The Heart of Matter: Odyssey One (13 page)

▸LT. JENNIFER “CARDSHARP” Samuels dropped her fighter in close behind her wing leader as they swung around the meridian of the planet below them, coming back into view of the
Odyssey
on schedule. She watched her thrusters puff just slightly, keying the controls completely through the lithe little fighter’s base-flight control systems rather than the advanced NICS control system they used for combat maneuvering.

Nonetheless, she managed to come in tight on the other fighter’s wing, keeping a formation tight enough that it should fool even the
Odyssey
’s advanced sensing gear into believing that there was only a single unit inbound. Assuming, of course, that they weren’t looking too closely and they didn’t have an IFF transponder blabbing the secret.

They did, of course, have transponders betraying them, but actual stealth wasn’t the intent of the exercise. Paladin and Cardsharp just liked to keep in practice.

“Whoa. Take a look at that.” Major Alexander Kerry whistled, highlighting an image on his heads-up display (HUD) and shooting it across to Cardsharp.

Jennifer keyed up the data with a casual move, then let out a short whistle of her own. “Jeez. She makes the
Odyssey
look small.”

“Size doesn’t matter, Lieutenant,” Paladin returned back over the net, a smarmy tone evident in his voice.

“Gee, sir, I bet you say that to all the ladies,” Jennifer returned in a sickly sweet voice.

“Ouch.” Paladin chuckled, idly keying up a few readings he was picking up on his sensors. He frowned then, his voice turning serious. “Lieutenant…Break formation and parallel my course from two thousand meters.”

Cardsharp bit down the urge to ask why and simply nodded as she hit the thrusters, sliding the fighter well clear of Paladin’s before she twisted her control stick and brought her main reactors into play. The lithe fighter responded easily, twisting on its axis in response to the command and jumping away from Paladin when she pushed the throttle forward.

Two kilometers out, she killed her lateral momentum and paced Paladin as he keyed his computer in with hers. Jennifer watched the information scroll across her screen idly, seeing the same things that Paladin was seeing, but not knowing what he was looking at until he called up the combined electromagnetic interference from their displaced sensors.

“Lordy,” Paladin muttered, “that baby has got some power curve. Are you seeing this, Lieutenant?”

Jennifer nodded, a little dumbly. “Aye, sir. Is she primed for action?”

“I don’t know, but the EMI readings are about forty times what I’d expect from the
Odyssey
—even primed for action,” Major Kerry replied. “That is one powerful warship. Figuratively, if not literally.”

Jennifer chuckled. “No doubt, sir.”

“Normally, I’d be tempted to swing by and have a closer look, but somehow I don’t feel the urge anymore,” Kerry said with a half smile in his voice. “Close back up on me, Lieutenant. We’ll adjust our course to bypass the alien ship at five kilometers.”

“Yes, sir,” she responded. “Closing formation now.”

As Jennifer brought her fighter in tighter, Kerry hailed the
Odyssey
.

“
Odyssey
Control, this is Archangel Flight Bravo, requesting landing approach.”

PRIMINAE VESSEL VULK
Ranquil Planetary Orbit

▸JOHAN MARAN WATCHED the projected image of the Terran fighters as they swept around the curvature of the planet, coming head-on toward the
Vulk
.

They had some records of the small fighters from the Battle of Ranquil, but those were spotty at best, even when compared to the fighting records of the Terran starship. Maran gestured a command to the computer and watched as the ships closed with each other, coming within mere breadths of touching one another.

It was an interesting thing to do, but Maran wasn’t certain of its purpose. Any transport was capable of flying at practically any distance chosen from another, even to the point of touching in flight. Normally, one kept a marginal distance for safety, if nothing else.

His eyebrows went up as they split apart a moment after he thought that, widening their stance to several hundred marks. They flew like that for several moments, then crossed back to close formation as they adjusted course away from the
Vulk
.

Pity
, he thought.

It would have been nice to get a much closer view than they were going to give him.

RANQUIL

▸THE SUN WAS rising on a new day, the second one that Ambassador LaFontaine had seen from this new world’s perspective, and she couldn’t help but rise with it to watch as it came up from behind the oceans to the east. She thought it was the east, actually, but now that she thought of it, she wasn’t sure that the sun rose in the east here.

Or does it automatically become the east if the sun rises there?
LaFontaine winced, gently rubbing her temple. She gave herself a headache trying to work that out.

The red giant created a spectacular display as it rose from the light-green tint of the ocean’s waters, burning its way through the morning mist with reflected and refracted lights that danced on the open water.

The city was immense, beyond imagining in some ways, but she was truly stunned by how incredibly compact it was. Millions of people fit into an area the size of a small town on Earth, and more than a billion fit into the city without it feeling cramped at all. She understood that the vast majority of the planet was effectively a nature preserve, but a population that exceeded that of Earth still managed to exist there.
It was a fantastic planet, one she dearly looked forward to discovering.

“It is a glorious day, is it not, Ambassador?”

LaFontaine looked up and smiled at the approach of the familiar face of Elder Corusc. “Indeed it is, Elder. You have a marvelous city here.”

“We have grown used to it,” Corusc returned with a matching smile, coming up beside the ambassador and looking out over the vista alongside her.

They were standing at the apex of an enormous pyramid of what the ambassador would call glass and steel, if she didn’t know better. Neither material would be strong enough to stand up to the sheer weight of the construct she was currently living in. Whatever the materials, however, the pyramid itself was a monumental achievement in her eyes.

It was over a kilometer on each side at its base, and its apex reached similarly high into the sky. The ambassador’s rooms and offices had been provided from the apex of this particular structure, an area she was told was in extremely high demand among what might be considered the highest strata of society.

Julia believed it without the slightest doubt.

The view, of course, was staggering. She could see countryside to the horizon in one direction, looming mountains so far off that they appeared to float in and out of existence according to the heat shimmer in the air on another, and an ocean that stretched out farther than she could remember any on Earth doing.

It was probably the height and the psychological effect of actually being on an alien world, she supposed, but it was a heady feeling, anyway.

“The Council will meet with you for initial deliberations within three days,” Corusc informed her, standing by her side
as he looked out over the scenic vistas. “The first meeting will be largely occupied in formality, including official introductions, ceremony, and the like.”

“Of course.” She nodded.

Ceremony was something that she was intimately familiar with. As chief negotiator for the Confederation during the cessation of hostilities with the Block, it was LaFontaine’s patience that had enabled her to push through the terms of the cease-fire. For better or ill, much of the Block’s leadership was deeply entwined in the traditions of their culture, and with China as one of the founding members, not to mention their population advantage, tradition meant ceremony in spades.

Sitting through it was as much a test of character as any actions one might take, and one thing that Julia LaFontaine liked to believe she had was character.

Nero Jehan wasn’t watching the sunrise from the command pit where he had spent the night. The day before, he had met with Colonel Reed, who had been sent by the Terrans to train a core of Nero’s ground forces. Much as he had his doubts, Nero had, as promised, delivered the names of one thousand of the best troops, along with their files, to the Terran advisors. They had then cut his list by half, tossing one name after another by virtue of computer searches and factors known only to them, it seemed.

The five hundred that remained were in front of him now.

It bothered him to see his men reduced to little more than names and numbers at the whim of someone else, someone he didn’t really know. But he didn’t see what choice he had,
either. Even if he didn’t believe that his people needed something, anything, to help them in their fight, the Council was backing the elder’s arrangement with the Terrans.

So he was bound both by duty and necessity to swallow what little pride he had left.

He hoped that eventually the bitter taste would fade.

For the moment, however, he had another matter to determine. The forces on the
Odyssey
had requested permission to conduct “training exercises” on Ranquil, and the Council had agreed to allow it.