Alpha Dawn: Book one of the Teragene Chronicles

by Morgan R. R. Haze

  "You have my thanks ma'am. It will be nice to give Ell some good news when she wakes up." He nodded his head in farewell and left the med suite.

  Peter had the most confused expression on his face as he looked at the doors that had closed behind his brother. "Is something wrong?" I asked.

  "No. It's just… I… he was just acting strangely, that's all. Why don't I show you ladies around and find you a room?" He gestured towards the door, Jason had just exited.

  "Lead the way, kind sir." I replied with my best smile. I scooped up Echo, determined to make the best of this new home of ours.

  The Waylay Crew Deck -Day 336- Peter Singer

  Jason was being so strange. Growing up he was always acting like a tough guy. He would have hated for anyone to see him being soft like he was with Echo. Our mother passed away when I was very young, and father was a military man to the bone. The only person I had ever seen Jason soft around was me, and that, only when he was sure no one would know. For a long time I thought he was trying to be the best little soldier our father could hope for. His only reward for his efforts had been being shipped off to the Fenix Service Program the first time he stood up to father about anything. Funny enough, Jason defied our Father for me. He had trained Jason to be a soldier so well that it was all that the Program had read from his aptitude tests. Oh, he had scored high in many areas, but nothing else as strong as following orders and to one day be a strong leader. Fenix must have thought they found the perfect candidate; A fourth generation Service Program lifer, or so they had thought.

  The day before his twenty first birthday Jason came to see me. I had been over the moon, father had been shipped out on a mission somewhere, so he put me in the Service Program, all of my aptitude tests had come back pointing to the medical field. After I had shared my good news with Jason, and he told me how proud he was of me, he dropped the bomb on me. He was going to leave. Jason was getting out. He didn't want anything to do with Fenix anymore. I was shocked. I had always seen Jason as doggedly following in our father’s footsteps. He explained that he wasn't going to contact me until I was of age, not because he didn't love me but because he wanted to keep me safe. Jason gave me a way to contact him after I turned twenty one and he told me I’d better become the best doctor the Program had ever seen. That was the last I saw of him for eight years. When I first joined up with him, here on the Waylay, I thought he hadn't changed at all, but the more time I've spent on this ship the more I wonder how much I really know who Jason is now.

  As I led Willow to the crew quarters, I couldn't help but wonder if Jason had meant to refer to Echo's aunt as Ell. Was it some weird coincidence, or had he named his AI after this woman. I wasn't sure which option was stranger.

  The first set of quarters we entered was one of the largest ones the ship had to offer. "I think this was set up with a family in mind." I told Willow as she looked around the two bedroom suite. There was a small sitting room with two doors leading off of it into the bedrooms. A full bathroom connected the bedrooms together.

  "This is too much. I don't need anything this big." Willow said in surprise after silently walking through the spacious accommodations.

  "No one else is using it, and we don't know how long you're going to be with us. If its short term, you two won't be putting anyone out, and if it's long term, Echo will need a safe space to run around in." I pointed out to her.

  "Thank you. We have a few things in the other ship that we will need." Willow said.

  "I will get the others to help me start bringing your things up. Is there anything you will need right away?" I asked.

  “I can’t think of anything right now. Echo is still full and happy from her last feeding. I should try to see if she will take a nap after all of her excitement." She said.

  "Then I will leave you ladies to it." I gave them a small smile with my best courtly bow and went on my knight’s errand.

  …..

  I went down a level to the kitchen and found Gabriel in the middle of chopping what looked to be all of the vegetables we had on the ship. "What's all of this for Gabe?" I asked puzzled. We had already eaten dinner for this day cycle before our new guests had arrived.

  "The Captain asked me to make up something special. I figured that I'd make enough so that we have plenty for lunch tomorrow," was Gabe’s quiet answer, in his smooth baritone voice.

  "Ok I'll see you later then." I headed back up, two levels, to the bridge hoping to find at least two other crew members there. It was usually the second congregating spot, after the kitchen. The kitchen (or galley) being within the Great Room, which included the dining room (or mess) in the center, and a small lounge area opposite the kitchen.

  As l entered the bridge I surmised the conversation was about the bounty we had been chasing before this had all started.

  "We're a few days out from Shangri-La. But I doubt we have really lost any ground on our bounty. We should have the warrant again before we arrive." Jason was saying to Mark and Aria.

  "I put Willow and Echo in one of the two bedroom crew quarters, hope that works for you." I told Jason as he wrapped up his briefing.

  "Sure. That space will be good for them." Jason agreed.

  "I wasn't sure where you had put the aunt but I figured there was the room between them and Aria that would work." I said.

  "I'm not sure. I need to talk to her when she wakes up. See what she wants to do. For now she's in my quarters." Jason responded.

  "I told Willow that I would have some of the crew members help me bring her things to her room. I was looking for some volunteers." I added.

  "I think we’re all free." Jason said while looking at the uncharacteristically quiet duo, watching us talk.

  "Well I never say no when I get the chance to poke around someone's things with permission." Aria laughingly said.

  "She has a point. It's a good way to get an idea of what we are dealing with here."Mark commented in his gruff drawl.

  "You can't just talk to her to get to know her?" I asked them.

  "Some of us need more than what person tells us to get a feeling for who they actually are." Mark responded. "'Actions speak louder than words. Words cost nothing. Actions can cost everything.'" (Aleksandra Layland) As usual he summed up his point with an obscure quote. No one knew for sure where he got all of them from.

  "Let's get this squared away. We can do some harmless nosing around while we move things.” Jason paused, looking pointedly at Aria, and then continued, “But no getting into things that aren't in plain sight."

  The Waylay Docking Bay -Day 336- Mark Driver

  'Strangers take a long time to become acquainted, particularly when they are from the same family.' (M.E. Kerr) I remember reading that somewhere. It was definitely taking a long time for these brothers not to act like strangers to each other. You could see them struggling when the other acted in a way that they weren't expecting. They always seemed to be dancing around each other without really seeing who the other man had become.

  As the four of us made our way to the docking bay, I pondered on the new strangers we had taken onboard. The aunt was clearly Jason's "close" friend by the way he ran out of the bay with her. The caregiver of the baby had obviously caught Peter's eye. But all I could wonder was how this was going to affect the team that we had built up to this point. I would stick with Jason as long as he would have me, but adding new people into the mix was putting us in uncharted space.

  The front portion of the second ship had been retrofitted as an isolation chamber. It looked like the larger shipping hold in the rear hadn’t been used for housing. "The rear hold looks to be sealed. There could be cargo in it." I commented to no one in particular.

  "I think whatever she needs for the time being will be in the living space. Willow has been living in here for almost five months. We don't need to work on the hold yet." Peter said. I looked for Jason's reaction to his brother giving the orders. He looked like he was stopping himself from saying something cutting, by
counting to ten or another patience technique, before responding.

  "You spent the most time with her, Pete. Why don't you see if you can spot what you think she will need for the time being,” Jason told him. "Aria, look around make sure nothing needs special storage. Mark, you’re with me, let's see if we have any surprises in the hold."

  Peter was somewhat disgruntled by being ordered around, but he needed to remember he was on his brother’s ship not in his operating room.

  Jason used one of the Waylay’s computer links to gain access to the sealed hold. He hadn't asked the AI to do anything since he engaged the stardrive. It was rare to see him do this much hands on work with the ship. "Is everything ok, Cap?" I asked him when the others were out of earshot.

  "I need to have some talks with a few people. You know how much I enjoy that, Mark." He said with a wry smile. Our captain wasn't the most patient man by any stretch of the imagination, but he was trying to keep his ship running smoothly.

  As the cargo ramp lowered to the deck, we could see at least three bots closest to the airlock and a good number of crates filling the hold past them.

  "That’ll take awhile to go through." Jason said after he gave a soft whistle. Peter and Aria had emerged from the front and were starting up with what must be prepackaged boxes. "Are there more boxes ready to go up now, Pete?" He called in a louder voice.

  "Yes," was Peter’s short reply. Looks like little brother had himself in a snit again.

  Jason just shook his head and started to the front. "This is going to be a long night." He said to himself.

  The living space was smallish. To one side was a stack of five boxes. Willow must have had some advance warning that she would be moving soon. I picked up the top three and headed out the hatch. Jason was on my heels with the last two.

  "It's hard to imagine spending five months in a room that size with a newborn." I said.

  "It would take a certain kind of person not to go crazy in there." Jason replied.

  "Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self." (May Sarton) I quoted.

  "Let's hope she is a rich person then." Jason quipped back, smiling.

  The door to Willow’s room was open when we got there and we could hear Aria talking. "I'm Aria, sorry the doc failed to introduce anyone but himself earlier. Don't know what came over him. His manners are usually much better than that. This sweetheart is Mark." I nodded a hello. "He's our engineer, and this is our captain, the brother the doc mentioned before."

  "I've met the Captain." Willow said in a quiet voice.

  "That’s good, now why don't we chase the men out of here and I will help you get things unpacked. We can have some girl talk and get to know each other. I haven't had another woman to talk to in ages." Aria recommended.

  "Enjoy, ladies. We’ll get out of your way." Jason said, as he ushered Peter and I out of the rooms.

  "That was uncalled for." Peter said, letting his bruised feelings show in his tone.

  "Pete, Aria will help Willow feel more at home, and the last thing she needs is a bunch of men getting in the way. Did you really not introduce anyone else?" Jason teased while artfully redirecting the conversation.

  "I was focused on getting Echo examined." Peter seemed to be flustered by Jason teasing.

  "Oh, it was like we weren't even in the room." I added with a teasing smile.

  AlliedCorp Frigate D-373-446-XF -Day 337-

  "This is Captain Watts, reporting in, Sir." Said the man standing ramrod straight with his hands clasped behind his back. His gaze fixed on the vid screen in front of him.

  "You are contacting me much earlier than I expected." Replied the handsomely coiffed gentleman on the vid screen. He was seated behind a large wooden desk, the wall behind him, covered in what looked to be antique books, filled the vid screen. His eyes showed his warm pleasure from the early contact. "I hope our humanitarian efforts have been well received."

  "I'm very sorry to report that we experienced delays due to our stardrive underperforming. We have only just arrived. There is a warning broadcasting from the planet. Let me play it for you sir." The captain nodded his head and one of his crew opened the wavelength to hear the broadcast.

  "Do not approach. There is an electromagnetic pulse shield in place. Any ship attempting to land will be affected. Do not approach. There is an electro…" the crew member cut off the transmission partway through its second repetition.

  "We did a scan that showed no signs of human life. It appears there was a large fire that consumed Talia’s primary settlement. We launched a remote beacon. All signals were cut off as soon as it entered into Talia's atmosphere. It crashed into the planet, all signs point to the EMP shield being operational. How would you like us to proceed?" Captain Watt’s asked.

  All of the warmth in the gentleman’s eyes had drained away, upon hearing the captain’s report. "I see. Take as many readings as possible. Whatever information you can bring back will prove to be vital to salvage this mission."

  "Yes, of course sir.”

  The gentleman signed off and the captain’s screen returned to a view of the planet below.

  The Waylay Captain’s Quarters -Day 337- Ell Singer

  I’m trapped… drowning… only thick, black liquid surrounding me. I can't tell which way is up. I know I'm panicking. I'm fighting to find a way out. But there is no hope for escape, with a voice of an unseen face echoing through the liquid, “Subject Y-379 is responding as expected to the augmentation, yet she seems to be hyperventilating... Shall we proceed with next steps?” Followed by another voice, “Yes, the Subject must stay under longer… I’m sure she doesn’t feel anything.” I'm running out of time, out of air… then hands grab my shoulders and I'm surfacing.

  "Ell! Wake up!" Jason's gruff voice sounds even deeper with concern laced through it.

  "I'm awake. I'm ok." I tell him. My mind sluggishly registering my fear and terror are just emotional remnants from my nightmare. "It was just a really bad dream. Is everything ok?" I asked, hoping that I hadn’t missed something important while I was sleeping.

  Jason’s hands that had shaken me awake were now comfortingly drawing me into his chest.

  "We’re safe.” Jason stated, reassuring me. “That must have been some dream. Are they usually that bad?" He asked. The sound of his heart beating beneath my ear, his voice rumbling through his chest and his warmth combined with my still being bone tired was starting to lull me back to sleep already.

  "They only get like this when I try to do too much. How long did I sleep?" I asked ending with a yawn.

  "You have only been out for a few hours so far. Are you going to be able to get back to sleep again?" Was what I vaguely remember him saying as sleep overcame me.

  When I woke up again it was to the sound of soft snoring coming from beside and above me. My head was resting against Jason's thigh. He had fallen asleep sitting up in his bed. Watching over my dreams like a guardian angel.

  I moved back and shook him awake enough to get him to lay flat on the bed. He never truly woke up and was now breathing deep and quiet. With the room now being nearly silent, sleep quickly pulled me under once more.

  The third time I awoke, it was to the sound of running water coming from the bathroom. The lights had come up to their day cycle setting. The timepiece over the chest of drawers showed that it was 0612 ship time. All total, I had slept for almost twelve hours. The water shut off and Jason came out carrying what looked to be my clothes from the day before, which appeared to be freshly laundered. They all still had a blue tinge, but so did Jason's and my skin for that matter.

  "Good morning." I said. Trying to put the gratitude I felt for everything he had done for me into the smile that I gave him.

  "So far I can't complain." He replied with a teasing smile of his own. "How about I go get us something to eat, while you get changed and we can talk over our meal?"

  "Sounds like a solid plan to me." I replied. He turned and headed out of his quarters
. I used the bathroom to freshen up and get dressed. I was in the process of putting the bed to rights when he returned with a tray holding mugs of coffee and two large steaming bowls of what smelled like my favorite vegetable stew. I had raved to him about it after the first time I had tried it.

  "That smells so good." I said, my stomach choosing that moment to voice its opinion of the food with a loud rumble of its own.

  "After the way you went on about it I asked Gabriel to make some up. I've tried to keep everything on hand for it since then." He chuckled. We ate in silence for a few minutes, as I tried to come up with a way to talk about the one thing we hadn't, in all the years we had been in communication with each other.

  "So...you know what I was thinking, and I think I know how you felt about what I was thinking." Jason said, breaking our silence. I should have known Jason was going to tackle this head on. "Do you want to make this a true partnership? Finally tell everyone?" He asked me with such open honesty in his green eyes.

  I stood up from the table, and came around to his side without breaking contact with my husband’s beautiful eyes. "Yes." I breathed out. I'm not sure who moved first after that, but one moment we were staring into each other’s eyes and the next we were kissing. This sweet, funny, and handsome man, who had come to my rescue more than once, wanted me. "I think I have been falling in love with you a little more every day." I confessed.

  When we broke apart, we both put some distance between us. I started to put the used dishes back on the tray. I needed to find something to keep me busy. "How do you want to tell them?" I asked. I knew these people from their interactions with the AI and from some of their files; but Jason was their friend and their captain.

  "I think I should just introduce you as my wife. I'm pretty sure Pete thinks that I'm in love with my ship. It should be fun to see all of their reactions. What do you think?"