Con rose to his feet and nodded. “Thank you, sir, but she’ll let me know when she’s ready to talk. Good night, Commander.”
“Good night.”
Once they were outside in the passageway, Aqila asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to go see if Deck’s okay?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. I know her – she’ll want to be alone for a while.” He smiled sadly down at his wife. “Besides, I already know – she’s not okay. How could she be? A huge chunk of her world is on the Lovelace right now, and they appear to be in some mighty deep trouble.”
***
After nearly half an hour spent pacing her temporary quarters, Decker needed to burn off some excess energy. The Aurora had no basketball court, nor even any basketballs, so she IM’d Con to see if he was up for some sparring.
When Con was recovering, they’d fashioned some makeshift bo staffs for bōjutsu workouts; when he met her in the gym, Deck wordlessly tossed one his way. Kennedy caught it with one hand, smoothly moving into his warm-up drills. After they spent a few minutes mirroring each other’s movements, he asked, “Couldn’t sleep?”
“No.” Deck started spinning her staff in a figure-eight maneuver. “I keep thinking…my last conversation with Tal, at least I told him I loved him. My last conversation with my father – I called him ‘Captain’.”
“That was not the last conversation you’re ever gonna have with your dad.”
She continued with her wrist rolls, while saying, “You don’t know that.”
“Honestly, I can think of at least a dozen scenarios where Ricci would feel the need to send a message like that – and in most of them, everyone walks away just fine.”
“Even though he thought it necessary to send the message in Chiricahua?”
“He’s obviously showing an abundance of caution towards the Lignatians, but the fact that he didn’t tell us to head for home ASAP, means yes, even with that thrown in, I still think their situation is not completely dire.”
Deck stilled her movements and looked at Con. “Yeah, maybe….” Her voice grew exasperated as she continued, “In any case, it’s obvious that he should have listened to us. Especially you, as his chief tactical officer.” She bounced the end of her staff twice on the floor and heaved a great sigh. “He can be so goddamned stubborn.”
“I gotta admit – when I found out who he was, I immediately knew where you got your stubbornness.” Deck couldn’t help but laugh in response. Con then asked, “You ready?”
“Let’s go.”
He assumed a defensive stance, awaiting her attack. Deck started with an up-strike and the gym rang with the sound of their clashing staffs for over twenty minutes. They took a short breather and resumed the mock battle. After another twenty minutes, Decker, sweaty and spent, called a halt to the proceedings.
Con seemed eager to stop, as well. “Ya’ good? Tired enough to sleep now?”
“I’m tired enough to sleep right here, now.”
Due to the furious activity, they were unaware that Kay was not their only spectator – until a voice from the shadows called out, “That was a most impressive display. I must admit, bōjutsu was never my favorite class at The Rock.”
Naiche spun around to find Commander Lindstrom lounging against the wall near the doorway. While she was thinking that she couldn’t really imagine the lanky, languid first officer engaging in any hand-to-hand combat, Kennedy had the presence of mind to thank their CO for the compliment. Con then looked at Naiche with the trace of a fond smile. “Walk you to your quarters, ma’am?”
Deck knew that Con wanted to ensure she was actually going to bed but she couldn’t accept his offer. “Thanks, but no.” She nodded at the dog who’d roused himself after they’d called it quits and was wagging his tail in anticipation. “I have to take Kay for one last outing before turning in. The Aurora has no dog-friendly bathrooms, you know.”
“That’s true – though I’d love to see how fancy a canine-bathroom designed by the Lignatians would be.” Naiche’s good mood evaporated at the mention of the aliens who, she presumed, had her loved ones in their crosshairs. Con reached out, clasping her shoulder, and giving it a comforting squeeze. “They’re gonna be okay. You gotta have faith in your…captain.”
She plastered on as brave a smile as she could muster up. “Sure thing.” They all headed out of the gym together. When they came to the passageway leading towards the crew quarters, Deck wished Con a good night. She was about to do the same with Lindstrom when, to her surprise, he offered to accompany her and Kay on their walk.
“Of course, sir,” she answered since no other option was really open to her. As they silently strolled around the perimeter of the Aurora, it suddenly occurred to Decker why Lindstrom might also be having trouble sleeping. “I hope you’ll forgive my presumption, Commander, but are you worried about Doctor Clemente?”
There was no answer forthcoming for so long that Naiche began to wonder if he was too offended to respond or if he was winding up for a scathing remark. Finally, Lindstrom said, “Yes, I am. Though worry is only one part of what I’m feeling.” In the faint light reflected from the planet that Tolu orbited, Deck threw a puzzled glance at Lindstrom, but elected to give him room to explain, if he so wished. After a moment, he did. “She’d be here – safe with us, if I wasn’t such an ass.”
Belatedly, Decker remembered that Lindstrom had actively chosen Uddin over Clemente for this mission. “You couldn’t have known. If anything, staying on the Lovelace seemed the safer option at the time.”
“True, but that had nothing to do with me making that choice, so it does nothing to erase the fact that it was my decision. Moreover, I approved of the captain’s plan to go to Jileesa. So, you might say, I’m doubly at fault.”
“What if you hadn’t approved? He’d have just said, ‘duly noted’ and gone anyway.”
Lindstrom shook his head at her flippancy, observing, “Not if I’d told Captain Ricci that I was concerned for our safety here on Tolu, with the Lovelace being gone.”
Decker watched Kay stalking palm-sized insects in the grass before responding, “But you weren’t concerned.”
“No, I wasn’t. Perhaps it’s due to the hubris that comes with the braid, but the truth of the matter is, I have as much faith in myself as I do in the captain.”
She stopped walking and faced him head on. “If you have so much faith in him, then why are you still so worried?”
“I believe that is the downside to loving someone. You worry whether it’s rational or not.”
Since two of the three men she loved most in the world were on the Lovelace, Decker felt the truth of that statement in her very core. “Is it really irrational to be worried?”
“In a way, yes. We faced many a deadly situation during the war and I can say with full confidence that your father is one of the most resourceful commanders in the UDC. He is certainly the sharpest captain I ever served under. And I’ve served under quite a few.”
Decker felt a slight easing of the tension she’d been carrying in her shoulders. “Thank you for sharing that, sir. When I start to worry, I’ll try to remember it.”
“We both should.”
Once Kay had finished all canine business, the trio headed back to the Aurora in companionable silence.
Chapter 13
Evil Triumphant
"…unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant." Martin Luther King’s Acceptance Speech for the Nobel Peace Prize
On Jileesa, at the precise time Drawde had indicated, the blue figure had appeared in the lounge area. “If you’ll follow me, I will escort you to the Boundary.”
Ricci wondered what Drawde meant by boundary, but didn’t ask, figuring he’d find out soon enough. They all followed the silent figure past the table of food into a narrow corridor, exchanging puzzled looks since their possible destination was a mystery. Having thoroughly explored th
e rooms while waiting, the humans knew there was nothing down that hallway except for a bathroom. However, when they got to the terminal wall, Drawde waved a hand and the wall swiftly parted into two sections, opening up into a small, narrow room.
Ricci entered the little room, suspecting it to be a transport of some kind. Jacoway, Kaplita, and Bayer dutifully trooped in behind their captain. Abruptly, the back wall of the room vanished, exposing a transparent partition between them and a huge space filled with a pea-green haze. As soon as his eyes adjusted to the spectacle, Ricci could see that there were over a dozen figures seemingly floating in the room beyond the barrier. He glanced at his crew and found all three of them gazing speechless at the sight.
Drawde announced, “This is one of our governmental chambers. You see before you the Majority Ruling Council of Jileesa.”
Ricci turned back to study the fifteen Lignatians visible beyond the partition. Their bodies were three-feet-long translucent sacs in an array of colors, the top half cordoned off into an amorphous bulb filled with iridescent strands, the bottom divided into twenty-some spiky filaments, with a solid black line running down the middle of each one.
While still gathering his wits, Matt watched as an orange-hued Lignatian floated up to a long transparent table hovering in the middle of the chamber. The alien proceeded to intertwine three filaments on each side of its body, forming a set of pseudo-limbs. The tips of the limbs began making circular motions on glowing sections of the table. The strands in the alien’s head flashed out multicolor pulses of light and a mechanical voice filled the room the humans were in. “Vipin Drawde, are the human representatives present at the Boundary?”
Drawde pressed lighted sections on his own floating panel and answered, “Yes, Wayru Millua, they are.”
“I, Wayru Millua Rubak Bacroj, Supreme Leader of the Lignatians, call all to the panel who would actively participate in this audience with the human representatives.”
Eight more Lignatians floated up to the table. There was no sound for the next few minutes, though the Lignatians at the table were all flashing furiously at each other.
“That is our form of communication,” Drawde explained.
“It’s all visual?” Kaplita asked.
“Not entirely. What you are seeing as light flashes is only part of the communication. Lignatians mainly perceive electromagnetic pulses through touch or by receptors in our minds. The communication impulses from one Lignatian ignite answering impulses in another Lignatian’s mind. Observing Lignatians can perceive them and divine the nature of the exchange.”
“Are you going to translate for us?” Ricci asked.
“The translation will be sent to this room again when Wayru Millua allows it.”
“But you can understand them, can’t you?”
“Not at present. My abilities as a Lignatian are quite limited when I am in this communication module. Only when my consciousness is returned to my body will I regain full use of those senses.”
“Where is your body? Is it in that room?”
“No, it is in my laboratory – in the communication conduit, which allows transfer of my consciousness to this module.”
The “voice” of Wayru Millua once again filled the room. “Captain Matteo Ricci, do you speak for the humans?”
With a wave of a hand, Drawde floated the small panel to Ricci and showed him how to activate two-way communication. Once Ricci had pressed the appropriate sequence of lighted segments, he answered, “Yes, I do.”
“The data packet you streamed to us, tells of billions of humans on Earth – the once home of the Children of the Valiant. Explain how this is so, when those on the Valiant believed they were the last of humankind.”
“I don’t believe they truly thought they were the only humans left in the galaxy, though it’s possible there was some…misinterpretation of the original mission of the Valiant. Our evaluation of their later log entries does confirm that over time, the truth of their mission got somewhat distorted. You have to understand, the people in charge of the Valiant at the time of its destruction were the descendants of the ones who boarded the ship at launch.”
“Explain the original mission if it was not to save the last remnants of humankind.”
Though he wondered when he’d get a turn at asking questions, Ricci silently accepted that the Lignatians had home court advantage. He did his best to describe the situation that had existed on Earth in the 27th century, and how it had evolved in the intervening four-hundred years. When he’d concluded, there was nothing but silence in the room the humans occupied. Based on the behavior of the Lignatian Ruling Council, Ricci assumed there was an intense discussion raging on the other side of the barrier.
Finally, another mechanical voice announced, “This is Vipin Aicilef Pinaar Eascra, Senior Vipin of the Lignatians. Explain why humans would set out on so dangerous a mission, before your people had even conquered the light-speed barrier, if it was not an attempt to save the human race.”
Before answering the question, Ricci looked over at Drawde. “Vipin – that’s how you introduced yourself to us. Is a title or a name?”
“Humans would call it a title. Best translated for you as governmental scientist or engineer, but much more than that. There is no direct corollary.”
Matt was tempted to ask if the term ‘Senior Vipin’ meant Aicilef was Drawde’s superior, but he supposed it didn’t really matter. He turned back to Aicilef, who he assumed was the purple-hued Lignatian to Millua’s right and re-opened communications. “Humanity went out into space as soon as we were physically able. First to our moon, then to our neighboring planets, and now we’ve established colonies in the star system nearest to Earth. It is our nature to explore and learn about our environment – the boundaries of that environment have only been limited by our physical reach. And we’ve been very determined and creative about overcoming those limits.”
“This does not align with our experience with the humans of Experiment Alktata.”
“You’ve reared these people in an artificial bubble and handed them everything without even fully explaining how it works. How do you expect them to suddenly be resourceful and determined?”
“Functional human young do not retain the knowledge of their ancestors?”
“No, that’s not how humans work. Human young learn from those who came before – but that knowledge must be imparted, gradually, over many years. And reinforced through life experience.”
“You were correct, Vipin Drawde, this defect in the humans was not an artifact of the cloning.”
At last Ricci saw an opening to pose some questions. “You admit that you cloned the humans from the Valiant. Why did the Lignatians do that? And how was it accomplished?”
“There was a Lignatian probe in the region when the Valiant was destroyed. We believed that the last of your race had perished on that ship – the other humans in the area having been consumed by the Pakarahova.”
“You know of the Pakarahova?”
Wayru Millua answered, “They once offered us their distasteful assistance. We have no desire to give up our present form. We instructed them to leave us in peace.”
Matt was intrigued, reflexively wanting to hear more about their encounter with the Pakarahova but at the same time cognizant that the subject of human cloning took precedence. “Am I to understand that the Lignatians established a human colony here on Jileesa because you believed that the human race had perished on the Valiant? And you, therefore, took it upon yourselves to attempt to resurrect them?”
“That is correct,” Vipin Aicilef said. “We were moved by the plight of humankind to prevent their extinction.”
Ricci was equal parts touched and appalled; the latter emotion got the upper hand when Wayru Millua took control of the conversation once more. “A plight that was an illusion. The Lignatians have expended enormous time and resources on what we now find is a worthless endeavor. We built special probes to access the Valiant and retrieve the genetic sam
ples. We scanned the databases to learn your language, history, and culture. We built a human suitable environment and designed novel technologies so that the humans could one day resume the mission of the Valiant and find a new home. All this we have done because we were deceived by humankind. What defense can you offer for this act of treachery?”
“There was no deliberate attempt to trick the Lignatians. With all due respect, Wayru Millua, if you were deceived, it was your own doing. Furthermore—”
Ricci’s hand was gently pushed off the control panel by Drawde. “This is not a wise course you have embarked upon. It would be better to show more humility and respect to the Council.”
“It would be better if the Lignatians had respected the human dead. I understand that your intentions were noble but what you did was a gross violation of human rights and ethics.”
Though the Council hadn’t heard Ricci’s last few statements, Millua responded forcefully to his former declaration. “This is the true human way, is it, Captain Ricci? No thanks do you offer for the trouble we have taken, no apologies do you make for the fraud of extinction, when in truth you outnumber us more than a thousand-fold.”
Taking a second to corral his temper, Matt heaved a great sigh. He moved his hand back to the control panel, stating, “I do offer thanks for your noble intentions towards humanity, and for the extreme effort you extended on behalf of the humans in your care. I’m sorry it was all done due to a cross-cultural misunderstanding. This impression of our extinction was imparted unintentionally. The only amends I can now offer is to relieve you of your responsibilities. As soon as we can arrange transfer of all the humans from Jileesa to Uniterrae, we will trouble you no more.”
Matt watched as the filaments in Millua’s head all flashed a blinding white. He only understood the significance of that display when Millua declared, “Yes, we see now the true nature of humans. Now that you have exposed our hidden home world, you are ready to depart. Now that you have stolen our technology, far superior to yours, you are done with us. Now that you have drained the last trickle of lifeforce from our bodies, you will ‘trouble us no more.’”
The Risks of Dead Reckoning Page 15
