The Arwen Book one: Defender

by Timothy Callahan

  Mason laughed. “I’m sorry. Do you want me to tell him to stop?”

  “No. Believe it or not, I think of it as a sign of affection from him.”

  “How is his project coming along?”

  “He’s laying the ground work for future generations to finish. Losing the moon will cause Ulliam’s axis to wobble. It’ll take hundreds of years before those effects are felt.”

  “He must be ecstatic that his name will be remembered hundreds of years from now.”

  “It was his dream,” Marjorie replied. “Are you ready to go?”

  He held his arm out. Marjorie wrapped hers around his and the two walked out of her room toward the shuttle bay.

  ~*~

  Marjorie, Mason, and Payton stood on a stage talking quietly to each other. The dining hall slowly filled with human, Gyssyc, and Ulliam, creating a wave of constant noise. The Gyssyc leader, Lincoln, would give the keynote speech. No one knew what he was going to say, but everyone was anticipating what it might be. Marjorie knew it was, in part, going to announce a treaty between Ulliam, the Gyssyc, and the Corps, but that would surprise no one.

  Lincoln, his tall lanky body easy to spot from across the room, entered the room. He was flanked by two other Gyssyc’s. Behind him was another twenty or more whom he led into the hall. The room quieted down as he and his entourage walked in. He looked around, waved, and motioned for his group to leave him alone. Marjorie had the feeling they were his honor guard and he wanted to show some sign of force. There was still some mistrust between the groups but the more they worked together the more that would fade.

  He stepped up to the stage and shrugged. “It is good to see you all again.”

  “It’s good to see you too,” Marjorie replied. “You excited about this?”

  “Oh yes, very. It is not every day that I get to talk to two entire worlds. The word you would use in Common, I believe, is nervous.”

  “I know I would be,” Mason said. He looked out over the crowd and then waved happily. “I see my wife. Marjorie, I’ll have to introduce you two later. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” He nearly jumped off the stage in excitement.

  “Bonding is nice,” Lincoln said. “I think it’s the one thing all intelligent species have in common.”

  “I can’t argue that,” Payton said, looking over at Marjorie who felt her face flush. Working with Payton the past six months reminded her why she had fallen in love with him. Knowing he would be leaving after this reminded her why she had to give him up.

  Lincoln seemed oblivious to the exchange and continued talking. “We have much in common once we look beneath the surface. Now, if you will excuse me I have others I’d like to talk too.”

  Marjorie and Payton said their good-byes to Lincoln. Once he left, they were alone. Payton looked down at her, his eyes never left hers. “Payton, I know what you’re going to ask and I can’t do it.”

  “But if you did . . .”

  “If I did, we could give us another try, I know.” She sighed, not wanting to get into this discussion again, knowing she had no other choice but to. “Payton, you know I love you and I know you love me, but it won’t work even if I did take the promotion.”

  “You can’t tell me these past six months have meant nothing to you, I know they have.”

  She gently touched his arm. “They have, really they have. But I won’t give up my commission. The Arwen has a lot more work ahead of her and I want to be a part of that. We’re going to be here on Ulliam for another year, then we’ll get another assignment and we’ll be off again. You’re leaving for Earth next week and won’t be back for another six months. We can’t live like that and we both know it. Even if I did become an admiral, we’d still only see each other every few months. It’ll be better but still not good enough.”

  The melancholy in his voice nearly broke her heart. “I know,” he said. “I just hoped . . .”

  The lights blinked a few times signaling everyone to quiet down and take a seat. Marjorie let the last word Payton said hang unfinished as she took her seat on the stage. Payton sat next to her.

  The podium lit up. There was a round of applause as Lincoln, followed closely by President Packard and Science Advisor Lysis, walked onto the stage. Lysis and Lincoln sat in the same row of seats as Marjorie.

  President Packard waddled up to the platform and waited for the cheering to stop. Once they did, he shrugged. “It is with great honor I stand here in front of you to announce the formation of the first Gyssyc/Ulliam peace treaty.”

  The room cheered loudly once again and the president had to wait for it to die down. He continued. “This will ensure that we will always be at peace with our Gyssyc cousins and we, along with our human friends, will explore the universe together. Already they have shown us how to use strangelets and wormholes in ways we could never imagine. For that, we are all grateful.” He paused. “I do not want to take up any more time. You did not come here to hear me gush.” The crowd laughed politely. “So, without further talking from me, I introduce the leader of the Gyssyc, Lincoln.”

  Everyone jumped to his or her feet as the Gyssyc leader walked up to the podium. He and Packard exchanged shrugs. Lincoln waited for the crowd to quiet down before speaking. “I see a great future ahead of us,” he started, “and I do not see how we cannot all learn new things from one another.”

  Marjorie listened to the speech as best she could. It was interrupted by cheers and applause so often she found herself standing and cheering more out of reflex than respect. Once as she stood, she looked over at Payton, his hands clapping loudly. Their eyes met for a moment and he grinned before looking back at the speaker.

  Marjorie looked forward to spending some more time with him and would not waste any moment they had together. She loved him. He was the person she would have wanted to spend the rest of her life with, and if not for the Arwen, she would have.

  As much as she loved Payton, she loved her ship more. She had a purpose when she was onboard. How many people did she know who could say they found what they were meant to do? Even now she felt the pull of her ship in her heart. Even though she had been its captain for many years and had been on countless missions, she felt her adventures were just beginning and the sooner she got back in her captain’s chair, the sooner she could explore her future.

  ~*~*

  Deep in wormhole space, a fleet of large, egg-shaped ships hibernated. Fifteen craft in all, each much larger than the Gyssyc scout ship, each awaiting the right moment to return home.

  The power levels on each were set to a minimum and would last hundreds of thousands of years if necessary. The only other power source that would be detected came from the flagship. The only movement was from a small communication dish that slowly rotated, listening for a signal.

  For the first time in two thousand years, it stopped. A message was received and downloaded into the main computer.

  The computer listened to the message: We have made contact with the Ulliam. They have accepted us as their friends. There has been an unforeseen complication. They have made contact with another race and are more advanced than we predicted. Returning is unadvisable.

  The computer powered down and the communication dish resumed its endless spinning.

  Book Three

  Chapter Thirty

  “Ulliam is doomed,” Professor Ricter’s voice boomed inside the chamber. He darkened the lights and brought up a hologram of the Ulliam system. The three-dimensional planets orbited quickly around the sun. A dark blue line traced their path. Ulliam’s eccentric orbit brought it close to the sun during the summer months and far away during the winter. “As you can see, the Ulliam orbit was never what you would call normal. The summers are exceedingly hot while the winters are numbingly cold. It’s also believed the orbit is the reason Ulliam has no oceans. Gravity from the sun caused continental plates to shift radically, pushing molten lava from the core to the surface, producing the land masses and volcanic activity we see today.”


  “We all know this,” President Packard said. “This cannot be the reason you think my planet will be destroyed.” He, along with President Nollan, stood in the middle of the hologram room. They each looked up at the planets. The only light in the room generated from the artificial sun and its simulated reflection off the planets.

  Professor Ricter controlled the urge to snap at the president. He didn’t like to be interrupted. Before the meeting, he told them to save their questions for later. A request they both ignored. “No, it’s not the reason I think your planet will be destroyed. I wanted to bring it up because what’s really happening will explain why we’ve seen more volcanism. Why the summers have been hotter than average and the winters colder, and why I believe Ulliam will eventually plunge into the sun.”

  Activating a command with the handheld remote, he highlighted Ulliam and the blue orbital line. “What I discovered a few years ago was rather shocking. It was well known that the Ulliam moon seemed large compared to the planet it orbited.” He zoomed in on Ulliam, a moon faded into existence next to it. He set the piece in motion. The moon spun around the planet in an elongated orbit. “The moon was large enough and in the proper orbit to pull Ulliam away from the sun. If the moon had a more circular orbit, Ulliam would have plunged into the sun a long time ago. But, because of its uniqueness, it kept Ulliam stable. Now the moon is no longer there.”

  Professor Ricter pulled the first hologram back up and ran the simulation. Years passed in seconds. As Ulliam made its yearly trek around the sun, the deterioration of the orbit became pronounced. After seven hundred orbits, the planet turned red hot close to the sun, then white and frozen as it pulled farther away. Large globs of melted rock flaked off the surface and followed the dead planet. Eventually Ulliam fell into the sun and disappeared as it if never existed. “That is just one scenario. Ulliam could just as easily be flung into space.”

  President Nollan said, “I take it you have an idea on how to fix this?”

  “If I didn’t I wouldn’t have called this meeting. We need something to stabilize Ulliam’s orbit. A new moon would be out of the question.”

  “Why is that?” President Packard asked.

  “Because it would be just as dangerous to place a large object close to the planet as it was when we lost that object.” Professor Ricter remembered two years of chaos as the planet adjusted to no longer having a companion. Quakes in areas that had never seen a quake. Weather patterns changed drastically. Storms of unbelievable strength pounded Ulliam City for weeks. But, the biggest impact was psychological. The Ulliam used their moon to plan events, to know when to plant seeds, to know what day of the week it was. They could use their calendars to know this, but to an average Ulliam it seemed they were synched to the moon cycle. Some were more sensitive to it than others. Not having that friend in the sky caused many depressed Ulliam to commit suicide. In some cases they went insane causing a spike in the number of massacres. “I’m afraid, Mister President, that your moon is gone for good. What I propose will be one of the biggest engineering projects ever. I believe we can use a wormhole to relocate a planet. If it meets our criteria, we could place it here,” a blue dot appeared in the orbit between Ulliam and the system’s third planet. “If we do it just right, the new planet will tug on Ulliam just enough to keep the orbit stable.”

  “Have you found such a planet?” President Nollan asked.

  “No. That’s another reason I brought you here today. We need to send ships to search. We need to survey all the unknown systems. I need as much information as I can so I can choose the correct planet for my calculations to work.”

  “Professor, I’m sure you know we’re still recovering from the Ulliam war.”

  “Yes, I know,” Professor Ricter replied. The fleet was still thin after losing so many ships. He knew they had spent almost all their resources rebuilding. “This can’t wait. I’m still going over some data from well-charted systems so I might find a planet, but if I can’t, I’ll need as much information as possible from other systems.”

  He looked at President Packard. His expression was hard to read. The professor always had a hard time reading the emotions from the smooched Ulliam face. “I believe President Nollan and I need to discuss this in private. Would you mind giving us some time?”

  “I really think it would be helpful if I were here with you.”

  “No, it won’t,” Nollan replied. “You’ve given us a compelling theory that we need to discuss.”

  “This isn’t a theory, it’s a fact.”

  “We’ll be the judge of that,” President Nollan said. “Good day, Professor.”

  “There should be no debate.”

  “Good day, Professor!” Nollan said sharply and then turned to President Packard, ignoring the fuming Professor Ricter.

  ~*~

  Captain Marjorie Cook wore a casual uniform and carried a hat under her arm. She was the first person Professor Ricter talked to when he made his discovery and asked if she could find a way to get him to Earth for this meeting. She didn’t ask to see any evidence. She took his word for it. Of all the people Professor Ricter met over the years, Marjorie Cook seemed to be the only one who needed nothing more than his word. He was thankful for that. “How did it go?” she asked.

  “They’re all fools,” Professor Ricter replied. “They need to talk about it. The more we talk about it, the closer Ulliam gets to falling into the sun. I wish I could make them see that.”

  “I’m sure you did all you could.”

  “I don’t think I did enough.” He pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped some sweat from his forehead. “While they’re discussing the fate of an entire world, would you like to have some dinner?”

  “No, thank you,” she replied with a half smile. He had seen that smile before. Professor Ricter knew her ex-husband, Admiral Payton Cook, was stationed on or near Earth, so it wasn’t hard to deduce she was probably going to see him instead.

  “You have a good time with the admiral tonight,” he said. The look on Marjorie’s face never failed to amuse him. It was the look of surprise, as if he had gotten the answer to a nearly impossible question correct.

  “How did you know?” she asked.

  “If I were to tell you my secrets, they would fail to impress you.” She laughed and gave him a playful push. She was the only one who was allowed to touch him casually. “How are you two doing?”

  “We’re giving it another tentative try,” she replied. “I don’t know if it’ll work. We haven’t seen each other in six months and if I hadn’t decided to bring you to Earth, I don’t know when we would have seen each other. I think we’re just going to take it one visit at a time.”

  ~*~

  The super battle cruiser Valentine was the first Heinlein class ship in the fleet. Its size and firepower took Marjorie’s breath away as her shuttle passed underneath. The glossy surface reflected back the image of her shuttle. She saw herself gazing up at the ship, jaw open, eyes wide with childlike wonder. She easily spotted row upon row of missile and laser ports. Looking ahead she tried to find the bow. The ship was so large the bow seemed to curl up and out of her site almost as if she were looking at an upside down horizon on some small planet or moon.

  She turned to a beaming with pride Payton Cook. “Is this your idea of a date?”

  “I like to impress my woman,” he laughed and stepped behind her. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he placed his head on the top of hers. It reminded her of the quiet times they would spend together watching the stars from one of the many bases they had been stationed on. It was comfortable, as if having his arms wrapped around her was the way things should have been. “It’s going to be the flagship of the fleet.”

  “Why do we need a flagship this big?”

  “Because I am now fleet admiral and in charge of the Earth defense fleet.” She felt his smile on top of her head.

  Marjorie spun around quickly. “When did this happen?”

  “I foun
d out right before you arrived. I was going to tell you right away, but I thought this way was much more fun.”

  She laughed and then hugged him tightly. “I’m so happy for you. I know it’s what you wanted.”

  “There are lots of benefits,” he replied as the hug ended. “The biggest being an opening for a promotion. You could easily fill the place I’m leaving behind—”

  Marjorie placed her finger on his lips. “Don’t ask me that, not now.”

  “We could be together. I could assign you a position on Earth. You could stay here while I rebuild the fleet. You’ve done so much on the Arwen. I don’t know what else you have to prove.”

  “I leave the Arwen when the Arwen is decommissioned,” Marjorie replied. “I retire when she does.”

  “I can arrange that,” the words came out of his mouth as if he had rehearsed it. As if he knew what her argument would be and he planned his response accordingly.

  “Don’t you dare.”

  “I could.”

  She didn’t have time to reply as Payton’s communicator beeped urgently. “Admiral Cook.” As he listened, Marjorie saw his look harden. He was no longer Payton Cook, the man she loved; he turned into Vice Admiral Cook, protector of Earth. It suited him. It seemed to be what he was born to do. “Thank you, sir. Captain Cook is with me. I’ll let her know.” He turned the communicator off.

  “Let me know what?” Marjorie asked.

  “That was President Nollan. He told me he just received word from the Regals that they’re breaking our treaty and they want all Earth personnel off the planet as soon as possible.”

  “After all we’ve done for them?”

  “It’s been a while coming,” he said. “We know they’ve been in touch with the Hellamites and we suspect the Hellamites and the Ecollites may have formed an alliance. It makes perfect sense for them to go to Regal.”

  “Do you think it’ll be another war?”

  “The president thinks we can avoid that if we send the Arwen to Regal to see what’s going on.”