by Ben Winston
“If you think about this, Commander, there can be no other conclusion,” Ariel said, then smiled. “Are you hungry?”
“Starved,” Tho’ren said as if grateful for the change of subject. “I’ve been looking forward to trying some of your Earth food.”
“Well, let’s just hope it doesn’t make you sick, that would be all we need!” She got him a plate of mild sausage gravy over biscuits, and two eggs; over-easy. She had already eaten or she would have joined him. As it was she checked their course, and made sure everything was proceeding the way it was supposed to.
The term ‘towing’ when applied to spacecraft is a bit misleading. The powerful, but short range tractor beam was really used only during course corrections, acceleration, and deceleration. At all other times, both craft simply ‘coasted’ having reached their desired speed.
Ariel checked their course, and the overall status of both ships, and took a few moments to admire the vista of space spread out in front of her. It was a view she felt that she would never tire of.
Once she felt she had given the Commander enough time to eat in peace, she returned to the galley. “Did you enjoy the meal?”
“Yes I did, that was excellent, thank you,” Tho’ren replied.
“Cole, can we move Commander Tho’ren up to the lounge so he can be more comfortable now? I would think sitting in here would drive him crazy,” Ariel asked her AI.
“The bones in his leg and arm are sufficiently knitted to support him for a brief time. However, I will lower the gravity in order to facilitate the transfer. I imagine trying to walk would hurt badly,” Cole replied.
“Thank you, Cole. I’ve had to walk with broken bones before and you are right, it does hurt badly. Besides, I think it might do our trainee here good to spend some time in zero-gee,” Tho’ren replied. “She does have to learn to function in such an environment.”
“As you wish, Commander. How long should I leave the gravity at null?”
“I don’t want to be cruel yet, so let’s only leave it that way for the day. You can restore it at bedtime,” Tho’ren said grinning.
Ariel grinned back as she slowly floated off the deck. “This should be interesting.”
“Oh, just wait until you need to use the toilet for the first time; I’m sure you’ll re-evaluate your estimate then!” Tho’ren said laughing.
“Well, I know our NASA Astronauts have to use a vacuum system, I assumed you would use a similar arrangement,” Ariel asked.
“Not exactly. Let’s just say I hope you don’t have pubic hair because you sure won’t after you use the thing,” Tho’ren said cryptically. He used his good arm to push himself off the bed he was on and floated toward the stairs to the upper deck. Ariel followed to assist him if she was needed. She was beginning to think he was a very exasperating man.
Chapter Seven
“I know I’ll probably learn the answer to this later on, but it’s been bothering me; I know Earth English is not the common language of the galaxy, so how is it that I can talk to Admiral Hs’ean? I know you had to learn my language, but she didn’t,” Ariel asked.
“It’s the neural implant. One of its functions is translation. I’d thought you’d have that figured out by now,” Tho’ren said.
“I actually thought it might be, but didn’t know for sure,” Ariel said and gently bit her lower lip. “How much trouble would I be in if I told my mother about us?”
Tho’ren lost his smile when he realized she wasn’t asking another lighthearted question. “I assume you are talking of the woman Dame Estelle loved?” He asked. When she nodded, he continued, thoughtfully. “Since you are not actually a citizen of an alliance member world, they can’t legally do anything to you. That doesn’t mean they wouldn’t.
“There are things you are unaware of, like the fact that, generally speaking, Guardians don’t have many friends on the Alliance Council only because of our choice of vocation. What we do is not very popular with the nobility and the business interests. We are here mostly because we feel a duty to the common citizen. Our very existence makes conducting ‘business’ more difficult and costly. We may be mandated by the founding Empire, but that by no means makes us immune from the dictates of the Council.
“However, it could be argued that the conditions of your birth allow for both of your parents to have full knowledge of your situation. Dame Estelle obviously knew about you, but Alexis Moran does not.
“There is no simple answer to your question, Ariel. The Council may not do anything to you or Alexis provided she swears to keep a secret, or they could order us to abandon Earth, and return you to Aldus Forward to answer charges of species' manipulation, the punishment for which is death. I suspect the answer to your question lies somewhere between those two extremes. Dame Estelle obviously didn’t believe it worth the risk; I suggest that you consider that when making this decision.”
“I kind of thought that might be the case, but I wanted your opinion before I made the decision. I do truly believe that Alex deserves to know; its a person’s right to know,” Ariel said.
Tho’ren smiled sadly. “I agree, but such decisions are not left up to me.”
Ariel floated for a time beside Tho’ren and just looked out the view port at the stars. “Commander, Tewney and Cole explained to me that the Council won’t let the military put recon buoys in star systems, but are we absolutely sure that applies to a system like this one? I mean this system is off limits to trading anyway, so the edict shouldn’t even apply here.”
Tho’ren didn’t answer right away, and when Ariel looked over at him, she saw he was thinking about what she said. “Trade agreements don’t exist here, and so it wouldn’t be a violation of or infringement on anyone’s rights,” He said thinking aloud now. “Oh, dear girl! Hs’ean isn’t going to know if she should kick you out an airlock or pin a medal on you! That is a fine point of law that even the Council would have to concede! I’ll make sure the Admiral knows this was your idea, too! Maybe it will get your pretty ass off the hook for saving me!”
“Well, I suppose I could get the remotes to build the buoys, but it would sure take a lot longer to get them in place without her help,” Ariel said.
“Oh, I don’t think getting her to help is going to be an issue once we put it to her like you suggested. Hell, I bet within a galactic month there will be a solid wall of the things all the way around the Golan sector. Command will even like this, unofficially of course,” Tho’ren grinned. “So now that you’ve made my week; how are you doing with zero-gravity?”
“It isn’t actually bad at all. The toilet was actually no problem; I do have to admit, I think I’m cleaner down there than I ever have been!” Ariel giggled.
Tho’ren laughed with her. “I did warn you!”
“Well, if you’ll excuse me, Commander, I think I’m going to go try to take a nap while in zero-gee. I’ve only gotten about five hours’ sleep out of the last forty-eight,” Ariel said when they stopped laughing.
“An excellent idea, Ariel. I could use a nap as well. Sleep well.”
Ariel smiled at him as pushed herself off to head back to her bunk. After she arrived in her room, she smiled, “Cole, I forgot to authorize it, but please allow the Commander access to custodial services aboard. Also please give him open access to talk to his ship, as well as make any communications he may want.”
“Thank you, Ariel. That makes things easier. I must say, I am amazed at the rate you are learning. This rescue operation has to have helped you a great deal. I think perhaps I will mention this to Commander Tho’ren when he makes his evaluation of this incident,” Cole said.
“Thank you, Cole. Perhaps Admiral Hs’ean will take that into consideration when she reprimands me for this,” Ariel said.
“If there is a reprimand. Considering the amount of information we are gleaning from this, it is hard to see how you were in error by disobeying,” Cole replied.
“Well, whatever happens will happen. I need a nap, my brai
n is getting sluggish.”
“Cole, is Ariel asleep yet?”
“Yes Commander, she is.”
“Excellent, please make sure she doesn’t wake and connect me to Admiral Hs’ean aboard the Divine Light,” Tho’ren asked.
“Stand-by Commander.”
“Tho’ren! It’s good to see you’re well. I take it the Little Princess isn’t a spoiled little brat like I thought she would be.”
“Hs’ean, you have no idea how wrong you are. She has no idea who she really is. Estelle didn’t raise her. If you continue to underestimate her, she is going to take you by surprise,” Tho’ren said.
“Really? How so?” The older woman asked.
“Well, for one thing, she’s found proof that the slavers have a superior cloaking generator, and she found a loop hole in the council’s edict that will allow us to use those recon buoys the bright boys developed. On top of all of that, she saved my ass. I wouldn’t have lasted until you got here, her quick response saved my life.”
“Okay Tho’ren, I’ll refrain from ripping her a new ass for ignoring my orders. Start at the beginning and tell me what happened,” Hs’ean asked.
Tho’ren grinned and told his friend everything Ariel had done since she left the planet of her birth. Cole supplied the relevant supporting data when asked. The Admiral was infuriated when Tho’ren presented her with the cloaking device evidence Ariel had discovered. Granted, the evidence was circumstantial, but that hardly mattered to Hs’ean.
When Tho’ren got to the part about being able to use the recon buoys in systems that were not part of the trade alliance, she roared in laughter. The use of the buoys is not only be legal, but it would also catch the trade alliance and the slavers red-handed in unauthorized systems. That was something she had been trying to do for years.
When Cole added that he thought Ariel had been gaining knowledge at an accelerated pace because of the rescue mission, Tho’ren had to agree with his evaluation. “She can think on her feet, and improvise on the fly. She may not be totally by the book, but she does get the job done. I wish we had more like her instead of the spoiled assholes we get stuck with.”
Cole interrupted. “Excuse me Admiral, Commander, but there is one other thing that is helping her; As well as is possible, I believe Ariel is a level four electronic telepath. She has full read and write authority in my databases. I don’t know if she has the ability to reprogram my core functions, but data security is all but academic to her.”
“A what!” Hs’ean yelled. “There has never been such a thing! She can actually read your data cores?”
“Yes Ma’am. However, she hasn’t used the ability that much; I’d like to think she feels it's an invasion of my privacy. She has a remarkable sense of ethics,” Cole reported.
“That changes the whole fucking picture!” Hs’ean said. “I’ll have to speak to the Emperor as soon as possible. This whole thing could blow up in our faces, at least you two feel she’s a good person, and will make a great Guardian.
“It is unfortunate that the mutation only seems to show up in the nobility; most of those brats are worse than useless. Maybe we can keep Ariel away from the rest of our peers long enough to show her what true Guardians should be, so she can try to do something about it if she retires and takes her station. I’ve already had three messages from the Emperor asking about his great-granddaughter. I’m still of two minds about this little experiment of Estelle’s. I’m actually surprised the Emperor allowed it.”
“Well, so far the AI are doing a good job of covering her true rank, but if she ever figures out the truth – a distinct possibility if she has unlimited access to Cole’s data core - I just hope she’ll give us a chance to explain before she orders us thrown out the airlock,” Tho’ren said.
“That doesn’t sound like the girl you spent the last hour telling me about, Renny. How about it, Cole, do you think she will be that upset if she learns the truth?” Hs’ean asked.
“Admiral, I honestly don’t think so; I do know she suspects something, so it might be best if you considered letting her know the truth. I don’t think it’ll bias her against us, as long as we are always as honest as we can be with her. She values honesty very highly and has a strong sense of honor. Currently, she believes that the Guardians are still the elite branch of military that we once were. She has no idea what we have become,” Cole replied. “I don’t look forward to the day she finds out either.”
“I see,” Hs’ean said thoughtfully. “Renny; try to get to know her, I’ll leave it up to you how much information to give her and when. Just keep me informed what you tell her so I don’t blow it again. For now, let’s try to keep her exposure to us limited to you, and the occasional contacts with me. Sorry Cole, but you’re going to have to wait awhile for the latest upgrades. I’ll speak to the Emperor, discretely of course, and let him know what’s going on, so our butts are covered.”
“Let’s just hope that the Kragan continues to hold off. If they decided to invade now...” Tho’ren said.
“I agree. I’ll order the fleet to return to Indig Sector, but the Divine Light will proceed to Earth to begin deployment of the buoys. It was Ariel that figured this out; her system should be the first protected. I would prefer if she didn’t know we were in-system, but if she finds out, have her call me. I’ll just tell her the truth at that point,” Hs’ean said. “In the meantime, train her well, Renny. If we’re going to survive what’s coming, it’ll be people like her that’ll make it possible.”
“Thank you, Hs’ean. Give my love to Tal’ba will you?” Tho’ren asked.
“Nope, you can give it to her yourself when we get there. Hopefully, she’ll get pregnant this time. She’s still pissed off that you didn’t take her with you on this mission. She insists that you wanted to get a cute little Princess all alone. I told her she was imagining things. I didn’t lie to her did I?” Hs’ean asked, smiling.
“No, you didn’t lie, though Ariel is beautiful, Tal’ba owns my heart. Oh, one more thing; Ariel feels that Alexis Moran should know the truth. She wants to bring her in on the secret,” Tho’ren said.
“That will piss off a whole bunch of people we don’t want pissed off. However, I’ll mention it when I speak to the Emperor. Has Ariel decided if she’ll tell her yet?”
“No, I advised her to consider the possible reasons that Estelle hadn’t told Alex. She said she’d think about it. Either way, we are still forty hours from Earth’s moon; you should be arriving shortly after that, so we can contain the situation if it should become necessary,” Tho’ren said. “I doubt anything exciting will happen between now and then.”
Hs’ean raised an eyebrow. “Forty hours trapped in a scout vessel with a beautiful girl, and you don’t think anything exciting will happen? Are you losing your touch?” She teased.
“No, I just don’t think Ariel is my type, besides, I really don’t want to bed the Heir Presumptive of the whole bloody galaxy on an impulse. That kind of thing can do more than end a career!” Tho’ren chuckled.
Hs’ean laughed as well and shook her head. “Get well soon, you pirate. Divine Light out.”
“We are approaching the moon, Ariel,” Cole reported.
“Scan for the highest concentration of minerals. Let’s try to assist the remotes as much as we can,” Ariel said.
“There are several places that will do nicely. There is a place near the ‘north pole’ that will do very nicely, there is plenty of terrain to hide from Earth based telescopes, and we should still have contact with Tewney and Commander Tho’ren,” Cole reported.
During the long journey from Mars to Earth, Tho’ren and Ariel had gotten to know each other better. Tho’ren hadn’t told her what he had discussed with Hs’ean yet, but he was reasonably sure she wouldn’t get too mad about it – provided she was told soon.
“That sounds like a good spot, Ariel. Please put us down there,” Tho’ren replied from the observation lounge. When Tho’ren said he would be staying with T
ewney during the last of her repairs, something in his voice told Ariel not to argue with him. She put herself and Cole in the same situation, and she would have been reluctant to leave him as well. There was a bond forming between herself and Cole. She rightly concluded that part of using the neural interface was an almost instinctual trust of the AI. She knew him, and most likely Tho’ren, were withholding information from her, but in Cole’s case, she knew he had directives that prevented him from telling her. She could tell that both wanted to tell her, but couldn’t. She could understand that, even accept it... For now.
“Okay Cole, you heard the man, let’s set his girl down very gently now,” Ariel softly teased.
Tho’ren had told her she was off the hook with Hs’ean. He said that once he explained the circumstances and the situation, the Admiral changed her tune completely.
Once Tewney was down, Ariel landed Cole beside her. By the time she had shut everything down, Tho’ren had started to put his suit on. There really wasn’t that much left to repair before Tewney could finish the journey to the planet, but the parts needed had been too big to bring along. The starboard side engine was a complete write off and the port side engine was barely hanging on. The hyperspace engine was still caved in and would need at least partial rebuilding before it could be tested. Two or three more days, according to Tewney and Cole, and the ship should be ready to fly again. There wasn’t much for Ariel and Cole to help with, so they left most of the remotes with the stranded pair, and headed for home.
During the flight back, Ariel had called Alex to let her know things were looking up, and she should be heading back soon. Alex was happy to hear from Ariel, that much was clear, but Ariel thought she could hear something else in her voice as well. She shrugged it off as an effect of being in space this long and not being used to it.
Ariel had Cole take them into the hanger while she changed into her ‘street clothes.' “Cole, how did Dame Estelle cover her tracks when she went off planet? For example, the car I drove will only show I went a few miles instead of the hundreds of miles everyone thinks I drove, there won’t be any hotel receipts or credit card charges or any trace I ever left the property.”
