Rise of the Valkrethi

by Warwick Gibson

  “Must be time to call it a night,” she said, feigning yawning and winking at Sallyanne. “Andre’s a real old tart. If I don’t get him home at a respectable time there’s always trouble. A couple of drinks and some dancing and he’s anybody’s.”

  The others roared with laughter. Sallyanne nudged Roberto.

  “Can’t say I can argue with that, Jens,” she said, hoping it wasn’t too obvious she wanted to whisk Roberto off somewhere private herself.

  But Roberto didn’t respond. She looked up, and saw him looking intently at Celia.

  “That’s what you need,” he said suddenly, stepping over to stand face to face with her. “I know you better than anybody, and you can’t keep denying yourself a life, the way you do.”

  Celia blushed, and tried to turn her head away, but he lifted his hand and guided her head back to face him.

  “I think I’ll head back to my rooms,” she said at last, “It’s, ah, been quite a night.”

  “Oh, to hell with it,” said Roberto. “If you won’t find someone special on your own, you’ll just have to put up with me.” Then he bent his head down to hers and kissed her firmly.

  The others stood stunned. Sallyanne looked furious. Jeneen turned to Andre and muttered, “what? When did this happen?” but he just shrugged his shoulders.

  Sallyanne found her voice at last. “Oh great,” she stormed, “I light his fire and you reap the rewards!”

  She stormed across the floor toward the entrance with murder written on her face. Celia broke free of Roberto’s grasp. She was flushed and out of breath.

  “I thought you were my friend!’ she said, pushing him away from her.

  “I am,” he replied, “which is why I’m doing this,” and he drew her back to him, despite her protestations, and kissed her again.

  This time Celia broke free and took a big step backwards.

  “Give me some space,” she gasped, “give me some . . . time to think,” and she whirled around and headed for the servery behind the supper table, where she was sure she could find a way back to her room.

  “You okay, brother?” said Andre, putting his hand on Roberto’s shoulder.

  Roberto looked sheepish. “Um, I just, well, I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time.”

  “Well, you sure made an impression!” said Jeneen, half amused and half worried for him.

  Now Roberto looked worried as well.

  “Oh, you didn’t make it worse,” said Jeneen. “Knowing old iron britches like I do, I think that might have been the only way to get through to her.”

  Roberto looked more reassured at that. Celia and Jeneen had been like mother and daughter since the research team had formed, and particularly after Jeneen’s life-threatening scare with the Rothii mind-enhancing technology. If anyone could read Celia, it was Jeneen.

  Over by the entrance to the facsimile ‘barn’ Sallyanne was slowing down her walking speed. It wasn’t that she wished her work colleagues ill, it was just such effing and blinding bad timing. Ah, dammit, she would apologise to them all tomorrow. Right now she just wanted the evening to be over.

  “May I?” said a voice at her elbow, and she turned with a start to see the dark Lothario who had always made her feel so . . . out of control.

  She hesitated. She didn’t particularly want to dance with this man. Any entanglement with him felt like it would be emotionally dangerous, but she didn’t want to leave right now either.

  She was still feeling betrayed by a woman she had always trusted. It wouldn’t look good to the others if she left, either. Besides, did she really want to return to her bare, silent sleeping quarters?

  “Thank you, that would be nice,” she said, putting as much formality and distance into the words as she could. She certainly had no intention of leading him on. One dance, some more of that lovely desert at the supper table – and maybe a nightcap – and she would turn in for a good night’s sleep.

  It was getting late in the evening, and the slower dances had started. She found she was enjoying herself, despite her resistance to her partner. She had to stop her head from drifting down onto his shoulder.

  Good thing it’s only one dance, she thought, bolstering her feelings of independence. Then the music ended with a stately one – one – two step, and he spun her round and caught her again. Before she could quite recover, his hand was behind her back and she was being dipped. He held her like that forever it seemed, her overalls pulling down over the curves of her body.

  Oh God, I hope I don’t pop out, she thought desperately, and then she was standing upright. She was quite dazed, and as he took her arm to lead her off the dance floor she stumbled. A peculiar lethargy had settled over her legs, and she thought how embarrassing it would be if he had to carry her off the floor.

  “Can I get you anything, Miss Montoya?” he asked, and she was surprised to learn he knew her name. She certainly hadn’t offered it.

  “It’s Ms,” she said primly, “and I may call you?”

  “Wayfarer,” he replied evenly. “Eden Wayfarer.”

  He guided her to a seat.

  “How did you know my name?” she asked, when they were settled.

  “I asked who you were on the day you first arrived at Prometheus,” he replied evenly. “You have a most striking beauty, and, as I later discovered, you also have a keen intelligence. What man would not ask for your name?”

  Smooth bastard, said Sallyanne to herself, feeling pleased all the same.

  “And I’m sure there have been many women who came to Prometheus that you have asked for the names of,” she said sharply. She had better nip this in the bud right now.

  “No,” he replied simply. “None. I have been waiting to meet with you, when the time is right.”

  She just stared, unable to believe what he was telling her, but she found no guile in his clear, brown eyes.

  “Many womans ask to talk to me,” he began, then stopped. “No, ‘women’ is it not? I am still learning the, er, mother language is it not?”

  “Univoc,” she replied. The pidgin EuroAsian language that had been reconstructed into the world language of the Post Milieu era, ever since Earth had joined the other planets with starship capability in the Spiral Arm.

  “Yes, Univoc,” he replied.

  “But I feel no connection to these women,” he resumed, “so I discourage their asking.”

  So that was why he had a reputation for talking in grunts, she realised, and probably why he seemed obsessed with his work. He must have come from somewhere quite backward. Everything here would be so new to him.

  The Human personnel used the linguist earpieces when they were working with the Mersa, but it was nice to discard them when they spoke to each other. She could see why he wanted to learn the language the other Humans used.

  He must have worked hard, or been naturally brilliant, to have made it to Prometheus, she thought in admiration. She felt ashamed of her first assessment of him, and a flood of feelings for him welled up once the need to protect herself melted away.

  Why, he was like a big, cuddly puppy, who needed looking after.

  “Perhaps it is time to go,” he said gently, looking carefully into her eyes.

  “Mmmm?” she replied, thinking perhaps he meant to escort her to the supper table once again.

  “In my village, when the girls look like you do, it is time to go. Er, to the, the, sleeping place,” he finished awkwardly.

  Sallyanne blushed a deep red. She was an open book to him. She stood up as he did, and then found herself collapsing gently against him. Damn legs were playing up again. But she didn’t pull away, the feel of him against her was too delicious.

  “Perhaps you’re right,” she said at last, discovering her voice had somehow developed a husky quality to it.

  She wasn’t sure what he was right about, but it felt natural to let him take the lead, whatever it was. She had been her own boss for too long. The great world authority on off world civilisations. It felt go
od to let someone else take the lead – no, it felt good to let Eden take the lead, she corrected herself.

  He put his arm around her, and they walked toward the entrance to the good ol’ ‘barn’. They walked slowly, as if they had all the time in the world to discover each other.

  CHAPTER 16

  ________________

  Sallyanne did apologise, late the next day, and it was accepted with a shrug. She was an honorary member of the research team, and there had been worse. No one asked her where she had disappeared to with the star drive technician. They were all mature enough to give something that new some space.

  Then the research team were isolated from the rest of Prometheus for more training in the Valkrethi. Sallyanne was glad she’d made peace with the research team before they disappeared, but at least their absence gave her more time for her new relationship with Eden Wayfarer.

  In the beginning she worried about where the relationship was headed. Neither of them had much in the way of spare time, but his attention to her never wavered. Slowly she began to relax and trust his feelings for her.

  Celia, on the other hand, couldn’t handle the conflict between her sense of loyalty to her work, and the stirring of new feelings for Roberto.

  When the research team returned from training, she clamped down on her emotional state, and acted as if nothing had happened between them. Roberto found her denials intensely frustrating, and became more and more sullen. It came to a head at a weekly meeting of the research team.

  “Tell me why the roster’s been changed!” said Roberto angrily. “You and I have always done the inventories check together, it gives us a chance to look at new technologies, and decide whether it’s time to replace any of our standard equipment.”

  “Jeneen and I can do just as good a job,” said Celia defensively. “It’s not important who does it.”

  “That’s not the point,” said Roberto, “I want to know why I’m being demoted. Don’t you trust me to do the job properly?”

  “You have been hard on him lately,” said Andre, in support of Roberto, “and I can’t see that he’s done anything wrong.”

  “Oh, nothing wrong, huh,” she exploded. “Getting drunk and making an idiot of himself in a public place is hardly nothing!”

  “I was not drunk!” said Roberto, raising his voice over hers. “I drank the barn punch most of the night, and that was non-alcoholic.

  “Besides,” he said, lowering his voice, “I did not make a spectacle of myself. I did the one thing in my life I can truly be proud of.”

  Celia went to say something, and then her voice caught. She stood for a moment, halfway between tears and anger, then walked out of the room.

  Jeneen came and put her hand on Roberto’s shoulder.

  “I think this is one of those times when the truth doesn’t actually help, Robbie. Still, that was a very noble sentiment, and it says a lot about you.”

  Celia stormed back in, upset with herself for losing control of her emotions.

  “I run this department, and you had all better get used to it!” she said angrily. “I say who does what, and when they do it. If you don’t want to do things my way, then Finch can find you a job in another department!”

  Jeneen rolled her eyes, and shook her head. Andre stepped forward and took a deep breath.

  “No, you don’t run this department, Celia,” he said evenly. “We’ve always been a team and we like the way you lead us, but this time you’ve let your personal demands get in the way of the team, and that’s not good enough.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” he continued, meeting Celia’s gaze head on. “I’m the old fart here, and that gives me the right to knock heads together.” He paused, then made his point.

  “Now both of you cool down, and show some restraint!

  “Roberto, let Jeneen do the inventories, okay?”

  Roberto nodded.

  “Celia, you get your house in order, and you do it now! That will mean talking to Roberto about what’s bothering you. Is that clear!”

  Celia stood for a long time, clenching and unclenching her hands, trying to work out her priorities. At last she nodded.

  “Good,” said Andre, “now let’s get back to work. When the lunch break arrives I want everyone in the café, and I want us all talking civilly to each other, got it!”

  They all nodded.

  No one had anything else to add, and they slowly drifted off in different directions.

  Jeneen looked at Andre with new eyes.

  “I didn’t know you could do that,” she said wonderingly, as they walked out of the room. “I thought you were an easy-going guy from the top of your funny hairdo to the last toe on your squat little feet.”

  It was Andre’s turn to cuff her across the back of the head.

  “So did I,” he said quietly, “and I hope I never have to do that again. I’m going to be a nervous wreck for the rest of the day.”

  “There, there,” cooed Jeneen, “muffin buns knows how to make it all better.”

  Andre laughed out loud. She really was the best thing to ever happen to him.

  The next day it was back to the training schedule for the Valkrethi. The schedule had recently been stepped up a notch, and they were now pushing the limits of what the huge, sophisticated machines could do.

  The research team assembled once more in the cavern under Prometheus. They identified themselves at the heel of their giant lookalikes, and climbed the slim ladders to the rider’s position.

  “Listen up, people!” said Cagill, once the two squadrons of pilots and the four researchers had put their Valkrethi through the warm up routine.

  “We salvaged three Reaper ships from the action on the ice planet, and managed to get the shields on two of them working again.

  “We know the Valkrethi can draw power from sources nearby, and use it for themselves. Some of you used that ability at the ice planet, to keep reserves of power above minimum levels. But this time we’re going to use the full power of the enemy plasma shields to recharge the Valkrethi.”

  This made a lot of sense to Roberto. He had studied fighting styles in his earlier years, and the maxim that it was best to use your opponents’ strength against them had been drilled into him.

  The Valkrethi generated a baseline of power from small internal reactors that would essentially last for ever, but they could also pull in power from sources nearby and use it to supplement reserves. In the heat of battle the energy levels of their giant mounts were often quickly depleted. That could force them to do less, or pull out of the action for a while to replenish those reserves.

  “And we’ve got a little surprise for you,” said Cagill.

  “It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you what it was – and one of the great lessons of warfare is to expect the unexpected. So, we’ll leave it until you get out there and think you’re doing all right!”

  This was sobering news. Cagill’s idea of surprises in the past had been downright frightening. The pilots’ nervous systems began to register a degree of nervousness along with their current levels of excitement.

  “The training grounds are at the limit of the Valkrethi range as we start from Prometheus,” said Cagill.

  “When the ejection system has shot you clear of the moon’s gravity, set the homing pattern for these coordinates,” he said, and downloaded the coordinates to all of them.

  Roberto activated his optics and pulled up the coordinates onto a visual of the Solar System. He found them just inside the orbit of Pluto, and that was, indeed, a long jump for the Valkrethi. The acceleration and deceleration in the middle of the jump was going to be physically hard on all of the pilots.

  “Alpha Squadron follows Alpha leader, Delta Squadron follows me, and the research team follows their leader. Is that understood?”

  Giant heads nodded all around the cavern.

  “Alpha Squadron, disembark,” said Cagill briskly, and a squadron of ten Valkrethi lumbered across the cavern, gaining sp
eed as they approached the ejection system. The first launched itself at the centre of the ring, and was picked up by the force field and flung through the tunnel into the vastness of space. The others followed rapidly.

  Once they were clear of Prometheus, the Valkrethi brought up the coordinates on their optics. For each of them a long sinuous thread snaked out across the optic screen, connecting them to the desired point.

  Miniscule hand movements activated the transportation systems, and one by one the Valkrethi began to move. The acceleration of each picked up exponentially, until they blurred and were gone. As the acceleration approached the stage at which the Humans would black out, they increased the explosive breath techniques they had been taught to keep blood flowing to their brains.

  There was a moment’s stomach-churning weightlessness when the drive shifted over, and suddenly they were slammed forward in the servo-mech compartments as the equally vicious deceleration began.

  Roberto activated his homing system as his Valkrethi began to slow to more normal speeds, and a blue dot blinked into life in his optics. He veered left to head toward it. A few moments later he saw other specks, barely visible in the pale, watery light from the far distant Sun, descending on the same position.

  “Count off!” came Cagill’s voice in his ear. The Valkrethi positional telemetry showed them where the others were, but counting off confirmed the pilots had all survived the jump without damage. Once that was accomplished Cagill carried on with his briefing.

  “First part of this mission is to use the search systems to find the enemy ships I’ve hidden out here. The second part is to draw power from their shields to replace what we’ve just used in the jump. The two best performers get to take the Reaper ships apart.”

  Roberto got busy setting his search systems. He was keen to find the blinking orange dots that meant an enemy ship was within range – they all were.

  His systems told Roberto there was nothing there. He reset the systems and got them to check themselves for errors. When that didn’t make any difference he moved his Valkrethi away from the others. He wanted to check for objects hidden behind Pluto – coming up on his far right – or behind some of the larger comets in the Oort cloud much farther out in the Solar System. Nothing showed on his systems.