Lindstrom said, “To be clear on this, you think it’s a trap – but still think we should go?”
“Approaching with all due caution – but yeah, I think we should go.” Con slid his forearms forward on the table, locking eyes with his CO. “Whatever is waiting for us at those coordinates, there’s one guarantee – it’s something brand new. Something we need to understand.”
Decker took the opportunity to jump in. “If we ignore whatever this is now – our ignorance could come back later to bite us on the ass.” Her use of that particular idiom elicited a frosty glare from Lindstrom, so she immediately amended it to, “I mean, we could come to regret it.”
“We would be enabling first contact with a new species,” Lateef ventured.
“Which is our primary mission,” added Kennedy. “We’re explorers, right?”
“The Engineering team at The Rock would probably quibble with you about that being our primary mission right now,” Ramsey said. “They’ve been waiting for years to get their hands on this much kiatilium.”
They all looked to Ricci for his opinion on the matter, but he gave no overt sign of judgment. Impassively, he inquired, “VICI, was there a family by the name of Maddox on the generational ship Valiant?”
“There were four crew members with the family name Maddox: Agnes and Roger Maddox and their two children, Kyle and Abigale.”
A sudden wave of tension crackled through the room as Ricci asked the AI, “Was Abigale Maddox among the missing?”
“No, the entire Maddox family was accounted for.”
After a collective moment of silence while they digested that report, Lindstrom said, “Well, that does pose a question, Captain….” He glanced at Ricci with a knowing smile. “Do we make the prudent move of heading directly home with our kiatilium – or go chasing after this…ghost?”
“If only I knew how you felt about the matter, Commander,” Ricci laughed. He looked at his chief engineer. “How long would it take us to reach the coordinates on the message, Ramsey?”
“They map to a small moon in the Zeta Leporis star system, so….” Carla cocked her head while evidently performing some quick mental calculations. “…a little less than two days.”
Ricci pursed his lips, nodding in thought for only a moment before announcing, “I’ve always held that knowledge is power; I believe we should check this out. Besides that, Clemente could be right that somebody is in need of our assistance. And if not….” he paused to flash a quick grin, “…I’ve always wanted to meet a ghost.”
***
The next morning Ricci and Lindstrom were finishing up their usual early morning debrief in the captain’s spacious office. Lindstrom said, “Ramsey has confirmed that our journey to this so-called ‘Tolu’ won’t take us anywhere near a relay station.”
Ricci responded, “I thought that might be that case. But we’re a week ahead of schedule so I don’t think the folks at HQ will end up being too worried about us.”
“Yes, with any luck we should be back in time to honor all of our commitments,” Lindstrom said. “I believe you’re scheduled to address the new class of cadets – aren’t you?”
“Am I?” After bringing his schedule up on his screen, Matt said, “Yes, it appears I am. I guess I’ll just give ‘em the standard—” He stopped short, noticing an unusual appointment on his calendar. “Did you put in a request for a service evaluation?”
In a formal tone of voice, Lindstrom responded, “Captain, do you realize it’s been over four years since my last official evaluation?”
Rolling his eyes, Ricci answered, “Yes, I do realize that – since you were the one who categorized them as a complete waste of your time. And told me that if you ever weren’t performing at an exceptional level, you would know it before I did.” He raised an eyebrow at Lindstrom. “Isn’t that true?”
“Yes, it is. But perhaps the time has come to…for us to talk about my career.”
His heart sank as it occurred to Ricci what his first officer would most probably schedule a formal meeting to discuss. “Nils, you can’t be thinking of retiring?”
“I can’t? Why not?”
“You’re only fifty-three! What’re you planning to do with the next fifty years of your life?”
“My current commitment to the UDC expires early next year. That will mark thirty-three years of service for me, thirteen as first officer. That’s enough for me – more than enough. I’d like to use the intervening time to train Ramsey as my replacement…and to let you get used to the idea.” Lindstrom leaned forward and his voice dropped. “Frankly, I’m tired of the responsibility – tired of having so many lives in my hands.” Ricci was struggling to come up with an appropriate response when Lindstrom urgently added, “My God, Matt, aren’t you at least a little bit tired of it? You made first officer at what? Thirty-five?”
“Thirty-four, actually.” Ricci shrugged as he said, “I suppose, on the surface, seventeen years in a ship’s Command Unit does seem like a lot.” He looked off to the side and then back at Lindstrom. “But too many of those years were spent fighting a brutal war. We’ve only recently started doing what we signed on for – space exploration.”
Lindstrom leaned back in his chair and rested his chin on his hand. “It’s true that our generation bore the brunt of the war. But we also reaped the glory from it, didn’t we? It’s no coincidence that our cohort broke all the records – most decorated officer, youngest admiral, youngest captain….” He paused to wave a hand at Ricci. “…youngest first officer right here – no?”
“No. Grace Stein beat me by four months,” Ricci admitted with a smile.
“Because of all of that rapid advancement, we’ve become the cork in the bottle, with regard to promotions. It’s high time we got out of the way so the next generation can move up. They fought the war, too, you know.”
“Fair enough.” Ricci briefly contemplated Nil’s supposition, while marshalling his objections. “But for me…I’m just not ready to let go of the Lovelace.”
Nodding sagely, Lindstrom observed, “That would explain why you’ve been dodging the Commodore Qualifications, then. Since commodores are now expected to relinquish their ships after a couple of years at the rank.”
His tone rising to match his spike of temper, Ricci said, “Who told you I’ve been dodging the quals?”
“No one. It was an educated guess. There’s no other explanation for the fact that you haven’t already been promoted.” While Matt was shaking his head and laughing at himself at having been so easily duped, Lindstrom added, “I’m not completely dense.”
“That’s for sure.” He took a deep breath before asking, “So what’re planning to do when you leave?”
“Rita wants to move back to her home on the South American continent and take a position as…oh, I guess you should know—”
“—I’m losing my CMO at the same time.”
“Yes. Anyway, she’ll be running the university hospital there in Bucaramanga and I’m going with her. There’s a land reclamation project near-by which I’m sure needs all of the engineering volunteers it can get. And in any spare time I have, I plan to write my memoirs.”
“Really?”
“We’ve certainly had our share of interesting…adventures on the Lovelace. I thought someone should write them down.”
“I have to admit – that all sounds pretty good.”
“But not attractive to you?”
“I’m not an engineer – or a writer.”
“Come now – those are not the only options. If you gave it a chance, you’d find plenty to occupy your time Earth-side. Since the quarters assigned to Jacoway have mainly been used to store his spare uniforms, I’m much mistaken if you won’t have some grandchildren before long.” Matt nodded in acknowledgment of that truth, as Lindstrom continued, “In the meantime, you could spend more time with your girlfriend—”
With a decisive shake of his head, Ricci protested against that title. “Ah, no. Bastié doe
sn’t like labels.”
“She’s not here.”
“I’m not crazy about them either.”
“All right then, you could spend more time with your steady sex partner.”
Matt crossed his arms while exhaling in exasperation. “I am so going to miss these little chats of ours, Commander.”
As unperturbed as ever, Lindstrom responded blithely, “As will I, Captain.”
Ricci dismissed him and Lindstrom rose from his chair. Before he left, Matt couldn’t resist asking, “By the way, Nils – in this memoir of yours? Do you intend to include the part about how you initially mistook my daughter for a spurned ex-lover of mine?”
Lindstrom seemed momentarily speechless then said, in a quietly abashed manner, “Oh, you eventually figured that out, did you?”
“Yes, I’m not completely dense.”
“No, of course not.” He recovered his composure quickly, stating drily, “But, just for the record – I had assumed you were the spurned one.”
“Of course, you did.” Ricci maintained his annoyed demeanor for no more than a moment before breaking into a self-deprecating chuckle.
“I do like to flatter myself that you won’t have nearly as much fun with Ramsey as your first officer.”
“I won’t get nearly as much sass, that’s for sure.”
“Those things are not unrelated.” Lindstrom proceeded towards the door, tossing back, “Good day, Captain.”
***
That night Ricci and Decker were leaving Lovelace’s gym after a hard-fought game of full-contact basketball with some other crew members. Both were slightly subdued as their team had suffered a rare loss. They said good-night to an ebullient Kennedy, who’d been leading the other team, and headed for their respective quarters.
As they walked down the ship’s passageway together, trailed by Kayatennae, Ricci said, “You were a little off your game tonight, weren’t you?”
“Me?” Decker laughed. “With all due respect, Cap, I’m not the one who made a sloppy turnover in the last minute.”
“You got me there.” He shrugged, acknowledging his error. “Could be that the Old Man is actually getting old.”
“I hope not. I’m not planning to be old in twenty years.”
His mind on that morning’s conversation with Lindstrom, Ricci retorted, “You’d better not be. You’ll still be raising your kids at that age – won’t you?”
“I guess so,” was her strangely glum response.
Since Naiche was usually enthusiastic about her future plans for children, Ricci was prompted to ask, “Why do you say that? Is anything wrong?”
She seemed to be studying the dull-gray deck as she answered, “No.”
“Are you sure?”
“No.”
“You wanta talk about it?”
“No.”
Though that had been her most emphatic answer, Matt had learned that the less Naiche wanted to talk about something, usually the more she needed to. “Sounds like maybe you should.” She didn’t respond, so he urged, “Let me buy you a drink.”
When Ricci started heading towards his quarters, Decker pointed the other way, objecting, “The lounge is still open.”
“I know – but let’s do this somewhere more…private.”
“I still don’t like grappa.”
“I am aware.” Matt took her by the shoulders and gently steered her towards his quarters, insisting, “I have whiskey. Come on.”
A few minutes later Decker was nestled into the loveseat in his sitting area, with Kay at her feet; Ricci handed her a generous pour of whiskey, while getting himself a grappa. He settled opposite her and leaned forward. “Tell me what’s going on. Daughter to father.”
Naiche took a swallow of whiskey before confirming, “We’re dropping ranks?”
“That’s why we’re here.” Ricci waved a hand at his quarters.
“Okay.” While scratching the back of her neck she said, “You see, the other night Tal and I sorta accidently started talking about having kids together.” Matt wanted to ask what that meant but figured it was best to let Naiche talk. He sipped his drink and nodded, encouraging her to continue. “And he’s all for it – having kids, I mean. Not rearing them in Chiricahua territory, though.”
“Where does he want to raise them?”
With an exaggerated eye roll, she scoffed, “In the Centauri settlements! If you can believe it. Looks like I might have to do the parent thing alone, after all.” Decker directed a premature glare at Ricci. “And do not tell me that the settlements are more than just our former war ground.”
“I’d never do that. But there’s got to be a third option. Couldn’t you and Tal find some sort of compro—”
“You think I should give up my dream?” Naiche thumped her glass on the arm of the loveseat, punctuating her objection.
“No! It’s not about giving up….” Ricci took a moment to check his rising emotions. He took a deep breath and more calmly advised, “What I’m saying is – be very sure of what your dream really is. Naiche, don’t be so narrowly focused on just one future for yourself that you…that you’re blind to an even better one in the offing.”
She lifted her chin and stared into his eyes. “Like you were.”
“Yeah….” Matt swallowed before finishing, “Like I was.”
“Pop, it’s not the same thing. Not at all.”
Although he was certain it was almost exactly the same thing, Ricci knew that arguing that particular point with her was futile. “Just promise me you’ll think about it. Look at it from a couple of different angles before deciding.”
As she sat silent, no sign of flexibility forthcoming, Matt couldn’t help but wonder if her mulish expression mirrored his own when Naomi told him she was keeping and raising their baby – with or without him. Later, when he bade his daughter good-night, Ricci understood for the first time, that as hard as it was to have to live with your own mistakes, watching your child make the same one would be even more heart-breaking.
Chapter 3
Just Before Revelation
“The dark night of the soul comes just before revelation.” Joseph Campbell, A Joseph Campbell Companion
Lovelace had arrived at the small, verdant moon which they assumed to be Tolu. When Jacoway dropped out of L-speed, Ricci ordered him to establish a wide orbit and instructed Evans to attempt contact with the inhabitants using all frequencies. After ten minutes of concerted effort, she announced, “No response, Captain.”
“Keep trying,” Ricci said. “What do you have for us, Lateef?”
On the bridge, all heads turned to the science station, awaiting Lateef’s report on sensor readings.
“Definite life-signs – all over this world.” The tension was palpable in anticipation of her next statement. “Many of them human…hundreds of them human.”
Decker felt a familiar mixture of curiosity and excitement, edged with apprehension, course though her veins. She flashed a grin at Con, recognizing the spark of a similar mix of emotions in his eyes.
“Why aren’t they answering?” Ricci asked, to no one in particular.
“Perhaps they cannot,” Lindstrom said. “Considering that they were pleading for help, that is.”
“I don’t know why not. A couple of days ago, they could send out an ultra-sophisticated message; you’d think they could answer a direct hail.” The captain turned to Lateef. “Any signs of the technology which sent out that FTL message?”
“Very few technological readings from anywhere on this world— wait, this could be…yes! There’s a ship on the surface – a huge one.” Aqila frowned at her screen for a moment, before saying, “It’s damaged, I think. I’m reading isomerization, metal oxides, elemental phosphorus…and the data for the surrounding terrain are concordant with copious amounts of ash….” She turned towards Ricci. “Captain, that ship almost certainly crashed on this moon.”
“Well, that’s consistent with the distress call – Maddox spoke of
an attack.” He rubbed his hand across his forehead, asking, “Are the human life-signs concentrated around the ship?”
“Mostly – but a few are scattered over a wider area.”
“Does the ship still have power?”
Lateef had turned back to her screen and reported, “Yes, it’s actually still broadcasting that message.”
“What brought it down?”
“Hard to say – there’s no signs of technology, let alone weaponry, consistent with an attack anywhere on this world. Thousands of alien life-signs, a few near the wreckage – but unless their technology is unlike anything we’ve seen before – nothing that would explain the reports of an attack.”
Decker watched Ricci motion Lindstrom over to his chair; while the Command Unit conferred in indistinct murmurs, Decker leaned over towards Con. “Think they’re gonna let us go down? To take a look around, I mean.”
He whispered back, “I don’t know. You read the captain better than me. What’re you getting?”
After studying her father for a moment, Naiche turned back to Con. “I think he’s wavering. We just need to come up with—”
Both tactical officers started slightly when Ricci suddenly said, “Kennedy – what’s your take on this? Still think it’s a trap?”
“Could be, sir,” Con answered. “The best way to find out, is to send a small, focused Tactical team—”
“This is really weird,” Lateef broke in to announce in a puzzled voice. They all turned to find her frowning deeply at her data screen.
“What?” Ricci barked. “What’s really weird?”
Lateef brought up a holographic data screen, and pointed at it, saying, “Look at the sensor data. There’s a large blank region here, about a kilometer from that ship.”
Lindstrom asked, “Blank – meaning no signs of life?”
The Risks of Dead Reckoning Page 3
