Tempest Rising

by Eric Warren

  “Point-one,” the guard admitted.

  Evie grabbed him by the lapels and propped him up against the side of the cell. “You’re not that drunk, now come on. Why did you come down here without an escort?”

  He sighed. “You really don’t know?” he asked, his voice much less slurred.

  “I assume it had something to do with the new mission,” she said, inspecting his injuries. They weren’t minor but he wasn’t in any immediate danger either.

  “Bingo,” he replied. “Brand-new mission. Which means…”

  “Which means you don’t get to go off on your exploration trip, boo-hoo. We have bigger things to worry about, Cas.” It was no secret he wanted nothing more than to leave the Coalition and go off on his own to explore, in fact, that had been the deal offered him when Evie had first come to pick him up from the Sargans. But after what they’d heard in the admiral’s office, there was a very good chance neither of them would be seeing any off-time soon.

  “You’re a great empathizer, you know that?” Cas touched the side of his face with his fingers. “What hit me, a truck?”

  “A couple of off-duty officers thought you belonged somewhere else.”

  “I agree with them.”

  “C’mon,” Evie said, standing. “We need to get you over to medical.”

  Cas groaned but stood on his own, wobbling slightly. “Room’s spinning.” She grabbed his arm and held on until he opened his eye again and glanced around. “Thanks,” he said. “I’m okay.”

  Evie shot the guard another frosty look as they walked out, the doors opening automatically for them onto the concourse. “Why did you come down here anyway?”

  “Well, since all my reserves were destroyed along with my ship, I had nothing on-hand to consume. And the only place you can get alcohol on this entire kilometer-wide station is here. So here is where I came.” He gestured to the concourse above them. The concourse itself was laid out in a circle with giant windows that looked out into space above them. Below, were a variety of shops, restaurants, and stores, each with its own unique offering.

  “Medical is down here,” Evie said, pointing ahead. She’d rather get him back to Tempest and have their medical officer, Xax, look at him, but his injuries didn’t seem major and getting to the ship dock on the other end of the station was a long journey. She tapped her comm. “Box, can you meet us down in station medical?”

  Cas whipped his head at her, his face making a grimace.

  “What’s he done now?” Box’s voice asked through the comm.

  “Started a fight he couldn’t finish,” Evie said. “He needs protection until he gets back to the ship.”

  “Be right there.” She cut the transmission.

  “I could have finished it,” Cas said, his attention back in front of them. “If someone hadn’t taken my only weapon.”

  “Not my rule, nothing I could do.” If she had her way she’d carry her sword with her at all times. “And you knew that when you came down here.”

  “Still,” he protested. “If I’d had it my face wouldn’t look like this. And might I remind you the mind doesn’t exactly work right when you’ve had a few and you’re staring into the dead eyes of three giants.”

  “They weren’t giants.”

  “Giants! Three meters tall, each of them. It’s a miracle I survived.” Evie took a deep breath as they reached the medical bay. “Is this really necessary?” Cas asked.

  “You haven’t seen a mirror,” she replied. “And doesn’t it bother you you can’t see out of one eye?”

  He twisted the unswollen parts of his mouth into a grin. “That’ll go down in no time.”

  A nurse approached them. “How can we…oh.” His hand going to his mouth as he got a good look at Cas’s face.

  “What?” He ran his fingers over his swollen eye.

  “Sir, if you wouldn’t mind coming with me,” the nurse said. “I think your cheekbone might be fractured.”

  “What?” Cas asked, his one good eye going wide. He followed the nurse to a chair that hovered off the ground.

  “Be gentle with him,” Evie called as they were halfway down the hall. “He’s fragile.” She couldn’t help but suppress a smile as Cas turned to scowl at her. She turned to take a seat as the doors to the medbay opened to reveal Box, all two-and-a-half meters of him. She’d been around him for a few weeks now but still wasn’t completely used to the blinking yellow eyes and faceplate that covered what should be his nose and mouth but in reality was only a speaker beneath. Cas had told her it was because he was supposed to be a mining bot of some kind, and the plating was to keep dirt and grime out of his primary components. Though Box had never worked in a mine a day in his life. He held a small device in his hand.

  “Bar fight?” Box asked, walking inside and sitting down in one of the chairs in the lobby.

  “I guess you’re used to it,” she said, taking a seat beside him.

  “He’s got a solid record,” Box said, turning the device on. It showed an old net drama program. “Twelve wins, six losses. Two draws.”

  “Add one to the loss column.” Evie stared at the show on Box’s device. Ever since she’d known him he’d been obsessed with fiction dramas. “What’s this one called?”

  “Her Heart’s Desire,” Box said proudly. “Care to watch?”

  “I’m good, thanks,” she replied. “Did he tell you he was coming down here?”

  Box’s eyes blinked a few times. “He never tells me anything. One minute we’re standing next to the loading dock for the Winston, bags in hand and ready to take off, the next he’s off to some secret meeting with the head of the station.” Box paused the image on the screen, turning to Evie. “And I have to call him two hours later after our transport has already left to find out he’s gone off on the station somewhere. I was still standing on the platform with all the bags!”

  “Okay, yes, that’s shitty,” she said. “We got some bad news in the meeting and I guess he didn’t take it very well.”

  “What kind of bad news?” Box asked.

  She glanced around. Two cameras were positioned over the doors and another nurse stood watch at the main entrance, ready to accept any new patients that walked in. “Later,” she said, her voice hushed. Normally she wouldn’t tell Box anything. But after all they’d been through, not to mention the fact Box had kept her secret when she’d snuck onto Cas’s ship and overheard him, she felt like she owed him. Not that it would matter in the long run anyway, Cas would most likely want Box to come along on the mission.

  “Gotcha,” Box said, his tone equally hushed. He un-paused the image and turned back to his program.

  Evie leaned forward with her elbows on her knees, wondering if by this time next year any of them would still be alive.

  3

  Cas opened his eyes to bright light, squinting into it as dark shapes above him milled about.

  “Can you stand up for me?” a soft voice asked.

  Blinking a few times, Cas sat up on the bed and swung his legs over the edge, glancing down at his shirt, still covered in dry blood. Another bright light appeared in his eyes, first in the left then in the right. It dropped away revealing the face of a bearded man with a small contraption attached to his head which covered one of his eyes with a green glass. He was in his mid-forties and had kind eyes. “Mr. Robeaux, is it? Next time you get in a bar fight, learn how to dodge.”

  Cas was about to comment but instead kept his mouth shut. It would do him no good to argue about it now. “Am I free to go?”

  “Yes, but you’ll have lingering effects from the drugs in your system. You need at least two more hours sleep. Then you should feel fine,” the man said.

  Cas reached up and ran his hand down the side of his face, feeling no trace of swelling or bruising. They may be a corrupt organization, but the Coalition sure knew its medicine. Back in the Sargan Commonwealth, he would have walked away with at least a couple scars or an ocular implant to the damaged eye. “Thanks,” C
as said, shoving past the man back into the hall. He turned to right, catching sight of Evie and Box sitting together, waiting. “Ah, crap,” he said, turning the other way.

  “Cas!”

  He stopped, turning back to face her. Evie stood and approached him, staring at his face. “Not bad. Dr. Powell is one of the best in the Coalition. In and out in under fifteen minutes.”

  “Great,” Cas replied, “I can make it back to my quarters on my own. I don’t need you and Box as bodyguards.”

  Powell appeared behind him, raising the green glass on a hinge so it now sat on the top of his head. “He needs an escort. He’s still groggy from the medicine.”

  “Thanks,” Evie said. “We’ll get him back safe.”

  Powell nodded. “Good to see you again, Evelyn.” Cas’s ears perked up. As soon as Powell was out of earshot he turned to her. “Friend of yours?”

  “Old friend.” She placed her hand on his back and guided him back to the lobby where Box remained, watching his screen.

  “You’ve made it out of scraps with Erustiaans, Sargans, and Kal-Magal and it’s the humans who trip you up?” Box said without looking up.

  “Hey,” he replied. “There were three. The three biggest humans I’ve ever met.”

  “They’re infantry soldiers,” Evie said. “Here on leave from the Persephone. It’s docked up beside Tempest. I’ve also made sure to file a complaint with their commanding officer,” she added.

  “Thanks,” he said, “but you didn’t have to do that.”

  “Despite your status now, you were still a Coalition officer once. You don’t deserve to be intimidated and beaten.”

  He took a deep breath. “I think most people on this station would disagree with you.” He turned to Box. “I assume you took everything back to our old quarters.”

  “By my-self,” Box said, still not looking up.

  “Look, I’m sorry I just left you there. The—I was shaken up.”

  Box closed the screen and placed the device in a small compartment on his side. “The meeting. I know, Evie has agreed to tell me all about it once we’re no longer monitored. I’m very excited to learn the secrets of—”

  “Will you shut up,” Evie hissed, indicating the nurse at the station nearby. She hadn’t looked up, but she was close enough to be within earshot.

  “I think I need to lie down anyway,” Cas said, leading them out of the medbay and back into the concourse. “Which way?”

  “The quickest hypervator is over here,” Box said, turning left. “Now make sure you stay behind me in case someone takes a shot at you. I’ve adjusted my scanners for sniper fire.”

  Evie smirked and shook her head.

  “Yeah thanks a lot, the both of you. Makes me feel a lot better knowing whenever I’m in mortal danger the two of you are the ones I can count on.”

  ***

  The door to the room slid open, revealing sparse, white furnishings and three containers stacked just inside the doors. It was a standard room with a view of the starfield beyond as well as the normal amenities; bed, kitchen, bathroom. Ever since his ship, the Reasonable Excuse, had been destroyed while they were chasing the Sargans, Cas and Box had been staying here. Evie hadn’t expected them to stay as long as they had, despite the harrowing nature of what they’d all experienced trying to retrieve the Achlys.

  “Make yourself at home,” Cas said, kicking his shoes off so they both hit the far wall as he plopped down on the bed, placing his hand over his eyes. “By Kor, I’ve got a headache.”

  “Probably a side-effect of the drugs. I’m sure it will wear off soon,” she said.

  “I’d offer you something, but all we have is water,” Box said. “The juicer is under about a kilogram of Cas’s unwashed laundry.”

  “I’m fine, thanks anyway.” Evie took a seat at the small desk which was up against the wall beside the door. This was…cozy.

  “I’m all auricular sensors,” Box said.

  “Do you want to tell him or should I?” Evie asked Cas who still had his eyes covered with his arm.

  “You do it,” he said, his voice noticeably softer. He’d be asleep any moment.

  Evie adjusted her low ponytail and pulled it over her left shoulder, just like she did any time she was getting nervous. The admiral had told them everything in complete confidence, but Box wasn’t a human and could be trusted to keep a secret. If she asked him not to reveal it, she was sure he wouldn’t.

  “It turns out our mission to find the Achlys was just a small part in a much larger plan,” she said.

  Box’s yellow eyes blinked on and off a few times. She thought that might mean he was intrigued. Box was the first “sentient” robot she’d ever met and so it was hard to gauge what he was feeling.

  “Okay,” she said. “Let me start from the beginning. Admiral Rutledge might have been in charge of the Achlys’ mission; but it came from higher up. Even back when he was a captain.”

  “Corrupt…” Cas murmured.

  “Anyway,” she said, ignoring him. “The entire reason the Achlys was dispatched to Sil space to capture and reverse engineer one of their weapons was in case of wartimes with an unknown enemy. And it seems last year that enemy finally showed up.”

  “What?” Box asked.

  “The long-range telescopes that sit on the far edge of Coalition space, out between Archellia and Starbase Five picked something up a few months ago. We don’t know who they are or what they want, but we know they’re headed this way and we know they’re extremely powerful. One of the telescopes caught them imploding a planet. Cas thinks it was target practice but Coalition Central doesn’t know what to think. All we know is they’re headed this way.”

  “How long?” Box asked.

  “Based on our projections of their speed, another year if we’re lucky. Unless they speed up, though they’ve been consistent so far. By our estimates their ships are faster than anything we have. Except Tempest.”

  His yellow eyes blinked on and off rapidly. “This isn’t common knowledge,” he asked.

  She shook her head. “No one knows. Not even the fleet. We were only granted access because of the nature of our mission.”

  “What mission?” Box asked. “What would they need a worn-out engineer and a stellar robot pilot for?”

  “Hey!” Cas said. “Don’t talk to me about worn out, you under-powered, arrogant—”

  “The reason,” Evie interjected, “they need Cas is because he’s the only person who might have a chance of getting through to the Sil. They want to send us back into Sil space to ask for their help. With their weapons technology they might have some method of combating or at least giving us a chance…”

  “Are we so sure these aliens are going to be hostile? What happens if they get here and they want nothing more than to exchange ideas? Or pie recipes?”

  “When in the history of any civilization in your databanks has that ever been the case?” Evie asked, dejected at the thought of the encroaching threat.

  “The Claxians,” Box said. “When humanity encountered them they were more than happy to share their technology. If I’m not mistaken it led to the creation of the Coalition as it is today.”

  “Touché.” She had to give him that one. “Okay, other than that one instance, when else?”

  “I’m drawing a blank,” he replied.

  “The basic fact is we can’t sit around and hope everything will be okay when they arrive,” Cas said from under his hand. “Which means we need to get the Sil on board, despite having little to no contact with them ever since the skirmish a hundred years ago. And what little contact we have had has been nothing short of antagonistic.”

  “That’s why they want you,” Box said. “Because you sent the signal that saved the scout ship. When Rutledge wanted to capture it, you saved them.”

  “Didn’t matter in the end,” Cas said, sitting back up. “Rutledge still got his hands on the ship and the weapon. Which is what I tried to tell Sanghvi. The Sil won’t care
I was the one to help them. All they’ll remember is the Achlys coming into their territory and stealing one of their ships.”

  “Now we don’t know—” Evie began.

  “Yes, we do. It’s a suicide mission and he knows it. Instead of flying off to explore Procyon like I was supposed to, now I have to go back into Sil space to die a useless death.”

  Evie stood, fuming. “No one ever said you had to do anything. The admiral asked if you wanted to volunteer. No one is forcing your hand, but I can tell you without your help this mission is already doomed. If you come, we at least have a chance.”

  “He’s sending the Tempest?” Box asked, turning his head from Evie to Cas.

  “We need to be as quick as possible. On a normal ship, Sil space is at the very least sixty to seventy days away. Tempest can get us there in half the time.” So far, the Tempest had been the only ship outfitted with the new, experimental Claxian technology which nearly doubled the current limits of space travel. The only trade-off was it needed a Claxian on board to operate it, and they were notoriously reclusive, preferring to stay on their home planet rather than venture into the stars. Tempest got lucky with Commander Sesster, but Evie wasn’t sure how many more Claxians the Coalition could coax off their homeworld to bolster the fleet.

  “No wonder he went to the bar,” Box remarked, staring at Cas sitting on the edge of the bed with his head between his knees. Cas only grumbled something incoherent in response. “You can’t abandon them, they need your help.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” he said, staring at the ground.

  “I’ve had enough,” Evie snapped. “If he ever decides to leave his pity party let me know. Tempest leaves in a few days. We still have to finish the repairs from the battle with the Sargans.” She leaned in close to Box. “See if you can keep him away from any more establishments.”

  “These work just fine, you know.” Cas pointed to his ears.

  Evie shook her head and left through the sliding door, not bothering to look back. Let him wallow in it for a few days. He’d come around…hopefully.