Termination Shock

by Gillian Andrews

  What a surprise. Tevis was going to take the route that provided most safety for his sorry body.

  He hadn’t finished. “You will be rescued as and when we are able to do so. Our current situation is complex.”

  “Yes, Sir.” I just bet it was.

  I looked at Zenzie. She was staring at me, a wary look on her face, her crest looking strangely droopy. I gave her a grin. “What, kid? You in trouble or something?”

  She looked down quickly. “No, no, nothing like that. I … err … I will tell you about it later.” She began to fiddle with the fit of her headset, which was far too big for such a small skull.

  I looked sideways at her. So, Tyzarans could lie too. I was glad to find that out. They had always seemed an irritatingly perfect race to me. Not that I had ever been this close up to one of them before. My knowledge of most of the alien races had been theoretical till now.

  I turned to the rest of the kids on my shuttle. “Breathe slowly and don’t move about. We don’t know how long we are going to have to stay out here. We need to conserve air.”

  They all nodded hastily, but the whites of their eyes were showing. They weren’t too happy with their new situation. None of them had been in a war before, and they weren’t liking it much. I sympathized; I wasn’t either. One thing I was sure of: it was one step better than being aboard Commorancy when it had exploded.

  We waited for a full day before I realized that I had to do something more. We would all die of asphyxiation if I didn’t. The oxygen circuitry had been running on overload for five hours now, and I was beginning to get light-headed.

  When I looked over at Zenzara I was surprised to see that she was staring back at me, her eyes troubled. She blinked, and for a short moment I saw the second eyelid the Tyzarans had, just visible underneath the outer one. Tyzaran eyes are normally purple, but hers were a cross between sapphire and gold. I found myself wondering whether they would gradually lose that wonderful shade as she grew older.

  I was staring. I blinked deliberately, aware that my brain was sliding away from the topics I really needed to be concentrating on. My whole head was heavy. I knew there was something I needed to do, but it floated away when I tried to focus on it.

  Zenzara had unstrapped from the copilot’s seat, and she was dragging one of the two heavy spacesuits over to me. She shook it in front of me and gestured.

  I nodded, submitting as the girl tussled with the heavy suit to help my broken shoulder and sore torso into it. It even seemed slightly funny, I remember. The suit was bigger than she was.

  As soon as the helmet was snapped into place and the new supply of oxygen hit my brain the humor of the situation evaporated. There was nothing remotely amusing about any of this. Nearly all of the Terran kids were unconscious.

  I grabbed for the communicator.

  “Seyfert, come in please.”

  There was silence from the air around us. I tried again. “Seyfert, our situation is an emergency. ICD 10. ICD 10. ICD 10.” This was the interstellar code for respiratory failure on board a starship. “Please come in. Our life support is now compromised. We need emergency evacuation.” I signed to Zenzara to try to get the pilots of the other shuttles into suits. She nodded and began to call each ship, as I activated the automatic distress beacon.

  Five minutes later there was a crackle on the tight-beam. I leapt for the scanner. But it wasn’t the Seyfert. It was an Avarak ship, identifying itself as the Raktor. She came up on screen as a small cruiser, with only minimum armament. Perhaps they were in the area mopping up any Avarak casualties of their own. As a cruiser, she would be armed, but not with the heavy weapons which had hit Commorancy. All the same, it surprised me that they would show interest in rescuing us.

  There was a short wait after they established that I didn’t speak Avarak. At least, not more than a few words. Finally a male voice came on that was reasonably fluent in Universal. “Spacelander shuttles, please advise us of your passengers.”

  I sighed, but I had no choice. We were light years from the nearest planet; we weren’t going anywhere. Seyfert had either disappeared or was running quiet. I could see no other option. Zenzie inclined her head at me, confirming my own reading of our situation. But her crest was up and her forehead crinkled with folds of skin; she liked it as little as I did.

  There was a longish wait after I had informed of our situation. Then the Avarak voice put us on hold while some discussion took place. The cold tone came back on air after perhaps a minute.

  “You will be taken aboard this Avarak ship, but all Terrans must be sequestered immediately. The other races are not currently regarded as our enemies, despite your ship having taken arms against us.” There was a rather ominous crackle. “That status may change as we become aware of details of further battles.”

  I stiffened. “I am required by Space Trust law to demand fair treatment for all those under my protection.”

  “Acknowledged. Casualties will be given medical treatment. All Terrans will be considered hostile and taken to our homeworld for internment, but they will not be harmed. The rest of you will be carried to the nearest star system and dropped off, unless specific charges are brought.”

  I thought. If I didn’t accept we would all be dead pretty quickly, except maybe for the two Enif, who could probably survive on very little air.

  I pushed the button. “Are we still in the Local Shell?”

  “No. We crossed the border into the Bifold Shell several hours ago.”

  “I accept your conditions.”

  “Await our arrival.”

  The other pilots were now suited up, except the Enif, who had indicated that they didn’t need more oxygen. I explained what was happening.

  The Flatlander instructor went a sort of blotchy red under his space suit, which he had grabbed when he saw the pilot suiting up. “You cannot do this! How dare you take such a decision upon yourself! You are condemning the Terrans among us to being prisoners. Unacceptable! We have done nothing wrong.”

  I wasn’t so sure about that. “There must be some reason that the Avaraks have decided to wage war on you.”

  His eyes flashed and he looked suddenly more dangerous. I found myself thinking that he might know far more than he was telling me.

  “We have done nothing wrong,” he repeated, with rather less conviction.

  “I am very sorry. Seyfert has left us behind. We have no other options.”

  “I refuse to accept this! We should fight or run from the Avaraks!”

  “We can do neither. Your pupils would die within the hour, either way.”

  He looked quickly around at his charges, a momentary flash of anger and frustration showing behind the visor of the suit. Then his shoulders slumped. He knew that I wouldn’t condemn them to death just to save him. In any case, he had nowhere to go.

  Zenzie breathed again. Her ridge had stiffened more and more as she listened to the Terran’s comments. She began to relax, and her eyes met mine. I nodded. I really didn’t need her empathy to tell me what a faulty specimen he was. I was beginning to wish we had left him on old Commorancy.

  Thankfully, he then sat down, accepting his fate. I decided that, as long as he kept his mouth shut, I could cope with him.

  There was a welcome hail from the tight-beam. The Raktor had arrived. It was only just in time. Most of the children were already unconscious. Even though we had been fighting the Avaraks a day earlier, I was glad to see them now.

  I followed the instructions given to us and led my sorry convoy into the aft hold of the cruiser that appeared in front of us. For the time being, our resistance to the Avaraks was over. We would just have to wait and see what fate had in store for us next. We powered down the engines and opened the shuttle doors. I was no longer in charge. In a sense, it was a bit
of a relief.

  Chapter 2

  I came to in the Avarak infirmary some hours later. Their doctor had decided to put me out while setting the bone in my shoulder. Now it was aching, but I was much more comfortable. I was lying in a Zeroth triage chamber to aid regeneration. But I was not alone. The Tyzaran child was sitting placidly next to me.

  “W-What are you doing here?” My mouth was dry; an enlarged tongue made sticky noises against my palate.

  “Waiting for you to wake up.”

  “What has happened since I was under?”

  She seemed placid. Her ridge was flat. “They took the Terrans away and put the rest of us into quarters at the back of the ship. We are under observation, but free to move about, so long as we keep away from active areas of the ship.”

  “Like …?”

  “Like the bridge, the engine rooms, the armory. That sort of thing.”

  I nodded.

  She held up a drink with a straw and I gratefully began to sip at it. “Thanks. That’s better.”

  “We have to decide what to do.”

  “We?”

  There was a quick nod. “We. You and I are now bonded.”

  I frowned. I had no idea what that meant. “Bonded?”

  She looked away. “Our race call them the “Savior Protocols”

  My head was still thudding, but I thought I could remember the spokesperson from her group mentioning those words. “Look, kid, just spit it out, will you? I’m not feeling so good.”

  She pulled a face. “In our society, if somebody saves your life, you are indebted forever.”

  “Forever?” I croaked. I wasn’t liking anything about this.

  “Yes. Your life is renewed but the previous lifeline is considered to be broken. You may no longer follow the path you would have taken. A bond is formed between you and your savior, and you stay with them for the rest of their, or your, lives. You are required to hold yourself ready to repay the debt if the chance arises.”

  She was an eight-year-old alien. “S-Stay with them?” I hoped she couldn’t pick up my thoughts now. I was horrified. There was no way I wanted a child alien dogging my steps for the rest of my life.

  Her mouth curved down. She could sense my doubts. The ridge rippled. Her expression wobbled.

  “Not that you are not a nice person,” I said hastily. “And I appreciate your efforts.”

  The ridge settled down.

  I breathed again. “But is there … anything we can do to change that? Surely your … your parents must want you back?”

  She shook her head. “No. They will understand. The Savior Protocols are stronger than any other social obligations. They will not expect me back.”

  “I see. And, err … just how close are you supposed to stay to me?”

  She began to giggle. “I don’t have to go to the bathroom with you, if that is what you are worried about. But I will accompany you wherever you go from now on.” She thought about it, her delicate head tipped slightly to one side. “Like I am now your … your shadow.”

  “What about your school work?”

  She gave a shrug. That was clearly not a topic she cared much about. “I will be sent the tasks from Tyzar. They will grade me at a distance. That is not a problem.”

  I gave a sigh. How had I managed to complicate my life so much in such a short time? Only two weeks ago I had been a normal Spacelander with a normal life. Look at me now. I closed my eyes.

  She got up, her eyes worried. “I have tired you. You need to sleep?”

  No. But I needed some space. I was wondering how to tell her when she sensed it anyway.

  “I shall be outside. Rest. You must get your strength back.”

  For sure. I wasn’t going to be much of a leader like this. I needed to get out of the triage chamber and back on my feet. For the time being, I let my brain slip back into the comforting blackness waiting behind my eyes. I would think about all this later. A lot later.

  I was in and out of full consciousness several times over the next few days. The triage machine seemed determined that I should stay still. Each time I awoke, Zenzie brought me up to date with the news. For a being of only eight years of age, she was pretty good at finding out information.

  She explained the reasons the Avaraks had reacted against the Terrans. “The Ethnarch, head of the Terran Omnistate, has declared the entire Local Shell as belonging to Terra. They are claiming that whole area of space, together with everything inside it.”

  My jaw dropped. “That’s a sphere of more than 300 light years in radius!”

  She nodded. “Sol is almost at the centre of that sphere, and the Terrans claim that the walls of thicker gas surrounding the Local Shell give them a clear boundary to defend.”

  “They must be mad! It is completely arbitrary. What about the thousands of other star systems within that area?”

  “Foolish, certainly. The Avaraks have mining facilities on many planets and asteroids within the Local Shell, especially over towards the Bifold Shell, where their homeworld is. They will not cede any territory without a fight.”

  “The Avaraks feel they are morally in the right.”

  “They do. They claim that such a border is territorially expansionist and quite unacceptable.” There was a small pause. “And, err … my people, the Tyzarans, are also against it. Even though Tyzar is also far away in the Bifold Shell, they do not agree on any one species claiming so much territory in space.”

  “Yeah, well, your people would, wouldn’t they? I mean, The Tyzaran and Avarak homeworlds both lie within the Bifold Shell, so that could hardly belong to either of your races. Stands to reason they wouldn’t like the Flatlanders claiming all the Local Shell. It might set an unfortunate precedent.” I frowned. It had been a long time since the Spacelanders in the Landau Rift and their Terran ancestors had found much common ground, but even so, it was strange of the Flatlanders to take a stance that was bound to be controversial. There are several other advanced species that we know of in the Major Shells. Unilateral declarations hardly seemed wise. But then, what did I know? I was just some Spacelander trying to whittle out a living in the Rift. At least, I had been. I wasn’t quite sure what I was now.

  I asked after the others. Zenzara had been around the Raktor while I had been sleeping.

  “That Bull Cunningham will get himself killed one of these days.”

  “What has he been doing?”

  “He seems to spend most of his time with the Terran instructor. They get on like old friends.”

  “That is … unfortunate. But then, they are both Flatlanders.”

  Her ridge rippled. “The Avaraks still think he is a Spacelander.” She gnawed thoughtfully on her bottom lip. “Bull is a very active sort of person. He may decide to precipitate events rather than wait for them to unfold.” She gave me a curious look. “Why did you not tell the Avaraks he was a Flatlander? He should have been sequestered with the rest of the Terrans.”

  Good question. Because he had begged me not to? I hoped I had been right to trust him. I blew out air. “Can you ask him to visit? And tell Mel to keep an eye on him.”

  She hesitated. “Mel may not … be open to that. She is saying you threatened to shoot her.”

  I thought about it. I did have some sort of vague recollection of shoving the barrel of my gun in her face. There hadn’t been time to stop and figure out the most politically correct way to give an order. I sighed again. I would clearly go far. “How is Sammy?”

  “He is recovering well. He is in the next room, also in a Zeroth tank. They think he will be able to walk again, though it will take time. Your own prognosis is better. They will be letting you out of the tank later today.”

  Zenzie got up to go as a female Avarak aide s
cuttled into the medical bay I was in. The nursing aide avoided looking at me. Maybe I had offended her too. Still, she moved competently at the controls and within seconds proved herself to be a diligent carer.

  I looked at her. Avarak females are half the size of the males, and have a self-effacing kind of blurriness about their features. The males are chiseled, muscular, dominating. The females are unremarkable, much smaller and thinner, hard to tell apart from each other and subservient. They could almost belong to two different races. The males take from five to twenty females to mate because the difference in size creates huge problems for the females when giving birth. Many do not survive. Certainly the lack of detail to their faces makes them appear almost irrelevant. I wondered if she would speak Universal. Unlikely; Female Avaraks would not have been taught it.

  “What is your name?”

  I could see from her face that she understood, but she looked away. “Are you not allowed to speak to me?”

  No answer.

  “What do you think about this war?”

  A slight pause in her step told me that she was surprised by the question. It got a reply, though in Avarak.

  “I am a loyal servant to the Avarak Republic.” My understanding of their language is pretty basic, but even I could translate that simple sentence.

  It fit in with the little I knew about the Avaraks. They are an obedient sort of people, with strict laws about following policy. I get the impression they are not encouraged to think on their own.

  I fell silent as she began to drain the Zeroth tank. The things are filled with a gel in order to avoid pressure sores. She wasn’t going to tell me anything. I would simply have to wait until I could get out and about again. A pity, because patience has never been my strongpoint.

  She was helping me into a loose medical tunic when a shudder traveled the length and breadth of the ship. Somebody was lobbing missiles at us.