by J. J. Green
“Good work. I knew I was making the right decision when I recommended you for promotion.”
Jas didn’t reply. Was he expecting her to thank him? She’d guessed long ago that Pacheco was at least partly responsible for her rapid rise through the ranks. That and the terrible losses the Unity Alliance had sustained over the years of the war. But the office of commander didn’t mean anything to her. She would have served just as conscientiously if she’d been in the lowest ranks. What was more, serving as a commander brought responsibilities that she didn’t relish, though she did her best to fulfill them.
The pause was becoming awkward, so Jas said, “I need to go and find my new intake, sir, and the ship that’ll take us to the Thylacine.”
Pacheco nodded. “Yes, of course. I’ll go along with you. It’s on my way.”
Jas sighed inwardly as they left the room together and entered the labyrinthine tunnels of the Transgalactic Council offices.
“What did you think of the meeting today, Harrington?” Pacheco asked.
“I thought it went well, sir,” Jas replied. “I was surprised to hear that we’re so close to victory. It feels like we’ve been fighting this war forever.”
“Yes, it feels like that to me too, sometimes,” Pacheco said. “Do you mind if I ask, when it’s all finally over, what do you plan to do?”
“I don’t think I have a plan. I’ve been concentrating on fighting for so long, it’s hard to think about the future.”
“Will you return to Earth, do you think? Or maybe another planet?”
Earth? Jas hadn’t thought about Earth in a long while, and when she did, she usually thought of her old friend, Sayen, ex-navigator of the prospecting starship Galathea. She hadn’t been able to contact Sayen after they’d both volunteered, due to the security ban on personal comms. She had no idea where she was or even if she was still alive. But she knew that if Sayen survived, she would be returning to Earth. Her brother and the woman she loved were there. As to where Jas would go when they finally defeated the Shadows...
“I’ve no idea,” she answered.
They went through a round doorway. Pacheco had brought her to a large waiting area where a group of people and defense units were milling about. It was the usual ragtag bunch. Half already in uniform, half in civvies. Some faces were lined and harried, others looked as though they shouldn’t have been let out of school. The defense units were a range of models too. Commandeered from private companies, most likely, or judging from the appearance of some of them, snatched at the last minute from conveyor belts at recycling plants.
Jas’ heart began to race as she scanned the faces that turned toward her and Pacheco, but after a few moments, it abruptly slowed and was heavy in her chest. In spite of the five years that had passed, she knew she would notice Carl immediately if he were there. He wasn’t.
She realized that the group were saluting her and the admiral. She returned the salute, and from the corner of her eye she noticed Pacheco’s gaze upon her while he also saluted. Had he been observing her reaction to seeing the new recruits?
“Thank you. I’ll take over from here,” she said.
“Yes, Commander. Your transport is waiting on the pad. Safe journey.”
“Thank you.”
Usually, she was tolerant toward the man’s unwanted attention, but her sense of disappointment at not finding Carl among the crowd had made her irritable. As the admiral left, she went after him into the empty corridor where she could not be overheard. She said, “Pacheco.” He turned, and she went on, “In the meeting, you singled me out for praise. Please don’t do that. It’s embarrassing.”
Pacheco raised his eyebrows and gave a slight shake of his head before walking away.
Jas returned to the room and the waiting women, men, and defense units, already regretting her inappropriate words to the admiral. The man couldn’t help his feelings for her any more than she could help the fact that she didn’t reciprocate them.
“Who’s the highest-ranking person here?” she asked.
A man raised his hand and opened his mouth to speak.
Jas interrupted, “Great. Get everyone onto the transport waiting for us on the launch pad in five minutes.”
“Yes, Commander,” the man replied.
Jas left to make her own way to the launch pad, guessing that the warren of Council offices had to offer a different route. She wanted to be alone and give herself time to compose herself before joining the new recruits. She didn’t trust herself to maintain a calm attitude in her current state.
She was surprised that the disappointment of not finding Carl among the new intake had hit her so hard. It seemed that her heart hadn’t listened to her head saying time and time again that he had to have died.
Her circuitous route brought her to the transport a few minutes after the new crew members of the Thylacine. The man who had led them had done a good job. Their packs were safely stowed and everyone was strapped into jumpseats in the bare, functional military transport cabin. All they were waiting for before starjumping was her.
She gave a brief, approving nod before strapping herself in and comm’ing the pilot that they were ready for liftoff. From behind came the soft whoosh and click of the cabin doors shutting automatically, and the rumble of the engines shook her seat.
As the transport rose, wobbling a little, into the air, a realization niggled at Jas. Pacheco’s tip had led her to a doomed hope that she might see Carl. When she hadn’t, she’d lost interest in the question of who the person from her past might be. But then she’d scanned the faces of the new recruits as they sat in their jump seats, and she thought she recognized one.
The transport forced its way upward through the atmosphere and against the pull of gravity. Jas was sitting at the front of the cabin near the door to the cockpit. She craned her head around her seat while the transport rose higher, but all she could see were a few recruits sitting in the row behind her. They returned her gaze with puzzled expressions.
She quickly straightened up. A commander had to maintain a level of dignity, which was one of the things she hated about the position.
There were no windows in the transport, but long experience told Jas that they had to be leaving the planet’s atmosphere by that time. If she could look out, she would have seen the curve of the globe and the dark expanse of space above.
The transport completed the remainder of its flight away from the planet to a distance from which it would be safe to starjump. Jas racked her brains to match her brief glimpse of a faintly familiar face with a memory of a past acquaintance.
It wasn’t until they jumped that she had the answer.
Chapter Five
Jas had never quite gotten used to the rough military transport starjumps. Her stomach lurched as they reappeared in space some distance from the Thylacine. The destroyer was still orbiting the mythrin-harboring planet. Whenever she returned to the ship from a trip away, Jas felt like she was coming home.
She thought of the Thylacine as her ship. She was the only commander the relatively new vessel had ever had, and she had a sense of ownership of it. At five hundred and fifty meters long and half as wide, the Thylacine was only averagely sized compared to the rest of the Unity fleet, but the pulse cannons fore and aft were the latest and best technology. What was more, both the massive jump engine that underlay the working and residential quarters of the ship, and the smaller RaptorXs to either side were the fastest-responding that she’d ever known.
The engineer who had just completed his duty tour had maintained the engines in excellent working order, and Jas was confident that the person she suspected was his replacement would do the same. Like her namesake, the Thylacine was small compared to other predators of the Unity fleet, but she was deadly.
From behind Jas came the sounds of recruits whose stomachs were rebelling even more forcefully than hers at their abrupt arrival. She grimaced, and while the transport flew to the ship and through its bay doors, her mind dwel
t on the person from her past and the events surrounding their acquaintance—friendship, even, though it hadn’t started out that way.
Finally, the transport’s engines powered down and the pilot comm’d to say it was safe to disembark. Jas unfastened her harness and stood up, turning to face the recruits. Some of the new crew members were pale and sweaty, and the cabin reeked from the small pools of vomit in the aisles. The cabin doors clicked and opened with a swoosh, allowing welcome filtered air into the vessel.
“disembark from the back row forward,” Jas said, “and line up in your sections outside.”
The recruits stood and began pulling out their bags from the lockers, gingerly avoiding the puddles that dotted the floor. As Jas passed by, they stepped aside.
She went down the ramp and out into the launch bay, experiencing a sense of weird displacement caused by traveling by gateway and starjumping. She felt like she could have been aboard the Thylacine a few months ago or, as she had in fact, only a few hours ago. While she waited for the recruits to disembark, she checked over the bay doors. The repair crew had done a good job. The only evidence of the damage that the second Shadow ship had inflicted was sprays of scorch marks across the inner walls.
Krat. Jas remembered that she’d meant to talk to Pacheco after the meeting about the odd occurrences in the Thylacine’s most recent engagement. He hadn’t seemed to pay much attention to the information while she was giving her report, and afterward she’d been focused on meeting the person from her past. She resolved to mail Pacheco later.
The new crew members were filing down the ramp and lining up as she’d told them. Jas scanned the crowd, her gaze finally alighting on the woman she was seeking. She was as stocky and ginger as ever, though fine lines on her pale, white face showed the passing of the years since they’d last known each other. Wealthier, or perhaps vainer individuals would have paid to have those wrinkles removed. It looked to Jas as though the woman’s situation was similar to what it had been when they worked together.
As the woman met her gaze, Jas gave her a very brief smile.
“Who has the list of names?” she asked the waiting recruits. The defense units had organized themselves into a line too. Suddenly, Jas realized she’d spotted another familiar figure. “Wait a moment,” she said as she went over to the AX unit. She read the unit’s breastplate and looked up at the android’s impassive face in surprise. “AX7. You worked with me aboard the Galathea.”
“Yes, Commander Harrington.”
“Do you remember?”
“Yes, Commander Harrington. All my memories are stored in my database.”
Two members of the Galathea’s crew had arrived on the Thylacine.
“I have the list here, ma’am,” said the man who’d identified himself as highest-ranking among them earlier. He came over and handed her an interface.
Jas scanned the list. She would look at the details more closely later. At that moment, she was looking for only one name. She read it and the rank next to it. Chief Engineer. Jas nodded approvingly. It was as she expected. It would be good to have the woman aboard.
She told the new recruits to wait for their section officers, then asked her old acquaintance to go with her. They left the bay.
As soon as they were out of earshot of the others, Jas said, “Toirien, what a surprise to see you.”
“You too, Jas...Commander,” Toirien MacAdam replied.
Jas clicked her tongue. “No need to call me that. At least not while we’re alone. I can’t stand all that formality, but I have to go along with it.”
“I recognized your name when they told me where I was going and who I’d be serving under,” Toirien said, “but I wasn’t sure it was really you until I saw you. Who’d have thought all those years ago that when we met again you’d be in command of a Unity destroyer?”
“A lot’s happened since we were stuck on that Shadow trap planet,” Jas said. “A lot.” She hesitated. “Did you have to travel far to get to the Unity recruiting station? Are you tired?”
“No, not far,” replied the engineer. “I’m not that tired.”
“Do you want to join me for a drink and a chat after you settle in? I need to organize a few things, but then we could catch up on old times.”
“Sure. I’d like that.”
Jas led Toirien through the ship to the chief engineer’s quarters and told her to where to find her office when she was ready.
When Jas got back to her office, she drafted a long mail to Pacheco, reporting on the recent battle and highlighting the odd activity. She concluded,
Admiral, I’m concerned that the unfamiliar designs of the two Shadow ships, the unusual strength of the second ship’s hull and force field, the high caliber of its fighter pilots, and the ship’s abrupt departure when it could have remained and possibly won the battle, are all significant.
Now that I’ve had time to process the details, it occurs to me that the Shadows may be moving beyond their strategy of using the skills, knowledge, and technology of their victims. They may be developing to be better than them. They could be building their own, better, ships, maybe even inventing new genetic enhancement techniques to improve their pilots’ skills.
I suspect that the Thylacine got off easy. I think the second ship jumped because they’d discovered what they wanted to know—that their technology is superior.
Jas’ door chime sounded. She signed off the mail and sent it, then let Toirien in.
“What can I get you?” she asked, going to the drinks dispenser as the engineer took a seat.
“Water is fine,” Toirien replied.
“Nothing stronger?”
“No, thanks. I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol since that time you caught me off my face aboard the Galathea.”
“Ha,” Jas said. “I remember. Good for you.” Toirien’s alcohol and substance addiction had been a big problem, interfering with her work and judgment. Jas also recalled the engineer’s wish that she could have her children returned to her. They’d been placed in care due to their mother’s addictions.
She poured Toirien’s water and ordered a mixed drink for herself. As she handed the beaker to the woman, they sat down on either side of the desk. The engineer indicated Jas’ drink and said, “Is it normal to have alcohol aboard a Unity vessel?”
“I allow it for special occasions,” Jas replied. “A small celebratory drink when we win a battle helps boost morale. It keeps my spirits up too.”
Toirien’s expression was doubtful, and she watched with concern as Jas took a sip of her drink. Jas noticed her look and attributed the engineer’s unease to her own past history. It wasn’t like that for Jas. Not everyone let their drinking get out of hand.
“So,” Jas said, “who’s looking after your kids while you’re here?”
“They don’t need anyone to look after them anymore. They’re all grown up now. Fine young ladies. They’ve both signed up to fight. Joan is a comm technician and Grace has followed in her mam’s footsteps. She’s serving as an engineer aboard the Camaradon.”
The Camaradon was Pacheco’s command—the largest military space vessel ever built and the pride of the Unity fleet. It had been aboard the Camaradon that Jas had last seen Sayen Lee.
“It sounds like you set a great example, Toirien. You must be very proud of them.”
Toirien’s face twisted into an expression of regret. “I didn’t do right by my children for a long time, but I hope I’ve made up for that at least a little over the last few years.”
Jas took another sip of her drink, the alcohol easing some of the tension from her muscles. It was pleasant to talk with Toirien and slip into memories of past times. So much had happened since they last met, and her life was so different. She wondered if she was even the same person anymore.
“So, what’s been happening with you?” Toirien asked. “How did you go from security officer on a private prospector to Unity commander? That must be quite a tale to tell.”
J
as grimaced. “It is, and I’ll tell you the whole story some time. But I’m curious to know about Earth. It’s been a long while since I was there. What’s been happening? How are things now?”
“Hmm...not too bad. You know that Earth was declared Shadow-free late last year? It was a long, hard struggle to root them all out, but we made it in the end. So many people died during their invasion. It was terrible. And toward the end as the entire population was being scanned, it was odd. People were clinging to their Shadow friends and family. Sheltering Shadows and hiding them from the authorities, in total self-denial. They couldn’t face the fact that their loved ones were dead. The Shadows went along with the masquerade, of course, because the alternative was execution.”
“How could they accept a Shadow in place of the person who’d been murdered?” Jas asked, shocked.
“I know how weird it sounds, but on the other hand, I know how easy it is to lie to yourself if you want to.” Toirien glanced at the drink in Jas’ hand.
“How’s the recovery going?” Jas asked. “Are things getting back to normal?”
“Slowly, to be sure, but, yes, I’d say a kind of normality is returning to people’s lives. Things are different now, though. Battling the Shadows has brought people together. Evened things out a little. You don’t see the same separation between modded and naturals, for instance. A lot of the people who benefited from the divisions in societies, like the heads of corporations etcetera, they’re nearly all dead. They were the ones the Shadows targeted. So it’s like most of the very top layer of society was removed, and now people are trying to rebuild with a more equitable system. Basic modding for your baby is a right now, not a privilege. That’ll continue to even things up. And there’s more acceptance of people who choose a different way of life.”
“That’s good to hear.” Jas recalled the underworlders and their struggle against a society that despised them. She wondered what Erielle thought of the changes.
Her interface chirruped. Pacheco had replied to her mail. “Excuse me a moment.” She opened and read his message.
