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Authors: Ryk Brown

Aurora: CV-01 (21 page)

BOOK: Aurora: CV-01
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* * *

Nathan entered the briefing room a few minutes after Jessica and their guests. The room was a bit large for such a small gathering. But considering how its contents had been tossed about recently, it probably was just as well. For it had been easy for them to push the knocked over tables and chairs out of the way.

As he entered, he saw the four visitors sitting at the table that had been hastily setup. Two younger men, an older man, and a young women who had green eyes the likes of which Nathan had never seen. There was a strength and compassion behind them, and he found it difficult to look away.

The leader of the group rose as a sign of respect to Nathan, whom he considered to be the leader. The expression on the man’s face seemed a bit off to Nathan, hinting that Nathan was not what the visitor had expected.

Jessica’s reaction to the man’s attempt to stand was more defensive, immediately raising her weapon, with the other two guards following suit. She saw in the man’s eyes as he froze half standing, that he was aware of the threat, just as she noticed how the other two men’s bodies suddenly became taught, as if preparing to take action. This told her much of the experience and demeanor of these men, and she didn’t much like what she saw.

“It’s okay,” Nathan immediately intervened, not wanting things to turn ugly. He watched as Jessica and the guards slowly lowered their weapons, allowing the man to finish standing. The man nodded at Jessica, as if to pay respect to her alertness. But she couldn’t help but feel like he was silently conveying an open challenge to her. There was something in this man that she did not trust.

The leader of the group finished standing and began to speak in a strange language. Although Nathan did not understand him, it was obvious that he was trying to identify himself, by patting his chest and repeating the word ‘Marak’. Within moments they had managed to learn each other’s name, but that was all. But there was something about the language that he kept speaking to the woman sitting next to him. It sounded familiar to him. That’s when he realized that it sounded a lot like Russian.

“Engineering, Briefing Room!”

“Yes, Nathan.”

“Vlad, listen, I’m here with some visitors, from those ships you spotted approaching. They’re speaking a language that sounds like Russian to me. Can you try to speak with them?”

“So I am translator now?”

“Just give it a try, Vlad. Say something to them in Russian.” Nathan pointed at the comm, indicating to Marak that the voice on the other end would be speaking to him.

“Vui ponimayetye po Rooski?”
Vladimir said through the comm. The leader of the group looked at the woman next to him, a puzzled look on his face.

“Vui po-ni-ma-ye-tye po Roos-ki?”
Vladimir repeated a little more slowly, sounding a little impatient. The leader started speaking in his language again, this time into the comm-set as if he were expecting the man at the other end to understand him.

There was a moment of silence, broken only by Vladimir’s voice.
“That is not Russian. May I go now?”

“Sure, thanks.” Nathan sat down, rubbing his face with his hands. It had been worth a try. After all, the humans living on the core worlds were descendants of people from Earth. And Fleet intelligence indicated that many of the primary languages spoken on Earth more than a thousand years ago when they first began to colonize other star systems were still being used out here, at least in some derived form. That was why all communications officers were usually fluent in at least half a dozen languages. But their only comm officer was dead. And even though they had translation software, with all the systems down he wasn’t able to utilize the programs.
This is not going to be easy,
he thought.
What should I try first?
After thinking for a moment, he looked at the man and started talking slowly and clearly to him. “Where-are-you-from?”

The man just looked at him. Nathan thought he saw a spark of understanding in his eyes, like he thought he understood what Nathan was trying to ask him, but was afraid to answer incorrectly. And the woman, she had the same look, but even more so than her leader. Nathan repeated himself, after which the two of them exchanged words in their own language. It sounded as if the woman was trying to explain something to her leader, maybe something she understood, or at least thought she understood.

“We-are-from-the-Sol-system,” he began. Nathan frantically searched his mind for the right words, which was usually not a problem for him. But these people were from another world, another planet.
How do you communicate with someone from another planet?
“Sol? Have you heard of it?” he asked in frustration. Again, he thought he saw a glimmer of recognition from the women. “Earth?” There were more unintelligible words exchanged between the woman and her leader, and Nathan got the feeling that the two of them were in disagreement about something. “Earth? Have-you-heard-of-Earth?”

The leader said something else to the woman in a stern voice, after which she spoke up. “I hear,” she said, thinking for a moment before continuing, “I-hear-Earth.”

“You have?” Nathan responded, shocked that he had actually made a connection, no matter how slight. “You’ve heard of Earth?”

“Yes,” she answered, her pronunciation of the simple word slightly off. He could see she was struggling to try and use a language that she might once have learned, but had long since forgotten. “I-have. I-heard-of-Earth.”

“Then you speak English?”

“An-glees?” she mispronounced.”

“Yes, Eng-glish.”

She thought again, then realized what he was saying. “Ah, Angla!” she exclaimed excitedly. Suddenly a flurry of communication erupted between her and her leader that seemed to last forever before she finally settled down to try and communicate with him.

“I-learn-Angla-much-young,” she stated slowly, thinking about each word before speaking them. “Please-slowly-I-to-understand-you-much.”

He could see that she was struggling to remember the language that she had learned when she was young. “I-will-speak-slowly. My-name-is-Nathan.” It was difficult for Nathan to control his excitement over his new found ability to communicate with her. And all manner of questions were popping into his mind, making it impossible to select which one to ask first.

“Me, Jalea.

“Jalea?” he grossly mispronounced.

“Jah-LEE-yah,” she corrected.

“Jalea?” he tried again, getting a nod of approval from her.

“Ask her who was shooting at us,” Jessica suggested. Nathan motioned with his hand for her to be patient.

“And he is Mah-rahk?” Nathan asked, pointing to her leader.

“Yes. Marak.”

“Marak-is-your-leader?”

She thought a moment before responding. “Yes.” Her tone of voice left Nathan less than convinced, and he wondered if he was their leader, or just the leader of this little group. But he figured he could unravel that mystery later.

“Where-are-you-from?” he asked next. “Your-world?”

“Bah-KAH-rah.”

Nathan repeated the name of her planet to verify the pronunciation.

“The-big-ship. Was-it-from-Bakara?”

“No,” she answered immediately. “Ship-from-Takara.”

“Takara? And they are bad? These Takarans?”

“Yes. Takar, very bad.”

“You fight them, yes?”

“Yes. Long time. Many years.”

Jessica was growing impatient. “Ask them why they’re here?”

Nathan knew she was right. He was letting himself get swept up in the situation and not thinking of the big picture. They were still without main power, and the sensors were down. And they didn’t have maneuvering or main propulsion back online yet, let alone any weapons. And to top it all off, he had no idea what the tactical situation was in the immediate area. Hell, he didn’t even know where the immediate area was.

“Okay. Why are you here?”

“To help,” she answered instantly, and with a smile. “We call. You no answer. We come. You help us. Now we help you.”

Nathan was a little surprised by the offer. He had no idea how they might help them given the circumstances, but the fact that they were offering seemed a positive step. “How can you help us?”

“Your ship, broken. We help fix,” she explained, pointing at the other two men. Up until now, Nathan had thought of them as their personal security detail. But she seemed to be indicating that they were some kind of engineers or technicians.

“You can help us fix this ship? How?”

“These men, very smart, fix many things. Maybe they, fix you.”

Jessica did not like the idea, and feared that Nathan was thinking of accepting the offer. “Lieutenant, I don’t know about this. Maybe we should just say thanks but no thanks and try and fix it ourselves?”

“Soon, more will come,” Jalea added. “Very soon, maybe few, maybe many.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was afraid of,” Nathan admitted, more to himself than to Jalea.

“Nathan,” Jessica spoke up, pulling him aside and turning away from them. “Four strangers, only one of which barely speaks our language, cannot be of enough help to justify the risk,” she insisted.

“How do you know they’re only talking about these four? They’re only from one ship, and there were at least six of them out there before.”

Jessica began to offer more reasons, but Nathan turned away from her to speak with Jalea again.

“How many people do you have that can help?” he asked slowly.

Jalea turned to Marak, undoubtedly asking him the same question. “Many,” she answered.

That did sound like it might help, and Nathan’s expression turned from one of skepticism to one of curiosity.

Marak noticed the change in Nathan’s expression, and said something else to Jalea.

“We have many more to help, but not here.”

“Could turn into an ally?” Nathan explained to Jessica. She still didn’t look convinced. “I’ll let you keep your big gun pointed at them the whole time,” he promised, drawing a patronizing look from Jessica.

“You’re in command,” she said.

Nathan turned back to Jalea and Marak. “We accept your offer,” he explained slowly. “But this nice lady and her friends will have to watch you. I apologize, but we do not yet know you very well. Is that alright?”

Jalea explained the terms offered by Nathan as best she could to Marak. The two of them seemed to debate the issue for a bit longer than Nathan would’ve thought necessary. But then again, sometimes he and Cameron probably debated things for a bit longer than normal as well. In fact, the captain had scolded him for allowing it to happen too often.

Finally, Jalea turned to him. “Yes, is good.”

“Wonderful!” he exclaimed. “Now, these people will take you to where we need the most help.” Nathan turned to Jessica. “Escort them to engineering, please.”

“Yes Sir,” she reluctantly agreed.

Before she could get away, Nathan grabbed Jessica by the arm and stepped in close to her ear and whispered “I wasn’t kidding before, Jess. Keep an eye on them at
all
times.”

“I had planned on it,” she assured him.

Nathan smiled at them as they filed out of the room, one of the armed crewmen leading the way, with Jessica and the other crewmen following them out the door. After they had left, Nathan flopped back down in his chair, breathing out a sigh of relief. After a moment, he turned on the comm-set. “Engineering, Briefing room.”

“What is it now, Nathan?”

“Vladimir, I have a surprise for you.”

* * *

As Nathan made his way forward from the briefing room, he noticed several people helping the injured get to medical. He realized that it only made sense that anyone not helping with damage control would be helping with the injured, it just hadn’t occurred to him, like so many other things today.

“Help!”

Nathan spun around, the cry coming from somewhere behind him. He didn’t see anyone. “Hello!” he called out.

“Help me!” the voice cried out again. It was a woman’s voice, and it sounded like it was coming from around the corner farther down the corridor. Nathan broke into a jog in the direction the voice had come from, stopping at the corner to look down the corridor in search of the woman calling him.

About ten meters away was a young woman that Nathan recognized as one of scientists working on the jump drive. Bloodied and disheveled herself, she was fighting a losing battle to get a seriously injured crewman to medical for treatment. The injured man was considerably larger than her, and she would’ve had difficulty handling him even in an uninjured state.

Nathan quickly ran over to help her with the injured crewman. “Here, let me take him,” he offered.

“I can’t make it,” she pleaded. She looked like she was about to collapse herself, probably from the large gash on her forehead that was still actively bleeding. Nathan immediately stepped in between them, taking the injured man’s arm and draping it over his right shoulder. Once he had the man securely in his right arm, he grabbed the woman with his left arm to provide assistance to her as well.

“Here,” he told her. “Hold on to me.”

“I don’t think I can make it,” she pleaded. “I just need to rest.”

“Come on, it’s just a little farther, you’re almost there.”

She continued to plod forward, her head hanging down low from fatigue.

“Your leg, it’s bleeding,” she pointed out to him, noticing his blood soaked left pant leg.

“Yeah, I know.”

“Does it hurt?”

“Quite a lot actually,” he chuckled, wincing in pain with each step. He had thought his leg was broken when he first woke up back on the bridge. But the more he had gotten used to the discomfort, the more he was convinced that it was just a deep laceration at most. He had managed to ignore the pain up until now, with more important concerns to distract him. But now, with the additional burden of these two injured persons, each step was sending blinding pain shooting up his left leg into his hip. “But I’ll be alright.”

BOOK: Aurora: CV-01
13.01Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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