Earth Song: Twilight Serenade

by Mark Wandrey

  “Any more details?” Minu asked.

  “The tachyon wave front indicates speed below 100 times C.”

  “Not very fast.”

  “No,” Lilith agreed, “but residual wave emanations suggest it slowed just before entering sensor range.”

  “Something give us away?”

  “There was some risk. We’ve been doing high energy work on the exterior of Ibeen Epsilon to fix damage to its gravitic drive.” As they watched the arrow resolved into a blocky shape and an information bubble appeared next to it, the data in ancient script and English for Minu’s benefit.

  “At least a cruiser,” she read, “design profile suggests T’Chillen.”

  “Is that dangerous?” Kal’at asked.

  “Not to me,” Lilith assured them. “The danger is that it can summon reinforcements.”

  “What can it see?”

  “At that range, very little. Even powered our ships here have a small energy profile that will not carry far, and we are nearly black in the infrared. However it has detected the high energy from the hull work we were doing two days ago and is trying to decide what caused it. The ship is still outside the debris cloud from the nova, about three light days.”

  “Always seems like so far,” Kal’at commented.

  “At their speed less than sixteen hours,” Lilith told them. “Keep in mind it can likely accelerate quite quickly and be here in minutes if it decides to.”

  “So what’s the tactic?”

  “I prepare to fight, but we stay quiet and hope they pass by,” Lilith said as the shuttle swung around and towards the waiting docking bay. Minu nodded with the solid tactics. Her daughter had grown a lot over the years. She remember a much more head strong young girl that would have leaped at the chance to get into a fight. Considering what Minu had in mind for the coming months and years, it was a good thing the girl had matured. An awful lot of Minu’s plans hinged on the young girl.

  Back in her ship, Lilith moved with quick grace and arrived in the CIC in only a few seconds, Minu close behind. All the time they’d spent in space recently had helped her mother gain more grace in zero gravity as well. She just wished she didn’t have to spend so much time working out to keep from losing bone density. As her belly got bigger, it made much of the exercises more difficult. You’d figure with this level of technology I could just take a pill, she thought.

  Back in her element, Lilith cast off the blue crystalline bot on her back with a casual gesture. The mechanical flew across the chamber, landed lightly on a wall, and scuttled away.

  A dozen screens appeared in space around Lilith as she spun around slowly, taking in the information. Minu knew the girl got her data partly through the link provided by the implants in her brain, and partly visible. When asked once she wasn’t able to explain why she used both, eventually saying “this is just natural to me.” The ship came alive for her.

  “I now have full magazines of shipkillers,” she said as she finished surveying the screens, “and a considerable stock in reserve. Power is at capacity, reserves topped off. Shuttles secured, drives on standby. Now we wait.”

  The minutes crept by as the ship glided towards the long dead star system. Minu knew it would be tasting the energy coming from inside the system, trying to understand what it had sensed. It was almost ready to penetrate the screen provide by the supernova ejecta when it changed course and began to accelerate.

  “What’s the chance it noticed us?”

  “Low,” Lilith said and began to safe the ship once more. She watched with her sensors as the distant ship began to accelerate once more to hundreds of times the speed of light. “It will shortly be out of sensor range.”

  “You think we’re safe?”

  “Likely the incident has been noted and a scout ship will investigate later. That ship’s actions suggested it was on a mission and didn’t want to delay overly long.”

  Minu nodded and regarded the screens for a time before taking out her own tablet and accessing information. In particular she regarded the work’s schedule on the salvage operations. Estimates suggested they needed only two more days to have all the Ibeen space ready. The Fiisk was another matter. “I’m afraid we might have to abandon the battlecruiser.”

  “I would be hesitant to do that,” Lilith responded instantly. Minu knew she’d become excited when it was decided the huge warship was salvageable. She’d told her mother it could be a game changer. The behemoth was built with a different combat doctrine than the comparably tiny Kaatan. Lilith’s ship was a quick deadly killer. The Fiisk was a tornado of destruction able to wade into battle and stay there, dealing out death while absorbing incomprehensible amounts of punishment. “We’d have to destroy it rather than leave it to possibly he salvaged by the T’Chillen, or any other higher order species.”

  “That goes without saying.”

  “But this may be the only Fiisk left in the galaxy. It represents a considerable amount of firepower and would anchor our fleet’s combat ability.”

  “I understand that, but I don’t see a way around it. Your initial estimate suggests more than a week just to get the drives on line, and an unknown amount of time to put together an operating system to pilot the ship. I remember what we went through to move this ship without you, Lilith.”

  “The Fiisk is many times more complicated because it was designed to operate with not just a combat intelligence, but a tactical intelligence and a fleet intelligence.”

  “So who knows if it is even possible to operate the thing without these specialized AI?”

  Lilith nodded her head and Minu shook hers. “But there might be another option, at least to move the ship to a safer location.”

  “Okay,” Minu said, willing to listen.

  “And there is another compelling reason.” Minu waited. “The Combat Intelligence has recovered memories of the last several battles it was part of. Including locations of similar salvage locations like this one.”

  Chapter 11

  February 2nd, 535 AE

  Ghost fleet, Deep Space, Galactic Frontier

  They ended up using large sections of ruined hull to shield the sides of the Ibeen as the Beezer crew finished heavy repair operations. Minu continued to amaze at how quickly the big grazers took to working and living in space. They’d work outside with no safety measures beyond a thin moliplas cable for more than twenty hours at a stretch, come aboard to eat and sleep for a few hours, then go back out to do it again. They loved space as much as Lilith. Who would have thought it of a species that preferred grassy plains?

  The repairs on Ibeen Epsilon completed and its main power restored via the improvised EPC, the majority of the work crews moved into frenzied action on the Fiisk. Minu maintained a small group of workers. “I’m not much use on the technical aspects,” she told Lilith, “so I’ll supervise the last of the salvage being loaded and then go through the smaller wrecks.”

  It wasn’t sexy work but it needed to be done. Using the advanced gravitic planers on the three Eseel gunboats they took the smaller sections of wrecked ships that Lilith had tagged as useful and began loading them into the titanic cargo balls of the now operational Ibeen along with all the Kaatan shuttles they’d found.

  The cargo ships didn’t have external gravitational controls so they Eseel gunboat moved the sections up to and gently nudged them through the massive clamshell doors which opened on each cargo ball. Once inside the bay, the Ibeen’s internal systems took it from there. Semi-autonomous systems then took over and secured materials for transit, under direction of the crew if necessary.

  During a lull in the work Minu met with Lilith and the revived Combat Intelligence as it explained the reason for the derelicts.

  “We were part of a large fleet element fighting a retreating action against enemy forces,” the CI’s voice spoke getting better at its English every day. “We’d participated in a counter-offensive against a species your records indicate do not exist anymore. Regrettable, reinforcing
units of the species knows as T’Chillen arrived to relieve the other species forcing us to retreat.

  “Continuous harassing attacks along our lines of retreat were bleeding our forces. The fleet commander elected to perform an interdiction during one of these harassing attacks. It was there that I was critically damaged.”

  Minu was making notes in a tablet as the CI spoke. After making some more entries she spoke. “So Lilith said that several other derelict groups like this were abandoned along your line of retreat.”

  “That is correct,” the CI replied.

  “Can you show us where, please.”

  “Certainly,” it said. The CIC lights dimmed and half the room became a map of the Milky Way galaxy, then zoomed inward to show part of one spiral arm. A point flashed in green, the tiny star system remained circled with a green sphere and a line began to lead away. It moved in a straight line until it flashed and an arrow pointed off to a place several light years off the main course which continued onward.

  Every hundred light years or so a new flash indicated another battle, and where the damaged units had been abandoned. Then a final point, and the map ended. That was the battle where the CI’s ship was damaged, not far from their current location.

  Minu felt a moment of pity for the machine. Its crew long dead, and taken out of a battle during a war and never knowing how it all turned out. Except that its creators were no longer around.

  “Lilith, have you reviewed these locations?”

  “Yes mom,” Lilith said. “Of the six locations we have from this CI, two are considered too dangerous based on proximity to Higher Order species and their probable starship assets. They have either been discovered already, or are simply too close to aggressive species to risk direct evaluation.

  “Another is confirmed as no longer there. I’ve passed within a light hour of that point and nothing was there. Whether this means it was found by enemy units or subsequently salvaged by The People is unknown.”

  “That leaves three,” Minu offered.

  “Exactly. The direction of withdrawal the fleet was following was roughly parallel to the track we would take to return to Bellatrix. The first two pose no risk to examine. The final is more risky. I have observed aggressive ships in that area once before.”

  “Do we know if there is a colony or leasehold there belonging to a Higher Order species?” Kal’at asked. When the Rasa scientist found out there were more caches like the one they were currently working he’d been quite excited.

  “Unfortunately, except for observed worlds or public knowledge, I don’t know.” Lilith admitted. “Our species status as a client severely limits our access in the same way other species cannot access our information.”

  “That will soon change,” Minu said, half to herself. “Okay, mark number three as tentative. We’ll plan on at least surveying the other two.” Lilith nodded in agreement, glad her mother had seen the wisdom of the idea. Kal’at blinked rapidly, a sign of excitement. “CI, do you have lists of the equipment we can find?”

  “The lists are not comprehensive,” the computer said. “During relief and triage of elements after a battle, Kaatans were tasked with perimeter defense. But data was available of assets should we need to replenish.”

  “What kinds of ships and numbers are at the closest location?”

  “It was that battle that led the fleet commander to decide to try and stop the harassing attacks. In that battle we lost two Fiisk, one Kaatan, and our only two remaining Kiile.”

  “What are those?” Minu asked, “I’ve never heard of that class.”

  “Carriers,” Lilith said.

  “Your husband would be excited,” Kal’at pointed out.

  Minu nodded, Aaron would love that. Flying was one of his greatest passions. “We have our decision. Finish what salvage we have here, then we make for Dervish.”

  They spent a day finishing the salvage of the large ship parts Lilith indicated were the most useful. When she had began it seemed like an immense amount of salvages, sections of several dozen hulks. It all fit into only six cargo balls of the thirty on Ibeen Alpha. The 1,500 meter long ship was six times the length of the Fiisk battlecruiser, and almost nine times as long as the Kaatan.

  Only one significant salvage remained, the savaged wreck of the Kaatan which held the new combat intelligence. It was too large to fit within any of the cargo modules even on the Ibeen. However one of the three large ball sections of the Fiisk was severely damaged. Lilith was sure it could be fixed in time. That did leave them space to effectively mate the remains of the Kaatan within the hull of the Fiisk. “Not an ideal solution,” Lilith explained, “at least we’ll be able to link the two ships’ systems enough to allow us to move it out of here.” The combat intelligence seemed game.

  Minu and her team utilized the Eseel to maneuver the crippled Kaatan hulk into position where the Beezer then took over. Once again feeling like she was of no help, Minu left all the Beezer and her daughter to work on the battlecruiser while she took one of the Eseel and began to explore.

  The ghost fleet floated in a space that had once been an L5 point in a dead star system. The miniscule amount of light provided by the brown dwarf, nothing more than a pale shadow of what was once a thriving F class star, barely provided enough luminance at that distance to see. The planet that balanced the dwarf star was a burned cinder orbiting in the system’s old life belt. The globular cluster, the remains of the star’s life force, continue to expand outward and had dissipated to the point it was almost invisible to the naked eye.

  Minu flew the Eseel with relative ease, already familiar with the controls from Lilith’s shuttles. The controls were just as intuitive even though the pilot’s area was configured for the much smaller People. Lilith said she could fix that later, when time allowed. The cockpit was designed to hold four, a pilot and copilot as well as a gunner and shield operator. The latter did double duty as an engineer.

  Despite the craft having a normal crew of four it was easy for just one to operate in most common operations. It was that utility which allowed Lilith to control many at once, even while fighting her own Kaatan.

  She orbited the planet, a mottled black sphere that reminded her of Remus. The Eseel possessed sensors built around a tactical scheme that gave better resolution than just about any ship she’d ever been on. She went around the planet twice, letting the sensors work, and found nothing of interest, so she broke orbit and headed outward.

  The next planet out had been a gas giant before the primary exploded. The computer modeled the fate of that world, effectively blown into the interstellar wind. A small core not much bigger than a medium sized asteroid was all that remained.

  The next orbit farther out revealed a much larger planet, more than twice the size of Bellatrix. The computer pegged it as just outside the system’s original life belt. She couldn’t tell from the readings if it had once been more than the big ball of rock crisscrossed with fissures and volcanoes. As Minu approached the computer originally plotted a moon in orbit which she’d thought was unusual considering what had transpired in the system.

  As her ship approached to less than 100,000 kilometers, the computer suddenly updated the sensor information. It wasn’t a moon; it was a cluster of battle damaged ships. The computer couldn’t give an explanation for how it had ended up where it did. Minu guessed maybe the shockwave from the exploded star might have carried some of the wrecked ships there where this planet captured them. Seemed like as reasonable an explanation anything the computer could come up with.

  “Found more ships,” Minu told her daughter over their link. “Sending you the data.”

  Lilith was quiet as she analyzed the data. “That appears to be the better part of three more Fiisks and parts of an unknown number of other classes. A shame we may not have much time to investigate.”

  “I’ll have a look while you work on finishing the Fiisk.”

  Minu maneuvered in right next to the ‘moon’ and allowed the ship’
s sensors to give it a thorough going over. With the help of Lilith’s data it was easy to discern the parts of each ship class now and how they fit into the huge jigsaw puzzle. It was a twisted pile of wreckage and there appeared to be no way to gain any entrance. She was about to give up when the computer identified an air lock.

  “I have an entry point,” she told Lilith.

  “I see it, mother. I don’t know if it’s a good idea going in by yourself.”

  “You do know who’s First here, don’t you?” Silence. “I have the bots you sent with me, I’ll be fine.”

  “Please be careful with my future sibling.”

  Minu smiled and touched her growing belly. “Little person is nice and safe.” And he or she will already be used to zero gravity when born, she thought.

  She set the Eseel to close on the lock and went aft. She was already wearing most of her space suit so all Minu did was attach the support pack to her chest, put on gloves and the frighteningly thin helmet. That just left the bots.

  Despite how many times she’d seen Lilith do it, she wasn’t confident in the blue crystalline constructs. Minu had no idea how they worked or how to control them, she only knew that they’d been tasked by her daughter to do her bidding. With a sigh she held out a hand. Instantly the cluster of a half dozen bots that had been hanging from the bulkhead of the Eseel leapt over and caught her outstretched hand.

  She tried not to shiver as they moved around her body, positioning themselves equally. Two joined around her torso, and one each around her limbs. Once settled, she didn’t even notice they were there. The machines couldn’t weigh more than a few dozen grams each! They made her feel strangely safe.