Etude to War (Earth Song Cycle Book 4)

by Mark Wandrey

  “With some difficulty,” she said from the air around them, “but the shuttles’ force fields can handle the stress until they pass through the structural shields of the city. A shuttle will be ready in ten minutes.”

  “I don’t suppose your dad said where he’d hidden his clue?” Aaron asked.

  “He’s never that direct. The notes say the city is in good shape, so we’ll play this like a typical scrounge mission. You’re going to be lead. Good news is gravity on Atlantis is less than seventy-five percent.”

  Aaron nodded, his sore legs liked the sound of that.

  “We’ll go down in force,” Minu continued. “You, Cherise, myself, and Kal’at with a squad of soldiers.”

  “Any risks?” Kal’at asked.

  “No, it’s low on the salvage list, so it’s not really claimed by any of the big guys. But the Portal network goes through some hot territory, a pinch zone between the Mok-Tok and T’Chillen. It’s not safe for us to easily get here.”

  “Unless we happen to have a starship,” Cherise pointed out.

  “You know,” Aaron began, “if one of the higher-order species ever managed to get its act together, they could tear the whole galaxy apart and run everything.”

  It wasn’t a thought that gave anyone comfort. Luckily for them, if there was anything the higher-order species hated more than small upstarts like humanity, they were the other higher-order species. The de facto detente that had existed for untold eons was probably for the better. Sometimes Minu was amazed the Tog had survived in that crowd. But then she remembered they had starships, but she didn’t know how many or how powerful they were.

  The team began to assemble their gear in one of the Kaatan’s shuttles. Since it wasn’t an official Chosen mission, Minu hadn’t bothered trying to get official equipment. That meant she couldn’t take weapons from the armory, so she brought her own.

  She, Aaron, and Cherise carried brand new MK II shock rifles, featuring the newest improvements developed by Groves Industries. Just because the company specialized in aerospace didn’t mean they couldn’t do weapons systems as well, and what better way to test prototypes than a field test?

  They all wore the standard-issue, light scout armor with improved energy shielding technology gleaned from the Kaatan ship. The suits were capable of operating in space, if necessary, and sustaining the wearer for four hours.

  While the new guns were lighter and more accurate, they were still long and unwieldy, a limitation imposed by the weapon’s plasma and powerful laser chambers. But, by keeping the weapon’s original length, they’d improved its range and hitting power. One had a new high-powered optics system which might allow them to use the weapon as a true sniper weapon. She hoped they wouldn’t have the opportunity to test it.

  The five Rasa who joined them carried their venerable, yet deadly, accelerator rifles. As they were the troops normally assigned to their moon colonies, they were not familiar with shock rifles, so they stuck with what they knew best.

  Once everyone was in place, Aaron took the controls.

  “We’re ready to disembark,” Minu informed Lilith over her headset.

  “Noted, Shuttle One. Stand by.” A moment later they felt a brief disorientation as they left the Kaatan’s gravitic field, and the shuttle’s kicked in. The needle-shaped shuttle slid clear of the bay, was spun around by force fields under Lilith’s control, then set free.

  “Shuttle One, you are free to maneuver. Have a safe trip.”

  Aaron smiled at how much she sounded like a commercial flight controller on Bellatrix, wondering if she’d taken her cues from listening to movies. Pip mentioned a few days earlier that Lilith was watching some drama broadcasts now. Maybe she was ‘growing up?’

  “Roger that, we’ll check in upon docking at the city.”

  The shuttle used a hybrid of holographic and manual controls. Lilith explained that anyone with implants like hers could pilot with only their thoughts, but Aaron was limited to hand controls and gestures. He intuitively knew her way would be much faster and more efficient but growing up flying with hand and foot controls was a habit he didn’t think he could easily overcome.

  The shuttle nosed down, and he nudged the power past twenty-five percent. The machine responded like nothing he’d ever piloted. The engineers blamed some of the problems with the Groves Industries shuttle on his experiences with ancient shuttles (which his engineers had been allowed to briefly study). The intuitive fly-by-wire systems recognized and anticipated the pilot’s commands and adapted to them. As he had nothing to do during early reentry, he decided to chat with his daughter.

  “Lilith?”

  “Yes, Father?”

  “Did The People use fighters?”

  “That is an interesting question. They used fighters, but only as drones. No manned fighter craft were employed.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Manpower was too vital to risk on small craft. Using neural interface and Combat Intelligence augmentation, a single biological operator could command a squadron of a dozen fighters. They designed the Kaatan-class cruiser as the optimized combat craft, small enough to require minimal crew, fast and nimble, with sufficient firepower to engage most enemies by themselves, though they were meant to operate in squadron formations. They are the only starships this small built by The People with a tactical drive.”

  “As useful as they were, why didn’t every ship have one?”

  “A compromise in design and an agreement not to over-utilize the bargain with the Weavers. The tactical drive can transport many ships at once. They typically installed them on fleet tenders. Since they built the Kaatan near the end of a war placing a tactical drive in every ship was a move of desperation.”

  “Is that why you are reluctant to use the one on this ship?”

  “That is a different issue.”

  Aaron was about to push her further when static crackled on the line.

  “You have entered the ionosphere.”

  “Noted,” he said and checked his reentry course. “We’ll talk later.”

  He wanted to be sure she understood they hadn’t finished the conversation. The tactical drive was fascinating to him, and he had the feeling she wasn’t telling him everything she knew about the subject. Outside, the atmosphere began to gently buffet the plunging shuttle.

  * * *

  Aaron brought them out of the steep dive a thousand meters above the wildly-pitching ocean surface. The swells were at least fifty meters, and some topped one hundred.

  “Surf’s up!” Cherise joked. The humans understood the joke, but it was lost on the Rasa soldiers.

  It was up to Minu to state the obvious. “Is this crate really going to go down into that?”

  “According to our little girl, it should do it exceptionally well.”

  “I’m not optimistic,” she mumbled.

  “Only one way to find out,” Aaron said. With deft movements, he reduced speed and nosed them down.

  “Oooh shiiit!” Cherise cried and unconsciously leaned backward, away from the view screen.

  After all the concern, the moment of impact was anticlimactic. They hit the water and pierced the surface like an arrow without so much as a bump inside.

  “Houston, we have touchdown,” Aaron chortled.

  “I think you’re mixing metaphors,” said Minu around a sigh of relief.

  “Whatever. Course set, destination four thousand meters down.”

  The descent was much smoother than atmospheric reentry had been. Hundreds of meters slid by, the water quickly changing from blue, to green, to red, and finally to inky infinity. The only signs they were moving ever deeper were the holographic controls displaying their progress and the system which monitored the shuttle’s force fields. Within a minute it was consuming a frightening amount of power.

  “You sure we can make it?” Kal’at asked, one eye locked firmly on the shrinking power reserve.

  “If Lilith says we can make it, we’ll make it.” Kal�
��at’s other eye swiveled to look at Minu, and then he nodded almost humanly. She wondered if his faith in her was overstepping his own sense of survival.

  “Power under fifty percent,” Aaron announced. “We’re bingo fuel.”

  The ancient flier term for the point of no return sent a chill up Minu’s back. If they failed to link with the underwater city’s shields, the shuttle’s force fields would eventually fail. Everyone would die instantly as the craft was crushed like a tin can under a truck tire.

  Then they saw a glimmer of light in front of them. It was nothing more than a dull twinkle, as if they were seeing it through a dense fog. On the panel, a beacon tracer activated. The shuttle’s computer interfaced with the ancient city, and the two negotiated. Everyone held their breath as they reached an agreement.

  “Automatic Control Available,” the shuttle computer informed them.

  The beings in the cabin broke out in cheers, and Aaron handed over control to the submerged city’s traffic control computer. Light bathed them as the shuttle leveled out and approached a magical city of crystal.

  “It’s like something from a Disney film,” Cherise commented.

  Those understanding the cultural reference had no choice but to agree. They saw hundreds of massive domes with entire forests visible inside and creeping wildlife growing up the edges toward the top. Towering spires and cylindrical housing units mixed with industrial structures. And all of it appeared to be of delicate crystal.

  As they got closer, the passengers could see the city was floating hundreds of meters above a huge gouge in the ocean floor. “Is that the continental fault?”

  “Yes,” Kal’at confirmed. “The city floats over the subduction zone to harvest minerals.”

  “Why did they abandon it?”

  “It’s part of the mystery,” Minu told them. A second later, the power meter on the controls ceased its descent. They’d entered the force fields of the city. “Let’s see where they take us.”

  The shuttle banked gently and headed toward a squat, mushroom-shaped structure. Around its crown were dozens of open bays, and lights in one of the bays came on. They were about to land.

  “That was the easy part,” Minu said as she got up to gather her gear. “Now the real work begins.”

  * * * * *

  Chapter 5

  April 13th, 534 AE

  Abandoned City, Planet Atlantis, Galactic Frontier

  Like most ancient Concordian structures that still functioned, the bay smelled fresh and recently cleaned. Inside, the walls were as transparent as they appeared from the outside, giving them a spectacular view of the city as well as a multitude of curious ocean denizens of the deep.

  Minu knew this deep in the ocean, most animals would normally be sightless, but the mini-ecosystem around the city allowed sighted animals to flourish. Huge, shark-like creatures with multiple sets of jaws pursued aquatic butterflies, while a seahorse the size of the shuttle floated nearby, somehow anchored to the side of the structure.

  By agreement, the Rasa combat team would stay with the shuttle. Minu, Cherise, Aaron and Kal’at would act as scouts and try to find Chriso’s cache somewhere in the massive city. They had supplies for a week, but Minu hoped it would take a lot less.

  “According to my father’s journal, after arriving through the Portal, they proceeded to the nearest industrial module and began to scrounge around.”

  The others listened to her as they walked from the shuttle to the exit. There were two personnel-sized doors and a single iris-type exit for the shuttle. The bay was large enough to accommodate a dozen shuttles like theirs.

  As soon as they landed, robotic systems attached power cables and began recharging the craft, something Aaron had been glad to see. None of them wanted to spend their time looking for enough old EPCs to provide sufficient power for the ascent back through the dark depths.

  Minu touched the opaque wall near the closest door, and it came alive with Concordia script. Using her knowledge of the language she told the city computer she wanted to find the Portal. It was no surprise the Portal spire was in the center of the city. She asked the computer to catalog all the industrial structures near the spire.

  “I never get tired of watching you do that,” Aaron whispered in her ear.

  “I get tired of doing it, it’s like someone else is using my brain.”

  It was the best way she could describe the way her fingers danced, manipulating Concordian script her conscious brain could not translate. She’d learned over the years that her fingers knew what to do. It was much more than understanding the script; it also involved using some powerful codes on the oldest Concordia technology.

  As was common, most of the industrial operations were arrayed around the Portal Spire like a spider web. She stopped counting at twenty as the computer dutifully listed all the facilities and the cryptic technical jargon describing what each did. Kal’at used his tablet to greedily record every bit of script that raced by. The Rasa was as much a scientist as his brother, Var’at, was a soldier.

  In the years since she’d rescued him from the death of their home world, Minu found out from Var’at that he’d once held no respect for his brother. In their culture, males who went into science were considered disgraceful.

  Contact with humanity had mellowed many of his species’ beliefs and attitudes. She wondered if they would eventually give their females more responsibility. The females ‘led’ their nests but had almost no real power, and the irony didn’t escape her. She’d fought the prejudices of her own species from the day she became Chosen.

  As she sorted through possible destinations, Kal’at went back over the facilities using a translation program. Not everyone had knowledge implanted in their brains.

  “The computer says most of these facilities are still functional,” he reported.

  As he continued reviewing the data, Minu found her target.

  “There,” she said and pointed to a nondescript industrial complex less than a kilometer from the Portal Spire. According to Kal’at, it was one of the non-functional facilities.

  “There is a transit system nearby,” the Rasa told them. They opened the door and saw a tram station on the other side of the narrow corridor. “Have you used one like this before?”

  “Actually, yes,” Minu said. It was of the same design as those on Moorlock where she’d first encountered Var’at.

  “All aboard.”

  Once inside, she programmed the tram, and it whisked them away.

  * * *

  Lilith floated in her CIC listening to the music of a Rusk composer who’d been dead for almost a thousand years. She’d been experimenting with music for years and found the ‘old Earth classical’ music to be the most to her liking.

  Sometimes when she was tired, she’d cut all the ambient light in her space and let the timeless notes resound around her. She found it pleasurable being submerged in the music. Today, though, she was using music to distract her from an annoyance she couldn’t make go away.

  “The differences are indeed important,” the annoyance interrupted her reminiscence, yet again.

  Lilith glanced at Pip who floated a meter away, a trio of holographic screens before him. He was using his implant to manipulate data. Though he hadn’t received the implants until adulthood, he’d proven adept at learning to use them, which was a good thing since twenty percent of his cerebellum was now composed of cybernetic processors and implants.

  “It is just a semantic difference,” she replied, then resumed listening to the music.

  “That is exactly the problem. I know you’re bored but bringing your database in line with ours is the key to answering a shitload of questions we have about the galaxy.”

  “We have been working on this project for years, several days a month, and nonstop since we left Bellatrix two weeks ago, and we are getting nowhere.”

  “Because you are the most stubborn female I’ve ever met,” Lilith gave him a hooded look, “with the possible
exception of your mother.”

  “I will not give you unlimited access to my system.”

  “I don’t understand why not.”

  “Because I am the Combat Intelligence of this craft, and you are not.”

  Pip cursed in Rusk, something he’d never done before his injury, and glared at the screens. The task seemed insurmountable. He was dealing with a database that was hundreds of thousands of years old, filled with vastly out-of-date references, and names for things that had changed over the eons.

  “Then you need to help me figure it out.”

  “I thought I was already doing that.”

  The two stared at each other for a long moment, face to face across a generational and cultural gap.

  “Fine,” Pip said eventually. “Let’s try something different.”

  * * *

  The underwater city was much like the one on Moorlock. It was nearly pristine with fully functioning life support and internal systems. The difference was that this world had a habitable atmosphere (though kilometers above on the surface), and this city showed signs of constant visitation.

  “The tram records more than a dozen uses in the past month,” Kal’at confirmed by tapping the controls as they whisked down the tramway tunnel.

  “Wonder what they’re finding here?” Cherise asked.

  “This isn’t a junkpile,” Minu reminded them. “Operational industry is more often claimed by higher-order species.”

  “And your dad said there was no such claim here?” Aaron asked.

  “Nothing. He did a full recon on the Portal spire. He found evidence of scrounging, but no claims. They usually shoot at us if they claim ownership,” she said, referring to almost every other species in the galaxy.

  Humans were one of the few who didn’t shoot first and ask questions later. Minu hoped it would stay that way even if they came into power in the galaxy.

  The tram glided to a stop at the station, and the doors swung smoothly upward to reveal a clean white station—and a pair of Squeen with packs on their shoulders.