Star Resistance

by D. R. Rosier

  Boarding the Scythe at the end of those five days felt like coming home, which in a way made it even worse. I pushed all the selfish worry down the best I could. If my time with him, Jillintara, and Telidur was limited, I didn’t want to waste a moment of it on angst, but that was easier said than done.

  Vik didn’t want to waste any time, we were already moving out of the system at two hundred gravities by the time I dropped off my stuff in my quarters and made my way to the bridge. It would be a little less than eight hours before we could enter FTL after we activated stealth, and about thirty-six hours to get to Isyth.

  There was an awkward silence for a while, each of us in our own thoughts.

  Vik asked, “Any idea how we should approach Earth?”

  That made sense, plan for the next mission, avoid thoughts of the current one for now.

  “I’d suggest we approach an Admiral or General with our offer and request for help, let him approach the president. If we went straight to the top, it wouldn’t work well. We also shouldn’t approach them at work, but at their house. It will be difficult.”

  Difficult was an understatement. I knew we’d have to make the deal sweet enough for them to overcome xenophobic fear, or the silly idea of locking us up and experimenting on the aliens. I say silly, because of our implants and shields, human projectile weapons would be very ineffective. Heavier ordinance would be a concern though.

  Hopefully, the promise of having ships to defend Earth from further incursions by the Stolavii, and the opportunity to reverse engineer and learn the technology would be enough. Better that than simply handing them the knowledge, because maybe by the time they figured things out and built their own ships, humans would be used to the idea of having peaceful alien neighbors. Relatively peaceful.

  The A.I.s on the ships we gave them wouldn’t allow them to betray and attack the empire, and I didn’t think they’d let the humans attack other countries on Earth either. They’d be there to protect Earth as a whole from predators in space.

  It was funny, that I considered myself apart from them. I guess as an experiment myself, and being under the thumb of the government so long, I was used to the idea of mentally distancing myself from other humans, even before I was taken by the Stolavii.

  Vik asked, “Won’t they be housed on a secure base of some kind?”

  I explained, “There will be some admirals on naval bases, and generals on army bases. They would live in a secured area. But, there’s also the pentagon in my old country’s capitol city, where a lot of the top military work. They will live in houses in the D.C. area, not necessarily in a secured military zone. I suggest we approach one of them in the evening.”

  Vik asked, “What else do we need?”

  “Oh hell, I need to upgrade the suits again.”

  Telidur laughed.

  Rilok said, “What now?”

  I said, “Or maybe just the base stations, I can use the same dimensional ports the stealth system uses. I was thinking we needed human clothes, or I’d stick out in this ship suit on the surface. But, that would require you all to be under stealth most of the time, and would also render me vulnerable to capture or death. But, you have that wonderful holographic technology. Change your eyes, skin color, and project normal Earth clothes, and we’d be set. I suppose we could do something similar on Isyth, I don’t have the clothes or skin to blend in there either.”

  Wow, that would have made my old job so much easier, holographic disguises, instead of wigs, makeup, and inserts. Although, part of the fun had been the challenge of it. In my three years of activity, the authorities that didn’t know I worked for the government never even came close to identifying me.

  I continued, “Once a dialog is started, we can negotiate what they want for our help.”

  Vik asked, “And you think they’ll say yes?”

  I nodded, “They’ll push for the underlying math and science for the technology, but they’ll cave and do it for the chance to protect the Earth, and the opportunity to reverse engineer things the hard way. It might take them a couple of hundred years, but in the meantime, they’ll be safe from the Stolavii. Hell, they’d do it just for the health nanites which would extend their life twenty times over.”

  At least, I would do it for that. They might not give a shit about the homeless like I did, but they’d certainly do it for the jump it would give them toward the future.

  I added reluctantly, “They’ll also be highly suspicious of our motives, and try to stab us in the back, which is where the artificial assistants come in.”

  Vic frowned, “It sounds like a box better left unopened, but we don’t really have a choice. We can’t recruit from our five planets, not without getting caught anyway. The Gionii and Suaterans are far too xenophobic to even make the attempt.”

  We tossed around ideas and suggestions for a while longer, and then I once again dove into the fabricator designs for our ship suits. By the end of the shift, we were cloaked, and in FTL toward Isyth.

  “Nothing will be the same, will it? When this is all said and done I mean.”

  Telidur held me against him later that night, and I felt warm and safe, but a part of me wondered if I was just setting myself up for a larger fall later.

  Telidur asked, “Is that what’s been bothering you lately?”

  I nodded, “I know it’s stupid to think the worst and worry about something that hasn’t happened yet. I’ve never been a pessimist, but I’ve never had so much to lose either. Things might work out for the best.”

  I wasn’t sure how, but who knew? I couldn’t give Vik a child, but they had that multiple mate thing right? Who’s to say I’d lose Vik in the process. But… what about Jillintara and Telidur. Either way, I’d lose someone, wouldn’t I? It wasn’t just my heart either, but my career and place in life that was on the line. I liked the idea of making credits for security, but the thought of being just a businesswoman and scientist was suffocating. I liked running around in a ship and getting into trouble.

  Telidur shrugged, “We’ll see what happens. If it helps, I don’t want to lose you either.”

  Right, but his duty was Vik, and I’d come in second to that. Still, I didn’t think they’d just abandon me either, something would be worked out.

  Telidur said, “Even if his family is alive, things will probably change, though not as much for us as the empire itself. Denik has tarnished the royal family’s name and reputation, they’ll want assurances this kind of thing won’t happen again sometime down the line. Especially the other three races in the empire.”

  I didn’t even think of that. My worries weren’t all about me, but it was a lot bigger than I’d really thought about. The whole empire was in flux. We might restore the empire, and abolish the new taxes and restore free food. We’ll even have the probes eyes on empire space required to make the Stolavii’s pirate actions more difficult to get away with, but the government and society may never be the same again.

  “Have you always wanted to be a royal guard?”

  Telidur nodded against my hair, and kissed my head.

  “Family tradition, I wanted to be like my father since I could walk.”

  I smirked, and imagined a tiny blue boy looking up to his royal guard father with awe.

  “And the ship?”

  He replied, “I enjoy it. It gets us away from the politics. It’s secondary to me though, I’ll always be Vik’s guard at the heart of things.”

  I figured as much, and respected it. We talked for a while longer, and then started another round before we found sleep.

  Chapter Nine

  The status in the Isyth star system hadn’t changed much since the probe first went online. There were fifty destroyers in the system, plus Denik’s battleship. I wondered if he was on there, it was tempting to launch a surprise attack and find out, but even if we managed to catch them unshielded and unprepared for a fight, and take out the much more powerful ship, the fifty destroyers would take us out easily. Denik’s punis
hment would have to wait, and chances were that he was on the surface right now anyway.

  Resources were still being shipped in as well, and we were careful as we approached Isyth. The traffic of ships and shuttles left a lot of room, but none of them could see us so it was entirely in Jillintara’s and Telidur’s hands to avoid running into anyone.

  Isyth itself looked similar to Vehiri, except there were far more cities. It wasn’t overpopulated, but there were a good ten billion Isythians down there, and large sprawling cities. Still, most of the planet remained untouched ocean or wilderness. With modern power systems, there was very little to no pollution on the planet.

  Given that they lived for millennia with the health nanites, they must have tight population control. Even outside the fact that unwanted pregnancy wasn’t an issue. I made a mental note to look into that more closely, I was curious, but right now was hardly the time.

  We were headed to the largest city, which had a government complex in the center including the extremely large home for the royal family and support staff. It wasn’t a castle, but it was a mansion as big as a castle, and put the size of the White House to shame. We were avoiding that complex, but while his friend and chef lived outside of the royal complex, it was still in the city.

  I’d since learned her name was Likara, and that she was not one to brook foolishness from the children she served, royal or not. That lent credence to the idea she wouldn’t turn us in and would help us, I couldn’t imagine she was very happy with Denik right now.

  The twenty reactors were working as predicted, with the large requirements for stealth they were all running at about twenty percent efficiency, although it seemed to fluctuate at times to higher and lower numbers. Horrible really, but much better than under one percent, and easily maintainable for extended periods of time. It would do even better once the power plant was up, and the power load was spread further.

  Telidur said, “We’ll be in low orbit in twenty seconds, captain.”

  We’d decided on low orbit because most of the ships were in a higher orbit. We had to avoid shuttles between the ships unloading resources and the surface, but Jillintara could do that with her eyes closed. It also meant we’d have a smaller distance to fall to the surface in our ship suits. Maybe I was crazy, but I was really looking forward to that experience.

  Vik ordered, “Pick up your gear, and meet at the emergency airlock. Rilok, Jillintara, you know what to do, keep an eye on things.”

  I nodded and walked out. The main landing bay doors couldn’t be opened without breaking our stealth, we’d have to use the small personal emergency airlock to leave the ship. It wasn’t because the emitters couldn’t disguise the light or landing bay, it was that some of the emitters for stealth were in the large airlock door, and wouldn’t mesh correctly to maintain stealth if it was opened.

  I belted on my hand plasma weapon, and a survival knife. Hopefully I wouldn’t need either of them, but it was always a good idea to have a backup weapon, no matter how cool the embedded palm weapon was. Plus, a knife would be far more discrete, if it became necessary. Using either of the powered weapons would break stealth, whereas a knife wouldn’t.

  When I went outside, Jillintara was waiting there for me.

  “Be careful Lori.”

  I smiled, “Me? Reckless? Impossible.”

  She gave me a hug, and I held her for a moment. My heart was full, and in a lot of ways I was closest with Jillintara. She was my best friend, and as another woman we met on more levels than I ever could with the men in my life. If I lost Vik and Telidur, I’d be losing a piece of my heart, good friends, and intimate companions. But with her, I’d be losing all that along with a confidant, and… just more.

  I’d also been joking, I wasn’t really reckless at all. I might take chances, but they were usually reasonable and I kept a cool head in battle and conflict. Plus, this was just a recon. It also felt good, in an awkward way, I’d never had someone worry over me before.

  She pushed me back, “Go, the captain will get impatient.”

  I nodded, “I’ll be careful Jill, and I’ll see you soon.”

  I jogged toward the airlock, and they didn’t look too annoyed at waiting when I got there. I couldn’t have been more than a minute longer than they were anyway.

  Vik said, “Let’s go.”

  The three of us went into the airlock, and activated the head and hand covering in our suits. It was material just like the rest of the suit, and would supply oxygen. The shield would be there too, but there was no point in depending on it, not when the ship suit was designed for atmospheric integrity all on its own. It had a limited oxygen supply too, about fifteen minute’s worth which was long enough to find an oxygen supply, but that wasn’t an issue anymore either with the dimensional ports supplying it.

  The airlock cycled and pumped the air out, and then the outer door opened. The large dark blue planet with purple tinges on the atmosphere’s horizon loomed below us.

  We jumped, and I couldn’t get the smile off my face. I really loved my job. Doing things like this, made me wonder why I’d ever want to go back to Earth. There was nothing for me back there, no relationships, and no technology to do these kinds of crazy things.

  For the most part, I just enjoyed the sensation of falling toward the world. The mechanics of the fields were handled by Ann and the software. I could control it manually, by thought, to fly around or float up, but dropping from orbit was another matter.

  My heart was racing as the planet grew larger, and the large city got closer and closer. I felt like we were falling too slow, but I knew that was an illusion, we started out at over a hundred kilometers up, and it would take time to get down if we wanted to avoid creating turbulence trails. It was also a hell of a rush.

  I couldn’t really see Vik or Telidur, but at the same time I could. We were all cloaked, but our suits were also able to report their position over the data net, and an overlay representation of them was in my view. It would allow us to keep track of each other while being unseen by anyone else. Still, it was less than actually seeing them. The system could extrapolate some things and display it, but subtle facial movements and other things of that nature were beyond its capabilities.

  The suit carefully weaved between the flying car traffic, and slowed us to a stop gently as our feet touched down on the ground.

  Vik said, “Keep covered so we can talk,” we were communicating over quantum connections, no one else would hear it, “We’ve got a quarter mile walk, don’t accidentally run into anyone. We should be fine cloaked, but if the planetary security system picks us up and queries our identities, we’re screwed whether our assistants answer the query or not.”

  I nodded, I already knew all that, we’d gone over it. In the past, we’d have been able to create a false identity of some kind, but since we were locked out of all but the public data net, Vik and Jillintara no longer had the access to create an identity like they had for me after we escaped the Stolavii ship.

  We walked down the sidewalk of the city and I looked around. My spatial awareness came in useful, although it was much harder to avoid running into people than I thought it would be while invisible. Luckily, with my spatial awareness it was easy to keep track of the people around me, and react without thought when one of them randomly changed direction.

  It looked like a human city, but the feel of it was off, and it took me a while to figure out why. It wasn’t just the lack of smog and pollution, and the smell of tar and noxious gas that was missing, noise pollution was also down. They had flying cars, and while some were on the ground and pulling into parking garages, or in front of buildings, there were no car horns, or the growling of engines, or any of that stuff. The flying cars were silent, and it was honestly a bit eerie, even if nicer and far more peaceful than a human city.

  In fact, the only noises were the Isythian pedestrians walking and talking. The sounds of their boots and shoes striking against the cement walkway.

  The
tall buildings gave way to nice houses, this world’s approximation of a brownstone, I guess being the head chef for the royal family was a job that paid good money. We took a turn into a side street, and I relaxed my guard a smidgen as we were no longer surrounded by Isythians.

  Vik said, “Here.”

  Vik and Telidur climbed up and over the brick wall, and I smirked in amusement, as I used the gravity emitters in the suit to gently hop over the twelve-foot wall.

  They both looked at me, and I couldn’t suppress the giggle, which was absolutely mortifying. Assassins do not giggle on operations, not even ones where killing isn’t involved.

  “What now guys?”

  Vik sighed, “It’s late afternoon, we wait until she gets home.”

  Right. We could have waited on the ship, but I didn’t complain over the captain’s unneeded urgency. In my old line of work waiting was a given, as was watching a target’s habit for days, if not weeks ahead to learn their habits and schedule. I wasn’t going to bitch about having to wait a couple of hours.

  We walked over to the patio in the back, and sat down around the table. Of course, we were invisible, so anyone looking would only see three chairs that hadn’t properly been pushed in under the table.

  We chatted for a few hours, and I did a little surfing on the public net to satisfy a few curiosities. The population thing was from birth limits. Each couple was allowed two children and that’s it, which would maintain the population. In the case of multiple mates, the family could have more children, equal to the amount of mates. There were special dispensations as well, in the case of a deadly accident before someone had a child, one of their family members were allowed to have an extra. They literally assured that the population stayed very static, one to one.