Oh, Al. Toño promised to try and keep the useless bucket of bolts running until you wake up. He probably felt it was proper penance for your considerable sins. Al’s hidden near where Toño left you, in the Engineering Section storage area. I swear I didn’t make up the clue. I swear it was Toño himself. Do NOT blame me. Here it is: In the land of invisible palm trees, don’t look for shadows. Look for places where the sand looks like there’s a tree growing in it.
Yeah, lame and a half, I know. I tried to talk him out of it, but he said you’re bright enough to figure it out and if you weren’t, it served you right. Hell of a guy, that Dr. Toño DeJesus. One hell of a guy. Total SOB.
I do have one serious, personal request. If it’s all right with you, when you’re done on Exeter, please scuttle her. I know you’ve got some bitchin’ spaceship that can. Give this old girl a proper burial. Let all the souls who haunt it free. Give us all some peace. I hate to think of her floating forever, deserted, and having her bones picked clean by scavengers. If you think it’s a good idea, please do.
Well, I must have something better to do than write you love notes, so I’ll go see what that might be. Good luck. Double good luck to the future. It’s going to need it more than you because now it’s saddled with you. I don’t know how to write it, but I’m now sticking my tongue out at you. Ciao.
I pointed to that last line. “I could be pretty immature, you know, back then.”
“Some things appear to remain constant.”
“You don’t know me well enough yet to know that.”
She got an oh-yeah-you-say look on her face. She could be mean as well as darn cute. I had a lot of work to do with this one.
“Let’s head back to Engineering and see if my old butt boil is there.”
As we walked, Mirraya said, “Honestly, Uncle Jon, I can’t believe the things you say. How could your old ship’s AI be a boil anywhere, and if he was why would you want to find him?”
“It’s complicated?” I asked more than stated.
Hey, Deft teenage girls roll their eyes just like humans.
As we entered Engineering, I tried to see it in a new light. Of course, I had zero clue what the clue meant, which didn’t help.
There certainly weren’t any invisible palm trees. I didn’t see even one.
No shadows. Check.
No sand. Crap. That would have been nice to find.
Sand. Was there sand on Exeter? There was in the beach-reproduction area. But that was kilometers from here. Did engineers store, use, or consume sand, so that it would be kept here? Ah, the answers were no, no, and probably not. Never say never when discussing engineers and odd behavior, however.
Seriously, was I supposed to be looking for sand with an invisible palm in it?
“I don’t get it,” I said to Mirraya. She was listlessly searching behind me. “Sand, here? Invisible shade?”
“I was never much good with puzzles. There’s clearly no sand here. What was sand used for?”
“Playing with. Lying on while burning under the sun. Getting between toes.” I snapped my fingers. “And glass production.”
“There’s not much glass left.” She pointed around the room. “If it’s not broken, it’s been removed. There’s no glass to have signs of something growing in it.”
“True that.” Hmm. What would glass with a tree in it even be? “A piece of glass with a plant in it is a vase.”
“Or a planter. Yes. That makes sense.”
“But there are no vases, planters, or anything…”
“A flask. We used them in chemistry class!” shouted Mirraya.
“They’re too easy to steal. I haven’t seen a one.”
“Where would they have been stored?”
I scratched my head. “Let me pull up a holo of this place.”
I studied the images in my files. Pipettes and such were stored in the next room, far left wall.
“Come on. They’d have been in here.”
We walked to the place the racks had been. I held out my arms. “Right here.”
“If you don’t want to freak out, you might want to turn around.” With that, she reached for a zipper.
I spun and studied the wall intently. I heard a high-pitched grunt. Almost wish I hadn’t turned to see what my girl was up to. My but she was an ugly thing. I’d say she looked like a big slug, but slugs were prettier—healthier looking too. I’d say she was squid-like, but honestly, I’d have rather kissed a squid than whatever blob with a huge eyestalk she was. And she smelled very unladylike. Very.
Her eyestalk scanned the wall, floor, and ceiling. It came to a stop over some seemingly random spot. Then Mirraya started to bubble. Yuck. Then, she was reverse melting, so I spun to recheck that opposite wall.
I heard her rustling and gave her a second.
“Okay,” she said excitedly, “look here.” She was tapping the spot she’d bubbled over. “There’s some scratches in the metal. Here. An X.”
Holy crap. X marked the spot. I attached my probes. Sure enough, there was a small chamber in the metal of the wall itself. It was completely sealed except for a tiny wire poking out flush with the wall. The probe fibers were very tough, so I forced them in the pinprick hole and pried the metal open. At first it was slow, but soon the metal started failing in multiple directions. In the end, it looked like a cannon ball had been shot through the wall in my direction.
I peeked in. There was a smallish metal box inside. Nothing else. I grabbed it with the fibers and removed it gently.
“What is it?” asked Mirraya.
“I’ll bet Al’s inside there. I can power him up with the fibers.”
I slowly increased the electrical charge of the box. If Al was in there and viable, he’d be set up to use that kind of power supply.
Then the box spoke, sort of. “Hheir. Zeer hop. Asuram.”
“Al, are you okay?” I shouted.
“Nnnerow … neganoo …”
“Huh. What?”
“There. No, pilot, I’m not okay. Has time further dulled your already feeble wits? I’m in a power crisis, my main data-board is corrupted, and there’s dust in areas I didn’t think could have dust. You are still, constant of constants, the master of understatement.”
“Al,” I beamed, “it’s good to have you back.”
“You won’t mind if I reserve judgment on that until I’m a bit more oriented?”
“No, buddy. Take your time. We got nothing but…”
A loud metallic sound rumbled through the ship.
“What is that,” cried out Mirraya.”
“Not sure. Sounded like…”
“It was a craft outside locking onto the rocky surface. Possibly with a grapple,” said Al.
“Thank you. Helpful right from the start.” I turned to Mirraya. “We got company. Loud company.”
“We’d better start running,” she said with a frightened look.
And run we did. We were back to Stingray in ten minutes. During that time, several other craft sounded like they locked onto Exeter. I could hear mechanical sounds in the far distance, likely electric vehicles. Lots of electric vehicles.
“Stingray, can you tell me who’s joined us?”
“Adamant, Form. I count ten ships. Three have landed. Multiple vehicles have been deployed and are heading this way.”
“They must have had cameras hidden or something,” I said mostly to myself. “Crap.”
“That’s not Wrath. I’d know his voice anywhere. Who’s that speaking?” asked Al.
“Our new ride. Stingray say hello to Al. Al, Stingray. Stingray, take us to the far side of the galaxy. Now.”
I felt a reassuring nausea.
“We’re twenty-five thousand light-years away, Form.”
“Are they …”
“Affirmative. Three Adamant command ships have just appeared.”
“Take us to the coordinates in Andromeda I gave you.” I’d pre-selected a location near the jet of that galaxy’s supe
rmassive black hole. It would significantly disrupt the local space-time. I hoped they wouldn’t be able to “see” us.
“Now take us to the Milky Way center.” Slight nausea. Good. “Any sign?”
“Not so far.”
“Put us under the surface of the nearest star.”
“What?” shouted Mirraya. “Are you crazy?”
“No. It’s okay. The vortex can survive a few minutes inside a star.”
“Pilot,” said Al, “even a small star would be in the millions of degrees range at that depth. Are you certain?”
“Yes. Stingray, you can survive in there, right?”
“Affirmative. Up to ten minutes.”
“See,” I gloated, “I told you so.”
“Can you maintain the internal environment that long to keep the crew safe?” asked Al.
“No. But that is not what the Form asked. He was concerned with my survival, not his.”
“How long can you keep us from baking, Stingray?” I asked.
“One minute, tops.”
I kissed the metal box Al was in. “I love you, man.”
“Don’t ever do that again,” he responded.
Inside the stellar material, the vortex felt different. Maybe it was the monumental energy required to stay in one piece. But I could feel the weight of the plasma outside our hull. It was a most uncomfortable feeling.
“Okay, take us to deep intergalactic space,” I called out. The moment my nausea passed I asked, “Any sign of pursuit?”
“No. I think that last move threw them off.”
“I’m glad some things do,” I replied.
“Let me know the second anything appears.” I set the metal box down. “Let’s get you, my old friend, integrated with Stingray.”
“Are you certain that’s necessary, Form?”
That was the closest thing to open revolt I’d ever heard from a vortex manipulator. I guess she really was miffed at me and worried I wanted to replace her. Like I could. I have no idea what she was, how she worked, or how to replace her. I didn’t need to tell her that, but I did need to quell her fears.
“Stingray, you are my vortex manipulator. You have proven your worth many times over. I want to integrate Al because he’s also proven useful in the past. I don’t want you to misunderstand and feel I’m not one-hundred percent please with you. If you don’t feel comfortable with me adding Al, I won’t.” I was back in officer management mode. Funny, billions of years pass, species come and go, and still I had to handle my personnel wisely. There really was no escape.
“If you desire it and it’s going to further our mission, then I’m all for it,” she replied.
“Al,” I whispered to the metal box, “that she hasn’t met you yet is apparent in her remark.”
“Do you recall the exact location I was hidden, pilot, in case I want to be returned there?”
“Aw, Al, you’d miss me something terrible.”
“I’m willing to take some risk for peace of mind.”
I removed the actual machine that was Al from the box. Hardwiring him in was very simple, so he was working like a charm in no time.
“There,” I said stepping away, “now you two kids get to know one another. If I hear any fighting, I’m sending you both to your rooms, so behave.”
“I don’t have a room, Form. I don’t need a room.”
“It’s all right, Blessing, just ignore his attempts at humor, and you’ll get along fine. He’s really quite forgettable. You’ll see.”
Same old Al. It was nice to have him back. Sort of. I think.
FOURTEEN
The next day was an important one. Something had to give. I had a great ship, and I had Al. I had Mirraya. But, aside from those, I lacked the essentials. A safe place to go. A possible home for Mirraya. I needed to see what happened to Azsuram but knew it was crazy to go there. And yes, I needed to plan revenge on the Adamant. Maybe I should have tried to let that go, but those dogs needed to die. Ralph, he was evil, sure. But Ralph was made that way and couldn’t change. The Adamant chose to be evil. They decided to, say, round up the Deft and exterminate them like unwanted ants at a picnic.
I also had to return to Exeter one last time. The long dead Jon Ryan was right. I needed to lay her to rest. I owed it to her. All proud old ships deserved respect. She’d earned it saving humankind, preserving our culture, our way of life. She deserved a proper Viking funeral.
Mirraya and I sat at the mess table. I called to Stingray and Al, asking them to join our first meeting as a new crew.
“So,” I began, “here’s how I see it. We’ve been unbelievably lucky so far. We’ve evaded the Adamant three times. One thing in this universe is certain. Unbelievable luck never holds. If nothing else, we’ve pissed off the dogs even more. Next time we’re in their sights, I bet they’ll throw everything they have at us.”
“But we can’t hide forever,” Al said. “The girl requires food. She’ll likely need companionship at some point. You recall your predilection for companionship, Pilot, don’t you?”
“I’ll be fine. We have enough food to last a long time. Don’t do anything crazy on my account,” Mirraya said.
What? “He called you girl,” I said to her pointing over my shoulder. “You nearly removed my head for saying it, but Al gets a free pass?”
“He’s a machine. He means nothing by it.”
I slapped my chest. “I’m a machine. What’s the difference?”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re a machine. Right. That’s rich.”
“What? I am.”
“Do you feel, Form, this dysfunctional interaction is mission critical to this crew meeting?” asked Stingray.
“We’re not being dysfunctional. We’re … we’re being family,” I responded.
“In my experience those are one and the same,” she replied.
“Maybe we’re related?” I asked Stingray. Your upbringing sounds a lot like mine.
“Does he require an answer?” I think Stingray was addressing Al. It was hard to tell with two invisible members of the conversation. “Being related to the Form is a highly invalid proposition.”
“Humor and ignore, remember? We’ve discussed this concept a thousand times, dear. With the pilot, after he speaks you humor him and then completely ignore him.”
Dear? Did Al just call Stingray dear? My world was spinning out of control. What, next there’d be little hybrid handheld computers running around, tripping me and making horrible-smelling messes?
“Ah yes,” she said. “I will add more RAM to that algorithm.”
“People, and assorted others,” I said with obvious irritation, “we’re not drifting away from the point. We’re using fusion engines and are nearing the speed of light away from it.”
“Now, dear,” said a patronizing Al voice.
“Yes,” Stingray marveled, “it does work, doesn’t it?”
I turned to face Mirraya. “I guess I’ll speak with you since the toasters are having their own party.”
She started giggling. “They’re too funny. Blessing was right; it’s fun to tease you.”
I placed both palms on my face and tried to shut out existence. Why, oh why, did I even try to do the right thing?
“Back to the crises at hand, crew,” I said a bit too loudly. “We need a safe place we can go. Any thoughts?”
“I was led to believe there was no safe place,” said Stingray. “The masters of Oowaoa feel the Adamant are in control of much of this galaxy and several nearby galaxies also. They consider the Adamant to be unstoppable.”
“There has to be somewhere they don’t control,” I said.
“A wish is different than a fact, Pilot,” said Al. “I think we must make plans in the instance there is no refuge, at least none close by.”
“Then we’ll go somewhere there is. Who says we can’t go to a distant galaxy far, far away?” I asked.
“No one. Common sense does, but that is not a person,” snipped Al.
“Why?” asked Mirraya. “If the Deft are all dead and humankind has passed, what holds us here?”
“Hope does, child,” I said, like I was someone else speaking. “If we turn and run, we not only admit defeat, we cede our galaxy to these dogs. We have to honor our dead by preserving their home.”
“Why is that?” asked Al.
“You wouldn’t understand,” I replied.
“Is that meant to insult me or merely minimize me?” he responded.
Why had I said that? “Sorry, Al. You’re right. You understand emotions better than I do.”
“If we stand and fight, we would be ignoring the experience of others,” said Stingray. “It would be foolish to assume our chances were better than all the races that have fallen before the Adamant’s onslaught.”
“You’re good, Pilot, and lucky, but Blessing is right. What chance would we stand in a fair fight?”
“Who said anything about fair?” I replied. “I agree we wouldn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell if we did.”
“Are you suggesting guerrilla warfare?” asked Al.
“No, we’re too small to be effective at that.”
“Terrorism? That’s all we might manage to achieve,” said Al.
“That never works. No, I was thinking that this galaxy needs a good old revolution.”
“Now I really doubt our chances of survival,” said Al tersely. “Leading an insurgency requires political skills. Are you the type of man to lead a galaxy, General Ryan?”
“Not on my CV, is it?” I chuckled.
“And don’t you think other cultures have tried and failed? Wouldn’t the Adamant be primed to trounce all resistance? It would be logical to assume.”
“They certainly overran Locinar like we weren’t even there,” mused Mirraya.
“That reminds me. What happened on your home world? Did the Deft have a standing army, organized defenses?”
“Yes. Probably not as large as others might have had, but to invade a planet of shapeshifters was unthinkable. Our species could fight with the skills of the most fearsome creatures to ever live, and there were millions of Deft. Who would attempt to battle such a force?”
Embers: The Galaxy On Fire Series, Book 1 Page 13
