by Ryan Kirk
Two
From her perch in the command center of the Vigilance, Kindra watched as Tev and Derreck said their farewells. She could have turned on the external microphones to hear what the two men were talking about, but looking at their hunched shoulders and close proximity, she guessed the conversation was private.
Tev turned and walked back towards the makeshift village that had sprung up in the past few months, and Derreck continued up the ramp alone. Kindra watched Tev as he picked his way back down the rocky path, his gait slow but steady.
Kindra stood up and paced the small command center, her quick stride covering the length of the room in just three steps. She fought the urge to play with her hair, a habit she’d been trying to break for over a decade now.
One of Kindra’s strongest desires was to help Tev. She was responsible, at least in part, for everything he had gone through in the past few years. She had been a part of the survey team that had explored Tev’s planet and made first contact. It had been her decision to bring Tev onto the Vigilance when he had been gravely injured in a battle with Derreck. Kindra didn’t believe in fate, but since that initial series of decisions, it felt as though everything that happened was preordained.
Kindra pressed her palms to her forehead, trying to clear the thoughts from her mind. She was well aware that Tev felt that some greater power was in play, but she was more rational than he was. Everything that had happened, everything, was a matter of cause and effect, nothing more. But still…
The biologist shook her head, hoping the action would reframe her thoughts. It didn’t, but it did throw her hair, longer now, into her face. She hadn’t cut it since they left Haven a year ago. Vigilance had the facilities to do so, but she had wanted to try something new. She liked the way longer hair made her look, but she still wasn’t used to it.
The problem, as she saw it, was that Tev wasn’t willing to open up to her. He wasn’t cold or aloof or even rude. On the surface, their friendship was as strong as ever. But Kindra wasn’t interested in shallow pleasantries. She wanted to know what was running through Tev’s mind, and he wasn’t sharing with her.
Kindra blamed the jump. Prior to their arrival upon Tev’s planet, their jumpship, the Destiny, had been in an ongoing firefight with a jumpship from the dying rebellion, the Hellbringer. The fight had culminated in an attack on the Destiny. Tev had been fighting enemy exosuits when Captain Absalon, the commander of Destiny, gave the order to jump to avoid a nuclear missile strike.
No one jumped while they were awake. The biological mechanism still wasn’t understood, but jumping caused most to go mad. Those who didn’t usually flirted with the edge of insanity before somehow finding their way back. Derreck had survived a jump before, but he was the only one Kindra knew who had made it, and like Tev, he didn’t talk about that moment.
Kindra forced herself to sit down and order her thoughts. She had been over all of this with herself countless times, a loop her mind seemed more than content to let run on repeat forever. She admitted to herself that she was worried about Tev, but stopped herself there. In her experience, people didn’t change except on their own. All she could do was continue to let him know she was there, and mean it.
Besides, she still had work to do, work that any exobiologist would kill for. She was studying an alien planet, filled with life in a way that no other explored planet was. Over the past few months she had collected hundreds of samples. If not for Tev, she gladly would have lost herself for weeks in their study.
She heard Derreck before she saw him. She suspected he had made a quick tour of the ship, taking a few moments to check in with all the crew and get updates. Kindra knew the behavior was automatic now, a practice so ingrained in him he didn’t even think about it. Such small actions were what separated Derreck from merely good captains.
He poked his head in, as though it wasn’t his bridge. Even though he had quite a few years on her, his grin still held a hint of boyish charm.
“Hey.”
“Hey yourself.”
Derreck stepped onto the bridge and settled into the captain’s chair with a heavy sigh. Kindra used the moment as an excuse to ask what was on her mind. “How is he?”
Derreck swiveled his chair around so he was facing her. He didn’t answer right away, his gaze studying Kindra before responding. She didn’t mind. She was a terrible poker player, and she knew Derreck would see to the heart of her question, but her desire to keep updated on Tev was strong.
“He’s struggling. There’s a lot on his mind right now, and he’s trying to shoulder the burden of preparing his people alone. He’s doing excellent work, but the task would be a lot to ask from any person, and Tev’s already been through too much in the past few years.”
Kindra almost laughed at the inadequacy of the understatement. Tev had gone from living in a primitive society to discovering they weren’t alone in the stars. He had learned how to pilot an exosuit, flown into space, lived on a planet that was thousands of years ahead of his people technologically, and fought and killed to protect his home. Yes, Tev had been through too much.
Derreck was twiddling his thumbs, and Kindra waited for him to order his thoughts.
“I don’t know if there’s a way for him to find a home anymore. There’s no doubt that he likes and respects this crew, but I’m not sure he’d ever feel at peace here. Our lives are simply so different from how he was raised. He can’t go back to his old life, either. He is certainly respected, but he’s no longer one of them. I worry that our actions have destroyed his life.”
Kindra heard the weight of responsibility in Derreck’s voice. She didn’t think her captain should bear the burden he did. He had been in a coma when she made the decisions that transformed Tev’s life. Perhaps it was one aspect of leadership she never understood, the drive to take responsibility for everything that happened under your command.
Derreck finished his thought. “Maybe all he needs is more time, but I just don’t know. Have you spoken to him about it? He’s closest to you, after all.”
Kindra wasn’t sure what gave her away. Perhaps she glanced away from Derreck. Maybe she shifted her posture slightly. But somehow, as he watched her, he understood.
“Ahhh.” Derreck was at a loss for words. “I see. Have you said anything?”
Kindra gave her captain a pointed glance.
“Right. Of course not.”
The silence between them grew awkward, and to break it, Kindra said, “Aren’t you going to quote a regulation at me?”
Derreck’s grin returned to his face. “Like it would matter to you. Besides, I think we can all agree that we’ve gone far beyond any regulation Fleet ever dreamed up. I don’t know what to tell you.”
It threatened to become awkward again until a message flashed across both of their neurodisplays. Derreck laughed. “Saved by Destiny. Shall we hear what Absalon has to say?”
Kindra nodded, and the two of them stood up to take the meeting in the conference room.
Their “conference room” was also their mess hall. The Vigilance certainly wasn’t small, but most of its space was given over to scientific equipment. Space was always at a premium, and many areas of the ship did double duty. The mess hall was the only place large enough to fit multiple people around a table, and so a holographic projector had been set into the table.
Unfortunately, sometimes that meant upkeep at annoying times. Both Kindra and Derreck had received a message from Destiny requesting a meeting in fifteen minutes, and the room looked like some of the crew had just finished lunch. From a glance, Kindra guessed the guilty culprit was Eleta. The table was filled with opened packets of rice and steak, one of Eleta’s favorite meals.
Kindra cleared off the table while Derreck entered authorization codes for the meeting. The doors to the hall sealed and darkened, causing Derreck to shoot Kindra a suspicious glance. She shrugged. Her notice hadn’t said anything about the meeting being classified either. Regardless, in a few moments the h
all was completely sealed off from the rest of the ship. Kindra hoped Alston, the ship’s geologist, didn’t get hungry any time soon.
The hologram came to life at the appointed time. Absalon was a stickler for timetables, even out here hundreds of light-years from the nearest Fleet outpost.
Absalon looked as though the time out in space was starting to get to him. Though his voice was as sharp as ever, his eyes looked tired. Less than a week had passed since their last routine check-in, and they weren’t due for another for three days. Taken together, Kindra guessed something serious was on the horizon.
After a few seconds of small talk, Absalon asked for updates. Kindra and Derreck glanced at each other, and Derreck went first.
“Nothing new, sir. Tev continues to train the local population. I know I’ve expressed this before, sir, but they’re good. Although we’ll need an actual analysis to say for certain, Kindra’s theories about Tev’s adaptability to the suits seems accurate. He’s still the best, but there will be a few catching up to him before long.”
“How good are they?”
“Sir, they’re regularly rolling in combat now. It doesn’t even slow them down.”
Kindra thought Derreck’s comment was an odd statement, but Absalon’s jaw almost dropped to the floor. “To be clear, you’re saying ‘roll’ as in ‘somersault,’ correct?”
Derreck nodded, a smile growing on his face.
“I’ve never heard of such a thing. You’re going to have one of the strongest military units in the galaxy if what you say is true. How do you think they’ll hold up to combat situations?”
Derreck thought for a moment. “It’s hard to say before putting them in the field. However, per our previous encounter here, I don’t think they’ll have any problems under fire.”
Kindra noticed Derreck suppress a small shudder. In that previous encounter, Tev had almost killed Derreck, and Tev hadn’t even been wearing a suit. Her captain’s assessment was accurate. The hunters weren’t afraid to fight. If the time came that they had to, they wouldn’t break under the strain.
Absalon’s eyes shifted to Kindra. “What’s your update?”
“More of the same, also, sir. The life on this planet is related to life on Earth. Every sample I’ve tested shares at least some DNA. But at the same time, life here is also different. Even though I can recognize some of the DNA strands, everything I study is a new species.”
“Care to make any guess how that happened?”
Kindra rejected the offer. “I’m as lost as you are, sir. When we were on Haven our findings were confirmed. Humans have never been in this part of space before.”
Absalon stared off into the distance for a moment, probably looking at something off-screen. “I keep hoping that we’ll find the answer to this mystery, but it seems that won’t be the case. I wanted to meet with you two to discuss a new strategy.”
Kindra perked up, and she forced her body to relax. There was always the fear that Destiny would somehow turn on Tev’s people. Such an action was less and less likely with every passing day, but still, Kindra couldn’t shake the fear. Tev’s people were more able to defend themselves now, but they were still heavily outclassed.
Absalon didn’t notice any change in Kindra’s posture, but he seemed distracted by other information. Holos were the best way to communicate over a distance, but they were still a distant second to meeting in person.
“I’m concerned by the fact Hellbringer never jumped in-system. We may have reduced their forces when they attempted to take over Destiny, but we certainly didn’t finish them off; and as a ship, our last data indicates Hellbringer was as capable as ever. For all the effort they took to get here first, it’s hard to believe they would have given up.
“We’ve been discussing it as a crew up here, and we’d like to jump to the planet Mala explored on our first trip. We believe there is a chance they bypassed Tev’s planet entirely in favor of it.”
Kindra was confused, and Derreck echoed her thoughts. “Why would they do that? I was under the impression our intelligence was certain they were heading here.”
Absalon shrugged. “We have nothing certain to go off of. Personally, I think Tev’s planet was their primary target, but after we defeated them the second time, they had a change of heart. Perhaps the reward was no longer worth the risk. They knew that Mala found traces of civilization. They might have thought it was worth exploring.”
Kindra glanced at Derreck, then forced herself back to Absalon. She might not be the best poker player, but even she could tell that Absalon was lying. The answer was too easy, too casual. Hellbringer had lost dozens of lives trying to get to Tev’s planet, lives they could afford to lose even less than Fleet could. They wouldn’t have casually decided to go visiting another planet instead.
She suspected Derreck picked up on the lie too. He was better than her at such things, and if she knew Absalon was lying, he would too. But he was a better poker player, and his voice and demeanor betrayed nothing untoward.
“I think it’s a good idea to have our bases covered, but what if they are there? You’re not equipped to fight Hellbringer, and Tev’s people certainly aren’t prepared to fight in space yet.”
Absalon agreed. All but four of Destiny’s functioning exosuits were down on the planet being used by Tev’s people. Alston and Eleta were working on making more onboard the Vigilance, but Absalon knew nothing about that. If it came to a fight, Destiny was outclassed by Hellbringer in every way. “This is nothing but a recon mission. Our capacitors are fully charged, and if there’s any danger, we jump right back out.”
Absalon paused, as though a new thought had just occurred to him. “I suppose if Hellbringer isn’t there, I might allow Mala some time planet-side. She’s been itching to fly her ship, and we could always use more information. At the longest, we’d be gone a month.”
Derreck looked over at Kindra, and she knew what he was thinking. If something happened to Destiny, they were stranded out here. It would be years, at least, before Fleet knew something was wrong and sent out a rescue.
Absalon seemed to read their minds. “Derreck, in preparation for this little trip, I’d like you to come up and pick up the distress beacon. If something happens, you’ll need it more than us.”
Kindra saw the logic. They only had one jump-capable emergency beacon. Destiny could jump away from danger, but their little dropship couldn’t. If they had the beacon, they could at least get word back to Fleet about what had happened. It would still be years before a rescue, but it would be fewer years than the alternative.
“Very well. I can probably leave in the next few hours. I can be up to you by tomorrow.”
Absalon and Derreck discussed logistics for a few moments before the meeting ended, but Kindra had already tuned out. Absalon was hiding secrets from them, but that didn’t surprise Kindra. But she really wasn’t sure how she felt about being left hundreds of light-years from home without a way back.
Three
Tev finished up his afternoon of training. The day had been busy. After leaving Derreck, his first priority was training on his own. While most of his time was spent training others, he did his best to reserve at least an hour a day to work alone. The others were quickly catching up to him, and Tev was determined that they’d never succeed. If he wasn’t the best pilot, what did he have left?
After his own session he visited as many of the lances as he could, giving suggestions and advice to the other hunters. He remained with each lance for as long as needed. He didn’t speak much, but instead demonstrated new ideas. Words were cheap, but actions carried weight. It was the same way he had learned to hunt years ago.
What most excited Tev was the new system of combat that developed among the hunters. When Tev had first piloted a suit, he had only received a bare minimum of training and support. Later, Derreck had personally trained him, and some of that training had gone against Tev’s instincts. Derreck, like most of his people, relied too much on range, ar
mor, and their weapons.
Tev had grown up in a world where the only ranged weapon was a bow. He was used to getting in close to his prey. The ranged weapons on the exosuits were excellent, but they were easy to learn, and somewhat wasteful. Tev’s trainees mastered them in short order, but they also mastered using cover and mobility to limit the effectiveness of the weapons.
What had developed over months of practice was a new system of combat that alternated between ranged attacks and close, personal infighting. The new style was far superior to what Derreck had tried to train into Tev, and it pushed the suits to their limits.
The entire process was remarkable. One lance would develop a new strategy, tactic, or trick. They would use it during mock battles, and if it worked, the idea spread like a fire in dry grass. Every lance was competitive and fought to be the best, but when the sun set, they all came together and shared what they had learned. In this way, their advancement was beyond what Tev had even thought possible.
Derreck only saw the tip of the spear. Tev and the other hunters trusted him, but he was still an outsider, and wisdom dictated that a smart hunter always kept some surprises a secret. Derreck knew they were excellent pilots, but he didn’t realize just how far they had advanced.
Tev’s day had been full, and he was already looking forward to resting around a campfire. The last thing he expected that evening was a call from Kindra. She told him that Vigilance was heading up into space for a few days. Tev could tell there was something else from the tenor of her voice, and he waited for her to bring it up.
“Would you mind if I spent the next few days in the camp? There’s some more experiments I’d like to do.”
Tev was torn. As much as he could, he tried to keep his worlds separate. He had his people, and he had Kindra’s people. When the two met, he felt the challenge of his unique position more sharply. But his weakness was no excuse to deny a friend’s request.
