Embers of War (Adventures of the Starship Satori Book 8)

by Kevin McLaughlin

  “That was not a fun encounter. The ship decloaked off my stern, and then engaged a tractor beam on the Satori,” Beth said. “Neither of those things are technologies the Naga seem to possess, based on any of our encounters.”

  “Nor is there a mention of such sciences in their satellite database,” Majel said.

  “Which means you’re probably right and there’s another race out there,” Ayala agreed. “I just want us to keep our options open, is all. If this is some sort of civil war within the Naga race, we might be able to play both sides off against each other.”

  “If it’s a third race, we might be able to enlist their help against the Naga,” Hereford said. “But considering the technology we’ve seen that ship exhibit - there’s only one other example of cloaking technology that we’ve run into, and it’s on the Satori. Also, they didn’t just blow your ship away when they saw you, Beth.”

  “No, they tried to capture me,” she replied. Which was interesting, when she thought about it. Was that because the species running that ship had been innately curious, interested in seeing who and what she was? “It could be they noticed the Satori’s engine signature and recognized it as one of their own.”

  “My thinking exactly,” Hereford said. “This might be the ancient race which built the original vessel you found.”

  The Satori was built around the framework of an ancient alien engine. From that engine it drew enormous power, enabling it to mount powerful railgun weapons. It also had artificial gravity, sub-light engines with inertial dampening that kept them all from being splattered by the amazing acceleration, a cloaking device - even if that was no longer working, and the wormhole drive which allowed the ship to move almost instantly between two distant points.

  The Naga had some of this technology, but not others. They’d never seen any sign of wormhole or cloaking technology from the Naga. Instead, they made their way between star-systems using a folded space technology, bending space like ripples on the surface of a lake in front of their ship. The Earth team assessing and studying the drives had taken to calling it a ‘hyperspace’ engine. It wasn’t an especially scientific shorthand, but Beth was just glad they hadn’t gone with ‘warp drive’.

  “We don’t know a lot about that race,” Beth said. “We know that Dust - the world the Naga destroyed - was once inhabited by a race with the same technology as the Satori uses. But what happened to them and why they were fighting the Naga in the first place is anyone’s guess.”

  “Not for long,” Hereford said, wearing a wolfish smile.

  “I think we’re finally getting our marching orders,” Beth said to Ayala. He nodded back, his expression cool.

  Their relationship had improved since she saved his life, but he still got distant at times. Ayala was more than competent. As a field commander, he’d done a fantastic job of keeping most of his people alive against incredible odds. But he had a hard side to him that Beth was having trouble breaking through. She was more used to the easy going and laid-back style of the old Satori. Major Ayala seemed more at home in a rigorously military environment.

  Sooner or later they’d find a place to meet in the middle. In the meantime, it caused a little strain in their relationship. He’d agreed to stay on, and Beth had agreed to allow him to despite their differences, because there was too much at stake to not have their best people on board the Satori.

  “You are indeed,” Hereford said. “I’d like you to go to the Dust world. See how things are going there, and drop off a team to do a more rigorous exploration of the place. Then go back to Cyan. Your primary mission there will be to re-establish contact with the sentient life there. If we’re to build some sort of contact with either the Naga or these Kkiktchikut, then it would be helpful to have translators available to us.”

  “Things were strained the last time we were there. I don’t know how happy they will be to see us,” Beth warned.

  “I’m aware of that. Do what you can,” Hereford replied. “That mission aside, I also want you to learn everything you can about the destruction of that station. Avoid hostile contact with enemy forces if possible, but look for clues. We need to know who this other player is, and whether or not we can work with them. Intelligence is more important to us than anything else, at this point.”

  Beth leaned back in her seat. It was a tall set of orders. The team to Dust, which would mean getting past the Naga defense satellites. They no longer had a cloaking device to enable them to quietly slip past. Then a second mission into a system fraught with peril both in space and under the water. It was a lot to load on their plate.

  “One thing, sir. Majel - what’s the status on our wormhole drive?” Beth asked. The AI had been worried about turning on the drive. She’d done so, but only in the most extreme of circumstances, to save Beth’s life. The new ship built around her was like having a new body, and for lack of a better word Majel was afraid to go through a wormhole in the new form. Beth didn’t bring up the fear directly. But she needed to know if Majel was up for this. There was a pause before the AI replied.

  “A long-range jump should be precisely what we need to calibrate the wormhole device properly,” Majel replied. Was that hesitation in her voice? She sounded thoughtful, at least. How much of the old fear remained?

  “Dust should be a good target, then. It’s one we’ve jumped to enough times in the past. You should have a good data set to compare against,” Beth replied.

  “It will suffice,” Majel said.

  “Good, that’s settled then. Land at the base and I’ll have the crew you’re dropping off embark. You’ll pick up Charline from the moon on the way out. She’ll be leading this mission, since she knows the planet,” Hereford said.

  The old team was being stretched thin. They were the only ones who had experience outside the solar system, so it made sense to use them as much as possible for exploration and discovery missions. But Beth worried about her friends. Also about herself. All of them had each other to count on, before. They knew that everyone on the Satori’s team was dedicated to bringing them all home. Split up, they were going to have to build new teams.

  She looked across at Ayala. That was what she was trying to do here, on this new Satori. It was going to take time, though. Even the original Satori crew hadn’t merged into a perfect team at their first crisis. Beth hoped they had enough time to learn to make the most of these new people they were leading.

  “Understood, sir,” Beth said, keeping the rest of her thoughts to herself. “We’ll be down Earth-side shortly, and be ready to depart again as soon as the mission team is aboard.”

  Four

  Dan wasn’t spending much time in the captain’s chair anymore. With his crew still so light-handed, he didn’t have a dedicated communications officer. Of all the stations on the bridge, that was the most important, so that was where he spent his time. Mostly he sat, waiting. The Naga had sent two more transmissions, each one more urgent than the last according to the translations Majel’s program was giving him.

  It sounded like they were in trouble and needed Garul and his ship as much as he needed them. Which might be useful for Earth and might not. A lot depended on the nature of whoever it was they were fighting. While Dan had a hard time imagining anything worse than the Naga, he had a good mind and too much time on his hand.

  Wishing ill on an enemy was one thing. But whatever had the Naga so rattled that they were using terms like ‘terror’ and ‘death’ to describe it might be just as bad for his race as it was for theirs.

  A flashing light alerted him to another incoming call. He routed the message through the translation software. He’d done this enough times that he knew what he was dealing with by then. There were a few seconds of delay while the translation was processed, and then the computer would give him the British version of the Naga words. Dan routed the message through to his ear microphone. It was better to keep them to himself, at least until he knew what the content was.

  Dan glanced around the br
idge. Only two other crew were present. Lieutenant Pearson was at the helm, which meant he was mostly staring at his console for the time being. The ship maintained a stable orbit without much need for human assistance. The other crew was Colonel Martelle, who’d positioned himself over at the weapons console and had a tablet out. He looked to be reading a book. No signs of stress in the man at all. He’d simply adapted to the new environment of space like it was anyplace else. Dan shook his head, feeling a surge of admiration for the Marine. If only he could be so relaxed.

  The message began piping through to his earpiece.

  “Commander Garul, you have not responded to our earlier messages. Comply and report with your ship to the home system immediately. We will dispatch a battlecruiser to your last known location within an hour if you have not responded by then.”

  Dan sat bolt upright in his chair as the last bit of the message played through. Martelle noticed and quietly put the tablet down.

  “Trouble?” Martelle asked.

  “They don’t like Garul not reporting in after he contacted them. It sounds like they wrangled up a ship to send after him,” Dan replied.

  “I thought their fleet was all tied up fighting someone else?”

  “Either they found a ship, or they’re bluffing. Either way, I think it might be time to reach out to them,” Dan said. “We do not want another Naga battlecruiser coming to the Sol system.”

  “No, we don’t. Call Hereford?”

  “Yeah. He can get whoever he wants up here to negotiate with the Naga,” Dan said.

  He tapped the console, opening a channel to Earth. It didn’t take long to get Hereford on the screen. He must have been waiting in the command room, expecting the call. Dan played the message through for the general, who grimaced as he listened to the final words.

  “You think it’s time we reached out to them directly?” Hereford asked.

  “I think we’re going to have company here if we don’t,” Dan said.

  “Agreed. I’ve spoken with the President. Since they seem to know you, he wants you to be the point man for contact with the Naga,” Hereford said.

  Dan grimaced. That wasn’t what he had in mind at all! He’d been hoping that Earth would send someone else to handle communication with the Naga. There were people on Earth with far more experience in managing diplomacy then himself.

  “Not my area of expertise, sir,” Dan said.

  “You’re the man who got a Naga commander to surrender at the mere mention of his name,” Hereford said, baring his teeth in a grim smile. “You know the punishment for a job well done by now. But more than that, the Naga seem to respect strength. You’ve bearded them more than once now. You can speak to them as a warrior to warriors. Some old politician from the diplomatic corp is going to seem like tender vittles to the Naga.”

  “Yes, sir,” Dan said. It was hard to argue with Hereford’s reasoning. The Naga would eat a weak diplomat for breakfast. Possibly in a literal manner. “Any guidance from the White House on this?”

  “Tons. I’m sending you a packet. Read it over before you call them back, but read fast. There must be five hundred pages in this mess they sent along,” Hereford said. “The short version is this: you’ll patch me in on the communications, both ways. I’ll relay it to the Oval Office. They’ll have people standing by there to critique your performance.”

  “Joy,” Dan muttered.

  “The President wants to avoid further conflict with the Naga at all costs,” Hereford said. “He’s prepared to offer repatriation of our Naga prisoners if that will help create a truce between our worlds.”

  That might help. It was an olive branch which cost them very little, and the Naga were a lot like humans in this regard. They seemed to care about their people, at least based on what Dan was seeing in the urgency of the calls he was receiving. They might have written off the crews and ships they’d sent to Earth as lost, but as soon as Garul contacted them, their attention had shifted back.

  On the flip side, sending the prisoners back to the Naga would mean another face to face meeting. Earth couldn’t just give the Naga prisoners one of the captured ships. Either the Naga would have to come to Earth to pick them up…or Earth would have to bring them to the Naga. The latter option sounded far better for the planet.

  Dan had a bad feeling he knew who was going to be picked for a visit to the Naga homeworld, if it came to that.

  “I’ll do what I can, sir,” Dan said.

  “Good. The information packet is on its way to you now. Skim through it, but be ready to initiate contact soon,” Hereford said. “They gave Garul an hour? That was fifteen minutes ago?”

  Dan checked the time stamp on the saved message. “Seventeen, sir.”

  “We’ll initiate contact in thirty-three minutes. I’ll have the relay set up and ready to go.”

  “Understood, sir,” Dan said. He checked the console. The diplomatic package had arrived, and if anything it was even longer than Hereford had stated. He sighed. That was a lot of information to wade through in half an hour.

  “Do your best, son. Hereford out.” The screen went blank.

  Dan leaned back in his seat. This whole thing felt rushed. Renewed contact with the Naga should have been initiated carefully, with forethought and by the best minds on Earth. Instead, they were counting on him.

  “Got your marching orders, do you?” Martelle said.

  “Is it too late to resign my Air Force commission and join the Marines instead?” Dan asked him.

  Martelle barked a short laugh, picked up his tablet, and went back to reading.

  Five

  Beth left the bridge of the Satori behind her. The landing had gone smoothly enough. The ship was safely docked on Earth, in the base hangar. Time to see how the loading situation was proceeding in the aft section of the ship.

  “You may want to hurry,” Majel said into Beth’s earpiece.

  “Problems?” Beth asked.

  “They’re making a mess out of me.”

  Beth stepped up her pace. A straight corridor ran down the spine of the ship from the bridge to the aft section, where the engine room and cargo bay were housed. It was the latter she headed toward now. Majel sounded upset. Beth quirked a little smile at the thought. It was a good thing, in a way. If Majel was coming to accept the new vessel as her physical form, it could only mean that she was becoming accustomed to it. Besides, the crew loading the ship were professionals. How much of a mess could they be making?

  The corridor opened onto a platform suspended about ten feet above the cargo bay floor. The doors onto the platform opened as Beth approached, and she received the answer to her question. The loading was well underway, but Majel had good reason for her concerns. The scene in front of her was pure chaos.

  The back ramp was down, which was as it should be. But where Beth expected to see an organized loading in progress, what she discovered was precisely what Majel had said: a huge mess. Dozens of people ferried huge crates onto the ship. Each brought their load in, dropped it, and then rushed off to get the next package. The result was piles of poorly organized crates scattered aimlessly across the space. It was going to take forever to strap all of that stuff down, let alone sort it!

  “What do you think you are all doing to my ship?” Beth asked. She pitched her voice to carry. Everyone in the room froze. They all looked up at her. No one said a word.

  “I’m serious. What is going on here?” Beth asked. “This isn't loading. You're making a train wreck of my ship, and I will not have it.”

  “Ma'am, sorry man!” One of the loaders was talking, at least. The rest were still and silent under her glare.

  “Don't be sorry. Fix it. That goes for all of you,” Beth said.

  “Yes, ma'am!" This time they all responded. That was from pretty much everyone within earshot. Beth nodded, satisfied. It was a good starting place. Organization might not seem important on the ground, where you had all the time of the world find whatever it was you were looking
for. But in space? It was a very different story indeed.

  Beth slid down the ladder, her feet striking the cargo bay floor with a thud. The work crews had returned to action already, bustling in and out of the bay with even more alacrity. But at least they were stacking the damned crates correctly now. She hefted one that was a bit askew and set it more properly into the pile, then grabbed a set of straps to clamp down the stack, hooking the strap to clamps on the wall and floor.

  Everything needed to be locked down. They might have artificial gravity on the ship, but any system could fail. They’d seen that enough times already. Moreover, even with artificial gravity and inertial dampers, things still got rocky on a starship from time to time. The last thing any of them wanted was to have piles of loose crates flying about in the hold.

  Beth looked up from her work, glancing around to see where else she could be of use. This sort of work was good for her. It felt right, moving heavy things around with her hands. She missed hard work, pushing her body to do mundane physical things. She’d pushed her body hard enough lately in other ways, of course. In fact, Doctor Saldanha would have a fit if he saw her lifting crates around. Officially Beth was still on light duty for a couple more days, recovering from injuries sustained during the battle on the moon.

  She’d had more than enough time sitting on her tail. Life was better when it was simpler, and there was nothing to clear the mind like hard labor. Beth levered another stack into position and strapped it down. A little longer and she’d have this place back in shape. She looked around. Just how much stuff were they bringing with them?

  From Hereford’s description Beth had assumed it would be a small team, a scouting mission. But she was seeing the parts for a massive 3D printer, along with provisions that would feed a small army.

  She picked up a hand scanner and checked the contents of a few more crates. They contained weapons, medical supplies, hauling units, and...seeds? This definitely wasn't the sort of supplies one sent on a survey mission. This looked more like the packing list for establishing a colony.