Cast of Nova

by S J McLaughlin

Kendal left and found his room.

  Every floor creaked and the lock took a few tries to open. The room was bigger than what he had on the Morana, but it had a lingering smell of rot to it. Near the window, mold had already started to eat at the wooden panels, and the bed had new sheets that probably needed replacing often.

  He striped and put his uniform on the desk, then laid down in bed. Hard night was falling and the room practically black when he shut the lights.

  He was tired enough to fall asleep as soon as he hit the bed.

  In his dreams, he thought of Tearly and the Morana. Images of Kendal as admiral, him as captain, and him as a criminal. All the ways his life could have led all vanished and replaced with what had actually happened.

  And you’ll be right there, Nova had told him. Kendal’s eyes opened and his dream shattered.

  A strange calmness flowed over as he sat up and saw that it was high noon. He was covered in sweat, mostly from the humid air. Nau Cedik was a strangely cold planet despite how close to the sun it was.

  He put on his uniform, making sure it was presentable, then went back outside. There were more civilians than the day before. Most of the marines were stationed in groups, making small talk with each other.

  It was raining again, but not as bad as last night.

  His communicator went off. Not a message, but a call. To Kendal’s dismay, he noticed five missed calls from that same number. It was the admiral.

  Kendal walked into an alley between two houses to block out the wind, then answered the call.

  “Lieutenant Jack Kendal speaking,” he said, trying to hide the tiredness from his voice.

  “Have you seen her? Tearly said, his voice small and compressed over the tiny speaker. Kendal had a feeling this call wasn’t private, instead being played for the entire bridge to hear.

  “Seen who?”

  “Nova Ross,” Tearly said. “Have you seen her?

  “How could I have seen her?”

  “You’re on Nau Cedik. She said the plan was being launched today, in Benith Town. It’s not impossible she could have come to you.”

  “If Nova was here, you would know about it,” Kendal said. “She wouldn’t just wander into town to come see me. She’d kill every last person here and try to do whatever it is she’s planning on doing.”

  There was a pause where Kendal heard nothing but static, then a sudden voice. Calm, yet cold. “You’d better watch your tone with me, lieutenant.”

  Kendal knew to apologize. He went too far and had to back down to save what little respect he had left, but he couldn’t make himself do it. He was too tired and too wet and too distraught to back down.

  “Or what?” Kendal said. “Or what? What? What will you do? Humiliate me even more? Shuffle me down to the engine room where I can be the first Lieutenant to degrease an engine?”

  He expected a retort. Expected Tearly to argue back. Expect the admiral to use his reasoning and logic to put Kendal down and make him look like an uneducated child in front of the highest-ranking officers on the Morana.

  Instead, all Kendal got was, “you disappointed me,” and the call ended.

  He clenched his communicator hard enough to feel it cracking, but he stopped before it broke. He switched it off and put it back on his belt.

  This is a mess, he said and slumped down against the alley wall. He was out of breath and soaked from the collar up.

  He wandered out into the street, still buzzing from stress as he eyed all the buildings around him. Now was as good a time as any to get a drink.

  The pub was a few houses down from the inn. A two-story building with a fabric awning over the front porch and what seemed to be like motorbikes with teethed wheels lined up front. It looked like the owners lived upstairs.

  The inside was heated. The dry, wood-smoked air felt nice compared to outside. There were only a dozen people inside. Most looked young, but so did everyone in Benith Town. They all sat in wooden chairs and huddled around tables as they drank and played games. Most were card games, but a few chess boards were out as well which caught Kendal’s interest for a moment.

  It was a small but intimate place where people sat close and weren’t afraid to touch and push. Kendal was used to the more distant relationships people had back on the Morana, where the cafeteria would have an empty seat in between each person.

  People were staring because of his uniform. Not often they saw Union around here. He sat at the bar, not wanting to face a room of lingering eyes. Even though the scarcity of free seats forced him to sit next to someone, he could ignore her easily enough.

  He snapped his fingers to get the bartender’s attention. He knew it was rude to snap at him, but Kendal was up for being rude at the moment. “Something strong,” Kendal said, then added, “are Union notes fine here?”

  He was fine using credit for the inn, but all transactions were logged by the Union, and drinking on the job was generally frowned upon.

  “They’ll be worth less,” the bartender said, “but I’ll take ‘em.”

  Kendal took a couple of notes from his pocket and put them on the counter. If those aren’t enough, Kendal thought, then I’ll just go find somewhere else. If there is anywhere else in this town.

  The bartender held a wooden cup under the tap from one of the barrels behind the bar and poured into it. He set the drink on the bar in front of Kendal. A tall, fat glass filled with an uneven substance. Barley, perhaps? Kendal wasn’t sure, but it was strong and it chilled his nerve.

  “Hey.”

  Kendal sat up straight and looked around.

  He was sure the voice was directed at him, but there was nobody behind him. He looked to his side and saw the girl he’d sat next to looking straight at him. She had this half-smile on her face and was leaning against the counter and a bit towards him. Her face was bright and wide eyed, but also covered in layers of sweat. She had scraggly black hair that looked like it’d never been cut a day in her life, and her clothes were faded and well-worn. A thin black jacket with the front unzipped and an orange cotton shirt underneath which hugged her neck like a collar. The jacket couldn’t have been very warm, especially once it was soaked with rain. He wondered why she wore it instead of a leather coat like the other locals.

  There were a few empty cups in front of her.

  “You don’t look like you’re from around here,” she said. Her voice was soft, but with an edge to it.

  “I’m here on Union business.”

  “Is that business to get fuckin’ drunk?” she said, giving off a smile which showed that she was missing a couple teeth at the top. Her words were slurring at their tails. “Cause if that’s the case, how do I gets to be an officer?”

  Something about her made him smile. He turned in his seat to face her, leaning against the bar and holding his drink. “I’m not normally drunk on the job. I just don’t have much else to do at the moment. But I’m sure there’s some kind of Union recruitment facility on this place.”

  “Maybe in The Plaza, about a thousand miles south, but sure as hell not here.” She was good at hiding her missing teeth when talking. They only showed when she smiled. “What are you all people doing here anyway? This here’s the last place I’d expect the Union to show up in.”

  “Responding on a threat.”

  She laughed into her hand. “Why would anyone attack such a piss-poor planet?”

  “We’re not sure,” he said, feeling like he was lying to her. He knew plenty about what was going on, but he still wasn’t sure why Nova would attack a place like this. “If a threat has been made against a Union planet, then we need to protect it regardless of how few citizens, or valuable resources, it has.”

  “That sounds stupid,” she said. “But if they wanna attack the place that’s fine for me. Union planning on evacuating everyone? Maybe relocate us to someplace less shit?”

  He laughed. “No such plans. We think we can handle it.”

  “I’m sure that’s what ol’ Dek-Norman said
before the Union blew ‘em out of the sky!”

  Kendal avoided the remark and said, “If you hate the place so much, why not just leave?”

  “Easy for you to say,” she said. “Bet you union folk’s all get to go wherever you want.”

  “We only go where they tell us.”

  “They tell you go to places like this often?” she said. “Helping us poor backwater planets in trouble?”

  “I just keep to my ship,” Kendal said. “Don’t go planetside much.”

  She instantly perked up. “Your ship? You a captain?”

  “Lieutenant,” he said. “I’m a lieutenant.”

  “And they don’t get ships?”

  “Sometimes,” Kendal said. “Only the small ones.”

  “Seems confusing,” she said and covered her mouth with her hand to chuckle. “Second thought, maybe I’ll steer right clear of all that there Union mess.”

  Kendal finished the last of his drink and saw little chunks of barley and yeast stuck to the bottom of the glass.

  She brushed her hair from her face and tried to tuck it behind her ear, but it only slumped back down. “Name’s Mira,” she said.

  “Lieutenant Kendal.” He offered a handshake, but she didn’t take it.

  “Well, lieutenant, what you think of our little town so far?”

  “It’s small,” he said. “And the gravity’s too strong for what I’m comfortable with.”

  “I thought it’d be the rain that’d be botherin’ you the most.”

  “Rain I can handle. Not having a space-port bothers me. Union ships all gotta land in the marsh and that makes it hard to get back off the ground. I’ve only seen one non-Union ship since I’ve been here and that’s kind of claustrophobic for me.”

  “Non-Union ship?” Mira asked, leaning in close with eyes wide and a smile on her lips.

  “Yeah,” Kendal said. “It’s out in South Port, between some houses.”

  Mira chugged the last of her drink and pushed it alongside the other empty cups. Her attention shifted completely away from Kendal, and she dropped a few coppers on the table beside her drinks and was already up and leaving.

  “Where you going?” Kendal asked.

  She turned around and smiled. “Got a friend to see that I ain’t seen in far too long.”

  Chapter 5

  Mira owned an older model grounder. A clawed bike with two teethed wheels that dug into any surface. She climbed on to it and kicked the throttle, speeding away from the pub and winding down the road towards South Port.

  The marsh between was littered with ships that had fallen from the sky, as well as tanks, large weapons, and the few remnants of armor that stayed where the body rotted away from the marsh. Only one battle was ever fought in Benith Town, but it was the largest battle in the First War. Both sides were caught in a month-long skirmish that left the town in ruin. Once the Union had won the war, the survivors that remained in Benith Station fled to the supply camp to set up homes in the wake of the war. The supply camp became South Port, and Benith Station was later rebuilt in a small town. Even though Nau Cedik had a way of rotting everything that stood in place too long, Mira could still see the faint remnants of death that lingered.

  She lived in a graveyard. And though the building where her mother had died was long since destroyed, she still knew the exact place where her body had fallen. Where Mira had knelt down and hugged her mother’s corpse, eyes burning from the smoke, and the jacket she’d been given hanging loose off her arms.

  She didn’t need to take the dirt path with her grounder. It was the same distance either way, but the path winded and twisted, adding unnecessary time to her travel. The grounder rode over marsh like it was a dirt road. Water spit up the wheels and the wind threw her hair back.

  The grounder jolted as she went from marsh to dirt, slowing down into South Port and parking against the first house on the edge of town. She shut the grounder down and took the key with her.

  Her hair was a mess from the wind, knotted and soaked from driving in the damp weather, but she never minded her hair being a mess.

  South Port had more people than Benith Town, but less commerce. All apartment buildings, most half-empty. A flat plain with no farms or cattle or excitement.

  She sighed, seeing more Union marines stationed here than in Benith Town.

  He wasn’t kidding about responding to threats, Mira thought as she walked down the street.

  She knew they were harmless, but couldn’t help but tense up. A strange mental struggle clouded her thoughts as she brushed a few feet beside one. They weren’t the same men that killed her mother, yet they were from the same army. Logically, she knew they weren’t to blame, but emotionally she hated them.

  All of that melted when she spotted Dess’s home. A metal structure forty feet high with its length four times longer than its height. The front was a pointed bow, while the back half was a fat cylinder, like the barrel of a gun, with the back pointed into a thruster. On the sides of the cylinder were two smaller jets that pivoted whenever it took off or landed.

  It was a spaceship, but Dess hated that name. “You don’t live in a ship,” he’d say. “It’s a home just as much any home you have and you wouldn’t call what you have a ship.”

  It stood out from the short wooden houses around it, but the town was big enough it didn’t get in the way of anything. No one complained about Dess parking it there.

  Mira looked up the height of it. It was tall enough to cast a shadow over her and block out the wind. The door was halfway up the ship on the bow section. The only way up was shaky ladder riveted to the hull that Mira never fully trusted.

  She took a breath, then gripped the ladder’s rungs tight and hoisted herself up. It rattled and swayed with her movements, making Mira’s stomach drop. She hurried up, making sure not to look down the whole way.

  Atop was a foot-wide ledge in front of the door with barely enough room for Mira to stand. She shuffled over to the door and knocked.

  Not a sound.

  Mira knocked harder, then put her ear to the door to listen for movement.

  Still nothing.

  “Dammit,” she said. The ship was too soundproof for its own good. She gave up knocking and started kicking the door. The metal rang with each impact, and the vibrations were enough to rattle the ledge she stood on.

  The door opened, and Mira fell forward from the swing of a kick.

  “Fucking watch ‘er!” Dess said, catching Mira before she fell.

  He pushed her off, but Mira jumped right back and hugged him. She couldn’t wrap her arms all the way around him, and he smelled of oils and sweat, but she was too happy to see him to care. “You need a better porch,” Mira said.

  “If you knocked like a normal goddamn human being then that wouldn’t be a problem,” Dess said. He rolled his shoulder with a loud pop, and half-rolled his eyes. “What brings you here?”

  “Can’t I see a friend?” she said and leaned against the door once it closed.

  “You wanna know if I have anything for you,” Dess said. “Figures.”

  “Can’t build stuff without parts,” she said. “And if I can’t build stuff then I can’t sell nothing and I’ll starve and that ain’t such a good thing.”

  “Don’t want that,” Dess said and told her to follow. She’d known Dess for nine years, always rushing to see him when she knew his ship was in town. He stood more than a foot taller than her, and had to be at least twenty years older from what Mira could tell by looking at him. His hair was normally cut short, but he’d let it go lately. He also had this long brown jacket that went down to his knees that Mira really liked.

  He took her around the corner from the entryway to the command room. A small and square room with metal steps leading up to the controls and a roof that angled down near the front. At the front, above the console, was three monitors built to look like windows. They were blacked out at the moment. Everything on the ship was metal and pristine. It felt like someth
ing from a story. A spaceship unlike the ones she’d seen in her youth. Not built for war, but built as a home. It made Mira smile to see it.

  Dess grabbed a small satchel from under the console and tossed it to her. Mira caught it, and was surprised by how light it was.

  “Seems awful small,” Mira said, shaking it a bit.

  “That’s cause it is small,” Dess said. “But it’s expensive. Got it from a dealer back on U4, said it wasn’t working right and the repair costs would be too much. He knows I’m always lookin’ for junk and the what not and he gave it to me.”

  Mira clipped the satchel to her belt. “Thanks,” she said.

  Dess shrugged. “How’s it outside?”

  “Haven’t been out?”

  “Not yet,” he said. “Had to catch a bit of sleep. Been dealing with the Union the past few days, you know how it is.”

  “I suppose,” Mira said. “It’s raining out.”

  “Again?”

  “It’s been raining since you left, Dess.”

  “Then I might just stay in a little while longer,” he said. “You know, you could offer up some payment on those parts.”

  “I thought the whole point of ‘em was so I could sell ‘em. Paying for the parts don’t really add up in my head.”

  Dess rolled his eyes. “I’m tryin’ to get you to fix somethin’ on my ship.”

  “Alright,” Mira said. “Should be no problem. What’s wrong with ‘er?”

  “One of the indicators in the common room. Somethin’ to do with the system, but I dunno what.”

  “Show me?” Mira said.

  Dess seemed to hesitate before letting her go to the common room. She’d only ever been in the entryway and the command room before. The ship was massive on the outside and she could only image how it must have looked.

  She was shaking as they walked past the front door and down the hall. There were no lights in the hall, and Dess had to tell her to watch her step as they climbed over the foot-high bulkhead in the dark. The hall led to the common room. As tall as a two-story house, with bright lights up top and a balcony that wrapped the second level like a ring.