The Expanding Universe 4: Space Adventure, Alien Contact, & Military Science Fiction (Science Fiction Anthology)

by Craig Martelle

  “We need to send them enough that they try to contact Central, themselves.”

  The ship did not reply, but it did share what it had detected on its long-range scans.

  “Do you understand what you are seeing?” it asked. “You are space-born and a pilot.”

  Talie viewed the incoming ships, noting the ones that belonged to Collins and his fleet, and taking a careful look at the others that followed.

  “See if you can I.D…” She hesitated, taking the time to scan the hull signatures, before using her implant to highlight the ships she needed. “That one, that one, aaand that one. They should be in the Coalition database, which you should be able to access.”

  “The database has been passed to me. One moment, please.”

  Sselesteth needed less than a moment, and came back quickly.

  “I have passed the data you suggested to your colony. I have passed the long-range scan—and the idents of the hulls. I fear they are more than alarmed, and that you should speak with them.”

  Talie only imagined they were.

  “Patch me through.”

  The comms link in her head fizzed and crackled, and Talie wondered why the colony was still trying to block the ship’s transmissions.

  “David?” she said, when the harried-looking watch officer came on-line.

  “Talie? What in all the stars do you think you’re doing?”

  “Saving the colony,” Talie told him; it wouldn’t do to beat around the bush. “You’ve received the data?”

  “From a hostile ship, yes.”

  “Any more hostile than the pirates on the long-range scans?”

  “We have yet to verify those.”

  “I’d move my behind, then, if I were you,” Talie snapped, “and while you’re messing about, I’d suggest you send out a distress signal. Mark it urgent for Central’s attention, but broadband it so everything in range can hear.”

  “It could bring in even worse predators,” David argued, “and anyone who came would still have to fight their way through the aliens to reach us.”

  “Not if the aliens were protecting us.”

  Talie watched as David’s face took on an expression of utter disbelief.

  “You don’t actually believe them?” he asked.

  “I do.” Talie thought fast. “If I can verify there were survivors from Capra, and that the aliens preserved them, would you take the chance?”

  She watched as David glanced off-screen, and knew the colony leadership had gathered in the comms centre, either as she’d made her call, or because of what the ship had sent.

  “We have yet to confirm Collins’ disgrace,” came a voice, and Talie recognized Dianne Allbrecht, the colony commander.

  “He’s flying in perfect formation with four known pirates,” Talie said, unable to keep the disgust from her voice. “Isn’t that enough?”

  “We still don’t know his intent.”

  “He’s flying with pirates,” Talie repeated, not hiding her exasperation. “I doubt they’re doing it out of the kindness of their hearts.”

  “They’re probably just after the aliens.” Dianne was dismissive.

  “Who are taking the Capra survivors to Coalition Central so they can be reunited with their families.”

  “And do you have proof of that?”

  “I…” Talie looked to the ship. “They need to see the survivors.”

  “That can be done. I have located your husband. You must understand that twenty-five years is a long time to be alone, and he has a second family.”

  Talie’s head spun with disbelief, and her head swam with both sadness and joy, but there was more on the line than her own personal happiness—and she herself had a made second family without Vaughn. She just hadn’t spared the complications a thought, because the ship hadn’t confirmed Vaughn among the living. Now that it had, Talie had to admit that twenty-five years was, indeed, a long time.

  She slid down the wall, so that she was sitting on the floor, and the ship took that as permission to show the family reunion taking place somewhere else inside it.

  Anlin was torn between fury and joy, and Sasha had taken it on herself to stand in between, her small hands resting on their chests as though that would be enough to stop the oncoming fight.

  “But Grampa didn’t mean to fall in love,” Sasha protested. “He thought he was all alone.”

  Her words brought a lump to Talie’s throat. Sasha got it, Talie’s head got it. Talie’s heart, on the other hand, was going to take a little more time. And Anlin…

  Talie watched as her daughter glared at her father, completely ignoring the woman standing behind him, and seemingly oblivious to those with her.

  “I don’t know whether to hug you or slap you,” she said, her words bordering on a snarl. “Mom’s going to be…”

  “You let your mom worry about how she’s going to be,” Vaughn said, “and me.”

  He glanced towards the camera.

  “We have company.”

  Anlin turned, following his gaze.

  “And just who in all the Stars are you?” she demanded.

  “I am Sselesteth, Mother Ship, nurturer of the sselestine—and I am with Talie Steron, your mother. We wish you to confirm to your colony that we have kept the survivors of Capra alive and well, and are returning them to Coalition Central.”

  The ship’s words brought a gasp of surprise from the gathered humans, and Vaughn stepped past Anlin to face the camera.

  “I am Lieutenant Vaughn Capri. I was rescued by the sselestine when my craft was destroyed in the Battle for Capra. I was held until the war ended, and present when Commander Collins refused the return of all colonists and survivors to the human side.”

  His words brought gasps from the colony leadership, and Dianne spoke.

  “Colony Leader Dianne Albrecht, here. Can you confirm that Collins has been outlawed by the Coalition?”

  Vaughn rolled his eyes.

  “Lady, I can only confirm that we are en route to Coalition Central so that we can be repatriated to human worlds, if we so desire. If they’ve outlawed Collins it’s way past time. I’ve seen what that… what he suppressed. The man needs to be shot!”

  Talie couldn’t remember when she’d last seen Vaughn so angry, and his new partner obviously recognized the signs. She stepped forward and laid a hand on his shoulder.

  “I am Eleanor Capri, xenobiologist. Collins suppressed my report on sentient life-forms on Capri, as well as my confirmation that the sselestine had arrived before us.”

  The others crowded forward.

  “I am Joseph Tan-Capri,” said a young man, who looked to be around Anlin’s age. “My father was killed by Collins’s men as he bought time for my mother to escape with me and my sister. Do you need to know more? Sselesteth shows an approaching fleet. If those are Collins’s ships, you need to prepare your defenses.”

  In the other section of her implant, Talie saw the colony leadership had moved into camera range. Dianne was wringing her hands and glancing worriedly at her colleagues.

  “We only have the orbital and a small squadron of fighters for ceremonial duties,” she said. “Nothing that can challenge what’s coming in.”

  “Have you called for help?” Joseph insisted.

  Dianne glanced across at David, who glanced down at his control board.

  “We’re being jammed,” he said, and glared at the camera. “Your alien friends…”

  “I doubt it!” Joseph snapped, and looked over at Vaughn.

  “We can offer assistance, but most of our pilots are in stasis, pending an emergency drop with the rest of our people.”

  “Emergency drop? Y..you mean the sselestine?”

  Joseph’s lip curled with scorn, and Vaughn reached out and laid a hand on the young man’s shoulder. Joseph shot Vaughn a quick look, and then he sighed.

  “We are out of supplies. Both humans and sselestine are in stasis. The pods will launch to the nearest habitable world in the hopes
they will survive.” His face took on a forlorn and angry look. “Our mother would shut down and remain in orbit.”

  “Your mother… the… the ship?”

  Talie couldn’t blame the governor for sounding a little shocked.

  “The ship,” Joseph confirmed, and his tone and expression dared her to make something of it.

  She didn’t. She changed the subject, and Talie couldn’t work out if she was brilliant, or just a coward.

  “We can evacuate you through the station,” she said. “I’ll send orders you’re to be allowed to dock.”

  She turned her attention to Sselesteth.

  “Forgive me,” she said.

  “I will defend you,” the ship told her. “Your pilots and mine will fly together.”

  “It will take time for our pilots to reach the orbital.”

  “And time for mine to wake from stasis. We will be ready together.”

  Things happened very quickly after that. It was decided Talie would return to her ship, and Sasha return with Anlin in her shuttle. It seemed Sselesteth had been happy to grant Talie’s daughter permission to land, since she’d been hoping for reconciliation through her. That would have taken longer without Talie’s interference.

  The waking and evacuation time for the humans and sselestine was calculated and, apart from the pilots and medical personnel who were woken with them, it was too long.

  “Worst case scenario, you jettison the pods as you planned,” Sselesteth’s captain told her. “After that, keep out of reach.”

  Dianne nodded.

  “I will have crews on stand-by to retrieve the pods and get your people to shelter.”

  She might have said more, but David interrupted.

  “Kaskali’s Fire is doing the jamming,” he reported, highlighting a large ship towards the rear of Collins’s formation.

  “She’ll also provide the ground troops and aerial support when they take the colony. It’s their specialty,” Talie added, having read the files on each of the ships as she waited.

  “They’re coming in a lot faster than I’d like,” Vaughn added, as he and the captain pored over scans and charts.

  Every now and then, Vaughn would look over at Talie, as though he couldn’t believe he was seeing her, again. Each time he did, Talie thought he might say something, and, each time, he’d frown and look away, as though the words wouldn’t come.

  Talie could sympathize. There was so much to say, and, yet, nothing at all. He was here and alive… and in love with another woman, in the same way she was here and alive, and in love with another man—and she didn’t think he was dealing with that any better than she was. The fact they had to focus on holding off a fleet invasion wasn’t helping.

  “What help do you think we can expect from Collins’s fleet?” she asked, and explained, when the others gave her odd looks. “They couldn’t all have agreed with him, could they?”

  “It’s an idea,” Vaughn said, and they turned to the ship.

  Sselesteth gave the equivalent of a ship’s shrug, inside their heads.

  “They were all complicit. They were all to be called to task. I do not believe any answered the Coalition’s call to return for trial.”

  Talie couldn’t believe it.

  “All of them? What about their crews?”

  “That I do not know. If any found their commanders’ orders abhorrent, their protests were ignored, their ability to thwart them annulled.”

  Annulled. That was one way to put it. Talie wondered just how many of the renegade crew would be found missing, when Collins’s fleet was finally brought to heel. It was only as the fleet came within an hour’s striking distance, that they understood how badly the odds were stacked against them.

  As they approached, a stream of smaller craft issued from the bigger ships in the fleet, until it looked like they were flying surrounded by a halo of smoke.

  “I can’t send the squadron out against that,” Dianne said. “It would be murder.”

  They all stared at the screen, and Talie felt her mouth go dry.

  “I have a solution,” the ship said, and both the captain and Vaughn recoiled in horror.

  “No!”

  Ignoring them, the ship continued.

  “I need someone to guarantee they will do their best to be the bridge between my people and the people of this world.” She turned her focus to the colony leaders. “I am sorry, but I must jettison my children, here.”

  “No!” and this time it was a chorus, the human and sselestine pilots on the bridge protesting as one.

  The ship turned to Talie.

  “From one mother to another, will you do this for me?”

  And, in her mind’s eye, Talie saw Sselesteth’s plan, and wept.

  “Will you do this?” the ship asked, again.

  Talie considered its request. Her daughter would never forgive her, and her granddaughter… well, she could hold a grudge for an eternity. All too aware that every eye was on her, Talie swallowed against the lump in her throat and replied.

  “Yes.”

  “Gramma!” and “Mom!” came out as a chorus of disgust.

  The ship ignored it.

  “Do you swear it?”

  And Talie closed her eyes against the sudden sting of tears, closed them so she would not see the fury in the eyes of the captain, Vaughn, her girls, and every sselestine and sselestine-adopted human in the room. She let the ship feel her intent.

  “I swear it. Let me—”

  And the ship shuddered, the colony leadership and orbital control crew raising their voices in alarm.

  “Sselestine craft, we did not give you permission to—”

  “What are you doing? Captain Steron, what—”

  Talie ran for the door.

  “We’re undocking. Stand by to retrieve the stasis pods,” she said, shouldering her way through the pilots nearest the exit. “Sselesteth!”

  They followed her out into the corridor, divining her intent by the path she took. When she reached it, the airlock to the station was locked tight, and she didn’t know the way to the mother ship’s hangars. Talie struck the door, twice, and then leant her head against it.

  “No! Dammit!”

  She was surprised when Vaughn laid a hand on her shoulder, and she turned her head so she could see him.

  “I wanted to fly with her.”

  “You cannot be the Bridge, and fly at her side.”

  The sselestine captain laid a hand on her other shoulder, his scaled fingers an iridescent blue-green that shimmered to gold under the ship lights. He squeezed gently, leaving his hand in place.

  “She forbids it,” he added. “We are to evacuate as soon as the last pod has fallen.”

  “No.”

  Talie sent her mind into the ship’s system looking for Sselesteth’s presence, but the ship had hidden herself away, and Talie found herself facing blank walls and nameless corridors, the data indecipherable, even though she bent her intent against it. It was as she had expected as soon as she had discovered its sentience. No talker could bend a sentient craft to their will. For that they had to be psi, as well—and Talie was not.

  The captain left his hand in place.

  “There is no time to return you to your ships. Your daughter and granddaughter will fly with Lieutenant Vaughn. You will fly with me,” he said, and Talie raised her head.

  The captain caught the look on her face.

  “There is not room for more, and the Mother has tasked me with your care.”

  His face rippled as he said it, a curious crinkling around the eyes accompanied by a curl of the flesh between his nostrils and top lip.

  “That… was not the best way to say that,” he said, and Talie realised he was embarrassed.

  She gave him a brief smile and nodded.

  “As you say. We are to evacuate. Lead the way.”

  She figured she could overpower him once they were in flight, take the ship and follow Sselesteth’s path. Vaughn, however, soon pu
t an end to that idea.

  “Even a ship talker needs time to learn a new craft,” he said, “and these are… difficult.”

  Which, for Vaughn, meant they’d taken more than a day to master, which meant she really wouldn’t be able to take over, the way she’d been planning, since she needed the same time as he did. An alarm sounded, and the corridor lights changed from a steady white glow to strobing amber and red.

  “This way,” the captain said, turning back through the pilots.

  They had barely gone three strides before the ship shook hard enough to make them stumble. Vaughn stopped.

  “She didn’t…”

  “She did,” the captain confirmed. “We need to run.”

  “She did what?” Talie wanted to know.

  “Jettisoned every pod at once.”

  “But, that’s…”

  “Check the scans.”

  To Talie’s surprise the scans were waiting. They showed the pods descending as an engine-lit swarm, and then flickered out to the cloud of ships coming in.

  “Oh.”

  It was instantly clear why Sselesteth had sent all her people down in one hit, rather than orderly waves; Collins’s fleet was closing faster than before. If she’d been any slower, the pods would have been in range of the incoming fighter swarm. Their contents would have had no chance of surviving.

  “Come.”

  And the captain didn’t wait for a reply, but broke into a run, guiding them unerringly to the hangar where the ships were waiting.

  “It will be a tight fit,” the captain said, as he broke for a small dual-seated craft.

  “I’m sure I’ll manage,” Talie told him, eyeing the second seat.

  Behind her, she heard Anlin raise her voice.

  “Where’s Sasha going to fit?”

  “Between your feet,” Vaughn replied.

  “Over my dead body. It’s not safe.”

  Talie turned, ready to break up the oncoming fight, but one of the sselestine pilots reached over and tapped Anlin on the arm.

  “I can take your daughter.” He froze, when she turned and glared at him. “I.. If you will trust?”

  Anlin had opened her mouth to refuse, when Sasha solved the problem. She walked around her mother, and took the sselestine pilot’s other hand.