[Confluence 01.0] Fluency

by Jennifer Foehner Wells

  Her eyebrows drew together. “A new batch of squillae was just manufactured. I was about to walk down there and dump them into the electrical system before heading to the bridge. Walk with me?”

  He smiled genuinely this time. It was cool to watch the shimmering, swarming masses of nanites spread out and disappear before their eyes, off to do their invisible work. But a knot had formed in his belly. This was not going how he’d imagined. “Sure. Of course.”

  He gave her an appreciative sidelong appraisal. She’d scrounged up some exotic-looking alien uniform made of thick, cream-colored fabric. The asymmetrical tunic-length jacket had a high, stiff collar that wound around her throat and seemed to force her chin up and out into an almost defensive position. One of the overlapping fronts of the jacket was heavily embroidered with a non-contrasting thread. It was cut into three uneven sections that each split off to wrap around her torso in a different way.

  One section went over her chest and up around her neck. Another wound under her breasts. The third swathed her hips. The embroidery continued down long, narrow ties that wrapped around her body, culminating in ornate knots on the opposite-front side. Rather than being loose like a robe, it hugged her body, accentuating her feminine curves. It was an impressive and commanding outfit—if he didn’t think too much about its resemblance to a straitjacket.

  They walked in silence for a bit, the soft whirring and clacking of his leg the only sound audible in the empty corridor. As usual, she was tight-lipped. He longed to reach for her hand, but was afraid to. Suddenly he blurted out, “Did I do something that pissed you off?”

  Shit. That’s not what I meant to ask.

  She stopped walking, a quizzical expression on her face.

  Bergen could almost feel the Squid’s tentacles insinuating themselves inside his brain. He concentrated on keeping them locked out, but it might have been too late.

  Her face had gone pale. Was she feeling guilty? “Alan? I haven’t meant to hurt you—”

  His teeth clenched. He made his lips form words. They sounded angry to his ears and he didn’t know why. “You haven’t hurt me! Goddamn it!”

  “It’s not that I don’t want… there’s a lot on my plate. This transition has been difficult. I thought you understood that. I’m trying to adjust. I’m trying to make important decisions. This isn’t just about us.”

  He stared at her, trying to process her words, her tone, but he was seething with feelings.

  “You’re shutting me out.” He flinched. Why had that just sounded like an accusation?

  She shook her head. Her tone turned plaintive. “No. Never. You shut me out and you know it.”

  He took a step back from her, his heart hammering painfully against his ribcage. “I shut the Squid out. Isn’t there a difference, Jane?”

  She looked hurt and he regretted the words instantly.

  Her expression hardened. “I don’t have the energy for this, right now. Your timing couldn’t be worse—”

  Was it his imagination? Had she just swallowed the words, “as usual?” Or had the squid jumped in and subtly fed the suggestion of them to him to start shit? Did it matter?

  His heart screamed, Grab her! Kiss her! Tell her—we can have it all!

  He nodded and worked his jaw. “Right. Never mind.”

  “Alan, please try to understand. Now… just might not be… our time.”

  He stared at her pained expression a moment longer, then turned and walked away, alone.

  28

  Jane glanced at the bridge’s viewscreen as it flickered to life. Displaying primarily a dark field without stars, only a slender crescent of light shimmered on one side. She’d put the ship in a holding pattern, hovering on the far side of the moon.

  It seemed sensible to keep considerable distance between the Speroancora and Earth for the time being. It was unlikely that anyone besides the U.S. government was aware of their current location. Others might have satellite or telescope data, but wouldn’t be able to render that data into anything meaningful for weeks or months. By then, she’d be long gone.

  She was acutely aware of Alan leaning against the wall at the back of the room, arms folded, exuding indifference and disdain. She felt a pang of regret. She hated putting him off again, but there were so many reasons why she felt she’d done the right thing.

  When he’d come to her door, looking twitchy and shy, she’d wanted nothing more than to melt into his arms. But now was not a good time to be distracted by a new relationship. She couldn’t possibly give him the attention he deserved. His interactions with Ei’Brai bordered on hostile. He was needed on Earth. It was all so complicated.

  Above all else… she wanted him to be able to choose freely, not get pulled into something he didn’t really want. That thought lingered uncomfortably until she forced herself to stay rooted in the here and now.

  The others were milling around, talking in low tones, their thoughts full of images of home and family, their excitement contagious. The entire Providence crew was present, except Walsh, who was still in the Sanalabreum recovering. He’d be out soon.

  Compton had been the first of them to emerge. Shortly after the ionic burst, the tank had drained spontaneously, leaving a naked, bewildered Thomas Compton blinking up at her from the bottom. She’d just slipped Varma into her own tank when she had felt the alert and had turned to peer down at him. He had looked a full ten years younger and had said he never felt better. The joy she’d felt in that moment had been incomparable. It had been a lightening and lifting moment.

  Now Compton was clapping Gibbs on the back as they bickered about what they should have as their first meal when they got back to Earth. It was refreshingly normal.

  Gibbs guffawed. “Come on Pops, let’s grab a steak! Or at least something good, like sushi. Why you wanna eat your old-man food, first thing?”

  Compton rolled his eyes and chuckled. “You’ve never had Mia’s pot roast and mashed potatoes or you wouldn’t talk like that.”

  “Korean barbecue? Work with me here!” Gibbs exclaimed.

  Jane stifled a smile and silenced them with a look. It was time. They came to attention and a view of Mission Control came up on the screen. A quick scan told her all of the leadership was present and accounted for.

  She had transmitted detailed mission reports from each crew member to Earth a few days before. This was to be a Q and A session to go over those reports and to flesh out what was going to happen next.

  Gordon Bonham, the NASA Administrator and a two-star general, stepped forward and nodded gravely, his eyes shrewdly flicking over a monitor off-screen. “Providence crew, it’s good to see you looking so well. I don’t see Commander Walsh among you.”

  Jane lifted her chin. “Commander Walsh is still under treatment for the illness discussed in my report, General Bonham. This—” She paused, closing her eyes briefly to instruct Ei’Brai to change the video feed. “—is an image of the chamber he occupies currently. He cannot respond to you, but you can see he is alive and well.”

  Bonham appeared to be unfazed, but many of the others surrounding him did not have the same level of self-control. There were a few gasps, some looks of dismay, and knit brows among most of the remainder.

  Bonham turned back to the camera with a skeptical look. “It’s my understanding that every one of you has been inside one of these devices within the last month. Dr. Varma, you described the experience very thoroughly in your report. Do you have anything you’d like to add?”

  Varma still stood at attention. “No, sir. My report stands as written.”

  Bonham pursed his lips and picked up a piece of paper. “Your FGF code, Dr. Varma?”

  It was a code, unique to each one of them, that they’d been ordered to memorize and not share with another soul. Bonham was trying to determine if it was really Varma he was talking to.

  Compton’s change in appearance must be evident, even to them.

  Varma rattled off the twenty-digit alphanumeric code
without hesitation. A few beads of sweat pricked at Jane’s hairline. It’d been a year since she’d last thought through her own code.

  Bonham’s eyes followed along on the sheet of paper as Varma recited the code. When she finished, he nodded briefly and set the paper aside. He folded his arms and tilted his head to one side. “Can you come any closer to the camera, Dr. Varma?”

  Varma strode forward several feet.

  Bonham nodded again, his eyes smoldering with intensity. “Dr. Varma, is Dr. Holloway sound in mind and body?”

  Jane stared straight ahead.

  Varma responded immediately. “Sir, Dr. Holloway has been nothing short of honorable and brave.”

  Bonham’s eyes narrowed. That wasn’t the answer he wanted. “She’s capable of flying that ship, without any training or experience—with just her thoughts? Do I have that right?”

  Jane cut in, “Not precisely, no.”

  Bonham folded his arms and nodded Varma’s dismissal. “Edify me, Dr. Holloway.”

  Jane did not allow her expression to change. “It’s all in the document I transmitted to you. The knowledge needed to do these things was freely given to me. And I’m not doing it alone. I have the assistance of the Kubodera, Ei’Brai. We spoke often of the Clarke quote in Houston, if you remember.”

  “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

  Jane simply nodded at Bonham and waited.

  Bonham exhaled loudly. “That was some fancy maneuver you pulled a few days ago. How much of that was you? How much the Kubodera?”

  “It was a joint effort. Dr. Bergen collaborated as well. This ship cannot be flown without the Kubodera. He is integral.”

  “Yes. You made much of that in your report.”

  “That’s because it’s true. I won’t allow you to injure him in any way.”

  Bonham’s expression was incredulous. “I assure you I have no intention of harming him, Dr. Holloway. We just want all of you home safe.”

  Jane thought of the Sectilius man being taken apart alive on a steel table. Her throat was tight with the memory. She was unable to respond to Bonham’s words. They rang false.

  The conversation hit a lull. Bonham and Jane watched each other warily.

  Bonham motioned to someone off screen who rolled a monitor into view.

  “To that end, we’ve set up a landing site for you at Area 51. We want to assist you however we can. We’d like to set up a beacon of some kind for you. Do you have any idea what might be most useful to you? Radio transmission? Infrared?”

  An aerial photograph of Area 51 came up on the monitor with an X marked out on the ground next to a large hanger.

  Jane could feel agitation in Ei’Brai’s mental touch. “That won’t be necessary. I have no plans to land the ship.”

  “It seems to me, based on what we’ve seen you do so far, that landing the ship should be a rather simple affair.”

  “Not simple, but possible. Nevertheless, I won’t be doing that.”

  Bonham took a step closer to his video camera. His face filled the screen. She could see every pore on his craggy, lined face. “Need I remind you, Dr. Holloway, that your mission was to bring that vehicle home if it was at all possible?”

  “I don’t need reminding, General Bonham. My mission was to make contact, be an ambassador, be a voice of welcome from our world. I was to use my skills of translation to assist in bringing this vessel back to Earth—only if there was no one aboard.”

  “Your reports say the ship is all but empty. There’s no one aboard.”

  “There were no humans aboard. I don’t believe we expected there to be humans aboard, though, did we, sir?”

  “We couldn’t have anticipated this turn of events. I would have expected to see Commander Walsh standing before me right now, telling me when and where he would bring that bird home.”

  Jane slowly blinked. “Walsh commands the Providence. I command the Speroancora. Therein lies the difference.”

  That comment seemed to stun Bonham. He turned and conferred quietly with Deputy Administrator Marshall and a few of their aids.

  Jane’s jaw was set tight. She forced it into motion. “General Bonham, have you prepared the teleconference with the multiple national heads of state that I requested?”

  Bonham whirled, looking angry for the first time. “I’m not feeling particularly moved by a spirit of cooperation at present, Dr. Holloway.” He turned back, distractedly, to Marshall.

  “That communication is vital. I’ve explained all of this in my reports. This is not an American issue, it’s a planetary issue. You do understand the gravity of our situation?”

  “I understand that you think it is, Dr. Holloway—but I don’t think you understand. It doesn’t matter what I think. I don’t have the authority to make something like that happen. Your reports—and these proceedings—are being recorded and transmitted to the White House. It’s up to the President and his staff how that information will be disseminated.”

  Bonham’s tone was verging on patronizing.

  “I see,” Jane said coolly.

  The Providence crew was feeling uncomfortable about the mood shift. They hadn’t expected things to get so antagonistic. They were frowning and stealing furtive looks at each other.

  Jane flicked hooded eyes at Alan. He glowered at the screen, shrugging like he was uncomfortable, his hand at the back of his neck.

  Bonham and the President would be getting a rude awakening in a day or two if they didn’t follow through with her request, but she wasn’t about to make demands or issue ultimatums. She didn’t need their help to make that communication happen.

  It would be far better if the government would set it up with heads of state, but Ei’Brai was perfectly capable of hacking into the communication satellites that encircled the globe and broadcasting a message she’d already prepared in dozens of languages.

  Jane’s voice rang out, strong and sure, “I’ve just told you what I will not do. Would you like to hear what I am willing to do?”

  Now she had Bonham’s attention. He swung back to the camera, his features pinched. “Let’s hear it.”

  “As you know, the Providence was affected by a massive EMP, but Dr. Gibbs assures me that most of the information gathered in flight should still be salvageable. The capsule is no longer capable of return to Earth under its own power, however.”

  Bonham’s nostrils flared and he inhaled sharply. He appeared to be about to unleash some military wrath.

  Jane held up a hand. “I know what you want. I’m sorry. I can’t give it to you. But I can give you something of great value.”

  She paused. Tension on the bridge was running high. She was about to make it worse. “I’ll put the Providence crew in a Speroancora shuttle and program the autopilot to land anywhere you designate. You’ll have an intact specimen, exactly like the one from 1947. You’ll finally be able to unlock all of its secrets, General Bonham—including a database I will download to its computer core that will contain information vital to the survival of the human race. And you’ll have the capsule too, which is certainly valuable. I’ll deposit it in the Pacific for you, off the coast of California. You’ll have all of this as soon as Commander Walsh is well enough for travel.”

  She felt the shock of her companions. Fleeting impressions of their feelings percolated through her mind. Varma was torn. She was considering asking to stay aboard. Compton and Gibbs were both relieved, ready to go home. She knew Walsh would feel the same.

  Alan was pissed. He outright rejected the concept of getting on that shuttle and leaving her behind. That set off a small flutter of hope in her heart.

  Bonham sat back against a desk and frowned. “What on Earth are you planning to do, Dr. Holloway?”

  Jane’s lips twitched involuntarily. “I’m going on an adventure.”

  Mission Control went completely silent. Everyone on the bridge froze.

  Bonham looked shocked. He asked, “By yourself?”
/>
  Jane lifted her chin a fraction more. “Yes.”

  The Providence crew converged on Jane with an outcry of objections. Mission Control erupted into chaos as well.

  Alan rounded on her, pushing Compton out of the way. He grabbed her arm so hard it hurt. “Jane? What the fuck? No way are you going out there, alone. Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

  Jane raised her voice above the din, speaking to those back on Earth as well as those around her. “I’m going to take Ei’Brai home, to Sectilius.”

  Despite the noise, Bonham zeroed in on Jane. “Is this a one-way trip?”

  She blinked rapidly and smiled slowly. “I don’t believe it will be, no. Who knows where it’ll take me?”

  Jane Holloway's adventures are just beginning! Continue the adventure with Remanence (Confluence Book 2). Valence (Confluence Book 3) will be released JUNE 2017.

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  REMANENCE

  1

  When the first blow hit the ship, Kai’Negli was thrown across his enclosure with a violence he’d never known in his long life. He thudded into the wall of his tank so hard he lost consciousness for a moment. When he came to, he reeled with pain and consternation. He had incurred soft-tissue damage, for sure. He’d regenerate, but it was a blow to his ego to be treated with such blatant contempt.

  His limbs curled in impotent rage and he went immediately to assess the damage to the ship. Some of his equipment was failing from the impact, but he was able to determine that there was a breach on the starboard side—a gaping hole in the protective envelope of the ship. If there had been sectilians still alive onboard, thousands would have met dusk from explosive decompression.

  He was incredulous. This was a science vessel. It was unthinkable to damage a functional ship so wantonly.

  He itched to retaliate, but of course he had no recourse and they knew it. Without a commanding officer he was powerless to do anything but endure this insult. They’d made their point. Perhaps they thought he’d change his mind under threat.