Termination Shock

by Gillian Andrews

  We heard metallic clunks as something coupled to the shuttle and the airlocks equalized to universal, then opened. We all stood as much to attention as we were then able.

  A welcome smell of fresher air mingled with our stale atmosphere, unfortunately accompanied by three large Vaers. My spirits took an immediate dive. Jhaharada’s law never disappointed.

  Vaer Prime and Vaer Nova are large worlds on the North-Eastern side of the Great Shell. That’s nearly five hundred light years away. There shouldn’t have been a Vaer anywhere near our current position.

  Vaers are of avian stock, though their beaks are foreshortened and curved downwards. The bottom part of the beak is more a mouth, which makes them appear almost more humanoid than avian. They are covered by patchy down along the face and neck, with feathers on the rest of their bodies. They walk on two feet. Rumor has it that they lost the ability to fly many centuries ago, though I wouldn’t take a bet on that. They are bellicose, sly and dangerous. An adult male Vaer is twice the weight of a Spacelander.

  Being natural predators, they are not your choice of aliens to meet out in space. It has been a long time since they needed to hunt other species for food outside the Vaer system. All the same, races like the Nepheal, who were decimated by the savage attacks of ancestors of the avians, do not forget how bloodthirsty they can be.

  The first one drew out a tablet and pressed the record button. “We claim this ship as salvage,” he said in a bored, business-as-usual voice. “Who is the captain of this shuttle?”

  We looked around. Seyal met my gaze and gave me a small nod. I stepped forward. “I am.”

  “Do you wish to be rescued?”

  “We do, yes.”

  “Are you fully aware that any rescue mission results in the rescuing ship being awarded full rights of all salvage?”

  He meant that they would keep the Rastin. “I am not.”

  His sharp eyes flashed over his even-sharper beak. “Do you dispute this?”

  “I do.”

  He grunted. “Then we are unable to help you.”

  I was restraining an impulse to lash out. He seemed to sense this, for he took a small step back before speaking again. “You have taken us out of our way for no good reason.”

  “Rescuing people is a good reason.”

  “We are merchants, working out of Vaer Nova. Our investors require profit.”

  That explained everything. These then came from the subgroup that had settled the outermost planet of Vaer. Vaer Nova had few natural resources. Over time, this had forced its inhabitants to find a different way of survival. They were practically pirates, from what I had heard, selling armament and weaponry to whoever came up with their price. I had heard many stories; none of them good. I wondered what nefarious business they could possibly be up to in this part of the Bifold Shell. It would be nothing altruistic. These guys were quite capable of putting a missile through Rastin, just to make sure nobody else got the bounty they thought they were entitled to. There was no way out of this.

  I held up a hand. “No need to be so hasty, gentlemen. I am sure we can come to some agreement.”

  “Full salvage is agreed?”

  I looked at Seyal. She gave a tiny shrug. She was leaving it up to me. I pressed my lips together. “It is.”

  The Vaer nodded. “Please give your full names and identifying codes.”

  We did. There was a moment while they consulted their off-site memory bank. The Vaer examined the screen closely. Then he wiped his beak a couple of times on his feathers. I was reminded of somebody sharpening a knife. “This is insufficient. Who is Mallivan Bell?”

  I stepped forward again, my heart sinking.

  His beak seemed almost to skewer me. “We will take your ship, the Faraday, as salvage too.”

  I was speechless. The Vaer turned to Eshaan and Didjal. “Your artwork is stored on Enifa. We will require the code for the vault, if you please.”

  Eshaan went so white I thought it was going to collapse. “Not the art,” it stammered through its translator. “Please, not our art. It is our whole life!”

  The Vaer regarded it down an imposing beak. “You are right. It is your artwork, or your life. We can leave you here floating in space if you prefer.” The beak twitched slightly towards Eshaan’s neck, one of the few parts of an Enif unprotected by the shiny tough carapace. Zenzie shivered and her crest spiked.

  I took a step forwards, but Didjal was already standing alongside Eshaan, skin rippling in a soothing way as it tried to calm its partner. “Hush, Eshaan. We must do this. There is time to create further legacies.”

  Eshaan pushed it away. “There isn’t. You know there isn’t.”

  The Vaer was regarding the others with disgust. “Unfortunately the rest of you have nothing of interest to us. I am tempted to save only those who have paid their way.” His acute avian sight examined Zenzie. “You are Tyzaran. That is unusual.”

  “I have nothing to give you.”

  The Vaer’s eyes clouded as he consulted through his implanted chip. “Yes. You are no longer part of the Tyzaran census. Very strange. I am wondering whether to keep you. You may be worth money to us.”

  His eyes flickered back to me, catching my reaction. “You don’t wish us to keep her? Or the other two Spacelanders? Very well. But I will require you to sign a binding document, giving us full ownership of both the Faraday and this shuttle.” He indicated Seyal. “Can she write?”

  Zenzie translated. Seyal nodded shyly.

  “Good. She will sign the Rastin cession as well. I see it was deeded to her by her late husband, although there seems to be some doubt as to the validity of that document. Just in case. I like to have everything clear. Unequivocal, as you say.” He gave a supercilious smirk. “Just to avoid future litigation. It has happened in the past.”

  The Vaer casually reached down with his beak to smooth down an errant feather, clearly very pleased with himself. “Good. You will now all accept my conditions and agree both verbally and in writing. This ship is heading for Triaris, in the Landau Rift. I trust that will be acceptable?”

  There was nothing left to do but nod dimly. We had our lives, but it seemed we were to be left with little else.

  The Vaer Ship took the crippled Avarak shuttle into their main hold. They left a skeleton crew, spare parts and enough tubing to effect emergency repairs on the Rastin, while we were escorted out onto the cruiser and led to a selection of cabins in the aft of the ship, all set off a wide corridor. Our corridor was separated from the rest of the ship by a heavy fire hatch. This hatch was closed and there was a Vaer posted on the other side in case we got through. Sammy was helped along by Seyal. He was limping badly due to the insufficient treatment. However, he was in good spirits.

  “At least I am out of that triage chamber, Rye! I don’t think I could have stood the itching for much longer anyway.”

  Zenzie, who had recovered from her ordeal, was looking worried. “I am sorry you have lost your family ship, Ryler Mallivan Bell.”

  I was still in shock. I had signed away my whole livelihood. Faraday was a family asset that was not strictly just mine. My mother had bankrolled the ship, and I still owed her a small fortune. It had been in my name because she trusted me to pay her back in full. My mind was trying to shy away from what had just happened. It was a huge problem.

  I wasn’t sure if she would expect me to return the money, under the circumstances. But even if I didn’t, it would be taking money that by rights belonged to my sister Sibeal, too. And what about my children? My assets also partly belong to them, even though I rarely see them.

  I suppose that bit about the children sounds strange. If you are a Flatlander you might find our system hard to understand. But Spacelanders have to be careful. There are not all that many of us
, and we have high-risk jobs. At the start of our exodus into the Landau Rift, interbreeding was deemed to be a real problem. Nowadays, that problem has been solved. We all donate gametes when we reach eighteen. On our coming of age, we are required by the Space Trust to travel to the headquarters of the Genetic Institute on Zenubi. The donated material is used, after to a careful bloodline analysis, to engender artificially conceived future generations. In my generation we are still trying to consolidate the Rift, so each Spacelander is parent to six children.

  I was no different, having spent a fortnight on Zenubi eight years ago. Of my six, three are being brought up in my family, under my mother’s strict supervision, on the family shipstation Bellaris. The other three became the responsibility of the female donor and her family. I believe my co-parent is a girl from Sagrest, on the other side of the Landau Rift.

  The loss of Faraday was making me feel shaky and unwell. The two Enif were also subdued. Their situation was probably even worse than mine. They had just lost their whole life’s work.

  We didn’t trust the Vaer crew, either. They were clearly taking some kind of contraband to Triaris and it wouldn’t have been completely out of character for them to throw us all out of the nearest airlock, despite promises given. So we maintained a low profile, keeping to our corridor and accepting their rather repulsive food and scant water with no complaints. We had little choice; the burly Vaer guard left outside the hatch was at least twice my bulk, and considerably taller than me. I would bounce off him like a tennis ball on a racquet.

  Zenzie caught me staring through the plexiglass at him one day.

  “Are you thinking of attacking?”

  I shook my head. “Not worth it. I wouldn’t win.”

  “I owe you a ship.”

  That did surprise me. “No you don’t. Why would you?”

  “You gave it up to stop them from keeping me here.”

  I turned away. “We don’t yet know that they won’t keep you anyway.”

  “They won’t. I am more trouble than I am worth, I can assure you. They know that. I may not live on Tyzar anymore, but I am still Tyzaran. And we don’t take lightly to our people being held captive.” She frowned. “Why are you laughing?”

  Mel slapped my arm. I jumped. I hadn’t realized she was standing just behind us. “He agrees about you being more trouble than you are worth.”

  I gave her a slight warning push back. “Not at all.”

  “Sure, Rye. Whatever.”

  Zenzie was hurt. “Is that true?” she asked me in a little voice.

  I shook my head as I walked away. There was no way I was going to answer that one. Zenzie was a lot of trouble, but she had also got us out of some scrapes. I was getting used to having her around. And I definitely wasn’t planning on keeping her. She should be back in school, on Tyzar. Waiting for her flesh to grow into that wrinkled skin of hers. Giving unwanted advice to all her little schoolmates. Which she would.

  I walked straight into Sammy, who nearly fell over, grabbing my shoulders to steady himself. He gave me a knowing look. “Problems?”

  I pulled a face. “No-o-o.”

  “You don’t sound convinced.”

  “It’s just that I don’t know what will happen to Zenzie if – when – I give her back. Will her parents simply accept her again? If so, then my duty is clear. But I can’t send her back if she is going to suffer any kind of punishment.”

  He stroked his chin. “No. No, you are right. Tell you what, I have a Spacelander friend who works on the Spacelander Trade Center on Tyzar. How about I ask her to find out what Tyzaran law has to say on the matter?”

  “Would you? Thanks. That would be a weight off my mind.”

  “Sure, Rye. No problem. I’ll contact Neema.” He gestured around him. “Course, it’ll have to wait till we get back to some sort of civilization.”

  “How are you, Sammy? Does it still hurt?”

  “Hardly at all.” I could see how unsteady he still was. I suspected he was in a certain amount of pain, but every time I asked him he denied it bravely. “Getting better every day.”

  I doubted that too, but gave him a pleased smile and a quick shake of his shoulders.

  “Rye?”

  I turned back to him. His ears had gone pink. Now that was interesting. I tilted my head on one side. “What?”

  “I, err… I don’t know if you know, but … well … you know …”

  Zenzie popped up in front of him. “He is trying to tell you he has feelings for Mel.” She crossed her arms in front of her bony chest and looked pleased with herself.

  Both Sammy and I gaped. Sammy, redder than ever. Me, truly surprised. When we were kids he had been wont to refer to her as ‘Smelly Melly’.

  He cleared his throat. “You don’t mind, do you?”

  “Mind? Why should I?”

  “Well, you are sort of the head of the group. Our … our leader, I guess.”

  I thought about that. The two Enif were much older than I was, as was Seyal, but none of them seemed to have aspirations to take over as leader. That did put me firmly in charge of this mismatched group. Even so, it was a bit of a stretch for Sammy to think he needed any sort of permission from me to date Mel. They had both had their statutory six children, so there could be no objection to a short-term liaison. Such things are relatively normal among those Spacelanders who still retain a sexual drive. Shipboard flirtations don’t usually last long. Space is so big that it tends to tear people apart. With no question of forming a family unit together, love tends to fizzle out after a while. We miss our children and all tend to drift back to our shipstations, literally worlds apart from each other. I also wondered how they would cope with Mel’s claustronetia.

  “No. That’s fine, Sammy. I am glad for you both. Thank you for letting me know.”

  He shrugged, a little sheepishly. “Thought you should.”

  “Sure. I appreciate it. That’s great.” It wasn’t. It was another complication that could cause problems. Sammy would now automatically try to protect Mel, and I wasn’t sure that such concern wouldn’t send her backwards instead of forwards. She had been improving, overcoming her shaking fears. I hoped she wouldn’t duck behind Sammy now. That would be a pity.

  I tried to give him a smile, but it felt a little empty. Zenzie gave me a strange look. She walked away with me.

  “You are not pleased,” she told me. “Why? Do you like Mel yourself?”

  “No! Not like that, anyway. And stop following me around. It is none of your damn business!”

  I could hear her chuntering as I walked away. Something about people getting too big for their space boots. She could talk!

  I was two paces away from her when the relative peace shattered. There was a violent blow against the port side of the spaceship, and all hell broke loose.

  I was thrown against the bulkhead and from there onto the floor.

  Not again!

  I was beginning to feel like a piece of flotsam. I felt around and found Zenzie’s ankle with my hand. I grabbed it and held on. None of us had any clue what was happening. I was aware of smoke pouring into our corridor and of the hatch unsealing as the guard barreled in.

  I shook my head, trying to clear the feeling of cloudiness. Something was hammering at the back of my skull, but I needed my brain to concentrate on survival and not a passing pain. I squinted along the few meters I could still make out.

  Sammy and Seyal were within reach, both trying to pick themselves up off the steel-plated floor. Neither of them appeared wounded; at least, not more than they already had been. I nodded to them and then pulled myself back to the cabins. The two Enif had been flung across their space, but were also fine. Mel had not been so lucky. She was covering her face with one hand, and blood was free
ly flowing down her cheek. I peered more closely. Her eye seemed all right. It looked like a superficial wound across the top part of her cheek. I hoped it looked worse than it was. That was a lot of blood.

  I motioned to her to join me out in the corridor, and as a group, we edged out of the quarters we had been given and into the corridor. The whole structure around us shuddered again. The guard, who was looking troubled, mumbled through his beak. I turned to Zenzie, raising one eyebrow. She had admitted to speaking some words of Vaer. She never ceased to amaze me.

  “Terrans, he is saying,” she interpreted. “Come to stop the weapons getting through to the Avaraks.”

  Weapons. Well, that explained what the Vaers were doing in this part of the Major Shells. They would be taking as much advantage as they could of this war. War, for them, was opportunity.

  I bit my lip. We hadn’t come this far just to be eliminated by some Flatlander vessel. Unfortunately, it wasn’t immediately clear to me what we could do to improve our chances of survival.

  Zenzie knew, though. She stepped up to the Vaer guard, her small head barely reaching up to his wing bar. “We are not safe here. You should evacuate us to the main cargo hold of the ship. We would be safer there, nearer the centre of the ship.”

  All Vaers who travel outside their territory speak Universal. This guard was no exception. The Avian raised his gun in a threatening sort of way, but he hesitated.

  “After all,” Zenzie pressed home her advantage. “You need us all alive. Otherwise you won’t get our ships and our possessions. Will you?”

  His head tilted ever so slightly. He was considering. I hoped she was right. I suspected those things had already been claimed by the Vaer Captain.

  She held up her hands. “But it is your decision, of course. You will know best what action to take.”

  Another shudder told us that we were still under fire. There was a huge impact, somewhere near to us, and everything stopped for a long second. Then more chunks of the bulkhead detached and hurtled past us, only just missing the guard.