“She was more than just a machine,” Arion said, choking back tears.
“I need him to live, and then my existence will have had meaning.” The little Alieha on the screen smiled. “You’d love him to death. If you ever find him out there, don’t let go of him. That assumes that I haven’t married him,” she said with a wink and held up her hands with a wicked smile indicating the size of something.
Arion let a tear loose as he laughed and turned away embarrassed. The flesh and blood Alieha looked at him approvingly.
“Don’t blame him, or anyone else if I die next cycle. This was my doing, my choice. I just wish I could face my end knowing that he will, for sure, be safe.”
Arion reached out and shut down the projection. “Thank you, but you didn’t have to…”
Alieha pressed a finger to his lips. “She wanted me to.” She looked away for a moment. “Was it quick? Her death?”
Arion deflated. He knew this moment had been coming, and had dreaded it for a long time. “How much do you know already?”
“Not much. I know when she died and that it was part of a decoy maneuver. That’s it. I could have pressed my uncle for more. He has her body and should have downloaded her memories, but…”
“She crashed her ship into the Gorvian corvette right after coming off slipstream, not even bleeding off any speed. The rest of her crew was already dead.” Arion couldn’t believe he was telling her this, but he couldn’t stop his mouth from running. “The damage she’d inflicted gave us the chance we needed to destroy the corvette.”
Alieha took a deep breath, nodded. “I see. Surprised they found anything of her.”
“It was a glancing hit, but the transport disintegrated all the same.” He looked off towards, and through, the others. Blazer kept glancing their way. “The bridge module broke free, but was otherwise intact.” He took a deep, steadying breath, and took her hand. “I was on the recovery team. I was the one who found her.”
Alieha squeezed his hands.
“I’d had no idea that she was a biodroid until then. She was still…” he had to choose his words carefully.
Alieha gazed up at him, concerned and questioning.
“She was still functional, torn in half and damaged beyond any hope of repair, exposed to vacuum and radiation for hects, but still, online.”
Alieha’s eyes went wide, her palms suddenly sweaty. “But, how, how did she die?”
Arion closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath. “Please don’t hate me,” he said, tightening his grip, not wanting to lose her. He couldn’t afford to build any future on a lie. “She begged me to end her pain, tapped out the message on the metal plate she clung to. I loved her, and I…” the words caught in his throat. He looked Alieha in the eyes.
She pulled her hands from him and turned away. “Was it quick? What you did for her?”
Arion reached out, held his hand just behind her back. After a moment he withdrew the hand, ashamed to touch her. Worse, that ebon hair, unkempt as it was, reminded him too much of how he’d found Three. “Yes. I ended her pain.” He stepped back, choking back the tears. He knew nothing he could say would win her over, that he’d lost her.
Alieha turned to face him. Tears soaked her face, her eyes hard. She stepped in close, Arion braced for a slap that didn’t come. Instead he found her arms around him, her tears flowing into his sweat-soaked shirt. “Thank you,” she wept. “Thank you for telling me the truth and for honoring her wishes.” She pulled away and looked up at him. “I need some time to think. We’ll talk when I get back.” With that, Alieha turned and left, not running, but walking at a brisk pace that spoke volumes about her wanting to be anywhere else.
Arion just stood there, unable to move or speak. His universe had shattered.
Flight Deck, Reluctant Favor
Alieha’s eyes still stung as she eased her ship onto the runway. Not even her eyedrops helped. “Wolfsbane Control, Reluctant Favor, requesting clearance to launch.”
“Reluctant Favor, you are clear for departure. Escorts have launched and are in position. See you next time. Wolfsbane Control Out.”
“Copy that Control.” Alieha pressed the throttle forward to set her velocity. Her ship glided down the deck and into open space. She couldn’t tell what, if anything, she was feeling at the moment. She’d cried the whole way back to the flight deck, and wasn’t sure she could any more. She was all business from there on, however, and just followed her routine. As she left the Wolfsbane behind her hearts were quiet. She couldn’t think any more about what Arion had revealed. He’d given Three a merciful death, but what was she to him now? Was she some kind of penance? Did he really care about her?
“Wolfsbane Control, Reluctant Favor, free and navigating, escorts in sight,” Medlick, her co-pilot and loadmaster called out over the link.
She bit back a curse and leaned back in her seat. “Sorry, mind’s not where it should be.”
Medlick grunted and vectored them towards the distant jump point as he set up the slipstream course. “I get it. You were quiet all through preflight. Something up with the new boyfriend?”
Alieha shot him a look that would have melted silicasteel. “He’s not my boyfriend, but yes.”
“Sorry boss lady. I could tell that you actually liked him.”
“Still do. I just need some time to process some truth he laid on me.”
“Escorts inbound.”
Alieha looked up, barely taking notice of the midnight blue and silver white Splicer 5000s that formed up around her. Arion’s voice crackled through her headset. “Reluctant Favor, Monstero Nach Zero-Three, flight of three, we are your escorts. Please slave navigational computer for slipstream vector.”
Alieha sat up and looked out the viewport towards the nearest fighter. The flight suited form within the backseat of the cockpit looked cramped compared to his pilot. She couldn’t help but smile and motioned to Medlick to follow his instructions. “Linking navigational computer now.” There was so much more she wanted to say, but she held her tongue.
“Link confirmed. Setting course for slipstream entry vector,” he replied, his voice sounding oddly disconnected. She realized why - he was under the shroud.
Alieha looked over at Medlick. “You have the ship. I need to take care of something below.” Without another word, she released her harness and floated out of her seat. Twisting about, she pushed off towards the back of the cockpit and the ladderwell down into her tiny quarters. As she did so, she tapped her left temple and activated her old micomm. She hadn’t used the thing in annura. She preferred a macomm to the relic in her head. It was nowhere near as sophisticated as the newer wetware was and she had no interest in the time or expense an upgrade would entail. It did however offer her the chance at an insight she couldn’t pass up.
Descending her ladder, she felt the ship shift and closed her eyes. She reached out to find other micomms, nothing. The modern, military-grade units were shielded from snooping by her limited device. A moment later, however, a light shone in her mind’s eye. She reached out and touched it, felt Arion’s mind touch hers. she began.
Micomms were a tricky thing. Normally they would suppress any emotional context from a message, but she could feel how tortured Arion was feeling. He was sincere.
Alieha pondered that for a long moment as the ship jumped to slipstream, a momentary bump in the micomm signal.
Before they dropped out of slipstream a hect and a half later Arion and Alieha had relived much of the romance that Arion had had with Three. It was odd for Alieha, seeing and experiencing it all through Arion’s mind’s eye. There was real love there, and she could tell that Three had loved him back. She wouldn’t have done some of the things she did otherwise, she mused. Even the passionate lovemaking, to feel it from his perspective enticed her senses in a way she’d never considered. We’re going to have to try making love with our micomms linked That would be insane.
She felt a flush come from Arion: part of her thought must have slipped through.
“Hey boss. We’re at the jump point. You want to come up here?” Medlick called.
“On my way,” she called back.
UCSB Date: 1005.178
Bridge, UCSBS-Wolfsbane, Neshid System
The bridge of the Wolfsbane still amazed Senior Sensor Technician Fexil Nace. Even after all the time he’d spent there, it would take his breath away whenever he came on shift. Buried deep in the heart of the Wolfsbane, it might as well have hung in open space. Just like the fighters he dreamed of flying, its walls, ceiling, and even the floor lay covered in sensor imaging panels that gave an unobstructed view of local space.
During the last refit, Captain Sardenon had even had the gravity plating removed so that the crew could float about when the ship wasn’t under thrust. Despite that, enough gravity bled through from the plating three decks below to hold the crew to the deck and slowly pull anything floating to it.
He nodded to Officer Det as he proceeded through the hatch and launched himself towards his station. Only a few annura older than Nace, Det had a choice to make regarding who to send to the academy for the next term. Nace was, once again, on the shortlist. He’d been passed over twice before. His duties and skills had been deemed ‘too valuable’ to allow him to leave the first time. The second chance had come during the Gorvian crisis. The Wolfsbane had relinquished none of its enlisted during that round.
He flipped and landed at his station at the end of the row of sensor monitoring stations. He tapped the last duty NCO on the shoulder. The Otlian looked up. “Anything to report Cort?”
He shook his head, his long goatee whipping about. “Nothing. This system is as lively as my ex-wife in bed. Console’s all yours.”
Nace chuckled and pulled himself into the round bench as a flight of escort Firehawks rocketed past. He watched them go, and sighed. How he wished to be one of those glamorous fighter pilots, instead of a technician, just monitoring his station. Setting those dreams aside, once again, he looked over the scan logs. Computers did much of the work; sophisticated, non-sentient, Synthetic Intelligence Processors would analyze the incoming sensor data and flag potential anomalies for deeper study and analysis. The logs revealed nothing out of the ordinary. What the Galactic Federation could possibly want in this system, he had no idea.
He looked over at the younger technician beside him. The fresh faced, feline Orinok still seemed enamoured with the honor of serving aboard the Wolfsbane. Nace recalled that feeling and it brought a smile to his lips. He was about to ask the smaller being to fetch him a cup of stim caff when he spotted an alert on her screen.
He turned back to his own console and pulled the younger technician’s readout over. The SI had found something. “What is it sir?” the young technician asked. She remained perched on her seat, craned her neck to look.
Nace wasn’t sure, but it looked like a dark spot on sensors. It could have been just a stray asteroid blotting out a star. Most would be, but his gut gnawed - he needed to be sure. “Not sure yet, but watch. We can determine what this is in short order.” Nace knew it was best to educate the younger being. Sending his superiors false positives could lead to costly mistakes after all.
He opened several windows, scanning that sector of space across the EM band first. Several stars in succession momentarily winked out as the object eclipsed them. He plotted its course - elliptical. Thermographics showed nothing: the object, whatever it was, was cold. Even the high band EM showed nothing. The object wasn’t dense enough to warrant a high-band return. That piqued his interest. He checked the tachyon scanners. Perhaps the hyperlight particles would give him some clue as so far he had no solid read on the object’s size or distance.
His eyes went wide – there was nothing there. He checked the data again, and crosschecked it against the neighboring arrays - still nothing. He pulled up the visual scan again, enhanced it. He ordered the computer to plot the speed of the object based on distances up to a light-hect away. A single frame revealed a familiar silhouette as it eclipsed a nearby star. The SIP gave a partial ID and dimensions, computing the distance and velocity of the craft. A glance at his gravitational scanner revealed that the estimates were correct: a Stealth Sloop in slipstream.
Nace slapped his hand on his alert panel, hailing the duty officer. His screens and data duplicated on several screens and took priority in the primary scanner SIP array. His contact even appeared on the tactical holosphere behind him, where several officers and senior NCOs monitored the whole system.
Officer Det landed and looked down at the screen. Nace switched over to a plan view map of the local system to check the craft’s course. “Report! What did you find?”
“Possible Stealth Sloop on the edge of the system,” he began, pulling up the grainy image. “It appears to be at its maximum slipstream and heading towards Jump Point 4, if these readings are correct.”
Det’s eyes narrowed as he studied the plot and the image. Stealth Sloops were marvellous pieces of tech. They were able to mask their EM emissions in massive ZKEPs under special hulls that bent radiation around them. They were even invisible to tachyons. Only trained technicians could hope to detect them, and even then, it took a bit of luck. Det tapped his jaw, activating the small link he’d had implanted. “XO! We have a possible contact with a GF Stealth Sloop at system’s edge. Likely a long-range scout on its way out of system.”
The ship’s Drashig XO, Commander Vetter, replied a moment later from the raised command dais at the rear of the chamber. “Could be a forward vanguard, sussing out the system? Good catch! Ops, do we have any flights out along that vector?”
Nace turned to watch, invigorated as the command staff set to work. Friendly contacts throughout the system highlighted on every display he could see. The Ops officer up on the command dais replied over the open bridge link. “We have a flight of three Splicer 5000s at Jump Point 4 ready to link up with a civilian transport and escort it in.”
Vetter turned to the tactical officer. “ETA to contact?”
“Ten pulses sir.”
Vetter nodded. “Ops, contact those fighters. They must keep that Sloop from escaping the system. Security - fetch the Captain.”
Monstero Nach 003, en-route to Jump Point 4
Two decles had stretched into five, and Arion was beside himself with anticipation. Alieha was coming back. He’d stayed in contact with her throughout her trip. A sudden rush in trades had taken her to multiple stations to conduct business. She’d even gone to Cathedral Seven, which had had Gavit excited. There, his starlet lover, Tris, had met up with Alieha to pass along a gift. The time to reversion couldn’t come soon enough.
As the time neared zero however an alert came in from the Wolfsbane. “Blazer, we’ve got a possible hostile heading our way.”
&n
bsp; “Copy that,” Blazer replied as normal space resolved around them, the undulating jump point and the Reluctant Favor just ahead of them. “Looks like Alieha has just got here too. Give me a vector on that hostile.”
“Projected course up.”
“All Units, Three, vector onto that hostile,” Blazer ordered and switched to the established link channel to Alieha’s ship. “Reluctant Favor, Monstero Nach Zero-Three, move clear of the jump point. We have a hostile contact inbound,” Blazer ordered and switched back to the tactical channel. “Four, analysis…”
Arion realized why Blazer had trailed off. This was their first possible combat situation since the crew rotation that Zanreb had requested. Moreover, Bichard was not the analyst that Gokhead was.
Zanreb’s request for a change in WSO when he’d taken over Nach Four had seemed even harder for everyone to accept than Priest and Hallet’s replacement of Mikle and Acknit. Whereas that pair had integrated with the team immediately, Zanreb had remained standoffish. Even after almost two decles, he spent almost none of his down time with them, instead keeping to himself. While he was never openly disrespectful of Blazer, he kept his conversations with him oddly short. He’d performed well in battle simulations though and hadn’t questioned any of Blazer’s orders - yet.
Zanreb answered, his voice curt. “Three, Four. If the Sloop doesn’t know we’re coming then standard operations would have it drop off slipstream about a light-pulse from the jump point and drift in. That minimizes any chance of detection.”
“And if they know we’re coming?” Gavit asked.
“Six, then they’ll drop off even closer and rocket in full-thrust.”
“All Units, Lead, give me a best estimate on the Sloop’s drop point and we’ll move to intercept.”
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