...and they are us Homecoming

by Patrick McClafferty

  “The ultimate veto.” Zed stared at the figure. “Damn!”

  “The scouts report three old tachyon trails in the system, Captain. They circled the planet once and headed in the general direction of Earth. The tachyon emissions match the scout we were following and the corvette. The other trail is more than likely the scout destroyed by Earth forces.”

  Zed stared at the star field in front of him, lost in thought. “We know which direction the Creednax are probably coming from, don’t we?”

  “Yes Fleet Captain.” The playfulness was gone from LOLA’s voice.

  “Could you put a few shielded sensors out there, so that we know when our visitors arrive? Set them up for a tight laser link to Callidus.”

  “I’ll put a few a quarter light year out, and set them up with a shielded FTL link. Will that work?”

  “Just fine, LOLA. While you’re at it, scatter a few more sensors out there to cover all directions. That won’t make it difficult will it?” She gave him a flat look. “Never mind.” He relented.

  Callidus resolved itself with a startling suddenness, as the sensors finally received enough data to construct a usable image against the limitless star field.

  Airless and torn by millennia of mining, Callidus sat in the cold actinic light of a hot blue giant sun. It was an ugly brown world, pocked by open mines and black piles of extruded tailings. The only consolation was that Callidus had never supported nor could support any sort of life on its surface. Within the planet it was another story.

  “Yuk!” Was Katherine’s first comment on seeing Callidus. “What a horrid place.” The planet turned slowly beneath them.

  “Oh, I don’t know.” Zed mused. “It does have a certain barbarian charm, don’t you think? I suspect that the majority of its attractions are hidden, like a diamond in an ugly piece of coal. LOLA, can you find the entrance?”

  “I’m following the approach beacon now, Zed.”

  Beside him, Kat clutched his arm, but her voice was calm. “Tactical, are we getting anything?”

  Thomas Covati, the senior Weapons System Officer made a quick motion with one hand, and the bridge display switched to tactical. “All I see is the planet, Captain. All sensors are clear.”

  “Thank you. Sciences, what do you have?”

  Atsuo tore her gaze from the display and turned to Katherine. “The planet is dead, Captain. All the sensors can find is the single small beacon. Sensors do not indicate an entrance of any sort.”

  “The entrance was hidden, Atsuo.” LOLA smiled. “Purposely.”

  “Can we turn the beacon off after we enter?”

  “Yes Captain Johansen we can, in fact I had planned to.” The smile she gave Katherine never reached her eyes. “The welcome mat is no longer out.”

  The Rose of the Dawn, flying in close company with the frigate Boston drifted slowly toward the craggy surface of the planet. On the rough side of a deep strip mine Zed could even see abandoned equipment, tumbled and covered with dust. The ship drew steadily closer, and Zed knew that every soul in the bridge was holding his or her breath. Even as the small scout ships recovered to the Rose’s massive hangar, the Boston disappeared into a black pile of tailings, and he blinked as their own forward camera passed through the image of an abandoned automated bulldozer.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen.” LOLA said calmly. “Welcome to Callidus.” They stood in total, unrelieved blackness. “The main lighting that illuminates the center of the world has been turned off, so we will have to rely on sensors and computer imagery.” The screens that had shown only stars flickered to life and everyone stood stunned.

  “Oh my god!!” Zed whispered.

  The room they stared into was roughly spherical, and 6,500 kilometers in diameter. Only computer imagery could project something so vast. Twelve, two kilometer thick legs carved equidistantly out of the solid rock, rose from the walls of the chamber, connecting to and supporting the 150 kilometer dodecahedron that sat at the planet’s center. It might have been Zed’s imagination, but walls, legs and dodecahedron looked to be of one solid unbroken mass, painstakingly carved from the very heart of the planet. Unoccupied docking areas were scattered on the legs, while on the walls he could see huge blocky structures, probably the various manufacturing facilities.

  “What’s that?” Katherine pointed to the closest wall, where Zed could see what looked like mountains rising up from the edge of the world, hundreds of kilometers.

  “Those are sections of Callidus that have not yet been processed. Raw material, if you will. Eighteen percent of the planet is still available for manufacturing.” When Kat was silent, LOLA continued. “To give you an example; that eighteen percent would be sufficient for your world, Dramul and Chamdar for the next three thousand years. Zed swallowed, unable to comprehend the enormity or the scope of such a world. “If you would like, I will park us at a docking area closer to the central control of the world.”

  “No, LOLA.” He replied thoughtfully. “Park us close to where the central processor should be located but keep us out of the way, unseen. Keep our cloaking on. It might be a good idea to recover the Boston. We want to be invisible here.”

  The frigate, controlled by LOLA, completed its docking maneuver flawlessly as the ship drifted slowly toward the looming structure at the center of the world.

  “Have the Strike Team prepare for a reconnaissance.” Katherine said in a less than enthusiastic voice. “We need to find that central processor.”

  “The Chief already has them suiting up, Captain. From their attitudes, I suspect that there will be no difficulty this time.” A small display lit to show thirteen men and women donning lightweight graphene body armor over identical space black Strike Force uniforms. Two of the women, Zed couldn’t tell if they were American or Russian, were helping the others with their night-vision contacts. A marvel of engineering, the contacts provided a monochromatic night vision, plus allowed LOLA to superimpose tactical information directly on the user’s field of vision. “It will still be a few minutes until we dock. I have a request from Doctor Sutherland to meet with her in the Medical Bay, Fleet Captain.”

  A survivor of the Europa Base disaster, Helen Sutherland was an accomplished physician in her mid-fifties. She could have passed as thirty two. Her long brown hair was held back with a simple clip, and her eyes were clear blue. Like many of the older crew, she owed her remarkable physical shape to Imperial physiological conditioning. Simply put, scores of nanites were injected into a subject. Said nanites replicated themselves and went to work repairing the recipient host. Since the nanites were virtually immortal, that made the host virtually immortal also. The cost to develop the nanites had been astronomical, but more than worth it in the end to the ancient Dramul Empire. Thanks to memory implants, ship crews no longer had to be trained, but simply upgraded with the needed technical data and injuries, if not mortal, could usually be attended by the nanites, or at the worst a few days in the Medical Bay. Replacing missing limbs took somewhat longer.

  Zed walked into the pristine white Medical Bay, and smiled. “Hi Helen. What do you have for me?”

  She stood from her chair and stretched her back. “I’ve been analyzing the video data we’ve gotten from that last raid, and I think I can give you a pretty good idea what our enemy looks like.” She waved her hand. “If you would, LOLA?” The air shimmered briefly and resolved into a three dimensional image floating in the middle of the examination room. Zed shuddered.

  “That’s a Creednax?”

  “Yup.” Helen cocked her head to one side. “Ugly isn’t it?”

  “Ugly doesn’t come close to describing it.” Although his instincts were against it, he took a step closer. Two and a half meters long by two wide from the ends of the legs the creature was a vague member of the family Formicidae. The size of a brown bear, it had six exoskeletal legs, with two much smaller tentacled manipulators coming out of the front of the body. Black shiny eyes jutted from the body slightly, giving the creature better tha
n 180º field of vision. The mouth had venomous fangs and wicked hooked mandibles for tearing the flesh of its victim. The whole body and upper legs were covered in a fine fur in unpleasant mottled shades of green.

  “Night vision is poor, but sense of touch and smell is excellent and the venom from the fangs is deadly and can be thrown or spit at an enemy. Skin contact means death. Several of our Russian soldiers were killed that way. I was able to get a sample of the venom from a Russian uniform.” She shook her head. “Nasty stuff.”

  Zed stared at the creature. “So that’s the enemy. LOLA, please show this to our Strike Team members. I would rather it startle them now, than when hesitation might kill them.”

  “I agree, Zed.”

  “I know that this wasn’t the most pleasant of jobs, but thank you Doctor. You’ve done well.”

  Helen dimpled slightly and smiled. “Thank you Zed. I understand that Kai Méng down in Life Sciences…”

  LOLA interrupted. “Fleet Captain, you are needed on the Bridge immediately.”

  Zed waved to Helen, and ran for the door. “What have you got?” He popped into existence beside Katherine, glancing automatically at the tactical display. One of the nice things he had discovered about the digital bridge, was that you could leave your winded puffing body sitting it its secure recliner while your digital-self arrived on the bridge freshly clothed and ready to go. Of course you had the pleasure of returning to your sweaty tired body when you were finished with your shift on the bridge, but that was another story.

  Thomas Covati looked up from his display. “LOLA’s sensors just picked up a Creednax Fleet on their way in, Zed. They’re decelerating hard, and should be here in four or five days. The numbers are just north of six hundred ships.”

  “Damn.” Zed grumbled. “I thought that we had a few weeks to play with. Are we well hidden, LOLA?”

  “I found a niche in the wall just below an access hatch, Zed. Unless the Creednax are landing right on top of us we’ll be invisible. As far as their arrival date goes…” Her image shrugged. “I don’t know what to say. My data said they were weeks out.”

  “Murphy strikes again. Send out the Strike Force with whatever information you have. Tell them to be careful this time. Do they have enough air?”

  “The air at this height is equal to that on Mars, Zed. They have breathers for the few minutes it will take them to enter the structure. Once inside they will find both air and gravity suitable for human beings, although they will have no heat. Their suits will take care of that.”

 

  Zed replied dryly.

 

 

 

  Zed sighed.

 

 

 

  After an hour, Zed retreated from the bridge to the safety of his apartment, heading directly for the shower. After a few hours in the bridge or even in his apartment, the unrelieved blackness outside the ship was getting gloomy, and he was almost relieved when LOLA called him.

  “I thought that you might be interested in watching the Strike Team’s progress through the structure.”

  An image of the dodecahedron appeared floating in the air in the middle of the living room. A green dot appeared on the side. “This is where we are.” LOLA said softly. A scattering of blue dots looked to be moving up and toward the center of the structure. It appeared that the Strike Team had split into six, two or three man elements. “Blue dots are the Strike Teams. The Central Processor should be here.” A small white dot flashed in the display, very close to the center of the structure. “As soon as they reach the processor, the auxiliary power plant should be straight down in the base of the structure, about 70 kilometers below their location. It will be just as quick for you to head directly there, start the power and then go up to the Central Processor via the elevator which will be running by then.”

  “Do you have a time frame?”

  “The Team is moving out well. I would say two or three days at the most.”

  “That’s cutting it mighty close, LOLA.”

  “I know, Zed.”

  He sighed, dragging his eyes from the display. “Well, if I have a couple of days, I guess I should have a talk with Katherine.”

  “It might be wise, if you wish to survive the trip.”

  “Thanks so much. Would you please tell the Captain that I would like to see her at her convenience in my quarters?”

  “As you wish Fleet Captain.”

  “And LOLA, please send a communication drone to Cybele, letting her know what is happening. This may be our last.”

  “As you wish, Zed. Katherine is on her way.”

  She had done something with her hair. It was piled up on her head in an elaborate red twist. Her face was expressionless and her green eyes distant as the cold stars. “You wanted to see me, Fleet Captain?” Inwardly Zed winced. It was going to be one of THOSE discussions.

  “You realize that in order to initialize the new AI we’ll have to get power turned on to that room?”

  “Yes.” She replied in a flat hostile voice.

  “You realize that I’m the only person on this ship that has any experience restarting Dramul power systems, and reinitializing a Dramul AI?”

  “Yes.” Zed blinked at her direct answer.

  “You knew that?”

  Her eyes bored into his. “You forget sometimes that I’m actually smarter than you, Zed. I knew what this would entail as soon as LOLA said that the power was off. While I knew that you had to go, I also knew that I had to stay behind. A ship needs her captain.” She took a step forward. “You’ve also forgotten when my birthday is, it seems. I’ve been waiting for this day ever since you said that I have nice legs, right after you saved my life and the lives of the rest of the folks on Europa Base.” She stopped and frowned. “Do you still want to marry me?”

  Her eyes had suddenly turned vulnerable, and Zed swallowed. “With all my heart.”

  “Then you might as well get it into your head that you’re not stepping a foot off this ship until we’re married. Married men, I’ve read, take care of themselves when they have someone to come home to.”

  “Oh I just love weddings.” The voice of LOLA boomed through the room. “We can invite the entire crew and…”

  “Small wedding, LOLA.” Kat and Zed said in unison.

  It was inevitable, Zed thought to himself as he struggled with the button at the throat of his new ‘dress’ uniform. Before today he’d never even seen it, let alone worn it. In Terran Fleet colors, the solid Prussian blue was relieved by the silver stripes at his cuff denoting rank, and around the high military collar. A wide red stripe ran up the outside of the trouser legs, and matched the red cummerbund he had struggled to attach around his waist. On his chest, over his heart, rested a single steel rose, glittering in the lights and served as a counterpoint to the onyx buttons on his dress coat and cuffs. His black dress shoes had a shining, mirror finish.

  “I feel as though I have a noose around my neck.” He growled, struggling with the collar.

  “I’ve read that the feeling is not uncommon in grooms on their wedding day.” LOLA quipped, popping into existence before him and reaching for the stubborn button on Zed’s collar.

  “You’re a big help.” With a simple twist of her wrist LOLA fixed his collar, and he grinned. “Thanks.”

  What had started as a small ceremony rapidly expanded to include all of the ‘old’ crew of the Rose of the Dawn; the survivors of the stricken Europa Base and the resupply ship Tiānt? fēng, or Celestia
l Wind. Now the fifty old heads formed a new spaceforce who thought of themselves more as Terrans, rather than just Americans or Dramul, Russians or Chamdar or Chinese. Common hardships and common losses had welded them together into more than a crew.

  Fifty heads turned as he entered the small auditorium, and some of the people began to clap. The old crew knew of Zed’s love for Katherine, he’d made no secret of it, and they also knew that both parties had maintained an almost puritanical chasteness in their relationship, until Katherine ‘came of age.’ Now the waiting was over.

  He walked with as much decorum as he could muster, down the long central isle of the room and onto the stage. The collar on his uniform, seemed to be getting tighter, for some strange reason. To the surprised buzz of the crowd LOLA, dressed in a plain white robe and with her dark hair held back with a simple golden clasp, walked from the wings to join Zed on the stage. She gave him a wink as she turned to the crowd, and together they waited for Katherine.

  The door at the end of the auditorium opened and with Atsuo Takana as her Maid of Honor, the two walked slowly toward the waiting stage. In the crowd Zed heard someone sniff back a tear. Katherine looked radiant, in a long white satin dress shot with diamonds and jewels that shone like a constellation of stars. The décolletage of the gown was low, and trimmed with baby pearls. The silken fabric caressed her curves down to her knees, then flared like a trumpet, kissing her toes and trailing softly behind her. Her hair had been swept up in an elaborate fashion, and sprinkled with the same jewels as her dress. Katherine and LOLA had obviously been preparing for this day for some time. He was amazed that the young woman that suddenly stood beside him could look so cool and composed and dazzlingly beautiful.