‘It is done, Ensign. Please let me know when you’ve finished,’ Jolly replied solemnly.
The Wolfoid sat back on his haunches and raised his muzzle toward the ceiling, starting boldly with a long howl, building in volume. He yipped with his inhale and howled again, and again. Lieutenant Strider. He hadn’t known him well, but he was one of the Wolfoid people. He served the SES and had lost his life because of that service. Leaper continued howling until the first person knocked on the door.
Leaper finished, took a deep breath, and told Jolly he was done. The door to the mess deck opened and the captain walked in. He nodded to the Wolfoid and went straight to the table. He also touched the nametags for each of his crew. When he looked up, his eyes glistened but his jaw was set.
“The ship is life,” he said. Leaper nodded, because he didn’t use the mindlink with the captain. He didn’t know anyone who had.
‘Briz! Bring me my vocalization device or I’m coming down there to stomp you!’ Stinky told Briz in his firmest thought voice. Briz was on the stairs when he heard the Wolfoid in his head. The Rabbit jumped, then returned to engineering, made the adjustments in the hardware and synced it with the computer system for the software tweaks. That took a total of three minutes. He ran for the stairs as soon as it was ready.
When he burst from the stairway, he nearly ran into Commander Daksha. Ducking under the Tortoid, Briz continued running for the mess deck, but getting there just in front of the commander wasn’t a victory. People were already spilling into the corridor, so Briz took a spot against the wall and acted like he’d been there the entire time.
“Come with me, Ensign Brisbois,” the commander said without hesitating as the crew cleared a path. Briz followed like a schoolboy in trouble, being hauled off to the principal’s office. He handed the vocalization device to Leaper as they passed on their way to the table display. Briz looked at it, instantly struck by its simple and deep impact. He stopped as Commander Daksha turned and faced the crowd.
He didn’t have to call for everyone’s attention. Their eyes were already on him. A couple people shuffled their feet, but no one spoke. Cain and Ellie held hands as they looked on.
“We’re going to dispense with formalities on this occasion. We’ve all struggled individually with the loss of our comrades, and we have the duty to remember them, but we must remember them in a good way. Briz, Cain, Ellie, front and center.” Master Daksha nodded to Leaper, who picked up three Shooting Stars.
“When the coolant tank ruptured, only by the grace of the makers did anyone survive, but then, only by Ensign Cain’s actions were the survivors saved. At the risk to his own life, he saved yours, his classmates and friends. Wear your Shooting Stars as an external sign of the scars you carry. Cain, please take Strider’s Star and wear that always, in honor of him. Had he been alive, I have no doubt you would have saved him, too.
All Cain could think about was how he shoved the Wolfoid’s body to the side to get to Ellie. He was embarrassed, but wearing Strider’s medal was a way to remind him that there was nothing he could have done. Time had been of the essence.
Briz and Ellie accepted their Shooting Stars graciously and humbly. Cain waited while Leaper pinned the two medals on his jumper. As he made to leave, Daksha stopped him.
“Did you think you could risk your life for others and we wouldn’t recognize that? It’s a commander’s duty to recognize those who go above and beyond. Ensign Cain, you have done that, on multiple occasions. For your actions in the engine room, you are awarded a Space Star First Class. For your actions on Concordia, you are awarded a second Space Star First Class. There is no greater testament to loyalty and integrity than when a person offers his life for his fellows. You weren’t reckless. You had every intention of succeeding, but there was risk, great risk, and you accepted that, willingly. I congratulate you in the way that a commander can.”
Cain looked sheepishly at the crowd, his crewmates, as they clapped and cheered. He hadn’t done it for the applause. He did those things because they needed doing. He made to leave again, but Daksha stopped him a second time.
“Captain Rand and Cain, if you would be so kind, please pin a Space Star First Class on Briz. For your actions, Ensign Brisbois, while Cain was helping us save ourselves on the planet surface, you were saving all of us by saving the ship in a way unique, that only you could do. Ensign Brisbois, you are one of a kind, and at this point in time, I believe you are the most decorated Rabbit ever in the Space Exploration Service. And you’ve served for five months total. I look forward to seeing what your future holds.”
More applause and more cheering. Cain looked at Briz, who appeared to be more uncomfortable than Cain felt. He turned to his Rabbit friend and pulled him into a fierce hug.
“The ship is life!” the commander called and everyone shouted their slogan in reply. He continued, his vocalization device reflecting a softer tone, “Save the ship, save yourselves. No one exemplifies that motto better than this crew. Never in the history of the space fleet has anyone done what this crew has done. I can’t be more proud. It’ll be a week until we dock. I’ll let everyone know as soon as we receive word from on high about what’s in store for our future.” He called people up one by one to issue awards, Shooting Stars, Space Stars Second and Third Class. At the end, he asked the captain to stand tall before his crew.
“To the best captain a ship could ask for, one who literally gave his arm for his ship, Captain Rand is awarded the Space Star First Class. I personally want to thank him for bringing an alternate view of what our first contact could entail. He advised caution when others, including yours truly, insisted that we make landfall, meet the distraught people of Concordia. I will continue to seek your advice, Captain Rand,” Master Daksha finished, bobbing his head slowly as he looked at the captain. Rand looked like he wanted to say something, but he took a few steps then started a cheer for the commander.
“To the stars!” Everyone yelled “To the stars!” in reply.
Cain walked back to the front, hands up asking for silence. He raised an eyebrow at the commander, who nodded in return.
“I want to thank every one of the crew of our ship, the Cygnus-12, for welcoming Leaper and his team from Space School. We were raw recruits, yet no one batted an eye. We’ve all committed to staying on board for the next journey, and the next, and the one after that. This is the best damn ship in the fleet, and it’ll take an armed escort to remove me from my home!” No one cheered, but they pressed in and there was much hand-shaking and back-slapping.
Senior Lieutenant Pace was one of the first to congratulate Cain. “You deserve all of that, and more, my man! You have a gift, Cain, and I’m glad you’re staying. Me, too. I’m comfortable putting my life in the hands of this crew, plus, I want to be there when we enter Earth’s heliosphere and descend into its gravity well. The children have come home. I have to be there for that,” he said, nodding toward the table. Cain shook his head vigorously.
“Glad to hear that, Pace. Really glad. Is everyone else staying?”
“Of course!” he exclaimed as Chirit joined them, hopping from table to table so he didn’t get stepped on. The overhead was too low for him to fly. Cain picked him up to help him get closer to the corridor where he’d have room to maneuver.
“I’ll need to train a new sensor operator, but I have Tandry’s help, if only we can keep that ‘cat from shedding. I might have to requisition a server bot to be permanently stationed with Mixial,” the Hawkoid said as they worked their way through the crowd. Tandry gave Chirit the stink-eye as they passed, which was completely lost on the Hawkoid but made Cain laugh.
Leaper worked the crowd, wearing his new Shooting Star and Space Star Second Class above the Third Class Star he’d received while still in Space School. He was proud of them. Wolfoids had a good history in space, but none had ever become a captain or even a mission commander. He had his eyes set on the stars and climbing a long flight of steps to get there.
&nb
sp; Allard and Beauchene dallied at the food table, only so they could sample a little of everything then put it back, half-eaten, after denigrating fabricator food. Captain Rand picked up the Rabbits’ refuse and put it on a plate to go back into the fabricator for recycling. “Which one of you kicked me?” he asked, pointing with his new hand. Both Rabbits froze, their noses stopped twitching, their ears straight up and unmoving. Rand started to laugh. The Space Exploration Service was not a military force and there was no such thing as assaulting an officer or dereliction of duty.
There were some good throw-downs because the SES ran deep space exploration ships. Any time you had people cramped together for long periods of time, things happened. “With everything that happened on this ship on this journey, you two have shown us what you’re made of, that you would do anything for the crew. I’m glad to have you aboard, and that little incident with the ‘cats is probably going to be the funniest story that I tell to my grandkids.”
“Thank you for your kind words. Will those creatures be staying aboard?” Allard asked sincerely.
“No more war on the ‘cats! Yes. Since Cain, Ellie, and Tandry are staying, the ‘cats are staying, too.”
“Pity,” Beauchene added, sampling another hors d’oeuvre, making a face, and putting it back with one small nibble out of the corner. The captain slapped his small Rabbit hand.
“That’s for kicking me!” he said. Beauchene pointed to Allard, who saw the gesture and pointed back. “Now stop sampling those. You know you’re not going to like them,’ the captain said dismissively and shooed the Rabbits away from the food table. Both the Rabbits wore their newly awarded Space Star First Class for their actions against the enemy on multiple decks of the ship. Rand had always thought of them as peaceful gardeners, passionate about protecting their plants, but the new side of them caught him by surprise. Of all the people who put their bodies between the Concordians and the Cygnus-12, he would have never thought that the three Rabbits would eliminate more of the enemy than anyone else. He would never forget that.
Master Daksha watched serenely, floating higher than normal to give the others more room. As Daksha had hoped, the memorial was a celebration of life and a commitment to the future.
The Message
They received the message while most of the crew were sleeping. It was days beyond when they could have received the first reply, which concerned them, but they pressed forward, deeper and deeper into the well.
Jolly notified Commander Daksha immediately, knowing that he had been impatiently waiting for a reply from either Admiral Jesper or Doctor Johns.
Welcome back, Master Daksha. I am sorry to hear of your losses. We grieve with you at the tragedy that has befallen the Cygnus-12. We have received and forwarded your thoughtful notes to each of the families. They are making do, as well as can be expected. We will have a formal ceremony at the Space Center once the crew is safely home.
A human colony! From there, we will jump closer, to another human colony, and soon, we will be looking at mother Earth. You and your crew have opened the door to what we’ve only dreamed was possible.
Your crew and your spaceship have opened our eyes to both the dangers of first contact and the challenges of space. The SES leadership has met regarding your situation, and the decisions have been in your favor. I know that your ship just came out of space dock for an extended overhaul, but we’d like to make a few more modifications. It’ll go back in for an estimated four months where additional structural support will be added, and I hate to say this, but some weaponry, too.
We’ve been working with Holly to revise the direction under which your AI will operate. It will take the computer system to aim and fire the weapons, so having an AI that can’t take an enemy’s life would be problematic, no more problematic than having an AI who is too quick to take a life. The programming instructions will take time to get right.
And regarding your request to create a military force to accompany a landing team, I cannot agree more. I think your Ensign Cain will be the right leader for such a force. He’ll have four months to recruit and train twelve warriors. It’s not much time, but we’re making it up as we go.
Again, I’d like to reiterate my condolences to you, your crew, and the families of the fallen. They will be remembered and their names will be read aloud in ceremony the first time we see Earth with our own eyes.
Bring your ship home, Daksha, proudly. You’ve earned our highest respect.
Master Daksha read the letter three times to be certain that he read everything correctly. Four months! He wasn’t looking forward to that. He’d hoped for a quicker turnaround, but the time would give him and the captain the best chance at finding quality replacements for the crew that they’d lost.
They were going back to Concordia. The Tortoid knew that revenge was wrong and he’d be vocal about it, but he wanted revenge. He wanted the one who ordered the attack on him and his people to pay for what he’d done. Cain would carry a barbaric level of vigilante justice to the planet. If the leadership surrendered, he’d accept that, but he hoped he didn’t. He hoped that Cygnus blasters would be the last thing they’d ever see. Daksha shoved those thoughts into the back of his mind for recall at a later date, the date they had with Concordia.
‘Jolly, when Cain wakes up, have him report to me,’ Daksha ordered.
De’atesh Shipyard
As they approached the space dock, they stopped the ship’s spin. The crew had been in zero-g plenty of times, but they never enjoyed it. The conditions made everything more difficult by orders of magnitude. Briz only tolerated it because he was able to do things that he couldn’t do otherwise, like inspect the tops of everything in engineering. Ellie watched him crawl around the ceiling, looking at this or that. He went from one end of the space to the other.
“Briz! Come on down, we’re going to dock soon.”
“I’m not getting off the ship,” he said, acting like they’d leave without him. “I’m going to stay, see to those upgrades Jolly was talking about. I’m not sure I like the thought of weapons on the Cygnus-12.”
“I know. I’m an explorer, not a soldier. I hate to think of the Cygnus-12 as an instrument of war,” Ellie sympathized.
“Power. I’m talking about the excess power required. We’re simply not equipped for that. I’d rather shoot them from far away, assuming I can change the power distribution system adequately, than risk having them crash into the ship, like those idiots from Concordia almost did.”
“I thought you were more peace-loving, Briz, like your fellows Beauchene and Allard, although, from what I hear, they put a hurt on some of the boarders,” Ellie said, looking to get a response from the Rabbit.
Briz stopped what he was doing. “Yes. They did what they had to do. They helped save the ship. I wish I was as good a shot as they are! But, I have no intention of practicing. I’ll leave weapons play to the Neanderthals,” he looked at Ellie, hoping to get a rise, then he stuck his pink nose in the air and acted like he was strutting through the air, but in zero-g, all he accomplished was to send himself into a spin, crashing most ingloriously into one of the massive power conduits that traversed engineering.
Ellie was getting off the ship as soon as she could. She wanted to go home for a visit, then back to the space center for more training on systems, particularly the EM drive. The new conventional travel engine was so successful that the thrusters were going to be swapped out from chemical propulsion to mini-EM drives. They would use renewable power instead of a limited resource.
Increased demand meant more power. Additional generation sources were to be installed, which concerned Briz the most. The power distribution system was overdesigned from the beginning, but with the most recent addition of the spindle, systems within the core were being taken to their limits. Briz didn’t want to leave the ship in the hands of someone else. He insisted on staying behind. He said that he could catch up on technical reading too, as the engineers and maintenance bots did their work.
Ellie knew that for him, reading tech manuals was like a vacation.
Cain intended to use the matter transfer system to get to New Sanctuary as quickly as possible. He was singularly focused on building the security force. Time was a luxury he didn’t have. He would not be traveling anywhere that didn’t help him with the recruits. What tests would he need? What level of technical aptitude would be necessary? What standard would he train them to and how? Cain had too many questions and not enough answers. His brain was moving at light speed, which made everything around him seem a blur, even his friends.
Ellie apologized to them all on his behalf, knowing that his disengagement wasn’t a personal slight, only a limitation on his mental capacity. They laughed at the joke, but accepted that he had the hardest job of them all during the ship’s refit. No one could help him with what he was tasked to do.
The crew showed up according to the disembarkation plan. With two shuttles, they could only move six crew at a time. The station had many more ships, but they would have to request an emergency to reroute one of them since they were filled to capacity moving workers back and forth, supporting construction operations.
The Cygnus-12 was berthed on the far side of the dock, away from the largest ship in the fleet that was still being built. With the advancements in the EM drive, the SES was rethinking the space station style ship since the timeframes of travel had been greatly reduced. It had an interim name, but no one could recall what it was until Jolly reminded them. It was the unimaginative Cygnus Traveler. No wonder they forgot it.
Cygnus Expanding: Humanity Fights for Freedom (Cygnus Space Opera Book 2) Page 4
