by M. D. Cooper
“We didn’t create their avarice,” Joe said. “We aren’t to blame for what happened.”
“No, we just suffered for it, died for it.”
“They’re heroes, every one of them. They gave their lives to save others.”
“Because I ordered them to do it,” Tanis said. “I ordered Ouri down there and I didn’t ensure that she got a squad of Marines for protection. Her death is on me, on my lack of foresight.”
“You didn’t order every action out there—certainly not the ones that Cary and Saanvi took,” Joe said with a frown.
“I still can’t believe it,” Tanis said. “What were they thinking? I mean…to steal a starship is one thing, and Symatra gave them orders and that squadron, but to take out those last two carriers…”
Joe took a sip of his beer. “Reminds me of someone I know.”
“I’m no crazy pilot,” Tanis replied and arched an eyebrow. “I’ve read your whole record, remember? If they got that from anyone it’s from you.”
Joe chuckled. “Fair enough, fair enough. Reminds me a bit of the run I pulled back at Makemake, or the one at Triton before that.”
“You’re going to have to make sure that they temper that bravery with some caution at the academy. I know I can’t stop them from enlisting, but I’m not going to lose them to this war.”
“Trust me, I’ll see to it personally,” Joe replied.
Tanis’s eyes widened. There hadn’t been time to discuss it with Joe, but she assumed he would come with her when she left. “You know I’m leaving. You’re coming with me.”
Joe took her hands, clasping them together. “Tanis Richards, you are my heart, you know that—but you also know I can’t. We lost too many, I have to build the academy and the training facilities back up. This system will take years to recover. When you leave, they’ll feel abandoned. If I stay, it will lessen that, it has to happen.”
Tanis didn’t speak for a minute, she didn’t trust herself to, either audibly or mentally. Then, she gave a slow nod, her eyes never leaving Joe’s.
“OK, three years. That’s the most I can do. You come with the girls when they graduate, I’ll need them by then. We’ll all need them if Cary can really do what I do.”
Joe chuckled. “She may have got her crazy bravado from me, but that…that she got from you—the both of you, I bet. She’s going to need a special AI.”
Angela joined in the conversation.
“Oh?” Tanis asked. “Do I know her?”
Tanis felt a spark of joy as she considered the idea. She had always wanted another daughter, but the idea of bringing one into being with Angela, and then leaving it alone was not a welcome one. She wanted to know her children, not abandon them.
“I think that is a great idea, Angela,” Joe replied. “What better fit for Cary than a child of our minds—” he caught Tanis’s eye and his brow lowered. “What is it?”
“I’ll never know her!” Tanis exclaimed. “She’ll grow up without me—I…I’m sorry, I’m feeling out of sorts right now. It’s been a trying few days.”
Angela said.
“And she’ll have her sisters and me,” Joe added. “And in just a few years, we’ll rejoin you and we’ll all work to finish this thing together.”
Tanis let out a long breath that she hadn’t realized she was holding. “OK, let’s go see what the girls think of about having a sister.”
* * * * *
“It itches,” Saanvi complained. “Gods in Swarga, it itches.”
Cary laughed. “Where?”
“Where? You brat!” Saanvi explained and threw a pillow at her sister. “Everywhere, that’s where.”
Cary raised an arm to swat the incoming tassel-covered missile aside and gasped. “Gah, you tricked me into doing that. Arm…not…ready…to move so fast.”
“You deserve it,” Saanvi said with a mock scowl. “Next time we skip the last carrier…the other one’s detonation probably would have taken it out anyway.”
“Hard to say,” Cary replied. “You were on helm, why didn’t you avoid it?”
“Me?” Saanvi sputtered. “It was us. We were deep-Linked.”
“I know, Sahn. I was kidding. I think we did the right thing. Everyone else seems to, as well. If those fighters had gotten down to Carthage, Ouri—”
Saanvi reached out and touched her sister’s hand. “Ouri and the SATC wouldn’t have been able to take out so many assault craft. We would have lost Carthage.”
“Still lost too much,” Cary said. “Our lake has two of the T’s drop ships in it…polluting our water. Who’s going to look after the horses?”
“JP sent a message that he got them over to his place,” Saanvi replied. “Didn’t you see it in your queue?”
“Maybe he just sent it to you,” Cary winked. “He’s got a serious thing for you. I bet he joined the academy just to be near you.”
“What?” Saanvi asked. “JP? He’s like a brother, we’ve known him forever. I can’t think of him like that.”
Saanvi thought about some of her most recent conversations with JP, he had seemed extra worried about them going off to fly the Andromeda to the Gamma III base.
“Stars…that feels like a lifetime ago,” Saanvi said. “Is it really just a few months since we left Carthage to take Rommy to Gamma III?”
“I know what you mean,” Cary sighed. “I can barely believe that was even the same lifetime.”
“War changes you,” Saanvi said in a serious voice, imitating their mother.
Cary laughed and then raised her hand as she began to cough. “Seriously? Sahn, no funnies. I’m not all put back together yet.”
“Speaking of Mom, what are the parents doing back so soon? I thought they had a hot date up in that lounge they like so much.”
* * * * *
Cary and Saanvi were sitting on the bench on the cabin’s porch as Tanis and Joe approached.
Tanis watched the pair of girls as they chatted idly about whatever was on their minds, probably the battle and what they had been through—the aftermath of which was still being felt every day as new memorial services were scheduled for the thousands of humans and hundreds of AIs who had perished in defense of New Canaan.
Perhaps this news, this idea, would bring smile to their faces, something that had been in short supply in the days since the battle.
“Mom, Dad! What are you doing back so soon?” Saanvi called out when she saw them approach.
Cary turned as well, slowly and gingerly, her body still far from being fully healed. “I thought you guys were on a hot date?”
Joe flashed a grin at the girls and took Tanis’s hand as they walked up the cabin’s steps.
“We sure were, but we realized that there’s something we really need to talk about.”
The two girls shared a long look before slowly nodding.
“Are we well enough now for you to tear a strip off us for taking a ship?” Cary asked nervously. “Because if that’s what’s up, I think I still need to do more healing first.”
“Oh, no,” Joe said with a mischievous grin. “We already have that punishment mapped out.”
The girls’ faces paled and Saanvi asked, “Oh? Do we even want to know?”
Joe glanced at Tanis who nodded before he responded. “There was a moment or two when we considered barring you from the academy—”
“What!?” the girls cried ou
t in unison.
“Easy, easy now,” Joe said with a smile. “We’re going to let you in, but your JROTC ranks have been stripped. You’re going into OTA with no privileges of any sort. In fact, you are going to find a host of unpleasant duties waiting for you.”
“Seriously?” Cary gasped. “We kicked ass out there, we saved lives!”
“Yes, you did, a lot of lives. You two are heroes,” Tanis said, pausing to keep tears from welling up—something that had been happening a lot lately. She took a deep breath before continuing. “And that is what is saving you from a court martial. You broke just about every reg in the books. Your success and bravery is the only thing keeping the inquiry from recommending that course of action.”
“Inquiry?” Saanvi asked. “You convened an inquiry?”
“No,” Joe shook his head. “We had to recuse ourselves from anything to do with it. Symetra launched it. She was…pissed, to say the least.”
Saanvi glanced at Cary. “Told you she wouldn’t take it well.”
“Why didn’t you tell us this was happening?” Cary asked.
“You were healing,” Tanis replied. “I was also certain no one would take any strong action against you. What you did probably saved the population of Landfall, maybe all of Carthage. You’ll both receive the Constellation of Valor, plus a host of other medals, which will be removed from your record unless you graduate from the academy with the highest honors.”
“Is that what you cut your date short for?” Saanvi asked. “To come here and berate us?”
“No one is berating you,” Joe said. “But it’s good to clear the air on that other topic before we get to what we really came here to talk about.”
“We want to talk about what you can do, Cary,” Tanis said, putting as much compassion and care into her voice as possible.
“Sorry, what?” Cary asked nervously. “What I can do?”
“The doctors pulled it all from your Link’s logs when they were working on your brain,” Tanis replied. “They saw the way you Linked with Saanvi.”
“Oh, that,” Cary whispered.
“No one says anything bad about you two because of how much you’ve saved everyone,” Cary said, her eyes wide as she intently into Tanis’s. “But me…they’ll call me a freak, an abomination.”
“Well,” Saanvi said with a wink, “you did save a lot of people. I bet you’ll get some leeway.”
“Yeah, I don’t think you have anything to worry about there,” Tanis said. “Anyway, this was Angela’s idea, she should tell you.”
“A sister!” Cary and Saanvi cried out together, smiles breaking across their faces.
“What kind of sister?” Cary asked eagerly.
“That’s so cool!” Saanvi exclaimed. “I want to be there for the genetic conversion process. Cary, it’s so cool how they extract the genetic markers for specific traits and then convert them into the base neurological patterns and traits for the AI child. When it is born, it’s like a five year-old child, and then it must be raised just like anyone else—in an expanse at first, with other AI—and then it gets a form so it can interact in the physical world…”
As Saanvi spoke, Cary’s expression began to fall and her excited utterances ceased.
“What is it?” Tanis asked, kneeling in front of her younger daughter.
“Are you doing this to keep me in line?” Cary asked. “Making a sister that is a child of your mind to put in my head?”
“Noooo.” Tanis took Cary’s hands. “No one gets an AI in their heads unless they want it, and no AI gets forced in, either. This is just an option for you to consider.”
Saanvi laughed, then groaned. “Ow…”
“What were you going to say?” Cary asked.
Tanis watched Saanvi take a slow, careful breath before she replied. “Just that if Mom was looking out keep you out of trouble, an AI from the three of them is probably going to get you in more trouble than you already get yourself in.”
Joe laughed. “Great, with you leaving, Tanis, what have I got myself into?”
“Whoa! What?” Saanvi exclaimed.
“Leaving?” Cary asked.
Tanis reached out for Saanvi’s hand as well. “Yes, but not yet, not for a few more months. You know I’m Field Marshall of the Transcend’s fleets now. That means I’ll have to go.”
“Can’t you just command them from here?” Cary pleaded. “What about the QuanComms, you don’t have to go anywhere once they’re all set up.”
“I know,” Tanis replied. “But I can’t command from here; it will make this system the enemy’s number-one target. We need to command from elsewhere and pull our enemy’s eye from New Canaan as much as possible. But it won’t be for long, just a few years, and I’ll do my best to come back—though I can’t make promises.”
Tears welled up in both the girls’ eyes and Tanis reached up to touch both their faces.
“This is just a brief interlude in a long and happy life together. Don’t worry, before long this whole war will be nothing more than a bad memory.”
GOING BACK IN
STELLAR DATE: 04.07.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Wreckage of Trisilieds Halcyon Class Carrier
REGION: In Orbit of Hannibal, Carthage, New Canaan System
“Why is it that whenever Tanis wants to meet us, I feel like we’re being called to the headmaster’s office at school?” Trevor asked.
“Why is it that your school called it a headmaster?” Misha replied. “What’s wrong with ‘principal’?”
Jessica laughed as she sat down at the table in Sabrina’s galley. “How is it, Misha, that you can derail any conversation with just one response?”
“It’s a gift. Angels gave it to me. I’m special,” Misha replied with a grin.
Jessica sipped her coffee and leaned back in her chair. It felt strange to still be living in Sabrina even when she was back on the Intrepid…rather, the I2. She had quarters here, and a cabin of her own on the lake in Ol’ Sam. She assumed it was still there; Joe and Tanis’s was.
Truth be told, she didn’t want to go to her cabin because she was with Trevor now, and that place was filled with memories of her time with Trist. Somehow, she felt as though taking someone new there would be betraying those memories.
Another part of it was that Sabrina just felt like home.
She glanced at Trevor, who was needling Misha about his childhood education system in the backwoods corner of the Perseus Arm he hailed from. Studiously avoiding the conversation about what was next for all of them.
Before their arrival, the only thought on everyone’s mind was to get to New Canaan, give them the intel they had gathered, and then find a plot of land to settle down on.
But now…now things were different.
In Jessica’s mind, a large part of New Canaan was Tanis’s presence. Tanis and the Intrepid…those two things had defined her existence for so long. Even when she was lost in the Perseus Arm, the goal was still to get back to Tanis and the Intrepid.
But now those two constants were leaving New Canaan and it didn’t feel like the home she had always hoped to find.
Jessica knew it would have been different if she had spent the last eighteen years here with the rest of the colonists, but like a fool, she agreed to go on the crazy trip into the Inner Stars to find Finaeus and missed out on everything.
She glanced at Trevor on
ce more. Well, not everything.
Cargo entered the room, grunted a greeting and poured his own cup of coffee. He was followed soon-after by Nance, who appeared fully alert despite the hour.
“Fuckin’ time changes,” Cargo grunted as he collapsed into a chair. “You’d think her admiralship would know that it’s the middle of the night for us here.”
“She probably has just a bit going on right now,” Nance replied. “Things are a bit nuts.”
“Yeah, I know, but we just pulled in for resupply two hours ago after fishing people out of wrecks for five days straight. I know nuts, we just did nuts—days of nuts,” Cargo glowered into his coffee. “Now this nut needs some sleep.”
“Hold it together just a bit longer,” Jessica said with a small smile. “The nice part about Tanis being so busy is that we won’t have to worry about her taking too much of our time.”
Misha turned to Jessica and arched an eyebrow. “If she’s so busy, why is she coming down here in person? Why not summon us, or just holo in and chat us up.”
“Because I wanted to thank you all personally,” Tanis said from the doorway. “And damn, I love making a perfectly on-cue entrance like that.”
“Well done, Tanis, well done,” Jessica said while delivering a slow clap.
“Uh…yeah…way to take the wind out of my sails, Jess,” Tanis replied. “Mind if I grab a cup? Stims are one thing, but my brain still believes coffee is the best alert juice out there.”
“Be our guest,” Cargo grunted. “But if you drain the pot, you’re making a fresh one. Supreme chancellor or no.”
Nance swatted at Cargo. “Be nice.”
“I don’t mind,” Tanis laughed. “Being the boss is tiring work. It’s nice to just be crew sometimes.”
Tanis made her coffee and sat down at the table, took a long sip and closed her eyes for a moment. “I always did love the way this machine brewed a cup. I’m glad to see it wasn’t just a false memory of good times gone past.”
“Told you it was the best,” Trevor grinned and slapped Misha on the back, almost knocking him out of his chair.
