by S. H. Jucha
“Tomorrow will be a dangerous time aboard this ship, Ser,” Alex said quietly. “I would know where you stand.”
Renée smiled at the familiar expression. She had asked Alex the same question before she presented to the New Terran Assembly for the first time. He had replied he would stand with her. Renée realized Alex was concerned for her safety and was offering her an opportunity to transfer to the Freedom.
“You may have been the Captain who rescued us and the Admiral who now leads us but, first and foremost, you will forever be the partner of my heart. I would stand with you, my love, always,” Renée replied.
They held each other for a long moment. Not a word was said; none was needed. Then Alex kissed her on the forehead and left for the Engineering Suite.
In reply to his request, he was connected to the interplay of song between the two principals. Alex kept his link to Julien open while he walked the corridors and rode a lift down to the Engineering Suite. The corridors were quiet, and for the first time, Alex checked his chronometer. It was 4.33 hours. No wonder, he thought.
Alex was unable to translate the songs between their Hive First and the Swei Swee First. The dialog’s complexity indicated just how primitive their communications with the Hive First had been.
Alex said. The answer was disappointing, and it didn’t help alleviate his concerns. He was intending to place many of his people’s lives in alien hands and claws soon, and he was trying to determine if his trust was well founded. If I’m wrong … well, I’ll be wrong, and it won’t matter to any of us who enter the system with the Swei Swee, Alex thought, the impending conflict dragging a dark pall over his mood.
Returning to focus on the exchange, Alex heard the Hive First’s song as the Swei Swee First also spoke. There didn’t seem to be a protocol, as one sang, then the other.
Mutter responded.
While the singing droned on, Alex put his head down on a tech’s bench and fell asleep. Julien, always monitoring Alex’s biometrics, blocked his comms. Alex woke up quickly, hours later, when the Engineering Team reported for duty after morning meal.
“Apologies, Admiral,” Mickey said, realizing his Admiral was on duty in the suite long before they were.
Alex listened for a moment, realizing the dialog was still ongoing. “Not a problem, Mickey. You haven’t missed much. The Hive First started a dialog with his leader hours ago, and the two have been in a discussion ever since.” Alex switched on the suite’s speakers, which monitored the hull’s audio pickup. Whistles, warbles, and even screeches flooded the suite, and after the team had a taste of the dialog, Alex signaled the speakers off again.
“What do the SADEs comprehend, Admiral?” Mickey asked, sounding hopeful.
“What would a four-year-old understand of a university professor’s lecture on applied mathematics?” Alex responded.
“Oh,” Mickey said.
“Yes, ‘Oh,’” Alex groused. “Our precious future is being discussed by an alien species, and we’re sitting here in the linguistic deep dark.”
Hours later, the conversation came to an abrupt end with a sharp whistle, as Swei Swee conversations usually did.
The team heard the Swei Swee First repeat his message. It was followed by the Hive First repeating his leader’s request. In the resonance telemetry, they watched the Hive First face the ship’s rear, rise up on his legs, and lift his claws and true hands in supplication. Then he began to sing. It was a familiar song, one he had begun with Mutter.
<“Star Hunter singer,”> Alex said, comprehending the message.
Mutter had extensive records of Swei Swee words and hours of the leaders’ dialog. Her analytic applications had been busy differentiating the sounds, frequencies, and modulations. Always she was recording and analyzing, much like with all the music she had collected, most of which had originated on ancient Earth. Now in a moment unlike any other, there would be no playback, no chorus, and no interplay for Mutter to follow. She would compose her own music … and in an alien tongue.
Mutter began her song with a single, gentle note that she slowly modulated, blending a second note through it. She was, after all, a SADE, with no single voice. She was capable of many voices, and she made full use of her Méridien-based technology. She sang her song—it was a single voice, it was many voices, it was soft and sweet, it was a swelling chorus. Mutter had never felt such joy, such freedom. The Admiral had given her a rare opportunity that she could never have conceived of embracing in her centuries of service.
Mutter ended her song as she began it. A pair of notes blended into a single note, which slowly faded. In the silence that followed, the Swei Swee on board their captured ship began the same synchronized bobbing they had bestowed on Alex’s image. Their whistling chant of “Star Hunter singer” was now recognizable by their human monitors.
Before Alex could express his appreciation to Mutter, the Swei Swee First’s whistle cut through the audio pickup. His simple sounds were understood. They were “Swei Swee plus Star Hunters search the endless seas. Nua’ll travel the endless seas.”
Mutter was basking in the applause from the flotilla for her performance. Of special delight were the requests from children on board the Freedom who wanted a recording transferred to their monitor devices. Mutter had never been able to resolve her appreciation of Cordelia and Z with her displeasure over their unnatural actions, which had resulted in their being declared as Independents. She felt they had shirked their duties. Now she understood. It simply required passion to override basic protocols, and Mutter had now done just that. It was the second time in two days that she had reinvented herself. For a few ticks of time, Mutter wondered where the changes might lead. But she was resolved to one desire for the future … wherever the Admiral traveled she fervently hoped her ship would travel with him.
So the Swei Swee First approves the strategy, Alex thought. Now all we need is to agree on some tactics. Despite his strengthened conviction, Alex thought to take a small step to test the Swei Swee’s reliance. However, even a small step under these circumstances was fraught with danger.
It was a mark of their bond that Julien immediately switched off the beams and closed the bay’s doors despite his reservations. Everyone waited, but nothing happened. The dark traveler stayed where it had been released. The engineering team nervously checked telemetry to see if the fighter moved and were so focused on their readouts that when the Hive First began singing to the Swei Swee First, they jumped in their cha
irs.
Ha, Alex thought, then sent,
Alex’s request generated a great many anxious reactions among his staff.
Cordelia’s vid resulted in a two-hour-long conversation between the two Swei Swee Leaders. Boredom set in around the flotilla, except for the SADEs, who continued to map the Swei Swee language. The archives of dialog grew, but translation of the new material was marginal at best.
On the rear of their dark traveler, Cordelia’s last vid reappeared. This time, when the Rêveur approached the Nua’ll, tens of dots converged on the Rêveur.
Alex was considering how to respond to the Captain when the dark traveler replaced Cordelia’s altered system vid with the icon of the Rêveur. It was set inside a large bright circle. The icon of a dark traveler came at the Rêveur off its port bow. When the dark traveler reached the circle, it slid around it to end up behind the Rêveur, still outside the circle. The vid added more icons of dark travelers, which were also repulsed by the circle.
Andrea argued.
Alex’s reminder of the passenger liner’s attack produced unsettling flashbacks for the Méridiens and Julien.
Breaths were held while the moments ticked by. When Julien announced the repositioning was complete, the breaths were released and everyone realized they were still present. There had been no attack.
Julien replied.
Alex waited for a rebuttal, but it seemed everyone was deep in their own thoughts.
Unlike most, Tatia had already resolved herself to the fact that Alex had made his decision. Now she was trying to think through the impediments.
Alex’s immediate thought was to say no, but Tatia had proved herself as a valuable resource too many times.
Tatia switched back over to the conference comm and added,
Alex replied.
Andrea stomped on her anger. She didn’t believe in Alex’s plan, but she would not quit her position. Not under these circumstances. If there was to be a later, she promised to rethink that decision.
* * *
Alex, Andrea, and Tatia stood gathered around the bridge’s holo-vid.
“Julien, plot a direct course for the Nua’ll ship and proceed at max velocity,” Alex ordered.
“As you request, Admiral,” Julien replied.
Alex checked the Rêveur’s
velocity. They would achieve a max of 0.71c in 4.2 hours.
Alex and his officers waited while Julien collected more telemetry. Alex began pacing the bridge. He desperately hoped fortune hadn’t deserted him.
Those are going to be awfully long hours, Alex thought.
-22-
Inside their dark traveler, the First had sat with his legs folded under him, conserving energy and air, which had begun to run short while they were held in the grip of the Star Hunters, far outside the life-giving waves. The entire hive had assumed the same posture. There was nothing left to do but wait … and hope. Their lives were tenuous, like the memory scent of the endless seas that begged to be real once again. Although the First had never swum in his home world’s endless seas, he carried the memories of his line.
The craft’s viewer had lit up with more of the Star Hunters’ moving images and his twin eyestalks extended from his shell. His aural membranes had picked up the Star Hunters’ singing. The images and singing repeated over and over. The song had been long … the longest one the Star Hunters had sent. The message had galvanized the First despite the fading oxygen. The Star Hunters had indicated they sought to gain his People’s freedom. They had offered this despite the many Star Hunters the Swei Swee had sent to travel the endless seas. So many singers lost … His twin hearts had ached with the realization of what his People had done to the Star Hunters. Claws had snapped rapidly, longing to rend the Nua’ll, who had kept themselves so carefully hidden in the upper dwellings of their world traveler, far from the reach of his People’s claws.
His Third had whistled for attention and had sung of their position change. The Star Hunters had taken them back to the worlds. Great quantities of energy had accumulated on their shell, and their Nua’ll systems were brought to full functionality. The air had become sweeter, moistening their breath-ways, which had begun drying. His hive had been energized and had begun singing, but he had silenced them with a whistle.
