Paranak looked up from his displays. “Different Drive signature again,” he announced curtly. “These ones were really prepared for action without advanced warning. We need time for repairs; four of the six Shells are down! Another good hit will wipe us out. Suggest you prepare to exit the System.”
Richard nodded. “Yeah, that was too close,” he agreed. “Looks like we’ll have to try somewhere else.” He looked up and saw the remaining Pakak approaching rapidly from extreme range, inferring that no one on that ship could calculate micro-jumps with the alacrity that Kirrina had developed, or perhaps simply that the comparatively short distance was not worth such an effort. A single green bolt separated itself from the approaching craft and passed a few hundred yards to one side, its path as erratic and unreliable over such distances as they had expected and hoped it would be. “What about the other ships you mentioned in the system?”
Paranak glanced back at his scanners. “They are closing fast, also.” He looked at Kirrina as she swung the Patrol Craft in a violent move to one side to avoid another single bolt of green. “Four more!” he roared with his ultra-wide mouth as the scanner suddenly registered the arrival of additional ships at the extreme limits of the short-range scanner. “Let’s go! It’s useless to stay, we can – no, wait! The five ships down system are firing at extreme range also, but the beams are purple!”
Kirrina whooped with excitement and dodged again as the nearer Pakak started to fire continuously, the green beads strung out like broken necklaces across a velvet covered jewellery display, barely missing them, but several purple beams converged on the Narlav attack craft from behind it as the five Arshonnan ships rapidly closed the gap. A moment later the lone Pakak exploded, and the light of its annihilation obscured the System star from view temporarily.
Green bolts flashed wildly and harmlessly past as the distant Pakak foursome tried to prevent the Arshonnan defenders from rescuing Richard and his crew, but moments later Patrol Craft One was ringed with purple beams as the black-hulled rescue ships closed rapidly. What appeared to be four Patrol Craft, like theirs, but without the bulge caused by Citadel’s presence, shot past at ever-increasing velocities, heading towards the four Pakak. The fifth Arshonnan ship slowed and came alongside.
“Standby, everyone.” Kirrina’s hand still poised over her jump sequence control. “Is this a welcoming committee, or what?”
“They are signalling us.” Paranak started to work on his beloved Shell Fields as the tension eased slightly, his eyes still monitoring the communications screens as he worked. “They want a visual contact.”
“Let’s see if they still like us once they see us all,” Richard muttered nervously. “Open us a channel, Paranak.”
The forward viewscreen flickered, and the relatively sparse collection of stars was replaced by a view of a Control Centre, rather like the one Stuona had briefly commanded, and soon after had died in so heroically. Three figures in dark blue uniforms sat in the chairs before them; each with stars on their shoulders. The central one was a ‘middle-aged’ man, his blond hair tied back and his blue eyes smiling with excitement as he took in the scene within Patrol Craft One.
“This is Captain Rendan of Patrol Cruiser Sixteen; welcome to Fepnine, or Frontier Post Nine, as you probably still call it.” He reached out and laid a hand on the right shoulder of the young woman with long, full and wavy black hair on his left. “We are part of the defensive force constantly active in this System, protecting the last known Arshonnan colony. This is my First Officer, Bonchor.” The cheerful-faced Bonchor smiled, showing a perfect set of teeth as she appeared to look at each of them in turn. Even Paranak’s appearance did not seem to affect her delight at being present for such a momentous occasion.
The Captain reached to the other side and touched the young woman with curly brown hair on that side in a similar fashion. “And this is my Second Officer, Esten.” This Fepniner only nodded in return, her hair bobbing above her shoulders as she studied the image from Patrol Craft One nervously.
“Thank you.” Richard gulped, then took a deep breath. Let’s find out how they react. “I am Captain Richard Fletcher, of Patrol Craft One, and this is my First Officer, Kirrina, and my Second Officer, Paranak. He is a Narlav who has saved both of our lives several times, and has aided us immensely in our battles.”
Captain Rendan looked back in amazement, his blues eyes wide, as if he had noticed the alien for the first time. “We have never met a Narlav before. We give to you a special welcome, Paranak; it is wonderful to see another species willing to join us as we keep the Vershonnan at bay.” He leaned right as Esten whispered something to him, her big brown eyes still fixed on Paranak. “My Second Officer tells me that our defence team got one more of the attackers before the rest dimensioned out of the System.”
Kirrina spoke up, her spirits vastly cheered by the sight of her fellow citizens, present in reality, right before her at last. “We have come a long way to find the Arshonnans, for they are my people. Thank you for your most timely assistance!”
“It is our great pleasure to be able to help you all. Especially after your daring attack on two of the dreaded Vershonnan ships!” Rendan seemed to glow as he leaned forwards in his excitement. “Never have we seen such an effective attack, and you are only equipped with an old and patched-up Patrol Craft.” He looked towards his right as Esten whispered something to him again. “Is your Star Drive still fully operational?”
Richard looked at Kirrina briefly, then confirmed it was.
“My Second Officer suggests we perform a micro-jump in unison back into the heart of the System. That action will accomplish two very worthy goals: first, it will take us away from our present location and prevent further interaction with the enemy – they have been known to return and surround the last-known location of the ship which they damaged, on the assumption that it would require little work to finish the destruction, and second, it will speed your arrival and official welcome to Fepnine. Does this meet with your approval, Captain Richard?”
“Yes, indeed it does. And you are correct, our Shell Fields are severely damaged, though my Second Officer is working on repairs as we speak.” He glanced right and was rewarded with a startling confirmation of his statement – Paranak was still on his recliner, but both arms were wrapped over or around the control panels, and seemed to be working independently on two sets of repairs simultaneously.
“Bonchor will provide your pilot with co-ordinates for the jump; please indicate when you are ready and we will make the move in unison.”
Richard nodded, then waited a little anxiously while Kirrina got the information directly on her navigation console and made her preparations. He received her confirmation of readiness mentally and announced it officially to Captain Rendan.
“Jump begins in five seconds,” the Arshonnan Captain intoned. “Three, two, one, now!”
The image of the Patrol Cruiser’s interior flickered briefly, and Richard transferred that view to one of the smaller screens on the panel before him. In its place, the view ahead of their ship materialised as before, but now a pale green planet, in size like a basketball held at arm’s length, hung dead centre against a perfectly black backdrop, the emptiness of this tract of space emphasised once more by the total lack of stars visible in that direction, as they were looking out towards the inconceivably perfect vacuum beyond the confines of the Galaxy.
“If you would care to follow us down,” Rendan spoke up once more. “We will take you to your reception with the Planetary Controller!”
“Great!’ Richard replied, suddenly self-conscious, feeling a little as if he were about to have an audience in the Oval Office with the President of the United States.
“We look forward to meeting you in person, once you have landed,” Captain Rendan said, still beaming broadly all over his pleasantly lined face. “Patrol Cruiser Sixteen out.”
Paranak cut their audio-visual transmission as Richard signalled him to do so, and whistled as
he swivelled to look at Richard.
His Captain sighed and then laughed nervously. “Follow them down, Kirrina,” Richard chuckled again. “I never expected this kind of reaction.” He turned and noticed Paranak’s continuing regard. “They’ve never heard of Narlavs! You’re a hero, just like the rest of us. That solves that problem, at least for the time-being.”
“I would prefer not to be accepted under false pretences,” Paranak stated gruffly.
“We’ll tell them the whole truth when the time is right, but let’s wait until we know a bit more about things here, first.” He looked at Paranak, then turned to Kirrina, though he had already felt her agreement. “That’s an order from your Captain, okay?” He waited until Paranak indicated he would comply, then turned and concentrated on the rapidly expanding image of the planet, his mind racing as he tried to anticipate what lay ahead.
One small blue patch appeared in the middle of the pale green as the image overflowed beyond the edges of their forward viewscreen, and then a faint haze of high-altitude cloud became visible around its borders. The planet seemed to flatten out as they continued to descend rapidly towards a point somewhere near the terminator between day and night; the ship before them appeared only as a black disk against the brightly lit backdrop of vegetation.
“Where are all the cities?” Richard wondered aloud as their descent brought them close enough to the night side to see no signs of light.
“Perhaps there aren’t that many of them here,” Kirrina answered in a similarly reflective tone as she closed the gap between the two ships, positioning their blended craft slightly behind and to starboard of the leader.
“That ship is far bigger than this one,” Paranak stated bluntly.
Both Richard and Kirrina suddenly recognised that he was right. The Patrol Cruiser’s true size was revealed as it slipped down through the first in a series of very thin cloud layers and started to shift its flight into a more horizontal mode. It suddenly dwarfed their craft.
“Look, there’s a patch of darker green down there,” Richard observed as they passed through the last of the obscuring clouds. “It’s ringed with something, something…” He paused, unable to make out just what the ring or border was composed of. Shadows stretched across the ground, emphasising the contours of the gently rolling plains. The descent continued in silence for another minute.
“It’s people!” Kirrina breathed in amazement as she saw the border ripple slightly as countless faces looked up to catch a first glimpse of their arrival. “Thousands of people!”
Paranak and Richard suddenly realised she was right. There, below them, surrounding a huge open area that appeared to be their destination, was a massive crowd, numbering in the tens of thousands. It appeared to be growing, somehow, even as they slowed behind the enormous Patrol Cruiser and hung or hovered about four hundred feet up, holding their position over the gently undulating surface of the landing area, in the late evening light.
Captain Rendan’s ship started its final descent after this brief pause, and Kirrina matched its velocity, so that they reached the surface at exactly the same time. She set the controls to maintain Patrol Craft One’s position, barely touching the coarse but familiar vegetation beneath it.
“Well, shall we go out?” she asked nervously as she locked the controls for added security.
Richard glanced from her to Paranak, then back at the teaming masses of people now moving slowly closer towards the two stationary spacecraft.
“Yes,” Captain Fletcher stated, disconcerted by how uncertain he sounded, even to his own ears. “YES!” he repeated, more emphatically. He smiled at his fiancée and clapped his hands together to try to break the tension. “Let’s go meet some Arshonnans!”
They stood up and walked back towards the rear of the Control Centre, and Richard took hold of Kirrina’s pale hand and Paranak’s callused greenish-grey one to ensure they all arrived simultaneously. They shimmered briefly and appeared on the familiar spiky green surface, just ahead of the front end of their ship. As they materialised, a great shout went up from the mass of people, and hands were waved wildly by those further back. Richard was both amazed and relieved to see that those members of the assembled masses closest to the two ships were now holding their places, preventing the crowd behind from moving forward and swamping them all in their enthusiasm.
Captain Rendan and his crew must have been watching for this from their own Control Centre, as he and his two young officers appeared a few yards away, but a little further towards their own ship, Patrol Cruiser Sixteen, which the visitors could now easily gauge was large enough to play the role of ‘adult’ to the comparative ‘toddler’, Patrol Craft One.
“Welcome to Fepnine!” Rendan shouted above the hubbub of the throng as he stepped up and shook each of them by the hand in turn. It was obvious that he was trying hard not to stare at Paranak’s unique physique. “As you can see,” he gestured towards the huge crowd now standing still just a few yards back from the ships. “You are celebrities!”
Bonchor stepped forward, still beaming her dazzling smile as the last gleams of the evening sun started to fade behind the distant line of small hills. “You are the first people to arrive here for three hundred and twenty two years!” She hugged Kirrina emotionally, then turned and did the same to Richard.
“And you are the first alien we have ever met in person!” She hesitated momentarily, then hugged Paranak’s bulky form, too.
Paranak grinned back at her, his incredibly wide mouth turning the expression into a caricature. “Your smile is nearly as good as mine,” he said gruffly.
The entire group laughed nervously, and a little of the awkwardness that they inevitably felt, dissipated in the light-hearted reaction.
Esten stepped forward, offering just her hand to each of them in turn. “Once you have met Bonchor, you are… strangers no longer.” She blushed as she realised how close she had come to calling them ‘outsiders’ or ‘vershonnan’ with a small ‘vee’, a term still used in casual conversation to describe newcomers, but one which might seem insulting at such a sensitive moment.
Kirrina felt the tension return as she picked up on Esten’s thoughts; she found herself alternating between feelings of tremendous accomplishment and total loss of control of her own destiny. Captain Rendan wisely started to usher the group away from the ships towards a path that had opened up through the crowd, and they moved slowly off together. Then Kirrina stopped, turned and looked into the crowd, an incredulous expression of intense happiness on her face.
Richard felt her emotions surge and flood over him in a way he had not experienced before, and this despite the lack of physical contact between them. He turned in time to notice the sudden change in her appearance; he followed her gaze and saw movement in the tightly packed throng as someone tried to work through to the front; the others stopped a little ahead as they realised belatedly that something was happening, then Kirrina made a dash toward the centre of the disturbance, just as a blond-haired man with blue, blue eyes burst out through the front line. A moment later they were hugging each other, laughing and crying at the same time.
Richard moved closer, starting to understand, now the mental storm these two had created was dying down.
“Richard,” Kirrina took his hand and pulled him close as the crowd tried to back up and give them room. “This is Batamon; he’s my mother’s brother!” She grinned deliriously through her tears, her dimples very much in evidence. “He’s my uncle!”
The bright-eyed man, surely no more than a very healthy fifty-five (though he had to be over six hundred), who stood barely an inch taller than Kirrina, took Richard in his arms and hugged him, too. He stepped back and tilted his head back slightly so that he could look into Richard’s eyes.
“What a day this is! Welcome! And thank you for bringing back my sister’s daughter!” Batamon stepped back a little more and studied Richard closely. “I think you’ll be calling me ‘uncle’ soon, too!” He winked before he
turned back to Kirrina and hugged her again, lifting her off her feet and swinging her around as he laughed in delight.
Captain Rendan and his command crew looked on in wonder as they stood behind the scene of what had to be the ultimate extended-family reunion.
Batamon looked over at them finally. “It seems you have done my family a great favour, Captain!” he called out. “We are forever in your debt!” He put Kirrina down and looked around once more as he seemed to suddenly catch his breath.
“I’m sorry, uncle,” Kirrina confirmed in response to his unspoken realisation. “Melleny died soon after I was born. I never even knew her.” She took his hands and squeezed them.
“Your father is dead, too,” Batamon stated as he received that message from her mentally. He looked up again, his eyes going sadder as he caught more of the details of her past. He saw Paranak, and the blue tint started to fade into grey.
“This is my blood-brother, my dear friend Paranak,” Kirrina said with careful emphasis. “He has saved my life many times.”
Batamon bowed gravely to the alien as he caught the full impact of the Narlav’s identity. “Any friend of my niece is a friend of mine.” His eyes slipped back to their normal blue as he selected his words carefully. “It seems I am indebted to you also.”
Paranak glanced from Kirrina to her uncle, realising suddenly how much had passed between them in such a brief space of time. “You have my word as a Narlav warrior that I will always be her protector,” he stated simply and gravely.
“That means more to me than I can say,” Batamon replied with a sincerity undiminished by the carefully concealed ambiguity or duality of his statement.
“Please, come with us, Batamon,” Captain Rendan requested cheerfully as he tried to get the group moving once again. “I think you should be with us when I present these travellers to Larima, the Planetary Controller.”
Passage Page 44
