Dawn of a New Age (8 page)

“And has he proven himself to you?
“He has won my heart with kind words and with fierce battles.  He has roped the moon for my chariot and the stars for my steeds.  He has built my castle and torn down the mountains that upset my view.”

“Then join him here and take comfort in he whom you shall share your life with.”

K’Itea walked down the aisle and stood next to K’Alan.  She did not look at him.  She looked straight at the priest and stood straight, her hands clasped in front of her.

“These two come before the gods of Duterius to be bonded for life and beyond.  They have proven their worth to each other and to the gods.  They are about to embark on a journey that only they can go on.  Should anyone disapprove of this bonding, speak now or forever hold your peace.”  The priest waited a few minutes before continuing.  “K’Alan Ilan Bryce, will you honor and protect this woman?  Will you walk through fire for her?  Will you walk through darkness for her?  Will you stay with her through all time?”

“I will,” K’Alan said, looking at the woman he loved.

“K’Itea Alana Bilso, will you honor and obey this man?  Will you follow him though fire?  Will you follow him through darkness?  Will you stay with him through all time?”

“I will,” K’Itea smiled.

“Take each other’s hand.”  He waited until they had complied.  He took a blue and red scarf from the altar and began to slowly bind their hands together  “Through all time, these two shall be bonded.  They shall be able to feel each other across the vastnesses of space and time.  They shall be together for all time.  This is witnessed by the gods.  Let their love be a beacon for all Duterians for years to come.  This ceremony is concluded.  Go in peace.”

The priest turned around and walked out.  K’Alan and K’Itea started towards their quarters when the scene misted out into blackness.

1.31.2136

0012

SLS White Knight

The Medbay

K’Alan hobbled in on his crutches and sat down in a spare chair.  Medbay had calmed down quite a bit from when he had been there earlier.  The medtechs had cleared out all the casualties.  Their work had been good; they’d only lost one patient.  So far.

“Good.  You’re here, Hopalong,” Jewel said as she walked up to where he was sitting.  “I was just about to send Security to go get you.”

“How is she?” K’Alan asked as he looked over at the closed door to K’Itea’s isoroom.

“She’s in a coma, K’Alan,” Jewel said as she ran the bone fuser over his leg.  When she was done fusing his leg, she put the fuser down and sat next to him.  “At this point, all we can do is wait.  If she wakes up, she’ll be ok.  But the body is a funny thing.  She may just give up.”

“I hope she doesn’t.  I don’t know what I would do without her.”

“Me too.  I promise that I’ll do everything I can for her.  In reality, though, there isn’t much other than keeping her comfortable.  She is at a point where she is the only one who can help her.”

“You’re doing all any of us can ask of you, Doctor,” K’Alan flashed a weak smile.  “But you need to get some sleep too.”

“I know, and I will,” Jewel nodded.  She patted his leg.  “Your leg should be just fine.  You’ll still have a little pain for a couple days, but you should be just fine.”

“I won’t be just fine until she’s back, Jewel.”  K’Alan stood and stretched his leg.  “Now, I need to go check on my sister and my son.”

“Your son?” Jewel asked.

“It’s a long story.  But that boy that was with my sister was my son.”

“I didn’t know.”

“Neither did I,” K’Alan said as he walked out of the medbay.

She was back in the timeless spaceless void.

“Where am I?” K’Itea called to no one.

“You are here,” a male voice called.

“I don’t think I understand,” K’Itea looked around.  There was no one that she could see, just darkness.

“We are here too,” the same voice called as two grey robed figures appeared out of nowhere.

“We have been watching,” the other figure said.  “We know all that has happened.”

“What is this place?  And why am I here?” K’Itea asked.

“This is here.  You are here by accident,” the first voice said.

“Well that makes sense,” K’Itea snorted.

“You are not alive, yet you are not dead,” the second voice said.  “You are stuck in the middle.”

“How do I get unstuck?” she grumbled.

“You must choose,” the first man said.

“So, I choose to live.  What’s so hard about this?” she asked.

“Why do you choose to live?” the second man asked.

“My son needs me.”

“It’s funny that you focus on your son, yet your thoughts are only for your husband.”

“How…”

“Like we said, we’ve been watching for a long time,” the first man said.  “We know quite a bit.”

“I’m a little confused,” K’Itea said.

“I imagine you are,” one of the men said as he lowered his hood.  “My name is Alan.  We are here to watch.  And to help.”

“Help with what?” K’Itea furrowed her brow.

“There is a great darkness ahead.  This war with the Brentax is only a distraction from the upcoming issues.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You will all know soon enough.”  Alan waved his head in front of her eyes.  “You won’t remember any of this when you awaken.”

“But…..”  She fell asleep.

2.1.2136

1000

SLS White Knight

The Medbay

A nurse was checking over the equipment in K’Itea’s isoroom.  She noted all of K’Itea’s current vitals in the chart.  The nurse looked sadly at the woman in the bed.  Everything that could be done was being done, and the nurse knew it.  Still, nurses tended to hurt a little when they saw someone else hurting.  But there was nothing else she could do for K’Itea other than just make a note of her condition.

This was one fight that could only be fought by the patient.

The nurse started to turn and leave the room, but she was startled by a noise.  She wasn’t sure what had brought her up short.  She turned back to the bead and frowned.  Had her patient moved slightly in bed?

K’Itea moaned.  There was no mistaking it for what it was.  The nurse watched as K’Itea’s eyes fluttered open.  K’Itea closed her eyes again just as quickly, moaning against the pain of the bright light in her eyes.

“Doctor!” the nurse called.  “She’s awake.”

Jewel came running into the room.  She looked over her vitals then looked over at the bed.

“K’Itea, are you awake?” Jewel said.

“Unh,” K’Itea said.  “I’m… awake.”

“How are you feeling?”

“I feel like an entire building fell on top of me,” K’Itea whispered, her voice hoarse.  “But that beats being dead.”

“Good.  I’ll get your husband down here right away,” Jewel smiled.

“He’s here?”  The thought of seeing her husband again looked to have a better affect on the young woman than any medicine could have.

“Yes, and he’s anxious to see you.”

2.1.2136

0945

SLS White Knight

K’Alan Bryce’s Quarters

T
HE only light in the room came from the faint starlight coming through the windows of his quarters.  K’Alan sat in solitary contemplation, his eyes closed and his breathing shallow.  While he had not been doing so often of late, K’Alan liked to meditate to try to work through issues.  Meditation had helped him through many difficult periods over the years.  He could only hope that it would help him through this one.

There had not been a more difficult period than this one.  It had been a long two days since the White Knight had rescued the survivors on Duterius Prime.  All in all only 14,150 people that had been on the planet had survived the catastrophe.  And his wife, the woman he loved more than anyone, was lying in medbay in a coma.  He had no idea if he would ever get to see her smile again.

And then there was Elam.  He could surely understand why the child resented him, but he had not known about the boy.  Kit hadn’t told him.  Neither had his sister.  In Kit’s last message, she had told him that there was something that she had been keeping from him.  That it was something better said in person.  Now that he knew what it was, he wished she’d told him years before.  He doubted things would have changed, though.  He would not have been able to leave the Defense Force.  Not with the way the war had gone.

There was a knock on his door that knocked him out of his silent retrospections back into the present.

“Come in,” he called.

Admiral John Bonetti, the commander of the Gamma Epsilon sector of the Star League, walked into the room.  He stopped just inside the door as if unsure of whether or not he should be there.

He looked over at the younger man and tried to gauge what the commander was thinking.  It was hard to see K’Alan clearly in the darkness, but John could make out the medium length brown hair and the pale pale skin so common amongst the Duterians.  He marveled to himself again how similar in appearance the Duterians were to humans.  If it weren’t for the small cleft right on the bridge of K’Alan’s nose, John might have mistaken him for human.

“Have a seat, John,” K’Alan said quietly.  He did not look in the admiral’s direction.  He had been expecting the visit, so he was not surprised that the admiral had made the visit unannounced.

“When you weren’t in the party that greeted me, I knew that the situation was bad.  How’s Kit doing?” John asked as he took a seat opposite where K’Alan was sitting.

“Jewel says that if she wakes up, she’ll be OK.”  K’Alan took a sip of tea.  The tea had long since gone cold and K’Alan winced at the taste.  “Did you know I had a ten year old son?”

“No, I didn’t,” John frowned.

“Neither did I until two days ago,” K’Alan shrugged.  “Neither my sister nor my wife wanted to tell me unless I was there to hear it in person.”

“So they’ve been keeping this to themselves for ten years?”

“Yeah,” K’Alan nodded.  “I don’t even know whether or not to be angry about it.  I cannot change the past ten years.  I don’t know if I would even if I were able to.”

“Unreal.  Listen, I need you to be at the mission briefing today.”

“Of course I’ll be there, but why are you saying I need to be?”

“We need to address the issue of what to do with the survivors of the Duterius Prime tragedy.  Now I have a proposal, but I doubt that Captain Ker’sal will agree, at least not without a fight.  Since it’s your people that are affected, I think you need to speak for them.”  John pulled out a datadisc and tossed it to K’Alan.  “This datadisc has all the details of my proposal.  I think…”  John was interrupted by K’Alan’s wristlink.

“K’Alan here,” he said as he switched on his com.

“K’Alan, this is Jewel,” the medtech’s voice floated in through his link.  “You need to get down to medbay ASAP.  K’Itea is awake and she’s asking for you.”

“I’ll be right there.”  He switched off his com and looked at John.  “I’ll be at the briefing, but this is my wife.  She must take precedence.”

“I wouldn’t have expected any less.”

2.1.2136

1011

SLS White Knight

Medbay

K’Alan Bryce raced into the medbay, almost knocking over a nurse in his haste.  He nodded in apology to the nurse and hurried to the isolation room where his wife was being treated.

Jewel was the only other person in the room.  She was checking over some readings when he raced in.  Smiling to K’Alan, she motioned him over to the bed.

“I’ll give you two some time alone,” she smiled.  She laid a hand on his arm.  “But you have to remember, Commander, she’s been through a lot in the last couple days.  Take it easy.”  She smiled again before leaving, closing the isoroom’s door behind her.

K’Alan sat on the edge of the bed and looked down at the woman he loved.  She still had a sizeable greenish-blue bruise on her forehead, but other than that, she was as beautiful as she had ever been.  Her long curly golden hair spread out across the pillow, and her fiery green eyes twinkled with an odd combination of humor and wisdom.

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi!” she exclaimed.

“So, I guess you know how bad it is,” he began.

“Were you able to drive the attackers off?”

“Yes,” he nodded.  He hesitated a moment, not wanting to be the one to tell her just what had happened.  “But, Kit, we were just too late.  I’m sorry.”

“How bad?”

“Duterius Prime is uninhabitable,” he turned away, a tear rolling down his cheek.  “And counting the members of our race who are currently serving in the Star League Defense Force, there are just over 15,000 of us left.”

“Oh, gods!”

“Admiral Bonetti has a proposal about how to help our people.”  He held up the datadisc.  “I haven’t taken a look at this yet.  When I’d heard you’d woken up, I raced right here.  I thought we should look at it together.”

K’Itea nodded, and K’Alan placed the datadisc in the room’s reader.  They watched the proposal in silence, each one lost in their own thoughts.  When the datadisc finished playing, they just looked at each other for a few minutes.

“They have to agree to this, Kal.  It’s probably our only hope,” she said softly.

“I’ll do my best to convince them.”  He paused and looked at her with sad eyes.  “Kit, I know about Elam.”

“I should have told you years ago.  He needed you to be in his life.”

“Well, at least now he’ll have that chance.  He’s staying with my sister for the time being.  I haven’t exactly been the most pleasant of people to be around the past couple days.”  He smiled a sad smile.  “And he’s quite an angry young man.”

“Just be there for him,” she said quietly, as she put her hand on his.

“We both will.  Doc says you’re gonna be OK.”

“Yeah, I am.  Thank you for being there when I needed you the most.”

“I did promise that I always would be,” he leaned down and kissed her forehead gently.  “And now I need to go be there for us again and knock some sense into the command crew.”

2.1.2136

1030

SLS White Knight

The Conference Room

Thala looked at the empty chair to her left where K’Alan should have been sitting and frowned.  It was the third time she had looked at the chair.  And the third time it had been empty.  It was time for the briefing, and her XO was late.  In all the time she had known him, Thala could not remember K’Alan Bryce being late for anything.

“He’ll be here,” Admiral Bonetti said softly, noticing her look.  “I know where he is and I have excused him from being on time to the briefing.  Meanwhile, I suggest we get started.”

“Agreed, sir,” Thala nodded.  She turned to her command staff and looked them over.  “Ladies and gentleman, thank you for coming.  Admiral Bonetti, would you care to begin the briefing?”

“Before I go over Gamma Strike’s first mission, there is a proposal that I would like to make,” the admiral said.  He stood up and strode over to the room’s viewer.  He slipped a datadisc in the reader and graphics, statistics, figures and graphs scrolled across the screen to support his proposal as he spoke.

“With the destruction of Duterius Prime, a critical situation has arisen,” the admiral began.  “There are currently exactly 15,132 Duterians left alive.”

“Fifteen thousand?” Kath gasped, looking pained.  “Duterius Prime was home to over four billion people.”

“I know,” Admiral Bonetti began.  “And we know who is responsible.  But that information is irrelevant to this part of the meeting.

“Due to a cultural taboo and a lack of necessity, the Duterian people never developed the abilities and technology necessary to colonize a planet.  Without colonization abilities, the Duterian people will not survive any new planet that they attempt to colonize.”

“What does this have to do with Gamma Strike?” Thala rolled her hand as if telling the admiral to get to the point.

“When the White Knight was designed,” Sarah Hodge said.  “She was designed to carry diplomats from all of the major governments of the Star League as well as diplomats from non-aligned worlds, such as the Brentax when the war ends.  The goal was to have a place where issues can be discussed and resolved before they lead to war.”

“It’s a self-contained city inside the ship,” Admiral Bonetti continued.  “It can hold a quarter of a million people comfortably.

“The area was labeled Top Secret.  That’s why only Sarah and I were allowed in the area.  But with the recent catastrophe on Duterius Prime, I propose that we use this space to house the survivors while scientists from all of the other major governments teach those survivors how to survive when colonizing a planet.”

“This is your proposal?” Thala said incredulously.

“The Duterian government respectfully requests that the Star League implement Admiral Bonetti’s proposal immediately,” K’Alan said as he slipped into his chair.

“Nice of you to join us, Commander,” Thala said dourly.

“I apologize for being late, Captain.  The High Gentlewoman of the Duterian people has regained consciousness and I had to confer with her about the Admiral’s proposal before I came to the briefing.”

“Very well.  Continue, Admiral,” Thala sighed.

“We can’t force Gamma Strike to implement this proposal,” Admiral Bonetti said.  “A vote is required by the command staff, and one vote will be allocated to the Duterian government.”

“Very well,” Thala said.  “I cannot vote in favor of this proposal.”

“Well, the Duterian government votes for the proposal,” K’Alan said.  “And so do I.”

“I have to side with the Commander,” Colonel Bonetti said.

“For,” Kath said simply.

“We have to,” Tyla Barros said.

As the votes were cast one by one, Thala realized she was going to be the only dissenting voice.  With each vote, she slumped a little further against her chair.

“The proposal passes,” Admiral Bonetti said.  “The housing of the Duterian survivors will begin immediately.  Now, we need to discuss Gamma Strike’s first mission.”

“Admiral Bonetti, with all due respect,” K’Alan interrupted.  “I want to go after whoever did this to my people.”

“Funny, that’s what I had in mind, Commander,” the admiral smiled.  “We know that the Brentax are responsible.  We were able to determine that the base ship involved in the attack was the Torellia Corvax under the command of M’Bek Tarmos himself.  I want this man brought to justice.”

“It will be my pleasure,” K’Alan grinned.

“Don’t get too cocky, Commander.  This will not be an easy mission,” Admiral Bonetti warned the commander.  “But it may mean the end of this war.  It may mean peace in this quadrant.”

“Well, that’s reason enough to want this mission to succeed,” K’Alan nodded.  “I assume you want him alive.”

“Yes, Commander.  Alive.”

“Darn.  Alive wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I guess I can do alive.”

“Good.  Well, that concludes this briefing.  Dismissed,” Admiral Bonetti said.

Thala stormed out of the conference room even before the admiral had finished speaking.  K’Alan and Mario just looked at each other.

“Listen, Kal,” Mario said.  “I know you’ve been busy worrying about Kit for the last two days, but I was hoping we could talk.  Wanna meet at the lounge in a few minutes?”

“Sure,” K’Alan smiled.  “I could use a little drink.”

“No alcohol, remember,” Mario shook his head.

“Yes, Dad,” K’Alan snickered.

“K’Alan, I want to talk to you later,” Admiral Bonetti said.  “There are some things about this mission we need to discuss.”

“Why aren’t you taking them up with the Captain?” K’Alan asked.

“Because I think she has some other issues she’s going to be dealing with.  And besides, you’re probably the one who’s going to be bringing him in.”

“All right, John,” K’Alan sighed.  “Let me know when.”