by C. M. Kane
Radnor cut into her musings as they arrived at her old room. ‘I wish to offer my personal apologies, Captain Rames, and I feel compelled to tell you that what occurred between us was entirely my own fault and had nothing to do with Lord Loki. He was in fact extremely distressed at your disappearance and I was severely reprimanded.’
‘Thank you, Radnor, your apology is accepted, although I must say, it didn’t seem to stop him from trying to trap me again now did it?’
Radnor sighed heavily, as if he expected this response. ‘Believe it or not our Lord was trying to protect you, Captain. He knew none of the Gods would accept your custody of the Dreadnaught, and that is apart from the fact that Lord Zeus requested his help. He reasoned that if he could trap you onboard he could save a lot of lives, your own and that of your crew included. All I ask is that you please remember that when you think of him, and try not to judge him too harshly. He was only doing what he thought was for the greater good, for everyone involved. He is not a monster, Captain, he actually cares what happens to people, you especially.’
With that he turned and left, leaving Tae open mouthed and with a whole lot of new things to think over.
Chapter 11
‘When can I go onboard?’ Vulcan asked as soon as Tae had left the room.
Loki turned straight to Zeus. ‘I told you,’ he laughed. ‘Mind you, he actually managed to last until Tae left before he asked to get onboard, that was a bit of a surprise.’
Zeus smiled ruefully as he came out of his own bitter musings and turned his focus back to those surrounding him. ‘If only that were our lone concern, do you think she’s being totally truthful? And if she is, then what in the hell do we do now? We still can’t allow a seventeen year old woman to Captain that ship. Damn it, this really isn’t turning out how I expected.’
‘Unfortunately I think she’s being totally honest, and that includes with what Hera did,’ Loki replied. He looked at Zeus thoughtfully, ‘and if that’s the case, then we need to be very careful on how we proceed, because she’s right, if that ship is truly sentient, and it thinks we’ve harmed her in any way, it could do exactly as she said and turn homicidal.’ He looked around at them all before saying exactly what he knew each of them would– or should- be thinking. ‘I don’t know about you lot, but after seeing what it did to Hera, I don’t really relish the thought of having an insane Dreadnaught hunting me. Especially not when the Titans are expected to land in our laps at any moment.’
Ares looked over at Loki nodding, ‘I agree, but what options does that leave us if we can’t kill her?’
Vulcan interjected just as Loki was about to speak. ‘Well that’s easy isn’t it; just leave her in charge of communicating with the ship and simply put the captain and crew we want onboard alongside any Tuvarnans that wish to stay, just like she requested. That should keep everyone happy; especially the ship, which is our main concern. Now when can I get onboard?’
Loki and the others all stared at Vulcan in surprise, ‘That’s actually an excellent idea,’ he said. ‘Tae did say the ship can be operated independently. If she is in charge of communicating with the ship, and we have our own people onboard alongside the Tuvarnans, than that, theoretically, should pose the least possible threat that Brightmoon might feel from us. It will still have Tae and some of the people it is used to, and we will have our own people in charge while it slowly becomes accustomed to them. We’ll also be able to learn more about how it operates that way too.’ He turned to face Vulcan fully, ‘the one thing I definitely wouldn’t advise is for anyone to be doing any experimentation on the ship, like taking its Nanites. I know how much you must be chomping at the bit to get your hands on some, and to examine its other attributes; but if what Tae has said is true and that ship is sentient, well, let’s just say that it might not take too kindly to anyone taking anything from it, or damaging it in anyway. Despite your obvious enthusiasm to get all touchy feely with her, we are going to have to take this very slowly and carefully.’
Vulcan frowned in frustration, ‘I can look though, and perhaps Tae could ask her if I could examine her, she does seem to like me remember?’
Loki glared back in annoyance at Vulcan’s reminder of Tae’s reaction to him. Unfortunately she seems to react to just about any male around, except for me, he thought resentfully. He pulled his thoughts back to what he was saying. ‘Anyway we look at this, Tae has to be involved. I guess the next two questions are, just what is the clue Cassandra gave her and which of us do you want to be in charge of Tae and Brightmoon?’ He turned to Zeus.
Zeus sat motionless as he silently went over what they had discussed. Vulcan was right, his solution was the simplest and the safest route, just as Loki had said, still, who to put in charge of Brightmoon? Although he would dearly like to have a ship like that for himself, he loved his own ship the Olympus more; he knew he would never willingly leave her. He felt a deep connection to his giant battle cruiser; it had taken him from the realms of the Titans, along with the many serious battles that he had fought with her, and she’d never let him down, she was his one true home. He looked to the waiting Gods, and suddenly he knew the answer to this question as easily as Vulcan had solved their last conundrum with Tae.
‘Loki, you will take control of Brightmoon,’ he said smiling at his friend.
‘Why me?’ asked Loki in surprise, he had fully expected either Zeus to claim the powerful ship as his own, or for him to give it to Vulcan for study, or Ares for defense at the portal, perhaps even to one of his brothers.
Zeus continued smiling, ‘because you’re not concerned whether or not you get it; and from the very first moment I met you all those eons ago I have known one essential thing to be true about you.’
‘This should be good,’ said Loki dryly.
Zeus’s smile turned into a grin ‘Joke all you want Loki, but power for powers sake has never been an attraction for you. You have always been content living your life to your own personal rules and agenda, which luckily enough, has mainly coincided with my own. And despite being my friend, you have never once in all this time asked for an Orion class battle cruiser, you were always content with the smaller Khopesh class of the Fenris. Besides that, the closest you have ever come to any dissension with any of us has only been due to some of your more… questionable pranks, you have never done anything out of pure malice.’
Ares coughed what sounded suspiciously like “bullshit” into his hand, Loki grinned in real amusement as he remembered Poseidon’s shit shower.
‘More importantly,’ continued Zeus, ‘ I also remember when we were originally formulating the plan to escape Titan; it was you who had the foresight to move as many scientists as you safely could to that remote research station without Hera’s knowledge. It was you who then took the chance to gather them all with you onboard the Fenris when we escaped. If not for you we would never have been able to duplicate Hera’s portal device so quickly, nor create the myriad life forms we have seeded throughout our realms. No, the more I think of this the more certain I am that I am right, you are the perfect candidate.’ He turned to Ares and Vulcan, ‘you will of course have to allow Vulcan to travel with you for a short study tour of the ship while he has his second move his own ship to the portal until this is over. He can leave someone else trusted to continue with the repairs to the two ships in space dock. Once they are repaired I will assign new Captains once Ares switches back to the Kydomois.’
Ares nodded and Zeus turned to Vulcan, ‘if any of you wish to see Brightmoon immediately we will go over once we have sorted everything out, you’ll get your chance to look around soon,’ he promised. ‘So, now that’s settled perhaps we should inform Tae of our plans and speak to her again about this clue of hers.’
He once again motioned to Radnor who had returned a short time ago, Tannan had now disappeared to take care of the other arrangements requested by Tae.‘ Radnor, could you return Captain Rames to us please’
Radnor nodded. ‘Immediately, my Lor
d’ then he hurried from the room.
‘Well I can’t say I think she’ll be thrilled with her new Commander,’ laughed Ares as he looked at Loki, ‘after all, you even outrank me in her personal Buttroach ranks.
Loki curled his lip in annoyance at the reminder. ‘I’ll try to contain my bitter disappointment,’ he said testily, ‘besides she’s clever enough to know she’s come out of this quite well, all things considered. I think we’ll work together quite fine.’ At the other Gods clearly skeptical looks he smiled, then added, ‘Eventually.’
In the ensuing silence Ares looked around at everyone and asked to no-one in particular, ‘I’ve been meaning to ask…what the hell is a Buttroach anyway?’
They were saved from answering him by Radnor escorting Tae back into the garden before anyone could form a reply. Loki noticed her eyeing him with renewed thoughtfulness when she entered; he wasn’t sure whether to take this as a good sign or not, so decided to tread carefully until he found out.
When Tae had arrived in her room she had contacted Brightmoon immediately and told them to broadcast the results of her meeting with the Gods. This way everyone could decide if they wished to stay onboard and serve someone else, or return to their ancestral home to help with the long process of re-establishing their race. Then she had sat down and thought over Radnors little talk.
Could it actually be true? Could Loki’s actions have been an effort to save her and others? The more she thought about it the more sense it made. She was never one to shirk responsibility for her own actions, or their consequences. That was the way of the coward. After talking to Brohan earlier, she realized that what Radnor had told her was, in all probability, true, and now she felt guilty for lumping so much of her anger, bitterness, and yes, sexual frustration, onto the dark eyed god. Still, she reasoned, she had saved his life a few times now, so he might have told her. Besides, the bastard had still put her with Radnor and his stupid no music or death rules whilst he was off having sex with Nymphs; and all while her own libido was slowly raging out of control!
Her ire immediately returned at the thought of him and his slutty nymphs, and it’s got nothing to do with jealousy, she told herself sanctimoniously. She certainly wasn’t jealous of any beautiful experienced sex loving nymph, She sat down and faced the waiting Gods with an angry expression now on her face… no; absolutely nothing.
Zeus began by outlining their plan to her, Tae was pleasantly surprised that they had actually taken her word for once. She glanced over at Loki who was watching her intently, she wasn’t exactly thrilled that he was going to be her Commander again, but surprisingly, she wasn’t exactly disappointed either- despite the nymphs.
‘So if I’m going to be the liaison between you and Brightmoon, then what will be my official rank?’ she asked out of curiosity.
‘Your rank will still be Lieutenant, Loki answered her, and I suppose your designation with be either communications officer or pilot, unless you have something else in mind?’
Tae shrugged unconcernedly. ‘You’ll already have those and more on the bridge, I was thinking it might be easier with a simple general term like ships officer, or ships liaison. Something like that might cause the least confusion, especially in the heat of battle.’
Loki nodded. ‘You’re right of course, every other title is basically covered, ships officer is too generic, ships liaison is better.’
Tae nodded, ‘I would also request that I continue to be allowed my music,’ she said casting an angry look over at Radnor.
‘Of course,’ said Loki emphatically.
Tae who was still smarting over her thoughts about Loki and his nymphs decided quickly on one more request. ‘And I would also like to be able to kiss whomever I please, without anyone reaming me out over it.’
A low growl inadvertently escaped Loki, making the other Gods turn to him in surprise; he ignored them and kept his eyes glued to Tae’s.
‘As you wish,’ he muttered sullenly.
Tae smiled brightly and turned her attention back to Zeus, ‘I suppose you would like to hear Cassandra’s clue now?’
Zeus nodded, dragging his eyes away from his now thoroughly put out friend and back to Tae. ‘I’m just hoping it will be as easy to solve as the problems you’ve given us already’
Chapter 12
Tae looked quickly at each of the waiting Gods before finally settling on Zeus. ‘Well as Cassandra was dying she told me to find the Felice, or we’re all doomed, it was her final words. We have been looking for any references to Felice, and where we can get some since,’ she finished before looking at Zeus expectantly.
Her words were greeted by dead silence as all the Gods looked at one another in surprise. ‘That’s impossible,’ said Loki frowning, ‘I mean, I can see the usefulness of it, providing we could design a system of some kind to contain it of course, but getting any at this time is virtually impossible.’ He looked to Zeus who was nodding at his words in agreement.
‘Loki is right. Felice is what we call a type of radiation emitted from a naturally occurring rock on one of our planets. It’s totally harmless to any living tissue, but is deadly to all Nanites. Having said that, it doesn’t actually destroy Nanites outright, it simply renders them inert; they immediately go dormant when in contact with the substance. It also badly effects anything mechanical, effectively stopping anything artificially made from working around it, so you can rule out jumpers, zap guns etc. And that’s where the real problem lay, because unfortunately the only known source of Felice is on the planet Tartarise, where we have just sent Thalia. Worse still, it’s practically everywhere, there are a few small places where you can land a jumper of course, but for the most part, technology of any kind simply will not work there. Adding to the problem, it is also the planet where we sent all the races that didn’t work out the way we had envisioned, after we had finished adapting their DNA to our own. These creatures will, in all likelihood, have no love for their Gods, despite the fact we let them live instead of killing them outright. I should imagine some of them would like nothing better than to get their hands on one of us while we are basically defenseless against injury from them. That’s if they even remember who we are of course. You see, even with our own natural speed, intelligence, and superior strength, it’s still feasible for one of us to be overcome by enough of them, given the right circumstances, and as all other races are our inferiors in all respects, I can’t see how anyone else could have a chance to get any.’
He took a thoughtful breath and went on. ‘The last person to go there with dreams of containing the Felice was Jason, you can find his ship, the Argonaut, along with the remains of both he and his crew, on the southern most continent where it crash landed and was destroyed.
Unfortunately, due to your warning, we can’t spare anyone for a group of us to go either. We now have to have every spare ship at the portal for its defense in case the Titans come through sooner rather than later. We have taken a leaf out of your book though and are having some missiles made with some Ithacian White that we are now mining as we speak. Unfortunately we will have to wait until we get their shielding down before we can use them, and we would face the same problem with the Felice, if we could find a way to use it in a fight.’
‘Damn!’ Tae said softly. She didn’t feel put out by Zeus’s superior us sentence, because she knew he was right. Physically and mentally the Gods were stronger, faster, and smarter by far, than any of the races they had created. Morally she thought they had a fair bit of room for improvement though. She also thought their ‘inferiors’ could definitely match them in cunning; she’d at least proven that much in her dealings with them.
‘But wouldn’t it make a huge difference if we could get some? And don’t forget Cassandra, she said it was our only hope. I know she only had time to see one timeline before she died, but I certainly didn’t like the sounds of it.’
Loki nodded. ‘She raises a valid point, Zeus, if we can design a containment system of some kind and get som
e from Tartarise somehow, it could prove the difference between fighting them and losing some of our people, or fighting them and losing everyone. Perhaps we could even make a pre-emptive strike against them.’
‘Personally I like the sound of hitting the bastards first, before they know we’re onto them. Besides, giving them a sound beating before they even get here is a sound battle strategy, and we still have the address for the Titan system,’ added Ares.
‘Especially as we all know Hyperion will no doubt be leading them now.’ Chimed in Vulcan, flushing in what seemed to be barely suppressed rage.
Zeus nodded, ‘I know, it’s the how do we get it, then get it off the planet safely that’s the damn problem. We would have to construct containers of some kind to take in with us, then we’d need to make our way around until we find it, and then make our way back out again, all the while hoping none of the local inhabitants find us, or that the containers we are using don’t leak and contaminate all of our own ships!’
Tae grinned. ‘What’s life without a few risks?’ as they turned to her she added. ‘Look, like it or not this Felice seems like the best possible weapon we could get to defeat the Titans, or preferably make a pre-emptive strike against them as Loki and Ares have suggested, that’s if we have it in time. That means all we have to do is figure out how to make some containers that will hold it. I’d leave that to Vulcan, he‘s the brains in that department, and maybe Brightmoon could work with him on it? Then all we have to do is decide on who takes it over to their realms.’
Zeus closed his eyes in thought then nodded. ‘I agree, your reasoning is sound, we have our forces at the portal with more arriving as they get word, but if they should fall we must have a back-up plan. Besides, if we should manage to get some Felice before the Titans attack, then I will take it through the portal myself if it means putting a stop to them once and for all.’
