Vaz 4: Invaders

by Laurence E. Dahners

  A tear leaked out and ran down Reven’s cheek… trailing a faint dark stain from the mascara.

  She turned on the hot water and picked up her washcloth, This must be what they mean when they talk about “putting lipstick on a pig.”

  A few minutes later she was examining her reddened, freshly scrubbed, but makeup free face when she noticed makeup stains on the new blouse she’d spent so much time shopping for.

  Jerking off the blouse, she popped off a button.

  Fresh tears…

  Slouching down the stairs in her usual oversized T-shirt and old jeans she approached the breakfast table where her mother had bananas and cereal laid out. Clarice looked at her daughter and her eyes widened momentarily, but evidently the sullen look on Reven’s face made her think better of saying anything.

  ***

  Levon walked onto the bridge, wishing once again she had room to fly, even a few beats. On a ship this big, you’d think they could have left a small space where the crew could fly short distances! Levon knew how difficult it had been to pack everything they wanted into the ship. She was aware of the compromises that’d been made and the equipment they didn’t bring for lack of space. When they’d discussed those things before leaving home she’d thought the decisions were reasonable.

  Now that she was captaining this ship of the damned, she felt certain that somehow they could have found space to allow just a few wing beats of flight! She often tried to think of a way some part of the ship could have been dual-purposed so that the crew could fly there occasionally, even if not frequently. She hadn’t thought of a solution herself as yet, but she felt certain the engineers could have—if only they’d understood how critical it was.

  Levon thought even more about flying now than she had before. No doubt that was because they’d moved far enough from their closest approach to this star that the ship’s temperature had dropped into an almost comfortable range. In a few more days, she thought, the temperature on board might actually be pleasant. Unfortunately, even before the temperature had become tolerable, she’d already begun to dread that point in their elliptical orbit—hundreds of days from now—when they once again got close enough to the star for her to be miserable. And then would have to go through the agony of transition again.

  The sense of dread made her want to kill someone.

  Climbing onto her rest, she forced herself to think and talk like a captain. “All systems nominal?”

  Her bridge crew returned a susurrus of benign responses.

  “Fourth Officer,” she said to the replacement who’d been brought up out of hibernation. When he’d looked up at her, she continued, “What have you discovered of this new system? Are there any promising planets?”

  Fourth glanced at Second Officer, so recently promoted out of the position he now held, but the glance was brief and his eyes immediately turned back to his captain. “Ma’am, we’ve found three planets so far, but based on their locations I’m certain that we’ll find more as we swing around the star.”

  Levon grunted, “What have you found so far?”

  “One small airless world very close to the star. A larger rocky world, also fairly close to the star, but having a dense carbon dioxide atmosphere. The third planet is a gas giant which is fairly far out from the sun. Historical observation of other solar systems would lead us to expect several more planets or a lot of asteroids between the carbon dioxide planet and the gas giant.”

  Levon grunted again, “What we expect and what we get are often very different. Keep looking! We must find the bodies of interest quickly so that missions to explore them won’t require excessive amounts of propellant!” She closed her eyes, There I go, stating the obvious… again. Most of the time Levon felt like her mental processes had improved, but then she’d catch herself haranguing the crew about things they couldn’t change or telling them things they certainly already knew.

  She didn’t look at them for fear of what she might see in their eyes…

  ***

  Boston, Massachusetts — At the AAS this past weekend NYU Professor Eldon Weiss presented findings from his group’s study of samples they’d obtained from some of the metallic M-type asteroids GSI has returned to Earth as a part of their mining efforts. When asked at the end of his presentation if they’d learned anything about other types of asteroids, he let GSI have it with both barrels. “We’ve only learned this much about the M-type asteroids by requesting cast-off samples from the earthbound processing facilities that separate the salable metals for GSI. If the company wasn’t so focused on its crassly commercial endeavors, providing us just a few small samples of other asteroids could enable huge advances in our understanding of the formation of the solar system and its current state!”

  Reven stood uncertainly in the hall just down from Eddie’s history class. Her English class was just across the hall, so it wasn’t weird to be standing there. More importantly, Eddie’s girlfriend Kate had PE two buildings away. Reven had hoped she would run into Eddie on the way here, but that hadn’t happened. Now she wondered what excuse she had for standing in the hall. After a moment’s indecision, she leaned up against the wall and stared unseeingly up at her HUD while actually focusing her attention on her peripheral vision of the denizens of the hallway.

  In her original plan she would have been pretty by now—well, if not pretty, at least… cute. That plan had been torpedoed by the makeup debacle this morning. At the very least I should be wearing my new jeans, she thought bitterly.

  She’d just decided to give it up for today and try it tomorrow when Eddie came around the corner, “Hey Reven.”

  Pretending to be surprised to see him, Reven said, “Hey Eddie, you doin’ good?”

  “Doin’ good,” he replied, then a little hesitation in his stride suggested that he might want to say something more.

  It was the best conversation she and Eddie’d had for months. However, despite the momentary hesitation, he evidently thought better of it and continued on. Desperate to resuscitate this meager conversation, Reven said, “Hey, I got a line on some thrust discs.”

  Eddie hesitated again and turned toward her, “Thrust discs?”

  “Yeah, you know, like we used to talk about puttin’ under our boards.” She lifted an eyebrow, “Makin’ a fly-board!”

  “Oh,” Eddie said, sounding surprised. “Cool,” then he turned and stepped into his history classroom.

  As she ruthlessly choked back tears and turned into her English class, Reven thought to herself, “I haven’t even seen him on a board for a long time. Maybe he thinks they’re kid’s stuff.” She sat down and blinked a couple of times, hoping she wouldn’t have to wipe her eyes.

  Victor settled into the seat next to hers. “I heard what you said to Eddie about putting thrust discs under a board! That’d be really cool!”

  Reven nodded jerkily without looking at Victor. She didn’t want him to see the hollowness in her eyes. Besides, Victor was short.

  ***

  Unnerved, Nolan stared at the message on his HUD. “Have some fun people you’ve got to meet! See you at Wister’s deli 9 PM? We’ll have a blast!”

  It was from Carolyn.

  Since she’d fed him bagels and cream cheese that morning of his hangover, he hadn’t seen or heard from her. His guilt at not contacting her, at least to say thanks, had been warring with his gratitude that she hadn’t started bitching at him.

  Never before in his life had he slept with someone the night he’d met them. While they’d definitely slept together, Nolan was embarrassed to say that he still didn’t know whether they’d had sex. He’d found his AI in the living room that next morning, so there wasn’t any audio-video record of whatever might have happened that night.

  Or, actually, that early morning.

  He certainly couldn’t ask Carolyn. Not least because he hadn’t seen her since.

  Sometimes his mind rolled nostalgically through the memorable events of the evening he’d spent with her. Her magnetic
personality. The way everyone, not just Nolan, was drawn to her like moths to a flame. She’d just been so damn much fun!

  And she was so pretty.

  If they’d had sex, he felt like his inability to remember it constituted an absolute tragedy. It’d probably been phenomenal!

  He hoped.

  That first day, swamped with guilt, he’d worried that she would call. He had no idea how to let someone down easy. Essentially, he’d never had a serious relationship break up.

  He’d never had a really serious relationship—until Tiona.

  Though, he thought, I can’t call this… fling… with Carolyn a serious relationship either. We only spent one night together.

  The second day after that night with Carolyn, he’d began to feel a little relief that she wasn’t calling to pester him. The third day, he’d started to wonder if he was so unmemorable that she had no reason to call. Nonetheless, he’d brutally reminded himself to be grateful for his lack of noteworthiness.

  Besides, with Carolyn’s charisma, almost anyone must pale in comparison. She must meet ten people a week that were more interesting than Nolan. Hell, being alone with herself has got to be more interesting than hanging around with me!

  He glanced back up at his HUD, conflicted. It was exciting to think that Carolyn would like to see him again. And, he didn’t have anything to do this evening.

  Just like most nights.

  Nolan would like to spend his evenings with Tiona. And his days as well. But he didn’t really even know what Tiona was doing. Probably she was off doing something exciting for GSI. He knew she’d made multiple trips out to the belt. The saucers typically visited several asteroids on each trip obtaining specimens. Only after that did they lasso one and return with it. That’d be fun to do, he thought. I should ask her if I can go along. Or make a few trips with the asteroid team even if she’s not going. It’d give me something to do and get me out of the house. Where I’m moldering!

  Sometimes he wondered if Tiona was just as bored as he was. Perhaps she was waiting for him to call her. But, when they did get together, she told him enough about GSI’s multiplicity of projects to give him the impression she had endless demands on her time. Which left him wondering why she was so busy developing her technology and he was merely collecting royalties on his.

  Perhaps he should be actively engaged in the search for more uses for multi-monolayer graphene? Though there were plenty of other people out there finding uses for it. If he found another use it wouldn’t bring in significantly more money.

  He had this conversation with himself frequently, and at this point he usually reminded himself that money wasn’t the only reason for scientific study.

  Nolan realized that the main reason he was investing so much time in these different lines of thought was that he was actively avoiding the need to deal with the message from Carolyn.

  I could just ignore it, he thought. She might send another, but if I ignore them all, surely she’ll get the message. Then he thought, What message? That I’m a complete A-hole? Like so many other men?

  No, I should message her back and… say what? That I don’t want to go? That I’ve already got a serious girlfriend—sorry I didn’t tell you about her that night we spent together? Isn’t it just as bad to break up by messaging? Well, probably not as bad as just ignoring her messages, but… Hell, she may not even think we have a relationship to break up. Maybe she just thinks we had a fun fling together—if we actually did any flinging? But if there is a relationship there to break up, and, if I’m the decent human being I believe myself to be, I’ve got to meet her and tell her in person. Or, at the very least, try to figure out if she thinks there’s a relationship.

  Nolan spoke to his AI, “Send a message to Carolyn. ‘I’ll be there, sounds like fun.’”

  After the message was irretrievably gone, Nolan realized that her message, “Have some fun people you’ve got to meet,” meant that he and Carolyn wouldn’t be alone. Such a situation would hardly be conducive to talking to her about… whether we’re breaking up any relationship that might have been present. I should send another message saying I’ve realized I can’t do it. Maybe the next time she invites me somewhere it’ll be more of a one on one situation. He thought about it for another few minutes, then decided he really should just get it over with. Surely there’d be some moment in the evening where he could talk to her alone. Or even just drop something into the conversation about “my girlfriend Tiona.”

  ***

  Levon’s communicator chimed. It was Second Officer. “Yes?!” she responded irritably, even though she’d promised herself that she’d control her emotions better. The temperature was fine now so she really had no excuse for her continued irascibility. “Never mind. I’m on my way to the bridge,” she said more evenly.

  When Levon arrived on the bridge Second spoke calmly to her. Levon thought second used a more tranquil tone than had been her habit before transition. She wondered if perhaps Second had been affected by the transition as well, but worried that the officer spoke that way in an effort to calm Levon. Second said, “You asked to be notified of any significant findings. Our instruments suggest that the carbon dioxide atmosphere of the large rocky planet is quite dense. This would provide a significant source of carbon and oxygen.”

  “I know that!” Levon snapped.

  Unperturbed, Second continued, “I would recommend we send a mechanical probe to that planet in order to measure the density accurately and confirm atmospheric composition.”

  An order I should have given, perhaps even before she told me about the atmospheric density, Levon thought with frustration. Unwilling to admit she hadn’t thought of it, Levon cast about for a question to ask that would suggest Second hadn’t given her enough information as yet. “Have you detected any signs of life?”

  Second waved her muzzle in negation, “There should be some oxygen present if DNA-based life had established a foothold.” She paused a moment to eye Levon as if wondering what her captain remembered from previous briefings, then continued, “Although we can’t be certain, readings would suggest temperatures well above the boiling point of water so…”

  Now remembering their previous discussions of the likely temperatures, Levon interrupted, “Yes, yes!” She turned to Third Officer, “Prep and deploy a mechanical probe to go to this carbon dioxide planet, measurements to be made according to Second’s recommendations.”

  Third gave Levon a curious look, “What kind of transfer orbit?”

  Levon stared. Did she want Levon to calculate an orbit for her?! Had she been affected by the transition also? “Second is the navigator,” Levon said icily, “she’ll calculate the transfer orbit for you!”

  “Oh, no ma’am,” Third said. “We’ll calculate the orbit, I just wanted to know whether you considered this a priority, or whether a high-efficiency low-speed transfer orbit should be used in order to save propellant for other missions.”

  Oh, Levon thought as understanding blossomed in her. Rather than admit that she should have known what Third was asking, she evinced anger, “High-efficiency of course! It needs to get there soon enough to send us the data before we leave this damned system. Don’t waste propellant getting it there any sooner than that.” Levon turned abruptly and hunched unseeingly over her screens for a while, then suddenly left the bridge and headed back to her tiny cabin.

  Levon didn’t see her officers glancing uncomfortably at one another as she left. Second and Third officers both turned to look at Fifth Officer. Third Officer said, “What did the doctor say?”

  Fifth Officer shrugged his wings frustratedly. “He says he can’t tell anything without examining her.”

  “I thought he examined everyone that’s not hibernating?!”

  Fifth gave a sharp muzzle wave, “He’s supposed to. The captain’s supposed to have presented herself for the examination. She hasn’t.”

  “He should go to her!” Third Officer exclaimed.

  “And how’s h
e going to convince her to step down without a scan?”

  “Then he should demand she come in for a scan. It’s his job. The regulations say he has to do it and that she must submit.”

  Fifth looked exasperated. “He’s a male. And a doctor. Talk about a recipe for non-confrontational interactions! I told him to do it.” Fifth glanced at Second, “He said if Second wanted it done, Second needed to tell the captain to go see him. He said, as second-in-command, it’s your job.”

  For a moment, Fifth thought Second would explode. Her jaw twitched several times, but then she nodded once sharply, “Of course. As Second, it’s my job to take over for anyone who’s shirking their duty.” Looking disgusted she turned back to her own screens.

  ***

  Nolan entered the deli and looked around. He’d eaten before he came with the express purpose of talking to Carolyn quickly about his prior commitment to Tiona, making his apologies, and getting out of there. He had to escape before she talked him into having a few drinks and then led him on another whirlwind.

  He didn’t see her, so he moved into Wister’s and began walking around to look into the booths. Just as he’d about decided that he’d been stood up, hands slipped over his eyes and a feminine body pressed up against his back. “Guess who?!”

  Even though cognitively, he thought that the maneuver was passé and childish, emotionally he found himself excited, “Carolyn?!”

  “Yes!” she said, releasing his eyes and grabbing his hand. Towing him across the room, she said, “You’ve got to meet Randy and Jana!” She slid into the booth and pointed at a foaming glass, “I got you one of those Guinness you like.” She turned to the couple on the other side of the booth, saying, “This is Nolan Marlowe, you know, the guy that went out to the asteroid with Tiona Gettnor and helped rescue the two astronauts? He claims he didn’t do much, but I think that’s pretty freaking awesome!”