by S. H. Jucha
The identifying icons on the panel were now lit, including a power level display near Swift Claws. Swift Claws sent.
The others warbled their agreement. Thoughts of having a dry and comfortable place to hide in the day had overridden their focus on the priority issue — hunters roamed the shore, and they were dangerous.
A small squeak issued from Whistles Keenly. Observing his eyestalks were pointed to the rear, the others swung theirs in the same direction. Several small noises escaped the breath ways of the other three.
In a crumpled heap, toward the rear of the traveler, lay the remains of a hive member. The Swei Swee edged their way to gain a closer look at one of their distant cousins. Small animals and insects had eaten the flesh and much of the leg joint material. It gave the body a disassembled appearance.
Sand Flipper poked one of the male’s claws and whistled softly. The claw was nearly half again as large as his, and instead of the blues and greens that ran through his claws, this one was dark blue and even more sharply pointed than his.
Swift Claws regarded the broad, dark carapace and the enormous claws of the body in front of him and wondered if it wouldn’t be safer to wait in the ship and take their chances against the hunters.
-11-
Rendezvous
Asu waited impatiently in the bay’s airlock of the Sojourn. When Rosette notified him that two Haraken ships had transited outside the system, Asu nearly wept with relief. The next three days passed achingly slow, as he waited for the Rêveur and Tanaka to rendezvous with his ship.
Now, two travelers, one from each ship, were on approach to the Sojourn. Asu and Rosette had updated Alex and Reiko on the status planetside, sharing their ship’s view of the netted traveler and the fighter maintaining vigilance overhead.
The ship’s twin bay doors slid open, and Celus, in the far distance, shone brightly through the opening. First, one shuttle and then the other eased into the bay, and the crew chief closed the doors and pressurized the bay. No sooner had the green telltale flashed in the airlock than Asu was through the airlock hatch.
Reiko was first down the hatch steps of her traveler, and Asu greeted her and warmly shook her hand. Then he spotted Alex jumping to the deck with a resounding thud and turning around to help Renée down, and Asu hurried over.
“Alex and Ser, I’m so sorry for the worries my expedition has caused the two of you,” Asu said humbly.
“These events aren’t your fault, Captain,” Alex replied.
“Thank you for saying so, Alex, but I must accept some responsibility for not being more careful in the survey of the planet before initiating the first landing.”
“And whose idea was it to land and start the ground survey before a more thorough aerial reconnaissance was completed … your mission co-commander, perhaps?” Alex asked. When Asu ducked his head, Alex had his answer. “Thought as much,” he added. “Captain, are you aware of the new, shall we say, power arrangement?” Alex asked.
“Yes, Alex, I was informed privately by Captain Shimada.”
Alex glanced at Reiko, and she responded by straightening her shoulders and lifting her chin.
“Yes, Captain Shimada is thorough like that,” Alex commented drily. “Well, Mission Commander, what do we do next?”
Just that quickly, Reiko found herself unseated by Alex. She had commed Captain Azasdau to ensure he had understood her assignment, as dictated by the president — the power arrangement, as Alex had called it. And for her forwardness, Alex had dumped the responsibility for the first decision squarely in her lap.
“I suggest we convene on the bridge and study the situation,” Reiko said with conviction.
The Sojourn’s bridge became quite crowded. While Reiko left her pilot and crew aboard the Tanaka’s traveler, Alex’s people trooped behind him. In addition to Renée, Alex was followed by Mickey, Claude, Edmas, Jodlyne, and eight SADEs.
After a lengthy discussion, which only served to rehash the information everyone already knew, Alex grew impatient. “Captain Shimada, what’s your first priority, and how do you expect to accomplish it?”
“I think we should recover that pinned traveler. They’re out of food and probably out of water by now.”
“Agreed,” Alex replied. “And your tactics?”
Asu looked hopefully at Reiko, waiting for her to suggest the one thing that he hadn’t thought of that would save his people.
Reiko studied the holo-vid intently. That the natives hid in tunnels presented a major obstacle. That they were obviously many in number was the second, and they possessed slug-throwing weapons and weren’t shy about firing them was the third. Short of turning the area surrounding the netted traveler into slag with the beam from one of the Tanaka’s fighters, she had no idea how to rescue the grounded shuttle.
Finally, Reiko relaxed her shoulders, placed her hands behind her back, and raised her eyebrows at Alex. “You win, alien advisor,” she said. “I defer to your wisdom and experience.”
“It’s not about who wins or loses, Captain,” Alex said gracefully. “The best idea wins.”
It was Alex’s turn to study the holo-vid, and, after some thoughtful moments, he looked at Julien and said, “Their weakness is line of sight. They want to stay in their tunnels and shoot from concealment. If they can’t see, they probably wouldn’t shoot.”
“We were hoping for some sort of major weather event, Alex,” Asu said. “But, in the entire time we’ve been in orbit, the weather has been quite orderly.”
“Then we need to make our own,” Alex said. “Something akin to a whirlwind that will obscure their vision.”
The holo-vid’s display shifted to a view from above the netted traveler.
“Z,” Alex said quietly, in response to Asu and Reiko’s puzzled expressions.
Four travelers, noses pointing at one another and positioned like fan blades, descended toward a point between the netted shuttle and the lookout locations, which surrounded the ship for about 190 degrees. When the travelers were about 100 meters above the ground, they rotated onto their sides. Then turning like th
e blades of a fan around a central point, the travelers spun faster and faster. Numbers appeared in the holo-vid display — velocity, downward air pressure, and lateral wind speeds at ground level.
At one point, with the travelers spinning in a blur and the wind speed approaching 132.8 kph, Reiko said, “That’s all well and good, but my pilots can’t execute those maneuvers.”
“We can,” came the chorus from Julien, Cordelia, Z, and Miranda.
“And all of you have piloting experience?” Reiko demanded, before she thought her question through. “Sorry, that was an ill-considered question.”
“Actually, I don’t, dear,” Miranda said, “but I’m a fast learner.” She gave Reiko a brilliant smile, which made the captain feel even more foolish.
“And a rescue ship, Z?” Alex asked.
A fifth ship appeared in the center of the swirling travelers and descended through the fan’s center to touch down.
“We would need a pilot and sixteen crew to cut the tie-downs simultaneously, Alex,” Z said.
Reiko shook her head at what was being planned, and said, “Walking in those wind forces and unable to see … that would take —”
“More SADEs,” Alex said. “Glad so many of them decided to accompany me,” he added, turning to regard Winston, Esther, Hector, and Didier, who touched hands to chests and nodded heads in acceptance of Alex’s appreciation.
“One more problem,” Asu said.
“Of course there is,” groused Reiko.
“That alien net must be made of some metal, possibly iron. It’s somehow grounded the hull, conducting the power cells’ energy back through the shell.”
“Well, there’s a design flaw, Mickey,” Alex said, glancing over at the engineer.
“Who knew that it would take primitive aliens to demonstrate the errors of my team’s effort?” Mickey remarked. “Well, if that net is conducting, it’s more than likely a comparatively soft metal. With a SADE’s strength, a pair of cutters would be the better implement rather than a burning tool. I can have my people build a set of these in a couple of hours.”
“Do you carry spare traveler power cells aboard, Captain Azasdau?” Julien asked.
When Asu agreed that he did, Z said, “A pilot and seventeen crew … all SADEs.”
The Haraken SADEs boarded Reiko’s traveler. They would employ the Tanaka’s travelers as the blades. The SIF directors rode back to the Rêveur with Mickey, Claude, Edmas, and Jodlyne. Since Alex, Renée, and Reiko were staying aboard the Sojourn, a replacement shuttle transferred from the Rêveur to the Sojourn.
Aboard the Rêveur, the engineers and techs set to work building heavy cutting tools, and Mickey had an eye-opening discussion with Claude, who was the original builder of the avatars. Claude and Edmas still constructed Z’s many fantastical requests.
“Claude, since these will be hand tools … no pneumatics or motors … I need to know what pressure a SADE can apply to determine the handle length. We can make them as long as they need.”
Claude pinged Z with the request, and the SADE pulled up a Sojourn vid and estimated the thickness of the cable, the probable metal density, and the force necessary to quickly slice through the cable.
“Mickey, 45 centimeters should do it.” Claude said, relaying Z’s answer.
Mickey frowned and plugged the length into one of his implant’s engineering apps. “That would mean a SADE would be able to generate a force of —”
“Hush, Mickey,” Claude said quietly. Then reverting to his implant, Claude sent Z’s calculations of the tensile strength of the cable and the force required to cut it.
Mickey reviewed the data and stared at Claude. Then he glanced toward Edmas, whose eyes were regarding his boots.
“I would ask that you don’t share this data with anyone else, Mickey,” Claude whispered. “Direct the techs as to the design of the cutters and leave the engineering specs out of it. The SADEs would prefer that humans weren’t aware of their avatar’s strength.”
“Besides Edmas and you, who else knows about this?” Mickey asked.
“Jodlyne, since she knows more about Edmas than he knows about himself,” Claude replied, which caused Edmas to blush a deep scarlet and Jodlyne to offer a warm smile to her young lover. “And, of course —”
“Alex,” Mickey whispered, cutting Claude off.
“Yes,” Claude agreed.
“Hmm …” Mickey said with a sigh, as he considered the revelation. Finally, he said, “I can see why they want this kept quiet. But hearing this now, after all this time, makes me wonder what else they’ve been hiding.”
Claude, Edmas, and Jodlyne waited patiently for Mickey’s response. Finally, the engineer said, “Forty-five centimeters it is, and that’s all that needs to be said.”
Mickey headed to the engineering suite, and the three were left behind to regard one another.
“Secrets are difficult things to keep,” Jodlyne said.
“And the longer they’re kept, the worse it is when they come out,” Edmas added.
“Remember, young Sers, the population of our planet no longer consists of Independents, as it was on the day we founded Haraken. There are many New Terrans now, who were not raised with SADEs, and they aren’t so willing to accept the SADEs as the gentle citizens that they are.”
Aboard the Rêveur, Winston met with the Confederation SADEs in the landing bay. He shared the plan and asked for volunteers to add to the count of the four SIF directors, who would lead the effort on the ground.
“Yes, I would describe this plan as extremely dangerous to any exposed individuals, who would be those cutting the cables and delivering the power cells,” Winston replied vocally. It was a hint to Oliver, who had yet to make it planetside on Haraken that he was to communicate openly with the other SADEs. “The possibility of a mortal wound is small, but the natives’ weapons could disable your avatars, which would lead to your capture.
“The study of the slug-throwing weapon is inconclusive,” Linn said. “It’s not known whether the projectile could penetrate our chest and smash the kernel, ending our life.”
“You’re correct. The data is minimal,” Esther replied. “All these things are possible, but we won’t be exiting our shuttle until visibility is nearly zero. We’ll navigate by coordinating between our ship’s controller and its map of the exact positions of the net anchors.”
“We need a pilot, who will remain aboard, and thirteen more volunteers. Please signal me with your willingness to join the four of us,” Winston said.
In less than three hours from the time the decision was made on the Sojourn’s bridge, the pieces for the rescue were in place, and four travelers exited the Tanaka and one from the Rêveur. Julien, Cordelia, and Miranda, slaved their ships’ controllers to Z’s and linked with him. The SADEs’ proposed maneuvers could only be accomplished with the aid of extremely sturdy avatars and ultra-fast controller coordination. Humans were too fragile and not quick enough.
* * *
The one telescope the Tawas Soma possessed, which was rescued from the nest’s shuttle, was trained on the first alien ship to arrive from the time it took up station above them. It also tracked the descent of each shuttle.
As the system’s star, Nessila, crested the horizon, an advisor hurried to inform Nyslara that two more alien ships now resided beside the first. The queen sent a runner to wake Pussiro, and, reluctantly, he eased from the warm embraces of his two mates and climbed off the comfortable pad.
Despite the anxiousness of those early hours after wakening, the morning turned to boredom. Pussiro took the opportunity to meet with his sub-commanders to discuss tactics. Afterwards he sat down to a meal, but the shrill of the receiver in his quarters interrupted the first bite. The lookout warned that th
e aliens were on the move.
Pussiro replaced the receiver in the cradle and raced to the forward lookout post, which had called him. This was the event the commander was anticipating and fearing, at the same time. The aliens were landing in force to rescue their comrades.
A snarl escaped Pussiro’s muzzle as he ran. Simlan and Hessan were achieving great progress in understanding their captives and teaching the aliens the Dischnya language. Nyslara had hoped to begin the bargaining with those in the netted ship, but that idea might now have been thrown into jeopardy.
The two lookouts jumped aside as Pussiro burst into the tiny room. “Status,” he barked, as he climbed up to the scope.
“The advisors on the telescope report that five shuttles have left the ships above and are descending,” the senior warrior on lookout reported. “Their destination appears to be the grounded shuttle, Commander.”
Pussiro rotated the external eyepiece of the scope upward. He waited, the sharp claws of his right foot tapping nervously on the scope’s ladder, and he didn’t have long to wait. Five shuttles descended into view, but rather than land, they formed a pattern, pointing their noses at one another. The shuttle, which had guarded the netted ship, slid up and out of sight.
A hiss issued from Pussiro’s lips as he watched four of the ships rotate onto their edges and swing around an invisible center. Faster and faster they went.
At first, Pussiro felt a soft breeze on his face. This was midday when the heat was its greatest, and air shouldn’t be stirring. Then the breeze stiffened, and, soon after that, dust blew around the scope and stung his eyes. It was not much longer before Pussiro lost sight of the spinning ships. This lookout was one of the closest posts to the netted shuttle, and, if his vision of the ship was fouled, then the others were too.
When the dust and debris blowing into the lookout’s opening became too great to tolerate, Pussiro retracted the scope and closed the hatch, locking it behind him. He jumped for the receiver and issued a general alarm to the posts facing the shuttles to close down rather than risk damaging the scopes’ lenses.
