Aliens Abroad

by Gini Koch

“We all agree, Kitty,” Jeff said. “To the point that I’ve had to put my blocks up. Mother, do we have any way of knowing where we were during the transmission?”

  “Somewhat. Once we know where we will stop, I can compare that location to the Eagle Nebula and format a reasonable determination based on when we gained and then lost the transmission.”

  “From what our science knows,” Chuckie said, “if the supernova remnant still has power to damage and shove a spaceship this far off course, then the star couldn’t have gone nova all that long ago. Less than a thousand years for certain. That should help with the search.”

  “Sure,” Tim said. “Because there are only, what, a billion stars in our galaxy?”

  “More,” Wruck said. “But the time from the point when the star exploded that caused the Eknara to go off course is less than a thousand years. Much less. If my suspicions are proved correct, the star died about three hundred years ago.”

  “Oh, I have a bad feeling about this.” I did. Because I was pretty sure I knew where Wruck was going.

  He nodded. “You should. I believe that the Eknara was hit by a neutron wave from the star that Mephistopheles destroyed.”

  CHAPTER 49

  LET THAT SIT ON the air for a good long bit. “You know, I want to say that you’re kidding or make some other shocked exclamations, but I’m not surprised at all because, in the grand scheme of things, that totally and completely figures.”

  “Does that mean that we’re close to Earth?” Reader asked.

  Wruck shook his head. “The neutron waves will have traveled far by now. But we should be able to get a decent determination based on the location of the star and the expectation of how powerful the wave is based on time and how it affected the Eknara.”

  “Combined with what I should be able to determine once we stop,” Mother added, “we should be able to pinpoint a general area of the galaxy. We may have to visit several systems, however, in order to find the correct one.”

  “We just have to swing by, verify if their star is stable, and move on,” Jeff said. “No landings needed.”

  “Speaking of needs, though, I’m starving. I have no idea what time it is, or if we’re even counting time anymore, but my stomach says that it wants food and it wants it now.”

  The others agreed that breakfast—which was the last meal any of us had had—was a long way away.

  “Go eat,” Mother said. “I have no need of anyone right now, since none of us can affect anything other than communications at the moment. I will alert you if we receive any other transmissions or if I feel that I am regaining control of the ship.”

  “Or if we’re going back to the pressure of warp jumping,” Tim added.

  “Yes. I will alert you for the slightest issues.”

  “They aren’t slight to me,” Tim grumbled, as we went to find the others.

  “As it should be, Commander,” Mother said as her parting shot.

  Happily, Mother’s food creation functions had not been harmed. So, we did what we tended to do when at an A-C Base—we got everyone together in the nearest mess hall that was large enough and ate family style.

  Everyone was basically starving—consultation brought us all to the conclusion that we’d probably been gone from Earth about a full half day now, maybe longer. All our time was jumbled and Mother’s damage had affected her inner clocks. She felt we were correct, but couldn’t swear to it.

  “How is it that the kids weren’t screaming for food?” I asked Jeff as we all scarfed down whatever was nearest to us on the table.

  “I totes think there’s an appetite suppressant in the sleep gas,” Lizzie replied before Jeff could. “Because no one was hungry until you said we were going to get to eat.”

  The Dwyer family was on the other side of the table from us, and I could tell Brian had been paying attention. “Not to my knowledge,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean Lizzie’s wrong. It would make some sense.”

  Drax was called over, but he insisted that an appetite suppressant hadn’t been in his formula, though he, like Brian, thought it was a good idea.

  “Gustav, who did you test the sleep gas on?”

  He seemed shocked by my question. “Myself, of course! I do nothing that I haven’t tested personally or I can’t stand behind the product.”

  “That’s it,” Brian said. “Vata are different from humans and A-Cs. I’ll bet if we test it, we’ll discover that there’s an element that doesn’t affect Gustav but does the rest of us.”

  “Why didn’t you test the gas on others?” Jeff asked Drax.

  “I did. No one had adverse reactions.”

  Snorted a laugh. “Because suppressing an appetite isn’t actually an adverse reaction. In fact, unless your subjects were paying attention, they wouldn’t have even noticed. Maybe they skipped lunch or something. But, when we get home, I sense a real moneymaking opportunity.”

  “No,” Chuckie said flatly. “You do not.”

  “Geez, dude, when did you become such a Donald Downer?”

  He grinned. “Since before we met.”

  The conversation shifted to other things, including the fact that Denise Lewis, ever the awesome teacher, had been spending the downtime teaching every kid about the galaxy at large, assisted by whichever space travelers were available at the time. Even the “young adults” were into it, which was nice.

  It was also nice to see what we had of Jeff’s family all hanging out with each other and everyone else. Realized that until we’d been forced into the White House and, therefore, the kids into the Sidwell Friends School, we really hadn’t spent much time at all with Jeff’s sisters and their families. Felt bad. As an only child, my friends were my siblings, in that sense, and I spent time with most of them weekly, if not daily.

  Thought about the few close friends of mine who somehow weren’t on the ship with us. Sheila and her family, for starters—no way anyone could have explained their presence, so I got why they weren’t here, even though it would have been great if they were. But why hadn’t Caroline Chase, my bestie from my sorority days and the late Michael Gower’s former fiancée, been included? Jamie loved her—everyone did, really—and Naomi had loved her, too.

  Then again, Caroline was the right paw to Senator Donald McMillan, who was Arizona’s senior senator, a very close friend of ours by now, and also a hugely pro-alien politician. And, therefore, one of the people who’d be helping Mom and Marcia keep things going and keep all of us safe. So, maybe Caroline had a vital role to play on Earth, so much so that Jamie had left her behind.

  Or, rather, Naomi had.

  Wondered about this. Knew in my gut that there was no way that Naomi was leaving Earth unprotected. Earth was her home—she, like the rest of the A-Cs in “my” generation, had been born on Earth. And her mother was fully human. Plus, her parents were still on the planet, so there was no way that Naomi was going to ignore Earth while she did whatever she was doing with us.

  So, anyone not taken was left behind for the same reason—they were there to protect in some way.

  Heaved an internal sigh. There was nothing I could do to help them. We had to focus on what we could do and let those who had the task of keeping our country, world, and solar system safe do what they could do. Wasn’t my preferred choice, but it was the right one, and fretting about what was going on there meant I could miss something here. So, no more worry about Earth—it would be there when we got home, because the people who’d been left behind were the right ones for the job.

  Felt something, like I was being hugged. But there was no one around me. Blinked back some tears, because I was pretty sure that hug had come from Naomi.

  Everyone was done eating by now, and White suggested that we all sleep, as in actual real, not-drug-assisted sleep. It was a sound idea, particularly since we knew that the next time we stopped we’d likely be in action
immediately. Jeff made this suggestion an order, and everyone headed for our various sleeping quarters.

  Camilla, naturally, went with her wife and the others in the room with Tito, increasing his harem, so to speak. The portions of Animal Planet that we possessed went with whichever people they deemed as theirs. Those with no affiliation went, as promised, with my family. Perhaps they all enjoyed hearing Jeff muttering about living in a literal zoo.

  Team Tough Guys were assigned their official room. Algar chose to stay with them. The other guys seemed fine with this. I found it fascinating. Wasn’t sure if Algar was testing Siler, giving Wruck and Mossy a chance to get in on the game—since my money was on our Anciannas and Mr. Top Gun Turleen being the next ones who realized that something wasn’t quite kosher all the time—enjoying his time getting to hang out as “one of the guys,” or if there was something more. Was pretty positive he didn’t suspect any of them of being evil, so there was that.

  Even though they were assigned to the room with the rest of Team Tough Guys, Butler and Maurer, by benefit of not actually needing sleep, went to the command deck. Mother allowed this.

  Stryker pulled me and Chuckie aside before we got into our rooms. Jeff grunted, but he went on inside with the kids while Nathalie went with the others into the couples’ suite.

  “You guys know we didn’t tamper, right?” Stryker asked quietly.

  “Dude, seriously, that’s like so five minutes ago.”

  “No, it’s not.” Stryker looked around, appeared to feel the coast was clear, then went on. “Okay, per Drax, he had us change things so that Mother can’t eavesdrop on any of us anymore. It was a complex program, but as long as she doesn’t hear words that would indicate mutiny, sabotage, or other traitorous activities, she now can’t listen unless one of us is asking her a question, and she can’t eavesdrop unless one of the command crew asks it of her.”

  “Sound,” Chuckie said. “What has you worried about this?”

  “About that? Nothing. About the fact that there was nothing any of us could do to reprogram her to accept a different command crew? A lot. The positions are set. The only backups allowed are the rest of Airborne, Commander Reader, Drax, and you, Chuck. No one else will have control of the ship even if they’re sitting in the chairs.”

  “That should be impossible,” Chuckie said slowly. “Especially considering that Drax was also trying to do the reprogramming.”

  “Brian isn’t okayed to be in the seat?”

  “No. It doesn’t make sense, Kitty. Right now, the person we want as the commander of the ship is Brian—he’s the only one with any real experience and he’s trained for this for years. But programming-wise, we couldn’t even insert him as an option.”

  “Did you try to insert others?” Chuckie asked.

  Stryker nodded. “We did. That’s how we got the rest of you in as alternates. We tried everyone on board, by the way, other than the kids. You all are it.”

  “Wow. That seems . . . really freaking weird.”

  “Yeah, Kitty, it’s Kitty Weird for sure. So be sure that you guys all stay safe. Because if you’re hurt or worse, this ship isn’t going anywhere.”

  “Other than where it’s being forced to go by outside elements, you mean.”

  Stryker nodded. “About that—can we try to reach Chernobog?”

  “We can, but Mother said there was no way for her to keep that kind of communication private and secured.”

  “Oh, we don’t need it secured. She gave us all a variety of codes we can use to relay information. They all seem innocuous and you have to have the key.”

  “Who has the key?” Chuckie asked.

  “Chernobog.” Stryker grinned. “Olga figured it out, because you know those two are competitive, so Adriana knows it, too. But those are the only three. Adrianna hasn’t told Malcolm, by the way, and I know this because Olga made her swear not to. I think more as a test than out of any real desire to keep Malcolm from knowing the codes.”

  “Olga always has her reasons, and she’s almost never wrong. And they’re among our closest allies, so, yeah, sounds good. Chuckie?”

  “What is it you want to ask Chernobog?”

  “I want to tell her what’s going on and see if she can figure out how we override the locked programming. Not because I don’t think you guys can do the jobs,” Stryker added quickly. “But because, frankly, most of you are the ones leading every charge. It would have been bad enough if you and Jeff had died on the planet, Kitty. But it would have been worse because we’d all be living there now.”

  “You have a good point, Eddy. But do we have a risk of giving away our position to enemies?”

  “Frankly,” Chuckie answered, “yes. But we’re literally flying blind. If you want Jeff to okay it, then ask him. Otherwise, I think it’s worth trying.”

  “Run it by Serene, not Jeff. This is her bailiwick, and yours, Secret Agent Man, not his.”

  “Will do. Anything else?” he asked Stryker.

  “Yeah. We heard you got a distress call?”

  “We did.” Filled him in on what had transpired. “Who told you about it?”

  “Mother did.”

  Chuckie and I looked at each other. “Interestinger and more interestinger. Did she say why she told you?”

  “Yes. She wants us to help determine where the distress call came from. She seems really stressed about us helping. Like, I didn’t know an AI could get that stressed kind of stressed. Butler and Maurer don’t freak out.”

  “Anymore. They did before we were able to save them from the self-destructs. But, yeah, I do agree that Mother seems more human than AI.”

  “I’ll talk to Camilla about it,” Chuckie said. “And then, she, Serene, and I will talk to Drax about it. So far, Mother doesn’t appear to be our enemy.”

  “No,” Stryker agreed. “But the other programming of hers that we couldn’t override in any way is her need to protect and save sentient life.”

  “Well, that’s not a bad thing.”

  “It can be, because it’s her prime directive.”

  “Again, why is this bad?”

  Chuckie looked thoughtful. “Anything taken to an extreme . . .”

  “Exactly,” Stryker said. “Guys, seriously, if we can’t find whoever called and asked for help, I think Mother may be so distressed by it that she slags. And if she does, then we are up the creek without any hope of a paddle, because she’s tied into every system, meaning we’ll be without life support, power, the ability to go anywhere, or even call for help.”

  CHAPTER 50

  PROPHECIES OF DOOM HANDED OUT, Chuckie went to get Serene and Camilla, and I went in to my family in the now-unlikely hope of getting some sleep.

  However, I had kids to both entertain and distract me, so that was good. Even though it had been a really long day, the kids had enjoyed that excellent nap, so they weren’t as tired as one could have hoped.

  We decided to forego baths and such, since we had no idea how long we were going to get to rest. So, faces washed and teeth brushed, we all got into nightclothes—the standard A-C issue blue pajama bottoms and white t-shirts with fluffy white robes to snuggle into. “Wow, even in space the Elves deliver.”

  Jeff laughed. “I’d assume it’s Mother’s doing, baby.”

  Totally knew it wasn’t, but there was no time like the present to not mention it.

  Despite being ready for bed, though, the kids were wide awake and they were also restless. Not a really great combination for sleep or relaxation.

  Each of the rooms had a large window. Every window had a retractable metal cover, so asteroid showers would not, hopefully, end up as death sentences. Plus, there were patch kits. Jeff spent some time teaching the kids how to use said kits, which was both important and also, under the circumstances, entertaining. Then, in an attempt to keep things interesting, we a
ll looked out the window.

  “Just a lot of blur,” Lizzie said disappointedly. “We’re out here in space, and we can’t see any of it, not really.”

  “Well, maybe once we hit our next stop we’ll be able to see some things.” Things like star charts that would lead us back to Kreaving and his crew, for example. Heaved another internal sigh—the kids wanted a vacation and this wasn’t much of one so far. Not that we were here to have fun, but since we were here, the kids might as well enjoy it.

  Jeff pushed the button and the metal cover went back over the window. “You know what, why don’t your mother and I tell you guys about when we visited Alpha Four?”

  “When was that, Daddy?” Jamie asked, interest radiating.

  He grinned as he sat down on the couch in the living room area and pulled her up onto his lap. “Oh, this was before you were born, Jamie-Kat.” I sat on one side of him with Charlie in my lap, and Lizzie took Jeff’s other side.

  “How old would Lizzie have been?” Jamie asked.

  Jeff turned to our teenager who was looking a little wistful. “Hmmm, I think, about eight or nine.” Jeff put his arm around Lizzie’s shoulders. “So, a little girl, but bigger than you are now.” He hugged Lizzie. “Though I’m sure she was still amazing at that age, just like you and Charlie are.”

  Jamie beamed, Lizzie looked pleased, and Charlie climbed out of my lap and into Jeff’s. I felt the love.

  Jeff grinned at me as Jamie snuggled under Jeff’s arm so that she was on Lizzie, too, and Charlie did the same on Jeff’s other side while Jeff put his other arm around me. “Don’t want you feeling left out, baby.” Charlie did me a solid by imitating Jamie and allowing part of himself to be on my lap, too.

  “I’ll whine about how no one wants to snuggle with me later.”

  “Oh, Mommy, we’re with Daddy so the pets can be closer to you,” Jamie said. “They’re a little scared and they want to be with us, but they want to be near you the most. You’re the one they love best, even though they love all of us so much.”