Across the bridge, technicians Trev’or and Ruther shared an uneasy glance, only to both duck back to work on their respective terminals when the Admiral shot them a glance, his eyebrows rising with irritated expectation. They didn’t speak a word to each other, but it was clear enough that their feelings on the tension were the same.
Eventually, though, whoever was on the opposite end of the line decided to put the Admiral out of his misery and the conversation ended. Clor pocketed his communicator so quickly it seemed like he was worried it might escape, and with a sigh like he had just run a marathon, he dropped down into the command chair again.
“Ruther,” the Admiral called after a moment, glancing at him sidelong.
The communications technician snapped to attention, turning his chair halfway around to look at the Admiral. “Sir?”
“Open a command team line,” Clor instructed, his weight shifting to one side. “The full command team, across the fleet. It would seem that I have a fleet-wide announcement I need to make.”
“Of course, sir,” Ruther replied quickly, already turning to face his terminal again. He opened a communication line to the full command team, and patched it into the Admiral’s personal communicator. Everyone knew not to ignore anything from the Admiral’s communicator. “Ready, sir.”
Clor pulled his communicator from his pocket once again. “Fleet Commanders,” he began, “this is Admiral Clor. We will be beginning retreat procedures starting now. This is a fleet-wide decision; save for an emergency, there will be no exceptions. However, you are free to consider this the most casual retreat in Zhyn history. As such, there’s no need to hurry the matter. In fact, I encourage you to take your time about it. If there are any obnoxiously thorough maintenance checks any of you have been putting off, now is the time to get them over with. That will be all.” He hung up the call without waiting to see if there were going to be any questions about the matter, and he shoved his communicator back into his pocket.
Ruther cataloged a few requests for clarification, but on the whole, it seemed that the command team wasn’t particularly interested in the ‘why’ of the matter. But it tallied with the concept of a Zhyn warrior being trained to never retreat, and yet having received their instructions.
“Trev’or?” the Admiral wondered after a moment, gaze panning casually across the bridge again.
“Yes, sir?” Trev’or peered over his shoulder.
“Are there any obnoxiously thorough maintenance checks that we’ve been neglecting?” Clor wondered, quietly amused as he asked.
“Uh—“ Trev’or cleared his throat. “Probably, sir,” he replied. “Should I get started on those?”
“You may as well,” the Admiral answered. “And Ruther? Filter anything having to do with the retreat to the communicator in my quarters. I can deal with it later.”
“Yes, sir,” Trev’or and Ruther replied in accidental unison. They shared a slightly disgruntled glance with each other before they decided the moment of synchronicity had been a fluke.
They both turned back toward their terminals to get to work. It had suddenly become a rather busy day.
Cargo Hold, Aboard The Empress, Outer Sark System
Anne took a breath between explaining to Karina what had happened and how she’d experienced things. Sean listened intently, all the while trying to weigh the word of a youngster against all his years in military combat.
Glancing down at his holo he quietly tapped a message to Emma to get an update on Arlene and Molly.
Anne and Karina continued to talk. “It was amazing. I could see Arlene there,” Anne explained earnestly. “I held Molly’s hand. And Molly was worried that we wouldn’t be able to tell the Estarians and that they’d start a war then the ARs gave her some more information and she changed her mind!” Her voice was breathy and eyes wide in awe.
Karina was crouched in front of her, looking up trying to understand what had happened. “What information did they give her?” she asked.
“I’m… I’m not sure. All I got was a sense of what was happening…”
Karina glanced up at Sean who was still buried in his holo. “What’s happening out there?” she asked, jerking her head toward the door.
He shook his head. “Checks out. Arlene and Molly were both in a trance. They seem ok now. Both are recovering in the lounge.”
Karina’s brow furrowed. “Maybe we should take her through to the others,” she suggested. “Are you sure you’re feeling ok?” she asked again, touching Anne’s forehead like a mother to a sick child.
“I’m ok. Just tired I think.”
The door to the cargo area whooshed open, revealing Jack in a perfect silhouette against the corridor lights. “Ah. There you all are!”
Sean and Karina exchanged awkward glances. Karina stood up and spun around to face Jack.
Jack stepped inside and surveyed the scene. Then she nodded wisely. “You were going to make a run for it,” she concluded simply.
Sean started to stammer. “Yes. Er… no. It’s not what it looks like…”
Jack raised one eyebrow, her face otherwise motionless. “You mean, you didn’t find out that Anne was a beacon and you weren’t trying to get her away from the rest of the fleet as fast as possible?”
Sean scratched his head. “Ah, well, then it’s exactly what it looks like…” He shifted his feet awkwardly and then looked up at Jack again. “You’re er… not going to tell Molly, are you?”
Jack shrugged. “Tell Molly what?” she winked, holding the door open and motioning for Anne to come back inside. Anne trotted over obediently leaving Karina and Joel in the cargo hold.
Sean’s hand was still on the back of his head. “Thanks, Jack,” he called. Jack waved and allowed the door to close behind her as she and Anne disappeared down the corridor.
“Well, so much for saving the day,” Karina sighed, her face relaxing in relief.
Sean dropped his hands to his hips and exhaled slowly. “Yeah…” he said, more than a touch bamboozled.
The ship behind them powered down. Emma came over their audio implants. “I guess you won’t be needing the Little Empress right now either,” she explained.
Sean shook his head. “Nope. We’re good. Thanks, Emma.”
“Any time,” she replied before closing the connection.
“Come on,” Karina said. “I think the hot chocolate from that machine really is meant to be the best.” She headed toward the door and Sean followed behind her, still not knowing what to make of the situation.
Safe House, Gaitune-67
Paige glanced down at her holo and saw the call coming in. She and Maya were walking back up to the safe house after a long day in the base conference room.
“It’s The Empress,” she said, the weariness of the day evaporating instantly only to be replaced with a strange mixture of hope and anxiety.
She stopped and answered the call. Maya stood next to her watching intently for any hints for what was happening.
“This is Paige,” she announced.
“Paige, greetings. It’s Pieter. Thought you might appreciate a quick update.”
He paused. Paige waited without saying anything. She didn’t want to risk missing anything.
Pieter continued. “It looks like the ARs are friendly. They put Molly and Arlene in a trance and gave them information. Joel is debriefing Molly now, so we’ll know more soon, but in the meantime we’ve turned the fleet around. We’ll be heading back shortly once the other ships are well on their way back.”
Paige clamped her hand over her mouth, her eyes relaxing. “That’s… great news,” she managed through her fingers. She took a deep breath. Maya picked up on her relief and felt the tension in her neck and shoulders instantly melt away.
Paige suddenly stopped. “Hang on… so what does this mean? Are they still coming this way?”
“I think so. I don’t know the full details, but Molly muttered something about
needing to get Estaria ready.”
Paige’s brow furrowed again. “Oh heck. Things aren’t great down here. The news circuit is full of all kinds of nonsense and it’s looking like that Fleet General Shit-head is going to launch the Estarian fleet no matter what anyone else says.”
Pieter’s voice sounded concerned. “That’s… not good. Well look, hang tight. As soon as we have more details I’m sure Molly will put together a plan. I’ll ping this info to Oz just to keep them in the loop and if you hear anything else…”
“I’ll holler. Sure.”
“Ok cool. Thanks, Paige. It’s going to be ok,” he told her reassuringly. “We’ll see you soon.”
The call clicked off.
Paige’s concerned expression reappeared on her face.
“What is it?” Maya pressed.
“Well, the bad news is that it is aliens. The ARs, as we expected. The good news is that they don’t want to kill us. The other bad news is I think they want to come visit.”
Maya clamped her hand over her mouth as Paige had done a few moments before. “What hope have we got? This is going to cause mass panic.”
Paige nodded solemnly and continued walking up the stairs to the daemon corridor. “You’re telling me. At this point, I’m fresh out of ideas.”
Chapter 16
Aboard The Empress, Outer Sark System
Arlene and Ben’or loitered in the privacy of the corridor between the cockpit and the main cabin. Arlene hadn’t got as far as the lounge before she started talking to Ben’or in a hushed whisper as he came through to see what had been going on in the cockpit.
Ben’or held her face. “Are you sure you’re ok? My ancestors… I shouldn’t have let you go up there alone.”
“Oh stop,” Arlene blushed. “I’m fine. And there was no way any of you could have expected what happened.”
“Well, as long as you’re ok. Joel said you were both ‘taken’ or something?”
“Well, yeah, our consciousness at least. I think we just went into a dream state or something.”
“Fascinating.”
“Yes. It is… and exciting. This was first contact with an alien race! How incredible is that? And I got to be part of it.”
Ben’or noticed that as the trance wore off and Arlene realized what had happened to her, her excitement and enthusiasm seemed to build. Right now, as she stood before him he could see the color returning to her blue cheeks and the glow rebuilding in her skin.
She was still a little unbalanced and toppled onto her other leg. He caught her arm. “Are you sure you’re ok?”
She tutted him. “I’m fine, you big lug. It’s ok. Just a little trancy. Nothing I haven’t done in my teenage years… albeit it was drug induced back then. But alien-induced trance… that’s one for the books!”
He watched her carefully as if he were monitoring her every bat of an eyelash for any signs of trouble. He was about to lean in to give her a hug when the door to the lounge whooshed open and Giles popped out to join them.
Also full of exuberance.
“Can you believe it?” he gushed. “This is truly first contact! With a more advanced race!” His gaze flicked from Arlene to Ben’or and back again… like a puppy with two toys he wanted to play with but couldn’t decide which.
“This new AR race has got to be even more advanced than TOM. I think I can tell Bethany Anne to well and truly suck it now!” His eyes darted off into the distance as if seeing a whole new scene for his life. “All those years, I wasn’t a proper archaeologist because they were all class 5 and below civilizations I’d made contact with. How she would look down on me!”
Arlene frowned. “Erm, hang on. I still think that was in your head. She always seems very, well, respectful… considering.”
Giles cocked his head. “Considering?”
Arlene had a glimmer of humor in her eye. “Considering you were a bumbling idiot on steroids!” she exclaimed.
Giles looked shocked. His mouth hung open. “I was nothing but smooth and suave, I’ll have you know!”
Ben’or chuckled and placed one of his over-sized hands on Giles’s shoulder. “I’m sure you were, old boy. I’m sure you were.”
“But this is my big break!” he insisted. “Just wait till I tell Uncle Lance. Class 10 at least, these guys were. They have their own language and their technology… to pull off something like this. Absolutely fucking incredible! I can’t believe it. Maybe I’m dreaming?” He played at pinching himself, almost on the verge of giggling.
Arlene chuckled to herself. “No, I think that was probably me.”
“Well, yes,” he agreed, suddenly becoming more serious. “Erm… are you feeling ok?”
“Fine.”
“Excellent. We’ll do a full debrief in a few. Just need to go and find out what’s happening with the whole war on civilization… but then we’ll get a full record on what you experienced. Oh, and tests. I’ll need to get some tests… monitor your physiology.”
“Erm…”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be back in just a few moments Arlene, then you’ll have my full attention,” he promised, before disappearing into the lounge to follow up with Molly.
Ben’or stood in the corridor with her looking a little bewildered. “Well, it looks like you’ve got your next six months mapped out for you!”
Arlene pursed her lips. “No way am I letting him use me as his lab rat again. I’ve been there before. It wasn’t pretty. Come on… Let’s go get a drink to celebrate. This is good news. The AR don’t have any intention of harming anyone.”
Ben’or laughed a hearty laugh. “Sounds like you have your priorities straight,” he said following her into the lounge. “This is indeed the best news we’ve heard all week!”
Ekks’s Office, Senate House, Spire, Estaria
The fleet had been launched and it had finally been confirmed for everyone else.
Ekks felt a petty urge to shout ‘I told you so’ the next time he saw any of the senators, regardless of the fact that he had slightly extenuating circumstances. He was a professional, though. He would rise above such immature urges.
His holoconsole was active in front of him, just waiting for him to do something. He reached toward it, ready to key in a call when his intercom reminded him that it was there, his secretary’s voice pouring from it cheerfully.
“Commander Ekks, there’s a Senator Romero Vero here to see you,” she informed him pleasantly. “Shall I let him in?”
“Go ahead,” Ekks returned, one hand still hovering in front of his holoconsole before he slowly lowered it to his desk again. He turned his chair just enough to face the door as it slid open, his eyebrows rising expectantly as Vero stepped in.
“Senator,” Ekks offered by way of greeting. “How can I help you? I’m assuming this isn’t a social call.”
Vero gave the active holoconsole a wary look as if he already knew what was going on. Ekks supposed it was likely that Vero did have some idea.
With a brief shake of his head, Vero drew his attention back to Ekks’s face. “Once it was confirmed that the anomaly the satellites picked up was ships, I knew you weren’t just going to sit on the information,” he replied, his tone faintly accusing. “The rest of the Senate may be content to throw up their hands and let you do as you please, but I thought I might make one last attempt at getting you to see reason.”
“Reason?” Ekks wondered, with a patience reminiscent of someone humoring a precocious preschooler. “From where I’m sitting, I’m being perfectly rational, but you have the floor if you’d like to try to correct that assumption.”
Ekks’s tone was not lost on Vero, whose mouth twisted downwards in sharp distaste. He didn’t waste any time bringing it up, though, and instead launched straight into his objections.
“We know it’s a fleet of ships,” he acknowledged, stepping closer to Ekks’s desk and gesturing to the holoconsole. “But we don’t know who or why. For
all we know, it’s not an actively hostile force but you could be launching us straight into war by launching the fleet. Or it could be a hostile force, but we still know nothing of their capabilities. For all we know, they could wipe our fleet off of the star charts, leaving us helpless for whatever they decide to do after that and any future threats that will undoubtedly come along.”
He was pacing back and forth in front of Ekks’s desk by the time he finished speaking, though he came to a halt as he finished saying his piece.
He looked at Ekks warily, waiting for a response. The resignation hiding in the furrow of his eyebrows and the tightening of his jaw made it clear he already had some idea of what that response was going to be. Considering that, Ekks supposed his determination was almost respectable.
Almost.
Ekks regarded him silently, then without a word to acknowledge any of what Vero said, Ekks lifted a hand and keyed in the call on his holoconsole. It took some time before every branch of the call went through, the screen segmented itself so Ekks found himself looking at every other member of the Senate.
“Good evening,” he greeted silkily, folding his hands on his desk. “My apologies for such an abrupt call, but as the Commander of the Estarian-Ogg Space Fleet, I’ve come to a very important decision.”
Vero slammed his hands down on the desk, intruding into the call as he hissed, “Commander! You have a responsibility to your people. Have you even thought about that at all?”
Ekks waved him off with a dismissive flick of his wrist, though he didn’t bother to make a fuss when Vero refused to step back.
“I assure you,” Ekks sighed, glancing at Vero sidelong but with the bulk of his attention on the call, “I have the system’s well-being at the top of my list of priorities. Are you quite certain that’s why you’re so against this?”
The Speaker sighed, tenting his fingers in front of his chin. “We all know what it is you’ve been chomping at the bit for, Commander,” he pointed out blandly. “You may as well just come out and say it already.”
The Ascension Myth Box Set Page 225
