by Neal Jones
"Then what is to be done?" Erengaar replied. "I will add the Federation to my empire's domain in my lifetime. What do you need from me to ensure that victory?"
{PATIENCE. THERE ARE ALWAYS OTHER POSSIBILITIES.}
The space inside the transfield crumpled again, taking its occupant with it, and the portal reformed into its original shape. The interior of Vuil'SN's ship was on the other side. The lighting in the study returned to its normal level.
"For now," the representative instructed, "proceed with the cleanup of the shipyards and that sector, but begin nothing else. We will contact you soon to discuss further plans." He bowed once more and then crossed the field. It vanished a moment later.
Erengaar sat behind his desk, suddenly feeling very cold and very afraid. But then he scolded himself for giving in so easily to his fear. The Collective were his allies. What was there to be afraid of? For the last one hundred and thirty years they had willingly aided the Jha'Drok, and all they wanted in return was one star system. Now, in the aftermath of this latest debacle, the Ko'Mar were one again willing to help the Emperium, and still they asked for no compensation.
As Erengaar considered the situation further, he decided it was best to learn more about the dark strangers who had shown up unannounced more than a century ago. That was another mistake of his father's and grandfather's that he could rectify, and was almost dawn before he finished working out the preliminary details.
Chapter 28
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( 1 )
It was three days after the attack on Exxar-One and the destruction of Serehl's renegade fleet that Commodore Gabriel opened his eyes and carefully pulled himself into a sitting position. He coughed, and the nurse on duty in ICU that morning looked up from her station in the far corner of the spacious room. She reached for her medscanner and then tapped her commlink.
"Spencer to Doctor Rosenberg."
"This is Rosenberg."
"Commodore Gabriel is awake, sir."
"I'll be there in ten. Rosenberg out."
PO2 Spencer stopped by the food processor on her way to Gabriel and procured a cup of cold water for him. As he gingerly sipped, she looked at the display on the bio-monitor and noted his vitals on her compad. She then conducted a full bio-scan and nodded with approval as the readouts matched the figures she had just notated in his chart.
"Could I have another, please?" Gabriel croaked, handing back the empty cup.
"Sure. Just lay back and relax. The doctor will be here soon."
Gabriel obeyed. Every part of him throbbed with the kind of deep ache that can only come from severe physical trauma. He closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. All he wanted was to go back to sleep for another week, and when the petty officer returned with the cup of water, Gabriel drank it all in one gulp. "One more time, please."
"I'll get a bigger glass," she said with a smile.
Doctor Rosenberg entered just then, striding quickly to the commodore's bedside and reaching for the compad that contained his chart. "How do you feel?"
"Like I spent a week inside a stardrive reactor." Gabriel coughed, reaching gratefully for the glass of water.
"You look like it." Rosenberg nodded approvingly at his patient's chart. "You're recovering nicely, although I'm going to recommend another day of bed rest here before I discharge you, and then another week, at minimum, of rest and time off."
"You won't get any argument out of me."
"Good. What's your pain level right now? On a scale of one to ten, with one being the least."
"Probably a five, maybe a six."
Rosenberg nodded. "That's what I was expecting. Serehl came very close to doing permanent damage to your spinal cord and central nervous system. You're going feel like this for several days, at least. The most I can do is prescribe some medication that will ease it a little, but it won't mask it completely. That's why I've ordered at least another week of rest." He entered the notes into Gabriel's chart and then passed it on to the nurse. "It's a little after zero-nine-hundred right now. Go back to sleep, if you can. Otherwise, watch some HT or read a book. I'm not allowing any visitors until this afternoon. If you want, I can outlaw the discussion of any station business."
"No. I'd prefer the distraction. I think I'll be up to it."
"Okay. Then Major Saveck and Captain McKenna will be your first guests after lunch. Do you want breakfast?"
"Some toast and coffee?"
"Toast and orange juice."
"Fine. And maybe some fruit."
Rosenberg turned to Spencer and accepted the hypo. "You get that?"
"Coming right up."
While she returned to the food processor, Rosenberg injected the pain medication into Gabriel's IV. "Give that a minute. I'll be back to check on you before lunch. Have Petty Officer Spencer call me if you need anything."
"Thanks, doctor."
Gabriel allowed the nurse to prop his back with another pillow and he nibbled at his toast and fruit while sipping the OJ. He wasn't the only patient, but he was relieved to see that at least half the beds were empty. Perhaps the battle hadn't been as devastating as he had earlier assumed. He was anxious to hear Saveck's report, but Rosenberg was right. It could wait another few hours, and the commodore paged Spencer to take away his empty plate and glass. He suddenly felt exhausted, as if he'd just completed a 20K marathon, and as he laid back down, his last thought before drifting to sleep was of Mariah. She should be the one to visit him first. The next thing he knew, Spencer was gently nudging him awake and asking him what he wanted for lunch.
( 2 )
Mariah entered her quarters and set the pet carrier on the coffee table. Josh and Tjase were on the couch, deep into a game of Galaxy War, and since main power had yet to be restored, they were forced to play on a portable holo-viewer whose battery life was probably almost at an end.
Josh spared a sideways glance at the carrier. "What is that?"
"Pause the game for a sec. I have something to show you."
Josh obeyed, and both boys turned to the coffee table.
"One of the pet shops on the promenade suffered heavy damage during the attack, and the owner was giving away his merchandise to good homes." Mariah released the lock on the carrier's door and something that looked like a cross between an iguana and a housecat poked its head out to look around. It had two pair of almond-shaped eyes, and all four blinked in unison as its forked, pink tongue flicked in and out of its mouth to taste the scents in the air.
"Eeeewwww," Tjase commented. "That thing is ugly! What is it?"
Siyri entered from the kitchen just in time to hear her son's comment, and it was his turn to be smacked on the back of the head. "Be nice. It's an estuck, native to the tropical forests of Sovohk." Until new quarters could be assigned to her, Siyri and Tjase were staying with Mariah and Josh.
"That's right," the science officer replied. "The shop owner said this one is a male, and he's been fixed, but I doubt that would be a problem anyway because the guy said this one's the only one on the station. He's also had all of his shots and we just need to take him to the vet once a year for a regular checkup."
The estuck had stepped from the carrier and crept to the edge of the table. Josh put out his hand, and his new pet sniffed for a few seconds before applying a vigorous bath with his tongue. The preteen laughed, and the sound caused an unexpected lump in his mother's throat. She suddenly realized that she hadn't heard that sound from him in a long, long time, and as she watched Joshua sit back and allow the animal to curl in his lap, she swiped her eyes. "Siyri, could you and Tjase give us a minute?"
"Sure." She prodded her son to stand up. "Let's go finish dinner."
Mariah sat next to Josh and watched him play with the animal for several moments. She wondered why she hadn't thought of this long ago, and it was clear that he and the estuck were going to get along well. "What are you going to name him?"
The boy shrugged. "I dunno. What sounds good?"
&nbs
p; "I had a cat when I was your age. I called him Chanticleer."
Josh wrinkled his nose. "That's a weird name."
Mariah chuckled. "I liked the sound of it, and one of your grandmother's favorite books is Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. She read it to me when I was a kid, and Chanticleer was the name of the rooster. I guess it just stuck with me."
"Chanticleer," Josh repeated. He tickled the animal's tummy, which felt like tanned leather. "He looks kind of like a monkey."
"Yeah, he doesn't really have paws, does he?" The animal's body and limbs looked like those of an iguana's, the head was shaped like a cat's, but where his paws should have been were hands and feet instead, kind of like a monkey's. His charcoal fur stopped at the tail, which was as long as a cat's and as leathery as the belly. And like the creature's unusually lengthy tongue, the tail was forked at the end.
Tjase was right. The thing was ugly, and the more Mariah looked at it, the more she wondered if maybe the pet shop owner had been conducting secret genetic experiments in his basement. Josh turned the animal right side up and let him climb up his arm. He perched on the boy's shoulder and looked around, blinking his four eyes and looking positively sentient.
"Yeah, why not?" Joshua said. "Chanticleer it is." He craned his neck to meet his pet's gaze. "You like that name."
Chanticleer opened his mouth and made a sound that was a cross between a chirp and a flup. He flicked his tongue a couple times and made the sound again. Flurp. Josh laughed and stroked the animal's head, in the space between his oddly shaped ears. Flurp.
"Josh," Mariah said. "We need to talk for a minute." She waited until she had his full attention. "If you want, you can go back to Earth to live and grandpa and grandma."
"Really?"
Mariah nodded.
He thought about it for a bit, watching Chanticleer climb down into his lap and then off to explore the rest of the couch and the living room. Mariah waited patiently, sensing the emotional turmoil within him, and hoping that he would choose to stay with her on Exxar-One.
"It wasn't that bad, you know. During the battle, I mean. It was scary at first, but Tjase had been through stuff like that before, except that I had to work the scanner. I was kinda surprised he didn't know how to do it."
"I was worried about that when I accepted this assignment and decided to make you come with me." The science officer nervously adjusted the front of her uniform. "I thought that a starbase like Exxar-One would offer more opportunities for someone your age than a starship. But I didn't think we'd be facing a battle like that so soon, and I'm sorry I wasn't here."
"It's okay, mom." Chanticleer found the bag of food and toys that Mariah had set beside the pet carrier. Josh leaned forward to assist the estuck. "Yeah, I'll stay here." He glanced at the closed kitchen door and then lowered his voice. "I kind of like Tjase, but he's a pain in the ass sometimes."
"Hey, none of that language, thank you!" Mariah swiped at her eyes once more and then reached out to tousle her son's hair. "You can be a pain in the rear, too, ya know. Give it some time. I think you boys have more in common than you think. And if you still have trouble, I'll talk to his mother." She stood. "I've got to get back to work. I'll be home for dinner. Have Chanticleer help you clean your room."
Josh was still smoothing his hair back into place, and his pet was munching happily on a handful of raisins.
"What's that? I didn't hear a response."
"Yes, mother. Goodbye."
"Love you, too."
After she was gone, Josh smiled to himself and tousled his pet's head the same way his mother had done his. Tjase was wrong. Chanticleer wasn't ugly. He wasn't cute by any stretch of the imagination, but he wasn't ugly either. "Come on. Let's get some lunch and then we can play Galaxy War."
( 3 )
Major Saveck handed Gabriel a compad and allowed the commodore a few minutes to peruse the first of several dozen reports that had been waiting for his attention.
"The FCE team arrived this morning, and Commander Garrett has assured me that main power and systems will be fully restored by tomorrow at oh-six-hundred. There's also a report from Doctor Rosenberg in there about the final casualty and fatality numbers. They aren't as high as I expected, considering the odds."
Gabriel had already brought up that particular report, and he nodded in agreement. "Have you selected a new chief of security?"
"Not yet. I wanted your input, first."
"The decision's yours, major. It needs to be done ASAP, and I'm on leave for a week."
"Yes, sir. Captain, why don't you tell him about your discovery."
McKenna nodded and handed her compad to Gabriel. "This is my official report, but you can read the details later." She summed in a few paragraphs the discovery of the brain room, Ilkara's awakening, and the Erayan's history lesson, and then sat back and waited for Gabriel's questions.
The commodore was stunned by the account, and it took him several minutes before he had fully assimilated the information. "You said that Doctor Burke is still studying - what was her name again?"
"Ilkara. And yes, the Erayan hasn't been allowed outside the infirmary since coming aboard the Dauntless. Jo is confident that Ilkara's unique and advanced physiology won't cause any harm to us. I think she was specifically worried about the Erayan's aggressive immune system, but all tests so far have come up negative where biological contagion is concerned. Jo would like to keep her in quarantine for another couple weeks, maybe a month at the most, just to be absolutely sure. Now that we're back home, there's a few specialists she'd like to bring to Exxar-One to look at Ilkara, and they won't arrive for several days."
"That's understandable, and I'll defer to her judgment in this matter - and yours as well." Gabriel scanned the index on the pad's screen and frowned as he highlighted the last item on the list. He looked up at the officers. "A Jha'Drok defector?"
McKenna smiled. "Why don’t you take this one, major?"
Saveck proceeded to enlighten the commodore about Jolan Nejra and his reasons for requesting asylum. When the major finished, Gabriel looked as skeptical as Saveck and McKenna had two days earlier.
"Well, that's ... interesting."
"Yes, that's what we thought as well," Saveck replied. "I still haven't given him an answer, and the only people who are aware of Nejra's presence here are the Dauntless bridge crew, a few security officers, Lieutenant Commander Lee and us."
"So you haven't informed Brantar Varis?"
"No. She and her scout team returned yesterday afternoon. They brought us visual records of the assault fleet, which answers the question of whether or not Jolan was telling us the truth. I've included on there" - he indicated the compad in Gabriel's lap - "a copy of the tactical scans and Varis' after-action report. Senator Nejra was right about that fleet's offensive capabilities. If it had launched as scheduled, the Federation would be fighting a massive war on multiple fronts right now. I'm not convinced about his claims of prophetic visions, but whatever his reasons, we owe him some gratitude."
"Hmm." Gabriel pondered this for a minute or two, and then frowned as something occurred to him. "Did he say anything about the Emperium's hypergate?"
Saveck thought for a moment and then scowled as well. "No, he didn't. I forgot about that."
"So did I," McKenna added. "It's possible it was destroyed with the rest of the shipyards."
"Possibly," Gabriel echoed. He cleared his throat and reached for his cup of water on the tray next the bed. "Tell the senator that I'm willing to grant him asylum, but I don't want Varis to know about his presence here." He laid the pair of compads next to his glass. "I'll read the rest of this later. Thank you, both, for your work and keep me updated as needed."
Saveck and McKenna stood. "Yes, sir," the major responded. He deactivated the anti-surveillance device and pocketed it while the captain drew back the curtain that had formed a divider between Gabriel's space and the rest of ICU.
The commodore watched them go, feeling thoroughly exha
usted even though he had done nothing more all day than eat his meals and carry on a conversation. He laid back and closed his eyes, taking deep breaths, and he was on the verge of a catnap when something nudged his feet.
"Knock, knock."
Gabriel smiled as he recognized the voice and when he opened his eyes, he saw Mariah plopping herself in the chair that Saveck had just vacated.
"If this is a bad time, I can go."
"Not at all." He pressed the key on his control pad to raise the head of the bed into a sitting position, and then he took another sip of water. He was surprised to feel a sudden, overwhelming desire for his Scotch, and he wondered briefly if Mariah would be willing to smuggle some into the ICU for him.
"You look like shit."
"Thanks. I appreciate the honesty." They shared a laugh.
"I know you've probably been asked a hundred times already today, but how do you feel?"
"Like shit." Another chuckle. "Seriously, though, I'm just grateful to still be alive."
Mariah nodded. She didn't know what to say, and the silence between them turned unexpectedly awkward. They both spoke at once.
"Mariah, I -"
"Marc -"
They stopped, and she motioned for him to go first.
"I'm sorry. You were right. I was stupid and I acted like an idiot, and I apologize. And unless you feel otherwise, I don't think anything more needs to be said. I'm glad that you're part of my staff, and I look forward to working with you."
The simplicity of his words and the honesty of the emotion behind them caused a sudden and unanticipated response in Mariah. She had come here prepared to divulge a secret, to tell Marc about the unexpected pregnancy that had resulted from their one night together on Kelatia. But his statement made her reevaluate her decision, and she decided to trust her initial instincts. He was willing to bury the past, to start a new chapter in their friendship, and he was right. There was no need for her to unnecessarily complicate matters now, and she reached out to lay her hand over his.
