Earth Song: Twilight Serenade (7 page)

Chapter 9

January 29th, 535 AE

Unknown Space

Aaron felt rather unwelcome. Sure Strike had made it glaringly obvious that the detour he’d been forced to take was all Aaron’s fault. The cruiser Octal 1 had docked with a transfer vehicle, an open hulled ship stuffed with all manner of equipment and possible salvage. Dozens of Squeen clung to netting in places, some obviously families, others on some unknown mission. At least a dozen other species were in evidence as well, of which he recognized half.

A pair of armed and armored Squeen guards escorted him over along with Sure Strike. Once aboard, the guards stayed with Aaron while the captain met with the ship’s master. A while later, he came back scuttling along the myriad of handholds placed in every place imaginable.

“I have diverted the ship’s master to take us to the command ship,” he told Aaron. “He is upset with you now as well as his paying trips will be delayed.”

“Swell,” Aaron said and was immediately aware that every being in the cargo area was looking at him. A pair of the proud and easily annoyed Taccari watched him with apparent disdain, their huge avian eyes blinking and head crest feather standing erect. Their bright beaks looked formidable to the unarmed Aaron. The arachnid Capdep might or might not have been watching him with its six eyes, Aaron wasn’t sure. It clung to the web of cargo netting in zero gravity and seemed quite at home, possibly a member of the transfer vessels crew.

The ship undocked from the cruiser and Aaron noted a slight acceleration. The ship was obviously a salvaged craft that once likely had had a very different life before being pressed into service as its new role. Everything about it cried out improvisation and adaptation. The life support in particular seemed to be struggling. His nose wrinkled of its own accord as the smell of multiple alien species in stale air assailed him.

Luckily the trip was not a long one and the transfer vessel docked with another ship. A Squeen crewman bounded over and chattered to Sure Strike. “We have docked with the command ship.”

“My thanks,” he replied.

“You can thank me by getting this annoyance off my vessel.”

There was no way to tell what ship of the dozens he’d seen that he was being taken aboard, but the corridors were wide and sweeping which to him suggested great size.

The ship’s interior teemed with activity. Mostly Squeen scurried about on unknown tasks. Aaron did note a few other species, in particular a number of the earlier spotted Capdeps. He’d only seem images of them from other Chosen scouts over the years. Tenacious scavengers, they kept to themselves and had proven non-confrontational.

The corridors were in gravity unlike the transfer ship and even the cruiser he’d spent so long aboard. It eased their movement through the ship until the guards escorted him to a large chamber. Inside were a dozen or more Squeen all surrounded by holographic displays they were interacting with. As Aaron entered, the Squeen in the center turned.

“I remember you,” he spoke, the voice coming from Aaron’s translator.

“And I remember you, Strong Arm.”

The alien’s elongated ears twitched and he considered Aaron in his now very well worn jumpsuit. He gestured to Sure Strike who came and joined the other Squeen around their screen and was greeted warmly.

“Your appearance on a Tanam ship has caused a great deal of consternation.”

“There is a logical explanation for that,” Aaron replied.

“Yes, Sure Strike tells us you claim to have been a hostage of the Tanam, taken on the Traga leasehold of Coorson several weeks ago.” Aaron nodded and said that was correct. “Yet you were found in a combat space suit free on the enemy ship and in good health.”

“They were taking me for questioning at the time,” Aaron offered. “When the ship was severely damaged I knew my only chance was to get into a suit or be spaced.” All the sets of dark eyes regarded him. “I’m sorry, if I had known it would have proved my innocence I would have allowed myself to die in space.”

“This situation doesn’t call for sarcasm, human.”

Aaron grunted. They looked so much like a cartoon squirrel from children’s animated shows, you’d think they’d have a sense of humor. “No, you are right. It calls for honesty and that is what I am offering.”

“Is that all you have to offer?”

Aaron turned at the new voice and saw another familiar Squeen, Quick Finder. He along with Strong Arm had been rescued by Minu from the Tanam during their failed attack on Serengeti some time ago. The Tanam had been upset at losing the pair of Squeen, referring to them as Gracktaag, a word their translators wouldn’t render into English.

“I could offer you a somewhat worn jumpsuit.” Stares. Aaron sighed. “I would suspect you can try to ransom me back to the Chosen.” He didn’t add that he doubted Jacob would pay more than a handful of worn EPCs for his hide.

“Ransom is not really our style,” Strong Arm said. “We like to deal of more tangibles.”

“What’s more tangible than credits?”

“Data or goods,” Quick Finder told him. “Because of our…political situation, credits are far less tangible.”

Aaron considered that and found some validity there. Humanity had found it difficult to buy some things regardless of the price. Minu long suspected it was because the higher order species wanted to make sure the small types stayed in their places. There were species out in the galaxy that would be convinced to sell, if you had something yourself to offer that was unavailable to your buying partner. And that was when an idea occurred to him.

“I think I can offer you something. But you’re going to have to get me in touch with my boss.”

Chapter 10

January 31st, 535 AE

Ghost fleet, Deep Space, Galactic Frontier

“Here we go,” Kal’at said and touched a control with a claw. Lilith floated nearby in the little control room crowded with a half dozen Beezer, Minu, and the Rasa technical expert besides herself. It was rather crowded, to say the least.

Nothing happened for a long moment, and then a series of non-holographic screens began to display lines of script.

“The main computer is coming on line,” Lilith told them.

“Is the computer interpreter working?” Minu asked.

Lilith had a holographic screen displayed from her own bots and was working with the script, a look of concentration on her face before she responded. “It is not perfect,” she said and then gestured to make the screen disappear, “but I think it will work.”

As if on cue, and maybe it was, the work stations came to life one at a time. Pilot, engineering, life support, damage control, power management, and defenses all were now online. The Beezer manning each one acknowledged as they came alive. After a few minutes of system checks, Isook turned and proclaimed “Ibeen Alpha is operational.” And there was nods and cheers all around.

“Pakata,” Minu said and the leader of the Beezer turned to her, “this ship is under your command as per the agreement we have signed.”

“I understand,” he grumbled. “Isook, you are captain.”

“I am honored!” Isook huffed back and have a slight zero-gravity bow. The two beings grasped powerful furry forearms and butted horns against each other. Minu grimaced. She knew it probably didn’t hurt them, but to her it looked painful.

“You must remember,” Lilith instructed them, “these interpreter programs are stop-gap measures I have written with the help of the salvaged combat intelligence. The Ibeen were meant to have their own specialized artificial intelligence programs to operate them. This arrangement is similar to what records show was used to maneuver Ibeen within ports. It is not intended to operate them in space or combat. We’ve had experience with these ships in improvised operations scenarios, and it didn’t end well.”

Minu knew exactly what Lilith meant. Pip had been in control of one when he’d been forced into combat. The experience had almost driven him insane.

The last days had been spent verifying the condition of the ship and that the improvised EPC would provide sufficient power. There were far too many of those improvisations for the liking of both Kal’at and Lilith. The newly salvaged combat intelligence off the wrecked Kaatan could easily operate the Ibeen. It was a waste though. Minu had her first salvage team aboard the Fiisk heavy cruiser making their initial assessments as salvage of the other four Ibeen continued. She was wishing she’d brought more personnel, even though the Kaatan had been stuffed full on the trip there.

Later Lilith, Minu and Kal’at were discussing the timetable for getting the last four Ibeen active when Lilith suddenly fell silent and stared off into space. Minu recognized that look. “What is it?”

“Another ship in range of my sensors.” The thin redhead instantly sped up, swimming through the halls to where their shuttle was docked.

“Combat ship?”

“Unable to ascertain that at this moment,” she said as the door slid open on their approach. Already the Ibeen was acting more like a fully functional ship. Lilith had the shuttle coming alive and the door already closing as Minu flew through. Kal’at snapped a curse and barely got his tale through without losing a centimeter as the hatch banged closed and the shuttle undocked. She hadn’t bothered sucking out the atmosphere from the connecting tunnel, just blew the seal and pushed away.

“Ibeen Alpha, we are pushing away,” Lilith informed, rather after the fact.

As she often did when flying the shuttles, Lilith didn’t bother going into the cockpit. Since she had no need of physical controls, where she did it was simply not a factor. With a hand she created a holographic tank in the center of the shuttle’s passenger cabin and there was space centered on their shuttle. The tiny dart shape moved away from the cluster of balls that was the Ibeen and towards a nearby ball pierced with a needle. The scale compressed to show the entire ghost fleet. Four more Ibeen, scattered fragments, the group of ruined Kaatan, and there the three balls pierced by three needles of the Fiisk.

Still more compression to show the expanded debris field, and beyond that still more. The entire ghost fleet was only a fuzzy dot, telling Minu that the scale was approaching stellar scale. Sure enough, there was the bulk of the distant brown dwarf, all that survived from a star gone nova more than a million years ago. An arrow flashed green and left a slightly luminescent trail as it moved near the fleet.

“Any more details?” Minu asked.

“The tachyon wave front indicates speed below 100 times C.”

“Not very fast.”

“No,” Lilith agreed, “but residual wave emanations suggest it slowed just before entering sensor range.”

“Something give us away?”

“There was some risk. We’ve been doing high energy work on the exterior of Ibeen Epsilon to fix damage to its gravitic drive.” As they watched the arrow resolved into a blocky shape and an information bubble appeared next to it, the data in ancient script and English for Minu’s benefit.

“At least a cruiser,” she read, “design profile suggests T’Chillen.”

“Is that dangerous?” Kal’at asked.

“Not to me,” Lilith assured them. “The danger is that it can summon reinforcements.”

“What can it see?”

“At that range, very little. Even powered our ships here have a small energy profile that will not carry far, and we are nearly black in the infrared. However it has detected the high energy from the hull work we were doing two days ago and is trying to decide what caused it. The ship is still outside the debris cloud from the nova, about three light days.”

“Always seems like so far,” Kal’at commented.

“At their speed less than sixteen hours,” Lilith told them. “Keep in mind it can likely accelerate quite quickly and be here in minutes if it decides to.”

“So what’s the tactic?”

“I prepare to fight, but we stay quiet and hope they pass by,” Lilith said as the shuttle swung around and towards the waiting docking bay. Minu nodded with the solid tactics. Her daughter had grown a lot over the years. She remember a much more head strong young girl that would have leaped at the chance to get into a fight. Considering what Minu had in mind for the coming months and years, it was a good thing the girl had matured. An awful lot of Minu’s plans hinged on the young girl.

Back in her ship, Lilith moved with quick grace and arrived in the CIC in only a few seconds, Minu close behind. All the time they’d spent in space recently had helped her mother gain more grace in zero gravity as well. She just wished she didn’t have to spend so much time working out to keep from losing bone density. As her belly got bigger, it made much of the exercises more difficult. You’d figure with this level of technology I could just take a pill, she thought.

Back in her element, Lilith cast off the blue crystalline bot on her back with a casual gesture. The mechanical flew across the chamber, landed lightly on a wall, and scuttled away.

A dozen screens appeared in space around Lilith as she spun around slowly, taking in the information. Minu knew the girl got her data partly through the link provided by the implants in her brain, and partly visible. When asked once she wasn’t able to explain why she used both, eventually saying “this is just natural to me.” The ship came alive for her.

“I now have full magazines of shipkillers,” she said as she finished surveying the screens, “and a considerable stock in reserve. Power is at capacity, reserves topped off. Shuttles secured, drives on standby. Now we wait.”

The minutes crept by as the ship glided towards the long dead star system. Minu knew it would be tasting the energy coming from inside the system, trying to understand what it had sensed. It was almost ready to penetrate the screen provide by the supernova ejecta when it changed course and began to accelerate.

“What’s the chance it noticed us?”

“Low,” Lilith said and began to safe the ship once more. She watched with her sensors as the distant ship began to accelerate once more to hundreds of times the speed of light. “It will shortly be out of sensor range.”

“You think we’re safe?”

“Likely the incident has been noted and a scout ship will investigate later. That ship’s actions suggested it was on a mission and didn’t want to delay overly long.”

Minu nodded and regarded the screens for a time before taking out her own tablet and accessing information. In particular she regarded the work’s schedule on the salvage operations. Estimates suggested they needed only two more days to have all the Ibeen space ready. The Fiisk was another matter. “I’m afraid we might have to abandon the battlecruiser.”

“I would be hesitant to do that,” Lilith responded instantly. Minu knew she’d become excited when it was decided the huge warship was salvageable. She’d told her mother it could be a game changer. The behemoth was built with a different combat doctrine than the comparably tiny Kaatan. Lilith’s ship was a quick deadly killer. The Fiisk was a tornado of destruction able to wade into battle and stay there, dealing out death while absorbing incomprehensible amounts of punishment. “We’d have to destroy it rather than leave it to possibly he salvaged by the T’Chillen, or any other higher order species.”

“That goes without saying.”

“But this may be the only Fiisk left in the galaxy. It represents a considerable amount of firepower and would anchor our fleet’s combat ability.”

“I understand that, but I don’t see a way around it. Your initial estimate suggests more than a week just to get the drives on line, and an unknown amount of time to put together an operating system to pilot the ship. I remember what we went through to move this ship without you, Lilith.”

“The Fiisk is many times more complicated because it was designed to operate with not just a combat intelligence, but a tactical intelligence and a fleet intelligence.”

“So who knows if it is even possible to operate the thing without these specialized AI?”

Lilith nodded her head and Minu shook hers. “But there might be another option, at least to move the ship to a safer location.”

“Okay,” Minu said, willing to listen.

“And there is another compelling reason.” Minu waited. “The Combat Intelligence has recovered memories of the last several battles it was part of. Including locations of similar salvage locations like this one.”