Burning Love [Flights of Fancy 1] (Siren Publishing Menage Amour) (2 page)

The crossing of the barrier was a bit anticlimactic. Essentially, nothing happened. The ship just slipped through like it cruised through normal space. She heard the bridge crew giving the captain information from scans by the science and tactical stations, but none of it sounded like a threat, and no one on the bridge seemed unusually tense.

Star, on the other hand, fought the urge to chew her nails.

She spent the first twenty-five years of her life training as a diplomat. She spent the last year training as a crewmember on
Daedalus
, the first ship of the Empire to go forth into unknown parts of the galaxy with the express mission of making first contact.

The fact that she wasn't the original choice for the mission only added to her worries. She'd been a backup crewman to another, much older, diplomat who went and killed himself while hang gliding in the New Moscow system. Even as a backup, the Emperor and Lord Admiral personally approved her selection. They thought she could do the job. She wasn't nearly as certain, although Star intended to do the best she could. She just hoped it would be good enough to keep her from killing herself or someone else.

The captain must have been satisfied that nothing threatened the ship, because she secured from battle stations. Star decided to stay and watch the bridge displays as the artificers turned the room back into a mess hall.

* * * *

"All departments secured from battle stations, Captain."

Elsa nodded. Despite a twelve week voyage from Sol system with nothing going on, the
Daedalus
crew was still tight. "Thank you. Science, anything on scanners?"

"I'm getting various clutter on the life signs systems, but too confused to isolate anything. I'm working on an algorithm now to try cleaning it up."

"Very well. Communications, anything on your bands?"

"Just static so far in the low bands, Ma'am."

She considered for a moment. The exo-anthropologists believed emerging civilizations would develop low-band radio first, and then move toward the higher frequencies and microwaves as they matured. So far, of the more than one hundred species known to mankind, they all fit that pattern. Elsa got this job ahead of captains with far more seniority because she had good instincts. When she interviewed with the Emperor, he smiled the lopsided grin everyone in the galaxy knew from his images on the currency and told her, "I like someone who goes with their gut feelings. I do it all the time."

She smiled. "Communications, please jump to the SHF range and scan."

The communications officer hesitated. "Ma'am, that's not the protocol."

"Noted. You have your orders."

The ensign shrugged and tapped her console switches. She held the earpiece tight against her head as the system scanned the SHF bands, and Elsa saw her suddenly frown deeply. "Captain, I have contact." She played with the controls for a moment. "At 14.721 gigahertz. It sounds like voice in an unknown language."

"Get a linguist up here and try the electronic translator."

"Aye, aye."

Elsa allowed herself a small grin. So far in her twelve years as a skipper, her instincts hadn't let her down.

The science officer spoke from her station. "Captain, I have two major concentrations of life signs. One is in the presumed city on the coast and the other is twenty-five kilometers south-southwest from there."

"Any details?"

The officer looked up from her scanners. "The returns appear humanoid, only some minor variances from humans, but the returns in the city itself are odd." She paused, like she looked for words. "The body temperatures are high, just under forty-three degrees Celsius, and I'm getting a lot of infrared radiation from the area."

Elsa wondered what that could mean, but from the officer's expression, Elsa didn't think she was nearly as puzzled as the scientist.

"Well, maybe we can just ask them about it." She turned to the communications console where the communications officer and the linguist huddled over the console. "Any luck on that translation?"

The linguist answered. "Not yet, Ma'am, but it looks like just idle chatter from the patterns I'm seeing."

"Best estimate to full translation?"

"Maybe two hours, Captain."

Elsa pondered for a moment. She could either keep
Daedalus
where she was, or she could take the ship in closer to the planet. She swiveled the command chair to face the tactical station. "Any evidence we've been scanned or that they know we're here?"

"No, Ma'am. I see no other ships in the system and no satellites in orbit down to fifty centimeters resolution."

She wondered if the exo-anthropologists could be wrong twice in a row. The protocols all said a civilization would develop microwave communications in lockstep with spaceflight, especially unmanned probes and satellites.

Again, her instincts overruled the mission manual. "Helm, take us to the planet, one-fifth impulse power, and insert
Daedalus
into high standard orbit."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Daedalus
moved through the unknown space toward the greater unknown of the planet.

Over the next week, Star was amazed at every turn by the efficiency and skill of the
Daedalus
crew. From the breaking of the language barrier to fully mapping the planet, the teams did their jobs quickly and with few errors or missteps.

Star had few people on
Daedalus
she considered friends, but one was an Imperial Marine Major named Jake Spencer. She never heard anyone call him anything but Spence. He'd been in the Marines for all but sixteen years of his 148-year life, and Spence claimed to have no plans to retire anytime soon. Since she'd been a last-minute replacement, Star missed a good deal of the training with the crew that might have built friendships, but Spence, at least at first, treated her more like a grandchild than a superior officer. Sometimes, though, he most certainly did not look at her like a grandfather.

She mentioned the ease with which the crew established contact and her surprise since no one ever went out and deliberately followed such a mission before.

Spence chuckled. "You have to remember that these people are all professional soldiers. Most of them, a couple of years ago, before they started training for
Daedalus
, were on warships."

"What's that got to do with anything? We're not at war."

"No, but we're doing the same things." He sipped at his milk, his eyes lost in thought for a moment. "When you attack a system, you have to do a few things before you can win. First, you have to make good maps of the system and the planets. You also have to find out where the people are and assess any immediate threats. Then you have to find out what frequencies they use to communicate, and after that you have to break their language and codes." He smiled. "You, little girl, are the anomaly on this ship."

It was true, too. Star was an officer of the Fleet, yes, but she never planned to serve on a ship for more than a couple of months, going from one diplomatic assignment to the next. Here she was now, leading a team on a ship of first contact, and feeling a little like a fish out of water.

"So this is just like waging war?"

"Basically, yeah." He shrugged. "Besides, we have to assume the people here are hostile until proven otherwise. I can promise you the captain is doing just that."

"How will she decide if they are or not?"

"That's your job."

She blinked a few times. Star didn't want the job anymore, but here, nearly ten kiloparsecs from Earth, it was a little late to walk home. "What?"

"Oh, it's the skipper's call when all is said and done, but she's going to rely on what you and the rest of the diplomats find out when you talk to the people down there."

"That's just great."

"Maybe, but that's your job."

A few Marines came by and chatted with Spence for a minute, and Star was thankful for the distraction. Of course, she'd known going in what her function on
Daedalus
was, but his comments really put it into perspective. It all came down to her.

The Marines left the table, and Spence watched them for a few moments before he turned back to face her over the remains of their lunch. "You know, Mike Shelby there has had his eye on you since we left Sol system."

He looked sad, or maybe it was just distraction she saw there. "Spence, I don't have time to date, let alone have a relationship." She didn't even know which of the young men he spoke of. She'd been far too busy the last sixteen weeks boning up on how to handle different situations to even think about anything else.

"Ever heard that old saying about all work and no play makes Star a dull girl?"

She laughed. "Everyone's heard that one."

"Maybe, but it also makes Star frustrated."

"I think you're more worried about your Marines being frustrated."

"Maybe and maybe not. They're grunts, and they'll do what they need to do when they need to do it."

She wondered why
Daedalus
even had Marines. They were the closest things to an offensive weapon on the entire ship. "So, what is it that they might need to do?"

"A lot of it is tradition. Marines have been on ships for at least the last 5,500 years. Legend has it they were there to prevent mutinies from breaking out and spreading through the ship." Spence shrugged. "Fact is, we're here to protect the rest of the crew if something goes terribly wrong on one of these first contacts."

"What, are there about fifty Marines aboard?"

"Fifty-four counting me." He laughed. "Don't look so surprised. We wouldn't stand a chance against an entire planet, but we're here anyway. Maybe we can buy the skipper enough time to get off a warning message to Fleet."

She blinked at him, amazed by the casual way Spence dismissed the situation. "That's a pretty fatalistic view."

"It's a pretty fatalistic business." He clinked his glass of milk softly against hers. "Cheers."

* * * *

The tactical officer turned from the console. "Commander Harris, I'm detecting small weapons fire on the surface."

Chris looked up from his paperwork. "Any threat to
Daedalus
?"

"No, Sir. It's all small stuff, handheld lasers and blasters." The officer paused for a moment, his face wrenched into a puzzled expression. "And something else strange. It looks like energy waves, but I see no hardware it could be coming from."

"Show me the location, please." The officer worked the controls, and a map formed on the main bridge screen showing the fire concentrated to a fairly small area about eight kilometers southwest of the city. "Science, can you overlay life sign scans on that?"

"Yes, Sir." The science officer typed a few commands, and two groups of dots appeared. "The red dots are the species from the city, and the green dots are the people living outside."

"Thank you." Chris studied the display. The red dots clustered nearest the city and the green dots concentrated farther away. Traces on the display showed the groups of dots shooting at each other, blue for lasers, yellow for blasters, and the unknown energy weapons in silver. "What the fuck? Has anyone heard these people say they have a war going on?"

No one answered him. He wondered how this would impact the planned descent by the diplomatic team in the morning, but there was no sense doing anything now. He logged the event, and made a note to himself to make sure the captain and the diplomats knew about it at the briefing.

* * * *

Star didn't like the sound of what Commander Harris saw on the sensors in the wee hours of the morning. It wasn't so much that they would be going into a war zone as it was the fact the Hendri had concealed something from them. In the radio discussions with the people from the city, there was mention of another species calling themselves the Rangor, but the Hendri diplomat she spoke with told her they were a primitive people who lived in the hills. No one said a thing about a war.

From the furrows between the captain's eyes, she was at least as concerned about the events.

"I'm not a diplomat, so I don't know how we should proceed." Captain Davis turned to face Star directly. "You need to tell me what to do next, Lieutenant."

She had thought over how to proceed with the contact since finding out about the firefight on the planet and decided what she needed to do as leader of the diplomatic team. "I'd like to talk to Krell and get his side of the story, and then proceed with the landing, Captain." Star just wasn't sure it was the right thing to do.

"Are you sure about that? It could be dangerous down there."

"I know that, Ma'am, believe me. I think I can get a good feel for what's going on by talking to Krell, and I'll know even better after I meet him in person." Over the last couple of days, she'd built what she thought was a good rapport with Krell, the Hendri diplomat.

"Commander Harris and I are combat officers, and we agree that the best thing to do is to get the righteous fuck out of here." The captain shrugged a little. "We can't guarantee the safety of the landing party."

"I understand." Star thought for a moment. "How about if I talk to him, and we decide what to do next after that?"

"It can't hurt anything talking. The ship is in no danger." She glanced at Harris. "Any problem with that, Chris?"

"No, not for me, but I would like to hear the conversation. As combat officers, you and I may pick up on something the diplomatic team misses."

The captain nodded. "Good idea. Call him now, Lieutenant."

Star swallowed and activated the communicator. She still wasn't used to dealing with the captain directly, and having the woman looking over her shoulder while she tried to work made things even worse.