Weathering Storms

by Taborri Walker

  “Oh yes, we have that capability, even in this type of weather… watch… the pile is right there,” Sesha touched some of the odd flat bits in front of her and a blue line shot out. In a second the pile of bodies all glowed blue, then the pile was gone, what ashes there were instantly blown away. Beulah only nodded, tears clogging her eyes.

  “We’re going!” Sesha spoke loudly. “Just brace yourselves, against each other or the walls. The first part will be easy, have no fear. The ship is lifting up now,” then lowered her voice. “Computer, I’m going to fire missiles at every building to destroy them completely.” Her fingers were already dancing over the board, programming in the order.

  Are you allowed? The onboard computer asked her. If not, I’ll have to override you.

  “I’m allowed,” she typed in another code she wasn’t supposed to know but did, almost from her very first trip years and years ago. She’d only used these Command codes once or twice, and only when she knew she was right, without a single doubt. Now she used it again, and it worked.

  Just tell me when and I’ll fire… it’ll take the whole complement, for one per building, you know. And that’s overkill, frankly.

  “That’s the way it has to be,” she answered, “Deploy,” she commanded, and said, “that means the bombs will hit each building,” Sesha said loud enough for Beulah’s ears and pointed to the display screen. Then she said “Hang on everyone, we’re going up now!”

  She touched a button and the shuttle engines roared as the ship’s engines increased and the motion was an angled sharp ascent. Almost all her passengers screamed, terrified, but Beulah called out and Darren and Nick moved around a bit, calming them despite the fact that they were as terrified as the others. The people clung to each other and the walls as the ship, buffeted by hurricane winds shot into the clouds.

  Beulah cried as the buildings went up in a spectacular display, rising spikes of flame trying to catch them, wanting more to consume. “Everything will burn to the ground despite the storm” she assured the widow as she piloted the craft upwards. “Nothing but ash will be left, and the storm will wash that away.”

  Nick’s arms circled Beulah’s shoulders as she cried. “It just seems odd to think that our lives have changed again and so fast. Tell me Sesha… will we be free to worship – or not – as we please?” The sound of someone vomiting as they were buffeted made Beulah suck in her tears and call out comfort again.

  “Considering everyone is free to worship whatever deity they please, yes. No one will prevent you as long as you don’t try to force it on anyone else. Everyone is free to choose.” Sesha managed a quick smile at Nicodemus and turned back to her console. The weight was terrific, using up more fuel than she’d figured but they’d make it to the Inner Six with a little to spare.

  Sesha’s core, as she thought of them, nodded and hung on as they flew through the last of the storm and broke free above the clouds. Everyone gasped as they saw the clouds from above, how thick and black and swirling they were.

  “We call this a force nine destructive wind,” Sesha said.

  “How high can it go?” someone called out.

  “To force nine. This is as harsh as a storm can get by Alliance standards. Your city will be gone when it blows over in about, oh, two more days at this rate?” She didn’t bother telling them the place was already destroyed. Until Beulah said something, this was best.

  “If it doesn’t get to land first,” a woman amended. Then they were in the Void, and saw the ship. It was a moment of complete silence while they digested this spectacular sight and stayed quiet through the docking procedure and didn’t react at all when several odd-looking beings approached carefully, calling out greetings and declarations of peace.

  Jaxxim took Melena aside an hour into receiving passengers. ‘You’re letting Sesha take command here? Whatever for?”

  “Because this is her… baby, as the humans say. In trying to save us she was injured. In trying to save us she crashed and their camp was in the way. Yes she had to lie to be taken in but most of them truly cared for her, still do, and when faced with something never dreamed of, accepted it with a minimum of fear.”

  “So far,” he inserted, voice sour. “But you are Head, not her!”

  “Jealous?” Melena’s assessment was on the mark. “Sesh is due to be First Pilot of a ship bigger than ours, she’s the one who saved all our skins and you’re nitpicking? I think you’ll need some down time to talk with doctors about these problems.”

  “Then you should too, Melena,” the Pilot snarled. “We’re all tired of your officious attitude too. And you certainly have been rough on Sesha since her first trip.” With that he stomped off. Creyling, Resmi and Brannel wanted to talk to him about something; anything was better that staying here watching Sesha boss everyone else around!

  Sesha helped herd everyone into a few side-by-side rooms where they could sit and rest while waiting for the ship to be fixed. Head assigned four crewmembers to tend to their physical needs but Sesha had to have a word with those crew as well.

  “Just remember that even though you look almost like them, they know you’re not Human. So ask them before touching them, and if you can’t answer a question they have, ask Beulah, then find me, okay? They’re very traumatized…”

  “We understand that, Sesh… go to the doc now, okay? We’ll take care of this.”

  But she wouldn’t, for there was more to do.

  Sesha had the Aga reset her shoes as she hurried down to the sweltering hot room. “How’s it going – Haxiun’s Hell, what are you doing?” she went from upbeat to upset in a second. “If you pull that panel all the way off we’ll lose all the fluid again, restens!”

  “We know what we’re doing, Sesh, quit insulting our intelligence…”

  “The shields were almost nonexistent,” she told them. “It’s a miracle from Ashlen Goddess of Luck that we didn’t all just die… here, the instructions say ‘weld’ but this isn’t metal, so I glued it with the Gel compound…”

  “We know, Sesh… go to the doc, okay? We’ll take care of this.”

  “I’m the first person to ever to do such a thing to the BrainPan,” she countered, a bit pissed.

  “Yes, but we’re technicians, this is our job on many other parts of the ship. We fix busted things all the time, okay? Look, see what we already did while you were downstairs,” a finger pointed out new tubes with a series of filters cobbled up quick to be the first set the waters went through. Sesha had to admire their thought processes when they explained it was a double loop filter system designed to catch even microscopic bits before it entered the ship’s veins. “And we’ve already had the panel off, Sesh. A force field pops into place if the cover’s even jiggled. So get out!”

  Feet clattered down the metal steps. “Sesha, go to Harnan. That pregnant female is asking for you before she goes to sleep, so hurry it up!”

  “Are you here to test the water?” she asked as she rose stiffly.

  “And add some agents if needed. Antibiotics, enzymes, whatever the tests tell me I need to, then I’ll test it again. Now it’lal, you nellba,” the Vegan man snapped. In English the equivalent was ‘now fly away, you annoying insect.’

  “Trada nenya”, she snarled back, but left. Instead of the vators or such, Sesha took the ‘Bounce,’ a disc holed by super-strong, elastic cords. Upon mounting the disc, one unclipped certain cords depending on wanting to go up or down. Numbers ticked off; when you saw the one desired, just squeeze the clip. By reaction time, it would stop on the correct floor. Sesha went to the shuttle bay not thinking how she’d called the second-grade medic a disease-laden animal.

  But Uliel called Harnan, reporting the insult. “I think she’s going off balance pretty severely. Her skin is pink in some places indicating high fever and she’s bloody to her waist from the shoulder wound. You need to do something soon.”

  “I’m trying… as long as she’s capable of just standing even, and talking sense I can’t. Co
uld pull rank but I’m afraid the ensuing tantrum will push her into cardiac arrest, if not worse. I’ve alerted everyone to keep an eye on her and Beulah made a suggestion I’m going to utilize. Is she coming?”

  “Well… I think so. But we all know Sesha.”

  “Not anymore, Uliel, not anymore.”

  There were no shuttles when Sesha hopped off the disc, freezing it in place. Sickbay was two stories up; she’d take the Bounce there. Ah – the supplies cabinet. Sesha opened the door and yanked the box she wanted, keeping her mind very blank. The feeling of exhaustion weighted her down and that was a marvelous cover. She tipped stim pills into her hand, slid several into her pouch and two into the pool of saliva she’d built up. Shni’s roar of anger was muted which made the Realistic madder. He too called Harnan without Sesha hearing as she went back to the Bounce.

  “Give me a second, Dinah… need to use the draught,” her voice was chirky, energetic. But in the small room she grimaced, yelling silently as she peed. She didn’t see the computer run an analysis of what went into the bowl for she was busy banging her head on the sink to override that pain. She washed and hurried out.

  “Hey! Ben and Ezra! What are you two here for?” she asked as she hurried to the bed Dinah lay on.

  “Jus’ wanderin’ around, lookin’ some more, talkin’ to yer crew. Mebbe we can run around with you some?”

  “I don’t see why not,” and then she scooped Dinah’s hand up. “How are you feeling?”

  “Much better, and sleepy,” she murmured. “I just wanted to tell you that baby boy is Tim and mine,” her mouth curled up in a smile. “Physician Harnan rubbed the insides of our mouths, then he pressed a cold thing between my legs onto th’ babe an’ a few moments later told us. We be so relieved.”

  “I’m glad you decided to let me stop the labor, then. What’s next, Harnan?”

  “She goes sleepy-bye and I get the next set of patients in. Dinah took a bit but both are responding well. So sit, girl, I’ll do you next. The other humans aren’t as bad off.”

  “Are you running the program on the poison berries used on Beulah?”

  ‘Yes. It’s taking a bit longer as it’s a heretofore unknown substance. I’ve also got samples of the holy trio of samples,”

  “Eh?” it was a habit now, one she didn’t even think about.

  “Hair, skin and blood. Most of my machines are working on that, the rest on Anna and Jeremiah’s infection. While you eradicated most of it there’s still more complicated bits that need deeper decoding. Anna is worse; she’s starting to fever again and Jeremiah has cramps so they’ll be in soon.”

  “Well get started cuz I have more to do,” bending, Sesha kissed Dinah’s forehead. “Go to sleep sweetie; you’re going to have some nice dreams. Bad ones aren’t allowed, okay?”

  “Yes,” the girl murmured, her eyes drifting shut. Timothy rose and kissed her too, his eyes thanking Sesha as she turned to go.

  “Kitchen now,” Sesha told the boys and off they went. “It’s been hours now with only water,” she steered them into a ‘vator and seconds later they were on the lower floor. There they found two workers, along with Sarah and Ruth.

  “Bout ragglin time,” she grouched, to get glares.

  “Are you listening to your mouth?” snapped an Ack female, Gee’ee. She did food purchases, finding the most incredible eatables in the universe. With Sarņaņi, an Agricultural Specialist helping, they were converting recipes with foods edible by humans.

  “They’re hungry,” she snarled back, then Sarah whispered to Gee’ee a moment. The being turned on the water faucet, Sarah did something and came to Sesha.

  “Here, sweetheart,” she plied Sesha’s face with a cold, wet cloth. “Thou art o’erwhelmed, hurt an’ sick. Needs to be resting,” but the girl refused. She did let Sarah wipe her down well, hair, neck, hands, then helped take the food to the refugees, where she found a happy surprise.

  “The… harpsichord?” Amelia was sitting on the bench the opposite direction, so she saw Sesha when they came in bearing food and drink. “How the skarch,”

  “Sesha!” Head was just stopping in to check. “Mind tongue!”

  “Did you get this here?”

  “Did ask Lady Melena,” Amelia was squirming to see the delighted look on Sesha’s face, “an’ she did cause a blue line to cut the side of the Church down. Then there be an unearthly sound, a yellow light did shine forth an’ the whole thing did rise in the air!” Her hand was beating the other side of the bench so Sesha sat down to have her hands seized and shook with the excitement of finally getting to tell Sesha about it.

  “There be a thump on top o’ th’ ship; Lady Melena did show a picture. The chord be on the top, bench too and an orange… what be it called?”

  “Forcefield dome,” Melena said slowly.

  “Yes, covering it. We did a loop about an’ rise ‘stead o’ th’ promised push, which made Dinah happy an’ came here, where Beings unloaded it gently, bringing it here. An’ it works! After we be settled in our new place, I shall teach thee to play ‘thout the help of Shni.” In her rapture the girl forgot and hugged Sesha tight about the neck.

  The pain was terrible. Her whole body burned with it but she hoped no one noticed. It took a breath after the girl let her go and Sesha turned away as if looking over the musical instrument while she steadied – and slipped another Stim pill in. Then she was able to rise.

  “I’m tickled, and I will take you up on those lessons, Amelia. Everyone enjoy your food. I’m off to do something else needed.” The boys chased after her with a nod at Melena and a bare touch on shirt pockets.

  “Animals,” Sesha panted. “I forgot, they need to be asleep.”

  “Hey, Sesh, something interesting for you to know,” Resmi, a tri-gendered being yelled at her when she was trotting back to the dog’s room first.

  “What?” she yelled back at the Pilot.

  “We grabbed two each of those human’s animals… they were trying to get back to where they knew, so we loaded ‘em easy. Got ‘em settled in the rooms, come and see!”

  “We were on our way. Where’s Peylah?”

  “Already on deck. Looked over the ones called ‘dog’ and ‘cat’ after emitting a sedate mist. Very vicious creatures, you know.”

  “Not when you know them. Did he find a genetic code to Okeelas? Shni said there was.”

  “Yes, there is.” Peylah stepped out of a room, stall, humans called it. “About 2500 years old but the tag is there. That’s going to make the Council spit dark matter,” he grinned. “Boys, what are these called?”

  Ben looked. “Horses.” He trotted to the next open door with only forcefields keeping the animals in. “Sheep, wow! Got two bears! They be fierce an’ wild so be careful.”

  “Be asleep, you mean,” the Animal Specialist grinned.

  “These be rabbits,” Ezra pointed in a small kennel-like room, “those be squirrels – how dids’t get those? An’ these be chicken an’ rooster, ducks here,” he went on naming, with Ben alternating down the other side. “Jus’ like Noah’s ark,” Ezra grinned at Ben as Peylah finished recording and tagging the rooms. “Two of each.”

  “They’ll bring a pretty penny!” the pilot was excited.

  “Resmi, if you thought more about quality of life than flegae money, you’d be a better person,” Sesha snarled at him, not thinking, of course, that she had been that way just a few Standard Alliance months ago. “And all these animals belong to the Humans, not us! T’will be up to them what be done with them.”

  The Albino being just stood there and stared, concerned, as she rushed off. Then he keyed his Wrist Gem and talked in his native tongue for a few seconds before going to look again at the odd animals they’d gotten. Especially those little furry ones…

  Yet again Sesha stopped off in a body function room. She was doing it every few minutes, actually, especially after Sarah washed her face. The cold water felt good and the shock of it helped stop the shaking she was gett
ing. The stops allowed her to catch a breath and she slipped another Stim, washing it down with a glass of water. A few times she banged her head on the basin to force her slowing mind to come back to focus. The sharp pains helped her think better, the pills let her gather a bit more energy despite the fact she hadn’t eaten anything in hours. And every time she exited one of those rooms, Ezra and Benjamin were waiting patiently, so she would smile at them and take their hands while she hurried off to her next chore.

  The boys steered her back to Medical once with the excuse Ben scratched open his itchy butt spot again and wanted more ointment, which Harnan did provide. Anna and Jeremiah were there now. So were six babies who were undernourished despite being breast-fed and two of the children had pneumonia.

  “We’ve enough beds here,” the Head Medic looked pointedly at the bedraggled and exhausted woman. “Dinah’s already in TS, one for Anna – we’ll effect repairs of her child-bearing organs after getting home. One for Jeremiah. He had a large pustule in his right testicle which I’ve already drained.” The young man was sitting on the treatment table, wrapped in a silver warming gown, looking very embarrassed and ashamed to meet anyone’s eyes. Darren stood beside him, having been support during the procedure.

  Sesha moved to his side and patted his knee. “It’s okay,” she murmured, looking straight ahead and not at him. “You did it, you made it through the worst treatment, right, Darren? and you can have satisfaction that the men who caused it to happen to you died excruciating deaths. It all gets better from here.”

  “Thou art sure?” he asked pointedly, turning to look at the woman he was going to marry. She was also dressed in a treatment gown, lying on the bed tucked in a blanket and was dozing lightly under the effects of the medication she’d gotten.

  “I’m sure.” Sesha reached up to push her tangled hair back and bit down on her lip as she moved to the next bed to hide her reaction to the pain.

  “This bed is for the six babies, along with special computer hookups to care for them while in stasis,” Chief Medic Harnan explained as she checked the diaper on one infant, and reached for the synthesized ones to change her. He sighed, like a martyr, and when she’d finished, drew her to the next table.