Out Past the Stars

by K. B. Wagers

  “Tell medical to prepare for possible wounded,” Isabelle ordered.

  “Captain, I’m getting more ships dropping out of warp on our position.”

  “Someone get me an actual ID on those ships,” she snapped. “I want to know what’s going on, preferably before someone takes a shot at us.”

  “Captain Saito,” I called, my voice rising over the din. “They’re Shen. Do not fire on them. Relay that to Captain Zov, immediately.”

  “Yes, Majesty. Helm, get us out of this mess however you can.”

  “Aye-aye, Captain.” Ensign Virat Kohli hit the thrusters on the Hailimi to full and I could do little else but hang on and watch as she piloted us out of the debris field. The young helmswoman had developed nerves of steel somewhere along the line, and I watched in a kind of terrified awe as we shot through the carnage of the broken ships around us.

  “Why aren’t they saying anything, Hail?” Mia’s broken whisper dragged my attention away from the front end of our ship passing well within safety parameters of the starboard side of the Shen ship. “I can’t raise anyone on the coms.”

  She was right and I would have slapped myself in the forehead if I’d had a free hand. I hadn’t even considered trying to contact one of the Shen vessels in the middle of this chaos.

  “Hao?”

  “Nothing,” he said, anticipating my question before I could ask it. “It’s dead air out there. I don’t know what’s going down but they either can’t or won’t contact us.”

  The ship leveled out as the space cleared in front of us. I shared a look with Hao before we both stood. Mia was still leaning into me, her eyes unfocused and her mouth moving as she desperately tried to contact her people.

  “Majesty, are you all right?”

  I pointed at Inana. “Find out why the coms aren’t working, Admiral. We need to know if those ships are compromised.”

  “Captain Zov is on the line, ma’am,” Captain Saito called, and I handed Mia off to Hao without a thought as I crossed to her chair with Inana on my heels.

  “Put her through.”

  Dirah appeared on the screen. “Your Majesty. We are unable to contact any of the Shen ships. Tsia Brov is on the ground and requesting information.”

  “Tell them I don’t have any at the moment. We’re reasonably sure that the Shen ships are not a threat, but whatever is causing this coms blackout might be.” There wasn’t time to explain our concerns about our inability to contact anyone on Faria, and part of my brain was currently trying to figure out the best way to contact Aiz—if he was with the Shen fleet at all. “I want you all to hold fast and do not do anything without my express order.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Captain Zov nodded and disconnected the com.

  “All right, people, start problem solving,” I announced, and the conversations on the bridge stopped. “I care less at the moment about what’s causing this blackout and more how to communicate with at least one of those ships without using coms. Ragini.” I pointed at the senior tech.

  She swallowed. “It’s not quite that easy, Your Majesty. We need to know if they can’t send and receive messages. Or if our coms are being interrupted somehow. The cause is important in figuring out—”

  “Senior Tech.” Captain Saito’s voice held a note of warning, and Ragini swallowed.

  “Yes, ma’am. Sorry. We could use Morse code. Get close enough for them to see our running lights from their bridge and flash a message. Get them to land on the planet. It’s messy, but it might—”

  “Captain, I’ve got another ship!” Commander Nejem called from her station.

  “Coming out of warp? Where?” Both my and Isabelle’s questions tumbled over the top of one another’s.

  “Not warp, ma’am. It just appeared. Directly in front of us.”

  I turned to the viewscreen. The ship was close enough to be easily visible, but the computer brought up an enhanced image on an inset screen and my heart lodged itself into my throat.

  “Oh Shiva.” I recognized the ship. It was the same sleek black thing I’d seen just before Adora’s ship exploded. “It’s the Hiervet.”

  “Go to red alert. Shields up,” Captain Saito demanded. “Where did they come from?”

  The klaxon rang and I braced myself against Isabelle’s chair, but the Hiervet ship didn’t move.

  “Captain, they’re hailing us,” Ragini said. “But the translators aren’t recognizing it.”

  “Is there only one ship?” I asked.

  “Yes, ma’am. They’re just sitting there. I’m getting more incoming coms, every single one is different. This is weird. Hang on.”

  “Captain Saito, you are not authorized to fire until we figure out what is going on, is that understood?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  I’d no sooner issued that order than fire streaked over our heads, slamming into the Hiervet ship.

  “It’s the Istrevitel ship, Captain!” Commander Nejem turned in her seat.

  “Ragini, open up a com channel.” I gave the order in tandem with Captain Saito and shot her an apologetic look she answered with a quick smile.

  “Go ahead, Your Majesty.”

  The bridge of Captain Zov’s ship came into view. “Stand down, Captain, that’s an order!”

  But my words were lost to the bloodlust of the Istrevitel, and they poured fire into the vessel from their own ship.

  The sick feeling in my gut exploded at the same time the Hiervet ship did, and the silence on the bridge was only made worse by the celebration coming from Captain Zov’s com link. I didn’t say a word as I crossed to the coms and stabbed my finger down onto the button to terminate the connection.

  “Ragini?”

  She shook her head. “They were cycling through languages, ma’am, trying to figure out who we were. The translation software got confused by the deluge of information. I think the collection of ships threw them off.” She stopped and swallowed. “I finally found the one in really old Standard. It said, We’ve come to talk, not to fight. Our shields and weapons are inactive.”

  I heard the shocked curses behind me as I pressed my fingertips to my mouth.

  “You tried to stop them, Hail,” Mia whispered.

  “It wasn’t enough.”

  “Your Majesty, permission to flash our running lights at the nearest Shen ship,” Captain Saito said. “We’ll tell them to send a party to the surface if they’re able.”

  “Do it and then put us on the ground.” I looked around the bridge, spotted Emmory standing by the door. “Tell Captain Zov to get her ass on the ground also.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  I did not realize how badly I needed Aiz to be the one who came off the Shen shuttle that landed on Ndrog until I saw him and the sob of relief fought its way free of my mouth.

  Thankfully Mia calling her brother’s name and sprinting across the landing pad covered up my own reaction, though I followed her at a pace just short of a run.

  “What happened?” I demanded as I skidded to a stop.

  Aiz had his arms wrapped around Mia and lifted his head to meet my gaze. “I don’t know, Hail.” The admission was as startling as the grief in his voice. “It all happened so fast. I’ve never seen anything like it. Our coms went down, our renimi—”

  My blood froze. “Your smatis are compromised?”

  Aiz nodded. “We cannot communicate. It is a computer virus, not spread by contact but only if your software connects. It spread from ship to ship, person to person before we realized what was happening. The attack was right on the heels of it. If we hadn’t had an escape plan in place we would have been slaughtered.” The muscles in his jaw flexed. “It was Thyra’s army, Hail. They are Farians, but bigger, stronger. It was almost like fighting Hiervet. We had to run or be slaughtered.”

  I was suddenly, desperately grateful for the paranoia that had led Aiz to split up the Shen fleet.

  “We couldn’t contact Fasé either.”

  “I’m sorry. She wasn’t
with us. Several Farian ships that had been with us were attacked; we tried to get coordinates to them before we jumped but I don’t think any of them made it.” Aiz shook his head, his face grim. “I can’t tell you what happened or where she is now. Your Marines were with her and Sybil. Maybe they got out.”

  “Where is Talos?” Mia asked.

  My heart twisted at the expression that slid across Aiz’s face. “He stepped in front of a shot meant for me,” he said, shaking his head. “There wasn’t time for us to do anything but run.”

  I pressed a hand to my mouth as the grief wailed in my chest. A hundred moments with Talos flashed through my head. Aiz reached out with a smile and wiped away the tear that slid down my cheek.

  “It’s all right, Hail. With luck he is back with Jibun and we will see each other again.”

  I didn’t want to ask what would happen if he was unlucky; I already knew the answer. Instead I reached up and gripped Aiz’s hand tight. “I have to deal with something,” I said, hearing the tears in my voice. “Then we’ll sit down and figure out what in Shiva’s name is going on and what our next move is.”

  I headed for the same building where our first meeting with the Svatir had been. Dailun and Hao, along with Zin and Gita, had headed off Captain Zov when she landed and escorted her to where Tsia Brov and the other Svatir were waiting.

  I could hear Mia whispering to Aiz as they followed, catching him up on the events that had happened aboard the Hailimi, but my thoughts were quickly distracted by the memory of the Hiervet ship exploding and Ragini’s voice telling me that they’d been broadcasting what was essentially a message of peace.

  A message Captain Zov and the Istrevitel had ignored along with my orders.

  Gita met us at the outside entrance. “They’re inside, Majesty. The Istrevitel are armed.”

  “I don’t care. Your job is to make sure they don’t try to shoot anyone—me included. Use whatever force is necessary.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  We headed down the corridor and I stopped just outside the door, holding my hands up. “Guns,” I said, and Emmory leaned in, taking my Glocks away from me without a word.

  The Svatir and the Istrevitel turned as I entered the room. Hao took one look at my face and said something to Dailun, and the younger man nodded and backed up a step.

  “Did you see it? Wasn’t it glorious?” Captain Zov was joyful. It was hard to blame her for misreading the situation or just not noticing how dangerous it was in the split second before I was on her.

  I grabbed Dirah by the shirtfront, propelling her across the room so quickly her feet barely touched the floor, and slammed her into the far wall.

  “I told you to stand down,” I snarled, hearing the sounds of weapons powering up behind me and trusting that Emmory and the others could handle whatever came of my decision. “I gave you a direct fucking order. You murdered those people.”

  “They weren’t people. They were Hiervet.” Dirah struggled in my grip but I shook her until her teeth rattled. “We did our duty as soldiers.”

  “You are not soldiers! You are children with dangerous toys who neither are aware nor seem to care about the damage you can inflict on those around you.” I shoved her into the wall again, fighting with the snarling voice that was telling me to put my fist into her face. “They came to talk with us and you killed them!” I ignored the snide voice in my head that reminded me we’d been planning on doing the very same thing. The situation had changed, even I could see that, but Dirah in her obsessive vendetta had not.

  “Your Majesty, I must—” Tsia Brov’s protest died under the weight of Emmory’s growled order to stay still.

  “We swore an oath to protect our people from those creatures, but you would have us stand there and do nothing when they appeared?”

  “I would have you use your Shiva-damned brain, woman! Anyone with a lick of common sense could tell they weren’t attacking. They were broadcasting a message of peace—one you ignored in favor of violence.” The weight of it all came crashing down on me. I exhaled, forcing myself to unclench my fist from her shirtfront and take a step back. “I shouldn’t have come here. I should have left you to rot on that planet with your endless games, not let you out into the universe to rain down death and destruction on innocents.”

  Silence fell on the room. I took a deep breath. “Tsia Brov, my apologies for wasting your time. We will remove ourselves from your space.” I nodded to them and turned on my heel.

  “Your Majesty.”

  I stopped at the doorway next to Aiz. Captain Zov hadn’t raised her voice, but her call was loud in the stunned silence.

  “What?”

  “Your people are injured. Your ships damaged. You are right that I don’t have the experience of combat, but I know enough to know something bad has happened to your fleet. And that you have nowhere to go.”

  I shared a look with Aiz and he dipped his head just a fraction in acknowledgment of the truth of Dirah’s words. Many of his ships were probably unable to jump, and even the Hailimi had suffered minor damage from the debris. Until we figured out what was wrong with their coms systems and repaired our ships, it was dangerous to go anywhere.

  “Your point, Captain?”

  “The Istrevitel will gladly provide you with safe haven on Ganyin. We have shipyards for repairing the damage and medical facilities if they are needed.”

  “And what do you expect in exchange?” I asked as I faced her.

  “Nothing, Your Majesty. If you have wisdom you wish to share we will gladly listen, but the offer is made out of friendship and a desire to rectify my mistake. Nothing more.”

  “I see. What do you have to say about this?”

  Tsia Brov’s answering smile was tight. “There is nothing I can say, Your Majesty. The law is very clear on our duty to offer safe haven to those in distress.”

  I nodded once. Dirah was right, we were hurting and had nowhere to go. We needed somewhere safe to regroup and despite my harsh words the Istrevitel were our best hope.

  “Captain Zov, I accept your offer of safe haven.”

  30

  With little else to do besides fix our ships and figure out what in Naraka was going on with the Shen coms, Emmory took my suggestion that we train together seriously, and our days were spent on Horst in the simulator or back on Ganyin at Captain Zov’s headquarters.

  Hao joined us more often than not, as did Johar and Dailun. Aiz and Mia were occupied with Ragini, or at least that was what I told myself.

  The truth was more complex and more painful than I wanted to admit to, so I buried it in long days composing and refining battle scenarios that found a middle ground between Emmory’s need to keep me safe and my need to be useful.

  I knew he’d overheard at least part of my fight with Mia, but I hadn’t yet admitted that I’d seen my own death. Emmory, in turn, hadn’t pressed me about it.

  “Your Ragini is very clever,” Aiz said, leaning back in his chair one morning with a steaming cup of something the Istrevitel called yablok. It was strange, almost apple-like but with a bitterness a number of my people found unpleasant. I on the other hand enjoyed it. A winter storm had descended on the area where Captain Zov’s headquarters on Ganyin were located and it kept my hands warm.

  The young soldier who’d delivered the drinks had green hair several shades brighter than mine and a nervous stammer. She wasn’t anything like Stasia but made me ache for my maid all the same.

  That Fasé would keep her safe was the lie I told myself to assuage the creeping guilt that grew day by day. I had fucked this up. I’d left Thyra alive on Faria while I chased a useless force instead of keeping my focus where it should have been.

  “Hail?”

  “Sorry.” I shook my head. “Virus?”

  “She’s eighty-seven or eighty-eight percent sure.” His teeth flashed white in a quick grin and I could hear Ragini’s rambling qualifications in my own head. “No verdict yet on if she’ll be able to fix it, but�
�”

  “She will. Have some faith.”

  “I’m running a bit thin on that at the moment, Hail. I won’t lie.” Aiz rubbed at his eyes with one hand. “We were so close to everything we wanted. I’m sorry. I fucked this up.”

  “No, you didn’t. I’m the one who fucked up.”

  Aiz dropped his hand and stared at me. I shrugged.

  “You and I both know it. I got overconfident. I shouldn’t have left, that much is obvious. I should have dealt with Thyra. We knew she was up to something and I gave her the perfect opportunity to strike while my back was turned. Chasing the Istrevitel was a mistake.”

  “I don’t recall any of us objecting to the plan.”

  I smiled. “I’m in charge, remember? It was my call and my mistake. Just like with the Hiervet at Ndrog.”

  “You really think they wanted to just talk?”

  “I do.” I couldn’t articulate how I knew, but Aiz didn’t seem to need an explanation.

  “So why did the other ship attack Adora’s?” Aiz gestured with his mug. “I get wanting to kill my sister. But it doesn’t make much sense for anyone else.”

  “The assumption is that they were after Priam,” I said with a shrug. “That would explain the aggression. Even Thyra has admitted they’re hiding from the other Hiervet.”

  “Your Ekam spoiled that kill for the Hiervet.” He grinned but it faded, and we stared at each other.

  “Aiz, they were still shooting even after Priam was dead. We could see it from the shuttle. They kept firing until the ship exploded. Why would they do that if they were only after Priam?”

  The answer was a sick rolling in my gut.

  “Someone came back for Adora.” Aiz set his mug down with a curse and got up to pace the barracks that had become our new home for the last week. “I am an idiot.”

  “No, you’re not. Thyra came back for her. Shiva.” I pushed to my feet, my own mug in one hand while I snapped the fingers of the other. “Thyra was on the ship, that’s why the Hiervet were still shooting. Thyra rescued Adora and hid her, and then the moment they saw an opening they attacked.

  “Bugger me,” I cursed. “Do you think it’s too much to hope Fasé and the others aren’t all dead?”