Captain Cosette

by R. Bruce Sundrud

  “Cadet Nicholas, I said get up.”

  “Huh?” She blinked her eyes and pulled herself upright. Riling was poking at her boots.

  “We’re going back up. Sorry to wake you. You were smiling like you were having a nice dream.”

  He helped her down from the rail car with his strong dark hand. “I was,” she said. “Thanks for not leaving me here.”

  “You never know.” He grinned so broadly his eyes wrinkled. “You might change your mind about learning to clean fish.”

  After climbing the long flight of stairs back to the base, she saw everything with fresh eyes. The dilapidated appearance was deliberate, and yet the needful machinery was well tended. It was a careful façade, meant to hide the remaining members of the Alliance.

  Cosette chose a cot and put her duffel under it. She took a hot shower in the women’s locker room, and changed into one of her ill-fitting and patched work uniforms.

  Now I look dilapidated just like the buildings.

  She interrupted Major Dyson, who was in conversation with Cogshank. “May I go look at the fighters?” she asked.

  “Why would you want to do that?”

  “I know you need to get out of here. Maybe one of them could be repaired.”

  Dyson leaned back and considered her with his pale eyes. “And why would you want me to be able to leave? You’re a Union soldier. I think you would want to keep me here for the Union of Planets to recapture.”

  “Yes, I’m a Union soldier, but I told you I don’t remember why. I do know the Union broke their word. They didn’t honor the prisoner exchange. That’s not right.” She thought for a moment. “They were willing to kill me and Rasora and even Garale in order to kill you.”

  “That’s true.”

  “Anyway, it’s something that I can do. Right now we’re helpless.”

  Rasora, who had been standing nearby, interrupted. “Can’t we just send a message to the Alliance and have them come get us?”

  “The only way to send a message that distance is to send a ship through folded space,” said Cosette. “And if we can send a ship, Major Dyson might as well be on it.”

  Rasora nodded quickly. “Oh, yes. I knew that.”

  “So,” said Cosette to Dyson, “May I look at those ships?”

  Dyson glanced at Cogshank. “We should let her try. If she can fix up a fighter, maybe I can get back to the Alliance Headquarters.”

  Cogshank furrowed his brow. “She could be planning on escaping to the Union and bringing them down on us, you know.”

  “I doubt it, but you’re right to be cautious. Post a man to keep an eye on her, but I want her to have a chance to work on a fighter. We’ll see what that knowledge in her head can do.”

  Cosette smiled at him. “Thank you, Major.”

  “You can thank me by getting a fighter operational.”

  As she walked out to the fighters parked on the concrete, a soldier with a rifle took a position outside of the hangar, dividing his attention between her and some hand-held device.

  The fighters, five of them, were lined up in front of the hangar. They bore Alliance insignia, but there was little difference between their design and their Union counterparts. As the part numbers bubbled up from her learned memories, she was impressed by how much they matched.

  The Union and the Alliance buy from a common source, or else they steal from each other.

  She crouched under the first fighter, and saw something skitter away to the next one.

  Worm?

  No, the glimpse was of something metallic. Then she saw two lenses peer around the landing gear.

  “Spinner?”

  The round flat robot came out from behind the gear and ran up to her. “Cadet Nicholas! I did not know where you went. I do not know this place. I was lost.” His lenses scanned the area. “I am still lost, but now I have found you.”

  “You were hiding on our cruiser! You helped me put in the hydrogen canister!”

  “Yes. That cruiser can not be fixed, I think.”

  “Thank you for helping me. You saved our lives.”

  “You are welcome. Is Major Dyson here?”

  “He’s here. I’ll take you to him.”

  “Does Lieutenant Garale still have a gun? I do not like Lieutenant Garale.”

  Cosette shook her head. “He’s under guard. Don’t worry about him. Why did you stow away?”

  “I like Major Dyson.”

  “Ah, the EM chip again.”

  Spinner’s lenses swiveled. “Two men are coming.”

  Cosette stepped out from under the fighter to find Major Dyson and Sergeant Cogshank walking towards them.

  “Major Dyson!” said Spinner, clattering across the concrete towards the Major.

  Dyson squatted down and grinned at the robot. “I can’t believe it! Forty eight triple oh seventeen! Where have you been, old buddy?”

  “Hello, Major Dyson. I was assigned to maintenance on the space station where you were put in prison. When you went on board the cruiser I went on board also. When we landed here I got lost.”

  Cogshank joined them, and put his hands on his knees. “Well, I’ll be. It’s a spinner! Where’d you come up with that?”

  Dyson brushed weed seeds off of Spinner’s body. “This spinner bonded with me a while back. He was with me when I was captured.” He looked at Cosette. “You know this robot?”

  Cosette nodded. “We worked together on the station. He told me about you.”

  Dyson looked at Spinner. “You talked about me with this soldier?”

  Spinner dipped his lenses. “I like Cadet Nicholas.”

  “I’m going to go pack my stuff,” said Cogshank, and left.

  “I forgot to tell you,” said Cosette to Dyson, “when you were hanging onto me in the engine room, when I was trying to restart the core, Spinner was on the other side and he helped me.”

  “I couldn’t see anything because of the wind,” said Dyson. “I had hair blowing in my eyes.” He laughed quietly. “This is good news, having Spinner. I don’t know what our plans are, yet, but he’s very handy.”

  “I like him having the EM….” She paused, and looked around.

  “You know about his EM chip?” asked Dyson.

  “I promised him I wouldn’t tell.”

  Spinner dipped his lenses. “You can tell Major Dyson. He knows already.”

  Dyson sat back and smiled. “Spinner doesn’t make friends with just anybody. It’s kind of like, you know, when a man’s dog likes you, then you must be a good person.”

  Cosette smiled back, pleased at the compliment. “What’s a dog?”

  “You didn’t have a dog? What planet did you grow up on?”

  “Sorine.” As if that explained everything.

  “Someday, I’ll have to get you a dog.”

  “What I need,” she said, “is a good set of tools. There are five damaged fighters here. If I’m lucky, I can combine them into one that works. If not, I might have to learn how to clean fish!”

  Chapter Eleven

  Cosette banged her wrench on the floor of the fighter in frustration. She could scavenge enough parts to make a workable fighter, except for one piece. Every one of the five fighters had a burned out guidance unit.

  “Problem?” asked Private Riling as he leaned into the hatch, his dark wrinkled face looking concerned. He was on guard duty, keeping watch over Cosette.

  “Burned out guidance units,” said Cosette. “Every single one. That LK-C probe probably did it.”

  “LK-C? Oh, the look-see probe from the Union battleship. How could it do that?”

  Cosette rubbed her eyes and paged through the piles of information in her mind. “They have an EMF gun wrapped around their little nose cannon so they can burn out electronic gear when they’re snooping, among other things. It doesn’t blow anything up, but it fries the circuits.” She sighed, climbed out of the fighter and sat on the wing, her hands on her knees. She glanced at the sun, shining hazy through the
high clouds. “It doesn’t do any good to repair one of these if it can’t fly or go into folded space.”

  “Did you check the spare parts in the hangar?”

  “No, actually.” She brightened up. “Spinner, can you check the hangar for any spare guidance units? You know the model number?”

  Spinner dipped his lenses. “I know the number. I will look.” He clattered off and disappeared into the hangar.

  “You and the Major should go to the village with us,” said Riling. “Put on some native threads, fish a little, brown a little so you’ll be ignored by any Union visitors. Especially if we sail off to some other continent. There are some great islands up north, if you don’t mind a long voyage.”

  Off on an island, maybe with Rasora, maybe with Dyson, living in a grass shack. Cleaning fish and raising children, no worries, no soldiers. That would be the life.

  “No,” she said with a sad smile. “That would be a last resort. I need to see what I can do to get Major Dyson off this planet.”

  “You got your sights set on him?”

  “Oh, heavens, no!” She fluttered her hand. “It’s just, I feel like I’m on his side, now. That Union battleship sent their missiles at both of us. If I can only get one of these ships to….”

  She was interrupted by a sound behind her, a high wail that sounded like a huge brass horn played by a man with endless lungs. She twisted around and gasped. Something impossibly tall stood on four spindly legs in the middle of the landing strip.

  A stilt!

  One of its four legs lifted slowly, swung forward several meters, and then descended to the ground. The body, as high as a tree, moved forward as another leg began to bend and lift. Each leg was as thick as Cosette’s body and jointed in two places. The body did look like a bird’s nest upside-down, just as it had been described, with many branches hanging down. The wail came from it, haunting and lonely.

  Amazing, amazing, so huge and yet so quiet until it cried. Is it lonely and looking for a mate?

  From behind the compound came a reply, a distant wail that echoed through the trees.

  “Is that its mate?” she whispered, afraid to draw the tall creature’s attention.

  “Nah,” said Riling. “They ain’t different sexes. Those things hanging down there, around the fringe? They’re little stilts, getting ready to drop off. Sometimes two stilts will bump against each other, and the little stilts will trade off, but no, they don’t mate. I guess.”

  “It’s magnificent. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  The stilt’s body passed between Cosette and the sun, and she felt the coolness of the shadow pass over her.

  Spinner clattered out of the garage. “I could not find any…” Spinner’s lenses turned towards the stilt. “That is a strange life-form. Should I run away?”

  “No, it doesn’t seem to notice us,” said Cosette. The stilt moved beyond the landing strip, one slow leg at a time. “I’m glad it wasn’t standing there when we landed. It would have been terrible to crash into one of those things and break its legs.”

  “Yes,” said Riling, “that would have been sad. Look at the trees there where it’s headed. See how level they are on top? The whole continent looks tended, in a way. Some of the trees even have seeds that cling to the legs of…hey, where are you going?”

  Cosette landed on the ground. “I’ll be right back. I just realized where there might be a guidance unit!” She ran across the landing strip and through the broken shrubs with their strange smell. The ruined cruiser lay amid the shrubs, the hatch still open. She stepped into the ship and went to the forward bulkhead where the guidance systems were installed.

  Maybe this unit survived the landing intact. It’s in a protected spot inside the ship.

  She located the assembly, twisted the tabs that held it in place, and slid it out. The thickness of a slice of bread and the length of her forearm, the guidance unit looked exactly like the blueprint in her mind. Exactly the same, except…

  Near the back where the contacts would slide into their receptacles, a silver rectangle of metal was attached, something her memory did not know about. She tapped it, puzzled.

  Still, the part number was the same as the guidance unit needed by the flyer and it should do the job. It was probably some attempt by the Union at an upgrade. She would have to be careful and run every diagnostic she could before lifting off.

  With an old rag she started wiping it clean, inspecting the terminals.

  A hiss from behind startled her, and she turned.

  She screamed.

  An enormous worm filled the hatchway, its blood-red eyes glaring at her and its black teeth clicking eagerly. Its body squirmed as it tried to push further into the cabin.

  It’s a worm! A stilt worm! One of those things that Riling said could kill a man!

  She had no weapons, nothing with which to fight it off. She was helpless but she was on her feet, and the corner of her eye caught the sun coming in from the rent in the side of the ship, the opening created by the exploding missile.

  Should I go back into the pilot’s cabin and hope the worm can’t reach me? But the worm keeps pushing its way in, bit by bit.

  She made a quick decision and leaped towards the rent, dodging a snap from the black teeth. Picking the largest part of the opening, she dove into it.

  The rip in the ship’s side wasn’t quite large enough to accommodate her, and a ragged edge dug into her back. She heard the worm’s teeth clicking behind her, and she kicked desperately to force her way through even though the torn metal sliced into her back and made her cry out.

  With a painful lunge, she tumbled free from the cruiser and staggered over the broken brush back towards the compound. Beside her, the worm’s body began writhing backwards, pulling its head out of the hatch.

  “Help me,” she shouted. “Help!”

  Why didn’t I wait for Riling to come with me?

  She had no idea how fast a stilt worm could travel, but she could picture it swinging around and sinking its teeth into her waist. A creature big enough to take down a stilt would bite her in half.

  She stumbled over a bush, pushed herself up, and ran out onto the landing strip.

  Coming towards her was Riling, carrying his rifle. “Get down, get down!” he shouted, waving with his free hand.

  She glanced behind her. The worm was coming towards her over the brush, as rapidly as she feared.

  Do I drop down or do I run for it?

  Riling lives on this planet. I need to trust him. But the worm!!

  With a sob of fear, she stopped running and threw herself flat on the ground.

  Riling’s rifle chattered and bullets whipped over her head. The worm hissed, and Cosette looked back to see its head jerking back and forth. Riling fired off another burst, and the worm pulled away, gore seeping from several perforations.

  Riling skidded up to her. “Don’t move,” he shouted. “You’re hurt!”

  Cosette pushed herself up. She could see Rasora running across the strip towards her, followed by Cogshank and Tiebout. “I’m okay. I just scratched my back.”

  “I said, don’t move!” He knelt down beside her. “There’s blood all over your back. You got bit pretty bad.”

  “It didn’t bite me. It started to come through the hatch and I crawled out the side.”

  He pushed her down. “Good, maybe you won’t get infected, but you’re bleeding bad enough to scare me. Now stay down!”

  He pressed on her back, and she said “Ouch!”

  “Stop whining, soldier. You’re losing blood and that’s government property. Union government property, anyway.”

  She heard more people arrive, and Private Tiebout shouting, “You didn’t have to shoot her just because she was running away! Haven’t you got any sense?”

  “I didn’t shoot her!” shouted Riling back just as loud.

  “I heard you shooting!”

  “I was shooting at a stilt worm!”

  Rasora knelt b
eside her, his hands expertly checking her wound, his voice gentle. “Did you get bitten by a worm, Cosette?”

  “No. It came in the hatch and I crawled out the side. I cut my back a little.”

  “Ruined a uniform, is what you did,” said Tiebout, kneeling on the other side of her. “It’s all torn up here, and I can’t tell what’s cloth and what’s skin.”

  Cosette felt embarrassed by all the attention. “I just need some bandages.”

  “You need stitches,” said Tiebout. “Riling, little man, you go get a stretcher.”

  “That’s right, accuse the little man and then send him back for a stretcher.” He ran off towards the compound, still grumbling.

  “I can walk,” protested Cosette.

  “Not while we’re holding you together, young lady,” said Tiebout. She pointed to Rasora. “How about you and Cogshank carry the stretcher and I’ll walk alongside and keep pressure on this wound. Don’t let that dwarf Riling carry one end or Cosette will slide off.”

  “Will do,” said Sergeant Cogshank. Private Tiebout had assumed authority over the injury, and no one was going to argue about who was in charge.

  “Don’t you have a vehicle?” asked Rasora.

  “Only the rumbler. Everything that works is gone, remember? By the time we got the rumbler here, and loaded her and unloaded her, it would be faster just to carry her across the strip.”

  Riling returned with the stretcher poles over his shoulders. They laid the stretcher out and moved Cosette onto it, despite her protests that she wasn’t helpless.

  Back at the compound they cut away the back of her uniform and Tiebout used clean cloths to remove the blood from her back. Cosette would have preferred some privacy, but the men clustered around in concern.

  Cosette heard the intake of breath as her back was cleaned. “What?” she asked. “Is it bad?”

  “No, no, a dozen stitches ought to do it. The medic’s on his way; he’s getting some supplies and washing up. You’re going to be fine.”