The Celaran Solution (Parker Interstellar Travels Book 9)

by Michael McCloskey

  She knows me well. Forcing me to sit here while the rest of the scout mission goes on is truly awful punishment.

  “You can watch the feeds,” Telisa continued, adding a slight tempering to the sentence. She turned and walked out. The only company Siobhan had in the bay were the clean white structures of the medical machines and the one-armed remains of her Veer suit, hanging nearby like a spectre sent to remind her of the injury.

  The silver lining was that their new ship had a better med bay than the PIT team had seen since the Clacker; it was equipped to regrow limbs. A round white bin with three green lights blinking on its surface hummed quietly from across the room as it grew her new hand. The link interface said it would take days or weeks, depending on how urgent she was to reattach the replacement. The longer she waited, the stronger and more capable her new hand would be, though once attached, it would even longer to regain coordination.

  Siobhan accessed the video feeds from one of the six wide ramps of their new Iridar. She saw Caden standing a few meters from the ramp, in a gliding suit, with a Celaran lift rod strapped onto each limb. The arrangement might still leave him more sluggish than Lee and Cynan, but at least the gravity on Celara Palnod was relatively weak. His face looked worried.

  “What’s up?” Siobhan asked. “Mission too tame for you?” she teased on a private channel.

  “I’m good. Are you still in pain?”

  “I’ll be fine,” Siobhan said. “This artificial hand already feels fairly steady, and we’re growing a new one.”

  In truth, her lower left arm ached where it had been burned away despite the drugs running through her blood. Her hand worked well, though not perfectly. The medical bay programs had told her it would adapt along with her own brain until her full dexterity returned. Then she could start all over again with a real hand.

  She saw Caden nod in the video feed.

  He blames himself. Or he’s put off about Telisa’s reaction to our decision to fight the Destroyer.

  Surprisingly, Telisa had delayed meeting with the team about recent events until the second half of the scouting mission completed. Siobhan reviewed the shared team plan in her PV. Cynan and Lee would be going out to get a closer look at the larger Celaran-like creatures that inhabited the planet. Caden would be trailing them at a distance. Siobhan could not tell if Telisa’s decision to hold Caden back was practical or emotional. It certainly made more sense for the natural flyers to monitor the high-altitude creatures, but making Caden hang back could also be Telisa’s way of expressing her displeasure with his actions.

  Siobhan spotted the two Celarans already flying above the natural support spikes and their load of sickly vines with green trunks and reddish leaves. They ascended in a gentle spiral course. The star’s light shone down with only a few clouds to obscure it, and the temperature was pleasantly warm by Terran standards.

  “Stay sharp. We don’t know what these other... Celarans are like,” Caden told Lee and Cynan.

  He’s worried these mutant Celarans could be aggressive.

  Caden used his lift rods to take off after Lee and Cynan. He pumped his limbs to help generate lift and save some of the equipment’s energy. He activated his cloaking sphere and disappeared. His echoform was lost in the light of the sky for a moment until it switched to a dark color for contrast. After that he was easier to see, but the view was not nearly as interesting.

  Siobhan switched her attention to the tactical in her PV. She also saw the targets on the tactical: the unusual Celarans. She checked their altitude. The creatures were gliding about three kilometers above the forest canopy, just above one of the only clouds in the sky. Suddenly a question came to mind.

  “Are Cynan and Lee armed?” Siobhan asked on the team channel.

  “They have lasers,” Telisa told her. “We also have six attendants up there with them that could accomplish a lot, defensively or offensively.”

  Siobhan considered that. The attendants could fly well, even as well as Lee, and if they decided to collide with a target, it would hurt. Siobhan supposed an attendant could even hurt a Terran through a Veer skinsuit if it had enough space to take a long run at them. The Celarans had no such body armor. They preferred to remain light and agile to avoid any conflict.

  “How can these groups survive the Destroyers?” Siobhan wondered on the channel.

  “I doubt they could,” Caden said. “I noticed that they stick close to the clouds. Either they need the moisture or they’re using them as cover.”

  The tactical showed Cynan and Lee nearing the aliens in the cloud. Caden remained over a kilometer away. Siobhan’s interest became sharper. Her two Celaran teammates chose a group of two targets on the flank of the larger flock.

  “Lee and Cynan can handle the initial approach. Caden, hang back and cover them,” Telisa ordered.

  Caden sent a nonverbal acknowledgment. He lowered his airspeed and let Lee zip toward the strange Celarans.

  “I have an idea about these Celarans,” Caden said while he waited.

  “Tell us,” Telisa said.

  “I think they come from another colony. They adapted themselves to a slightly different environment by making themselves larger and wider. They must have come back to visit the homeworld and found this... or maybe they’re searching for survivors?”

  “An interesting idea,” Telisa said. “Where are their ships? Their rescue equipment?”

  Caden did not answer.

  It occurred to Siobhan that their ships could be cloaked in space or on the surface of the planet, but she had no theory about the absence of equipment and supplies.

  “There are too many here for them all to be visitors,” Cynan said. “The population is in the millions in this starlit sky.”

  “But Lee said they wouldn’t have children in these circumstances. So they couldn’t have been born here,” Siobhan said.

  Lee’s marker came within 50 meters of the alien creatures and held the distance. An attendant advanced with Lee, obscured by the cloud. It rose slightly above the moisture and got a high-quality feed of the creatures. The wide Celarans soared majestically, peacefully, seldom changing course and proceeding without urgency.

  They’re happy doing what they’re doing. These creatures aren’t panicked or desperate.

  Siobhan saw the two wide Celarans glowing. The colors cycled too fast for her to sense any patterns.

  “Are they speaking?” Telisa asked.

  “Yes!” Lee said. “They’re talking about the wind.”

  “So they speak the same way you do. But when you left this planet, none of them existed?” Telisa pressed.

  “That’s right! They’re new leaves on the vine. I can understand them, but they do speak differently...”

  “How?” Siobhan asked.

  “They speak simply.”

  “Well, there’s nothing complex to talk about here. Maybe they live a more primitive life,” Siobhan suggested.

  “Perhaps it is so among the clouds,” Lee said. “Do you want me to talk to them?”

  Will Telisa dare to let Lee show herself? Surely we could protect her from those Celarans...

  “No. Release the collector bugs.”

  “Won’t they be terrified by those things showing up at this altitude? And hitting them?” Siobhan asked.

  “I hope they’ll find it curious, but nothing more,” Telisa said. “We only need a few cells. Then we can understand them better, discover their origins.”

  But we could also learn so much by talking to them. Surely Telisa will see that soon. We’ve lost a lot of people, but isn’t talking to Celarans relatively safe?

  Caden launched two collectors. The tiny machines whizzed off rapidly. Siobhan fidgeted uncomfortably as she watched them close, wishing she was up there flying with the team.

  The collectors made their pass. Each one zeroed in on an alien. The Celarans reacted with startling speed, splitting and dodging away, but the machines were faster. Siobhan could not follow exactly what happe
ned, but the targeted Celarans folded up and dove toward the ground. Siobhan’s breath caught in her throat. It was as if two light gauze kites suddenly turned to lead and plummeted. The collectors reported success.

  “Are they okay?”

  “They’re startled as if the predator struck from underleaf. But under the light of the star, they seem fine,” Lee said.

  “It was only a mild graze, just like before,” Telisa said.

  Siobhan saw that the two Celarans had pulled up from their dive, moving in different directions, using the cloud as cover.

  “Good job. Return to the Iridar,” Telisa said coldly.

  All three members of the aerial team sent back nonverbal acknowledgments and turned for home.

  ***

  When Telisa finally called the post-mission meeting, Siobhan was ready to face their leader’s wrath. Telisa arrived in the mess hall with Magnus at her side, looking all business. Magnus was unreadable. These were the undisputed leaders of the team. Siobhan missed Cilreth, who had also been a part of that group. In that moment, she felt bad for being impatient with Telisa for being so cautious: they had lost so many from the PIT team.

  It’s happening to me. I’m getting older and I’ve seen enough bad things happen that I’m losing my fearless streak. I promised myself that would never happen, but I see it now.

  Siobhan was actually about the same age as Telisa, but she had not been there on Thespera 2 when Jack and Thomas died. She had not gone through the terrors the others had faced on Shiny’s homeworld, or the battles with the UED.

  “So we’ve learned a bit about two groups of Celarans that still live here,” Telisa summarized. “Unfortunately none of them appear to be advanced enough to help us. Rather, the Space Force and our other Celaran friends will have to come rescue them.”

  Everyone absorbed that without comment.

  “What went wrong on our first mission?” Telisa asked.

  “We failed to remain hidden and ended up in an engagement,” Siobhan said. “However, I think it was the right thing to do, given there were innocents who could have been killed had we done nothing. It was a lone Destroyer.”

  “Three things,” Telisa replied firmly. “First, those Celarans have been avoiding the Destroyers here for a while now. They’re smarter than those war machines, and I bet they’ve learned a lot about avoiding them.”

  Siobhan and Caden nodded. Marcant and Magnus remained impassive.

  “Secondly, we didn’t know it was alone. I agree, however, that Destroyers we find around here probably will be remnants that are likely isolated since we have not detected any Quarus ships or bases here.”

  Telisa paused again. Siobhan waited for the last point.

  “Third, follow my orders unless you’re certain I’ve made a miscalculation, such as if you know something out in the field that I’m unaware of. I’m monitoring the attendant feeds, the map, and the channels. I’m making the best calls available to keep everyone safe, but all that means nothing if you won’t follow my lead. Siobhan, you could easily be KIA right now. That weapon could have struck you dead center and turned your torso to ash instead of your arm. The Destroyer must have been unable to lock on to you in the cloaking envelope, but you’re still left with only luck to protect you.”

  Siobhan knew Telisa was right. Yet she felt she had only acted to protect those poor Celarans.

  “Does anyone have any suggestions or training tweaks we should adopt while we consider our next mission?” Magnus asked.

  “Our weapons were not optimal for an encounter with Destroyers. We should have seen that coming,” Siobhan said.

  “Are you trying to pick a fight with her today?” Caden asked privately.

  Marcant almost said something then, but apparently, he decided to leave it alone. Siobhan suspected one of his AI friends had just told him to keep his mouth shut.

  “Our breakers saved the day,” Caden said. “But they can’t hit a target kilometers out like our projectile rifles can do.”

  Telisa nodded. “We’ll adjust our weapon selections. Magnus and Caden, at least, will have long-range projectile weapons on them. When we next deploy a team, we’ll have a more complete arsenal.”

  “What are the chances that the Destroyers here are also programmed to target Vovokans?” asked Marcant.

  “Well, that Destroyer did shoot at the attendants, but I assume you’re suggesting we make better use of the battle spheres,” Telisa said.

  “I hope you’ll consider it. Why toy around with dangerous Destroyer machines when we can utterly stomp them?”

  “The plan was to go unnoticed... but I suppose that has less viability than I had hoped. The Quarus have learned to find cloaked Celarans and designed their Destroyers accordingly. I guess we’ll deploy the battle spheres as backup from now on.”

  Telisa looked at Caden and Siobhan.

  “If you encounter Destroyers, draw them into the spheres’ line of fire. Put in some VR practice with that in mind.”

  “What are we doing next?” Marcant asked.

  “We’ll continue to search for information about those who left this place,” Telisa said. “If we can’t find any leads, we’ll have to try another system.”

  “It’s a sad thing to hide from these sap suckers,” Lee said.

  Siobhan followed her meaning.

  “I know,” Telisa assured Lee. “It seems like we’re not helping them, but we could only feed a handful. By coming here and scouting the situation, we not only open the way for more aid to come from the Space Force, we can also try and find the other factions to reunite your race. Trust me, our actions will benefit them, all of them.”

  “The starlight has only shown us those without joy,” Lee said. “I think maybe those who left the vines behind have not returned.”

  Siobhan was afraid Lee might be right.

  Chapter 5

  Magnus held Telisa in his sleep web. They hung naked in the middle of the room in a tangle of arms and legs. Telisa kept shifting her limbs the way she always did when she could not relax. Magnus knew her mind remained active, examining her problems over and over.

  “That was an unbelievably bad call to send the team out with only lasers and breakers,” Telisa said. “Of course there would be Destroyers left patrolling around, equipped to defeat Celaran stealth technology and harder to kill with lasers.”

  “I guess I failed to take your mind off your work,” Magnus said with faux hurt in his voice.

  “If I had made the obvious connections—”

  “Mistake made. Mistake corrected. Lesson learned,” Magnus said. “We’ve always carried a wide variety of weapons, and that’s the best choice out on the frontier and beyond. It serves everyone’s personal preferences, and it gives us diversity of firepower.”

  “I also should have had Siobhan and Caden on the same page about contacting the natives directly from the get-go.”

  Magnus breathed deeply.

  Damn. Now I’m thinking, too. So much for relaxation.

  “Marcant’s with us on staying out of contact, but the rest of the team wants to talk to these Celarans. Well, I guess I don’t know what Cynan thinks,” Magnus told her.

  “Our mission isn’t to save the Celarans here one by one,” she said. “We have to find other fragments of their civilization.”

  “But most of the Celarans fled the planet, right?”

  “Yes, they may have. I hoped to find scouts who had returned, or other installations with clues about where they may have gone.”

  “Trying to find those clues may be a tall order,” Magnus said. “We have a whole planet to search...”

  “But wouldn’t they have left messages about where they were going?”

  “Not if they were afraid the enemy might find the messages and pursue them.”

  “The Celarans are good at hiding. There could be a few advanced hideouts down there that the Destroyers never found... let’s take a week. If we don’t find anything by then, we should move on,”
she said.

  Magnus relaxed again. Telisa rested her head on his chest and he stroked her silky hair idly. He felt utterly content.

  A notification from his link interrupted his moment.

  Damn.

  “What is it?” she asked, sensing his tension.

  “A search report came in and got flagged by some filtering rules I set.”

  “Then we have a lead!” She slipped out of the web and started to put on her Veer suit.

  “Potentially,” he said lazily.

  He felt tired, but he knew host-body Telisa did not really need sleep, though she could attain it if she tried.

  He closed his eyes and focused on his PV. The planetary map showed Magnus everything they had found: flocks of the large, dull Celarans and the scattered oases of healthy vines where many Celaran survivors had gathered. He reviewed the list of interesting sites cataloged by the automated search so far. He found the report that had been flagged and studied it.

  “Electromagnetic anomaly. Probable large power source. No Celaran infrastructure detected. Unusual vegetation patterns present.”

  “I’m going to send attendants to investigate a site,” Magnus said.

  “Sounds good,” Telisa said. “I have some things of my own to check on.”

  She walked out of the room. Magnus dispatched a group of attendants to the site. They would take a couple of hours to arrive at normal speed.

  Just enough time for a nap.

  ***

  Magnus awakened to another link notification. He stretched in his sleep web. A ship’s service told him he was alone in the room. He accessed his PV without opening his eyes. He saw a report that told him his four-attendant team had arrived at his mystery site. He connected to the feed and started watching their progress.

  He saw the vines had grown in clearly artificial patterns. He saw an overall pyramidal shape with many oval extensions at various levels of a massive, healthy vine system. Large tunnels opened in the leaves at regular intervals. He struggled to make sense of it. The place had the feel of an ancient site of religious significance, not a modern structure.