These were all possibilities that Lyssa had come up with only a couple of hours ago. I was playing devil’s advocate, because sometimes a human mind could reach for weird associations that a more literal shipmind wouldn’t consider. Creativity was one of the Turing flags for that reason.
“Or they didn’t like the way we responded to them last time, and won’t be back,” Lyth said. “Bullies usually fold when they meet someone with backbone.”
Kristiana shook her small head. “These guys aren’t bullies. They don’t get pleasure out of pounding on the little guys.”
“Then what are they?” I asked, for she was a politician and understood how power worked.
Her forkful of lasagna hung in midair, dripping tomato sauce and cheese, while she considered. “They were strictly business. They gave up after you proved to be too much trouble and left. They didn’t crumble at the first resistance the way a bully would. And they didn’t hang in there until the bitter end the way a patriot would.”
“They cut their losses,” Dalton murmured and reached for the shepherd’s pie.
Kristiana nodded, then remembered her lasagna and went back to eating.
Jai tilted his head a little, considering me. “We have no choice but to wait and see if they come to us once more. We have no idea what attracts their attention, or what makes a target look promising to them.”
“We only know that they have learned to take humans,” Fiori added. She always looked tired and today was no different. “We don’t know what they want with them.”
I nodded. It was wearing her down, not knowing what had happened to Mace. Dalton seemed to be bearing up better than her, but I knew that he had been spending long hours exercising and putting himself through all the old Ranger drills he’d learned in basic training, that kept the body flexible and ready for battle. He looked sleek and fit, and was likely sleeping better at night than Fiori, who didn’t have a surgery or patients to keep her occupied.
“Kristiana says we must wait. Does anyone disagree with her? And if you do disagree, what do you propose we do, instead?” I asked.
“I think we should take the fight to them,” Calpurnia said.
“We don’t know where they are,” Yoan countered.
“Or where they’re from,” Anderson Marlow added. “It could be that this one ship Danny encountered is some sort of rogue outfit. Pirates that leave their peace-loving race ashamed of them for their ways. We can’t judge their whole species based upon the action of the one ship and crew we’ve seen.”
“Four ships taken, that we know of, so far,” I pointed out.
“Among the millions that ply the known worlds,” Marlow shot back. “My argument still stands.”
I nodded. “So, we should stay?”
Silence.
Jai said, “That is why you brought us here, isn’t it? You wanted us to re-examine why we are here and commit to it once more.”
I smiled at him. “It helps stop us going crazy, if we remember why we’re here. And here is another question for you. At what point do we say this isn’t working, and go home?”
“Go home and do what?” Juliyana asked in a reasonable tone. “I have a contract to complete and a lot of money rides on it. I stay out here until I find the bastards.”
Calpurnia didn’t look happy about that, but she said nothing.
“It’s our son out there somewhere,” Dalton said. “I stay out here until I get him back.”
“Me, too,” Fiori added.
Sauli waved his steak knife at me. “As long as you’re putting on dinner parties, I’m in.” Which was sweet of him to say because I knew the Omia would have the luxury food files.
“You might need me,” Lyth said. “I’m staying.”
I looked at Jai and Marlow. “You two came along because you wanted to know what was going on, but you have lives and commitments—”
“We all do,” Kristiana interjected.
“Granted, but Jai isn’t saying anything, and Marlow just looks thoughtful.” I stared at them. “We can take you back whenever you want.”
Jai was still cradling his teacup in his hands. He sipped, not at all bothered by having everyone stare at him.
Marlow glanced at Jai. Their gazes met and Marlow nodded the smallest amount and sat back.
“The thing is, this shouldn’t have happened,” Jai said.
“What? Pirates stealing people?” Yoan asked, puzzled.
“I mean, an alien species that appears to be bipedal, about our height, our level of intelligence and with a degree of technology that nearly matches, if not out-strips our own, but not so much that they’re unstoppable.”
“The odds against that are so remote, it’s nigh impossible to compute,” Marlow added, his voice low and soft. “I’ve sat through more meetings with scientists than any of you could possibly withstand, so I know a bit about this, because they had the same arguments about the array, and how impossible it was that the thing should exist.”
“Despite the fact that it existed?” Lyth shook his head. “Scientists…”
Marlow just grinned. “Same situation here. We have come across aliens who rightfully shouldn’t exist…at least, not in this time and place.”
“The section of the Carina arm that humans have settled,” Jai said, “what we used to call the Empire, but now just call the known worlds…it is an infinitesimally small portion of the galaxy. Humans developed on Terra so long ago its location is lost to us, but we do know that we are an anomaly. The conditions on Terra were just right for man to survive. Those conditions are a sliver on the very wide spectrum of conditions available in the galaxy. The chances of another intelligent lifeform developing anywhere else is just as slim. And the chances that second intelligent lifeform should reach the same level of development and technology as humans at the very same time, and in the same small section of this single galaxy, of all the millions of galaxies out there, are so small I’m sure even Lyssa could not calculate it.”
“It would take a while to compute,” Lyssa admitted, for she sat beside Lyth, wearing sunglasses and “eating” chicken pot pie.
“I want to know what these creatures are,” Jai said. “I want to know why they are here, in this time and place. And I want to know if humanity should brace itself for the fight of its life.”
“Again,” Kristiana said, with a sigh.
“And again and again,” Marlow told her. “We’ve got very good at it. You should read more history.”
Kristiana stuck her tongue out at him and went back to her lasagna.
But Jai wasn’t finished yet. “If these blue people are a threat, if we really are sliding on the short slope into an inter-species war, then Marlow and I might be the best placed of all of us here to alert the known worlds.”
“If you’re still alive to tell anyone,” Juliyana said darkly.
“That’s optimistic,” Fiori shot back.
“It’s realistic,” Juliyana replied, glaring at her.
Tensions were still spiking here and there. I stood up. “Dessert,” I declared.
Three days later, the blue ones descended upon us.
—29—
New recruits find it hard to sleep on the eve of battle because they’re all wound up wondering if they’re going to emerge on the other side with their hide intact and still breathing.
Old campaigners find it hard to sleep because they prefer to arrange the odds so they will emerge on the other side. They’re wary of being caught snoring if sudden, unexpected action breaks out, which shortens those odds.
Yet sleep is the very best thing a soldier can do before a battle.
I was yanked out of a very deep sleep by Lyssa’s shouting in my ear, while alarms throbbed and wailed everywhere on the ship. I could hear everyone else on the ship shouting at each other.
“Wake up, Danny!” Lyssa shouted again.
“Wake. I’m awake,” I croaked, pushing myself upright. My heart was spiking hard, which helped get rid of the l
ast dregs of sleep. “Report when you can spare the bandwidth.”
For I could feel the ship moving beneath me. A clank and thud on the starboard side was probably the exit hatch closing tight, as promised.
While I waited, I dressed in the combat gear which had been sitting to one side, waiting for this moment.
“Blue guys. Two ships, this time,” Lyssa said. “Bearing directly for us.”
“How close?”
Another pause. She would be dealing with everyone else’s questions, too.
I picked up my shriver and blades and stashed them on various places about me, then headed for the bridge.
Dalton emerged from his room, in combat gear, at the same time as me. He picked up his pace to draw level. Behind us, I heard running boots and glanced over my shoulder. Yoan was trying to dress and run at the same time, while also holding a shiny new shriver.
“Check on Fiori!” I told Yoan. “Bring her to the bridge. Then check on the parawolves. Make sure they’re soothed.”
Yoan spun and headed in the other direction, still struggling to get his belt done up. Adrenaline tended to make you clumsy. He’d get used to it.
The ship lurched.
“Sorry!” Lyssa cried on all channels, as Dalton and I leaned against a wall each, to stay on our feet. Behind us, Yoan cursed.
I got going again and rounded the corner where the passage bent and headed to the center of the ship and the bridge ramp.
Lyth was coming from the other direction. He wasn’t wearing combat gear, but instead wore all black. The shriver on his hip was black, too.
I strode up the ramp to the bridge. Lyssa stood frozen at the front of the bridge, her gaze on the view through the windows.
I stopped by her side and looked at the red dwarf that had been glaring balefully at us for eight days.
Dalton moved straight over to the weapons console, and Lyth moved to navigation.
There was nothing to see but the flickering yellow edges of the sun and the pulsing red center.
“Behind us?” I asked Lyth.
He stared down at the small 3D tank formed on the navigation table. “Two ships, both the same size as the one you called the mothership.” He held up a hand. “No, wait…” He looked up at me. “Three ships of that size,” he said quietly.
“Is the Omia away?” I asked Lyssa.
“We’re not going anywhere,” Sauli said from the overheads. “You’ve got Yoan, and I’ve got a bone to pick with these dudes.”
“You haven’t got so much as a rail gun!” I cried. “This is not the plan!”
“It’s not your plan,” Sauli replied.
I looked up at the ceiling, rolling my eyes. “Juliyana, are you putting space between us?”
“I’m coming about. Take a run at the leading bastard,” she replied.
Lyth hung his head, with a heavy sigh.
That also wasn’t the plan, but she had maintained all along that her mission was to kill them. Period.
So far, everyone was disobeying their direct orders. Brilliant.
“Lyssa, pick the best strategy, given the current parameters, and execute.”
Lyssa spared time and attention to look at me. “Are you sure, Colonel?”
“They’ll be on top of us in moments. We need to do the unexpected. So do it.”
Lyssa turned her attention back to the window. I knew she wasn’t really staring through it. She didn’t live in this avatar standing beside me, but in the engineering compartments at the back of the ship. She had eyes throughout the ship and all over her exterior.
She was the ship. And she would be very busy right now, weighing all the scenarios and figuring which was best out of those I had approved. I made myself shut up and wait for her to make her decision.
Fiori and Yoan both marched up the ramp to the bridge. Fiori moved over to the console and shell she had used before. Yoan moved to the engineering dash.
Dalton leaned back against his shell. “Weapons hot,” he informed everyone, then pulled the shriver from his holster and checked the charge on it, then put it back. He cracked his knuckles.
“Lyssa, how long until they reach us?” I didn’t bother clarifying who “they” were.
Lyssa raised a hand, held it palm out toward me.
Wait.
Story of my fucking life. “Come on, come on,” I breathed. “Give me something.”
Lyssa turned to me. “I have surrendered to the aliens, Colonel. They have accepted the surrender and will board in approximately ten minutes.”
I couldn’t find any words that adequately expressed my stunned bewilderment. Everyone else made shocked, choked sounds, while I stared at her.
Lyssa gave a small shrug that made me think of Calpurnia. “I did the unexpected, as ordered, Colonel.”
She had also not followed my plans. Any of my plans.
I put my face in my palms and tried to breathe.
—30—
“We are outgunned,” Lyssa explained, her tone calm, while Fiori moaned, and Dalton tried to comfort her. Lyth and Yoan crowded up around me, staring at Lyssa in disbelief. The other two ships were yelling at us, and Lyssa had their feeds running aloud, so it was noisy on the bridge.
“I calculated we were outclassed by a factor of at least three hundred percent,” Lyssa continued, “given that there are three ships approaching us with their weapons systems activated. They’re faster than us, too. I presumed you would prefer me to choose a scenario in which we lived, Colonel. So I chose the one that provided the greatest odds.”
“Surrendering wasn’t even on the list!” I cried.
“No.” Her tone was one of agreement.
“What in hell is happening to you, Lythion?” Juliyana bellowed from the overhead speaker. “Why aren’t you running like hell?”
“I advise you do exactly that, Juliyana,” I said grimly, raising my voice. “We’ve surrendered.”
“What the fuck?”
“Get out of here,” I said heavily.
“I copied that, Danny,” Sauli said. “We certainly can’t outrun them or outgun them, if Lyssa figures you can’t. We’re coming about and recoupling with you.”
“No. No!” I shouted. “We’re the tethered goat! I order you to leave. Right now!”
“You’re not the captain of my ship, Danny,” Sauli said gently.
I wanted to tear steel plating apart with my bare hands. I ached with it. “What is wrong with everyone?” I cried.
Dalton’s hand settled on my shoulder. “We’re sticking with you,” he said gently. “I know that’s a difficult concept for you to wrap your head around. Just go with it for now.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” Juliyana muttered from the speaker. “Us, too,” she added. “Coming about.”
I squeezed my temples.
“Lyssa might have made a smart decision, Captain,” Lyth murmured, next to me. “These things. They take captives. They don’t kill. At least, not straight away. And if they don’t kill everyone straight away, opportunities will occur later that we can take advantage of.”
“And now we get to see them up close,” Dalton said grimly. “Lyssa, record everything, from every angle, and add it to the black box, just in case.”
“I am,” Lyssa said calmly.
“Every second we’re in their presence will teach us a great deal,” Jai said, from the overheads.
“And they’ll learn from us, too,” Marlow pointed out, his tone one of warning.
I nodded. “Good point.”
The ship shivered.
“The Omia has attached a cable,” Lyssa murmured. “The alien ships are slowing. Their weapons systems are still activated, but their FTL curtains are not deployed.”
“They really are coming aboard,” Yoan breathed. “And we’re just going to let them?”
“We are,” I said, as crisply as I could. “We’ve got mere minutes to prep for this. Lyssa, I don’t want your avatar showing anywhere, while they’re here. And no
thing in the center of the ship. Get rid of it.”
“The printers?”
“They can sit on the floor. Turn them away from the freight hatch, so all these fuckers see is metal.”
“What if they don’t breathe our preferred atmosphere?” Lyth said.
“That’s their bad luck,” I shot back and headed for the ramp down to the guts of the ship. Already, the walls and interiors, furniture and objects which were made of nanobots were melting into puddles on the floor, which ran like water along the floor to the drains that led to their storage tanks. “But they boarded the Ige Ibas, so if they breathe methane or something, they already know how to navigate our stuff. I’m not rolling out the welcome mat a centimeter more than I have to.”
Everyone followed me off the bridge except Lyssa, who had disappeared as ordered.
The exit hatch opened, showing star field, as Sauli and Kristiana, Jai and Marlow all pulled themselves inside and stepped through to the middle of the ship.
Jai turned and tugged on a lead. Coal appeared in the doorway, his forepaws making swimming motions. He whimpered as he landed awkwardly on the floor inside the hatch.
Then he spotted his siblings, who were shaking off the remains of the disappearing sandpit, and trotted over to them. Behind him, Sauli hauled Venni into the ship the same way. Venni merely looked sad, her blue eyes staring accusingly at Sauli for putting her through this.
Then she moved over to join the pack.
Another small shiver announced the coupling of the Penthos.
“You’re all certifiable,” I told everyone crowded around the hatch. “Juliyana even more so—she could have fought them.”
Lyth shook his head. Just a little. “Juliyana only looks suicidal,” he said softly.
“The alien ships are closing. Fifty meters off port,” Lyssa said from the overhead speaker.
Juliyana appeared in the open hatchway, hauling herself hand over hand. Then she flipped her boots forward and let them sink into the gravity of the Lythion until they made contact with the deck. She straightened and brushed off her hands and looked around at all of us.
Galactic Thunder Page 16
