Redemption Song

by Henry A. Burns

  It turned out that not only was Burl able to change a diaper, he was also able to make the formula for baby Jesse. Watching 3D3B feed Jesse was an event in itself, with the baby being nestled in the loops of the Alsoo’s tail.

  It also turned out that Burl was a good cook. Maybe not professional-grade, but considering that neither Hendriks, Crystal, nor Cool Evening Breeze could even be considered adequate cooks made that evening’s dinner something to linger over.

  Cool Evening Breeze watched the interplay between all the members of her core and the two newcomers. More often than not, somebody was laughing, and most of the time everybody was smiling. She especially watched the interplay between Hendriks and Burl. Hendriks was laughing at something Burl had said, and Burl was grinning in triumph. Fuzzy Butt isn’t as guarded as he usually is when he’s around other men, she thought.

  “Hey Burl,” Cool Even Breeze called. “What were you before you decided to become a babysitter?”

  “Don’t laugh,” he cautioned with a sheepish grin. “But I was a …” He chirped something that did not translate.

  “What’s a ‘ker’tik’kik chirrup’?” Hendriks asked in confusion.

  “Close, Fuzzy Butt,” Cool Evening Breeze grinned. “It means he worked as a stage entertainer: chanting, singing, dancing, that sort of thing.”

  “Whatever was needed to tell the story,” Burl said.

  “You were an actor!” exclaimed Crystal. “Were you famous?”

  Burl chittered. “Only to my parents,” he replied. “Bright Sunlight saw one of my performances and asked me if I would join his crew. I guess you’d say I was the morale officer.”

  “Well, you’ve certainly improved the morale around here,” Hendriks said in approval.

  “Burl/he fine little split-tail/he. Big soul/he,” 3D3B chimed in. “Truth/oath.” She slapped her chest.

  “Truth/oath,” agreed Cool Evening Breeze, and she slapped her chest. She grinned when Hendriks echoed her. “Morale officer, huh?” she said. “And now a babysitter.”

  “Same thing, actually,” grinned Burl.

  “I do admire a competent male,” Cool Evening Breeze said. “You are a very competent babysitter,” she said.

  “Amen,” Hendriks muttered.

  Cool Evening Breeze smiled. “And certainly competent preparing a delicious and probably nutritious meal.”

  “Amen,” muttered Crystal.

  “We should not forget 3D3B,” Burl insisted.

  “No, we should not,” Cool Evening Breeze agreed. “Yes, I do admire competence,” she repeated. “Would the two of you be willing to join our core?” she asked. “As associates at first, of course.”

  “I would be honored,” Burl replied.

  “Of course, that’s assuming Hendriks and Crystal agreed,” cautioned Cool Evening Breeze. She looked at Crystal and then at Hendriks. “He’s competent, caring, and not bad to look at,” she said with a smile. “I wish I had a crèche nurse like 3D3B.”

  “3D3B young Alsoo/me/long time/was,” the Alsoo warbled. She wiggled. “Many male/they want/me they.”

  Hendriks laughed. “I just bet you were a hottie when you were younger,” he said. He frowned slightly. “But I don’t think humans or Rynn are compatible with Alsoo,” he said. “Shit, I wonder what the hell the Torque is saying to translate that?” he muttered as his words were converted to the Alsoo warble.

  Whatever it was, 3D3B warbled a laugh. ‘Big split-tail Hendriks/he ugly/he, dizzy/not me,” she warbled. “Split-tail/you ugly/you yes, safe/feel/me, warm/feel/me. 3D3B split-tail burrow join/me.”

  “Aloysius Wolfgang Hendriks, if you don’t say yes after that, it may be you that will need to find a new core,” Crystal said feelingly.

  “Ooh, she used all three of your names, Fuzzy Butt,” Cool Evening Breeze chittered. “Be very careful with your next words.”

  “This is going to be very strange,” muttered Hendriks.

  “Stranger than having an alien for a lover?” Cool Evening Breeze replied. “Stranger than having another alien as a nursemaid?” she asked. “Stranger than fighting bug-lizards?”

  “But they’re not giant bug-lizards,” Hendriks shot back. “They’re short bug-lizards, so they’re not really that strange.” He smiled. “Giant bug-lizards, now that would be strange,” he said with a laugh.

  Cool Evening Breeze chittered. “Maybe I’m talking to the wrong person here,” she said. She pointed at Hendriks. “Are you sure either of you want to be around someone who thinks that was funny?” she said to Burl and the Alsoo.

  “She does have a point, 3D3B,” Burl said to the Alsoo. The Alsoo warbled in amusement.

  “I’m still not sure about the guy/guy thing,” Hendriks said.

  “Is he really as big as people say?” Burl asked Cool Evening Breeze. She nodded. “It’s not just you that is not sure about the … guy/guy thing,” he said to Hendriks.

  “Have you?” asked Hendriks.

  “Of course. I am a Rynn,” Burl replied impatiently. “That does not mean I require it.” His crest fluttered. “Spirits weep, but if you are as big as it is rumored, I don’t think I will ever require it.”

  “Oh, it grows on you, so to speak,” Cool Evening Breeze chittered. “And Crystal can …”

  “That will be enough, Breeze,” Crystal said quickly. “I mean, we don’t need to divulge everything in one night.”

  Cool Evening Breeze chittered. “Okay, Momma.”

  “I guess that makes it official,” Hendriks said. “Welcome to our core, you two.” He looked at the Alsoo. “You’re family now.”

  “Truth/oath,” warbled the Alsoo. She slapped her chest.

  “Truth/oath,” chorused Hendriks, Cool Evening Breeze, and, just a beat behind, Crystal and Burl. They slapped their chests.

  YEAR 10

  41

  TROJAN HORSE

  “We’ve got incoming,” sang the detection specialist, a human. He spoke to his Torque and an image appeared. “It’s faint, but it appears to be Rynn.”

  “Hail them,” said the bridge commander, a Rynn.

  “Hailing, ma’am,” the detection specialist replied. “Unknown Rynn vessel, this is Earth Command Satellite Three. Identify yourselves.” He repeated the message several times. “I’m getting a response.” He spoke another command.

  “This … Rynn … damage … Poli … support sys … failing,” came the faint reply over the bridge team’s Torques. “Assis … assis …”

  “Scramble, scramble,” barked the bridge commander. “We have a damaged Rynn vessel incoming,” she snapped. “Denise, get the coordinates to the rescue team, stat.”

  “Yes ma’am,” responded the female, also human, tech. She started relaying information.

  “It’s the Silent Shadow, ma’am,” the first tech reported. “Central Sea Clan registry.” He checked the information scrolling past his eyes. “She’s got a crew of fifty.”

  “Passengers?” asked the Rynn commander.

  “None reported,” the tech replied. “She’s a mining ship.” The tech frowned. “She was reported lost two Earth months ago.”

  “What?” The commander looked at the faint image. “Rescue team, approach with caution, repeat, approach with caution,” she chirped to her Torque. “Captain Kasumi, we have an incoming Rynn mining vessel. The Silent Shadow,” she reported briskly. “The ship was reported lost almost a season ago.”

  Captain Kasumi frowned. Where could she have been for most of a season? she thought in concern. “Commander, send out Blue Squadron in support,” she ordered via her Torque. Also via her Torque, she had the image of the ship displayed.

  “She looks beat up,” Mel said. She peered at the image. “I don’t like this.”

  “Neither do I,” Kasumi agreed. “David?”

  “I don’t like it either,” Eisenstadt
grumbled. “Something smells.” He rubbed his chin. “Commander Sun Peeks Through the Clouds, hail them again,” he ordered.

  “Same response, Commander,” the bridge commander replied. She paused. “It was exactly the same response,” she said. “Sound recall, sound recall,” she ordered.

  “Battle stations, battle stations,” Kasumi said at almost the same moment from the bridge of the Nieth. “Bastet, power up,” she said.

  “DefSat One online,” came a report over the Torque, followed in quick order by the remaining four defense satellites that ringed Earth.

  The two Talon-class destroyers came to full battle readiness. The second Talon, the Bastet, was newly commissioned and had not completed its shakedown trials. Despite that, or possibly because of it, she had already acquired a nickname.

  “The Bastard is online, powered up and ready to go,” reported the ship’s human captain. “What do we have, Captain?”

  “I’m not sure, Captain,” Kasumi replied. “But as Commander Eisenstadt said, something stinks.”

  “You thinking we got a Trojan horse coming in, Captain?” asked the Bastet’s captain.

  “Trojan …?” Kasumi began.

  “That means it’s hiding something deadly,” Mel explained quickly. “Morning Mist, sensors?”

  “Something is distorting my sensor readings,” Morning Mist replied. She started chirping to her Torque. “I’ve seen that interference pattern before,” she mumbled. Suddenly, her crest snapped up. “It’s a singularity wave.”

  “Singularity?” Mel asked. Her eyes widened. “Are you telling me there’s a black hole in that ship?” she asked. Morning Mist nodded frantically. “Shit! The damn thing is a bomb.”

  “Stop that ship!” ordered Kasumi.

  “Captain, this is Franklin,” interrupted a voice. “I’ve been monitoring. I agree with Morning Mist: you may have an unstable singularity in that ship,” he said. “If you destroy the ship, you chance unleashing a singularity in-system.”

  “Shit!” exclaimed Mel.

  “We can’t let that ship get any closer, Franklin,” Kasumi replied in grim tones.

  “No, we can’t,” agreed Franklin. “So we have to move her,” he said. “Captain Delaney, you have three Shrikes with remote capability, right?”

  “If you mean I got three Shrike drones, yeah,” replied the Bastet captain.

  “Get your techs to disable the safety interlocks on the magnetic grapples,” Franklin said urgently. “But do not activate them until they are halfway to the Silent Shadow.”

  “Do it, Captain,” ordered Eisenstadt. “Report when the drones are on their way.”

  “The next part’s gonna be tricky,” Franklin said as they waited for the modifications to be made and the drones to be launched. “Someone is going to have to guide those drones and get them to attach just in front of the main thrusters.” An image appeared in front of everyone in conference. Three points blinked. “That’s the target area.”

  “Tricky is right,” agreed Delaney. “But I’ve got a first-class, iron-nerved drone pilot who should be up to the task.” He laughed. “Friend of yours, Captain,” he said. “Goes by the too-long-to-say name of Raindrops in a Tide Pool.” He laughed grimly. “We just call him Tide Pool.”

  “Sprits be praised,” Kasumi replied. “Franklin, coordinate with Raindrops in a Tide Pool.”

  “Will do, Captain,” Franklin replied. “Franklin out.”

  “Granddaughter,” came Jeremy’s voice. “An attack such as this is meaningless,” he said. “A distraction.”

  “Gramps is right,” Mel added. “Detection Satellite One. Come in.”

  “This is DefSat One,” came a cool voice. “We’ve been monitoring. Boards are clean and green.”

  “Keep looking,” Mel replied. “We think that the mining ship is a decoy.”

  “Understood, Command,” returned the cool voice. “We got our eyes and ears at max.”

  “This is Eisenstadt,” the commander broadcast. “On my authority, I am raising Earth readiness to Defcon 2. Repeat, Defcon 2.”

  “This is DefSat One,” came the cool voice. “We have multiple bogeys.” A three-dimensional map of the solar system appeared. Red circled lights indicated the bogeys. “They were coming in under the plane of the ecliptic,” continued the voice. “Very low power, almost none in fact.”

  “This is Eisenstadt,” barked the commander. “On my authority, we are now at Defcon 1. Repeat, Defcon 1.”

  “This is DefSat One,” the cool voice broke back in. “Bogeys have powered up. Repeat, bogeys have powered up.” The voice stopped and then broke back in. “Blow those suckers out of our space,” the voice growled.

  “This is DefSat Three,” came another voice. “We are engaging hostile craft.”

  “Bastet!” barked Kasumi. “Get your ass out there.”

  “Hauling ass now,” replied Delaney. “Time for the Bastard to earn its stripes,” he said almost jubilantly. “Bastet, out.”

  “Oh shit,” Mel exclaimed. “If those are Polig-Grug,” she said in horror, “they’ve probably got Alsoo on their ships.”

  “I know,” Kasumi said in a hushed voice. “Spirits and ancestors forgive me, I know.” Kasumi slumped in her command chair and thought.

  “This is DefSat Two,” came a new voice.

  “Now what?” complained Mel. “Report, DefSat Two.”

  “We picking up a second stream of bogeys,” came the voice. “They’re already inside Mars orbit.”

  “How the fuck did they get in so close without being seen?” Mel snapped.

  “They’re all about twenty meters in length,” came the reply. “We only detected them when they started braking.”

  “Assault craft,” Eisenstadt said instantly. “ETA Earth orbit?”

  “Twenty-six hours,” replied the voice. “But unless they modify their flight path, they will not be going into orbit,” he said. “They’re on an intercept course.”

  “This is Eisenstadt,” the commander broadcast. “I want air defenses mobilized,” he ordered. “Prepare all urban centers for evacuation,” he continued. “Prepare all urban centers for invasion,” he barked. “And someone find out how many we’re dealing with.”

  “How many?” Joseph Franklin asked in disbelief.

  “Three hundred, give or take a dozen or so,” Black Rocks replied.

  “This makes no sense,” Franklin replied. He spoke to his Torque, and an image of a spacecraft appeared. “Assuming that these ships are similar to what we saw on the Polig-Grug raider ships,” he said in musing tones, “then each ship is going to contain five or six Polig-Grug.” He frowned. “They’ll cause damage, but we can clean them out.”

  “Polig-Grug/Eaters/they come home/ours, not know/we, long time/short time/not know/we, Eaters/see/not, Eaters/see/many/many,” warbled Second-Daughter-Fifth-Born.

  Franklin frowned as he worked on deciphering the Alsoo’s speech. “Did they come in ships?” he asked finally.

  “Eater ships long time show/they,” replied Second-Daughter -Fifth-Born.

  Franklin looked at the image again. “Franklin to Cool Evening Breeze.”

  “Cool Evening Breeze here,” replied the Rynn marine.

  “How many queens did you see on the ship?” he asked.

  “Hmmm. Not sure how many there were,” she replied. “I personally saw two. Why?”

  “I think I saw a couple as well,” Hendriks broke in.

  “Franklin to Command,” Franklin said sharply. “It’s not an attack force,” he said quickly. “It’s an occupation force. The number and type of ships does not make sense if this was an attack, but it makes perfect sense if all they care about is one or two landing.”

  “Explain,” Eisenstadt ordered.

  “There really isn’t enough data to be certain, but here goes,” Fran
klin said. “We were assuming that those fighter craft were piloted by a temporary group of workers and a queen,” he said. “But what if there are no workers, just males and females?”

  “Or what if the big one wasn’t a queen, but a male?” Jeremy broke in. “A king.”

  “Of course!” exclaimed Joseph. “We keep letting our thinking be influenced by how it is here on Earth.”

  “Or Nest,” Morning Mist added.

  “If Mr. Blunt is correct, and I’m afraid he may be, then each ship contains a breeding group,” Joseph said in an excited voice. “Considering how voracious Polig-Grug are …” Franklin trailed off. “Bottom line, we can’t allow any of those ships to land.”

  “Wasn’t planning on it,” Eisenstadt replied dryly.

  “Bastet to Command,” Delaney broke in.

  “Come in, Bastet,” the commander replied.

  “We have the Trojan under control,” the Bastet’s captain said. “Tide Pool was able to attach the drones, and the ship is braking now,” he said. “Command, I’m not getting any reaction from the Polig-Grug, but sensors are saying there are definitely life-forms on the Trojan.”

  “David, we have to board that ship,” Kasumi said urgently. “There may be Alsoo.”

  “Dammit, Kasumi, I can’t ask people to enter a death trap,” Eisenstadt replied.

  “No need to ask, commander,” the captain of the Bastet broke in. “The entire marine platoon just volunteered.” There was a dry chuckle. “Captain Kasumi is not the only one who wants to sleep well at night.”

  “There’s a rogue singularity in that ship, captain,” Eisenstadt snapped.

  ‘Is there really, commander?” Delaney replied. “Or are we just supposed to think so?” he drawled. “Regardless, I have half a hundred marines waiting for me to give them the green light,” he said. “If there really was an unshielded and rogue singularity in that ship, then how come we have life signs?”

  Eisenstadt looked around the bridge. He knew what Kasumi wanted to do. He knew what he wanted to do. But is it the smart thing? he asked himself. “Captain, you have permission, but with one caveat,” he said. “Once your marines are launched, you will pull back at least a thousand kilometers.”