The Collected Lancer Volume 1

by Troy Osgood

  What is happening to me?

  She held up one of her hands and looked at the remnants of the blue blood that was around her nails. Once we had gotten back to the ship, and that had taken a while, I had cleaned her up the best I could. She had woken from the stun blast midway to the ship, which was a surprise. That blast should have had her out for hours. So far everything seemed fine, no lasting effects from the blast.

  “I don’t know but we’re figure it out,” I replied and it felt weak, inadequate. I brushed a loose strand of hair from her check. “Get some rest. Next stop is Turesa.”

  I stood up as she turned on her side and closed her eyes. She’d be asleep in no time. The stress from the short fight and flight as well as still shaking off the effects of the stun blast, would have her out. But it wouldn’t be a restful sleep.

  As I walked out of her room, I turned the light off, and headed for the bridge.

  We were already in wildspace, our first hop would take three hours. I had laid her in the lounge well I got us out of Dynuit Station. I had carried her through the back corridors and out a door midway around the station. I’d managed to get to the lifts without drawing attention but it was a nerve racking walk. Couldn’t move too fast, had to carry Kaylia in a way that wouldn’t draw the eye, and had to keep my eyes out for the other Garand and any other hunters that might be around. Finally had managed to get to the lift and down to the docking ring. She’d woken up as we were in the lift. Groggy, she hadn’t been scared at waking in the changed surroundings so I had been able to explain what happened.

  Once on the ship I had to get Dock Control to give me an immediate departure slot. That took a bit of doing and convincing. Half an hour later, the first hop calculated and we were out of that system. That’s when I finally managed to put Kaylia to bed.

  I wanted to go back to the galley and grab an ale but as we flew out of the system I had noticed a message had come in on the Feed well we were on the station and avoiding bounty hunters. Now that Kaylia was resting, I could view it.

  Putting the headset on, so the noise wouldn’t carry out of the bridge, I hit the play button.

  The vidscreen filled with the head of a man, human. Much older than me, hair all gray with brown eyes. The hair was close cut, a military style, and he wore the uniform of an Earth Expeditionary Forces officer. There were wrinkles around the eyes and he had a face and look that had seen a lot and barely survived it. Colonel Terrence Jessups.

  My former commanding officer and one of the few people in the galaxy that I trusted.

  “Captain,” the message began and that voice brought back a flood of memories.

  Even though I was no longer in the military, Jessups still called me by my rank. Just hearing the voice made me want to snap to attention. Some habits were never lost.

  “I looked into that name you sent me. I couldn’t find much and most of what I found was classified far beyond my paygrade. What I did find was that a Thesan named Yoterra was part of their War Applications Division. You know the stories associated with them. That was all I could find. Sorry Captain.” He paused and the look changed, the military commander fading and a man that was like a father to me replaced it. “I don’t know what you got yourself involved with, but the coding on the files I found was pretty high up. That along with what the Thesan War Applicators were up to, you’re getting into some deep waters that you may not be able to swim in. Watch your six.”

  The message terminated and I took off the headset, leaning back in my chair.

  I really needed that ale now.

  *****

  Forty years ago the Earth developed the tech to explore our solar system. We settled on Mars and one of the moons of Jupiter, Europa. We couldn’t escape our solar system yet but our advancements had caught the attention of the Thesans. Thirty years ago they had helped develop our warpthrusters and once we had those, we expanded out into the larger galaxy and the Earth Expeditionary Forces, nicknamed the 2Es, were created. We’re human, so our first impulse was to expand and the Thesans were happy to do that with us.

  Turned out that the Thesans were looking for allies to help them expand and protect their territory. Another species, the Tiat, were aggressively taking over more and more systems. The Thesans wanted to strengthen their own forces and expand their influence, while using us as a buffer against the Tiat. They thought they could dominate us, as we were the newbies to space. That was quickly proven wrong.

  The alliance didn’t necessarily start out on the right foot, Terrans and Thesans have been strong allies since that day. It’s kind of a mutual aid thing. No one else really likes us. Or the Tiat. But the Tiat are strong enough to stand on their own.

  One of the first places beyond our neighboring systems that humans expanded into was a system that the Tiat had designs over as well.

  And the Third Galactic War happened. The Tiat versus the Thesan/Terran Alliance. It went on for years and spilled out into other systems. Billions died on all three sides, as well as countless members of other races caught in the crossfire. The Tiat outnumbered our Alliance and the Thesans were starting to get desperate.

  That’s where the War Applications Division entered the picture. They were the idea factory. Anything that could help end the war in the Thesans favor. Some of the stuff never saw the light of day, thankfully, but the stuff that did was pretty bad. Not the brightest spot in Thesan history.

  I’d run into some remnants of War Applications stuff during my time in service, and that was years after the war ended with the non-aggression treaty signed between the three parties. What I had seen was enough. I couldn’t imagine what they had been up to during the height of the war.

  What did a former member of the Division have to do with Kaylia?

  Had a feeling that I wasn’t going to like the answer.

  *****

  The next stop wasn’t Turesa. We had to stop half way there at a station in the Hui System to refuel. Kaylia stayed in the ship well I was dealing with Hui Station Control to get what we needed. The first day of the trip after Dynuit, she had spent in her room recovering and dealing with the realization that something was happening to her. It was hard as she had no idea what was happening, the changes to her body as well as people hunting her. I tried to comfort her as best I could, but this was beyond my limited abilities.

  I did some research and it definetely wasn’t normal Thesan development. At her age, Terran kids started going through puberty. I had hoped this was a Thesan equivalent. Nope. On top of the wildness and other changes associated with it, she also had the Thesan version to still look forward to.

  Poor kid.

  We spent most of the early time after leaving Dynuit either on the bridge or in the lounge working on my sign language. I did wonder at a couple points why I was bothering with this. I’d be dropping her off soon and then back to my life. It wasn’t a great life, constantly moving and by myself, but it was my life.

  I read a lot, it’s a good way to pass the time while flying through wildspace, and Kaylia dug into my collection. I had a couple tablets connected to the ship’s library and she took one as her own, downloaded a couple of books onto it and would disappear for hours into the novel. When we had stopped at Hui Station, I showed her how to get more books from the Feed and she grabbed a couple that fit her interests. From Hui Station on, we were either in the bridge or lounge and there was usually a book being read.

  We didn’t talk much and it was fine, a companionable silence.

  The trip was only a couple of days and we settled into a routine that surprisingly I found I enjoyed. I was used to being by myself and now I had this kid along. I was okay with that.

  But it was only for another couple days then back to normal.

  I didn’t question her anymore, there was no need. Everything would be answered soon enough. Kaylia asked me a couple questions about myself; where I came from and so on. I told her. I didn’t hold anything back. I didn’t go out of my way to give all the details but
if she asked, I answered truthfully.

  She had given herself to my protection and she deserved to know who I was, what kind of person I was.

  Why the..

  Kaylia started to sign and paused, unable to figure out the right way to say what she wanted. She waved her hands to indicate the ship, reaching over and patting the back wall of the bridge.

  “Why is she called Nomad’s Wind?”

  She nodded.

  I leaned back in my chair, looking around at the control stations with pride.

  “Nomad means wanderer. And a nomad’s wind is what pushes the nomad around so they don’t stay in one place for long.”

  She thought about it for a bit and nodded, satisfied with the answer. A couple seconds later she was back buried in the book.

  I looked around the bridge, thinking back to the day that I had bought the ship. There had been no name picked, I wasn’t even sure what I was looking for. Just a vague idea of what I wanted to do. I’d been in the military for so long and I was ready to just roam. I saw the ship and the name just came to me, fitting what my life was going to be. A nomad, going where the wind took me.

  *****

  Turesa came into view.

  A small blue green planet, mostly green with some blue, that had a single small moon orbiting it. The system had four planets revolving around the sun and Turesa was the third and only inhabited one. They had no space station, all traffic going to the planet. Out of the way and colonized by the Thesan, there was no native race to the planet, the traffic was relatively light. And since the war, the Thesan heavily patrolled the system.

  Our hop put us at the end of the system, just past the fourth planet.

  Kaylia was looking out the view window at the planet before us.

  Is that Turesa?

  “No, I don’t know what it’s called,” I replied to her signing. She hadn’t actually said the planets name but I knew what she meant. She had signed ‘home’. “No one lives on it. See that larger bright spot just beyond?”

  I stood up so I could point. She came around and leaned against me so she could use my arm to help find the spot. Her fur tickled the bare skin of my arm.

  “That’s Turesa.”

  She stayed standing as we flew that way. The fourth planet grew larger as we passed it, filling up most of the view window and then disappearing behind us. I saw the moving points of light before she did. Her eyes widened as she caught the movement and turned towards me.

  Shooting stars?

  “No, other ships.”

  I had known they were coming, they had shown up on the scanners a couple minutes ago.

  The streaks, two of them, came closer and details could now be seen. They became gray pyramid like shapes, the point facing us with the lower half of the pyramid larger than the top half. A wing separated the two. Lights dotted the ship, some blinking and some constant. The barrels of two weapons could be seen mounted to the ends of the wings.

  They each came along the side of the Wind, taking up position behind me. Kaylia looked both ways as they passed. She recognized the shapes.

  Those are Thesan.

  “Yeah, patrol ships, should be hailing us,” I started to say when they did.

  “Freighter, identify yourself,” the voice said over the comms.

  I had turned the speakers on so Kaylia could hear.

  “Nomad’s Wind, Terran registry bound for Choni City.”

  During the hops to the system I had asked Kaylia where she was from, which was a small settlement outside the capitol city. I then needed to figure out the best way to get onto the planet. I had no official cargo documentation, no cargo flying in and no order to pick some up, so we needed a reason to be allowed to land.

  “Please transmit documentation to land.”

  “I have none but I am seeking an audience with Governor Yoterra.”

  This was the hard part. They could just choose to ignore me, in which case I wouldn’t be landing. If that happened, we’d leave the system and I’d have to track down a cargo or try to contact the Governor from off system.

  Why didn’t I do that in the first place? Too many eyes and ears that way. Bringing a cargo would have taken time and all incoming ships could be watched by the Tiat or whoever else was involved. If I had been them, I would have set up a trap using cargo knowing I would need a way to get on planet. No one would really expect me to just go straight to the top There would be a lot of ears that could and would hear this request but now it’d only be hours compared to days.

  And with bounty hunters looking for Kaylia, the quicker she got to the safety provided by Yoterra, the better she’d be.

  “Reason for the audience,” the pilots voice came back and the tone was one of annoyance. Could tell the pilot would have rather given me the brush off but someone on the other end had told him to humor me. The oddity of the request would have made someone interested.

  And here came the risky part.

  “Tell the Governor that I have something she is missing.”

  I was making a lot of assumptions. It started with assuming that Yoterra knew Kaylia had survived, that the Tiat had faked her death. That led to there being a cover-up of some kind to keep the news quiet. The Tiat were keeping it quiet and there had been no broadcast by the Thesans, so that was a safe assumption to make. If the Tiat had bounty hunters out looking, another safe assumption was that the Thesans would also.

  That all led to me assuming that if I told Yoterra that I had what she was missing then she’d see me.

  The minutes dragged as I waited for a response. We were still heading towards the planet and the patrol ships had yet to warn me off, so that was a good sign. Kaylia had sat back down at the co-pilots station and was looking worried. I flashed her a thumbs up and what I hoped was my most reassuring smile.

  “Nomad’s Wind, you are cleared to proceed to Choni City,” the pilot finally said and I breathed a sigh of relief. “Proceed to docking pad 13.”

  “Acknowledged,” I said. “Pad 13.”

  Kaylia smiled, not looking as worried. I kept the reassuring smile on my face. I didn’t want her to know that was probably the easiest part.

  The more I thought about, the more the whole situation stunk. My gut told me that Yoterra could be trusted with Kaylia, but I wasn’t ready to relax just yet. Something about all of this still bothered me.

  Scanners showed one of the patrol ships veer off, back on it’s route. The other stayed right behind the Wind, where I couldn’t get at him but he could get at me. Nothing I could do about that one, so no need to worry about it.

  The course set in, I leaned back in the chair and tried to relax. At these speeds, Turesa was about an hour away. Kaylia watched the planet get bigger and I tried to run through scenarios of what to expect once we got planetside.

  I wondered what Kaylia was thinking. She sat in the co-pilot's chair, legs pulled up tight, and looked out the viewwindow not showing any emotion. This was where her parents had died, so she would need to confront that. But she was also going home after being kidnapped, so she had to be happy about that. She was probably also wondering how safe she really would be. No family and not knowing why the Tiat had taken her. Would they try to do it again?

  Turesa loomed larger; the blue, green and white of the clouds filling the viewwindow. Less and less of the black of space was shown, replaced with a full view of the planet. The Wind shook a little as it entered the atmosphere.

  I glanced down at a screen on my console and saw coordinates and navguidance. I didn’t let them have control of the Wind but I followed the route they outlined. The patrol ship was still behind us and as we broke atmosphere and came in under the clouds, the ship veered off. It flew across our front, letting us get one last look and a last warning that they’d still be around, before returning to its patrol.

  We came in over an ocean dotted with small islands with a larger landmass ahead. I could see buildings appearing, a seaside city. Details sharpened into focus. The ci
ty was made up of short structures, only ten stories at the most and that was very few of them. Most of the buildings were only five stories with many down to two. Built of brown colored metal with curving architecture. There were a lot of windows, with rounded shapes and decorations. Visible beams were at the edges, extending up past the curved roofs and out past the walls. Small ships could be seen flying around the city in what looked to be orderly chaos. None got that high, never over the tops of the tallest buildings. There were even ships on the water, just floating along.

  The route had us turn so we lost our view. Choni City had looked interesting. Not overly large, maybe only a hundred thousand citizens. The water below us was crystal clear, a bright blue. Waves crashed against the shore and the cliffs.

  Sunlight glinted off what appeared to be buildings off to the side along the top of the cliffs. We were directed towards them and saw rows of long hanger buildings. The ground was a dark gray with lights embedded in it forming traffic patterns. Even the hangers were curved, half circles. That made them larger than they needed to be but made for interesting shapes. Like the buildings, there were visible beams that extended out past the edges.

  The one we were directed to was near the front edge. I could see many ships of different shapes and sizes but most were of Thesan construction, civilian and military. Where their buildings were rounded, their ships were all sharp angles like the patrol ships. I saw none of those there, so they must have been docked somewhere else. I half expected to see some hovering over the hangers but nothing was visible.

  I figured there were some space defense cannons somewhere tracking the Wind. I had that itch between my shoulderblades that I used to get when someone pointed a gun at me. Not a comfortable feeling.

  Slowing the Wind, I brought it to a hover over the designated landing spot, a ring of lights in front of a hanger. The doors were closed, a clear indication that I was not to park inside the building. Yeah, they definitely had some weapons pointed my way. The thrusters mounted to the underside of the ship held us up and I slowly lowered it, turning in a circle so the nose was pointed the way we had come.