by S. H. Jucha
In the early morning hours, Alex left the preparations to meet the Earthers in the capable hands of his admiral. He took a quick refresher, admiring for the thousandth time the blues, greens, and creams that flowed through the walls of his Swei Swee-built house. His home was still the only one of its kind on Haraken. It was unique, to say the least, and crews still talked about their efforts to retrofit the house with human comforts due to the walls’ hardness. Alex dried off and slid into bed, his presence causing Renée to cuddle close.
“Do you not think it more appropriate that, under the circumstances, an admiral should lead the expedition that meets the Earthers, and the president should remain here to ensure his planet’s safety and well-being?” Renée murmured in Alex’s ear.
“Diplomacy first, Renée,” Alex replied. “That is a job for the president, even if it’s disguised. Tatia will be with me to intrigue and scare the Earthers.”
“If you’re so inclined to lead this mission, Ser President, when do we leave?” Renée asked.
Alex pulled Renée closer to him. They had enjoyed nine years of peace and contentment together. To this day, Alex viewed his decision to tether his explorer-tug to the runaway Méridien starship as the turning point in his life. It brought him more wealth than he could imagine, none of it measured in credits. Briefly, he thought to convince Renée to stay behind but then realized he didn’t want to be separated from her either.
“We’ll leave when Tatia has finalized her preparations, probably in three to four days,” Alex replied. His answer must have satisfied Renée, because she murmured something unintelligible in his ear, snuggled closer, and was soon fast asleep.
* * *
Tatia knew Alex’s timeline depended on her. They would leave for Méridien only when the two carriers were ready. Haraken hadn’t spent the time and credits to build these protectors of its space just to have them sit in vacuum and look good. The carriers were duplicates of each other in overall design. Double rows of bays ran down both sides of the ship, and each bay held four fighters.
The first-built carrier, the Last Stand, was captained by Edouard Manet. It would be Commodore Sheila Reynard’s flagship, while Tatia accompanied Alex aboard the Rêveur. Tatia was holding a meeting onboard the carrier in the captain’s cabin, and she and Edouard were joined by the commodore, Wing Commander Ellie Thompson, and Edouard’s wife, Miko Tanaka, captain of the carrier No Retreat,.
“Welcome, Commodore and Captain,” Tatia said, gesturing them to seats and getting right to the point. “I want both carriers prepped and ready for battle. This is not a drill.”
Eyes blinked for a moment as her people processed Tatia’s orders, then their training kicked in and they waited for details — no panic and no unnecessary questions.
Tatia smiled inwardly. She intended to shock them to observe their reactions and was pleased by the way in which they were handling themselves. Precisely and concisely she summarized the facts, limited as they were.
“Which carrier goes and which one stays behind?” Sheila asked.
“Commodore, you and Captain Manet will follow the president’s liner to Méridien with the Last Stand. Captain Tanaka, you will prep the No Retreat and remain in system,” Tatia replied.
“Admiral, are we not overreacting to the presence of a single, explorer ship? They are humans after all,” Edouard said.
“Captain Manet,” Miko interjected, “let’s recall that it was humans who killed my brother and tried to kill our president. Now, a new group of humans with a heavily armed ship arrive in the Confederation. If they turned aggressive, how much damage could they inflict on Méridiens, who don’t possess armament more significant than stun guns?”
Edouard sincerely regretted his question. He could see the pain in Miko’s eyes as she recalled the loss of her brother, who died defending the president’s shuttle at New Terra. Her pain was mirrored in his eyes for his ill-considered comment, and Edouard offered Miko an apology with a nod and a touch of hand to heart. Edouard was focused on the president’s strategy for the Earthers, and, after nine years, the horrible events of New Terra were behind him, but not for his wife. And Miko was correct about one thing. The Confederation was still defenseless, thanks to the Council, even after the loss of so many of its people to the Nua’ll. A ship armed as extensively as the Reunion could wreak inestimable damage on Méridien.
“To add to this information, Captain Manet,” Tatia added, “the SADEs theorize that the Reunion is more scout than explorer. It might be an advance for a fleet-sized force from United Earth.”
Edouard wanted to argue with this supposition, but he recalled the number of times he had doubted then-Admiral Racine, much to his regret. So he kept his mouth closed.
“Commodore,” Tatia said, addressing Sheila Reynard, “both carriers are to be at full wing capacity. And we need to make arrangements to cover all assets.”
“I presume that means Haraken and New Terra,” Sheila replied. Tatia nodded her assent, and Sheila said, “Three systems and two carriers. Who would have thought we would have needed a third carrier to face a threat from humans? I presume priority will be given to protecting Haraken?” Sheila glanced at Miko, but she didn’t seem offended by her remark that her home world would be a secondary priority.
“I want the No Retreat protecting Haraken,” Tatia replied. “The information supplied by the SADEs is that this explorer ship followed the ancient route of the Méridien’s colony ship.”
“Then the Earthers wouldn’t know about New Terra,” Miko interjected. Her laugh was a ruthless one. Her people’s colony ship was targeting a different star, Cepheus, when disaster struck, and the colonists that could evacuate the stricken ship had to make do with a new home world that did everything possible in the first few decades to kill every last one of them.
“The Money Maker is returning from a freighter run in two days,” Sheila said. “We could have its fighter bay modules reinstalled and outfitted with pilots, crew, and the travelers we’re using as pilot training craft. In its guise as a freighter, its presence would not alert the UE officers if they saw it, and Captain Durak could have the fighter-carrier at New Terra in about twenty-four days, if you believe we have time.”
“I have no idea as to the extent of our timeline, Commodore,” Tatia replied, “but I like your idea. Make it happen.”
“If the No Retreat exits the system, leaving Haraken without a carrier, a trap could be created by arming the city-ships and spreading them out in the system,” said Ellie Thompson, the wing commander of the Last Stand, a position she embraced. In love with flight since a little girl, Ellie was mesmerized for hours by the flight of birds on her colony, and she dreamed every day of soaring with them. As an adult, Ellie turned her passion into a hobby, experimenting with aero-craft design.
Unfortunately, her craft were single-seat flyers without controllers and were built for low-altitude, aerobatic flight. Since her flyer would be considered unsafe and therefore unlawful, Ellie was forced to launch her first flight from a roadway in the middle of the night. Tears of joy streamed down her face at the freedom from gravity she enjoyed, which nearly caused a disastrous encounter with a cliff face. Laughing at her foolishness, she refocused on the remainder of her flight, testing her craft in various maneuvers and recording her notes in her implant. Her second and much-improved craft became the envy of friends, who were now her co-conspirators and building their own aero-craft. They flew at night, always in secret.
Emboldened by their success, the group planned a daytime competition. Ellie was the first on site that day and was taken into custody for her “dangerous behavior.” In the few moments left, Ellie warned her friends off, resulting in her being the only one of her group exiled to Libre. Freedom came to Ellie in two ways when the president arrived on Libre, granting the Librans new lives. Ellie received her freedom that day and regained her lifelong dream — she could fly forever.
“Arming the city-ships would be possible,” Sheila agreed.
“We have sufficient forces to arm the city-ships if we call up our reserve pilots, pull our system patrols back, and use our shuttles as fighters.”
The city-ships were meticulously maintained. The Harakens never forgot the lesson of the Nua’ll either. The enormous ships were still considered the people’s escape pods, if necessary. They couldn’t hold the entire half-million inhabitants of Espero, but they could rescue half the population to begin again somewhere else. On Alex’s orders, several bays on each city-ship contained pools, meticulously maintained and dedicated to the evacuation of the Swei Swee hives, if it came to that.
“Good ideas, people, make them happen,” Tatia ordered. “Leave a few travelers and the Daggers planetside as a last resort. What I want everyone to understand is that if this UE ship becomes provocative and if there is a trailing UE force, we will need all the power of these carriers and our pilots and crew. Am I clear?”
-6-
After Julien deposited Gregorio’s transmissions in the Central Exchange’s vault, the Haraken SADEs shared Winston’s information — the UE comm protocols, translation program, messages between Speaker García and Leader Ganesh, Esther’s analysis of the winged ship, and telemetry mapping the UE ship’s movements. Once the SADEs absorbed that information and were updated on the subsequent leadership meetings, they quickly came to the conclusion that the controllers installed as their replacements in the starships lacked the sophistication to execute Alex’s strategies.
Claude and his team of technicians built the first controller’s hardware while the SADEs continued the work designing the first test avatar, employing synth-skin for repair of traumatic injuries, which provided a structure while nanites induced cell replication within the matrix; structural materials for framework, power crystals, and expansion-contraction systems to imitate muscles; condensed crystal memory and fiber to imitate a brain and nerves; and sensors for embedding in the skin, eyes, nose, lips, tongue, and ears to interpret the environment’s sensations.
Once the first controller hardware box was installed onboard a liner, Julien and Z implanted the controller’s persona. When it came to the question of who would test the controller, Captain Asu Azasdau insisted it was his right — the liner was once his ship. The question of the crew size was settled by the ship’s SADE, Rosette. Asu assumed Rosette would prefer she and her box would be offloaded before the test and planned for a crew of about fourteen volunteers. But Rosette would not abandon her captain, and with her onboard presence, in case of the controller’s failure, Asu only required four crew members.
From the liner’s break of orbit to its flight out of system, the controller was tasked with all operations, and it performed admirably. Once the liner passed the system’s last planet, Rosette sent the message that the controller was calculating the FTL jump sequence.
All went quiet for twenty-one hours, and a small group at Alex’s home stayed up through the evening and the following morning, anxiously awaiting the next message. It arrived at 17.35 hours and a bleary-eyed bunch of humans celebrated. The liner’s one-light-year jump was successful. Rosette reported the controller’s arrival displacement error of 89,154 kilometers.
While the humans celebrated, the SADEs delved into the jump data. The controller’s displacement error, though not truly a safety concern, was unacceptable to entities who sought perfection in their calculations. During the course of several more jump tests, the SADEs managed to eliminate 98.6 percent of the error and declared the controllers sufficiently qualified to take their positions onboard the starships.
The Haraken constitution granted full citizenship to all intelligent species, provided they abided by Haraken law. Permanent human residents were required to receive implants after the age of consent and participate in implant training at a government-approved facility, of which the first was owned and operated by Terese Lechaux, the Harakens’ medical expert, and Tomas Monti, Assembly speaker. The constitution and the successful controller test cleared the SADEs’ path. A Haraken SADE could choose to continue as a starship controller or be a mobile citizen, if they desired, and every SADE chose freedom.
From the initiation of the mobility program, Z expected the full support of Julien and Cordelia and received it. He knew of their mutual desire to appear human and share each other’s company, but Mutter’s response to their query was a revelation.
Mutter said.
Mutter replied.
It occurred to Cordelia, Julien, and Z that their desire for mobility was personal, perhaps even selfish, while the oldest among them, Mutter, whom they considered the simpler of their kind, wanted her mobility to give comfort to others.
* * *
As the new starship controllers came online, the SADEs transferred to the vault, and when ready transferred again to their first avatars. Alex made it a priority to contact every SADE daily, engaging them in lengthy discussions to understand their desires, their intentions, and to judge their mental balance.
Julien, Cordelia, Z, and Mutter were quite open with Alex, and he endeavored to make their wishes come true. As citizens under Haraken law, all SADEs were granted land settlements. For Julien and Cordelia, their wish was to have a home together, and as Exchange directors, funds were accumulating for its construction.
Alex and Cordelia entered into a business arrangement to develop her first vid exhibition hall. Although his participation was unnecessary, it was a memory that Cordelia held close — the admiral’s promise to go into business with her as partners. That she could make it come true was as clean a separation from her past imprisonment as she could make. It was only a matter of time before Cordelia created a second vid hall and formed an agreement with a visiting entertainer to build one on New Terra. It was Alex who was surprised when he received a message informing him that a three-way contract for a vid hall on New Terra included his name. Cordelia was soon only second to Mutter as one of the early wealthy entities of Haraken.
Z wasn’t an emotional challenge at all. He spent every credit he made as Exchange director building new and exotic avatars, constantly exploring the boundaries of mobility. His avatars dived and roamed the seas, flew in aero-ships, traveled throughout the system, and tunneled in search of exotic mineral resources. Never once did he turn his hand to the more perfunctory requirements of the Exchange or attempt to turn his private endeavors into a business.
Mutter stayed in the vault longer than any SADE. Her earnings employed two New Terran craftspeople, a woman who was a virtuoso at creating musical instruments and her husband who could play them. They aided Mutter in the creation of the versatile inner workings of her avatar, fulfilling Mutter’s wish to serve as the Hive Singer. The husband-and-wife team created a partnersh
ip with a friend on New Terra to sell a variation of their musical inventions. They never became runaway sellers, but it made the couple enough credits to start a music school, which did become popular.
And Julien … well, Julien wasn’t a challenge either. His new hands were full keeping up with his friend. As fast as he and Alex conceived new ideas for their budding world and the Assembly approved them, Julien was engaged in making them come true. For nine years, the two of them chased a dream of a strong, independent, and safe society. As it was, their concepts extended so far into the future that Julien saw himself continuing Alex’s dream long after his friend was gone.
Of the other SADEs, who Alex knew only minimally, Dane, Rosette, and Elizabeth found endeavors to occupy and satisfy their lives. Rosette was accustomed to Asu’s gentle ways with her and found comfort in maintaining that closeness. She supported Asu’s efforts as an Assembly member after he relinquished his captaincy and enticed Dane and Elizabeth to help her support the new ministers. Haraken’s rapid growth kept all three busy.
Released from their Méridien program constraints, or better said, having broken their restrictions, the SADEs grew exponentially. They possessed the capability, and now they were granted the opportunity of free will. Elizabeth was a perfect example. She observed teenagers racing around on ground scooters. It was a New Terran concept that was fast catching on, but without a controller it was unsafe. She involved Rosette and Dane to combine the new grav technology with a controller to create the flit. It was a runaway success, and many a parent sent notes of appreciation to the SADEs for their efforts to protect the children. On a trip to New Terra, Captain Karl Schmidt struck up a friendship with Hezekiah Cohen, the Joaquin Station manager, and they went into business with the three SADEs manufacturing flits for New Terran teenagers, who couldn’t get them fast enough.
