Lacuna: The Ashes of Humanity (9 page)

Surprisingly, Operations was a hive of activity. She had expected it to be quiet, as it had been on previous days, but everything seemed abuzz.

"Report," she said, moving up to Iraj's side.

"We have a contact at the L2 Lagrange point. They're on the other side of the moon, but they're coming around soon. The
Washington
and the
Madrid
are moving to investigate."

That surprised her. "An unidentified vessel? Why was I not informed?"

"We tried, but your radio wasn't answering."

She frowned, touching the small device at her hip. Water dripped out of it.

Well.

"Understood," she said. "Has it made any attempt to contact us?"

"None so far, but it's still on the far side of Velsharn's moon. If it has, we wouldn't have received it."

"How long until it's in the open?"

"Twenty minutes, more or less."

She nodded. "Thank you, Kamal," she said, softly, so only he could hear.

"Think nothing of it. I'm just glad you made it."

Iraj had handled the situation well. The Operations room was a well-oiled machine. Jiang was coordinating their strike craft and working with the
Washington
and the
Madrid
, Dao was planning intercept routes, and Ling was watching for more contact, even though the ship's radar was severely impaired by being in a valley. Hsin kept trying to hail their contact. Everyone was doing well in her absence.

Well enough that they didn't need her.

Everyone in the military was replaceable, of course. One couldn't operate a ship the size of the
Beijing
without having the ability for crew to go on leave, or resign, or be killed. This was rarer for the commanding officer, though. There was an old saying: the captain goes down with the ship.

Poetic, but less applied in practice. Most vessels had many COs throughout their lifetime, although the reverse wasn't always true, especially if the previous command was sunk or destroyed—even if the CO wasn't directly to blame.

From a more practical point of view, though, if the captain went down with the ship then both would need to be replaced.

She didn't want to dwell on such things, but as Iraj moved around Operations and the rest of the crew worked as well as she'd ever seen them, she felt vaguely useless.

"The Broadsword
Warsong
reports that they're rounding the body of Velsharn's moon and should be within radio range of the contact in three minutes."

"Very good," said Iraj. "Mr. Hsin, when the
Warsong
establishes contact, relay our signal and put it over the long range communications headsets." He put one on, then handed Liao hers. "Captain?"

"Thank you." Liao took the device, slipping it over her head and adjusting the microphone. "Mr. Hsin, relay the communications when ready."

"Aye aye, Captain."

The sound that filtered through her headset was distorted and heavily laced with static. "This is Lieutenant First Class Confeld of the TFR Broadsword
Warsong
to unidentified contact in the Velsharn system. Maintain current orbital profile and identify yourself."

The target did not respond, and Confeld repeated the request. This time, though, a voice answered.

"It warms my heart to hear from you, Human," said the voice she recognised as the Iilan Speaker Paar. "This is Worldship Eight. I am Paar of the Iilan, speaker for this vessel. I request an audience with the Spear of Earth, Wrathbringer Melissa Liao."

"Standby, Worldship Eight."

The line went quiet. This was her invitation to speak.

She couldn't do it. Her finger trembled above the talk key. The last time she engaged with the Iilan, she had boarded their ship, traded with them, and promised them much in exchange for help against Ben. Help they had delivered.

She couldn't help but feel that someone else could have done better.

"Captain?" prompted Iraj. "We shouldn't keep them waiting."

And they shouldn't. Forcing her finger to move, knowing that the Operations crew were watching her, she touched the key. "This is Commander Liao."

Paar's voice changed, becoming a little warmer, less formal. The Iilan were birdlike. She expected squawking, or chirping, but Paar's tone was deep and smooth and continued to surprise her. "Greetings, Commander Liao. Time has elapsed, and we have come to collect on our debt, a bargain made in good faith. We are disappointed that we had to leave the graveyard of our people to find you. More disappointing was it that you were so difficult to track down."

"My apologies, Paar. We had no intention of failing to hold up our end of the bargain, and while it is true that we are in hiding, we are not doing so from you. We have… suffered a grave misfortune."

"If the rogue constructs' forces have defeated you in battle, you have my sincerest apologies, Commander. When we spoke to your forces in the Karathi system, they could tell us little."

Forces in the Karathi system? The only ship in that area was the
Sydney
, and the
Pegasus
—one of the Broadswords attached to that ship—had reported it destroyed. She looked to Iraj.

"I believe," he said, "they're talking about the ship we sent to investigate the
Sydney
's disappearance. The Broadsword
Thunderhawk
. They never returned from their mission."

Liao touched the talk key. "The day was ours on Belthas IV. However, Ben's jump device created another singularity in the Belthas IV system. The planet was successfully evacuated, but the device Ben used was, for obvious reasons, not recovered. In the meantime the Toralii Alliance attacked Earth."

No response for a time, and Liao almost had Hsin check that the relay was still working.

"I warned you that they were deceitful." Paar's tone wavered as though he were struggling to hold rage in check. "I
warned
you. The Alliance is deceitful and remorseless."

"You warned me," said Liao, forcing her voice to remain steady. "I remember. A warning I should have heeded."

"What was the nature of their attack, may I ask?"

"What you see before you is all that is left of a species of billions." She straightened her back, determined to put on a visage of strength to those who had done right by her, had tried to prevent catastrophe. "However, these problems, these burdens, are ours to bear. In spite of our losses, our ships were able to record a wealth of data regarding Ben's jump device, even if we were unable to procure a physical copy. You are, as per our agreement, welcome to all the data we were able to collect. We can transmit it to you at your leisure, but it is quite voluminous. A localised uplink would be faster."

"You are noble to honour your agreement despite your losses, Commander. Forgive my earlier outburst. I, as you know, have no love for the Alliance." The sadness in his words intensified as he went on. "I had such hope for your species. I believed—foolishly, perhaps, but not without reason—that Humans were on their way to becoming a noble, enlightened power in the region, despite your self-proclaimed flaws. I had great expectations for your people. I am sorry to be disappointed."

"Your confidence is reassuring," said Liao, "but we are not gone yet."

"Unless annihilation has sharpened your skills at hiding, or you have other settlements on Velsharn's far side, our sensors show that your people occupy no more than a tiny speck of this Telvan planet. To be reduced from what you were to this… is functionally indistinguishable from being nothing, Commander. I apologise if you disagree."

"Fundamentally," Liao said, and she meant it. "More than once throughout humanity's history, we have been reduced to a small number, and this was at a time when our technology levels and our ability to adapt to our surroundings was significantly less than it is today. We are beaten today, Speaker Paar, but you have my word on this—as a species, as a people, we will recover."

"Unless the Alliance finds you."

The starkness in his tone surprised her. Paar was diplomatic and reasonable but also blunt. It was refreshing to hear such candour.

"This sector is within Telvan space and protected by them. Although we have not received permission to settle here permanently, they will not begrudge us a temporary stay. They are our friends. We have fought alongside them. The Alliance will be reluctant to strike here."

"Is that what you think?" Paar's tone soured. "Then you have learnt nothing, Spear of Earth! Laws, boundaries, promises—these are tools for the Alliance to exploit. They follow them when it suits their purpose and discard them when they do no longer. If the Alliance jumped in a score of ships and blew every last Human to dust, the Telvan response would be diplomatic protest. Possible trade sanctions. That is all your lives are worth to them, Commander. An inconvenience. And they would pay this toll gladly were it to make their vengeance complete."

"I understand. We have yet to petition the Telvan for more practical aid, but—"

"I recommend, Commander, that you make this your next immediate priority."

She couldn't help but agree. "No question of that, Speaker Paar. But to business. Our Broadsword will escort you in; the data, and the device you loaned us, should be waiting for you aboard the
Madrid
. I will meet you there."

"This is agreeable, Commander Liao. We do have one gift for you, however… your Broadsword and its crew. They have been our guests until now, but I am sure they would appreciate returning home as soon as possible."

She remembered the inside of the Iilan vessel, a sphere filled with a green fluid that possessed all manner of powerful qualities, the same fluid she had seen the copy of her float in on Ben's ship. Spending several hours there had been discomforting enough. She could not imagine sleeping in the stuff.

"I'm sure they'd appreciate that as well," she said. "We'll see you there.
Beijing
out."

After the data drives were taken from the
Beijing
's computer systems and loaded onto the Broadsword that would transport her to the
Madrid
, the ride up into orbit was uneventful. Liao barely paid any attention to the journey, trying to shift her mind to the task at hand. However, moving from the planet's surface to orbit then out to the
Madrid
gave her plenty of time to think.

This was not a good thing. Her mind was too full of doubts for her to focus properly. She should have brought James along.

Finally, though, the Broadsword sailed towards the open hangar bay of the
Madrid
. It was her first time getting an up-close look at the ship. It was similar to the
Beijing
, but her intimate knowledge of her ship allowed her to pick out the differences. Subtle things. The placement of some of the external cameras. Different autocannon configurations. Minor hull alterations.

The
Madrid
was the second iteration of the
Triumph
class ships, more modern.

It would also be the last.

What would their long-term future be, if the remaining Pillars were all they had to defend themselves with? They had gone from the
Beijing
to the
Madrid
in just a few years, but now all their engineers were dead. All their scientists. They couldn't even build more. What they had now was all they would ever have… and that wouldn't be enough. If the Alliance found them, that was it. They had no gravity mines, no way to lock down this section of space.

Not that gravity mines had prevented the Alliance from attacking Earth.

The Broadsword flew through the hangar bay doors and decelerated, slowly coming to rest on the steel floor of the
Madrid
. Liao unbuckled herself, waited until the area was pressurised, then walked out and left the hangar bay.
 

A pair of marines was waiting for her. She thanked them for their attendance but would make her own way towards Operations. They left her to it.

She wound up in Waste Management. It seemed as though the changes were not just skin-deep.

The
Madrid
had much fewer civilians walking its decks. It appeared that Anderson's assessment about how many the ship was able to rescue was accurate, to the point that few had been sent down to the surface. Compared to the overcrowded
Beijing
, the
Madrid
seemed spacious.

Much to her chagrin, she asked one of the passing crew members for directions to Operations, then made her way there at a brisk pace. She did not want Alano to think she was tardy.

That's Commander de Lugo
, she reminded herself. Calling him Alano was a bad habit. She'd met the man in officer candidate school and, after the pair of them had gotten themselves quite drunk, had slept with him.
 

What happened in the past should remain in the past. Now they were just comrades.

She
really
wished she'd brought James along.

Liao pushed open the steel bulkhead to what she was relieved to discover was, indeed, Operations. De Lugo greeted her warmly as she stepped through the threshold. "Commander, it's a pleasure to have you aboard."

"Thank you, Captain," she said, careful to call him by his proper title. Although only ranked a commander, like herself, the commanding officer of a naval vessel was always addressed as Captain, irrespective of their actual rank. "Very fine ship you have here."