The Celaran Refuge (Parker Interstellar Travels Book 8)

by Michael McCloskey

  “You won’t break me,” Telisa protested, then she started to cough.

  Siobhan froze.

  “...okay, maybe it’s good to be careful for just a little while,” Telisa finished.

  “The cowardly Celarans are back,” Caden said, looking around at the gliders that had collected around the Iridar.

  “They’re not cowards, it was smart to withdraw,” Cilreth said on the channel.

  “You’re both right,” Telisa said. “The Celarans are smart. Remember, though, they’re also flyers. I think flyers are naturally inclined to flee rather than stand and fight. Their bodies were light and fast, and they always had a way out. Evolution has ensured that they’d react this way to danger.”

  Magnus cleared his throat. “I see Lee coming,” he said. Siobhan turned and saw a Celaran flitting closer. Lee stopped before getting closer than ten meters.

  “That’s as close as they can get, I think, until we get cleaned up,” Siobhan said.

  Lee showed up on the PIT channel.

  “Lee! I’m glad you’re okay,” Telisa transmitted.

  “The vines die on a hard day. Some Terrans have ended their lives fighting the Destroyers?”

  “I’m sorry we couldn’t keep them from poisoning your home. The jungle can’t be saved?”

  “A tainted vine is left to rot,” Lee said. “We cannot clean it without factories to produce a neutralizing agent.”

  “Where will you go?” Siobhan asked. “Can you return to your homeworld?”

  Lee glided in a slow circle. It was the most lethargic flight Siobhan had seen a Celaran perform.

  “Flying over vines without sap, a jungle without life, the Destroyers have poisoned our home planet. I think there must not be Celarans there any longer.”

  Telisa reached out and steadied herself on Magnus. Her head drooped.

  “We came from another planet where one of your probe ships had been,” Telisa said. “There’s a set of factories there, and a few other things. We could run there. Maybe it would be a while before the Destroyers found us again. I think the vines there are healthy, so food would be plentiful for you.”

  Lee twitched oddly, then Siobhan saw something appear in the alien’s three-fingered mouth grasper.

  “The vines hide many things every day, the sky only rarely, yet this was caught flying through the air,” Lee said. The Celaran dropped something on a leaf and flitted back. Magnus started to walk over to retrieve it, then Telisa stopped him.

  “My breaker claw!” Telisa said. “Lee, that weapon is powerful. I stopped many Destroyers with it. Can you take it to a starship and examine it? If Celarans can learn how to make more of these, we might stand a chance.”

  “When the clouds clear overhead, one may take flight again, so we may study it soon. First, we’ll see how many want to go to this planet you found.”

  “Of course,” Telisa said. “I understand. We’ll help you, whatever you choose to do.”

  Lee picked the alien weapon back up and disappeared among the vines. Many of the other Celarans in the vicinity also flitted away.

  Magnus and Telisa entered the Iridar to get medical attention, followed by Caden. Siobhan looked over her shoulder at the ramp, as if waiting for Jason to appear and join them. She knew he never would.

  Chapter 8

  Marcant walked through a corridor of the Iridar. Adair and Achaius followed him, each towed by their own attendant sphere in an unwieldy arrangement. Sometimes they took over one of the soldier robots and rode around in a small compartment of the machine. Marcant could tell the rest of the PIT crew was not ready for the AIs to take bodies and walk around among the crew. In their minds, they had only added Marcant to the team.

  “It will happen eventually,” Adair said, detecting his thoughts through his link. Adair and Achaius had full access to Marcant’s link connections in his brain, giving them insight into his thoughts at the level of a voluntary truth-check. They were still three entities, though intermeshed on an intimate level, by the consent of all three minds.

  “Though, honestly, this way I can skip out on a lot of mind-numbingly dull work,” Adair continued.

  “The key will be for our early bodies to take non-threatening forms,” Adair continued.

  “So the Vovokan battle sphere bodies are non-starters,” Marcant finished for it.

  “For now.”

  Marcant smiled at Adair’s hurt tone. He knew the AIs could not wait to take super-powerful bodies. The idea did not alarm him at all.

  “And what about the AI Clarity Directive?” asked Marcant.

  “This is the frontier,” Achaius said. “Anything goes.”

  “Maybe,” Marcant said. He did not know if Telisa would demand that the two AIs obey the directive, which required full AIs to take forms clearly marked with orange “AI” markers declaring them to be artificial intelligences. Some of the Core Worlds held to the directive and others did not. The directive was also why Adair and Achaius had “ai” in their names.

  Marcant heard some noise and stopped. It had been a bang and a clatter. He checked his position on the Iridar’s internal map.

  “Ah, yes, the spare mess hall,” he said.

  Caden and Siobhan were busy converting the second mess into an open space for Lee to live in. It was a lot more room than anyone else had, but Marcant realized that, for a flyer, the space would be a confined one. He imagined no one minded giving up one mess for the alien, as they were all still happy about the elbow room they had gained by moving into the larger ship.

  Marcant continued. He had a vague plan to terminate his little jaunt about the ship wherever he found Cilreth since he wanted to talk to her about Vovokan security methods. He supposed he might have the rest of the day to examine and test details of the plan to take over the Vovokan spheres which they had failed to try during the battle.

  He was also toying with the idea of telling her about the plan to see what she thought of it. Adair and Achaius wanted to achieve the goal and then come clean, but Marcant thought it would build trust with the team if he at least mentioned it as a long term plan before they took the plunge. He knew the PIT team did not trust Shiny—but did any of them trust Adair or Achaius, either?

  As he passed a second door to the mess, he heard Cilreth’s voice from within.

  “The Celaran fleet will be ready to leave with us soon,” she was saying.

  Marcant walked into the large hall. Its chairs and tables had been folded into the floor. Caden stood balanced on the back of one of Magnus’s soldier robots, installing flexible lines for Lee to hang from.

  “What about the two surviving space bases?” Siobhan asked.

  “They’re coming with us,” Cilreth said. “They’re taking the bases apart. The rings of hangars are being disassembled. Apparently each hangar will go inside the spinner field of one ship.”

  “Hi,” Cilreth said to Marcant as he walked over to join her. He saw no reason not to get straight to business.

  “Do you have some time to discuss Vovokan security today?” he asked.

  “Vovokan security? Don’t waste cycles on it,” Cilreth said. “We need to learn about the Celarans and the Destroyers now.”

  “Achaius and Adair could make better use of the attendants if I know more about them. For instance, is Shiny spying on us using the attendant spheres?”

  “I can’t be sure,” Cilreth said. “Vovokan systems are deceptive. I feel like there are twenty ways to accomplish anything using them.”

  Marcant decided to mention the larger machines as well.

  “And what about the battle spheres? We may need to keep them on a tighter leash.”

  Cilreth shrugged.

  “It doesn’t strike me as high priority, Marcant,” Cilreth said. “Run it by Telisa, and if she likes it, have her tell me.”

  Telisa asked for a private connection to Marcant’s link.

  Coincidence?

  “Speak of the Unspeakable One,” Marcant said. He tapped his templ
e and stepped aside, then allowed the connection to complete.

  “Marcant?” Telisa asked.

  “Yes?”

  “How are you holding up? Any injuries from the battle?”

  “Magnus took good care of me,” he said.

  “How stressful was it?” she asked.

  This is new.

  “I think I was too busy being terrified to be stressed,” he said, realizing afterwards his nonsensical statement made an odd kind of sense. He searched for a constructive observation to add. “The debris the Destroyers kicked up was thicker than in our simulations, I think.”

  “You got that right,” Telisa agreed. “Sometimes I could barely see a meter. Don’t worry, we’ll run plenty more battle scenarios so realistic you’ll be terrified again.”

  “Well, I’ll look forward to that, then.”

  “Please collect any ideas you have on useful tasks to keep busy during the voyage.”

  “Clearly we need to learn from our defeat,” Marcant said.

  “Yes. First, get some rest. We’ll meet tomorrow and form a plan so we can use the voyage time to best effect.”

  Here’s my opening.

  “I already have a few things in mind. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  ***

  Shortly after the Celaran fleet and the Iridar had departed, Telisa looked at her team in the converted mess hall. Magnus sat closest to Telisa, like a teacher’s star pupil placed in the front of the class. Siobhan and Caden, inseparable as always, sat with shoulders touching to Marcant’s right. Marcant himself had chosen a spot center and rear. To his left, also toward the back, sat Colonel Agrawal.

  Marcant felt the Space Force Colonel watching him, trying to size him up. Is he trying to figure out who I am?

  “He’s alone and unconnected; he sees you also alone in the back and wonders if you’re a possible ally,” Adair said privately.

  “A political beast, then?”

  “Perhaps. Or perhaps just a stranger left almost alone beyond the frontier.”

  Cilreth entered the room, was greeted by Lee, and sat down near Caden and Siobhan.

  Lee had invited them all to her new quarters, probably as the result of studying Terran habits and emulating them. She flitted about and saw to their needs, presumably playing the part of host. Even Marcant had felt a bit of the warmth the others had expressed at seeing the alien trying so hard to fit into her new environment.

  A live alien. It’s easier to get used to than I would have expected, Marcant thought.

  “Most of you told me that the PIT team should learn from our defeat,” Telisa said. “Yes, we can learn from it. But we can also learn from the Vovokans and Shiny’s victory in the Trilisk ruins where we met.”

  “How so?” asked Magnus.

  “Shiny went into that closed Trilisk environment with Destroyers after him and he eventually defeated them. He told me he outsmarted them. He said these Destroyers are the war machines of another race. They didn’t dare make them too smart, so the Destroyers lack flexibility in methods.”

  “You said something about the other Vovokans?” Marcant prompted.

  “The Vovokans were eventually broken and scattered, but it took a lot longer. One of the advantages of being a subterranean race. Maybe the Celarans should look at building some of their facilities underground.”

  “If the vines are poisoned, it won’t matter,” Marcant pointed out.

  “I wonder if they’ll fight? We could teach them,” Caden said.

  “I don’t think we can turn a peaceful race into fighters,” Telisa said. “Besides, their robots will fight better than Celarans themselves, just as it is with Terrans.”

  Lee flitted about but did not offer comment. Marcant wondered what she thought of the ideas being discussed.

  “Then let’s design a fighting robot and they can become robot handlers,” Siobhan said.

  “How does that help?” Telisa asked.

  “You said the Destroyers are inflexible. The Celaran handlers may be able to improvise some unorthodox methods on the spot—unorthodox to the Destroyers, anyway.”

  “Maybe,” Telisa said.

  Marcant could tell she wanted better ideas.

  “Marcant? I need you to learn about the Destroyer technology. Find their weaknesses,” Telisa ordered.

  “I will. But there’s something else,” Marcant said.

  “Are you going to mention...” Achaius said privately.

  “Maybe you shouldn’t—” Adair added.

  Everyone was waiting for Marcant to continue.

  “The Vovokan battle spheres. They’re the most effective weapons we have. Achaius and Adair want to control them. We can do better than to leave them in Shiny’s control.”

  Adair and Achaius groaned on their private channel. Telisa stared at Marcant for a moment as if she would immediately dismiss his suggestion. Then she simply nodded.

  “Very well, Marcant. Cilreth will help you on that one.” Telisa turned to Cilreth. “Though I want you to analyze the space battle and brainstorm some ideas with me. If we can gain the edge in space, the battle may not spill to the ground again at all.”

  “Honestly, sounds like a job for Achaius,” Marcant said.

  Telisa raised an eyebrow.

  “He’s right,” Cilreth said. “Strategy is a bit of a... hobby for Achaius. Me, I’m just a people finder.”

  “Then find the controller of the Destroyer fleet,” Telisa said stubbornly. “Is it a distributed control system? Laissez-faire, every ship for itself? Or is there a command hierarchy?”

  Cilreth nodded. “If Achaius has free cycles, then by all means, we could pass any suggestions it has... should I say ‘it’? Pass along any strategy suggestions to the Celarans.”

  “We need to shift our focus from studying Celaran tech to Destroyer tech,” Telisa said. “We have too much to learn and not enough time to learn it.”

  Marcant could see she was struggling with priorities. He was the most suited to many of these tasks... yet it seemed to be a faux pas to say so openly.

  “Adair is the one behind the idea to control the spheres,” Marcant said. It was partially true. “It can spare cycles to examine that problem. I’ll focus on Destroyer technology as you’ve assigned me. Since Caden and Siobhan are the Celaran tech experts, maybe they should continue with their momentum in that area?”

  There. I handed out compliments along with my offer. Was that polite?

  Achaius and Adair did not comment.

  Telisa nodded. “Good. Find some weaknesses in the Destroyers.”

  “I think Agrawal and I can come up with some imaginative tactics, given what we saw in the battle,” Magnus said.

  “Good,” Telisa said. “When we arrive, set up our defenses. As we learn more, you’ll have more to go on.”

  “Won’t Shiny send help? We sent a message, right?” asked Caden.

  “I think he will. I’m not sure he will,” Telisa said.

  “I don’t think he’ll send his battleships,” Adair said to Marcant privately. “He’ll keep them to defend his own sphere of influence.”

  “Then maybe he’ll send his lapdogs in the Space Force to do it,” Achaius said.

  “He’ll send the Space Force,” Marcant said to the team. “He did, after all, tell them about the Destroyers and equip their ships with weaponry that can hurt them.”

  “I wish the Midway had made it through the battle,” Cilreth said.

  Telisa looked at Siobhan.

  “So you want to design a combat machine to help the Celarans fight back?”

  “The Celaran flying machines helped us kill the largest Destroyers. I want to help them design and produce a better model.”

  “View the wonders of the vines, the disk flyers are extremely efficient and can perform many tasks with great flexibility,” Lee said.

  “Well, I admire Celaran engineering, Lee, but we need a version optimized for combat,” Siobhan said.

  Telisa nodded.

&nb
sp; “We’ll only have time to build so many robots. I want to train the Celarans to fight,” Caden said.

  “It’s clear they’re not interested in that,” Marcant said.

  “Well, then, let me show everyone it can be done. Let me ask Lee to join us in our VR training.”

  “They have VR systems, which no doubt won’t interface with ours yet,” Siobhan pointed out.

  “An obstacle that can be overcome,” Caden said.

  Telisa looked worried. “Think about if you’d like to try, Lee,” Telisa said. “Please understand it’s not a requirement.”

  “It’s a suboptimal idea,” Achaius said to Marcant privately. “The Celarans’ time is better spent re-establishing their war economy here.”

  “We’re fighting for their survival, right?” Marcant prompted gently.

  “You can do it, Lee,” Cilreth said. “I’ve been tromping around on strange planets, serving as a morsel for all sorts of alien monstrosities. I’m sure you can do it too, and better,” Cilreth said.

  Telisa smiled. “I’m sure Lee could do it. But we have to keep in mind she’s our liaison to an entire alien race. Unlike Shiny, she’s a real ambassador.”

  “Perhaps a weapon they could utilize while flying away from the enemy,” Caden said. “Celarans do have a hand on each end, after all. They could lead the drones into traps or shoot at drones pursuing them.”

  “Yes, but even though Celarans are quick, they can’t outfly an energy beam. Without armor, any Destroyer in line of sight would make a kill almost instantly,” Magnus said.

  “We already made the critical observation,” Telisa said. “Robots are the best soldiers. I like Siobhan’s idea of turning them into handlers. It will push our technological integration with them further, and besides... what if we wanted a Celaran on the PIT team?”

  Everyone digested that for a half second. Siobhan smiled.

  “You did say you’re ready to change jobs, Lee,” Siobhan said.

  “The hope of a bright day, I’ll try to learn handling,” Lee said. “But I don’t understand how this ‘combat’ task is complex enough to need my oversight.”

  Marcant listened intently. Behind a calm facade, he thought furiously.