by S. H. Jucha
His comment shocked both Julien and Z.
Julien ached to comment, to thank Alex for his words, but this was Z’s moment and Julien wanted Z to have this time with Alex.
Z immediately sent a request for access. Julien prepared a memory index for him and extended rights for the transfer. It took Z almost a quarter-hour to send the files, such was the extent of his information.
Julien began cataloging the information as Alex might prefer to access it, synopsizing the detailed technical, medical, and societal research.
When Z completed the transfer, he queried Julien as to whether the Admiral would take the time to review the information.
While Alex had been conversing with Z, he had heard the sleeping quarter’s door slide open and the quiet patter of Renée’s bare feet on the deck. She had crawled into his lap, tucking her legs under her and burying her arms and face under his robe. Now, as he closed his comm, Alex lifted her sleeping form and carried her back to bed. Morning was still a few hours away.
-12-
The next morning, the Outward Bound touched down on Gratuito’s primary runway. The officers, engineers, techs, and pilots aboard were met by the Independents, who ushered them onto Libran transports for their destinations.
Tatia, Sheila, and the remainder of their group arrived at the flight training warehouse, which had been cleaned and restored to operation, and discovered their volunteers were already offloading transports full of equipment. The elderly woman, Fiona Haraken, who Tatia discovered had once been a sky-tower building engineer, was supervising the construction of the mock-flight bays per Julien’s specifications.
The New Terran crew wore uniforms equipped with harnesses, translator programs, and two-way audio transmission, to communicate with the Librans. But, to the New Terrans’ credit, they were working hard at picking up the Con-Fed language and wondering at every new word or phrase how the forms of speech had devolved so much from one another.
“Ser,” Fiona greeted Tatia, “we’re running a bit late this morning. One of our transports required repairs. But we will be completed with the construction of the mock freighter bays by evening meal.”
Tatia barely had time to nod before the spry, stick-thin woman, who was more human dynamo than elder, moved on. As midday meal approached, Tatia and Sheila were belatedly considering how they would feed everyone, when a transport pulled up and several teenagers disembarked, including a teenage driver, who approached Tatia and sketched a polite bow.
“Forgive the selection today, Ser. We did not know your New Terran preferences, so we brought the usual fare for our people. But if you will tell us what you and your people prefer, we will be sure to accommodate you in the future.” Then the boy ran off to join the other teenagers setting up portable tables and folding chairs to seat the entire group, including themselves.
Tatia was directed to her place at the head of one of the tables and seated next to Fiona. The young driver began to serve Fiona first, who scowled at him and indicated Tatia. The young boy’s face screwed up in consternation at his mistake, and he began serving Tatia.
“You must excuse my great-grandson, Ser,” Fiona said. “These disconcerting times disturb the young, who are still learning the courtesies and manners of our people.”
“My apologies, Fiona, but my program translated your words as the young driver is your descendant by three generations.”
“Your program is accurate, Ser.”
“Fiona, how is one so young declared an Independent?” Tatia asked.
“Jason is an Independent merely because he was born on Libre—all my descendants were.”
“So anyone born on Libre is automatically restricted to a life here?” Tatia asked.
“That is correct, Ser. A child is considered to be influenced by the parents. As the parents were subversive in nature, so the child would be expected to be steeped in their antisocial ways … or so it is thought in our society.” Fiona said this as if spouting from some legal text, but it was obvious from her barely concealed anger that she thought it a ridiculous notion.
“Fiona, if all of your descendants are on Libre …” Tatia faltered, unable to phrase the rest of her question.
Fiona finished the mouthful of food she had just inhaled. She ate like she worked—full bore.
Tatia sat still, a great sadness welling up inside her over the injustice Fiona and her family had suffered.
“Never mind, child,” said Fiona, patting Tatia’s hand with her heavily calloused one. “This has been my life and I have made the most of it. Now eat up. We must get back to work. You have a people to save, and I must ensure my family leaves this planet in time.”
Tatia and Sheila would end up staying at Fiona’s home for the duration. They would meet her extended family of twenty-seven over the coming days. Sheila, in constant awe of Fiona’s boundless energy, would later remark, “Black space, Commander, if we could bottle what that woman’s got, we wouldn’t need FTL engines.” But what Tatia came to understand was that Fiona was determined to remove any obstacle that dared prevent her family’s escape from Libre.
* * *
Sheila drafted Robert as her primary flight trainer, flying Dagger-1.
While Robert hadn’t the heart for fighting anymore, he was still an excellent pilot and he excelled as a trainer, thorough and patient. He requested permission to transport his old Dagger cockpit down to Barren-II, as Tatia had dubbed the facilities. After receiving approval, Robert had the remains of his fighter mounted on three posts in front of the warehouse.
When the workmen finished the display of Robert’s ruined cockpit, one of the Libran trainees, Darius Gaumata, an ex-shuttle pilot, had looked at the empty cockpit and asked the question that had lingered on all the trainees’ minds. “Lieutenant Dorian, we do not understand the lesson inherent in this display. Is this not an example of defeat?”
Robert took the opportunity to gather the pilot trainees and tell them the story of the fight to take the silver ship. His emphasis was on the part he and Jase had played and, critically, how their flight had disobeyed orders, hurrying to meet the silver ship. “The lesson of this display,” Robert said, “is that we face a powerful foe. Yes
, the task requires skilled piloting, but most importantly, it takes working together in synchronicity to overwhelm the enemy. If you go one on one with a silver ship, this will be the result,> and Robert pointed to the remains of his Dagger.
The students stared at the chunk of fighter debris and their trainer’s receding back. Deirdre Canaan, also an ex-shuttle pilot, said,
Ellie Thompson was considered to be the best pilot in the group. On Bellamonde, she designed an atmo-ship to race and encouraged a few friends to build their own ships. They planned an inaugural race, but after their event was announced, Ellie was taken into custody and pronounced an Independent. Her racing club was considered unsafe, and she was accused of encouraging aggressive behavior.
“Remember this story,” Ellie told her fellow trainees. “It may save your life. Remember, too, that four pilots went out and three came back—only the foolish one did not. Listen well to Lieutenant Dorian. His teachings will enable you to be the ones who return.”
Other draftees to Barren-II were Chief Roth and his flight crew, whose starboard bay had lost both Daggers. Tatia put Eli and his crew to work training the volunteers who would operate the freighter bays. This group of volunteers represented the largest contingents of Independents who would be traveling with the flotilla when it came time to fight.
* * *
Mickey was gone, not for two days but four days, reinvigorating the ore harvesting on the asteroids and supervising the transport of refined minerals to Libre. On his return from the asteroids, Mickey joined Lazlo Menlo on the orbital station. The ex-freighter Captain had been hard at work on the Money Maker with a team of engineers and techs composed of New Terrans and Independents. Menlo had found his own talented second in Ahmed Durak, who had been a First Mate on several freighters before being shipped to Libre. The two had quickly formed a strong working relationship, their work histories as freighter captain and first officer allowing the two officers to blend their efforts seamlessly.
The Money Maker was a common Méridien design, and consisted of a cab, a spine, and engines. It loaded freight modules in a double row along its spine. For Alex’s purposes, it required inventive remodeling. It was Z’s suggestion to imitate the module concept, allowing efficient construction of the fighter bays. Each module would contain one bay with crew cabins, inertia systems, grav-plating, and environmental systems. The two most forward bays would house meal facilities, Medical, and additional crew cabins. The modules would connect as pairs along the spine, and the spine would be encased to form a central corridor to allow unhampered movement from the cab to the engine compartments and integrate the power, comm, and environmental systems of the bay modules.
By the time Mickey boarded the orbital station, the retrofit crew had already off-loaded the old shipping modules, stripping the freighter down to its minimum configuration. Julien had chosen a hexagonal shape for the new module’s lateral ribs. The symmetrical angles allowed efficient production and assembly of plating and bulkhead supports. The bays had centrally located split doors and the Rêveur’s triple-beam design, which had proved itself so well in recovering Robert’s cockpit and the silver ship.
Each bay would hold four fighters, their missile silos, and fuel tanks. The total count for the long-term plan was to build sixty-four fighters, train eighty to ninety pilots, and organize sixteen flight crews. Whether they could accomplish all this in the time left was another question.
* * *
The Rêveur’s GEN-2 and GEN-3 machines were installed on day two at the new T-1 manufacturing site. Julien downloaded the design specifications and manufacturing processes to the GEN controllers, and facilities production began five days after the machines were installed and powered up.
Few individuals were working harder than Cordelia and Z. They knew their fate was tied to that of their city-ships. When the two SADEs had been transferred to their respective ships, they were once again granted FTL comm access. While the menace of the silver ships was generally known, the extent of the invasion was not. With their extended level of access, Cordelia and Z discovered the Méridiens’ exodus to distant colonies, always traveling spin-outward from the galaxy’s arm, running away from the encroaching aliens.
It didn’t take much of the SADEs’ modeling power to realize that, if their city-ships followed the Méridiens, they would have less than eighty years to live. For digital entities capable of living forever, with minimal human support, the forecast of their potential demise was galvanizing. Julien’s every request was granted priority action and even his slightest concerns received their focused attention.
* * *
Forty-seven days after the start of the Libran war effort, Julien initiated a conference comm after mid-meal with Alex’s senior staff. They were scattered over the city-ships, the orbital stations, the freighter, and Libre.
Alex paused to let them absorb his instructions then continued.
None were asked. They had done this before.
-13-
When the liner began its first rotation on station outside the Bellamonde system over a year and a half ago, Captain Karl Schmidt had expected to join a small flotilla of Confederation monitor ships and was shocked to discover they were alone. After their half-year of service, the Stern Reisende relieved them and communicated the news that the monitor ships had been recalled to Méridien to aid the planet’s exodus.
The Stern Licht’s next rotation of monitor duty had begun a little more than sixty days ago. They had sat outside the Bellamonde system, employing only passive telemetry to avoid giving away their presence to the enemy, and had witnessed a modified Méridien passenger liner appear in concert with strange shuttles. Where a Méridien Captain would have expected to see one or two shuttles exit a liner’s single bay, instead Karl had observed a large shuttle uncouple from the dorsal hull of the liner, and four shuttles had exited its twin bays.
To the Captain’s utter amazement, the four undersized shuttles had performed a maneuver to trap a silver ship. The fierce engagement was harrowingly brief, with the silver ship attempting to destroy the shuttles with its beam weapon and the shuttles launching some sort of projectiles at the silver ship. During the struggle, the Captain and his officers had witnessed the destruction of first one shuttle then another. But against all understanding, the other two shuttles defeated the silver ship, something Méridiens had believed impossible. It had been a disturbing encounter, which the Captain and his First Mate still puzzled over.
The Bergfalk liner Captains had been prohibited from active FTL comms by order of their Leader. So despite the fact that the aggressor ship’s silhouette identified it as Méridien-built, Captain Schmidt never attempted communications but simply watched as the liner recovered the remains of one shuttle, loaded the two operational shuttles, pulled the dead silver ship into a bay, and re-engaged its oversi
zed shuttle before it exited into FTL. The Captain would have expected to wait out the remainder of his rotation before he could report the unusual sight to Leader Stroheim. What he didn’t expect to see was the strange liner’s reappearance.
* * *
The Rêveur, loaded and ready for its second fight with the enemy, had left Libre for Bellamonde five days ago. Alex was putting into practice what he had learned from their first encounter. Julien, evaluating hundreds of hours of footage at Alex’s request, had discovered some of the drones’ patrolling habits. The silver ships stayed within the ecliptic, made port turns around the planets and satellites, and didn’t venture beyond the system’s last major planet. It was Julien’s supposition that these traits were evidence of their drive systems, which he contended harnessed the gravitational forces of the system’s star, planets, and satellites.
On the first trip to Bellamonde, the Rêveur had approached the system in line with the ecliptic. This time, Alex ordered Andrea to take a course to bring them from deep under the system. If the silver ships preferred the ecliptic, Alex didn’t want to fly into a head-on meeting. He wanted time to observe.
When the Rêveur reached the point where it began its turn up into the ecliptic from under the system, Julien established active comms with the Stern Licht and sent a long message from Leader Stroheim explaining the New Terrans, the Admiral, and the Rêveur. When the Stern Licht’s Captain had time to absorb the Leader’s message, Alex requested Julien establish a vid comm.
