruiser being attacked,” Sarah ordered.
The screen quickly showed the ship under fire.
Sarah had never seen anything like it before, but human spacecraft were as diverse as humanity itself.
It looked much like a beetle, she thought.
The ship had a center ring, that at first glance, looked like a coolant fin storage ring for the FTL drive, but then the ship extended a series of appendages from the exact spot the cooling fins should be. The cruiser was probably not FTL capable.
The back part of the unknown ship flashed in intricate light patterns, and for some reason the color and patterns made Sarah think of anger.
The FTL nukes struck home, and she wondered how much wreckage would be left.
“Sixteen megatons yield,” Algiss reported.
“Wow. They hate that guy,” Kuo observed.
They watched for a moment, their instruments piercing through the glare of the nuclear weapons, studying the ship.
Then the beetle cruiser vanished.
“What was that?” Sarah almost yelled. That wasn’t an FTL jump. That ship transferred much like the Sheffaris had moments earlier.
“Uhh,” Kuo responded as he and Stornbeck furiously worked the sensor banks.
“Where did it go?” she demanded. “Now, Kuo!”
“There!” he said, swiveling the viewpoint to the new location of the vessel.
It was attached to the command battlecruiser, quite literally ripping it to shreds with the appendages extending from the center ring. She could
now see there were two rings, and another set of appendages reached out from the bottom of the ship.
The bridge crew of the Sheffaris observed for several minutes as the Komi ship died. The smaller attack ships turned around but were unable to fire due to their squadron leader being in contact with the enemy. Physical contact, not just a merged sensor target.
The command cruiser was rapidly failing to function. Running lights shut down, the engines went dark. The beetle cruiser, for lack of a better term, hurled the broken ship away.
Then the strange vessel vanished.
“Where is it?” Sarah yelled. “Mister Algiss, prepare to get us out of here.”
That bug ship was a threat. Whoever was flying it, that was no Komi or Hive design.
These had to be the aliens Hozz spoke of. Maybe he wasn’t as much of a joke as everyone thought. When they couldn’t complete Heinrich’s mission to get starliners for the refugees, they’d dropped Hozz back on Refuge, thinking him a liability.
Now she wished he was here.
“Emergency phase out is at your command,” Algiss said.
Sarah gestured at him to wait.
Aliens.
She had visual proof.
“It’s gone,” Kuo said. “I don’t see it anywhere.”
“Closest functional Komi vessel?”
“Several million kilometers. Moving toward the stricken cruiser,” her XO answered. It will not get closer than two hundred thousand klicks from us, a few minutes before the point where it reaches the destroyed Komi ship.
She looked at Cothis. “Do you know what that was?”
He shrugged. “I’ve never seen a ship like that before. The way it moved, I assumed it to be one of yours.” He cocked his head at her. “But it wasn’t, was it?”
She didn’t answer.
“Mister Kuo, go full active. If those nearby attack ships turn our way, destroy them. I need to know about that other ship.”
“I’m not detecting any debris from the unknown. The Komi either didn’t hit it, or the vessel suffered no damage,” Kuo reported. He paused and looked at Sarah. “And we saw them hit it. The small vessels heading toward the wreckage are screaming bloody murder on the emergency channels about it.”