“Dull but successful. UDC Engineering will be thrilled with all that kiatilium we’re bringing back.”
“Yeah, a whopping hundred kilos. I guess that’s worth the journey to the Auriga system.”
“Of course, it is. That’s more than has been found on all the other missions combined.”
Rather than responding to something she had little real interest in, Naiche pulled Tal against her. When he rolled over, she spooned behind him, idly combing her fingers through his thick, shoulder-length hair. Since, like her, he usually wore his hair in braids, she relished any opportunity to feel it loose and free. “I love your hair,” she whispered.
“I know. You say that all the time. Sometimes I worry that’s the only thing you love about me.”
“You have nothing to worry about there.” She cupped his left buttock lightly and laughed. “Not with this ass, anyway.”
Tal snorted with amusement but answered drily, “That’s my girlfriend – always the romantic.” His pronouncement carried no sting since he followed it up by pulling her arm more tightly around him.
Naiche nuzzled her nose into his neck. Sighing with contentment, she asked, “How am I ever going to go back to sleeping alone?”
“What does that mean? You’re not breaking up with me – are you?”
“No! I meant that Petrović will presumably return from her leave at some time. And then you get to go back to being a test pilot. And I have to go back to sleeping single on missions.”
Rolling over to face her again, Tal asked, “What if she doesn’t come back? Or doesn’t want to come back to Lovelace? Would it be okay if I requested permanent assignment here?”
Naiche sat up in surprise and excitement. “Okay? That would be awesome.” Her conscience immediately nagged her and she said, “But I can’t ask you to make that kind of sacrifice for me.”
“What kind of sacrifice? Getting to spend more time with you?”
She smiled warmly at his assertion but remonstrated, “You know what I’m talking about. Giving up being a test pilot to permanently sign on with a Command ship – the dullest piloting job in existence.”
He pulled himself upright and leaned back against the bulkhead explaining, “I don’t see it that way. I’m not quite the adrenaline junkie you and Con are.”
“We’re not adrenaline junkies!”
“Uh, you just categorized finding yourself at the controls of a dead shuttle as ‘exciting’. And are you telling me that you two scheduled an arbitrary midnight drill because it was necessary? And not because you’ve both been completely bored?”
“Not absolutely necessary, but sometimes it’s good to…umm….” After failing to find an honest refutation of his point, she conceded with a grin, “Maybe we lean a little bit on the adrenaline-seeking side. But you gotta admit – hauling rocks is not exactly what Command ships were designed for.”
“Hauling very valuable rocks. And finding them in half the time they originally predicted.”
Yawning, she absent-mindedly quipped, “Don’t remind me.”
“What does that mean?” Since her complaint had slipped out inadvertently, Naiche remained silent, hoping Tal would let it go. Perceptive as ever, after a moment of thought he said, “Oh, I see. You’re not so much disappointed that this mission was dull, as you are that this mission was short.” When Deck still didn’t respond, Tal prodded, “You were hoping to miss the Cadet Orientation Sessions – weren’t you?”
With a sheepish shrug, Naiche said, “Okay, yeah, I was.” After contemplating the horrible fate which lay before her, she complained, “I don’t understand why Commander Lieu insisted on me leading a session.”
“Who better than you to lead the session for cadets from Independent Communities?”
“Someone who wants to do it?”
“Come on, you’ll be great. You can be very charming – when you want to be. Did you come up with your three most essential lessons for the cadets, like Lieu suggested?”
“I did.” Doubt crept into her mind. “I think so, anyway.”
Arranging his pillow behind him, Jacoway settled comfortably against it. “Great. Let’s hear ‘em.”
She sat erect and recited, “Number one: show up to all your classes – even when the weather stinks, even when you think it’s a waste of time, even when you’re hungover.”
“I think you can skip that last codicil,” Tal murmured.
“Number two: don’t be afraid to ask questions. A question asked in imperfect Standish is better than staying quiet in ignorance.”
“Wonderful – love that one.”
“Number three: don’t sleep with an instructor until at least two months after you’re through with their class.”
Tal stared at Naiche for a second. “Umm, what? Are you serious with that last one?”
“Yeah…why? You don’t think that’s good advice?”
“It’s great advice,” he explained, relaxing back against his pillow. “It kind of goes without saying though – since it’s against the regs.”
“It’s against the regs for an instructor to sleep with a current student, but you could technically have sex with them the day after you get your final grade. That’s where the two months comes in – that’s the crucial bit of wisdom I’m imparting.”
Cocking his head in a gesture of obvious skepticism, Tal advised, “Let’s keep that one as back-up material. What else ya’ got?”
Naiche tossed her hands up in defeat. “See. I suck at this kind of thing.” She flopped down next to him. “I’m just not good with people.”
“That’s not true.” Pulling her up into a warm embrace, Tal assured her, “I think you’re great with people.”
While she snuggled closer to him, Deck protested, “That’s only because you’re worse than me.” He simply snorted in response so she closed her eyes and yawned, adding softly, “Our kids are going to be the most socially awkward people ever born.”
Naiche could feel the sudden tension in Tal’s body. She looked up at him, asking, “What’s wrong?”
“We’re gonna have kids?”
“Well, not right away but yeah, some day. I mean, I’d like us to have children.” Suddenly concerned she’d misjudged the nature of their fourteen-month relationship, she searched his face for the truths hidden there. “Don’t you?”
“Of course, I would – it’s just…we’ve never actually discussed it.”
Reassured by his response she offered up a cheeky smile. “Yeah, I guess I was skipping a step, there – but I’ve given it a lot of thought. I’d like to muster out by the time I’m forty and have a couple of kids. With you.”
“That sounds perfect.” His voice grew animated as he continued, “We could get married….” He paused, seeking confirmation from her. Naiche nodded since she was amenable to marriage if that’s what Tal wanted. He smiled brightly and continued with increased enthusiasm, “…and retire together. We’ll take our pensions, immigrate to the Centauri settlements and—”
Horrorstruck at the idea, Naiche pulled back and blurted out, “You want to live in the settlements?!”
“Yeah, I do.” Sitting up straight, Tal explained, “It’s a great place to raise kids. There’s so much growth, so many opportunities—”
“So many horrifying memories.”
After expelling a resigned sigh, Tal leaned towards her. “Naiche, I think if you gave it a chance….” He paused, obviously choosing his words carefully. “…you could make some new memories. Good ones. The settlements are more than just the place where we fought the war.”
“Not to me. They’ll never be anything but that to me.”
He was silent but even in the dim light she could read the exasperation in his eyes. After a moment, he asked, “Where would you want to live?”
“Chiricahua territory. I want to rear my children as Chiricahua.”
“Just Chiricahua – not Choctaw?”
“Yes, Choctaw, too. I’d want them to know both parts o
f their heritage. But we could do that there.” Tal was shaking his head as if he couldn’t agree. Naiche’s heart sank as she felt the bright and certain future she had envisioned, slipping away from her. “You don’t like my home?”
“I do. I love visiting there – and I really respect what your people are doing, how they live lightly upon the land and are actually reversing some of the damage to the planet.”
“But?”
“But…that way of life – it’s just not for me.”
Betraying her rising frustration, Naiche challenged, “What do you propose we do then?”
“Right now, I don’t know. But we have years to figure it out. The important thing is we love each other and we have time.” She remained silent rather than pointing out that time wasn’t going to make the settlements more acceptable to her – nor it seemed, make Chiricahua territory more palatable to him. He laid a gentle hand on her arm, explaining, “We don’t have to solve this problem at 0200 hours or even—”
Whatever Tal was about to say was interrupted by VICI urgently summoning them both to the bridge – while informing them that Lovelace was at DEFCON-beta.
Chapter 2
Echo from a Vanished Past
“And we danced, on the brink of an unknown future, to an echo from a vanished past.” John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids
As they hurried to the bridge, Decker, Jacoway, and Kayatennae met up with Kennedy who said with a rueful laugh, “Looks like we pulled the trigger on that emergency drill a little prematurely.”
“Just our luck,” answered Decker. “Where’s Aqila? She wasn’t called to duty?”
“She was – twenty minutes ago. Right after the ship dropped out of L-speed.”
“Yeah, I just noticed that,” Jacoway said. “What’s going on?”
Con increased his jog to a run, calling back, “Only one way to find out.”
They got to the bridge and relieved their gamma-shift counterparts of duty, taking up their usual stations. The newly arrived officers composed themselves to wait for more information since Ricci, Lindstrom, and Ramsey were conferring with Lateef at the science console.
Only when the entire senior staff was assembled, did Ricci address his crew. “Twenty-seven minutes ago, some unknown form of energy transmission interfered with our Nav-sat and Com-sat functioning. Ramsey and Lateef have their combined staffs analyzing the transmission but so far we’ve been unable to determine its source or nature.”
“Was Nav-sat disabled?” questioned Kennedy.
Ramsey said, “It’s not disabled – but I want to run a complete diagnostic before we jump back to L-speed.”
Before Decker could ask about other systems, alarms sounded from several stations, including both Tactical consoles. While analyzing the data read-outs, Naiche glanced over at Con to find him looking equally puzzled.
Without looking up from the science station data screen, Lateef announced, “That was a neutrino beam – the same energy transmission that we detected before.”
Kennedy asked, “Could this be some kind of attack?”
It was Ricci who responded. “That’s what I’ve been wondering.”
“Maybe someone got wind of our payload and wants to help themselves to an easy windfall of kiatilium,” Lindstrom suggested.
“Weapons systems haven’t been affected, so they may think it’s gonna be easy,” Decker growled, “but I can guarantee it won’t.”
“How would anyone have found out about the kiatilium?” Ramsey asked. “It’s not like we’re trailing it behind us.”
“I bet we were double-crossed by the Carraiks,” Decker said. “They probably set us up to—”
“That’s exactly the kind of reckless speculation we don’t need right now, Lieutenant,” Ricci warned.
Naiche exhaled a quiet, “Yes, sir.”
“Hopefully, that second neutrino beam will give Scientific and Engineering enough data so that they can figure out exactly what we’re up against.” The captain turned to Ramsey and Lateef for confirmation, which they both readily gave.
***
An hour later, the senior staff was gathering in the war room where they had been summoned by VICI. All were impatient for news on the energy beam which had interrupted their journey and disturbed their night’s sleep. Naiche took her usual seat next to Con, asking, “Aqila still in the lab?”
“Yes, she and Commander Ramsey have been down there with Sasaki for the last twenty minutes.”
Eyebrows raised, Jacoway asked, “Sasaki?” He looked over at Ricci. “Captain, why is our linguist weighing in on this? Was there a message included in the energy transmission?”
“No, the transmission was the message,” Carla Ramsey announced as she entered the room.
After smiling at Lateef, who had followed the chief engineer into the room, Kennedy turned to Ramsey. “Come again, Commander?”
“I’ll let Aqila explain,” Ramsey said. “Her staff were the ones who solved the mystery.”
Lateef waited until Sasaki took his seat before launching into the explanation. “Lieutenant Brodie has determined that the neutrino beam we detected was being used as an advanced system of data delivery.”
“Why didn’t we immediately recognize it as data?” Ricci asked.
Lindstrom took up the thread. “And how does a data transmission manage to disturb both our Nav-sat and Com-sat?”
“Because, like us, that neutrino beam was traveling through a cosmic string. At L-speed-100,” Lateef answered.
Over the murmur of surprise filling the room, Jacoway objected, “Wait, data can’t travel faster than the speed of light. I mean, if we could do that, we wouldn’t need relay stations to communicate with Uniterrae.”
“You’re right,” Aqila said, “we can’t do that. But apparently someone else can.”
Kennedy leaned forward, his voice gaining an urgent undertone. “This transmission must have come from a highly advanced species – beyond anything we’ve encountered before.”
Ricci responded, “Yes, we have to assume that’s the case.” He turned to Lateef, saying, “Please continue, Commander.”
“Once we recognized the nature of the neutrino beam, we were able to decode it. It turns out it’s basically…a distress call.”
Decker relaxed slightly at the news, and recognized the same reaction in Con. An extremely advanced species in trouble was slightly less threatening than an extremely advanced species on the attack.
The captain’s voice displayed no immediate easing of tension as he asked Sasaki, “How confident are you in your translation of the message?”
“I didn’t translate it,” Sasaki answered. “It wasn’t necessary.”
“Why not?” Ricci demanded.
“As it turned out, the message was in Standish.”
The chief medical officer, Dr. Rita Clemente, exclaimed, “Oh, so it was intended for us. Somebody needs our help.”
Lateef countered, “No, it wasn’t for us.” She held up her hand to belay the barrage of questions. “If you’ll listen to it, you’ll understand.” She instructed VICI to play the decoded message.
Speaking in stilted, somewhat archaic Standish, an entirely human voice resonated throughout the war room. “Mighty Lignatians, this is Captain Abigale Maddox. The Children of the Valiant are in grave danger. We beseech your intervention. Our journey to New Earth has proved fruitless and perilous. During our return to Jileesa, we suffered an attack on the alien world Tolu, and we are now stranded. We require your assistance. Only you can save us now.” The voice went on to give the coordinates of the “alien world,” and to repeat the call for aid several times.
“Before anyone can ask,” Lateef said, “we have no record of any species by the name of Lignatians, nor any inhabited world called Jileesa – or Tolu.”
“What about the human we just heard speaking?” asked Lindstrom; without waiting for an answer, he turned to Ricci. “I don’t know of any ‘Captain Maddox’ in the UDC. Do you?”
<
br /> “No, never heard of her.” Ricci posed the same question to VICI, who soon confirmed that there was no record of an Abigale Maddox in the Uniterrae Defense Corps – not at present nor at any time in the past. Ricci asked Lateef, “Are we certain that was actually a human speaking and not a simulation?”
“Our data indicate that it was a human voice, but with a species who are capable of sending a message like this – who knows?”
Decker asked, “What was all that about ‘New Earth’ and ‘Children of the Valiant’?”
“‘The Valiant’ makes me think of that generational ship we found back in ’38,” Clemente said. “On the Pakarahova mission.”
“Could there somehow be descendants of the people of the Valiant out there?” Sasaki asked. “Similar to the Chelmanians, who descended from the crew of the Intrepid?”
“No,” Aqila replied. “There are no descendants of the crew of the Valiant. Everyone on that ship died. I know. I saw them.”
Jacoway mused, “Weren’t there some crew members unaccounted for? After the ship was towed back to Uniterrae, I mean.”
“Technically, yes,” Aqila conceded with a toss of her head. “When all the bodies were finally identified, the names were compared against the ship’s last manifest and twelve people were missing – but those twelve were the ones most likely to have been trying to contain the reactor leak. The reasonable assumption is, that there were no remains left of those people after so violent an explosion.” The group mulled that news over while Lateef added, “Even if those dozen people somehow had escaped, that’s hardly enough to have started a new race that managed to sustain itself for over two-hundred years. Let alone advance beyond us.”
“But we can’t be absolutely sure of that – can we?” Clemente said. “The very existence of this message proves the limitation of our current understanding of science.”
“This all sounds to me,” Kennedy offered, “like an elaborate trap someone is waiting to spring on us.” As Decker was nodding in agreement, he continued, “But I think we do need to figure out what their game is. And there’s only one way to do that – go to those coordinates.”
The Risks of Dead Reckoning Page 2
