Xing was different, he also had problems. Orphaned, suffering from gender dysphoria and slowly dying he had little hope for the future until he met the alien Khella Phar. She could give him everything he wanted and all it would cost him was his humanity.
Prologue First Contact Amethyst |
I was twelve years old on May fifth of 2037 when first contact was made. I remember the excitement from those early days so well. One of the biggest questions mankind faced had suddenly been answered; we were not alone. I wish I could say that it happened when humanity first began to explore beyond our own solar system, but such was not the case. Humanity was stagnant, having made no major leaps in space travel or colonization in decades. It was the Saer’khi had who had come to Earth.
It was all over the news when that first ship entered orbit and hours later sent those first messages all over the world in our most common languages. The Saer’khi were as prepared for contact with humanity as we were unprepared for contact with them. For years they had been listening to our radio and satellite signals from afar, learning and preparing for contact with our species. We were not the first new species they had encountered and we wouldn’t be the last. They knew exactly how to approach us. They came in peace with offers to share their technology and help us repair the damage that we had done to our beleaguered planet.
I probably would have been just as excited as the rest of humanity about the future if I thought that I actually had one. So while my new foster parents watched the news with a mix of awe and excitement and thought about the future of humanity I focussed on trying to get my hands to work well enough to dress myself. The Fosters, ironic I know, seemed like nice people but they were my fifth foster family in as many months so I didn’t think I would be staying with them for long. You might think that going through that many foster homes that I was a problem child, but it was in fact the opposite. I was a child with problems, problems that nobody wanted to have to deal with.
You see my parents both died less than a year before in the Great Quake of August twenty-ninth. The Great Quake rocked most of the west coast of North America with tremors being felt as far as northwest Canada. My home city of San Francisco was at ground zero and hit the hardest with over three hundred thousand deaths and millions of injured. I was trapped with my dead parents in the rubble of our home in Chinatown for two days before I was rescued.
My trauma and emotional problems were only part of the problem though. Soon after the quake the chronic weakness, stiffness and twitching of the muscles in my right arm had spread to my left and, for lack of a better diagnosis, I was officially diagnosed with ALS, hence the problem dressing myself and the many foster homes. Nobody wants a child whose life expectancy is three years, with most of that time being completely dependent on them for everything. Without very expensive gene therapy I would gradually lose conscious control over all of my body functions and then have to live on machines for what little time I had left. Even if I had the money or insurance coverage for gene therapy the odds of them being able to cure me were less than fifteen percent unless they could find the cause of the motor neuron degeneration.
“Dammit!” I cursed in frustration as I dropped the shirt I had been attempting to put on. The shirt in question hurled itself across the room at my closet and I cursed again. “Fuck, not this again.” The frustration with my inability to use my hands and arms properly was bad enough without things flying around the room whenever I felt that frustration. I already disliked my body enough without all this excess baggage that the frustration with my hands and arms brought up. I crossed the room, taking deep and steady breaths to calm myself, and bent over to carefully retrieve the hoodie.
I had given up on anything with hooks, clasps, buttons, or zippers weeks ago and while that may not give me much variety in my wardrobe at least with some effort and time I could still dress myself. I would have tried dressing en femme if I could have managed something more complex or if I knew how my new foster parents would have reacted. I hadn’t let any of my previous new families in on my gender dysphoria either though, since I had enough issues with just the trauma, and ALS for a new foster family to have to face. I had a feeling that bringing my gender confusion into it on top of all my other problems would have only made things worse.
I finally managed to get myself dressed and headed downstairs to the living room where my new foster parents Nick and Lana were watching the morning news on the vid screen. The top story was about the messages that had been broadcast all over earth and discussion with people claiming to be ‘experts’ about what these aliens might look like and just what technology they would share with us. As interesting as the thought of aliens was though I had places to be. I cleared my throat and spoke up. “Lana, I’m ready to go for my check-up now.”
The bubbly blonde twenty-something turned to look me over. Seeing nothing out of place she smiled. “I was about to come and check on you, I heard you cursing a little while ago, is everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine,” I lied. Everything was not fine, hadn’t been for months, and was unlikely to ever be again. Sometimes I wondered why I kept going on with the mess I called my life. My suffering would only get exponentially worse for the short time I had left.
The smile on her face promptly flip flopped to a frown. “You’re not a very good liar you know. Have you seen the news? Maybe these aliens have some medical tech that could help you?”
“I’ll believe it when I see it. Somehow I doubt these aliens came all this way to offer us a cure for ALS,” I replied grouchily.
“You really need to be more positive,” Lana offered.
Perfectly healthy people telling me to be more positive about my situation pissed me off more than anything so my response was more than a little caustic. “Okay, I’m positive that aliens have even less reason to give a shit about me than humans do, so why get my hopes up?”
Lana looked like I slapped her, and Nick gave me a sour look as his wife spoke again. “Sorry Xing, I’m just saying that maybe there’s some hope, you never know what medical technology these aliens might be able to offer us. Anything could happen in the next few years.”
I let out a sigh, feeling bad for hurting her. Way to start off the relationship on a good foot Xing, I mentally scolded myself. She’s trying to be nice and you’ve done nothing but bitch and moan since you got here last week. Sadly this conversation was going better than our past attempts. I wondered if perhaps I should stop hiding behind the tough boy shell I was creating for myself and let some of the emotions and vulnerability I felt show. The tough boy was all an act anyway and not even I knew who I really was inside. “Sorry Lana, I’ll try to be more positive.”
I had been right about the Fosters. They held out for almost two months though before I became too much for them. Between my emotional problems, my growing needs due to my increasing inability to use my arms and hands, and my fatalistic attitude, I was just too much for them to handle. After the Fosters, the Burke’s lasted a week before giving up and then the government decided that I would be best served with the constant care I could receive at a hospital. UCLA’s medical staff would be able to study me as part of their research to find causes and a cure for ALS, I would get the care I needed, and Child Services would no longer have a headache named Xing. They saw it as a situation where everyone wins, and so I began my new career as a live-in lab rat at UCLA hospital. It was there, a month before my fifteenth birthday, that I met my first Saer’khi.
The aliens had sent scientists from various fields of study to share their knowledge with their human counterparts and to assist in other tasks. These tasks included the design and construction of devices to purify the air, water, and soil from pollution and ozone generators to be placed in the upper atmosphere to repair the holes in our ozone layer. Three of these scientists were from the medical field and one of those was Khella Phar. As it happened, the head researcher was giving the alien a tour of the facilities at UCLA hospital and explaining what research they were doing and I happened to be part of the tour.
I lay there in my bed, unmoving as Dr. Reeves entered the room with the strange woman. I could hear him talking about the various possible causes for cases of ALS and I was curious who he was talking to, since it sounded less condescending than the lecture he usually gave the medical students. If I could have turned my head I would have, but I was beyond that. “This is Xing,” Dr. Reeves said as they approached my bed. “He’s an orphan and the state was kind enough to let us keep him here for study in exchange for caring for him. He is in the later stages and has lost conscious control of almost his entire body, he has trouble speaking even at a whisper, and he is taking his meals intravenously. It probably won’t be long before he starts having respiratory troubles as well. He’s a bit of an unusual case.”
“How so?” responded a feminine electronic voice.
“When we brought him here and began studying him we ran tests and scans on both his brain and body hoping to find possible causes,” Dr. Reeves explained. “The only unusual thing we found was on fMRI scans. Unlike other cases of ALS, which display a normal amount of brain activity, Xing’s brain has developed strangely and although scans are inconsistent he has often displayed nearly ten times the brain activity of a normal person, even while at rest.”
“Interesting,” the alien voice replied. “Is it possible that the signals that his brain is sending to the motor neurons are too powerful and overloading them, causing the degeneration?”
The doctor stepped up to my bed and looked me over, “I suppose it’s possible but if that’s the case then traditional gene therapy wouldn’t work, the repaired neurons would just degrade again. We thought the spikes of increased brain activity could be due to a tumor but we couldn’t find anything like that. His brain as a whole seems to contain irregularities and increased activity and forebrain in particular shows a lot more activity than normal. From what we’ve seen, we believe that he’s very intelligent and has an excellent memory but it’s been hard to get accurate results.”
“Why is that?” the voice asked as someone else approached the foot of the bed smiled at me. The alien was a very tall humanoid woman, possibly six foot four inches, with dark blue skin, golden hair, and amber eyes. Further inspection showed that she also had four arms and black antennae sprouting from her head just above her hairline. She was wearing a white and gold robe and a small metal device on a choker around her neck.
“Xing doesn’t always cooperate with us,” he replied acidly and looked at his clipboard. “He has an attitude problem.”
“Fuck… you… too… doc,” I managed to get out, my voice barely a whisper. Dr. Reeves had always rubbed me the wrong way. He seemed to think I should be happy to be his lab rat, to have him, his colleagues, and his students watch me slowly waste away. It pissed me off, all of it; those thoughts, his smug sense of superiority, and the fact that my own body conspired against me getting up and punching the asshole. If I could get up I would take that clipboard of his and smack him with it, I thought angrily.
Suddenly the clipboard in his hands jerked and hit him right in the nose. He just stared in confusion for a moment at the clipboard he was still holding. The Saer’khi’s amber eyes narrowed and she looked at me intently. It was then that I felt a sort of pressure in my mind as a rush of confusing images and thoughts rushed through it. Stop it, I thought as I tried to push the images, the thoughts and the pressure out of my brain.
The alien’s eyes widened and the pressure was suddenly gone. As she smiled and I was suddenly struck by how she looked both so human and so alien at the same time. I also noticed that her lips weren’t moving when she spoke; maybe the metal box was some kind of voice box? “You have potential, child. I think that I can make you better, would you like that?”
Was she kidding? I would do anything to be able to walk or use my hands again. “Yes,” I whispered.
“I am Khella Phar and if you come with me I will do everything I can to make you better,” the blue skinned alien vowed before turning to Dr. Reeves. “You said that Xing has no family?”
He took his eyes away from his clipboard to regard her. “Yes, both of his parents died in an earthquake when he was twelve and he has no other surviving relatives. That, and his attitude, was why he was placed in our care. I doubt that there is much that can be done for him at this point. It will take us years to interpret and put to use all the medical knowledge your kind had offered us and he just does not have that long.”
Khella looked at Dr. Reeves like he was a prize idiot and I decided that I liked the Saer’khi woman. “That is exactly why I will be taking this child with me to Saer’kah. The first Migration ships leave in three days. I want him on the ship with the other severe medical cases.” I would find out later that the Migration was an agreement between the Saer’khi and the Earth’s governments in which a mass relocation of thousands of the planets ‘non-contributing citizens’ to the Saer’khi’s home world and various colonies to help them find a purpose and homes. These people included the critically ill who needed medical procedures that Earth wasn’t prepared for, voluntary poor and homeless, and those who had little hope of finding employment even as manual labour in Earth’s developing space industry or other new fields.
“Now listen here, the state and the University have placed this brat in my care so we could attempt to find a cure for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. You have no authority to take him anywhere,” Dr. Reeves argued.
The alien frowned at the doctor as she responded in that electronic voice. “The President of your country has given us the authority to take any critically ill children and their guardians on the ship to Saer’kah if Earth medicine is unable to help them and we believe that we can. In the case of orphans in the care of the state I am authorized to take custody of them to ensure they get the care they need. You have said that you can do nothing for him, I can make him better if the cause is what I believe it to be.”
“You can’t do this! I…” Dr. Reeves began.
“Yes I can,” she stated, cutting off the rest of what he was going to say. “I have informed my people and they will be here within the hour with a medical capsule to take him to the ship. Now if you will please give us some privacy, I would like to speak with Xing about what I have in mind before my people arrive.”
Dr. Reeves looked furious and I would have screamed out in joy had I been able. He opened his mouth to say something but stopped himself before turning and storming out of the room. The Saer’khi turned to make sure he was leaving and I spotted what looked like translucent insect-like wings folded against the back of her robe. When she was satisfied we were alone and turned back to me I said, “Thank… you.”
She smiled at me as she came closer and stood beside my bed. “You have a rare gift among your kind Xing, but I think that you do not yet know how to control it.” I was wondering what exactly she meant when she elaborated. “You made that clipboard hit Dr. Reeves and when I tried to speak with you mind to mind you responded and tried to push me out. I am not sure what your response was, but you did respond.”
“What?” I croaked out, a bit confused.
“My race does not have a spoken language as you know it, we speak with one another telepathically,” she explained and touched the metal box on her throat. “Once our linguists have a good understanding of a new species’ spoken language we program these devices to translate the thoughts we direct into them to that language so that we can communicate, just as we use translation devices to understand what you are saying to us. I tried speaking telepathically with you, but your response was too confusing to understand. Before this, my kind has never met a member of any alien race who could respond at all.” She took a white rectangular electronic device from a pouch on her belt and displayed it for me. “I am going to calibrate this portable medical scanner to examine your brain and nervous system. Is that alright with you?”
“Okay,” I replied. It was the first time in years that anyone had explained what they were going to do, let alone ask my consent.
She ran the humming device over my head for a few moments before looking at the small screen on it and then ran it slowly over the rest of my body. Once she was finished she looked at the screen once again before directing her gaze back at me. “It is as I thought. It is not just your upper and lower motor neurons that are the problem; your entire nervous system is showing signs of degradation. The electric impulses that your brain is using to send signals to the rest of your body through the nervous system are too strong and are overloading your nervous system bit by bit. Your doctors didn’t notice this because they were focusing on only the problems you were having with the upper and lower motor neurons. To put it simply, your brain is too advanced for the rest of your body.”
“Can…you… fix… it?” I asked nervously.
The Saer’khi sat beside me and took my hand. “You are special Xing, and I will do everything I can to make you better. I have an idea, but you must agree to it. My kind has recently begun using nano-machines in space construction and for other purposes. I would like to confer with one of our nanite experts to program some to be used for medical uses. We would then use these nanites as a delivery system for full body gene replacement therapy and I will alter some of your DNA to use as a vector. It is my hope that the nanites will then slowly regenerate all the cells in your body using the altered DNA as a template.”
I refused to ask if it would work. This was the first time anyone had actually tried anything to actually cure me instead of just studying me and I had to believe that it would work. I asked instead, “How… long?”
“I will begin conferring with the nanite experts once we arrive on Saer’kah,” she replied. “It may take months to construct and program the nanites to do what we need them to and just as long to come up with a workable strain of DNA that will provide you with a compatible nervous system. After that it will take some time to regenerate all your cells. We don’t want to do it too quickly. I must warn you that altering your DNA like this could cause some physical changes and I will need your consent.”
At that moment I couldn’t have cared less what physical changes she was warning me about, I just wanted to be able to get out of that damn bed and live a semi-normal life. “I… consent.”
For the next half hour Khella Phar told me about her home world, her people, and how she hoped that my ‘gift’ might help them understand humans better. Soon her people arrived to collect me with a long silver tube approximately three feet tall, three feet wide, and seven feet long. It had a transparent top with several indicator lights alongside and hovered about a foot off the ground. The two Saer’khi that guided the medical capsule were male with the same alien features as my savior, but were shorter than her, and one had light blue hair while the other’s was a darker blue.
The pair pushed the tube alongside my bed as Khella began to remove the IV tubes, monitors, and other medical devices from me. When that was done and the transparent top slid open, she and the two men removed my hospital gown and began placing tiny metal discs all over my body and a black, plastic-like oxygen mask over my mouth and nose as the alien woman explained what was going to happen. “Once you are in the capsule it will fill with a green liquid. This liquid will be absorbed through your pores and provide most of the nutrients you will require to keep you healthy while you are inside. Any other nutrients that your body requires will be provided intravenously. The oxygen mask will convert the carbon dioxide you breathe out into breathable oxygen and ensure you don’t breathe in any fluid. These discs will monitor your health and occasionally deliver small electric impulses to your muscles to stimulate them and repair the atrophy.”
The two Saer’khi men carefully lifted me and gently placed me in the tube. After a moment the alien woman arrived beside it holding a curved silver device paper thin and about five inches long and a half inch wide. She gave me a reassuring smile as she explained, “This will place you in a medically induced coma for the duration of your time in the medical capsule. When you next open your eyes you will be better.” She gently placed the cold metal on my forehead and then everything went black.
I spent well over a year in that tube while they worked on the cure for my condition. The nanites and the modified DNA were successful though and I felt a surge of joy when I opened my eyes and raised my own hand to remove the oxygen mask. As I stood I thought that I must have been in the tube for a long time since I seemed almost as tall as the alien woman now. I remember those first moments after I was brought out of the tube so well; those first tentative steps, moving my own body for the first time in years as Khella Phar held my hand, but most of all I remember that first look in the mirror. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw there. “What have you done?” I whispered in shock as I stared at the mirror. I didn’t even recognize my own voice, much less the body reflected in that mirror.
To be honest I wasn’t sure whether I should be awed or horrified by what I saw in that mirror but horrified won out. There was a pained look on Khella Phar’s face as she saw the horrified look on my own. “I made you better. Variants of your human DNA were not working; your brain has developed beyond a human body’s ability to handle so I tried blending your DNA with my own. The Saer’khi nervous system is much more suitable since we have similar gifts as you and our bodies have evolved to use them. It took a while to create a stable hybrid DNA to work from, especially since I wanted you to keep as many of your human traits as possible. I felt that it would be easier for you to adjust that way.”
I turned away from the mirror and closed my eyes tight, trying to push the image of that reflection from my mind. “Easier to adjust!?” I screamed. “I’m a freak! You stripped me of my humanity and changed my gender without my consent! How is that supposed to be easy to adjust to?!”
“Strictly human DNA was not working,” she repeated. “I vowed to make you better and your body is much improved. You can walk and care for yourself again, is that not what you wanted? I fail to see how I have taken away your humanity, you have retained most of your human appearance and you are still the same person that you were on the inside, only you can ever change that. The hybrid nervous system is handling the signals your brain is sending very well and in making you female I have given you a great honor.”
“How is being changed into a girl without my permission a great honor?” I grumbled. I felt that I might be able to get used to the hybrid thing, after all this alien had tried so hard to help me when humans locked me up in a lab and turned me into some combination lab rat and circus freak. I might look the part now but at least she treated me as a person. She had even warned me there could be physical changes. It wasn’t even the fact that she changed my gender that bothered me, as under other circumstances I may have welcomed the change. What bothered me was that she did it without even asking me. I had been naked when I stepped out of the tube and looked in the floor length mirror in the room so there was no doubt at all in my mind that I was completely female now.
The Saer’khi woman guided me to some sort of gel chair that molded itself to my form as I was seated and began to explain. “Although we Saer’khi are primarily a mammalian race we are descended from the Saer bees and have many of the traits of those ancestors. There are the more obvious physical traits as well as the social ones. Males outnumber females four to one but our society is matriarchal. Here men look to us for leadership and women hold all the leadership roles. I brought you here to heal you and to help our peoples better understand one another and the high council will only take a female seriously when it comes to matters of importance.”
“So you brought me here to become some go between for humans and Saer’khi?”
“No I brought you here so that you can learn to use your natural gifts and to help us understand non-telepathic communication better,” she replied. She looked frustrated as she tried to communicate in a way that I would understand her position. “There are things that we miss when we attempt to communicate that way, subtleties that simply are not needed with telepathy. Mostly I just wanted you to be happy. You were so miserable in that hospital bed and I wanted to help you become more than you were and to realize your potential. I had hoped that you might be happy doing that here with us. It is why I decided to use my own DNA when creating a hybrid DNA sample to work from. It was meant as a gift to you.”
“So surprising me by switching my Y chromosome for an extra X is your way of showing you care?” I said with a roll of my eyes.
“You do not understand Xing,” she replied looking confused by my response and the movement of my eyes, “Half of your DNA now comes from me; by our laws that makes you not only genetically but also legally my daughter. You know what it is to be human but as my daughter you can learn what it is to be Saer’khi as well. Then you can help others of your kind understand us if there are any misunderstandings. The gift I give is not only the offer of a home and a family, but also rank.”
The offer of home and a real family was tempting; I hadn’t had that since I was twelve years old. The rank thing confused me though. “Rank? Are you some sort of nobility or something?”
“I am a Ji’turi, and so are you,” she said.
“What’s a Jeetoory?” I asked in confusion.
“It is a trait we inherited from the Saer bees,” she explained. Over half of our females are not born with fully formed ovaries. They can still bear children, but we need to create those children using artificial means and implant them in their wombs. Ji’turi are females born with fully functioning ovaries and the ability to reproduce naturally. It is a hereditary trait, but all females are checked at birth and those of us who are Ji’turi are fed royal jelly from the Saer bees during our formative years to help us stay healthy and strong; it also makes us quite a bit taller than other Saer’khi females. Even other Saer’khi females must obey a Ji’turi. You would call us queen bees I believe.”
“You just said Ji’turi were born that way, I wasn’t, so how can I be one?”
“When I discovered that your new body would need to be a hybrid I wanted the best for you. You were not going to be a mere worker, you are meant for more than that,” she said with what seemed like sincere concern. “I added royal jelly to the nutrients you were getting intravenously while I worked for months on a stable hybrid DNA sample. I made sure that the DNA strain that I created was for a female with the Ji’turi trait. I checked before waking you and your reproductive system appears to be fully functional.”
“How is that even possible?!” I asked in shock. “Wouldn’t a hybrid be sterile like a mule?”
“A good question,” she said with a look of respect. “Humans and Saer’khi seem to share an abnormally large number of genetic markers. In fact all the humanoid species we have encountered do. We have theorized that all these species come from a common ancestor. Also our external physiology may be different but we share much of the same mammalian traits and organs. The only major differences are that our brains are slightly more advanced than humans, and our lack of vocal chords and an appendix. Humans seem to share a lot more genetic markers with all the humanoid species we’ve discovered than the Saer’khi do or that any of the others share with one another. Humans may be closer to whatever genetic ancestor we share; they could even be the shared ancestor of the other humanoid races. Our genetic research indicates that because of this, humans could probably successfully cross-breed with most other placental humanoids if they were so inclined. That adaptability in humans is why it was possible to create a workable hybrid DNA strain for you.”
“Okay, so what I’m getting from this is that humans are adaptable, Ji’turi are the top of the Saer’khi social food chain, and you thought you were doing me a favor by taking away my Y chromosome. I’m curious though, aren’t you worried that the imposed genome could be unstable or that my body could reject the new genetic template and I could start to revert?” I asked.
Her brows rose in surprise. “I am impressed with your questions Xing. The genome is stable, I made sure of that and so far your body shows no sign of rejection. The nanites we used in the gene replacement are still present in your body and we have them monitoring you for rejection, keeping you healthy, and ensuring that you are not reverting.”
I shrugged at her compliment. “You don’t spend three years living in a hospital and not learn anything, and before my parents died they were always encouraging me to read and learn as much as I could. I’m a lot more intelligent than I let on to Dr. Reeves. I used to want to be a doctor when I grew up, and then I met him. You’re a lot better than he ever was, even with the gender switcharoo.”
“I am confused why you are so upset about that.” She did indeed seem genuinely confused about it as she made her points. “Being Ji’turi is considered an honor among my people. Also, the scans I took of your brain when we first met were more consistent with a female of your species than a male.”
“That’s probably true,” I replied, wishing that I could make her understand. “I was always more feminine than masculine but it’s not being female that is upsetting me; it’s the fact that you made that decision without consulting me. I may not have enjoyed being a guy but I was willing to give it a try. I’m still young and with all the other issues I had with my body and losing my parents I couldn’t even be sure that my increasing discomfort about my gender wasn’t just a result of everything else. I would have liked to discover my gender identity on my own before having a new one forced on me. I like you, but if you expect me to do what you’re asking I need to be able to trust you not to do things behind my back.”
She stepped forward and wrapped me in a hug. “I am sorry Xing. I only wished to make things better for you. This is what I mean about our kind having issues with non-telepathic communication. If we had been able to discuss the treatment options telepathically beforehand you would have known all the possible ways I could make you better and we could have shared our views on them all within moments.”
Realization suddenly hit me. “Oh my God, when you told me you would make me better you meant that you would improve me in every sense of the word. I thought you were talking solely about my medical condition. And of course with my brain being more female than male and your society you would think making me female would be an upgrade. You weren’t kidding about your unfamiliarity with the subtleties of spoken language causing misunderstandings.”
Her expression probably mirrored my own as she realized what I was saying. “I am so sorry about this Xing. Once I had two daughters, my second daughter would have been about your age now. She had a genetic disease that caused problems similar to what you were going through. At the time we had no way to cure her and we weren’t even using nanotechnology back then. I couldn’t save her. When I saw you lying in that bed you reminded me so much of Jhirai. Then when I discovered your gifts I promised myself that I would do everything I could to save you. If it is your wish I will see what I can do to create another DNA strain for a male.”
I shook my head. “That would likely take weeks, if not longer. I might as well at least give this a try before we go twisting my DNA around again. The main reason I was upset about it was because you hadn’t consulted me first and I probably do have a lot to be thankful for. I can move on my own power again, and unlike a lot of transgendered people I can possibly have kids of my own someday if what you told me is true. I would say I can probably be comfortable with my body too, but this whole hybrid thing might take a bit of getting used to. I can’t be Jhirai, you know that, but maybe I can get used to this and learn to be myself.” I took a deep breath and asked, “Could I have a few minutes alone with that big mirror?”
The Saer’khi woman nodded and stood up before leaving me alone in the examination room with the floor length mirror. I took another deep breath before standing, walking over to the mirror, and making myself look at what was reflected there. I decided that with clothes on and the proper accessories I could probably still pass as human, so I tried to catalog my human features first. I was tall for a sixteen year old Chinese girl, probably about six foot one and had wide hips, a waspishly slim waist, breasts that seemed to be on the large side of average, and my legs were long and shapely. My skin tone and facial features still had a distinctively Asian cast to them, though my face was softer with higher cheekbones and slightly pouty lips.
My hair had grown much longer during my time in the hospital and then the medical tube and was about hip length, but now instead of being black it was more of a dark blue. I could probably get away with it when it was dark but if I planned to be around humans much I would need something to hide it and the pair of eight inch long antennae that had sprouted just above my hairline. My eyes would definitely need to be hidden as well around other humans, they had the shape common amongst the Chinese but the bright amber color would pose a problem. At least I still only had two arms, but those wings would need to be hidden under my clothes. As I considered that I felt a strange vibrating sensation between my shoulder blades as the wings in question began to move rapidly, almost as in response to my thoughts. I attempted to mentally command them to be still and the fluttering slowed somewhat. Damn, I looked like some ginormous pixie or something but it could have probably been worse.
Soon Khella Phar returned and asked, “Will you be alright?”
I thought about it for a moment and nodded. “I can handle this if it means being able to move on my own again. I might need to hide some of my more distinctive features though, humans aren’t exactly known for embracing those that are different. I’m actually surprised our governments didn’t try to nuke your first ship that arrived in orbit.”
“Perhaps we should see how your roommate adjusts Xing; we have you in the same room as a human woman named Sarah. We are at a research facility in the city of Torah and are studying how nanites can be used to help long term medical cases such as you,” she explained as she placed a soft white robe with an open back on me and gently helped me to extract my new wings.
“Maybe you should call me Xia,” I suggested after a bit of thought as she showed me out of the examination room into a hallway. “Xing is a male name.”
Soon we arrived at the room I would be staying in while I was adjusting to my new body and under observation. Sarah was a short and slightly plump blonde woman in her mid-thirties and was wearing a patient’s robe like mine. As I was ushered inside she turned from where she was sitting at a table and walked over to greet me. I towered over the woman and it was a strange feeling, since I was so used to looking up at people. I tried to shrug it off as she smiled at me, “Oh, it is so good to see another human!” She had a slight Southern accent and when she got a better look at me she quickly corrected herself. “Well… sort of human anyway.” She didn’t seem all that concerned over my differences though. “Hi, I’m Sarah.”
“I’m… uhh… Xia,” I replied as she extended her hand and we shook. “So, what are you in for?” I joked.
“I was in a car accident about five years ago,” she explained. “I ended up going blind and needed transplants for several of my internal organs. That Saer’khi you came in with found me in the hospital and offered to bring me here for medical treatment so I could be useful again. I haven’t seen another human since my accident.” Then she looked me over again and shook her head, chuckling. “How about you? I’ll bet your story is a doozy.”
I considered how to phrase it for a long while before finally answering. “From what I gather I am supposed to have mental gifts like the Saer’khi but the human nervous system isn’t wired for the way my brain was developed. The doctors at UCLA thought I had ALS because my nervous system was degrading and I was losing all control over my body. I spent three years there and when she found me seeing was pretty much the only thing I could do. The Saer’khi couldn’t find a way to make a human nervous system work properly with my brain so when they did the gene therapy they decided on a hybrid nervous system since my brain development was so similar to their own. This is the result.”
“It could be worse,” she offered. “How do you feel about it?”
“I was pretty pissed at first that she didn’t ask my consent for certain alterations, but it’s better than what I was before. I’m not going to complain too much while I can walk, eat, hold a pencil, and go to the bathroom under my own power.” Then I added, “I’m a bit worried about how other humans will react but you don’t seem to be handling it too bad.”
“I think you’re probably wise to be cautious around other people from Earth,” she replied. “When you go blind you learn pretty quickly that appearances just aren’t as important as what is inside. Not all of our kind seems to realize that though.”
I found myself liking Sarah immensely during our three months together in the research lab. It turned out that she had been a five star chef before her accident and like me; she had been brought to Saer’kah on one of the first ships. The Saer’khi replaced her damaged organs and eyes with cloned ones but when they were treating her they had learned that she has a genetic predisposition toward Cancer and in fact had a small tumor in one of her lungs. They had given her a similar nanite treatment to mine to cure her Cancer and keep any future growths from happening.
I didn’t know any of them personally except for Sarah, but in all there were twenty of us who had the nanotech treatments for a variety of reasons: a dozen humans, seven people from the other alien species and one Saer’khi man. The nanites had a primary purpose that varied among all of us, but their secondary purpose was the same: They were to keep us healthy and assure that the changes made in our bodies stayed in place. The big problem that they discovered with that was that to do this the nanites were constantly refreshing our DNA and regenerating cells using the new template they had been programmed with.
As a result of this we all healed extremely quickly and it was soon discovered through the constant medical scans that none of us seemed to be aging since receiving our nanites. The researchers were sure that we could still die from wounds that would be fatal to others of our species or through accidents and such but it was likely that barring those we could live a very long time. I asked once, near the end of those three months, whether the nanites could be shut down. Khella claimed that they could be if given the proper codes and a programming node but she and the other researchers feared that the result would be death since our immune systems seemed to have become dependent on the nanites to keep us healthy. She also said that extra commands could also be given by the same process so long as they don’t counteract the primary or secondary programming. Although the nanites seemed to do everything they were designed to do the project was floored until they could determine possible mental issues from halting the aging process and how the nanites might be tweaked in the future.
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
Chapter 1 To Bee or not to Bee Amethyst |
It was over six years since I emerged from the medical tube and almost eight years since I was brought to Saer’kah in that first Migration. A lot can change in eight years; people most of all, and often in the most unexpected ways. I was no different and the past eight years had changed me more than I cared to admit, but there was so much good that had come that I was willing to take the bad along with it. I had gotten used to being female, even loved it, although I still had some issues relating with other humans, and human males in particular. Despite that and the fact that I still looked sixteen I was pretty happy with my lot in life. I guess I had grown up a bit too, all evidence to the contrary, and had lost a good deal of my fatalistic attitude. Still, I often wondered if I could even be considered human anymore. I probably wasn’t alone in that and I imagined that humans with obvious cybernetic parts often felt the same way. At least I was lucky enough to be able to hide my differences.
A group of Saer bee drones flew by with a loud buzzing of their wings on the way to some task or another. I was reminded of my own task and quickly shook off those thoughts, wiped the perspiration from my brow, and continued filling the two containers I had brought with honey. I only occasionally took a taste, for quality assurance purposes of course. It was a hot summer day on Saer’kah’s southwest continent and it was only moderately cooler in the hives. I quickly finished filling the containers and hauled them outside to the mag-transport with the others I had filled earlier, and once I was certain that they were secure I got into the cockpit. The air grew noticeably cooler as the cockpit hatch closed and I breathed a sigh of relief before starting the transport and heading back to Torah.
Torah is Saer’kah’s capitol city and like most Saer’khi cities it was built close to the hives of the Saer bees that they had evolved from. Saer bees are on average the size of golden retrievers and produce the honey that is one of the planet’s largest staples. Those are some pretty big bees right? Well everything on Saer’kah is big. Almost the entire planet is tropical and covered with jungles of massive flowering plants, and hiding in those jungles are all manner of nasty predators; flying reptiles, thirty foot long poisonous snakes, large creatures with tusks and spikes that are some kind of cross between mammal and reptile, and don’t even get me started on the spiders.
The trip back to the city didn’t take long and soon I was landing at the alien barracks. I quickly adjusted my goggles and the large improvised bandana that covered my antennae and what hair that wasn’t hidden beneath my robe. Then I stepped out of the cockpit to adjust my robe. The loose calf-length hooded robe was of the same type favored by the Saer’khi, though mine had some notable differences; it was form fitting with only sleeves enough for two arms, no slits in the back for my wings which were kept under my hair and held firmly against my bare back, and pale blue rather than white. It was light but offered little relief in the afternoon sun and I couldn’t wait to return home for the day.
Humans lived in the alien barracks with the other species that the Saer’khi had brought to their world. They sleep in the barracks, eat in the barracks, and if their work for the day was cooking or sewing or the like, they did that in the barracks as well where it was cooler. They only left the barracks if they were gathering fruit, butchering meat, or working on components for the starships the Saer’khi were constructing, and even then they were only allowed in a small area of the city. This was enforced through the use of the restriction bands all aliens wore on their ankles. The devices were magnetically coded to the barracks, and the orchard and work yards alongside, to physically prevent anyone wearing one from leaving that area. The restriction band is slim and form fitting and can usually be hidden under pant legs, socks, boots, or the like. I always wore boots to hide my lack of one.
The Saer’khi had spread us out across all of the cities on Saer’kah so that the resources of any one city weren’t pushed too far and Torah’s barracks could house up to a thousand people. It was mid-afternoon though and most people, human and alien alike, were hard at work so the barracks courtyard was quiet. I was glad it was quiet; I just wanted to hand the honey off to the people working in the kitchen and be on my way. I took two of the containers and headed to the kitchen where the smell of baking bread greeted me and close to two dozen people were working on the evening meal. I didn’t know any of them very well but Sarah, but then I usually kept to myself so that wasn’t surprising.
I placed the first two containers of honey on the table and smiled at the undisputed head of the kitchen. When we had left the research lab the Saer’khi had sent Sarah here to the barracks and put her to work doing what she does best, making good food. “Hi Sarah, I have a delivery for you.”
“Xia!” she replied with a smile as she looked up from the bread dough she was pounding. She was wearing a lavender sundress and seemed to be in her usual chipper mood. “It’s good to see you; we were running out of honey. Thanks for bringing this by.”
“We all have our jobs here, this is one of mine for now,” I said with a shrug.
“Well let’s hurry up and get you unloaded. You don’t need Jake coming on to you again or trying to pull you into whatever trouble he and his father are cooking up.“ Jake is the sixteen year old son of Jared Olsen. They arrived on one of the final Migration ships last year and nobody knows for sure why they were shipped off Earth but it was probably for causing trouble. The final ships had been for any remaining troublesome medical cases and people who wished to leave Earth for various reasons. Some countries on Earth had been known to send some of their minor criminals and troublemakers on those last ships to be rid of them.
“They’re up to something are they?” I asked. I had heard bad things about the pair of them from Sarah and some of the others from the first ships that I spoke with sometimes and I had met Jake for the first time recently. It wasn’t an experience I cared to repeat.
Sarah nodded solemnly. “The rumor is that they are trying to convince all the humans here that we ‘slaves’ should rise up against our ‘alien oppressors’. They haven’t been trying many of us from the first ships but since nobody sees you around much, most people here think you’re from one of the last ships, so they might come calling for you.”
I groaned at that bit of information. “Great, that’s just what I need, people taking an interest in me. Surely those idiots can’t get that much support.”
The chef shrugged as she stepped closer and lowered her voice. “Not from those of us in the first Migration ships. Most of us were severe medical cases or family members of one. We’re grateful for what the Saer’khi have given back to us and it’s not like they mistreat us. But those in the second and third Migrations weren’t as severe or left Earth for other reasons. They also haven’t had as much time with the Saer’khi and other aliens as we have and many of them are a bit xenophobic.”
“So what you’re saying is that even morons could convince the more recent arrivals of something they’re inclined to believe anyway.”
She nodded once again. “Be careful around them, they are gathering quite a bit of support. I’m afraid that things could get violent soon. And if they can’t get at the Saer’khi they might just go after whatever aliens, or other’s with visible differences, that are within reach.”
“If that happens you make sure to get yourself and any aliens or people with obvious cybernetic parts somewhere safe until help can arrive,” I responded quietly.
“I’m way ahead of you,” she replied after another quick look around. “I’ve been quietly talking to them and we’ve got an emergency plan in place. I just thought you should know what’s going on since you don’t live here at the barracks. Once Jake and company realize that you’re not just hiding somewhere in the barracks away from everyone else when you’re not working, you could be a target too.”
“It might help things if you give people the impression that I slip in here quietly for my meals when nobody else is around and would rather find quiet places outside to sleep rather than with other people. Tell them I don’t like people much,” I whispered.
“I’ve already been doing that, why do you think nobody has bothered you so far about it. Jake only bothered you because he thinks you’re a cute girl his age and probably wants what all teenage boys want from attractive teenage girls.” She rolled her eyes as she said the last.
I shuddered theatrically. “And that is why I usually avoid teenage boys. If I see anyone other than you or other firsts I’ll try my best to be less sociable.”
“You can be less sociable? I didn’t think that was possible,” Sarah said with a quiet chuckle.
“Hey, I’m sociable with you,” I objected.
“Only because I give you sweets,” she teased. “Now let’s get all that honey in here so you can get going before the others finish their assigned duties for the day.”
I worked quickly and brought all but two of the remaining containers into the kitchen. As I placed the last of the honey for the barracks on the counter I said, “I’ll see you later Sarah, I need to get going.”
The older woman handed me a package wrapped in thermal paper. “Here Xia, take a loaf of my honey bread with you. It’s fresh out of the oven and I know what a sweet tooth you have.”
“Thanks Sarah, you’re the best,” I responded with a grin as I hugged her and took the package. “I’ll see you next week.” With my prize in hand I headed back outside to the sounds of humans and aliens returning from their tasks for the day. When I arrived back at the mag-transport a familiar figure nearly the same height as me with short black hair was there leaning against the door. He was wearing jeans, a worn t-shirt and a pair of sneakers that looked like they had seen better days. If there was one thing I envied other humans for it was that most of them weren’t hospitalized for a good portion of their lives and had been able to bring clothes from Earth that fit them properly. I would have loved to have a pair of sneakers. “Damn,” I cursed as I approached.
“Hi there sexy,” Jake said with a smarmy grin, “I haven’t seen you around much.”
“How lucky for me,” I retorted as I placed the bread in the storage compartment with the two containers of honey for home. I could practically feel Jake’s eyes roaming over me, stupid teenage boys and their hormones. I shuddered at the thought and hoped that his eyes wouldn’t linger too long or find anything out of place. After a very long moment I decided to hurry things along. “Look Jake, I need to get in that cockpit so the transport can take me to my last delivery, it’s too hot to stand out here being ogled.”
Jake didn’t take the hint, he just continued to grin and stare at my chest. “Speaking of hot, you are totally redzone.”
“My eyes are up here,” I reminded him with a sigh. “I’ll give you a hint; they’re the things with the goggles on them."
”You’d probably look better without those goggles,” he replied as he tore his eyes away from my chest to look at the eye-wear in question and reached toward my face.
I quickly slapped his hand away. “The goggles stay on, they help me to see better.” It wasn’t a complete lie, they were tinted to let me see better in bright light and had a several different vision modes; infrared, night vision, x-ray, magnetic resonance, and zoom. To try to sell the story about my unsociable behavior I reluctantly added, “I would like to get going so I can finish my deliveries, eat something, and find a cozy place to sleep tonight.”
“I can think of the perfect place for you to sleep. There’s plenty of room on my cot for two,” he suggested.
I just knew the creep was going to say that. I mentally threw up as I responded, “I’d rather sleep in the cold vacuum of space.”
“Come on; don’t be so cold, I just want to get to know you better. We slaves have to stick together right?” He paused as he took a cautious look around. “Speaking of that, me and my dad are holding a meeting in the dining area tomorrow night after dinner for other humans who want to shake off our chains of oppression. We figure that if we can manage to get free maybe we can steal one of those ships they’re having us build parts for. You interested?”
“Sorry, my alien overlord doesn’t let me go to parties,” I answered sarcastically. “But why just humans? Why not some of the other races?”
“If the aliens want off this rock they can find their own way,” he snapped before adding, “They probably wouldn’t understand us anyway.”
I rolled my eyes as I removed my earpiece and displayed it. “That’s what these are for. They are programmed with all of the same languages as the Saer’khi’s voice boxes so that we can all understand one another.” I placed the device back in my ear as I glared at him.
“Aliens can’t be trusted,” he insisted. “So are you in or not?”
“Like humans are any better. Look Jake, I’ve had a long day and the only thing I want in right now is that transport, so if you could move I would really appreciate it.”
“Fine, just think about it, okay? Remember that we humans need to stick together. Some of the people from the first ships who have been here a while might be content the way things are, but we’re all slaves. They brought us here to work for them and we can’t leave because of these slave bands they put on us. You know where to find me if you change your mind.” He sauntered past me to the barracks and at last I was free to go home for the day. I grumbled to myself as I climbed into the cockpit. Sometimes I really can’t stand being around other humans, especially ones like Jake. But as much as I disliked Jake’s attitude I couldn’t help being somewhat understanding about their predicament and it left me feeling conflicted as I made my way home.
I was still on edge when I landed the transport at home. You know how I said that humans live in the alien barracks? Well I was a special case. I didn’t have to wear a restriction band on my ankle and I lived with my family. Khella Phar had taken a special interest in me for several reasons and I was treated as a member of her own family, heck genetically I was a member of her family. She had taught me to use my mental abilities and for the past six years had been teaching medicine to both myself and her older daughter Krie. Despite not being human they were the closest thing I had to a real family since the Great Quake, though Saer’khi family dynamics are different than those of humans.
Saer’khi females often have up to six husbands who are subservient to them after becoming permanently mind-linked to them through a ritual called Dhur-tal. Since the Saer’khi communicate telepathically they can always hear one another’s surface thoughts, but during Dhur-tal the male offers access to his deepest innermost thoughts as proof of his love, devotion, and obedience. Once the ritual is complete males are bonded to the female for life and take on the family name of their new wife.
Mom has three mates; Dhee, Lonin, and Hased. When I got inside, laden with honey and my treat from Sarah, all four of them were relaxing in the family room with Krie, Janik, and Shappu. Getting used to having three dads was confusing at first but they were all very welcoming and I had bonded with each of them in a way; Dhee had taught me to pilot the mag-transports, Lonin had taught me about the dangers in the jungle and had taken me honey gathering my first time, and Hased was an excellent cook who taught me Saer’khi recipes and wanted to learn all I could teach him about Chinese and other Earth cuisine.
I had also developed a good relationship with my new siblings. When I left the research lab and was brought to live with them Janik was eight and Shappu was four. I taught them to play soccer and baseball and tried to be the best older sister I could be to the pair. Krie was a year older than me and was very much the big sister I had always wanted, though she tended to be a little over protective at times. For the past six years we had been learning medicine together and she helped Mom teach me to hone my mental abilities and become fluent in the Saer’khi language. We spent a lot of time together, we had similar interests, and we could tell one another anything.
Janik was quick to get up from where he was seated and take the containers of honey to put away in the kitchen, leaving me only with my treat from Sarah. He smiled at me as his mental voice offered, *I’ll put those away for you Xia. Tarek came by earlier, he had some news he wanted to share with you.*
*Tarek always wants to share something with Xia,* Shappu teased.
One of the hardest things to get used to with my new family was using mind speech for everything. At first it helped me hone my abilities quicker but it took so long to get used to especially at first when I was still learning their language. Saer’khi only use their voice boxes to communicate with species who rely on spoken languages. Their own culture only has a written language and its mental counterpart, as they lack the vocal chords for a spoken one. Amongst themselves they only use mind speech and so they always know what one another’s surface thoughts are. Communicating mind to mind is so much more personal and honest than mere spoken words can possibly be, but it was hard to understand at first.
I had tried to explain the various nuances of spoken languages but my family still had some trouble with it and often found it confusing and cumbersome. The same problems were reflected in my telepathic communication from time to time, giving me a sort of mental accent that sometimes made me hard to understand. When Mom had first tried contacting me telepathically it was confusing for both of us because we weren’t thinking in the same language. Over time though, with constant exposure, I learned to think in Saer’khi as well as my native English and Mandarin and to separate the three so mind speech became easier. Although I still used mental words that were confusing sometimes, overall I’ve gotten a pretty good handle on the language of my adopted family. *Very funny,* I sent back to Shappu.
*Yes it was,* my little brother replied with a grin.
I sighed and rolled my eyes. *Remember what I taught you about sarcasm? That was it. I’m going to go next door and see what Tarek’s news is, I’ll be back before dinner.* It’s true I could have just sent out my thoughts to contact Tarek but it’s considered rude to intrude on somebody’s thoughts unless you can see them in casual conversation range or send out a ping first. I call it a ping but it’s one of those social things that really has no name, it’s just done. It’s basically just a short mental push that tells the other person that you wish to speak with them but can’t do so face to face. It’s kind of like the phone ringing and you have to wait for the person on the other end to pick up before you start talking.
Once I was back outside I walked along the garden path between our two homes, pausing only briefly to breathe in the aroma of flowers, before approaching the door and waving my hand in front of the motion sensor which would announce my presence to those inside. I could feel the happy bubbling of Tarek’s surface thoughts before he even reached the door. Tarek was kind of an open book to me and was one of the first non-family friends I had made among the Saer’khi. He also had an obvious crush on me and it had gotten a little out of hand. That was one of the reasons that we hadn’t seen much of one another since he had started his lessons at the space academy. Deep down I secretly hoped that his good news was that he had met a Saer’khi girl at the academy and had taken a fancy to her.
I wasn’t that lucky. As soon as the door opened he beamed at me and wrapped me in a hug. *Tess’rha! I have the most wonderful news!*
*I told you not to call me that, especially where one of our moms can hear,* I sent privately and groaned as I hugged him back and took a quick look to make sure nobody else was within casual conversation range. *They do not need to be reminded of that.* The fact that he was my best friend made it very hard to chastise him but I didn’t want to give him false hope.
He suddenly looked like a puppy that had been sent out to the doghouse in the rain. *I’m sorry, I was just happy to see you; we’ve both been so busy lately. Don’t worry, my mother is off running diagnostics on the first of the completed ships and she has all of my fathers up there assisting her.*
I breathed a sigh of relief. *So what is the big news?*
*I passed my pilot exams!* he replied, his mind a swirl of joy.
*Congratulations Tarek, I’m happy for you.* I was happy for him. Ever since we had first met he had wanted to be a starship pilot, and seeing him realize that dream and feeling his joy in the back of my mind made me realize just how much I had missed my best friend while he was gone. Still, I couldn’t shake my anxiety.
I was trying to keep my pondering to the deeper recesses of my mind but of course he sensed my emotions. *What’s wrong Xia?*
*I made my honey delivery today,* I replied. *One of the other humans said some things.*
*You’re always upset when you have to be around other Earthlings. You come home feeling anxious, sad, scared, or angry. Sometimes you’re all of them at once.* He placed his hand on mine and paused. I could feel his nervousness and knew what he was going to say even as his thought entered my mind. *I could take you away from them all, somewhere where you could feel safe. I could get a ship and we could go somewhere else, just you and me.*
I sighed and shook my head. *It’s not about me this time Tarek. Well not only me,* I quickly amended. *Jake may be a world class jerk but he made some valid points. I’m half tempted to take your offer, but to get as many people as I can off Saer’kah with us.*
*I could pilot a ship but we would need authorization codes for the restriction bands, supplies, not to mention a ship big enough for more than two of us. Neither of us has the authority for that. You may be Ji’turi but the Council still sees you as a youngling.*
I let out another sigh as I nodded. *And that’s hardly going to change as long as I look as young as I do. You’re right; we would need help for all of that. Besides I wouldn’t want to just up and leave my family like that.* By mutual consensus we both laid back in the cool gel garden beds to think. The beds were like long beanbag chairs that conformed to the whole body. Unlike regular gel beds these ones were filled with a cooling gel to keep the person lying in them cool and comfortable in hot weather. As we laid there I absently unwrapped the thermal paper in my hands and broke the small loaf inside in half. *Sarah gave me some honey bread toady.* I passed half to Tarek as I started to nibble on the other half. Despite my mood the sweet taste brought a smile to my face.
Tarek was enjoying it as much as I was. *It’s been months since I’ve had this. I’ve missed Sarah’s baking almost as much as I’ve missed you.*
*I’ve missed you too,* I answered honestly. He was after all my best friend, next to my sister. As I nibbled at my treat I looked over the young Saer’khi man lying beside me. He had been eleven years old when we first met and I had included him in the games I had taught my brothers. For those first few years he was just the boy next door, but when he was fifteen we started to become much closer friends. I think that was when his crush on me started to develop. I had just focused on being his friend and hoped that the crush was a temporary thing. He was eighteen now and it seemed that not even six months away at the space academy had changed his feelings for me.
Tarek’s feelings might not have changed in the past six months, but his appearance had. His golden hair was now cut short, he had put on quite a bit of muscle since he had left, and he was a bit taller, though I still had him beat by a few inches. As Saer’khi went he had matured into a very handsome young man, not at all the scrawny long haired kid that I had first formed a friendship with. I looked away as I savored the last bite of my treat and brushed crumbs off my robe as if they were my scattered thoughts. I laid there for long moments trying to think of something else to say that wouldn’t either hurt him or give him false hope. Finally I said, *I need to go home for dinner, I’ll see you later.* Then I managed to extricate myself from the bed and fled across the garden to my front door, trying to leave the hurt in his mind behind me.
I would have flown off if my damn wings weren’t held in place by my form fitting human robe. One of the reasons I hated having to be around other humans was having to hide my wings and other Saer’khi attributes. Flying would have helped me relax and think about everything that was bothering me calmly, and it was one of the best things about being part Saer’khi. I had first learned to fly just so I could control my wings better and not have them start moving of their own volition at the wrong time but I quickly learned to love it. Up there, flying under your own power, is a freedom that most humans can never conceive of.
I jammed my thumb on the access pad and once the door was open I ran inside. I was half way up to the second floor by the time that the door had finished sliding closed. *Not hungry, need to think.* I quickly projected to the rest of the family as I made my way to my room. I stepped into the one place in the universe that I was able to relax and shut the door behind me. Then I removed my goggles and bandana, kicked off my boots, and took off my outer robe to let my wings get some air as I let myself sink face down into the comforting embrace of my gel bed to think.
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
Chapter 2 Catching flies with honey Amethyst |
I was dreaming and I knew I was dreaming, but even knowing that I couldn’t stop the memories from washing over me. It was the day that I had come home to live with my new family. When I had been ready to leave the research lab I wasn’t sure I wanted to live with my adoptive mother and her family, it felt like I would be intruding so I had asked to be placed with some of other humans from the second Migration ship who were awaiting transfer to other cities on Saer’kah. That had been a big mistake; I should have accepted her offer. I know it’s cliché but honestly sometimes mother does know best. To some at the transfer centre I was a curiosity, but to most the fact that I was part human made me even more alien than the Saer’khi. To them I was a freak, a threat to their own humanity, and they made sure I knew it.
Before she had left me there Khella had given me something she called a mental amplifier and showed me how to turn it on, telling me to use it and call out to her mind if I needed her. She might not be able to understand my thoughts but she would come, and so she did. It had barely been two days when I used the device and she came to the transfer center to find me hiding outside in some bushes shaking and crying with my wings missing. I had been caught alone and the three men wouldn’t take no for an answer, they had held me down and cut off my wings so I couldn’t get away. I began hurling anything I could at them with uncontrolled bursts of telekinesis and ran while they were distracted.
That was all past though and now we were in the transport heading to my new home. “We use mental communication for everything at home Xia,” she warned me. “But we will attempt to use both telepathy and English spoken language with you to help you learn.”
“Thanks,” I said uncertainly, “For getting me out of there and… taking me in. I’ll do my best to learn quickly.”
“You are my daughter Xia, I will do everything I can to keep you happy and safe. But I do not think you should give up on all humans. Sarah was very understanding and perhaps others will be as well once they get to know you. We will find you clothes to help hide your Saer’khi features when you must interact with them,” she offered as she set the transport on auto pilot and took me in her arms. She held me the rest of the way home.
Unlike my fellow humans my Saer’khi family welcomed me with open arms. Seeing my condition though, they tried not to crowd me while Khella took me inside and treated what injuries she could. I may not have been able to understand their thoughts but I could feel their deep concern and anger over what had been done to me. It was only thanks to my nanites that I had healed up so quickly from that incident; my wings had even grown back over the next few weeks. The emotional wounds would take much longer to recover from.
The sound of knocking at my door and a simultaneous ping from my mother interrupted my dream. I must have dozed off. Reluctantly I answered, *Come in.*
Mom stepped into the room bearing a tray with two bowls and made herself comfortable on the end of my bed. *I know you said you weren’t hungry, but I thought we could both eat and talk. Hased made tingeku and it’s always best when eaten hot.* Tingeku is a Saer’khi dish made with meat, fruit, and grains sautéed in a honey sauce. It’s sweet, filling, and one of my favourite Saer’khi dishes. Once I managed to twist myself around and into a sitting position she handed me one of the bowls.
We were over half finished the meal when I finally asked, *What do you want to talk about?*
She didn’t bother asking how I was feeling since she already knew the answer to that. Instead she simply asked, *Did you really think his feelings for you were going to change?*
*Yes… No… I don’t know, I was hoping so.*
*He cares too deeply for you,* she replied. *You care deeply for him too, and there is nothing wrong with that.*
*He’s not human,* I argued weakly.
I could feel her mentally rolling her eyes. *We both know that is ridiculous. Living with us and being a part of our family for so long you of all people should know that love is not species dependent. We love people for who they are, not what they are, so what’s the problem with Tarek? Are you still trying to deny the bond you share? Or did you realize just how much you missed him?*
*No, Tarek’s not the problem,* I quickly denied before correcting myself. *I mean that he’s not the only problem. There’s some trouble brewing among the humans at the alien barracks.*
*What type of trouble?*
*The type that could potentially turn violent,* I answered seriously. I quickly mentally relayed all that I had learned from Sarah and my discussion with Jake.
When I had finished there was a confused look on her face and the feeling was mirrored in her mind. *What does this word ‘slave’ mean?* Did she really have no concept of slavery or was it just one of those words that doesn’t translate well in mind speech?
I thought carefully for a moment before finally answering, *Slavery is when one person or a group of people has absolute power over another person or group of people. The slaves are the people who are being controlled. Their freedom is taken from them and they are made to work for the sole benefit of those who have power over them and are often mistreated and punished if they are not thought to be working hard enough. It's not like the Saer'khi males who give of themselves willingly, these people have no choice in the matter, they are forced to serve others.*
My mother was appalled at the mere idea of such a thing existing and I could feel it in her thoughts. *You have this slavery on your world?*
I shook my head vehemently. *Not now, at least I hope not. But many various ethnic groups have fallen victim to slavery in the past, including mine. That’s why some of the new people who don’t know your species are unhappy with the way things are here. Many of us are violently opposed to slavery and the current conditions at the alien barracks seem a lot like it to some people.*
*But that’s not what we’re trying to do! This is for their own good,* she argued.
*You’d be surprised how many times those words have been used in the past to condone slavery,* I countered. *We have a saying on Earth: If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. That means that if something looks or sounds like something then it probably is.* I could sense she was about to protest so I cut her forming thought off with my first argument. *You have made it so that aliens can’t leave the electromagnetic field around the barracks and the surrounding area. Is that not taking away their freedom?*
I could feel the guilt in her mind but her next words were a surprise. *When we first started bringing aliens here for the colonization project the Saer bees killed many of them and several others were killed by predators in the jungle. The electromagnetic field that keeps them inside resonates at a frequency that keeps Saer bees out. It’s for their safety.*
I let out a long sigh as I pondered that. *Why am I allowed to run free then?*
*You have been taught how to survive in the jungle and you are half Saer’khi. The Saer bees know on an instinctual level that we’re related so they leave us alone. It’s why you were given the job of collecting honey for the barracks.*
*Okay then, how about the work you have the aliens do? How is that for their own good?* I countered.
*They are learning skills that will be useful and all the work they do is for the benefit of themselves and the other residents of the barracks. The food they gather and prepare is for them to eat, the clothes are for them to wear, and all other tasks are the same. We are teaching them to rely on themselves and one another,* she was quick to respond, and I could tell that she believed every word of it.
*What about the starship parts they have been constructing? How do those benefit them?* As I sensed the truth in her words I was becoming less defensive and more curious.
*This is all a part of a project we have been pursuing since we first encountered other species in our travels to other solar systems. Almost all of our species face populations that are too large to remain comfortable on our respective home worlds for much longer. We want to establish colonies on other planets built together by members of all of the races we have encountered where we can all coexist in harmony. Those ships are colony ships and the residents in each of the different barracks are colony groups. All of the barracks are nearly full, that’s the reason we’re not taking any more Migrants, Earth has sent far more than any other planet and we are at our limits to care for them, the colony ships must leave soon.*
*Why wasn’t I told about this before? Why weren’t they?* I asked.
My mother shook her head sadly. *I brought you here so that our people could learn to better understand yours. I had no intention of sending you as a colonist unless you showed an interest, especially once I made you my daughter. As for the other humans, your governments should have told them when they agreed to come to Saer’kah. It was part of the Migration agreement.*
I snorted in disgust, *It figures. It’s just like the government to leave out important details, especially when they don’t have to deal with the fallout. And now we’re stuck holding the bag.* I could both sense her confusion and see it on her face. I had apparently used another confusing human phrase in my thoughts. *Sorry Mom, I meant that we have to deal with the consequences of their inaction.*
*I will speak with the Council tonight and we will send representatives to speak with the humans in the barracks here and all the other cities,* she replied simply. *I will also send word to our embassy on Earth about this.*
I cupped my head in my hands as I groaned. *Mom, you are missing the whole point here. Sure send representatives to all the other cities’ barracks, they might be able to salvage something if they tell the humans why they’re there, but here? I don’t know about the barracks in other cities but from what I’ve heard many of the humans here don’t trust Saer’khi or any aliens and might react violently, which will only make things worse. They won’t trust you if you say you’re going to put them on another ship to start a colony somewhere, they’ll just think you’re up to something. The only people they’ll listen to are other humans, and the only reason they’ll get on another ship is if they think they’re escaping.*
*You are certain that they will not listen to us?* she asked sounding disappointed.
I shook my head. *Some of those from the first ships like Sarah would, but from the sounds of it Jake and his father are doing their best to make sure nobody else will. Can you get me in to see the Council with you tonight?*
*Certainly Xia, it is your right as a Ji’turi, but why?*
*Something Tarek said earlier has given me an idea. I have a plan, but we’ll need to put it into action fast if we’re going to salvage things.* She wasn’t going to like it, hell I didn’t like it, but I thought that if it worked we might just be able to prevent a riot and make this colony idea of theirs work.
The Council was of course resistant to the idea, but they were also well aware that I knew humans better than they ever could. Finally they gave in when Mom reminded them that I was older than I appeared and extremely intelligent. If things at the humans meeting the next night went as badly as I feared I would have to put the plan into motion. I would also have to do most of it myself since Saer’khi are inexperienced with subterfuge and outright lying. I’ve tried to teach some of them but since all of their communication is mental it just doesn’t take. Maybe these people would be better off without me on their home planet; I was a bad influence on them.
I arrived at the barracks an hour before everyone was scheduled to return from their tasks for the day and left the mag-transport just outside the electromagnetic field. I had wanted to fly there under my own power but I figured that it was safer to use the transport in case someone saw me coming and to keep up the pretense that I was a delivery girl. I headed toward the barracks and straight for the kitchen. As usual the kitchen was a flurry of activity with Sarah at the center of it all. “Hi Sarah,” I said with a wave.
“Xia it’s good to see you being social,” she said with a cautious look around.
“Well, I finished up early today,” I said with a smile. “I thought I’d catch up, and I was wondering if we could talk alone for a few minutes, I really need your advice on something.”
“Sure thing Xia,” the chef replied. “Okay everyone keep an eye on the stew and the bread and I’ll be back shortly.” Then she took me to the empty dining hall where we both sat down and gave me a serious look. “This isn’t your normal delivery day Xia, what’s up?”
“I came to attend the after dinner meeting Jake and his father are holding tonight,” I replied.
The chef frowned at that. “Xia, trust me, you do not want to get involved with those two. I thought you knew better than that.”
“I do, but the way Jake was talking last night has me concerned. He made it sound like this was a planning meeting for a revolution, possibly a violent one. They are planning something very soon; you know that, you’re the one who warned me. I want to make sure nobody, human or alien, gets hurt, I’ve got a plan in case things are going in that direction but I’ll need your help with it.” I quickly outlined what I had learned and the plan that I had come up with and when I had finished she was staring at me like I was going to do something really stupid.
“Are you insane?!” She barely kept herself from yelling and took a quick look around to make sure we were still alone. “I warned you so you wouldn’t do something idiotic and get hurt. You can’t spend that much time around humans, you’ll be found out sooner or later. The rest of us don’t have it as bad as you as we can manage it for quite some time before people start noticing that we aren’t aging but you might as well be wearing a target if you decide to live with humans full time.”
“They won’t trust the Saer’khi,” I pointed out to my friend. “And Jake invited me which means he doesn’t know about my connection to them so I’m probably the only one who can make this plan work. I’m going to need your help though. I want you to tell all the aliens and the other firsts that you trust about the plan so they know what’s happening when the time comes. I’ll also need you at that meeting tonight and to have my back when things get moving.”
Sarah didn’t like the idea, it was written all over her face, but finally she nodded. “You know I’ll always watch your back, so what’s your plan for tonight then?”
“I’ll hang around here and be unsociable in the dining hall until the meeting and then we’ll sit in on the meeting and if it looks like things are going south I’ll put the plan in motion,” I replied with a shrug. “After that I’ll slip away to ‘find a quiet place to sleep’. If I can’t slip away then I’ll stay around until everyone is asleep.”
“If you have to do that then you had better come to the women’s dorm and take the bed beside mine where I can keep an eye on you. Rosa won’t mind moving to one of the other empty beds for the night. Now I had better get back to the kitchen so people aren’t getting suspicious.” She stood up and headed back to the kitchen, leaving me alone in the dining hall to wait.
During dinner I sat and ate with everyone else but made a show of not being sociable with anyone but Sarah. If others tried to talk to me I would either keep my responses to one syllable words or ignore them completely as I concentrated on eating my dinner. The stew was delicious and served with fresh baked dinner rolls, salad, and Sarah’s take on tingeku. With Sarah here cooking the meals, the food was one of the few things Jake and his ilk didn’t complain about.
Once dinner was finished the alien races and the less than a quarter of those from Earth left the dining hall to find ways to entertain themselves until lights out. Sarah and I found a place near the back and I leaned casually against the wall, ignoring the discomfort of keeping my wings tied down so that they wouldn’t give me away. This isn’t good; I thought as I scanned the crowd, over three quarters of the humans here are willing to listen to whatever Jake and his father are going to propose. It was then that an older man bearing a noticeable resemblance to Jake, though a bit overweight and several inches shorter, stood up on one of the tables and addressed the dining hall. “Fellow humans! Now that the aliens and bug sympathizers have left, let’s discuss the reason we’re all here.” He appeared to think of himself as someone important and paused for what was probably meant to be dramatic effect, though to me it came off as smug self-importance.
“Get on with it Jared,” Someone nearby grumbled loudly, “We don’t have all night.” I smiled at that. He might have gotten most of the humans together for this little planning session but he was not liked by all of them, and I could use that.
Jared scowled in the direction of the man who had ruined his moment but did get on with it, sort of. He raised his hands in the air like some sort of tin pot dictator or televangelist as he addressed us again. “My people!” Cue another theatrical pause.
“Damn I hope these people don’t take him as seriously as he takes himself,” I muttered in an aside to Sarah.
My friend merely nodded in agreement as the pause ended and Jared spoke again. “It is time for us to face reality! For years we have been held captive on this space rock, slaves toiling for the benefit of the bugs who would crush us under their boots!”
“Does he even realize the irony of that statement?” I muttered, rolling my eyes.
“And he must have different definitions for time and work than the rest of us,” Sarah replied in a whisper. “He’s only been here for a year and from what I’ve heard from the others, the only time he does any actual work is when he’s working on the starship parts and has a Saer’khi working with him and checking his work.”
I shook my head sadly and turned my attention back to the yammering idiot. “… so I propose that we stop working and barricade ourselves and all the other slaves here inside the barracks! They’ll send people to get us back to work sooner or later and when they do we will fight back! We’ll get them to tell us how to unlock these slave bands and then we’ll go and steal a ship to get off this rock, and we’ll kill any bugs that get in our way!”
“That’s your big plan?” somebody scoffed. “That’s just going to cause a lot of injuries and probably deaths on both sides. We may have to work and not be able to leave, but this is still a hell of a lot better than what a lot of us had on Earth. The bugs see to all our needs and they’ve never mistreated us.”
“That is the mentality of a slave!” Jared responded to some applause as he tried to work the crowd. “We need to shake off the bonds that hold us here! We need to work for our freedom! This man may be happy being a slave, but what about the rest of you?!” Sadly a lot of the people were buying what he was selling.
The mystery man spoke up again though managing to get heard above the crowd. “I didn’t say I was happy. I just said I don’t like a plan that’s going to probably end up with a lot of dead and injured on both sides. You talk big but we’ve all seen how you avoid real work. You’re probably planning to do the same here, get us all to follow your plan and risk injury and death while you sit back and wait for the rewards, only coming out of hiding if you think your mob needs some direction.”
“He’s a bug sympathizer!” Jake yelled. The sentiment was quickly echoed by others.
The one man who was making any sense was now a target and Jared tried to turn that to his advantage. “You don’t like my plan but you haven’t offered an alternative. If you have a better plan I’ll gladly consider it,” he claimed. “Do you have a better plan? Does anyone here have a better plan?!”
The smug smile on his face as he waited for an answer, that he obviously didn’t expect to receive, was all the incentive I needed. Still leaning casually against the wall I called out. “I do.”
Jared just stared at me from his spot atop the table for a moment as others turned to see who had spoken. I couldn’t read what was in his thoughts from where I was but a person didn’t need to be a telepath to see the debate going on in his mind, it was written all over his face. He was trying to decide whether to have me prove myself an idiot or just dismiss me as a child. Apparently he decided on a mixture of the two. “Okay girly, why don’t you tell us why we should listen to you.”
I shrugged as I stood up straight and looked across the room straight into his eyes, “Because I’m the girly who can remove the slave bands, get us a ship, and get us off this space rock.”
“Listen kid, we don’t have time for your little fantasies so unless you can prove what you’re saying go play somewhere else and let the grownups talk,” he taunted.
I refused to allow myself to get angry. The best way to get back at him was to prove what a moron he was. “You want proof?” I kicked off my boots and stood on a table. “Look, no slave band. The Saer’khi have given up on having me wear one because I always get it off,” I lied. “So they decided to have me be useful in another way. They taught me to pilot the mag-transports so I could make deliveries to the barracks and such. Ask your son, he’s seen me pilot one.”
Jake looked from his father, to me, and then back again. “I’ve seen her get in an empty transport and leave the barracks Dad and she does deliver the honey.”
“Just because she’s not wearing a slave band doesn’t mean she can get them off us,” Jared argued.
I grinned at the older man. I had prepared for this and I motioned for Sarah to sit with me on the table. “Sarah, let’s get that thing off of you.” My friend gave me a questioning look but did as I asked. I took her ankle in my hands and stared at the band in question and began touching it, running my fingers along it in nonsensical patterns, giving it a series of finger taps and just basically making it look like I was entering some sort of code for the next minute before finally reaching out with my mind for the locking mechanism.
The band fell to the table with an audible clank in the now near-silent dining hall. “I can do everything I said I can, all you’ve got to do is follow my plan. Now are you interested? Or should Sarah and I leave this planet without you?”
I could see it in Jared’s eyes, he was not happy with being shown up by some kid at his own meeting but he knew that if he challenged me now he’d only end up losing support. For now he had to follow my lead and somehow make it look like he was still in charge. “Please, tell us what you have in mind.”
“First,” I stated clearly, “This is an all or none breakout. That means all humans and aliens in the barracks who are wearing a band are coming. If you can’t agree to everyone getting free then Sarah and I will leave on our own.”
There were only a few grumbles at that and Jared, while he looked fit to be tied, nodded his assent. “Fine, all of us who want off planet can come.”
“Okay then,” I said with a smile, “Now that we have all agreed on that, here’s what we’re going to do: Everyone is going to keep acting normally for the next three days. On the following morning I am scheduled to fly a transport to one of the new ships in orbit to bring up colonists and crew. I will tell them that there is a problem with the transport and that their departure will be delayed, and instead of picking them up I will come here to release you all from your bands and take you up to the ship.”
“Why can’t you remove the slave bands now?” Jared whined like a petulant child.
“That’s obvious,” a ginger-haired woman who looked to be in her early forties replied for me. “If we were all suddenly walking around without the bands the Saer’khi would know something was up.”
I smiled and nodded at the woman. “Right, which is why I’ll have to put Sarah’s back on.” Then I turned back to Jared and looking right at him I added, “But also, I don’t trust you to not do something stupid and jeopardize the plan if you’re running around on your own. Everyone here wants off planet so I’m not willing to take risks.”
“Yeah, well how do we know we can trust you,” Jared countered.
“Because I just stopped you from going through with an unbelievably stupid plan, and probably saved several lives by doing so,” I snapped. “Also I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t willing to do everything I said, I could be happily somewhere else on my own right now if I really wanted, but I’m here with you. Now if you’ll excuse me I have a breakout to prepare for, I’ll see you all first thing in the morning in four days so be packed, waiting here in the dining hall, and ready to go.” I snapped Sarah’s band back on with an apologetic look, and stormed out of the dining hall and the barracks to go home.
My entire family was waiting in the common room when I arrived home. I had barely sat down when my mother asked, *So how did it go?*
*Some humans can be so stupid,* I replied with a growl while gathering my thoughts in the deeper recesses of my mind. Finally I added, *It was as bad as I thought. The self-styled leader of this little insurrection is an intolerant prick who doesn’t care who gets hurt. I got them to listen to me though, and I convinced them that I can get them off Saer’kah, so the plan is in motion.*
*Does it have to be you who does this?* Hased asked. There was concern written all over his face and his thoughts were tinged with worry.
*We have already discussed this,* I replied sadly. *Patience isn’t exactly a defining human trait. Now that this mob has thoughts of getting off planet in their heads they won’t wait long before trying something to make it happen. I have skills that will be useful to the colony and I was already seen by the humans in the barracks, and Jake in particular, as a form of rebel so I was the logical candidate. At least I’ve given us three days. Even if we did find another first that was willing to do this they would never be able to learn to fly the drop ship, let alone everything else I’ll need to learn. Can we be ready in three days?*
*The colony supplies will all be loaded onto the ship by tomorrow night,* Mom replied. *The ship is being streamlined for a smaller crew as you suggested but I really do wish you would consider a full sized crew.*
I shook my head. *I wish we could have a full crew but until I can explain the truth to them a lot of the humans will be distrusting of Saer’khi and a ship full of Saer’khi won’t help. It’s better to have a few that can stay out of the way and safe in sealed portions of the ship. I’ll tell them the truth once we’re underway and hopefully they won’t be so distrusting of Saer’khi by the time we arrive at a suitable planet. How big of a crew are we looking at Mom?*
*We believe the ship can be safely operated by a crew of five or six,* she answered. *Tarek will serve as pilot; I have found two suitable young Saer’khi males who have agreed to work in engineering; and Galli Thuul’s daughter Tanna will serve as co-pilot, communications officer, and navigator. You and Krie can serve as medical officers and assist other crew members as needed.*
I narrowed my eyes to stare at my mother and sister. *What do you mean me and Krie?*
*What she means is that I am going with you,* Krie answered. *I have been considering going on one of the colony ships for a while now and this could be dangerous. You will need family to watch out for you. Besides, the colony will need another medical officer in case something happens to you. Anything could happen out there and your nanites may do a lot but you still need time to heal from major injuries and you can still die.*
*I know anything can happen out there, which is exactly why I don’t want you coming. It’s bad enough that Tarek has insisted on coming. A lot of the humans on that ship are going to be hostile toward you and the other Saer’khi on board if I can’t convince them that you’re not as bad as they’re being led to believe. I don’t want any of you getting hurt,* I replied morosely.
Krie stood up and pulled me into an embrace that was both physical and mental. *The risk is ours to take, just as you are risking your own safety, so no more arguing.*
*You’ll both need durable clothes for when you reach a suitable planet,* Dhee pointed out pragmatically. *You should prepare for all types of weather.*
Hased gave a mental nod of approval. *Good thinking Dhee, I’ll take the girls downstairs, get their updated measurements, and start on some clothes for them so they can take them up to the ship with them tomorrow.* I mentioned how good a cook Hased was right? Well he did pretty much all the domestic work for our family while Mom worked at the hospital, Dhee worked as a pilot, and Lonin worked in the hives.
*Don’t take too long,* my mother cautioned. *They will need to be well rested. They only have three days to become familiar with the ship and its workings and to learn to pilot the drop ships. And I want to put them both through some photonic simulation exams to make sure they are ready to practice medicine for the colony.*
*Looks like we have a few busy days ahead,* I pointed out to Krie as we followed Hased to his workroom. *You can still back out if you want to.*
My sister put her arm around me and gave a mental shake of her head. *I’m coming Xia, so quit worrying and start thinking about how exciting this will all be. We’re going to be the first to discover some new planet and live on it. Who knows, we could even meet some alien race that we haven’t encountered before.*
Her mind was awhirl with excitement and wonder and I felt bad for pointing out. *Those things could also be exciting in a bad way, as in dangerous.*
*Life can be dangerous anywhere,* she countered. *Besides, if anything does go wrong we are both well equipped to handle it. Now come on and get in the body mapper so we both can get mapped and pick out some clothes for the trip.*
Seeing no point in arguing further about it I stepped into the small room with Krie. Once inside we quickly shed all of our clothes so that we could get ‘mapped’ and each stepped into a booth with a glowing blue circle on the floor. The body mapper was similar to the type we used in medicine to create a body template and calculate the exact dimensions for bionic limbs. This one though was specifically for making clothes and would map our body templates to make sure all our clothes would fit properly and have the sleeves, wing slits, and such in the right places.
Once we were both nude and in place the pressure plates let Hased know we were ready and he turned on the photonic projectors above, below, and all around us that would map our measurements. *Okay girls,* he sent, *Put your arms out to the sides, wings out straight, and stay as still as possible, this will only take a moment.* I closed my eyes and did my best not to move and to ignore the twitching feeling between my shoulder blades until the lights flashed and I heard Hased say, *It’s finished, you can both get dressed and come out now.*
Soon we were once again fully attired and back in Hased’s work room looking over the various types of clothes designs available on a display screen. *I don’t know why you bothered getting an updated template for me, it’s not like I could actually grow or anything,* I complained. Then to my surprise I discovered that Hased had some Earth clothes in the selection as well. *Omigod! Are those sneakers?!* I gave a mental squee as I looked over them and selected a black high top design with hot pink laces and trim. Then I continued to flip through more and more human options. *Where did you get all these designs?*
Hased just gave me a grin and my mind filled with warmth at his happiness. *I am so glad that you like them. We thought that you might be missing your home on Earth so, last year when Khella returned to Earth to see how they were progressing with the medical techniques we shared with them, I had her take along a portable scanner and go to some of the shops to get some scans and suitable material samples for the textile nanites to work with.*
*Like them? I love them! Thank you so much for this Hased. I think that the clothes are the thing I miss about Earth the most other than the food.* Other than the sneakers, I chose mostly simple things for my wardrobe: several pairs of jeans, sandals, some shorts and skirts, various tops, underclothes, and cold weather gear and boots for the winter. There were a few things added that I didn’t choose for myself as well. Krie saw the sundresses and fell in love with them and insisted we both get several of them and Hased insisted on a cheongsam to remember both my family on Earth and my family on Saer’kah. The latter was a traditional Chinese dress in red silk with embroidered gold flowers, slits up to the thigh on both sides, and an ankle length hem.
When I saw Hased’s selection I shook my head. *It’s lovely and I appreciate the thought but I doubt that I’ll ever get a chance to wear that. I don’t think I’ll ever get married and there probably won’t be many formal occasions. I’m not even sure why I’m letting you make sure there’s slits for my wings in all of these clothes.*
*I will have it made and you will take it, if only as a memento,* he insisted before kissing me affectionately on the forehead. *You never know what the future will bring, little flower.* He set the textile nanites to work on our clothing selections and the three of us headed back up to finish discussing what we would need to prepare. We stayed up late that night so that Krie and I could spend one last night in the company of our family before we headed off into the unknown.
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
Chapter 3 Trust Issues Amethyst |
The next morning the six of us who would be the ship’s crew stepped aboard a transport to the starship Bounty. I had suggested that name fearing the worst for this endeavour and the name stuck for two reasons; the Saer’khi were unaware of the literary reference, and I was unaware of the Saer’khi tradition of the ship’s Commander naming the ship. Hell, I wasn’t even aware that I was the ship’s commanding officer until I was told by Tarek after jokingly suggesting the name while we were boarding the newly constructed ship.
We were stopped just outside the airlock and I was staring at him and the rest of the crew. *What do you mean, I‘m the ship’s Commander?*
*I would think that would be fairly obvious,* Krie joked. *You give the commands and we follow them.*
*Oh very funny sis,* I retorted with a roll of my eyes, beginning to regret ever teaching her wordplay. *What I should have asked is, ‘Why in the name of all that’s sane would anyone put me in charge of this?’ I hope that’s a bit clearer for you.*
*You’re the logical choice Xia,* she responded seriously. *Saer’khi ship commanders are traditionally female and Ji’turi if possible, this was your idea, most of the colonists are human and you know humans better than any of us, you’ve already made it so that the humans see you as the one in charge, and the humans may be more willing to trust us if they know that you are in charge of us.*
I couldn’t fault her logic so I didn’t even bother trying, but I still wasn’t too sure it was the best idea. *Alright then,* I said with a sigh, *For the next three days we will be eating, sleeping and training aboard this ship so let’s get our stuff put away and go meet our trainers.* We would all be sleeping in the bridge crew’s section of the ship but since the six of us would be wearing special environmental suits that doubled as uniforms during the trip, we had all decided to put our clothes and personal belongings in the medical drop ship where only Krie and I could access them until we found a habitable planet. Once that had been accomplished we all changed into our new uniforms and made our way to the bridge.
Those three days were a whirlwind of activity that saw us all going to sleep exhausted each night. We all knew our own jobs well enough but with only six of us we had to learn as much as we could about each others jobs as well. Added to that we all needed to learn how to pilot the drop ships, familiarize ourselves with everything on board and how it all worked, and take simulated tests to ensure that we were able to handle real world situations. Despite the rushed training we were all eager to learn and even I felt myself getting a bit excited at the prospect of venturing into the unknown.
The Bounty was a large spherical vessel that traveled through both normal space and subspace using magnetic polarity. The engines are basically built around a massive particle accelerator that creates a powerful electromagnetic fhield around the ship. It moves by having the engines alter the magnetic resonance to the same or opposite that of nearby astral bodies and thus having them push or pull the ship. When you’re sitting practically on top of something and suddenly your magnetic field changes to the exact same resonance the outcome is that you get pushed away from it like being shot out of a rail gun, thus generating a lot of momentum. This is part of the reason why the ship has a spherical shape, as the spin generated assists in creating an artificial gravity on board. Artificial gravity can be maintained while the ship isn’t spinning, but it uses up a lot more power.
For long distances a sub space field is formed around the ship so that it can take advantage of subspace being compressed and two points being closer in subspace than real space. The only problem with that is that subspace is empty of matter and that’s where subspace anchors come in. Subspace anchors are designed to exist in real space but have part of them contained in a subspace bubble and each gives off a unique magnetic resonance similar to the Saer’khi ships. So whenever Saer’khi ships travel through subspace they lock on to the anchors, bouncing from one to the next to make their way through subspace and dropping out of subspace to drop new anchors once the momentum generated from the furthest anchor out starts to fade.
Each of the colony ships like the Bounty is equipped with basic defensive systems: EMP bursts, wide dispersal particle destabilisers, and particle beam cannons. They aren’t really built for combat though; they’re built for exploration and settling planets. Because of this and the fact that the ships are built in space and not made for landing on planets themselves each ship is also equipped with three drops ships, the first two of these being the large personnel transports which hold the colonists in the forward section and the colony supplies in their large rear cargo holds. It would take many trips to bring down all of the supplies on the Bounty needed for a colony to thrive though. The medical drop ship is the third of the drop ships: It’s smaller than the others and is only really on board in case we need to give medical assistance to another ship or occupied planets, to serve as a secondary sickbay, or to explore and take readings on possible colony worlds before bringing down colonists.
Dinner that third night in the ship’s dining hall was relaxed and held an air of celebration as we had all passed our exams and proved ourselves fit for duty. There was talk of the trip ahead, possible security measures that might be needed, and small talk. The latter contained subjects like different customs on Saer’kah and Earth, how the environmental suits were uncomfortable for wings and other body parts, spacecraft design, and eventually I explained where I had gotten the ship’s name from.
*Do you really think they would turn on us like that?* asked Xawin, one of the engineers. He was lanky and tall with golden hair and at the moment his thoughts were tinged with nervous uncertainty.
*I can’t be one hundred percent sure but I won’t rule it out,* I responded. *Humans are unpredictable even to other humans sometimes. I will do my best to make sure it doesn’t happen though and to be safe we’ll all be wearing subspace comm units and mental amplifiers so we can stay in contact even if we’re out of normal telepathic range and one of the two malfunctions.*
*We’ve also made sure that all the doors to our rooms, engineering, the bridge and other important areas of the ship can only be opened via telekinesis,* put in Karran in an effort to reassure the other engineer. He was shorter than his peer with dark blue hair but where Xawin was lanky; Karran was a wall of muscle.
*Do not worry Xawin, we are taking all the measures we can to assure our safety and we will be taking the shortest course possible to unexplored space,* Tanna said. Like Krie and I, the tall and slender Saer’khi woman was a Ji’turi. She toyed with her light blue hair for a moment as she thought, *If we head past the Mitaal Nebula the furthest subspace anchor is only five days away through subspace. After that we’ll just jump out of subspace occasionally to see if there’s anything promising and plant new anchors.*
I nodded at her suggestion. *Good idea Tanna, could you plot that course and let the space exploration agency know that that’s where we’ll be heading while I’m off getting our passengers in the morning? I would rather have us able to leave as soon as I get them on board.*
*It will be done as you command, Commander Phar,* she teased. The co-pilot seemed to enjoy making me uncomfortable by using my new rank. It was friendly teasing though, and I think she was just glad that she didn’t get saddled with the job. It wasn’t long after that when we all decided to go to bed and get some sleep with the thought that we would need to be well rested the next day.
I had made a bit of progress in the past month in my new home. My wings had regrown and my immersion in Saer’khi mind speech was helping me to begin to understand the language. I was still a long way from being fluent but I could understand and use some of the more important phrases. The youngest of my new siblings, Shappu was only four and was still developing his language skills as well as learning to read and write written Saer’khi, so Hased, one of my three new dads had decided to teach me along with my youngest brother. We played all the Saer’khi learning games together each morning and then I would help Hased to make lunch and exchange culinary knowledge from our two cultures.
In the afternoons I would go outside with Shappu, my other brother Janik, and the neighbor boy Tarek to play other Saer’khi games. All of their games, even the ones for learning the language seemed to be geared toward developing one’s psychic abilities as well. As a result I was steadily improving in my telepathy and my control of my telekinesis. Sometimes I would teach them human games as well; I don’t know how he had managed it but Hased had been able to produce a rough copy of a soccer ball, a baseball, a bat, and baseball mitts. It was strange for the Saer’khi to limit themselves to only using their physical skills and stay on the ground but they seemed to enjoy the challenge of it.
Most of my time was spent at home since I was still a bit uncertain about my place among these aliens. That was about to end though. My older sister Krie figured that I had been hiding long enough and she was determined to have me go out with her and have some fun. She had been working me hard at learning to fly for the past two days to that end. Once I got used to the rapid movements of my wings flying was easy, it was controlling where I was flying that was the hard part. I had finally become a passable flier earlier this afternoon though once I learned to lean into the direction I wanted to turn and to use bursts of telekinesis to steady myself. When I stopped being so scared of falling and had some semblance of control I found flying to be the most incredible thing I had ever experienced. “Are you sure there won’t be any humans there?” I asked as I tugged nervously at the white and gold robe she had me wearing.
“Aliens don’t leave the barracks,” she insisted through her voice box.
“I’m an alien and I’m not in the barracks,” I quickly retorted.
“You are part Saer’khi so you are a special case,” was her reply.
I sighed deeply. It looked like she was not going to give in on having me come with her. “Where is it we are going anyway?” I asked as we flew out the window, raising my voice to be heard over the light buzzing of our wings.
She replied with a question of her own. “Do you see the moon?”
I gave a mental nod as I looked up at the large gold coloured moon in question. “Yeah, on Earth we would call that a harvest moon.”
*It is Katur Soma,* she said in my mind before adding, “In your human terms it could be translated as Honey Moon. It is a night when we celebrate what the past year has brought us and look toward the future.”
Well I can chalk up one more phrase that could cause confusion between our two races, I thought as we flew over the city toward the large flowering tree in the very centre. There was none of the familiar streets like in human cities. It made sense though since they were a flying race, there was little need of ground traffic. The closer we got the tree the more Saer’khi there were buzzing around. There were tables on ground level laden with sweets, fruit juices, and Passu which was an alcoholic drink distilled from honey. Krie got us both some sweets and a mug of Passu, which I found has a nice sweet taste to it but it is also strong stuff. I figured that if I had more than one mug then flying could become very dangerous.
Everywhere we went Krie and I were treated with the utmost respect and males would smile and give a slight bow as they asked if we needed anything. Mom had told me about the Ji’turi being queen bees but I hadn’t realized just how true it was until then. It wasn’t even as if they felt they had to serve us as even with my limited ability I could sense that they wanted to please us, they wanted us happy and making us happy made them happy. It wasn’t really a hive mind mentality but more like communism with a hint of monarchy. Everyone, even the Ji’turi, work for the benefit of everyone but the Ji’turi are the few among the Saer’khi who can naturally bear children so keeping us happy and healthy benefits the Saer’khi as a whole as well. This naturally evolved in their culture so that we are treated as a form of nobility.
I didn’t think I would ever get used to being treated that way. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice to feel needed and wanted by these people but I felt in a way that I didn’t deserve it. I also felt that getting our two peoples to understand one another was going to be damn near impossible. Even if I could master my abilities and learn the Saer’khi language there was just so much in their culture that humans couldn’t relate to simply because it was a society that was not only female dominated but prided itself on mental accomplishments rather than physical ones. Some humans might be able to get it but getting humanity as a whole to understand such a different culture suddenly seemed like a very daunting task.
I awoke early after a restless night of dreaming and got dressed in a plain robe, my bandanna, my goggles, and a pair of boots like the ones I usually wore for my deliveries. Then I took the device that Karran built for me to unlock all of the restriction bands in the barracks and made my way to the personnel transport that was one of the Bounty’s drop ships. The skies above Torah were clear and I was glad for that as three days of training on this type of ship didn’t exactly make me confident. Still, I managed to land in the work yard outside the barracks without incident, so now all that remained was to get everyone on board.
It was going to be a bit crowded for my passengers as this type of ship was only meant to hold five hundred comfortably, the cargo hold was over half full, and I was going to be crowding almost a thousand people inside. Under normal circumstances both of the Bounty’s personnel drop ships would be used to bring up the colonists but the current circumstances weren’t exactly normal. I shrugged the thought off as I stretched, got out of the pilot’s seat, and made my way through the passenger area of the ship to open the airlock.
As usual I entered the barracks by way of the kitchen where I found Sarah waiting. “So, is everyone ready to go?” I asked without preamble, stressing that one word so that she would catch my meaning.
She nodded and handed me a small loaf of bread with honey as she gave me a good looking over. “I made sure that all the other firsts and aliens were up and waiting before anyone else. Everyone, human and otherwise, is in the dining hall waiting for you to give the word. Take a minute and eat something, we have time. You look tired; did you get any sleep at all last night?”
I shook my head. “Not much, I kept worrying about all the possible things that can go wrong with this. I have a bad feeling about this trip.” I took the bread and quickly wolfed it down before sighing and gesturing toward the dining hall. “Well let’s get this train wreck underway, I want these people on the drop ship as soon as possible so we can get up to the Bounty and leave orbit.”
Sarah looked at me quizzically and asked, “The Bounty?”
“It’s a long story,” was all I said in reply as I led the way out of the kitchen and into the large room beyond. Once I had entered the room I found that all the seats and much of the table and floor space contained humans, aliens, and their belongings. They were all trying to talk over one another in their excitement.
I raised my voice above the crowd to be heard as I said, “Okay people, the transport is waiting for us in the work yard. I know it will be a bit crowded in the passenger area but you’ll have to deal with it since I won’t be taking off until Sarah informs me that everyone is on board. Please make your way to the transport and on board in an orderly fashion. Once everyone is aboard I will unlock all of your bands using an override device I acquired from a Saer’khi last night.”
I had stretched the truth a bit by trying to make is sound to Jared and the few other Saer’khi haters like I stole the device, I figured that they’d probably like that. I also figured that if I got them moving and on the drop ship quickly enough that they wouldn’t have much time to think about it. Their eagerness to get off planet seemed to work in my favor as Jared, Jake and the dozen or so others who seemed to support their anti-alien sentiments were among the first to leave the barracks for the drop ship.
What followed was not as organized as I would have liked, and there was hardly any room to move in the passenger area, but twenty minutes later everyone was on board. True to my word, I waited until Sarah came to the cockpit and confirmed that everyone was aboard before I hit the switch that would unlock all the restriction bands. The cheering from humans behind me and Sarah’s own band falling to the floor confirmed that the deed was indeed done. “Okay Sarah, make yourself comfortable somewhere and let everyone back there know to hold on to something.”
Without waiting for her reply I began the start-up sequence and placed my hands on the pair of control sticks to either side of my chair. The ship was controlled by those sticks, a pair of pressure sensitive foot pads, and an assortment of touch screens beneath the status readout panels. To fly one of these you need to be Saer-khi or extremely fast and dextrous. The Saer’khi use their upper set of arms for the touch screens and the lower set for the control sticks. I, on the other hand, have only one pair of arms so I had been taught to use my telekinetic abilities for the touch screens. Even if they did know how to read the Saer’khi written language that was used on the readouts and the touch screens I don’t think any other human could fly one.
I eased my feet on the pedals, pulled back on the sticks, and reached out with my mind to hit the necessary touch screens to begin our ascent and set a course that would take us out of orbit. I had to make a couple of course alterations due to some high altitude cross winds, but soon we broke out of the atmosphere and entered high orbit. I was staring once again out at the starry expanse of space as I guided the drop ship along a course that would have us meet up with the Bounty.
I mind-tapped the touch screen for the intercom and with a grin I addressed those on board. “This is your captain speaking. If you look to your right you will see a fine view of Saer’kah. We are currently in a high orbit and I am setting course for the starship Bounty. Please note that I have turned on the no smoking sign and if you want anything you’re shit out of luck because there are no flight attendants. Thank you for flying Xia Air and have a pleasant flight.” The trip to the Bounty was without incident and soon I was using my mental amplifier to ping Tanna. *Hello, it’s Xia, I’ve got our colonists and I’m ready to bring them aboard.*
Tanna’s musical mental voice responded almost instantly. *Welcome back Commander, the port side hangar doors are open and we are ready to receive you.*
*I hear you loud and clear, we’re on our way in now,* I replied as I moved the ship into position and guided it toward the open hangar doors. Within minutes I was easing the drop ship to a landing and activating the locking clamps that would keep the ship secure during our trip. *We are secure Tanna, you can close the hanger doors. Tarek, you can take us into subspace and get underway whenever you’re ready.*
*The hanger doors are now sealed and I am re-pressurizing the hanger now,* the young Saer’khi woman informed me.
Tarek quickly added, *I will have us in subspace and on our way before you can finish your meeting Commander.*
*Thank you both, we’ll see you there.* I waited for the external sensors to indicate that there was breathable atmosphere in the hanger and then I powered down the drop ship’s systems and squeezed my way through the people in the passenger section to the airlock. Once I had everyone’s attention I said, “Okay everyone we’re here. In a moment I will open the airlock and we will soon be on our way away from Saer’kah. But before you all go off to explore this fine ship we will be having a meeting out there in the hanger to discuss what will happen from here on out. So please exit the transport in an orderly fashion and we will get down to business.”
Once we had disembarked I waited until I was sure I had everyone’s attention before asking them, “How many of you know how to pilot and/or maintain this ship?” There was confusion on most of the faces in the room and nobody raised their hand. “Nobody? Okay then, how many of you can read the Saer’khi written language so you could learn to do it?” Two hands rose this time, but neither of them belonged to humans, one was Murqui and the other was the four digit hand of a Nezan. I let that sink in for a minute before saying. “Alright then, so that means that if you want this ship to go anywhere habitable, you’re going to need me and my crew of Saer’khi.”
Jared was predictably infuriated. “I knew it! She’s working for the bugs!”
I gave him a long look that I hoped conveyed just how stupid I thought he was as I responded. “No, I’m here looking out for the best interests of both humans and Saer’khi, and all the other aliens aboard this ship as well. That is why I stopped your ridiculously stupid and violent plan and it is also why you’re all here on your way to start a new colony and are not still wearing restriction bands. There have been misunderstandings between the Saer’khi and humans and it’s about time you all learned the truth.”
“The truth is you’re a liar and a bug sympathizer,” Jared snarled as he started toward me with violent purpose. He was held back though by a large hand on his shoulder.
The hand belonged to a muscular man of African descent about six feet four inches tall and in his mid-thirties with a clean shaven face and head. Given his rigid posture and the fact that he was wearing military fatigues and what looked like combat boots, I immediately classified him as ex-military. “Shut up Jared, you’re like a broken record. You encouraged everyone else to react violently but the only time you’re man enough to do it yourself is when it’s a kid. So far this girl has done everything she said she would so unless a group of armed Saer’khi come in here shooting at us I don’t see any reason not to hear her out.”
“I agree with Dennis,” the ginger-haired woman from the meeting in the barracks put in. “Just to be sure though, no armed Saer’khi are going to come in here shooting, are they?”
I shook my head and smiled at the pair. “No, I thought that the humans among the colonists might have trust issues with the Saer’khi so I convinced the Saer’khi high council to keep their presence as small as possible. We only have a crew of six, myself included, and I’m the one in charge.”
“How do you know you can trust them?” another man asked.
“Because I have spent the past six years living with a Saer’khi family in the hopes that I can help our peoples better understand one another,” I explained. “I can read, write and communicate with them in their own language and I know what they are capable of as well as I know humans are capable of. One thing Saer’khi are not capable of is lying.”
The ginger-haired woman raised an eyebrow at that. “That would explain why nobody saw you much at the barracks but what makes you think they can’t lie?”
I replied quite seriously, “Oh I don’t think it, I know it. Saer’khi are telepathic as you’ve probably heard, which means that all their communication is done mind to mind and it’s impossible to lie during that type of communication. I’ve tried and I’ve tried teaching them to and it just doesn’t work. Whoever you try to lie to like that knows that it’s a lie when you think it because you can’t help but think of the truth when creating a lie. It’s all there in the surface thoughts. You can try to hide things in the deepest parts of your mind but even then they know you are hiding something if you are doing it intentionally. Lying and intentional deception are unheard of in their culture, hell I can barely get them to understand sarcasm.”
“That’s a lie! She can’t know that or communicate with them that way because Saer’khi might be telepathic, but humans aren’t!” Jared shouted triumphantly. “So she can’t possibly know that.”
I rolled my eyes, “It is true that most humans aren’t telepathic but I was born with the ability. It was actually slowly killing me until the Saer’khi came along and tweaked my body so that I could handle it. That’s why I was brought to Saer’kah, to fix that problem and so I could better understand Saer’khi and help them to understand us.”
“Prove it, read one of our minds,” Jared dared.
“Are you volunteering? I’m sure you have some nice juicy little secrets we’d all like to know about,” I replied. Jared paled and tried to back away but was held in place by Dennis’ strong grip.
“I’ll do it,” Dennis volunteered. “You can read my mind; I’ve got nothing to hide.”
“Are you certain?” I asked. He nodded and I sighed. “I’ve never tried this with a non-telepath before but I’ve been told that it should work so long as we are touching and you are thinking in the same language as me. You speak English right?”
“I do, but why does that matter? Thoughts are thoughts aren’t they?” the large man asked.
“It matters” I replied matter-of-factly. “Think of telepaths as two-way radios. We all share the ability to send and receive thoughts over long or short distances, but if the person on the other end is speaking a language we’re unfamiliar with all we hear is gibberish. Our thinking patterns are largely influenced by the language we’re using at the time. A lot of people only speak, and thus think in one language. I’m lucky enough to be fluent enough to think in three separate languages but it took six years and a lot of exposure to become that fluent in Saer’khi. When one of them first tried speaking with me telepathically all either of us got was a bunch of images and vague concepts that didn’t make sense.”
“That does make sense,” he replied with another nod. “Why do we need to be touching though?”
“Non-telepaths’ brains aren’t built for transmitting or receiving thoughts over a distance like a telepath’s is,” I explained. “So what do you do when the person you want to hear doesn’t have a two-way radio? You would have to get closer to the source, so that’s what I’m doing. Your brain might not be able to transmit thoughts outside of it, but it is always transmitting thoughts through your body or you’d be a vegetable. So touching you will be the equivalent of placing a glass against a wall to hear what’s being said on the other side.”
“Okay, I think I’ve got it. So let’s do this.” He held out his hand and asked, “Should I think of anything in particular?” The people around us hushed and began to watch us carefully for any signs of trickery.
“Maybe we should just start with who you are and why you came to Saer’kah,” I replied as I took his offered hand and opened my mind to his thoughts. I could sense them and understand them, though there was some sort of background noise which I attributed to the signals his brain was sending out to his various organs, circulatory system, nervous system, muscles and such. I did my best to filter it out and focus on the job at hand. “Your name is Captain Dennis White, you lost your legs during the Bering War in January of 2031. You were homeless on the streets of L.A. when a Saer’khi came and offered you a pair of prosthetic legs.”
He quickly changed tracks after thinking of a very familiar research lab in Torah and I resolved to ask him about it at a later time. For now though, he was firing questions at me. “What was the name of my commanding officer? What color were his eyes?”
I couldn’t help but smile as I caught those answers in his mind; he had had a big crush on his C.O. I quickly shot back the answers, “Major Alex Davies, and the second question was two trick questions in one; she had one green eye and one blue eye.”
“Damn,” he said with a whistle, “You are the real deal. Nobody here but me could have known any of that. I even tried thinking that she was male and her eyes were brown, so I guess you’re telling the truth about the whole inability to lie with telepathy. If you don’t mind me asking though, how do you deal with them knowing what you’re thinking all the time? It would drive me crazy.”
I shrugged as I answered, “The Saer’khi consider it extremely rude to intrude on a person’s innermost thoughts unless invited and communicate only through surface thoughts. It took some practice but I got the hang of keeping anything I didn’t want revealed deeper in my mind. If I really want to keep all my thought processes private I start thinking in Mandarin, it was my first language and none of the Saer’khi that I know are familiar with it.”
I read two more minds after that to prove myself and with each success Jared seemed to pull further away from me. I had a feeling he was hiding something big but I wasn’t about to grab him and read his mind uninvited. I would just have to hope that whatever it was wasn’t a danger to the mission. Finally, once I had finished reading the third person’s mind the ginger-haired woman spoke up. “You said that there were misunderstandings between us and the Saer’khi and that you could tell us why we are here?”
“The Saer’khi never meant for any of you to feel like slaves,” I began, “In fact, when I explained the concept of slavery to them they were horrified. They are extremely sorry that you all felt like you were slaves. They put me in charge of this colony ship and kept the Saer’khi crew to a minimum because we felt that it might take some time to get over your trust issues with them. Most of us came here because there was no real place on Earth for us and the Saer’khi offered to help us find a place and a purpose of our own elsewhere, is that right for most of you?”
There was a lot of nodding and answers in the affirmative so I asked, “Now how many of you humans were told that you were being brought here to become colonists for new space colonies made up of all the sentient species known to the Saer’khi? As a part of the Migration agreement your governments were supposed to tell you that.” There was a lot of angry muttering at that and it was quickly determined that only a little more than two dozen were told of this prior to leaving earth and most of them came from small Asian or European nations for medical reasons.
“Why were we confined then?” An older Asian man asked. “And what about all the work they had us doing?”
“You were brought to live in the barracks until the colony ships were ready,” I replied. “Have any of you seen Saer bees before?”
Only a few members of the alien races raised their hands. The humans were all shaking their heads. “What are they poisonous or something?” one asked.
“Picture perpetually pissed off hornets the size of golden retrievers,” I replied, letting that sink in for a moment before continuing. “There are thousands of them roaming in and around Torah alone, they are extremely territorial, and only the Saer’khi can get close to them without being attacked. I can only get near them because of the way the Saer’khi tweaked my body to keep my gift from killing me. There are also some really nasty predators in the jungles outside the city. The restriction bands kept you within an electromagnetic field, but that field wasn’t just designed to keep you from getting out, it was designed to keep the Saer bees from getting in. It was for your safety. Several of the first potential colonists were killed by Saer bees or by predators while exploring.”
“She is telling you the truth,” said a brown-furred Murqui woman. The Murqui are a race of carnivorous feline humanoids descended from large hunting cats. They are strong, fast, and natural predators who don’t fear much of anything. The Murqui in question shivered as she continued. “My mate and I were among the first colonists to come here from our home world. There were no restriction bands then and we were allowed to roam free. There were many deaths in the first several months, and I watched as those bees tore my mate apart. I barely escaped with my own life,” she finished, lifting her tunic to show a fist-sized circular scar on her midsection.
The humans near her looked at the large scar and shuddered at whatever thoughts were going through their minds. I waited a moment to let it sink in and to let word pass through the crowd before saying, “See, it was for your safety. And all the work you were doing was to see to your needs while here and prepare you for living on a colony where you would have to depend on yourselves and each other. The ship parts you were constructing were used in the construction of the colony ship we’re on now.”
*We’ve entered subspace and latched on to the first anchor Commander,* Tarek sent as I felt a slight and sudden lurch in the deck plating. *We’ll all be there to join you in a moment or two.*
*Thanks Tarek,* I replied and breathed a sigh of relief now that we were underway. “Okay people, what you may have just felt was our ship entering subspace and starting off toward parts unknown. My crew will be here soon so you can meet all of them and so we can escort you all to the colonists’ dormitories and give you a tour of the Bounty. Feel free to get to know the crew and learn more about them and the Saer’khi if you like. If you need time to adjust or find you still have trust issues then at least leave them alone and let them do their jobs.”
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
Chapter 4 Boom! Amethyst |
To my great relief most of the colonists aboard the ship were willing to give the Saer’khi a fair chance. The notable exceptions to this were of course Jared, Jake, and their dozen or so supporters who seemed to hate and distrust all aliens equally. For the most part they kept to themselves while the rest of the humans seemed to be making an effort to get to know the Saer’khi and other aliens a bit better. I hoped that this opening of the lines of communication would help prevent any future misunderstandings, at least within our community. Things were beginning to look up, though I still had a nagging feeling that something bad was going to happen before this trip was over.
Once the colonists were all settled in the six colonist dormitories scattered across the ship we gave them a tour of the Bounty and gave a simplistic explanation of how the ship was traveling through subspace. Then when we finished the tour at the dining hall I waited until everyone was seated and relatively quiet before calling for their attention. “As I have mentioned before we have limited the Saer’khi aboard the Bounty to the bare minimum required to maintain and pilot the ship. This does leave us in a bit of a pickle though as the six of us are spread a little thin. So I am going to ask for some volunteers.”
“Volunteers for what?” a reedy woman with greying hair asked. “As you already pointed out, none of us knows how to pilot or maintain this ship.”
“Mostly I’m looking for volunteers to run the kitchen, help out with the food growing in hydroponics, and do what cleaning is necessary,” I replied. “These jobs may not seem that important or glamorous but they are just as important for day to day operations of the ship as what myself and the rest of the crew do. Also if any of you have any skills that might be useful here on the Bounty or when we explore possible colony planets please let me know.”
“Who the hell named it that? Isn’t that just begging for bad luck?” someone asked.
I sighed and shook my head sadly. “I’m afraid that the name was my doing. Given what Jared was trying to pull on Saer’kah I understandably had my doubts about this working. We’re all cast-offs, sent here because there was no place for us on Earth, so I think we all know what betrayal feels like, and before living with the Saer’khi I was victim to some of the worst cruelties humans can commit on one another. So I bitterly suggested it as a joke. The name stuck because the Saer’khi were unaware of the reference.”
Sarah quickly raised her hand and gave me one of her warm smiles. “I volunteer to run the kitchen. I did it on Saer’kah, so I might as well keep doing it.” I silently thanked her for getting back to the topic at hand as the rest of her kitchen staff was quick to volunteer to fill their old positions as well. I did assign a Nezan that could read Saer’khi to the kitchens as well to run the food dispenser that would generate the proteins and raw materials for use as ingredients. There were also volunteers for cleaning and hydroponics and so many volunteers for exploratory away missions that I thought I might have to set up a lottery to select landing parties. When we were finished Sarah and her staff returned to the kitchen to start on the midday meal, the crew left for their duty stations, and I went to the captain’s quarters to change into my uniform.
I had just finished dressing and was adjusting my goggles and bandana when I heard knocking at my cabin door. With a shrug I walked over to the door felt around inside of it with my mind and telekinetically popped the opening mechanism. The door slid open with a slight hissing sound to reveal Dennis White standing on the other side. “Oh hello, what can I do for you Captain?” I asked cautiously.
“I think it’s more what I can do for you Commander,” he said with quick salute. “May I come in so we can speak privately?”
Dennis had proven himself to be a pretty decent guy so far so I nodded. “Please come in and make yourself comfortable.” Once the large man was inside I sealed the door shut and took a seat in an overstuffed chair.
“Thank you Commander,” he replied as he took a seat in a chair opposite me. Then without preamble he stated, “You realize that Jared and his cronies see a great big target on your back now don’t you?”
I sighed as I leaned back in the chair and nodded. “I do, he’s a fool and he would have gotten them all killed or somehow succeeded and killed a bunch of innocent Saer’khi. This was the only way to get you all doing what you came here for and to help you realize the truth.”
“I realize that,” he agreed. “It was very brave of you to propose such a plan and go through with it yourself. Jared could still be a problem though; even a fool shooting blind can get lucky and hit a target. It could be the one they’re aiming for or it could be one standing beside it.”
He was right and we both knew it, I and all my allies on the ship were in possible danger. “That’s the feeling I’ve been getting since I first came aboard this ship, something bad is going to happen. Why do you think I jokingly named this ship the Bounty?”
He actually laughed at that. “I was wondering if that was your doing, though it seems like asking for bad luck to name a ship that,” he said, repeating the sentiment from earlier.
“I didn’t think the name was actually going to stick,” I complained, shrugging my shoulders. “Apparently it’s tradition for Commanders to name the ship when they first come on board and at the time I didn’t even know that they put me in charge of this.” Then to get back to the subject at hand I asked, “So what do you have in mind about Jared?”
“Until he pulls something there’s not much you can do against him directly without looking like you’re the bad guy. You can take preventative measures though in case he does get it in his head to try something,” he suggested.
“I already suggested certain measures to make the ship more secure and we’ve put them in place,” I responded. “The bridge crew quarters and all important areas of the ship can only be accessed by someone with telekinetic abilities, which means me or the Saer’khi.”
“That’s a good countermeasure, I wouldn’t have thought of that. What I’m suggesting though is that you take me on as a personal bodyguard so Jared will think twice about attacking you.”
I thought about that for several minutes before finally answering with a small sigh. “I don’t know if I like the sounds of a personal bodyguard, it’s too obvious. Maybe I could use you as a head of security though. That way, you and those you choose can keep an eye on me, the other crew members, Sarah and areas of interest on the ship as needed while making it seem like one of those jobs we just didn’t have enough crew for. Do you think you could find five or six people you’d trust enough to protect me and the others and keep order on the ship? I would prefer loyal people with an ability to be intimidating without a weapon.”
The Captain looked pensive for a moment and then he grinned at me. “I think I know just the people for the job.”
I returned the grin as I stood up. “Okay then, go find them and meet me back here as soon as you can.”
If I were to go by appearances alone, all but two of the six people that Captain White brought to my quarters would have been good candidates. The first of the six and one of the two who stood out was Lieutenant Luiza Sanchez. She was a human woman in her early thirties of Hispanic descent a good foot shorter than me and maybe one hundred and ten pounds soaking wet. I figured though that if the Captain had chosen her he probably had a very good reason. It turned out I was right, before she had one of her lungs punctured by a stray bullet Luiza had been a Navy Seal. She now had two fully functional lungs again and in addition to her combat training while in the service she had mastered three different forms of martial arts. Dennis claimed that she might not look like much but she could take him down faster than he could blink.
Next up were two of the ships Murqui population: Lirra was the Murqui who had spoken up during the meeting in the hanger and was roughly six feet tall. Her feline grace, powerful looking muscles, and sharp claws and fangs gave her a decidedly dangerous appearance. Beside her stood a darker brown Murqui male named Trabu who was nearly as tall as Dennis and bearing a more muscular frame than Lirra.
The next candidate was a Haran named Loxx, well that’s as close as I could come to pronouncing it as part of the name contained sub vocals that a human voice just isn’t capable of. The Haran resemble five foot tall humanoid lizards with scaly skin, long tails, beak-like snouts filled with razor sharp teeth, and rather than arms they have feathered wings with a trio of long prehensile fingers at the wingtips ending in nasty claws. They kind of remind me of velociraptors and judging from his red and yellow feathers he was male. Haran grow up genderless and their personalities or needs of the community effect their gender. They traditionally wear toga like garments and the only real way for humans to distinguish their gender is by the feathers on their wings and on their heads. Children or young adults have feathers in dull greys and browns until puberty when their feathers begin to change color to suit their new gender. Males’ feathers are bright reds and yellows and females’ are blues and greens.
The next candidate was Matt Scott. He looked to be maybe nineteen years old with blond hair and his one natural eye was blue. He had nasty looking scars on his chin and the right side of his face and his right eye had been replaced with a cybernetic one. There must have been serious damage to the optic nerve if he had opted for that rather than a cloned eye, though I suppose he could have chosen it just to look bad-ass. If the latter was the case it was working, as between the eye, the scars, his obvious physical fitness, and the fact that both arms were fully cybernetic right up to the collarbone he looked like a pretty tough hombre. Something about both his name and his face was really familiar to me but I just couldn’t seem to put my finger on it.
Finally we had the other odd egg; Eric Townsend. He just looked like your average Joe. Like Dennis and Luiza though he was former American military, but where they were army and navy he had been with the air force. Unlike the other pair, who were discharged due to their injuries, Eric said he had left the air force to go to Saer’kah because he had wanted to go into space and had come with one of the last ships. He was a tall and fit man in his late twenties with brown hair and eyes and looked like the type who could blend in just about anywhere. It was he who offered to keep an eye on Jared and at the time it made sense.
Once I had been introduced to them all I issued each of them a thumbnail sized disc shaped device. “Okay people you are now this ship’s security team so let’s get you properly equipped. I’m afraid that only people with a certain skill set will be able to access the weapons lockers but I do have for each of you a subspace communication disc patched into the same frequency the crew uses and a stun baton that will only work for the person whose DNA it’s coded to.” I was just distributing the six guards the comm discs and batons that I had gotten from storage when we heard the tone that indicated it was time for lunch.
I quickly patched my communications disc into the frequency for the ship’s intercom and cleared my throat before I addressed the crew and passengers of the Bounty. “You all may recognize the tone you just heard as the mealtime indicator. Before we all make our way to the dining hall to eat I do have one brief announcement to make. Beginning after lunch the textiles room will be open to everyone aboard the ship and you will all be allotted the resources necessary to make three complete outfits. However, one of those must be a ships uniform. This is non-negotiable as these uniforms will also serve as environmental suits in case of emergency.”
I paused to let that all sink in for a brief moment before continuing on to explain,. “The process for using the facilities in the textiles room is simple. Just step into one of the twenty booths, remove your clothes, and step onto the glowing pressure pad on the floor with your arms spread out. Once the booth has mapped your body the map will be coded to your DNA and you may get dressed and leave the booth to use one of the touch terminals to make your selections. Your uniform will be automatically added to your clothing selection and to add other clothes just use the arrows to flip between options and the green touch-pad to accept. You will then be able to take your selections from the nanite weaver alongside your terminal within a few minutes. Krie and I will try to be available in the textiles room all afternoon in case anyone has issues using the system. We ask that due to the limited amount of terminals and booths you get yourself mapped and make your selections as quickly as possible so that everyone can get their clothing bundles as soon as possible.”
With that done I securely locked my door behind us before leading my new security team back to the dining room and our first meal aboard the Bounty. Lunch was the best that Sarah and her team could make it using foodstuffs that mostly came out of a food dispenser; that stuff always seems to lack taste. After lunch we headed to the Textiles room with Krie and began watching over the colonists as they went through the process for obtaining their clothes and uniforms. Very few needed help with the process but Jared and his cronies seemed to take much longer than anyone else to make their selections just to cause trouble. Between that and the number of colonists it took two days to finish the process.
Over the next week things aboard the Bounty settled into a pattern of various duties, meal breaks, and sleep. There wasn’t much call for Krie and I other than some space sickness and the occasional accidental injury but I tried to keep myself busy by helping out in hydroponics and the kitchen and by helping to relieve the boredom of many of the colonists. The latter I did by teaching them how to play some of the games in the entertainment room and by telling stories about my life on Saer’kah and what it was like living with a Saer’khi family. I even did a round of all the dormitories each night to check on those I had treated for space sickness and to tell the younger children bedtime stories. I couldn’t bring myself to mention just how I had been altered yet though, as I really wanted these people to get to know me as a person before I told them my secret.
Seven days out things were beginning to look interesting on the exploration front. We had dropped out of subspace twice to drop new anchors and during the last foray back into real space we had discovered on long range scans a yellow sun system with seven planets, two of which seemed to be within the green zone necessary to possibly support life. Tarek calculated another half day of subspace travel before we could reach the vicinity of the system and when we did we would have to be extremely careful when dropping out of subspace. I was cautiously optimistic though and had been giving the colonists regular updates of our status. As luck would have it, that was when the shit hit the fan.
We were near the outer edge of the magnetic influence of the last subspace anchor we had dropped and were holding position. The plan was to open up a tiny hole in our subspace bubble just big enough to get some readings. If we were too close to the star, a planet or some other stellar body then we would move a little further away from or pull back toward the anchor to try again elsewhere. Tarek and Tanna had requested my presence on the bridge for the operation so Captain White and I were on our way there when the deck beneath our feet shook with the force of the explosion. “What in the hell was that?!” I shouted as I managed to steady myself.
“An explosion,” Dennis half growled, “And it came from the direction of the bridge.” He took off at a run with me close on his heels.
As we were running Tanna’s voice slipped into my mind sounding panicked. *Commander! Eric and some other humans just used some sort of explosive device to blow open the door!*
I felt a stab of pain from my link to Tarek and a sudden dizziness. *Dennis and I are on our way,* I quickly sent back as I tried to steady myself, *What’s your status there?*
*I think Trabu and Loxx are dead. Both of them were caught in the blast.* I could feel the fear, confusion and grief swirling in her mind as she updated me. *There are nine of them. Eric and the one named Jared have some sort of weapons and came in shooting. I don’t know what kind of weapon Jared has but from the look of the beam that Eric’s fired it must be based on our particle beam technology. Tarek is unconscious and bleeding, but alive. They’re demanding that I take us out of subspace.*
The thought of humans with particle beam weapons was disturbing but I had more important concerns at the moment. *Did you explain how stupid that is? If we don’t take proper sensor readings first we’ll have no idea where we’ll appear, we could end up inside a sun or something.*
*I tried telling them that Commander, but they aren’t willing to listen.*
*Dammit!* I could vaguely hear Dennis on the comm channel with Matt, Luiza and, Lirra but I had more important matters on my mind. *I’ll be there soon with my medical pouch. See if you can get into my situation room. It’s not far from your station and there’s a weapons locker in there. I’ll give you a signal when we’re ready to help you care of the riffraff.*
I was about to turn the corner to the bridge entrance when Dennis held me back. “We have no idea what’s going on in there, we need to wait for the others.”
“Tanna’s conscious so I have eyes on the inside,” I explained. “Eric is working with Jared apparently. They blew the door to the bridge and went in firing. There are nine humans in total but only Eric and Jared seem to be armed.”
“How the hell did they get weapons and explosives?!” Captain White half yelled and half muttered.
“The Saer’khi trusted us humans to cooperate with this colony idea since it was mutually beneficial. They just don’t understand human nature so they give us more trust than we really deserve. They weren’t exactly checking people’s luggage when they were brought aboard the Migration ships. I should have expected something like this but I guess the Saer’khi optimism has rubbed off on me,” I grumbled.
“Most of us were ready to cooperate,” he tried to reassure me. “What I would like to know is why now? If either of them had this kind of gear stowed away why didn’t they use it while they thought we were slaves?”
I shook my head as I contemplated that. “I don’t know, but I plan on finding out.”
“Any ideas on how to retake the bridge? Luiza and the others are on their way but nine against five isn’t very good odds, especially if two of them have guns.”
“How about we even the odds then?” I said with a grimace. “We passed a weapons locker on our way here.” I dashed back the way we came and turned a corner to almost run headlong into Luiza, Lirra, and Matt. I hit the opening mechanism with my mind and the panel in the wall opened to show four particle beam cylinders and two plasma rifles.
*I’m sealed in your situation room Commander,* Tanna informed me. *I have a particle beam cylinder and I’m ready to attack on your command.*
*Good work Tanna, when we bust in I’ll give you a signal so we can catch them from two sides. Please try not to get shot too, it’s bad enough that Tarek is hurt. Krie, I’ll need you ready for Tarek and any other injuries in sickbay, but be ready to grab what you can and evacuate to the medical drop ship just in case.* I sent to the two other Ji’turi.
A resounding reply of *Yes Commander!* echoed through my brain and opened my eyes to find Dennis giving me a questioning look.
I just gave him a determined grimace. “Tanna knows what to do. We may be outnumbered but we do have more weapons. I’ll let you four have the particle beam cylinders,” I said as I took one of the rifles. “I don’t want this used on the bridge unless absolutely necessary.” I charged the plasma rifle and gestured to the weapons locker. “The particle beam cylinders are easy to use, just point the open end at what you want to shoot and press the green button.”
Dennis nodded, taking a cylinder for himself and handing another to each of my other three security guards. When everyone had a cylinder, and the humans and the Murqui woman had been cautioned only to fire if necessary and not to hit anything that looked important, we beaded back toward the Bridge and I peeked around the corner to see Jake watching the hall. Or rather I assumed that he was supposed to be watching the hall. In actuality he was leaning against the wall near the remnants of the bridge entrance looking bored.
“Can I borrow your baton Captain White?” I asked while sending to Tanna, *When I say go, open the door and make your shots count. Try and throw something at someone telekinetically if you can as well as a distraction.*
Tanna gave me a mental nod but when she replied she sounded even more panicked than earlier. *We need to hurry Commander, I don’t like leaving them alone in there.*
Dennis looked a bit confused but handed over the weapon. Then he stared at me like I had grown a second head as I stepped into view of the bridge entrance and said, “Hi Jake.” As Jake looked up at me I hurled the baton at him putting all the telekinetic force that I could behind it while sending *Go* to Tanna. Seconds later the baton struck Jake squarely in the head rendering him unconscious. I turned to smile grimly at my companions and gestured toward the bridge, “Shall we?”
We rushed past the unconscious Jake and onto the bridge where I tried to quickly assess the situation. Everyone was looking at Jared who was lying in a crumpled heap on the floor when Captain White and the others tore into them and Tanna started firing. Captain White and company might not have been using their weapons yet but it was obvious that non-lethal means were a secondary concern. Lieutenant Sanchez had snapped one man’s neck and swept the feet out from under a woman before either of them realized what was happening and Lirra had pounced upon another man and was making damn sure he wouldn’t be getting back up.
Matt was using his metal fists to pound a large red-headed man to a pulp when a man who was about to attack him from behind was hit with a well-aimed shot from Tanna’s particle beam cylinder, knocking him to the ground with a hole in his chest. I was trying to make my way to the subspace controls while Dennis leaped on the man who was reaching for Jared’s dropped revolver. I however had my sights set on Eric Townsend who was standing at the controls for the subspace bubble. I took a quick look around for Tarek and found him slumped on the ground by his about twelve feet away from the subspace controls and Eric.
Tarek had what appeared to have a bullet wound just between his left shoulders. It looked like he had also hit his head when he had fallen so I quickly added a concussion to his list of possible injuries. Eric looked up and saw me aiming my weapon at him but either didn’t know what it was or thought that nobody in their right mind would risk using a plasma rifle on the bridge and ignored me to keep doing whatever he was doing at the controls. Suddenly the ship lurched violently as we left subspace and I was only able to stay upright by using my telekinesis to steady myself. That was not a normal result of leaving subspace and neither was the sudden power failure that followed. Emergency power soon kicked in though and we had minimal lighting and the control panels were on but their indicators were mostly flashing red.
*Status!* I half-screamed in my mind as I sent my thoughts out.
Karran was the first to respond from engineering. *The safety protocols on the subspace bubble were overridden somehow. Most of the ships systems are down Commander. We’ve got emergency power and life support but not much else. Half of engineering is gone, along with most of the port side of the ship, I think.*
*What do you mean gone?* I replied as I tried to shove down my growing panic. *They can’t have just vanished.*
*If I had to guess, then I would say that half the ship materialized inside of something solid,* Xawin offered. *Most of the sensors on the port side are offline, half of engineering is cut off by a mass of black rock, and we were very lucky to be on this side. That depends on how you define lucky though. We have maybe an hour of air and what’s left of the particle accelerator is overloading and frying what is left of the ship’s systems. We were venting atmosphere in some areas as well but photon shields have been erected and are holding.*
Most of the mutineers were down now, either through particle beam blasts or my guards’ fierce attacks. Eric managed to get to his feet though and he had his long barreled weapon pointed at Tarek. “Okay girlie put the weapon down or I’ll burn a hole through his head.”
Plasma rifles are nasty weapons. The whole crew had been trained to use them in case the Bounty was attacked but I was reluctant to do so. Unlike particle beams, which cause matter in their path to lose cohesion and actually cause fairly clean wounds that are easy to care for if they’re not too serious, plasma rifles fire superheated plasma in concentrated bursts. You can’t control the heat of the plasma you fire, only how much of it there is and hope it hits where you’re aiming because whatever it does hit it will likely incinerate. Wounds caused by superheated plasma, if there is enough left of the victim to be merely wounded, leave the area burned to the degree of a badly cooked Christmas ham as a best case scenario. Since I was only ten feet away I had it on the absolute minimum setting when I aimed for the hand holding the gun and when it hit… well the scream of agony will likely haunt my dreams for many years to come.
I did my best to shake off my horror at actually using a weapon like that on someone as I walked toward him. I hadn’t wanted to fire but he had injured and now threatened to kill Tarek and whatever he had done to drop us out of subspace had probably resulted in casualties if we really did partially materialize inside an asteroid or something. Whatever his gun had been it was now a molten ruin on the deck and the man himself fared only marginally better. Most of his arm was gone leaving a nasty-looking, steaming, cauterized mess of a stump between the shoulder and where his elbow had been. The right side of his face and body had severe burns right down to the knee. I forced myself to look, if only to show him I meant business and gauge his chances for survival. The latter was not looking good at all.
*Krie we’re going to need a medical tube filled with a burn bath solution and a neuro-suppressor up here stat. The patient has lost his right arm beneath the shoulder and has third degree plasma burns over the right side of his body. We’ll also need to treat Tarek for a bullet wound injury to the left shoulders and a possible concussion. We have other wounded as well and we’re going to need to evacuate the ship,* I sent as I knelt beside the traitor to get a closer look at those wounds. The plasma burns along his right side had caused serious damage to not only his flesh but possibly to his organs as well, his breathing was labored and his pulse was erratic but that could be because he was going into shock.
I took an injection gun from my medical pouch and set it for a nanite solution that would temporarily block out the signals his pain receptors were sending to his brain and flicked through the vision modes on my goggles to try to make a better assessment. The organs seemed fine and the worst of the damage seemed to be the missing arm and the burns. His right eye would also need replacing from the looks of it. It was then that something caught my eye. I quickly switched between x-ray and MRI modes and found that there was definitely something there that wasn’t standard issue on a human body, something at the base of his skull.
Dennis took that moment to kneel beside me. “We put down the others, a few are still alive but they’re going to know they were in a fight when they wake up. How’s the traitor?”
“He’ll live, but I am very interested in this device I’ve just discovered at the base of his skull,” I replied grimly. “I think we’ll need to question him about that and that little weapon of his too. It will have to wait until we have him stable and off this ship though.” I began to cut away the scorched remnants of Eric’s clothes as I waited for Krie to arrive. “Could you please tie the hands of other surviving mutineers Dennis? I know we don’t really have anything for that, but rip up their shirts and use the pieces if you have to.”
“We’ll get right on that Commander,” he said with a nod. “Where would you like us to put them when we’re done?”
“We’ll need to evacuate to the drop ships if any of them are left, so start getting everyone ready to move out a.s.a.p.” I replied grimly. *Karran and Xawin do we still have drop ships?*
*The Starboard and medical hangers seem to be unaffected,* came a relieved reply.
*Good, start evacuating people to the starboard transport and get on it yourselves, take weapons just in case there’s more of Eric’s and Jared’s mutineers out there.* I instructed. *I’ll be sending Tanna as well.*
*Yes Commander,* both engineers replied.
Krie arrived with the medical tube and supplies and got Matt to help her lift Eric inside. *Can you give me ship-wide communications?* I asked Tanna once Eric was in the tube and I started helping Krie prep him for transport. I needed to begin evacuation procedures immediately.
Tanna quickly offered, *Regular intercom systems are down but all of the ships intercoms have a built-in emergency subspace communications chip. I can broadcast you on that frequency.* She rushed over to the communications control panel and reset the frequency to the one that our comm discs were broadcasting on. *Okay Commander, you are all set.*
*Thanks Tanna, now please go to the starboard hanger and prepare the drop ship for launch, if there’s anything there to launch,* I mentally muttered. Just because the hanger was still there didn’t mean the ship was okay. *The rest of us will head to the medical drop ship. In case we don’t see one another again, let me just say it was an honor serving with you and good luck.*
*I am on my way Commander, and the honor has been mine. Good luck to you as well,* the young Saer’khi woman replied as she dashed off for the hangar.
“Are you sure it’s safe for her to leave the bridge alone?” Captain White asked as he watched her run off.
I nodded as I replied, “I’m sending Karran and Xawin as well and they’ll be armed.” Then I cleared my throat to calm myself and addressed the ship. “Attention everyone, this is Commander Phar speaking. That lurch you felt was the Bounty making an unplanned drop out of subspace. As a result we have taken on severe damage and need to abandon ship. I need you all to make your way carefully toward the starboard hanger bay and board the drop ship. If you are near your possessions you may bring them but please do not go out of your way to retrieve your belongings as time is of the essence. Please remember that we are all in this together, evacuate in a quick and orderly fashion, and help your fellow passengers if necessary.”
I cut the signal after that and turned to the others on the bridge. “Okay everyone; let’s get moving to the medical drop ship. I’d have us go with Tanna on the personnel ship but we can’t treat injuries there and we’ll need the supplies on the medical ship. Besides there’s the option for photon shields on the patients rooms there for quarantine. Those rooms can act just as easily as prison cells until we figure out to do with these people. So, let’s get those who can walk walking and carry or drag the rest of them. Krie will take the medical tube and I will take Tarek.”
I checked Tarek’s wound as quickly as I could and found, to my great relief, that it hadn’t hit any vital areas. It was located just between the left upper and lower shoulder joints and had miraculously avoided damaging anything important. I cut away the surrounding fabric of his uniform and carefully reached out with my mind to pull the bullet out. Then I cleaned the wound and treated it with a nanite wound sealant that would both seal the wound and repair any damage to the surrounding muscle and tissue before gently waking him. There were tears in my eyes as I said, *You had me scared there Tarek. Do you think you can walk?*
*I think so,* he replied as I continued to look him over.
*Good, because if you couldn’t I’d have to get Dennis to carry you,* I said as I wiped away the tears and got back to work. There was no wound on his head from the fall and I was in the process of checking for a concussion when the sound of complaining informed me that my security team had successfully roused Jake, Jared, and the three other surviving members of the mutiny. With a sigh I helped Tarek to his feet, put his upper arm over my shoulders to help him walk, and turned to face the group. “Let’s get moving people, I don’t want to be here to find out if the Bounty runs out of air or explodes first.”
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
Chapter 5 Adrift Amethyst |
The medical hanger was alongside sickbay for convenience and not too far from the bridge but we ended up having to take a more circuitous route than I would have liked due to some passageways being blocked by stone. Our group was silent as we made our way thought the ship’s passageways, even Jared who never seemed to shut up from what I knew of him. I too was quiet as I silently prayed that the medical ship would still be there as we made our way through the corridors. I was also worried for all the colonists on board and wondered how many of them were alive to get to the starboard hanger bay.
We were all confronted with the grim reality of the situation when we reached the entertainment room. Half of the massive room was now mostly filled with pitted black stone and, to my horror, before me was a scene that would battle Eric’s scream for supremacy in my nightmares for a long time to come. There were pieces of people I knew, or at the very least recognized, sticking out of the stone: arms, legs, faces, and some who had only half of their bodies claimed. The last were the worst; it was like they had a brief instant to realize what had happened before they died, their faces locked in expressions of horror and agony.
Training to be a doctor on any planet gets you exposed to any number of stomach-turning visuals and I had never flinched for a moment at any of it. The scene that had awaited us in that room though caused me to empty the contents of my stomach. I was not alone in that exercise.
“What in hell happened here?” I heard Jared say silently as I finished throwing up.
I quickly turned to glare at the man and delivered a punch to his jaw that sent him stumbling back a few steps. “You happened, you son of a bitch! You just had to lead your little rebellion and start shooting people. Your friend Eric somehow managed to override the panel that was keeping us in subspace! This is what happens when you make an unplanned exit to real space! Look at all these people! This and every death aboard this ship is all your fucking fault! I should do everyone a fucking favour and throw you all out the next airlock we find!”
Jared shut up after that. In fact, everyone was silent after my fit of anger and it was in that silence that I heard the whimpering. I looked around for the source and found a girl with black hair, maybe twelve years old, wearing a short black pleated skirt and a pink t-shirt in an awkward looking position, lying on her front and breathing shallowly. Her legs right up to just above the knees were fused into the stone that had engulfed most of the room but other than that she seemed to be in good condition. She was unconscious and I figured that she had probably passed out from the agony her situation was likely causing. “We’ve got a survivor!” I called out. “Everyone look for others while I check on this one.”
The others fanned out and started looking through the exposed bodies for other survivors, even Jared, Jake and their fellow mutineers. Sadly the girl was the only survivor we found and I figured that any who hadn’t been trapped in the stone had already left for the starboard hanger. *Tarek, can you manage to walk on your own? I’ll need to amputate her legs so we can bring her with us.*
*I can walk,* he assured me, *I’ll be able to make it to the medical section on my own two feet.* I knew that he was trying to sound brave for me but I also knew that he wouldn’t lie to me, even if he could. Even now he was an open book to me.
I nodded and gave him a sad smile, *Get the others to the medical hangar, I’ll join you soon.* Then out loud I started to issue commands. “Krie; you and Tarek get everyone on board the medical shuttle and secure the prisoners in a room. Lieutenant Sanchez; make sure they don’t try to pull anything on us, if any of them so much as look at one of our people funny snap their neck. Captain White; once the prisoners are secure I’ll need you, Lieutenant Sanchez, and Lirra to help Krie take everything you can find in sick bay’s storage area and load it in the storage room on the drop ship, we’re going to need supplies. Matt stay with me, I’ll need you to carry the girl. Double time it people!”
“Yes Commander!” they all replied, and then they left Matt and I behind to do their assigned tasks and leave us to ours.
Once we were alone I immediately injected the girl with a sedative and nanites that would block all of her pain receptors temporarily and got to work. I took the particle beam weapon Matt was carrying and used it to amputate the legs between the knee and thigh to ensure there would be none of the stone left in her body. Given the awkward position that the girl was in and the fact that I was using a high powered weapon as a makeshift bone saw I had to be very slow and precise in my work to avoid damaging anything I didn’t want to, The particle beam would cauterize the wound, but to be safe I applied a nanite disinfectant spray to the amputated area on her left leg before bandaging it and repeating the process with the right.
One might wonder why I use nanites so much in medicine given my own issues with them. The answer is pretty simple actually, while I am trained in most forms of first aid and medical techniques, these are the most effective and nobody has ever had an allergy to nanites. Also the problem with my nanites is that they have ongoing permanent purposes. All of the other nano-machines we use in medicine are designed to self-terminate after a certain time or when the purpose is complete, such as a wound sealing.
When I was finished doing what I could for the girl, given the current conditions, I had Matt pick her up and we were on our way again. We were just arriving at the medical hanger when Tanna pinged me. *What’s up Tanna? Did you make it to the hanger okay?*
*Yes Commander, I am prepping the drop ship for launch now. Xawin and Karran are checking the transport for damage and I’ve got the colonists that are here boarding. Your friend Sarah and a few others are taking a quick look for any stragglers. I’m afraid there won’t be many more though,* she said with a sad mental sigh. *I imagine you saw what happened in the entertainment room. Sarah and Karran both said that the port side of the ship and the lower levels are inaccessible and we only expect survivors from those who happened to be in the starboard dormitories or the dining hall at the time. I estimate that we have lost at least two thirds of the colonists in this mess.*
*Dammit,* I replied, shaking my head at the loss. *Let’s do our best to keep whoever is left alive then. As soon as Sarah and the others come back with any others I want you to launch. Every minute longer we stay we risk losing more lives when the overload in the accelerator goes critical.* After that Matt and I double-timed it to the medical drop ship. Once we were on board I had Matt place the girl in a gel bed in one of the twenty patients’ cubicles. *What’s our status?* I asked Tarek as I stepped into the pilot’s compartment.
*It looks like we are in good shape for launch Commander. The prisoners are all in one of the patients’ rooms with a quarantine photon shield in place to keep them from getting out, and the others are getting what medical supplies we can on board before we launch as you ordered,* my friend replied.
*Good,* I said with a nod. *Now could you please get in the navigators seat and rest? Don’t fall asleep though, I’m pretty sure you have a mild concussion but seeing as I want to launch the instant we’re ready we’ll have to wait to do full injury assessments until we’re at a safe distance from the ship.*
*I can fly the ship,* he tried to insist.
*No, you are injured and in no condition to fly. Now please do as I ask Tarek… for me. I’d rather not have to make it an order.* The concern in my thoughts seemed to get through to him and he reluctantly agreed, leaving the pilot’s chair to do as I had asked.
It was several minutes before I received another ping from Tanna. *Sarah and everyone that her group could find are aboard and we’re launching now. Once we’re both off the Bounty we’ll need to use subspace comms to stay in contact. Good luck Commander.*
*I’ll get everyone on board and we’ll be right behind you,* I replied. *Best of luck to you as well.* Then I pinged Krie and relayed the situation to her. *Tanna is launching now, get everyone on board so we can do the same. I think we’ve already pushed our luck staying aboard this long.*
*We are on our way back with the last of the important supplies now Xia,* my sister responded. *I will let you know when we are all aboard.*
*Okay sis, see you soon.* I began to run over a quick pre-launch checklist and found that like Tarek had said we were indeed ready to launch.
Each second waiting for the others to get aboard seemed like an eternity but finally another ping arrived and Krie sent. *We’re all on board and the airlock is sealed.*
I opened the hanger doors as soon as I heard her words and once the atmosphere in the hanger finished venting I sent back, *Hold on to your seats then because we are out of here.* I released the docking clamps, pulled back the control sticks and goosed the foot pedals launching us out of the Bounty like a bullet being fired. We had barely gotten to safe distance before the sensors showed the explosion of the Bounty behind us.
Our best guess was that the Bounty had emerged in some kind of asteroid belt or debris field. I had very nearly hit one sizable chunk of rock as we made our escape and Tanna had mentioned similar issues over the subspace communications channel. There were ship sized asteroids all around us and it was going to take some precise flying to get us safely out of the three dimensional maze we now found ourselves in the middle of. Both ships were pretty maneuverable though and we were both pretty comfortable navigating through it all. Still it was wall over six hours before we were free of the debris.
Our new situation left the survivors of the Bounty in a bit of a pickle though. The pair of drop ships that we now inhabited were meant for atmospheric travel and not for extended space flight and this presented us with a number of problems. First, neither ship had the food or other supplies necessary for a long sojourn in space. Secondly, the entire crew was exhausted and Tarek was injured and at some point we were all going to need to rest. And last but not least we had no way to let those on Saer’kah know about our current plight since all of the remaining subspace anchors and long range communications gear had been destroyed along with the Bounty.
The obvious solution was that we needed to find someplace safe to land, and so as soon as we left the asteroid field I was using the medical ship’s long range scanners to get at least a general idea of where we were. The result was that we were in a solar system with a yellow sun and seven planets so it was likely the solar system we had been aiming for. We appeared to be somewhere between the second and third planets, which much to my sheer joy were the two that were in the green belt. Of the two, the second planet seemed to be the closest so we set a course so that I could begin closer range scans to see if we could survive there.
Once we arrived at the planet in question and both ships were maintaining a high orbit I had Tanna settle down for some rest while Karran took over for her and I waited for the results of the planetary scans. The scans were likely to take a few hours so I had Krie go to check on the girl’s condition and make sure the amputated areas were looking all right. I intended to use the time we had so Tarek and I made our way back to the main section where the others were waiting. “We’re in orbit and running scans on the second planet of this system now,” I announced. “We have some time before Krie and I can go over the results though, so let’s see if our friend Eric feels like talking.”
I flushed the burn bath solution from the medical tube and opened it up to look inside. He could use some more time in the burn bath and he was going to have some major scarring, but the wounds were starting to heal up nicely. I was sorely tempted to take the time to remove whatever it was at the base of his skull but it would have to wait until he was in better shape and Krie and I could generate a prosthetic eye and arm and perform proper surgery. For now though he was stable and that was all I needed at the moment so I removed the oxygen mask and fiddled with the neuro-supressor to wake him up and gave him another nanite injection to alleviate any pain he might feel.
His one good eye fluttered open and I didn’t even give him a chance to speak before clarifying his situation for him. “Good morning Mr. Townsend. We have woken you up to have a few words with you. You may notice that you can’t move anything below your neck, that is a precaution to keep you from doing something stupid and aggravating your injuries. So here’s how things are going to work, you’re going to answer my questions honestly. If I have reason to believe that you’re lying I will rip the answers from your mind and leave you with the intelligence and reasoning capability of a bowl of tapioca pudding.” The last was of course a bluff since I had no desire to ever do such a thing to anyone, but from the look on his face he wasn’t willing to chance it.
Now that our positions were clear I asked, “Who do you work for and why are you here Mr. Townsend?”
“Like I told you before I was in the United States Air Force,” he answered. “I was ordered to get on one of the Migration ships and when we were sent off to start a colony I was supposed to make sure that if we found any likely colony worlds that humans would claim it first and that it would be under American control. Earth needs new sources of resources to thrive and compete on a galactic scale and even with the knowledge the Saer’khi shared we’re still at least a decade away from colonizing planets with our own resources, you should know that. Who are you working for anyway, the Chinese? You have that look about you. I must admit I’m impressed though, getting the bugs to trust you enough to put you in charge of the whole colony mission and limiting the amount of bugs they sent with us was brilliant.”
It figures, I thought, humanity gets shown that we are not alone in the universe and offered a chance to be part of something bigger than ourselves and still most of us can’t see past our petty differences and territorial greed enough to see the big picture. I shook my head sadly as I replied, “I’m not working for anyone, I just didn’t want to see anyone hurt. And I’ll have you know I was born in California.”
“We should be working together then, with your abilities we could make sure this ship and the colony it starts are under American control. Think of your country,” he prodded.
I glowered at him. “News flash Eric, your little stunt on the bridge destroyed the Bounty and killed over half the people on board. Also I have no loyalty toward a country that instead of trying to actually help me took the first diagnosis handed to them and made me into a combination lab rat and tour attraction. Why should any of us here have any loyalty to the countries that shipped us off to another planet just because due to illness or other circumstances beyond our control we couldn’t contribute? The Saer’khi took us in and did what they could to help us, even if they did make some mistakes; I think they deserve our loyalty far more. Now enough of this shit, I ask the questions and you answer them. Now what’s the deal with Jared?”
He rolled his eye at that. “On Earth Jared was very vocal in his distrust of aliens. Since he wasn’t useful for much else the government had me recruit him to come with me on the last Migration ship and encourage people to distrust the bugs. The conditions made it fairly easy for him to get people on his side and I was hoping that it would make my job easier once we found a colony planet. So I watched him and waited for the time to make my move.”
That wasn’t terribly surprising to me, the government probably couldn’t resist the chance to get rid of a waste of space like Jared and destabilize things on Saer’kah at the same time if their goal really was to claim the new colonies for themselves. “Next question: Why did you attack the bridge and try to force us to leave subspace? How did you manage to override the controls?”
“I figured that you were working for the Chinese and had found a viable planet,” the burned soldier replied acidly. “I thought that you were waiting to leave subspace until you could get your people in place for a takeover so I decided to beat you to the punch. I have a talent for languages which is why the Air Force chose me for this mission; I’ve been studying the bugs language since they came to Earth.”
“Well you guessed wrong and thanks to you, and your idiot friend, hundreds of people that I was trying to protect have died,” I half-growled in my anger at his stupidity. “Tanna warned you that unplanned jumps out of subspace are a recipe for disaster and you still did it, even after I explained to everyone that the Saer’khi are incapable of lying.”
“But you are,” he suggested with a cold smile. “You even said you tried to teach them to lie. I think you had more success with that than you let on.”
“Well you were wrong about that too, they can’t lie it goes against their natures and it’s impossible to teach them since so much of their interaction is telepathic. What was that weapon you had and what is the device that was located at the base of your skull?” I specifically used past tense when referring to the latter to make him think that we had already removed it.
His eye widened at the last question. He likely hadn’t expected us to discover it. “The weapon is a prototype version of a particle beam weapon based on the data given to us by the Saer’khi. They must not have shared the technology for whatever weapon you used on me because I wasn’t briefed on it.” Then another cold smile passed over his half-ruined face. “The other device was a subspace tracking beacon, it constantly sent my location back home. When the signal gets back to Earth they will be able to use it to find us.”
“I’ve heard enough,” I muttered, “Good night Mr. Townsend.” I reached forward and set the neuro-suppressor to put him back in a coma before replacing the oxygen mask, closing the tube and setting it to fill with a mixture of burn bath and proteins. With a sigh I turned to the others, “So what do you think?”
Lieutenant Sanchez was the first to respond. “When I was still on Earth I ran my share of ops for the government, and this does have a government feel to it. You can bet they will send someone to follow that beacon sooner or later to see if the op was successful and possibly plan a new one if there’s anything on that planet to make it worthwhile.”
Karran was listening on the subspace channel and quickly put in, “It will likely take a while for any signal to get to Earth, even by subspace. If you and Krie can safely remove the device Xawin and I will examine it. Then we should be able to make a guess at how fast the signal will travel and possibly find some counter measures for similar devices.”
“We should try to warn the Saer’khi about this situation as soon as we can,” Captain White put in. “There’s probably more than one sleeper agent among the colonists and probably some from other countries as well. Military countermeasures might be worth discussing as well once we have a better grasp of our situation.”
I was silent for several minutes as I thought over what each of them had said, and then I sighed and gave the only answer I could. “We will definitely remove the tracker and screen other human colonists for similar devices. It will at least give us an idea on a time frame when Earth could be sending spies or troops. Countermeasures will have to be decided on by the colony government once we have it established though, I don’t have that kind of authority. My authority ends when the colonists land on a planet.”
To my surprise Lirra shook her head at that. “With all due respect Commander, I believe that my species as well as the other non-human species will continue to look to you for leadership. You have earned our respect and proven yourself a good leader who cares about others.”
“She’s right you know,” Dennis pointed out. “You have quite the following among the aliens. And a lot of the humans who don’t buy what Jared has been selling have developed a lot of respect for you as well. I think people will be looking to you for leadership until the colony is ready to elect a government to make the big decisions.”
“You do realize that I never wanted this whole leader thing in the first place, right?” I asked them.
“The best leaders don’t want to be in charge,” Matt put in. “They just do what needs to be done because it needs to be done.”
I groaned, holding my head in my hands as I replied, “Fine we’ll discuss countermeasures once Karran and Xawin have had a chance to look over the device. Captain White, I would like you and Lieutenant Sanchez to please stand guard while Krie checks over the mutineers for injuries and treats them. I need to check Tarek's injuries and then explain to a little girl why I had to cut off her legs.” I didn’t give anyone a chance to reply before I spun on my heel and walked out of the room with Tarek right behind me.
I took Tarek to a patients room and had him sit on the bed so I could do a thorough exam. Neither of us had said much since leaving the Bounty so I sat on the bed beside him and attempted to cut off any complaint before he could make it. *Look Tarek, I know piloting is your job here and that you feel like you should be doing it, but I was doing my job when I told you to rest. As both the Commander of the Bounty and one of the medical officers I had to make a judgement call. You had been shot and have a possible concussion and if I had let you pilot this ship in that condition, especially through that asteroid field, it could have endangered the lives of everyone on board.*
*I understand Xia,* he replied sincerely, *You were just doing what you thought was necessary and I can’t be mad at you for that.*
I breathed a sigh of relief, *Good now let me take a look at you. I’d like to see how badly you hit your head and how well the nanites managed to seal that wound with all the moving you did to get to the hanger from the bridge.* I had him remove his uniform so that I could get a better look and was pleased with what I saw. The wound was healing up nicely, but to be safe I added another liberal spray of wound sealant to the entry wound. I was in the process of shining a light in his eyes and gently prodding at the back of his head with my fingers feeling for a lump while using the X-Ray vision on my goggles to check for skull fractures when I finally got up the nerve to say *I’m sorry Tarek, you got hurt all because of me. I… I don’t like seeing you hurt.*
*I joined this ship’s crew because I wanted to and you explained the risks to all of us,* he replied, taking my hand in one of his own and looking me right in the eyes. *Sure I came here to be with you, but this is not your doing. You could not have predicted that one of them brought weapons and explosives on board. I am still alive and here with you and that makes me happy, although I must admit I am a bit disappointed that it took me being shot for you to ask me to take my clothes off.*
I was blushing and I knew it, but he did manage to get my mind off the fact that my incompetence nearly got him killed. I quickly turned my face away and tried to be professional. *The wound is healing up nicely and while you do have a concussion it’s not very serious. I want you to rest for the next twenty four hours and then you can return to your duties if we still need you as a pilot.*
Tarek squeezed my hand in his, *My feelings about you will never change Xia. We need to talk about this sometime. I know you’re not ready now but I just needed you to know that I will wait until you are ready.*
I nodded and replied, *I know Tarek, I just need a little more time. When things aren’t so crazy we will talk about it, I promise.* He released my hand and I hurriedly left the room telling myself that I was just in a rush to talk to my next patient. The reality was that nothing could be further from the truth.
When I arrived at the room that Matt had said he had placed the young girl in I found her sleeping, long black hair pooled beneath her head on the pillow. It appeared that her dreams were not at all pleasant. Krie had covered her up with the blankets and tucked her in from the looks of it but her arms were flailing and she was moaning and whimpering. I took a seat beside her on the bed trying to ignore how her legs suddenly ended beneath the blankets, gave her a little something to counter the sedative I had given her earlier, and waited for it to take effect.
Her eyelids fluttered as she returned to consciousness and I reached out to take her hand and give her a sad smile. “Hello, I’m Xia, you looked like you were having some pretty bad dreams there. It’s understandable given what happened on the Bounty.”
The girl looked at me groggily before her blue eyes opened wide in what I figured to be sudden realization, “You’re Commander Phar!”
I nodded slowly as I thought about how to explain the situation to her. “Yes I am. I’m also a doctor. Can you tell me your name honey? Do you remember what happened?”
“I’m Amy Stewart,” she replied instantly to my first question. Then she thought back to what happened and her face quickly changed from thoughtful to utterly horrified. She didn’t say anything else, she just broke into tears and I reached forward to pull her into a sitting position and a tight embrace.
We sat there for a time, me just holding her and whispering, “It’s okay, you’re going to be okay.”
Finally she stopped sobbing and sniffling enough to tell me what had happened. “The sh-ship sh-shook a-a-and then th-there was st-stone everywhere. P-people were screaming ‘cause they w-were trapped inside. M-my legs were…”
“I know honey,” I said in a calm and steady voice as I held her tight and gently stroked her hair. I think that only part of the reason I was holding her was to comfort her. I was half afraid to look at her, afraid of seeing hate in those eyes looking back at me. “We couldn’t stop the ship from dropping out of subspace and half of the ship materialized inside of an asteroid. I couldn’t do anything for your legs; I did what I had to… to get you off the Bounty alive. I’m sorry but I was not going to just leave you there to die. Do you know where your parents were? Were they in the entertainment room with you?”
I could feel her head bobbing against my shoulder as she nodded. “It was j-just my Mom. My D-dad died in the accident when Mom l-lost her arm. Sh-she was on the other s-side of the r-room. I... I think she was trapped in the st-stone with e-everyone else. Did you f-find her? M-maybe I j-just couldn’t see her. I… I was in a lot of pain.”
My heart really went out to this poor child that I held in my arms. If her mother was on the other side of the room then there was no hope of her having survived. “I’m sorry Amy, you were the only one we found alive there.” Her sobs became worse at that point and her whole body shook with them. I knew exactly what was going through her mind right then, I’d had those same thoughts so many times at her age when the loss and the feelings about my condition were at their worst. She felt suddenly all alone in the world and like she would never have a normal life again. I needed so badly to take away some of that hurt and despair, to shine a little light in the darkness that threatened to consume her world.
“You know Amy,” I began, “When I was your age I lost both of my parents and because of my health I ended up living in a hospital. I hated it there and I felt like the whole world hated me but that’s where I met my new mom. She’s a Saer’khi and she not only fixed what was wrong with me but she adopted me and took me home to live with her, that’s one of the reasons I didn’t live in the barracks with the rest of you. She taught me that I might not have been born into her family but in a real family what matters is how much you care about one another. I know you feel all alone in the universe right now but you don’t need to be.”
“But I am alone,” she croaked out, her voice getting hoarse from all the crying.
“You’re not alone Amy, this whole colony is going to have to stick together if we want to survive,” I pointed out. “I’ll tell you what though; I’ll make the same deal with you my mom made with me. I will fix you up and I’m probably not the best role model, but if you want you can stay with me and my sister. We’ll make sure you’re taken care of and if you want to learn I’ll teach you what I can, but you have to follow my rules and realize that our customs may be a bit different than you’re used to. We’ll discuss it more later. Once you are feeling better I will take you to the body mapper and we can make you some bionics, you know what bionic limbs are right?” I pulled away so I could see her expression when I asked that last part.
She nodded and was a bit teary as she tried to come to grips with what this would mean for her. “My Mom had a bionic arm, that’s why we first came to Saer’kah on one of the first ships. They’re metal though; will I be able to feel anything? Mom said she could but I always thought she just didn’t want me feeling sorry for her.”
I pondered a moment on how to best explain the bionic limbs and the nanites they incorporated before answering. “There’s a bunch of little sensors in the newer bionics that are connected to your body’s nervous system by tiny little machines inserted where your real body and the metal parts meet. They will send and receive the same kind of signals that your real feet and legs would have when touching something or when you want to move them. We can even add some cool special features if you want to. We’ll discuss that later though. For now I want you to get some rest, your body has been through a lot of trauma and you need rest to heal properly. If you need me just press the touch-pad beside your bed and I’ll come running, okay? I’m going to send Matt in here to keep you company for a bit. He’s one of my personal protectors, he will keep you safe and he has bionics too, so he can tell you all about them.”
“Okay,” she agreed. I was pretty sure she didn’t want to be alone but I wasn’t lying about her needing rest and I still had work to do. I gave her another hug, had her lie back down, and tucked the blankets around her once again before leaving her to find Matt.
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
Chapter 6 Light in the Darkness Amethyst |
With Matt watching over Amy I felt a lot less guilty about leaving her to pursue my other duties. Krie and I spent hours going over scans to determine everything that we could about the planet, though I think we both knew that we would have to land even if the conditions were on the harsh side of tolerable. Travelling to the next planet in the system would just take too long in the drop ships. Once all the results were in I silently thanked whatever higher power might be out there for at least this little bit of good luck.
The planet had an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere just slightly heavier on the oxygen than Earth and its climate range was similar to Earth as well. Being smaller than Earth it also had a slightly lower gravity than Earth and Saer’kah both. There were three large continents, several island chains, and large ice caps at each of the poles. There didn’t seem to be much range in vegetation though, as the large forests that covered most of two of the continents seemed to be almost completely made up of conifer type trees judging from the pictures the long range scanners took. The third continent seemed to be partially in a tropical zone but the area lacked any of the jungle that was typical of those regions making it a near desert.
Finally the last of the calculations were finished and Krie read them for my benefit, *Judging from the scans there is only moderate volcanic activity, mostly centered in the tropical region, and we are looking at twenty eight hour days with approximately three hundred and twelve days to orbit the sun. So I guess that’s all we need to know unless of course your endless staring at the planet and the photographic scans has helped you to discover anything else.*
*Actually, I think it has,* I replied as I examined a zoomed in view of a large and nearly perfectly round lake that intersected a winding river. *This planet has two moons now but I think it may have had three at one time. Look at that huge lake, it’s a massive crater and there is at least one that is bigger than that and a lot of other smaller impact points all over the surface, though they are mostly covered in forest now. I think something struck the third moon in the past hard enough to break it apart. The debris field we appeared in is pretty close to the planet so it could be what’s left that didn’t rain down on the planet.*
*If that’s the case, I guess we won’t be finding any intelligent life down there,* she replied sounding a bit disappointed.
I gave my sister a hug. *I know you were kind of hoping we’d make first contact with some new race but just look at the size of that crater that reshaped the west coast of the northern continent. It was an extinction level event, I doubt much survived other than possibly some burrowing species and the hardier bugs and fish.*
Krie nodded in agreement. *And without certain insects and birds around to help pollinate then the only plants we are likely to see are those that pollinate asexually or by wind.*
I returned her nod with one of my own. *Well, there may not be much ecological variety down there, but it does seem fit for habitation. Let’s pick out a landing site and we’ll go down for a look before having Tanna bring the colonists down. The way our luck has been running I could be wrong and there could be all manner of horrible flesh eating creatures down there.*
*You really need to be more optimistic, think of this as an adventure,* Krie said in an obvious attempt to cheer me up. *Perhaps we should land at one of the larger impact points? We could take some samples and date them to figure out how long ago this disaster of yours happened.*
*Good idea sis, how about we land near the southern edge of that big one on the west coast of the northern continent?* I suggested. *We should be able to get good samples and it looks like there’s also a bunch of smaller impact points nearby as well as a river and some thick forest. It might be a good spot to settle with all of the possible natural resources nearby.*
*That sounds as good as anywhere else; I’ll let the others know while you set a course.* She stood up and headed to the back, leaving me alone to project a safe course for entering the atmosphere and taking us to the landing site that we had chosen. Once the ship had calculated the course I sent a message to Karran to let him know our intentions and left our place in orbit to follow the suggested route to the landing site. Entering the atmosphere was a little bumpier than I would have liked but I got us through it in one piece and soon we were closing in on our landing site.
I watched as the forests of this new planet passed beneath us and kept my eyes peeled for a large clearing or some other site suitable for landing the drop ships. Finally I discovered a large rocky outcropping on the edge of the west coast crater overlooking the ocean and carefully landed the ship. I thought I had spotted a river running through the forest nearby and felt that it might be worth checking out. Once we were safely on the ground Krie and I headed back into the main section and after checking on Tarek and Amy, the latter of which was sleeping somewhat peacefully, I gathered the rest of my team for a meeting.
When everyone was gathered and attentive I began to outline what we were going to be doing. “While I believe that this planet is mostly uninhabited due to a disaster some time ago, given our luck lately I want to err on the side of caution before bringing the colonists down. So we’re going to split into two groups and do a little exploring to make sure it’s safe while Krie and I take some readings. Captain, I want you and Lirra with Krie, Lieutenant Sanchez and Matt, you’re with me. We will meet back at the drop ship in two hours and keep in continual contact using subspace comms. Tarek still needs rest so he’ll be watching over the ship and Amy until we get back.”
Krie quickly added, “My group will go check out the forest while Xia’s will explore the cliffs and seaside. We will be taking various readings but keep alert for anything. We will need possible sources of food, clean water, and building supplies until we can find out exactly what supplies we have available on the other drop ship.”
With that we split up and while Krie’s group headed into the forest mine started heading for the cliff-side to look for a way down. Eventually we found a steep but navigable path of sorts and as we descended I paused repeatedly to take samples and scan them with a handheld scanner that would work for both organic and inorganic substances. From the results I was getting I discovered two items of interest; the disaster which rocked this planet likely happened around three hundred years ago and there were some interesting unknown minerals present in some of the stone and soil samples.
Krie’s team was making some interesting discoveries as well. She had discovered a red species of worm, two insect species, and possible small animal burrows. Lirra was picking up some animal scents and had also spotted a cave and the river I had seen earlier and Krie was planning on exploring those a bit next. By the time our group had made it to the beach I was beginning to think that Krie had taken the more interesting assignment as they had found that the river had fish in it, the water was clean, and there were animal tracks, made fairly recently.
By contrast exploring the beach was pretty boring. It was nice to breathe fresh air again and the pleasant smell of the air reminded me of outings at the beach during my childhood in San Francisco. The smell wasn’t salty though and prompted me to take water samples, which showed the water was drinkable. Other than that there wasn’t much to be seen but sand and rocks. Not that the rocks weren’t interesting, but geology wasn’t really my strong suit. Still I did take a bunch of samples for later study. Among those was some sort of a strange lightweight silvery black stone that looked pitted but felt smooth to the touch. My scans indicated that it was giving off low doses of radiation but not enough to be harmful. We also discovered a cave of our own while we were taking another path to the cliff top. While exploring it I chipped off a sample of a gold colored ore to place with the other samples.
Matt was waiting by the cave entrance and we were about to leave the shallow cave when something further back caught my notice. We moved toward the back of the cave where three piles of bones sat. From the looks or the skulls they had been some sort of humanoids, two adults and a child. The scanner dated them around three hundred years old and I wondered if perhaps they had taken shelter in this cave when the disaster struck. The poor people likely hadn’t survived the tsunami’s, earthquakes, temperature shifts, and volcanic activity that would have followed the debris of the third moon raining down on the planet. With that kind of extinction level event it was unlikely that any of these aliens had survived.
I spoke over the subspace comm, “Krie we found some humanoid skeletons here in a cave. It looks like whoever they were they didn’t survive the cataclysm though.”
Lieutenant Sanchez was inspecting one of the other bone piles, “I think this one has some type of knife, the workmanship isn’t great but it’s not Stone Age work either.” She got to her feet and was coming to bring me her find when suddenly the ground beneath her gave way and she fell through.
I heard a distant splash and a short cry of pain and mentally cursed. “Matt wait by the mouth of the cave, this ground isn’t very solid.” I was very glad that I was wearing my uniform and not something else or I would have to undress. The nanites that compose Saer’khi uniforms/environmental suits are meant to respond to our projected thoughts like the voice boxes, while the version we created on the ship for the colonists were altered to respond to simple voice commands. I dropped my pack and sent out a command to the nanites in my uniform to create an opening in the back, then I stretched out my wings and dove into the hole after Luiza.
The small woman was managing to tread water but it was obvious that she was in a lot of pain. “Try to hold on to my waist,” I quickly instructed her, “I’m going to try to fly you back up so I can lay you down and get a better look at you.” She nodded with a grimace and held on tight to my waist as I flew us carefully upward toward the hole in the cavern ceiling. I was really glad it wasn’t Matt who had fallen through as I wasn’t certain I could carry him with his size and all the bionics he had. At least Luiza was fairly light.
Still, as light as she was, I had trouble lifting her and carrying both my own weight and hers. I had to use my telekinesis not only to steady my flight but also to latch onto the ceiling of the cavern above us and pull us toward it. I wasn’t used to carrying other people when I flew so it was taking a lot more focus and time than I would have liked. Finally I got her to the cavern above and moved us closer to the entrance before awkwardly placing her on the ground as gently as I could. She winced as she laid down, “Damn that water was too shallow, I’m pretty sure I broke my leg.”
I switched my goggles to X-Ray mode and took a careful look of not just both of her legs but her spine as well just to be on the safe side. There was a stress fracture of her right tibia and, while there was swelling and it probably hurt like hell, there didn’t look to be any internal bleeding and at least it wasn’t an open fracture. I gave her something for the pain and after cutting away the lower leg of her uniform I applied a cooling gel on her leg to reduce the swelling. “Luiza, try to keep your leg as still as possible.” I took off my bandanna and offered it to Matt, “Matt, can you tear this into about six strips for me?”
Removing the bandana exposed my antennae and let my dark blue hair loose but they had both already seen my wings by now so there was no use hiding now. While Matt began tearing the bandanna into strips I grabbed my pack from where I had discarded it earlier and after placing all the samples inside I removed a retractable splint. I pressed the button on the side of the six inch long metal tube and it telescoped into metal pole roughly three and a half feet in length. One by one I took the strips of cloth from Matt and used them to lash Luiza’s leg firmly to the pole so that she wouldn’t be able to move it.
When I was finished I looked in my pack once again and withdrew a pair of foot long tubes connected by a durable and elastic synthetic cloth mesh. When the two tubes were pulled apart and telescoped they formed a stretcher roughly two feet wide by seven feet long. “Okay Matt, lift her up carefully and place her on the stretcher while I put all my medical supplies away.” I turned around and started loading up my pack, afraid to look at either of them. They probably hated me now; I should have known I couldn’t keep this farce going for long.
A large metallic hand settled on my shoulder, causing me to flinch and my wings to buzz nervously. “I was wondering when you were going to let us in on your secret,” Matt said.
“You knew?” I asked. I thought that they must think me a horrible person for keeping it from them and could feel tears coming to my eyes.
“I can’t speak for the others but I figured that there was some reason you never took your goggles and bandana off. I thought you just had cybernetics that you were embarrassed about or something, I didn’t think that you were…”
“A freak?” I supplied.
“Unique,” he countered. “So how does a California girl end up looking like you do now and living with the Saer’khi?”
There was no harm in telling them now; it had to be better than whatever theories he and Luiza might concoct on their own. So I told them almost everything from my parents dying in the Great Quake to why I was hospitalized and how my mom had changed me in her efforts to save my life. The only thing I didn’t tell them was that I had originally been male, that was really none of their business and I identified as female anyway. I even told them about the research center and my nanites and how the first humans I had met had reacted to my appearance.
Luiza was furious I could see it all over her face but the first words out of her mouth surprised me. “Assholes like that don’t count as human Xia. You have far more right to that title than them, but I can see now why you don’t trust most humans very much, I wouldn’t either in your place. Anyone in this colony who tries something like that because of your looks is going to have to get through me first.”
Matt nodded grimly in agreement. “I have your back too Commander, I bet this is hard enough on you without people making it harder.”
I let slip a soft sigh, “Yeah I grew up human but the Saer’khi have treated me far better than other humans ever have and my genes are half human and half Saer’khi. I’m not even sure what I am anymore, am I even human?”
“Does it matter?” Matt asked. “You’re unique, so what. Maybe being half human and half Saer’khi makes you more than both. I don’t see you as either though, I see you as a person, so maybe you shouldn’t stress about being seen as human and just be Xia. If these mixed colonies are going to work we all need to start seeing one another as people first and species second.”
“Besides, if you were human I would still be down in that hole and probably close to drowning because my leg wouldn’t work,” Luiza put in. “So I for one am thankful that you’re special.”
This was not what I was expecting to hear from them at all. I thought they would think I was some kind of freak and that I had been lying to them about everything all along. “Have you always been such a nice guy?” I asked of Matt as I picked up my pack and went to double check Luiza’s leg.
“Nah, you wouldn’t have liked me on Earth, I was a bit of an ass,” he replied. “I feel bad though, I know all about you and Lieutenant Sanchez but you both know nothing about me.”
“There’s ways to find out,” I said with a shrug. Luiza’s leg wasn’t looking any worse and the gel appeared to be helping the swelling some.
“You mean like reading my mind?” he replied with a chuckle.
I shook my head, “No I wouldn’t do that without your permission, the Saer’khi believe it to be unspeakably rude to go beyond someone’s surface thoughts without consent.”
He smiled, tapping the side of his head. “Be my guest, my mind is your mind.”
My eyes widened at his words and I scrambled back toward the wall of the cavern shaking my head furiously. “Don’t say that…”
I was sitting with Tarek amidst the white blossoms of a Vysila tree watching the sun set. We had had a nice day flying together, talking, and playing a telepathic version of Marco Polo amidst the low hanging clouds. The rain had been refreshing and I hadn’t even minded that my clothes had gotten soaked. It was nice to have a day away from my studies and my deliveries to the barracks and just enjoy living with no pressure to be anyone or anything but myself.
Tarek was distracted though and I thought that my friend might be worried about his upcoming training at the space academy. He wanted to be a pilot so badly. *What’s on your mind Tarek?* I finally asked.
*We’ve known one another a long time and you mean a lot to me Xia. There is something that have been wanting to say to you for a while now…* he began nervously.
*You’re my best friend besides Krie, you know you can tell me anything,* I assured him.
He turned to look right at me, amber eyes into amber eyes and said, *My mind is your mind.* He was offering me a look into the deepest recesses of his mind… and God help me I looked. I was unprepared for what I saw there; such love, complete devotion, and a desire to be mine. It was overwhelming and I was unprepared so I did the only thing that made sense at the time, I flew home as fast as I could. But I couldn’t seem to outrun what was in his mind, it was there, I could feel him in the back of my mind no matter how much distance I put between us. We were bonded.
I was in a panic when I arrived home and explained what had happened to my mother. She was so happy for me and it confused me until she explained things. He had offered me his mind and I had unwittingly taken it and the bond of Dhur-tal had been formed. I had always thought that Dhur-tal involved some elaborate ritual that as a half-breed I wasn’t privy to but no it really was as simple as a male offering his mind and the female taking it. I was so panicked that I could hardly breathe as I asked, *I’m married to Tarek?*
*Don’t be silly,* my mother reassured me. *You won’t perform a wedding ceremony until you have chosen at least two husbands. You have merely claimed him as your first Tess’hir. I would suggest having three before wedding so you have a good gene pool to work from for your children. Perhaps we can find a nice human male who would offer himself to you.*
“Whoa! What’s wrong Commander?” Matt’s voice brought me back to the present.
“Well by Saer’khi standards you just offered me a look into the deepest parts of your mind. If I had accepted and actually looked it’s possible that Dhur-tal may have occurred,” I said as I tried to collect myself.
Lieutenant Sanchez gave me a strange look, “What’s Doortall?”
“It’s a permanent mental bond that a Saer’khi female forms with each of her mates, or Tess’hir,” I explained. “When she feels she has enough mates she marries them all in a ceremony with their friends and loved ones present.”
“You’re only half Saer’khi, how do you know this bond could even happen if you tried?” Matt asked.
I looked at my feet in embarrassment. “Because I accidentally did it once already and have one Tess’hir waiting to tie the knot with me.”
“Let me guess, it’s Tarek,” Luiza prodded. “You don’t need to be a telepath to see how that guy feels about you. Anyone can see it when he’s in the same room with you.”
“Ummm… yeah it’s Tarek,” I replied, blushing a deep red.
“Okay so don’t offer you my mind unless I mean it,” Matt said with a grin. “I guess I’ll just have to tell you all about me the old fashioned way then.” We both moved to pick up the stretcher and as we made our way back to the ship Matt began with a wink, “You see on Earth I was this big movie star…”
“Bullshit,” I said with a roll of my eyes, “If you don’t want to tell me you don’t have to.”
“I’m being serious,” he quickly promised, “If I weren’t carrying a stretcher I’d cross my heart. Did you ever hear of a teen movie star named Mathew Scott?”
I stared at him a moment as I tried to picture him several years younger without the scars and bionics. “Holy shit! That’s where I recognized your name and face from. What happened? I kind of stopped following movies after my parents died and my health problems began.”
“I was a big name teen heartthrob until I was sixteen,” he explained. “That’s when the Great Quake hit and at the time I was filming a movie in the Soquel Demonstration State Forest near Santa Cruz. During the filming a redwood tree was uprooted and fell. Instinct kicked in and I tried to shield myself with my arms. Both of my arms were shattered, my right eye and the optical nerve were damaged, and I had deep gashes all over the right side of my face. I was half blind, scarred, and both my arms had been amputated so my acting career was essentially over and I dropped out of the public eye.”
“So what happened then? “Luiza asked from the stretcher.
He shrugged but I could see that there was sadness in his eyes. “Without my movie income and with the film company refusing to pay insurance premiums since it was an ‘act of God’ and not as a result of filming, my family nearly went bankrupt paying for medical expenses and my special needs. I sank into a real bad depression and pretty much figured that I was going to spend the rest of my days on exhibit in the hospital. Then the Saer’khi came to Earth and offered me an out so I took it, and I haven’t looked back since.”
I thought he would have finished there but he looked at me and said, “I didn’t see you there but I think we might have been in the same research lab. I only ever saw Dennis there, we were roommates. When they put in all my bionics they reinforced my spine too but they were afraid that I might reject the spinal implants so they put these nanites inside me to keep me from rejecting, help me heal faster, keep me healthy, and improve the connection between my nervous system and the bionics. I guess they were a little too successful with all of us.”
“Sarah was my roommate,” I admitted as we topped the rise and the drop ship came into sight. “Until now she was the only human who knew about me. She warned me against doing this… against coming on this mission. We both knew that it was only a matter of time until my secret slipped out.”
“We could keep it quiet until you’re ready to…” Luiza started to say
I shook my head. “No, I’m tired of hiding, Matt’s right I need to start being myself.”
Krie and the others had already returned to the drop ship when we arrived. My sister gave me an inquiring look and a mental nudge when she saw that I wasn’t wearing my bandanna and had my wings out so I quickly told her what had occurred telepathically and had Matt help her take care of Luiza while I explained my appearance to the others. I could have been a sea slug for all Lirra cared and Dennis admitted that he thought that there was more to my story than I had been telling but that it just didn’t matter to him.
It was a few minutes later that Matt and Krie joined us. My sister had set the bone repair nanites to work on Luiza’s leg and she was resting while they did their thing. We all held a quick discussion on our findings and how to proceed. No other signs of intelligent life had been discovered yet and we all felt that things just might be looking up. It was decided that we couldn’t wait any longer to bring the colonists down and that the planet needed a name. I tried to come up with something more positive this time around given how appropriate the name for the Bounty had turned out. None of us wanted to tempt fate any more than we already had given how the trip had gone thus far. But with the fish and all the clean water that we had discovered it looked like survival on this planet may be possible after all. They had also made some other discoveries that would help us to survive.
Lirra had found some cave dwelling hairless creatures about the size of pigs that Dennis had dubbed molehogs. They fed on insects and redworms and were half blind, stupid, and plentiful enough to provide food for at least a short while. Krie had also discovered some bushes with sour but edible yellow berries and some deciduous trees with light brown bark and large triangular leaves that seemed to pollinate by wind. The trees produced nuts the size of chestnuts and the shells had wing-like protrusions that allow them to glide to the ground and be carried on the wind. I jokingly called them wingnuts and the name stuck. All in all, our food situation was looking a lot better than we had all feared.
Finally I called Tanna on the drop ship’s subspace comm unit to give her the landing coordinates and inquire about the status of the colonists. They were bored and scared but none of them had reported any major injuries. Karran and Xawin were trying to keep them all occupied but there really wasn’t much they could do given the situation. I hoped that news that they would be landing soon would help brighten their spirits as I thought about how best to address some of the issues that were bound to come up. Tanna estimated a half an hour before touchdown so I decided to go check on Amy and Tarek while I had a few spare moments instead of worrying.
When I got to Amy’s room both she and Tarek were awake and he was telling her stories about his time at the space academy. She was listening intently and I smiled to myself as I watched the two interact for a moment before knocking on the door frame. “The other colonists should be landing in half an hour or so, so I thought I would come check up on my two favorite patients before I get too busy.”
Both of them looked up at my knock and while Tarek gave me that warm and loving smile of his Amy seemed to be trying to figure out just what she was seeing. “You’re…” she began to say in confusion before stopping herself.
I pushed my goggles up to my forehead so that my eyes were visible and went to sit beside her on the bed and ruffle her hair. “Remember how I told you my mom fixed me?” She nodded and I went on to explain, “My brain and my body weren’t compatible so she had to make me half Saer’khi to make my body and brain work better with one another. I went through a lot of what you’ll be going through, getting used to body parts that feel different and looking different from everyone else. I used to hide my differences because the first humans who saw me like this didn’t like it.”
“I think you’re really pretty,” she said with a smile, “Like a fairy princess. My mom used to tell me stories about fairy princesses; I wish she could be here to see you.” Her eyes were distant and teary as her smile disappeared.
“As long as you remember her and how much she loved you she will always have a place in your heart,” I told her as I wrapped her in a hug. “I think if she couldn’t be here herself to see you grow up, she would be happy to know that you have a fairy princess of your very own to watch over you.” I sat there with her holding her and caressing her hair until it was almost time for the other drop ship to land.
The colonists were all gathered outside the drop ships when I emerged from the medical ship with the others. I was wearing a temporary bandana and my goggles and my wings were once again hidden inside my uniform as we led Jared and the other mutineers out to the gathering. The only people not present were Amy, Tarek, Luiza, and Eric, all for medical reasons. We approached the front of the group and I raised my hands for silence, trying not to think about how few colonists were left. When I had gotten it I said, “I am not going to sugar coat our situation folks. With the destruction of the Bounty we are effectively stranded here with only the supplies that were on the two drop ships that we were able to salvage. We have lost a lot of good people in this fiasco; friends, loved ones, and people we were just getting to know. Right now we have to get past that and work toward the one goal that we all have in common, survival. Humans, Saer’khi, Nezan, Murqui, Haran and Yazuik; we’re all going have to work together to survive, so there is no room for bigotry or intolerance. We are now one people, on one world, and we need to act like it. That is why with great hope I have decided that this planet will be called Unity.”
A tall human man with dark hair and eyes and probably Latin ancestry asked, “What happened?”
“There was a saboteur in our midst working for Earth,” I explained with a sad shake of my head. “His mission was to get whatever colony that was founded under Earth, and more specifically American control. He led a mutiny and despite warnings from my crew managed to drop us out of subspace. We materialized inside an asteroid and the rest you can probably figure out from there. The saboteur is being treated for injuries until the colony as a whole can decide on a punishment for all the deaths he has caused.”
“How do we know that you’re telling the truth?” asked another man that I recognized as one of Jared’s supporters. “I thought that only you and the bugs could read their language and control the ship.”
Not this shit again, I thought as I considered how to best answer him. What happened next though surprised the hell out of me. “I helped with the mutiny,” Jared stated. “I was hired on Earth by Eric Townsend to encourage people to distrust the Saer’khi and to help him take over a colony ship when the time came. He had weapons and explosives and was able to read the language. It was supposed to be a simple takeover… only the bugs were supposed to get hurt.”
Jared’s admission was met with a lot of angry muttering. One woman said, “You should have just killed all the mutineers, they deserve it. And if Earth governments think they can just cast us aside and then expect us to happily re-join them once they pull something like this then they are in for a big surprise.”
I shook my head, “I wasn’t about to sink to their level, and I felt that their punishment was something that the colony as a whole should decide on. As for Earth, I agree with you completely. We’re the ones who were cast off from Earth, we’re the ones the Saer’khi have been preparing for this, and we’re the ones who have claimed this planet. If any Earth government tries to take this planet from us after all we’ve been through getting here, then they will have to pry the rights to it from my cold dead hands.” A loud cheer erupted at that and someone started chanting “Unity! Unity!” The chant was soon picked up by others until everyone I could see was chanting it.”
Finally I raised my hands again for silence and said, “We have a lot of work ahead of us to make this planet into a home and we have dead to mourn but I am confident that we can all get through this together and make this colony into something great. Before we start though, there is something you all deserve to know. I told you all that in order to keep my psychic abilities from killing me that the Saer’khi had to make some alterations to my body but I didn’t tell you what manner of alterations. They had to change my nervous system to a Saer’khi/human hybrid and as a result there were some physical changes. You have all followed me this far and you deserve to see me for who I really am.” I pulled off my goggles and bandana and sent a command to my suit for the back to open as I spread my wings for all to see.
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
Chapter 7 New Dawn Amethyst |
I was expecting to see hate, fear, and betrayal on the faces of the colonists but except for two of Jared’s supporters the colonists didn’t seem to care, in fact a lot were smiling and exchanging knowing looks. I took a deep breath and announced, “We will decide on the fates of the mutineers at a later date, we have more important things to worry about right now. Until their fates are decided they will be imprisoned aboard the medical ship.” There was some muttering about that but I quickly continued to get their minds on what they needed to be on right now. “I understand how you all feel, but right now survival has to be our top priority.”
After a brief pause to let that sink in I began to outline what needed to be done. “I estimate that we have four hours of daylight left and we’ll need to use that time to get organized. So while I have Sarah, Tanna, Xawin, and Karran figuring out what supplies we have to work with I want everyone else to make yourselves comfortable here so that Krie and I can speak with each of you. We want to get a head count, make sure everyone is uninjured, and get an idea of what skills you have to contribute.” Once everyone had sat down to await their medical scan and short interview I turned to Dennis. “Captain white, please return the prisoners to one of the quarantine room until we can figure out something more permanent for them, then I’d like you and Matt to begin patrolling the area, there may be other creatures or useful plants that we haven’t seen yet.”
“We’ll get right on that Commander,” he responded, “Let’s get moving you four.”
Jared frowned and said nothing, I’m pretty sure that he knew he was getting off lightly. It was Jake who complained, glaring at me. “You’re locking us up again?! Why? Aren’t you going to need all the help you can get?”
I glared right back at him. “I am saving your lives, for the moment, though I'm not sure why I'm bothering. I would love nothing more than to put you all on a work detail right now and let you meet whatever fate the colonists think you deserve. There’s a bunch of understandably pissed off people who probably want blood for what you all caused. If I send you off to do work with the others how long do you think it would be before there was an ‘accident’ involving one or more of you? Let me make this clear, I don’t give a fuck whether you live very uncomfortably or die but I don’t want these people doing something they may regret later. Most of them are good people who don’t need your deaths on their conscience and I don’t want our time on this planet to begin with killing; there have been enough deaths already. We’ll decide your fates when everyone is thinking more clearly.”
Dennis and Matt started moving them back to the medical drop ship while I put on my goggles and Krie and I both took out medical scanners to begin our medical scans and interviews. We used tablets to store all the data so that we could come back to it later. It took over an hour but we got everyone scanned and checked for injuries and any devices like the one Eric had. To my great relief there were none of the latter and no injuries among the survivors other than minor scrapes and bruises. I did discover that one of the Haran youths had nanites like my own though. The Haran’s name was Bixx and they were close to my own age, still genderless, and likely wouldn’t ever have a gender with the nanites keeping them at that age.
Including myself and those in the medical ship there were a total of two hundred and nine survivors: Myself and the other five Saer’khi, a family of four Yazuik, twenty-three Haran, seven Nezans, seventeen Murqui, and one hundred and fifty two Humans. Since nine hundred and seventy three of us had started the journey on the Bounty that meant that we had lost seven hundred and sixty four colonists. I tried not to think about that as I looked over the skills we had available to us. Close to two dozen of the Humans had some sort of military history. There were also some construction workers, a physicist, a school teacher, a geologist, and a Murqui chemist.
By that time Sarah and the others had a list of the supplies aboard the personnel ship as well. We had available two nanite construction kits, which I figured we would hold in reserve for an emergency. We also had some other high tech goodies like one mag-transport, twenty-one particle beam cylinders, twenty subspace comm discs, two electromagnetic shield generators, six cases of ten data pads, two dozen photon lamps, and four solar generators. The five water purifiers, seventeen cases of ration bars, one case of honey, and twenty-six crates of kitchen supplies would be useful to Sarah. For construction and clothing we had two crates of shovels, one crate of axes, two crates of nails, five crates containing four tool kits each, nine plasma torches, twenty-three crates of thermal cloth jumpsuits, fourteen crates of cotton cloth, needles and thread, five environmental suits, and while the three cases of thermal wrap might be useful in the kitchen I could see us using it to create warm shelters as well.
The final two items on the list were various fruit and vegetable seeds and two freezers containing genetic material from various species. Those would be very useful if we could use two or three of the four cloning chambers on the medical ship to clone birds or insects that could help pollinate the plants. Long term we could even clone some domestic farm animals. The cloning chambers were designed to clone both organs for medical use and living organisms during food shortages and would be useful in our current situation.
Even having the medical drop ship itself was a huge boon to us as it had a fully equipped sickbay, living quarters for up to four medical staff, and all of the spare medical supplies we had managed to salvage. Besides that and the twenty private cubicles for patients the medical ship also had two operating rooms contained in electromagnetic shields to keep them sterile, three medical tubes and neuro-suppressors in addition to the ones being used on Eric, a sterilization room that uses sonics and anti-bacterial bath, a full sized enclosed medical scanner and body mapper, the four cloning chambers, an emergency weapons locker, and a nanite medical programming console to construct artificial limbs, and other pre-programmed items in conjunction with the body mapper.
If we still had all the colonists we would be spreading all the supplies we had pretty thin but with so few of us still alive we stood a much better chance at survival with what we had available. I made sure to mention this when I addressed everyone to help brighten their spirits. “Okay everyone, I know things look grim but we have ration bars, tools for construction, some clothing, and even a possible way to increase our food supply in the long term. We need to split into groups and get things done during the two or so hours of daylight we have left.”
There was relief of many of the colonists faces as I continued on to outline what needed to be done. “I will be staying here with Krie to coordinate things, issue supplies, provide medical attention if needed and catalog what seeds and genetic material we have available. If you’re willing to help with hunting and gathering please report to Lirra and Tanna. I’ll need the folks from the kitchen and other volunteers to gather kindling and to help Sarah get some cooking fires started up for tonight, and I’ll need people to help Karran with gathering firewood and supplies to make shelters. Xawin’s crew will start digging holes for latrines and set up the photon lamps. I would like our school teacher Rebecca Landry to keep the younger children occupied with a few volunteers as well. Each team will be issued a subspace comm disc and a weapon and I urge you all to please be careful. We haven’t had time to do a full survey of the planet yet and there may be dangers out there. If you find anything useful please let your team leader know right away.”
Once the necessary tools had been doled out to each of the teams Krie and I began to look through the genetic material available to us. Saer bees would be far too dangerous to have around without taking precautions but we were both pleased to see honey bee DNA had been included, as had hummingbirds. Both would be good for pollination and the latter wouldn’t eat the bee population, while the former would produce honey. Cows and chickens were on our list too, for their milk and eggs and to have poultry and beef available. The final animal that we were thinking of introducing in the long term was the Durla. They were large sheep-like animals even bigger than cows with thick white wool and a good temperament that could feed on just about any type of grass. The females produced sweet tasting milk in fairly large quantities as well.
For vegetation we were hoping to cultivate a large number of fruits and vegetables as well as wheat and rice. There were various herbs and spices from Earth and other worlds and Sarah felt they would help add flavor to the meals if we could grow those as well. We were discussing how to best develop the land for farming when a call came in for medical attention from Karran’s team that was gathering firewood. I grabbed my kit, ran outside and took to the skies. It was nice to be able to fly again without worry and I would be able to find them easier from the air, at least that’s what I told myself. The fresh air rushing past me as I flew toward the sound of trees being chopped down was refreshing and helped to wake me up a bit. I was approaching two days with no sleep and it was beginning to take its toll. I promised myself that once sleeping arrangements were taken care of for the other colonists later that evening I would try to get some sleep of my own.
I landed at the edge of the forest where the colonists were hard at work and walked over to where Karran was waiting for me with a young man. *Kyle here got some resin from one of these black conifers on his arm and he says it burns a bit,* the engineer informed me.
*Thanks Karran, I’ll take it from here,* I assured him before turning to smile at the young man. He wasn’t an adult yet, probably twelve or thirteen, with light blond hair and blue eyes. He probably could have stayed with Rebecca with the younger children but he appeared to be the type who wanted to prove he was a grown up and could do his share. “Hi Kyle,” I said casually as I knelt beside him, “So you told Karran that the resin from those trees burns a bit?”
He nodded rapidly before answering. “Yes… umm… Commander Phar. It’s not hurting really bad, it’s more like a little sunburn and the stuff is… uhh… really sticky.”
I tried not to smile at his nervousness. “Let me have a look Kyle and I’ll see what can be done.” He raised his arm for me to look at and I took out my medical scanner set it to scan biological agents and ran it over the blue substance. When the scanner beeped I looked over the results. “Hmmm it’s mildly acidic but not dangerously so. I’m going to spray it with a cooling agent. It should be less sticky when it’s cold and come off fairly easily. So I need you to just stay still for a moment while I do that, okay?”
“O-okay,” he answered as I took out a bottle of coolant spray and spritzed the resin which quickly began to harden. Once hardened I began to peel it off carefully, though it actually came off pretty easily once it was hardened. Once it was removed his arm was a little pink where it had been but there was no real damage, it couldn’t even really be classified as a burn it was so mild. The area did seem to be missing the light sprinkling of hair that was evidenced on his other arm but I was pretty sure he could live with that. It could have been far worse after all.
I placed my goggles back over my eyes and zoomed in on the affected area. “I’m guessing the redness will fade within the hour. This stuff isn’t really harmful just annoying. It pretty much burned out your hair follicles though and I can’t be sure if the hair will grow back. You’re lucky you didn’t get it on your head,” I told him with a smile. “So it looks like you’ll live. If you notice any other reaction to the area later let me know immediately but otherwise you’re safe to get back to work.” I looked around and whispered conspiratorially, “I might have a special job for you too if you’re interested in doing it.”
His eyes lit up and he nodded, “What kind of job?”
“I need someone responsible to make sure that everyone chopping wood knows what this resin does and to be careful not to get any on them. And if anyone does get some on them I need that person to remove the stuff like I did for you,” I told him as I took out an extra bottle of the coolant spray. “Just spritz this on the resin, wait for a minute, and then pull it off carefully. Then at dinner tonight you can bring the bottle back to me. This is a really important job and it will keep me from having to fly back and forth a lot, so do you think that you can do that for me?”
He nodded so fast that I thought his head might come off. “I can do that Commander!”
I grinned at him, handed him the bottle, and stood up. “Okay Kyle, you keep up the good work and remember to report to me at dinner.”
“Yes ma’am!” he said as he dashed off to do his newly assigned duty.
*Okay Karran, if anyone else gets that resin on them let Kyle take care of it. Call me if you need anything else though,* I sent to my large Saer’khi friend. It was then that movement in trees caught my eye and I quickly added, *I think I saw something. I’m going to go check it out.*
*Alright Commander, please be careful and call me if you need me,* he sent back.
I flew off toward the movement keeping just above the ground since I wanted speed and relative quiet and not altitude. I was heading toward one of the wingnut trees that Krie had described when I saw movement toward it. I sent a zoom command to my goggles and saw some sort of small light brown rodent, roughly the size of a mouse with small ears and a fan-like tail running up the tree with all the speed it could muster. In pursuit of it was a lavender and black creature roughly three feet long from its nose to the tip of its tail.
The treemouse, or whatever it was ran along a branch of the wingnut tree and leaped for the next tree over, using its tail as a sort of hang glider. Once it reached a branch on the next tree it made haste for a hole in the trunk. The larger creature, seeing that its prey had gotten away after climbing halfway up the trunk gave up its chase and returned to the base of the tree where it started licking the sap that was dripping from a small hole in the trunk. Curious, I took a ration bar from my pocket and unwrapped it, taking a bite myself before landing near the creature and making what I hoped were friendly sounds as I held out a piece of ration bar and tried to project calming feelings like I did with the Saer bees back home.
The creature looked at me curiously, sniffed the air and after a moment’s consideration began to slowly approach me. A closer inspection showed the animal to be vaguely weasel-like with its long skinny body. It had thick fur that looked very soft and was primarily lavender in color but with black paws and a black streak running along its back from the tip of its nose to the tip of its long bushy tail. Its large triangular ears were over-sized for its head like a Fennec fox with black at the tips. It also boasted large golden eyes, a pointed muzzle with pronounced canines, and cat-like whiskers. It seemed to consider me for a moment and I carefully removed my goggles so that amber eyes met amber eyes.
It stood up on its hind legs using its tail to balance itself as it regarded me revealing that its chest and belly were white. Finally it sniffed the air again and closed the remaining distance to nibble at the bit of ration bar in my outstretched hand. It had grasping forepaws with claws that looked like they were meant for burrowing and climbing and it took the piece of ration bar from me, nibbling at it as it stared into my eyes. I slowly reached out to scratch behind those big ears and found that the fur was as soft as I had imagined. It made a buzzing sound as I scratched and petted it; I wouldn’t call it purring it almost sounded like my wings when they really get going.
“Aren’t you a pretty little slip of a thing,” I said as I stopped petting it to gather some wing nuts and have a closer look at the sap that it had been licking. I cautiously touched some with a fingertip and gave it a lick of my own. It was sweet, kind of like maple syrup but with a kind of smoky taste to it. I took out my sample case and managed to half fill a jar with the free running sap before placing both the jar and the dozen or so wingnuts I had gathered into the case. Finished with my collection I said goodbye to my little friend and finished the ration bar as I started to walk out of the trees.
*I found two small creatures,* I sent to Krie and the other Saer’khi as I passed the colonists chopping wood. *Both seemed suited to live in either underground burrows or holes in trees and one was licking the sap from the wingnut trees. I’m bringing back a sample for Sarah*
*Was one of the creatures light purple and black?* Karran asked with a hint of amusement in his mind voice.
*Yeah, have you seen one before?* I replied.
*Only the one that is following you,* he responded with a mental chuckle.
I turned around and sure enough the creature was following right along behind me. I started moving my wings to get into a hover and move a little faster but the silly thing just started running to keep up. *Okay, maybe feeding the local wildlife wasn’t such a great idea,* I mentally muttered as I landed and turned around to try and shoo the critter off. It didn’t seem to feel like being shooed though as it started to nuzzle me, making that buzzing sound and mewling noises. The critter was adorable and I couldn’t help but feel some affection for it but this was getting ridiculous.
Finally I gave in and gave it a good petting and a scratch behind the ears and this feeling of affection and possessiveness washed over me. *I… I think I’ve just been claimed.*
*What do you mean?* Tanna’s mental voice asked.
*I think these creatures might be empathic and fairly intelligent. I just had this really possessive and affectionate feeling hit me and I know it wasn’t from me. It’s either claimed me as its pet or the other way around,* I replied, feeling a little odd about the whole thing.
*Intelligent? How intelligent?* Krie asked hopefully. *Like sentient?*
*I don’t think so,* I responded as I thought about it. *It’s kind of like a cat I think, really smart for a non-sentient animal and really possessive of people and things they see as theirs.* I sighed and picked up my new owner and petted it absently as I flew back to the medical ship. *We can have a better look at it when I get to the ship Krie.*
I landed in the area where Sarah and her staff were setting up the cooking fires for the evening. “Sarah, I have a sample that I’d like you to look at.”
Sarah turned around and smiled, “Sure Xia, what do you…” she stopped speaking as she stared at the cuddly critter in my arms. “Oh that is so adorable. I hope you don’t want me to cook it.”
I shook my head and laughed, “No, it followed me home, can I keep it?” I joked. “Seriously though, it thinks I belong to it. I’m thinking of calling these little critters slips, I’ll need a name for this particular slip eventually though I guess.” I put the slip down on the ground and rooted through my sample bag. “This sap is from those wingnut trees and my new friend here was licking it. It has a smoky sweet taste and I was wondering if you could use it for anything.” I passed her the sample jar and the wingnuts.
She put the wingnuts in her apron pocket and removed the cap from the sample jar. After giving it a good sniff she dipped her finger in the sap and tasted it. “Hmmm, that’s pretty good. Its tree sap you say? I suppose we could probably harvest it like maple sap to make syrup and a form of sugar. This is a pretty good find if we can make it work, especially for you Saer’khi, I know that you all need to have sweet things once in a while to keep your energy up.”
“Good, tomorrow we can show you what those trees look like and you can discuss what you’ll need to harvest the sap with Xawin and Karran.” I could hear buzzing again and I saw that my slip was preening under the attention of several of Sarah’s kitchen staff while they gushed about how cute it was. I had a feeling that these creatures were going to become very popular as pets if people could manage to coax them like I did. “I’ll see you at dinner, Krie wants to take a look at this cute little specimen and I want to check on my patients.”
“Sure thing Xia,” she replied. “Depending on how much meat and fish the gathering party gets I’m estimating an hour or two before dinner is ready. We’ll have wingnuts, and those lemonberries Krie told me about to go with it but that’s probably all we can offer for variety tonight.”
I left the sample with Sarah and hit the subspace comm disc to broadcast to all the team leaders and others with comm units. “Attention everyone, it’s going to be getting dark soon and since we have no idea what’s out there I want you all to finish your tasks and return to camp. Also any volunteers to take shifts for a night watch would be appreciated and should report to Captain White. Please make sure that all members of your teams are present and accounted for when you return.”
*My team is all done with digging latrines Commander,* Xawin reported. *Would you like us to start setting up the photon lamps in a perimeter around the camp?*
*That would be great Xawin. Finish that up and you and your crew can get some rest, you’ve earned it,* I replied as I stepped back into the medical ship
Krie thought that the slip was the cutest thing she had ever seen and immediately wanted one of her own as I placed it on a table and we examined it. *I only did it by accident sis,* I told her. *I tried soothing it like we do with the Saer bees and offered it some of my ration bar then scratched and petted it a bit. Somehow she got it into her head that I belong to her. Feel free to try and repeat the process if you can find one.*
*I will,* she assured me as she ran a scanner over the lavender hued attention whore. She was definitely a female, possibly about a year old, and near full maturity from the look of the data. We had no idea how she produced that buzzing sound but a scan of her brain showed development consistent with low level psychic abilities like the Saer bees had. It wasn’t near developed enough for telekinetic or telepathic abilities but empathy was indeed within the realm of possibility. Finally she put down the med scanner and sighed, *I wonder if the humanoids you discovered used to keep these as pets?*
*Who knows,* I answered with a shrug as I picked up the slip and placed her back on the floor. *We have some time before dinner will be ready, do you think you can prep Eric for surgery? I’ll check on our other patients and join you in the operating room. I want to get that device extracted and have our boys take a look at it as soon as they get a chance.*
*Sure Xia, I’ll get him ready. Lieutenant Sanchez should be ready to walk again anyway and she’s been getting a bit fidgety staying still all this time. I’ll let you deliver the good news.*
Tanna’s ping broke in as I was about to leave the room. *We’ve got the mag-transport loaded up. We used the empty crates the tools came in to store water and hopefully we have enough molehogs and seussfish to feed everyone for tonight.*
*Seussfish?* I inquired.
*One of the humans named them that,* she replied a bit confused by the name herself. *He says they look a lot like salmon but we noticed that they give off a glow in the deeper water, probably natural phosphorescence. The females are red and the males are blue. I asked him to explain why it was so funny but all he said was ‘One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.’*
I couldn’t help it, I broke out laughing. *Tell that man I am buying him a drink, as soon as we manage to get something alcoholic on this planet.*
A few moments later she sent, *He says he looks forward to it Commander. I’m sending them back with Lirra now before it gets dark, something has the Murqui and the one Yazuik with us spooked. I’ll wait in the mag-transport and head back when I know they’re all on their way.*
*Something has the Murqui spooked?* I didn’t like the sounds of that at all.
*Lirra followed some molehog tracks to where the river and ocean meet but they disappeared there. She said it looked like something big came out of the water and snatched it. She thinks whatever it was is nocturnal and more comfortable in the water than on land. She doubts it will stray as far as the camp but we thought that you should know,* she cautioned me.
*Okay thanks Tanna, as soon as you know everyone is on their way, head back yourself. We’ll have to make sure people know to avoid the water at night until further notice. And we’ll definitely be having patrols keeping watch tonight.* I sent back with a frown.
I was still frowning as I made my way into the cubicle where Luiza was still lying on a bed with her leg splinted. I tried to put on a smile for her though as I said, “Krie tells me you’re going stir crazy in here. Let me have a look at that leg and we’ll see if I have some good news for you.” Luiza’s leg was looking fine. The bone repair nanites had done their job and she was as good as new. “Well the good news is you can get out of here now.”
“And the bad news?” she asked.
“The bad news is I have work for you. I’m going to need you and Matt to lead one night watch tonight and wake Captain White and Lirra for another. I don’t like asking you to do it, but I need experienced people I can trust to do it. I should probably take one of those watches along with you as well.” I said with a sigh.
“How long has it been since you’ve slept Xia?” she asked in concern.
“I had planned to sleep after we checked to make sure it was safe to jump out of subspace but then the mutiny happened. I’d say it’s been about two days,” I admitted. “I’ll try to sleep for a few hours after we get all the other people settled in for the night.”
“You’re damn well getting more than a few hours then. We all had a chance to get at least a little rest while you were piloting the drop ship and running scans, but you’ve been going non-stop. I’ll tell your sister to drug you if I have to, so don’t even think about taking a watch tonight. We need you at your best,” she admonished me. That was when she noticed my small companion at the door, “What is that?”
“I call it a slip, we met in the woods and she hasn’t let me out of her sight since. I’m not going to argue with you about needing rest, I’m too damn tired. Let’s get you out of that splint so you can exercise that leg a bit.” I removed the splint and allowed her to get up and walk around the room a bit to ensure she was okay before I set her free.
Luiza was very happy to get that splint off and be able to move again. She immediately headed off to join Matt and Dennis on patrol and I was free to see Tarek and Amy. Tarek was also concerned to see me so tired but he seemed satisfied when I promised him mind-to-mind to get some sleep at the end of the day. He seemed to be doing well and didn’t mind keeping Amy company, for which I was greatly relieved. If I weren’t so busy I’d be spending more time with her myself since she really needed the distraction.
Amy fell in love with the slip at first sight and I resolved to help her get one of her own as soon as possible. I also needed to get some metals for the nanites to construct her bionic legs from. I would have to talk to the geologist; I thought her name was Mandy Williams, about looking at those mineral and ore samples I had collected to see if there was anything durable that we could use for bionics. First things first though, I had surgery to perform before dinner and the slip could not be in the operating room with me. I placed it on the bed in Amy’s lap and while petting it I tried to send a telepathic/empathic request. *Stay here, protect her.*
The slip cocked her head at me, gave me a curious look, and made that buzzing noise and I wasn’t sure if she had gotten the message or not. She made no move to get off the bed though as I headed to the door, and I told Amy that I would leave my new pet in her care until I completed the surgery. With my new companion off my heels I headed into the sterilization room to clean up. I used the antibacterial bath first and followed up with a sonic wash. Then I put on a surgical mask, gloves, and a personal EM field that would keep me sterile and went to join Krie in the operating room.
With both of us wearing goggles we looked for the chip at the base of his skull and carefully marked the incision point. He already had a scar there, faded so much that it was only visible to the trained eye. Krie prepared the area with a local anesthetic and after waiting a few moments for it to take effect I took a laser scalpel and made the incision. The chip was not easy to get at. They had it behind the cervical vertebrae and attached to the spinal cord at the base of the cerebellum. Obviously they didn’t want this little piece of tech being discovered.
As tired as I was, I didn’t trust myself to remove it at that point so I had Krie take over while I assisted and kept tabs on his vitals. Suddenly Eric began to spasm and his vitals were going crazy at the very same moment I heard Krie curse *Shit!*
I was monitoring on my medical scanner and saw immediately what the problem was. When Krie tried to remove the device it had released a powerful nerve toxin into his central nervous system via the spinal cord. I tried to give him something to counteract it and stabilize his vitals but whatever the stuff was it was potent, and not something that I was familiar with. That wasn’t surprising though since such things were considered unthinkable amongst the Saer’khi, who valued life. Eric was dead within seconds.
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
Chapter 8 New Civilization Amethyst |
*Well shit,* I cursed. I let out a sigh as Krie finished extracting the chip *At least we know he won’t be causing any more trouble. We’ll give the chip to the guys after dinner and hopefully they can figure out what’s up with it. I don’t want any unwelcome guests and there may be a way for us to use the tech to our own advantage.*
My sister nodded in agreement as she placed the chip in a sample container and handed it to me. *We’ll have to be careful handling it and warn Xawin and Karran about the toxin.*
*Yeah, who knows what other booby traps that thing might have,* I agreed. Then I used my mental amplifier to send out to all the other Saer’khi, *We extracted the chip but it released a nerve toxin that killed Eric as soon as we touched the damn thing. I guess that saves the colonists the trouble of killing him, but I’m half tempted to just destroy the thing right now. Xawin and Karran be careful when you look it over, it might be useful but we need to expect that they put anti-tampering measures in place. What’s our status everyone?*
*All the photon lamps are set Commander,* Xawin replied first. *We’ve got several cooking fires going and we’re building a few large ones for people to gather around to keep warm while we eat since we can’t be sure how cold it gets at night.*
*We’ve got people helping the kitchen staff prepare the meat and fish we brought in and all our people are accounted for,* Tanna chimed in next.
*We should have plenty of firewood but we didn’t have time to gather many supplies to make shelters,* Karran admitted last.
*Good work everyone; I think we’ll have the colonists sleep in the personnel drop ship tonight to be safe. There should be room and we have plenty of thermal jumpsuits to keep everyone warm or roll up to use as pillows,* I pointed out. *The drop ships should be secure enough and we can start planning shelters and such tomorrow. I don’t want to risk any nocturnal predators catching us with our pants down, and if the Murqui are concerned, so am I. Our situation is bad enough as it is. I really hope we can use that chip to find some way to contact Saer’kah.*
*Why would we need to?* Tanna’s mental voice sounded a bit confused.
*So they can send help of course and so we can tell them the situation with the sleeper agents from Earth,* I pointed out.
*We should be able to tell them all that when they get here though,* she replied still sounding confused. *They will know something went wrong when our reports stop coming in, that’s why daily reports for the communications officer are standard procedure. Also the continual uplink between the ship and the subspace beacon network has ceased so they will send search and rescue ships as soon as possible to find out what happened and search for survivors.*
I breathed a sigh of relief. At least I had some good news to give the colonists. I was a bit annoyed though that I hadn’t had time for the full officer training that most commanders would have had. *At last, some good news. Still this is a pretty large sector of space to disappear in and there’s that debris field that they would have to search, unless of course there’s something else I didn’t have time to learn about?*
*There is the subspace pulse emitters,* Tanna added. *Each one sends out a unique subspace pulse signal once every twelve hours to help search crews find us. They do not have a long range but they should be picked up by anyone searching for those signals in this system. The space agency requires that all Ji’turi have one injected during our pre-launch medical exams. Don’t you remember getting one?*
I gave a mental shake of my head. *No, Mom said a medical exam would be a waste of time on me so she just injected me with some new nanites that will permanently maintain the nanites already in my system and cover the ‘necessities’. We have the ability to reproduce those here for people like Sarah and Matt too, but that was all she did. She does have a habit of forgetting I’m not really Saer’khi and thus not telling me details that she feels are obvious to most Saer’khi though, so it’s possible she included that in the injection as well.*
*I remember getting one and they show up on most medical scans Xia. Let me scan you and we’ll see if you have one too. You’re really important to Mom and to our people so I doubt she would have forgotten to equip you with one. She doesn’t forget medical details, she just sometimes forgets to mention or explain them,* Krie put in with a smile. She too was all too familiar with our mother’s tendency to not mention details that were obvious to her but not necessarily her patients. We had both gotten used to it during our training and tried not to do it ourselves with the colonists.
She took a quick scan of me and I didn’t have to wait long for the results. *It looks like you have one Xia, she must have included it in the necessities she put in with your nanite upgrades.*
*It is both disturbing and a bit of a relief that people can track me like this,* I said with a mental sigh. *How long before we can expect searchers from Saer’kah, Tanna?*
I could hear the humming in her thoughts as she mulled it over. *It will likely take days before they figure out that the Bounty’s up-link to the subspace beacon network is down. Once they figure that out and realize that no reports have been coming in they will start preparing search and rescue ships to head in our last known direction and find out what happened. Then it will take over an Earth week before they can get here. Optimistically it could be anywhere between two weeks and a month.*
*Well that’s a lot better than not at all, and I doubt that Earth has the tech to get here any faster yet. Eric himself said that they don’t really have the resources available yet for space exploration without assistance from the Saer’khi.* I gave my crew a big mental grin. *I think things may be looking up my friends.*
Following that conversation I called Captain White to inform him, Matt, and Luiza of our situation and the death of Eric. We decided to put the body in cold storage until he and a team could dispose of it the next day. Then Krie and I used what little matter we had in the medical programming console to make a mag-lev chair so that Amy could come join the other colonists for dinner and have a way to get around until I had enough base metals to create a pair of bionic legs for her. She needed to be around other people and to be able to come and go as she needed to or she would start getting depressed.
With that made, Krie left to go see how Sarah was getting on with dinner while I pushed the chair to Amy’s room. Amy, Tarek, and the slip were waiting, and the latter of the three leaped off the bed as I entered the room and nuzzled against my shins making that buzzing sound. Once again that possessive, affectionate feeling washed over me and I realized that since the critter seemed intent on keeping me, or vice-verse, that I should come up with a name for it. I pushed the chair beside Amy’s bed and smiled at her, “We’re going to get you out of this room for a bit so you can eat something with the rest of the colonists, how’s that sound?”
Amy looked at the blankets covering her where her legs suddenly ended and gave me an uncertain look. She was biting her lip as she considered her answer and it didn’t take a genius to realize that she was scared of how people would react to her infirmity. I sat down beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder, looking her right in the eyes. “Amy, you need to get this over with sooner or later. These colonists have all lost something on the Bounty, and many of them have cybernetics or cloned transplants or know someone who has, you can’t be afraid all the time and hide in here away from life. Besides I promised to look out for you, so if anyone mistreats you they will have to answer to me and Tarek.”
She looked from me to Tarek and took a deep breath to steady herself before finally replying. “O…okay. I guess I am a little hungry.”
“Good,” I replied, wrapping her up in a hug. Being so close I could sense her emotions and her fearful thoughts but she was willing to try, and that was a good start. “Before we go out though, I need to come up with a name for my new little friend here. I’ve never had a pet before so I’m not quite sure how to do it. Do you think you can help me out? And as soon as we can, we’ll try to get you a slip of your own.”
Her eyes lit up as I said the last, but she gave me a dubious look. “You never had a pet before?”
I shook my head. “Before my parents died we were thinking of getting me a goldfish or something but then the quake hit and they both died. After that I went through a lot of foster homes but I was never there long enough to form any attachments or get a pet, and then they moved me to the hospital because of my medical problems. I stayed there until my mom found me and brought me to live with her on Saer’kah.”
“Don’t the Saer’khi have pets?” she asked curiously.
I laughed at that. “I found it odd at first that I never heard of Saer’khi having pets, I thought it might be some sort of social taboo, but that wasn’t the problem.” Amy gave me a confused look and I laughed again. “The problem was that there were no creatures on Saer’kah suitable for pets, except maybe Saer bees, and they mostly just ignore us. Besides it would be awkward having them as pets when we’re so closely related genetically, so it never really occurred to them. All the other creatures on Saer’kah are much bigger than us and are dangerous predators that see the Saer’khi as a tasty snack. Saer’kah isn’t the most hospitable of worlds ecologically speaking, that’s why you were all kept in the barracks where it was safe.”
“If you really think we can get one for me I’m gonna name it Huggles, or maybe Cuddles or Pookie,” Amy said with a smile before turning her young mind to my dilemma. “You could always name it Spot. Lots of people name their pets that.”
I raised an eyebrow at that. “I heard that on Earth a lot but it doesn’t really make sense, she doesn’t have a single spot on her.”
Amy giggled at that. “Pet names don’t need to make sense, they just need to sound right for the pet and maybe mean something to the person naming it. So I guess you should call it something that sounds good to you.”
I thought about it for a long moment as I looked at the slip. She was kind of weasel-like but with those big ears and eyes she kind of reminded me of a fennec fox as well. “Hmm I could maybe call her T’Pol with those ears…” I quickly shook my head at that though. “Violet? No… too obvious, I imagine lots of people will be naming slips that. How about something fox related? Socks maybe?” She did have black paws and it would be a subtle Dr. Seuss reference, but perhaps we already had enough of that with the Seussfish. “Maybe Kitsune?” I finally muttered.
“What’s that mean?” Amy inquired.
“They’re fox-like creatures in Japanese mythology,” I explained patiently. “In Chinese culture we referred to them as Huli Jing. They’re spirits that play tricks on others, seduce and/or manipulate them. Huli Jing is a bit of a mouthful for non-Chinese and since it’s not a common word the translators don’t pick it up. Kitsune can always be shortened to Kit, which is what baby foxes are called though.”
“I think Kit sounds nice Commander Phar,” she said with a smile before turning to Tarek. “What do you think Mr. Tarek?”
Tarek ruffled her hair and smiled at her. “I think it sounds pretty good, but like Xia said we don’t have any experience with pets on Saer’kah, so I’m probably not a good person to judge. It is short and easy to remember though.”
I nodded in agreement and picked up the slip to look right in her eyes. I was hoping that if they really were psychic at some level that I could reinforce the name telepathically by using the right concepts and images while speaking telepathically. I sent her a mental image of myself then Amy and Tarek and with each image I spoke our corresponding names into her mind. Then I sent to her. *I will call you Kit.* After that I repeated the whole process out loud in case the telepathy didn’t take. They may not be sentient but I still wasn’t sure just how clever these creatures might be.
I gave Kit an affectionate hug and a good petting before I set her back on the floor and turned to Tarek. “Could you get Amy into the mag-lev chair so I can show her how it works?” I spoke it aloud so that Amy would have some warning that the other Saer’khi was going to pick her up.
“Sure Xia,* he smiled as his electronic voice answered. “Let us get you mobile again Amy.” He picked the girl up with his upper set of arms and used his bottom set to gently tickle her ribs causing her to giggle and me to smile. Thanks to the nanites his shoulder seemed to be properly healed, he didn’t even wince, and I was greatly relieved by that. I also never realized before just how good Tarek was with kids. He and Amy had really taken to one another. He might make a good surrogate father for her, though Matt might as well with their similarities and his general good nature. As the Saer’khi had shown me, one can’t have too many loving fathers.
I suddenly realized what I was thinking and abruptly switched my thinking to Mandarin. I did not need Tarek getting any ideas. It was bad enough that I was. I had offered to be a surrogate mother to Amy and, well if they were surrogate fathers just what did that make them to me? Why was I even thinking like that? I loved Tarek of course, he was my best friend and maybe even a little more but I really wasn’t Saer’khi and as much as I found Matt attractive and extremely likable I wasn’t human either. Not that that seemed to matter to him at all, he had made it quite clear that he saw me as a person, no matter what my genetic heritage may be.
I knew that I needed to have the talk with Tarek regarding our pending marital status but I wasn’t really sure what to say. The link was made and it was obvious that he loved me deeply. If I really thought about it I loved him too but Ji’turi have multiple husbands and aside from Matt there was no other males I might even be interested in. Matt was human though, would he even consider such a relationship? And he may have said he saw me as a person, but was I an attractive person to him? I looked in the mirror often enough to know that I was actually very pretty by human standards, probably exotic as well with my Saer’khi features, but how did Matt see me?
Dammit, all these thoughts were starting to make me feel self-conscious and uncertain, and right now I couldn’t afford that. The colonists needed me to be a strong and decisive leader for them until the emergency was over and we could elect a proper government. Stop obsessing about boys Xia, I told myself sternly. Despite your appearance you are not an insecure teenage girl and you don’t need to start acting like one now. You can talk to Krie about this later and she can talk some sense into you. Now put your game face on because there are colonists out there waiting for status reports.
I took a deep breath, switched back to thinking in English and asked, “So, all ready to go try out the local cuisine?”
Tarek gave me a concerned look but nodded as Amy, now sitting in the chair did the same. I quickly gave Amy a lesson on how to move the chair and we all left the ship to join the others with Kit right on my heels. It was dark now and the clear and cool night air was refreshing. It wasn’t cold, just pleasantly cool, and reminded me that this part of the planet was technically entering late spring. If we generated some bees and hummingbirds quickly enough and started planting crops soon then we should be able to make it through the winter if no help came by then.
Sarah and her staff were carving up the large cooked molehogs and she smiled as we approached, “It’s good to see you three out here getting some air. The molehogs are surprisingly tasty, a lot like pork actually. The seussfish taste more like trout than salmon but they’re good too. We also roasted some of the wingnuts.” She gave us each a plate with a filleted fish, a couple slices of molehog, roasted wingnuts, and some berries. There were cups as well which we could fill from the water containers and Sarah gave me and Tarek a small bowl of liquid honey as well.
I was about to refuse since nobody else seemed to be getting any honey but she quickly cut me off. “We don’t have much honey, but the kitchen staff discussed it and decided that you Saer’khi will need it until we can start making some syrup from those trees. You need sweet things for your metabolisms to run properly, or did you forget about what happened that first day in the research lab?” she prodded with an intent look at me.
I sighed but nodded. “How could I forget? It scared the hell out of both of us.” We had been talking and I had only eaten a light lunch. I never had a taste for sweets before so I had ignored the sweet desserts that the lab’s staff had provided. I hadn’t been sure that I wanted to eat much anyway since I had been feeling a bit dizzy since I had been brought to the room to meet Sarah. Later that afternoon I began shaking really bad and was afraid that the nanites were malfunctioning when it progressed to full blown seizures and I passed out. I learned the hard way that Saer’khi, and thus me as well, are extremely prone to hypoglycemia, and need sweet things or high sources of protein regularly to keep our blood sugar at normal levels. I sighed again as I remembered that and said, “You’re probably right, thanks for thinking of us Sarah. Thank your staff for me too.”
As we ate Tarek and I each shared a small portion of our honey allotment with Amy. The poor girl deserved something sweet after all she’d been through. The food was good and nice and warm, though I think Sarah could boil old shoe leather and somehow make it taste good. I didn’t mind too much having more meat and fish than anything else, the nuts and berries were good but the meat and fish were both filling and pretty high in protein and I was really hungry. The only reason I hadn’t gone sugar low so far was that while on the Bounty I had gotten into the habit of keeping sweets and ration bars in my uniform pockets so I wouldn’t.
Halfway through dinner Kyle came up to me and snapped a quick salute. “Reporting as ordered Commander. “ He handed me the bottle of coolant spray and grinned at me, “Two guys got some of the sticky tree stuff on them but I helped them, just like you showed me.”
I smiled at him and held back a chuckle. “Good work Kyle, I knew I could count on you.” Then something occurred to me and I smiled to myself as I put the coolant spray away. “Krie and I are going to be keeping pretty busy with any major injuries, organizing things for the colony, and cloning the birds and the bees and whatever other species we might need here. I was thinking of taking Amy here on as an apprentice and starting her off with basic first aid lessons, but how would you like to learn first aid too? We could use a couple people to help with minor scrapes, cuts, and small things like dealing with that resin. We could teach you both at the same time and then have two people we can send on first aid calls when we’re needed elsewhere.”
“Really?” he asked, his eyes lighting up. “I could do that. I’d like to help more with the wood gathering and building shelters but I’m not really big enough yet to do much more than fetch things.” Then he turned to the girl beside me, “Hi Amy, I thought we might have lost you on the ship, it’s good to see you here. Did your mom…” he trailed off, probably realizing that it wasn’t wise to ask that.
Amy shook her head sadly. “She didn’t make it, but Commander Phar has offered to take me in, she and Mr. Tarek are really nice.”
I put my hand on the girl’s shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “You’re pretty nice too Amy. Kyle, you go enjoy your dinner and tomorrow I’ll have someone come find you and send you to the medical ship for first aid lessons.”
“Yes Commander,” he said with a grin and another salute before dashing off to find his parents.
I turned to Amy and put an arm around her. “I think learning first aid will be good for you both. If you like what you learn in first aid and want to learn more, Krie and I really could use an apprentice. And it’s a good time for you to start learning since we’ll have to teach you to read Saer’khi as well.”
“Does that mean I’ll be able to be a doctor like you when I’m older?” she asked.
“Yes, we’ll teach you everything we know,” I assured her. “It’s very rewarding work being able to help others feel better or give them their lives back when something bad happens to them. People like you and me who have been through major medical problems of our own make pretty good doctors too, since we can relate to what the patients are going through.”
“I think I’d like that. I want to be just like you when I’m grown up. How did you get to be a doctor so young though? You’re still a kid too, you look like a teenager.”
I shook my head as I thought about how to explain it. Finally I asked,” Do you remember how I said that the Saer’khi had to alter my body to keep my psychic abilities from killing me?” She nodded so I continued on, “They used tiny little machines to change my body closer to theirs so I could handle my power and one of the side effects was that I ended up looking like this. The tiny machines though are still in my body and their job is to make sure that my body stays this way and that I am always healthy. But the machines were new technology then and to keep me healthy and my body this way they refresh my DNA constantly to what they were programmed with. I was sixteen at the time and the machines prevent me from physically aging or getting ill or anything so I haven’t changed in six or seven years. I’m nearly the same age as Krie actually. Matt, Sarah, and Captain White all have similar machines, so they’re all older than they look too.”
“Is it hard having everyone see you as a kid?” she asked before adding, “Or being different?”
I nodded slowly. “Sometimes it is, but despite how I look the people here seem to see me as a good leader. I think it’s not so much how we look but who we are and what we do that defines us Amy. I may look like a kid and neither fully human nor Saer’khi, but I don’t let that stop me from doing my best at everything I do. You lost your legs, but that doesn’t need to define you. I’ll build you a great new set of legs, but even if I didn’t, you wouldn’t need to let that hold you back. Human history is full of people who faced physical challenges and yet they went on to do amazing things. Some changed the way that we see the universe. Being different doesn’t stop us from being amazing people, it just makes us try harder.”
To my surprise, the younger girl wrapped her arms around me. “I don’t think you need to try hard to be amazing.”
*I agree with her, she’s a smart kid,* Tarek’s voice said in my mind. *You don’t need to try to be amazing.*
I was blushing at that and quickly returned to finishing my meal. When dinner was finished and everyone had their fill, I called everyone, even Captain White and the others patrolling the perimeter, to the large central fire for a brief announcement. I opened up by asking, “How is everyone feeling now that we have full stomachs?” There was a cheer at that and I grinned. “I couldn’t agree more. Things are looking up people. We are on a relatively habitable planet with the tools we need to make it even better, we have proven that we can access food and clean water for the time being, and Tanna has informed me that we can likely expect Saer’khi search and rescue teams to come and find us within two weeks to a month.”
There was a buzzing about that and someone asked, “How can she be sure?”
“Tanna was trained by the space agency as a communications officer, long before my plan to get us all off planet and on the way to a colony happened,” I pointed out. “She’s familiar with their procedures and how the communications gear works. She says they will start looking from our last known location once they realize we’re missing. She was sending daily reports, but now those and the Bounty’s connection to the subspace beacon network are both gone. So they’ll know something happened and send people to find out what, and to offer us aid when they find us. This is a big sector of space to search though and the subspace trackers they inject in all Ji’turi only send out a pulse every twelve hours so let’s hope for the best and just keep on doing what we need to do to survive here.”
“Are they going to want to up and move us again?” someone else asked nervously.
“Hell no!” I exclaimed. “This is our planet and our claim and the Saer’khi know that. They will likely send more supplies to replace some of what we lost but this planet is our home, and I for one have no intention of leaving it. We can make this planet a great place to live if we work at it. We all worked hard at that today and look where we are now, enjoying a large hot meal and looking to the future. I am proud of each and every one of you for what we accomplished together today. Tomorrow we begin building shelters, gathering more food and wood, and preparing fields for planting. Tonight Tanna, Karran, Xawin, and Tarek will help issue you all jumpsuits for warmth and try to make you all comfortable in the personnel ship, while Captain White will be taking volunteers for a night watch. Krie and I will be available in the medical ship if you need us for anything, but before that I have another announcement to make.”
The excited murmurs settled down at that and I took a deep breath. “Eric Townsend, the man who planned the mutiny and who was responsible for the destruction of the Bounty is dead.” There was excited buzzing at that, some people were happy and some were confused. “He deserved death, we all know that. But he was killed by the very government that tried to get him to take control of our ship and colony. Krie and I were performing surgery to remove the subspace tracker he had been outfitted with and as we did so it released a powerful nerve toxin which killed him instantly. These people have no loyalty, no honor, and no respect for any of us. If they make any further attempts to take what is ours, then I fully intend to fight back.”
There was some cheering at that as well as grim nods of determination. After that things settled down for the night. Krie, Amy, and I returned to the medical ship with meals for our four prisoners. Once they were fed, I placed Amy in one of the four bedrooms for medical staff, where she would be more comfortable. Then I returned to Krie in the lab to work on analyzing some soil and other samples, stifling a yawn as I did so. My sister shook her head. *Oh no you don’t, Xia, you haven’t slept in days. I will do the analysis on these and get our geologist in here to look at the mineral and ore samples. You go get some sleep, I can handle anything that comes along, and if I need you, I’ll wake you.*
*I’m too tired to disagree with you,* I agreed. *Wake me if you need me.* I left for one of the other staff bedrooms where I stripped off my uniform, climbed into the large gel bed and covered myself with the warm blankets. I was only vaguely aware of Kit climbing into the bed beside me and snuggling up close, making that relaxing buzzing noise. That was the last thing I was aware of as I drifted off to sleep.
I awoke to an inhuman shrieking noise, like some sort of high pitched siren. I sat straight up and covered my ears as I looked around the darkened room. The noise ceased as soon as I sat up and I heard *Xia*. It was strange because it seemed to be coming from the slip but it wasn’t really a mental voice; it was more of an echo of when I had told the slip my name. It got my attention though, as did the image that followed it into my mind. The image was of a massive hulking creature in the darkness and the presence of it seemed to be getting stronger with each passing second. Was it trying to warn me of something?
I reached over and grabbed my uniform, tapping the subspace comm. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been out or just who was on watch so I quickly issued the order, “Get everyone inside the camp and preferably inside the ships! And I mean yesterday, I don’t want anyone outside without a weapon and nobody alone.”
“Most of the colonists are asleep in the personnel ship,” Luiza reported. “We’re midway through the second watch so it’s just me, Matt and a couple other human volunteers out here right now. What’s going on Commander?”
I cursed, “Dammit, I knew I should have asked for a Murqui on each watch, they probably would have sensed it. That big nocturnal predator that they were so worried about, I think one is curious about how we taste and heading this way. My little purple friend seems very insistent that something big and dangerous is coming. Get everyone inside and wake Captain White and Lirra but do not stay out in the open for long. I’m going to see if I can get a look at it from the air before it makes its move.”
I practically jumped into my uniform, allowing my wings to stay free, and put on my goggles. *Stay here, protect Amy,* I instructed Kit before I left my room, dashed out of the darkened medical ship, and leapt into the air for some reconnaissance. I headed toward the river since I figured that that was where it would be coming from and used infrared to try to see anything large and out of place. I didn’t see anything clearly on that though, so I switched to night vision. There was something large down there and it was definitely moving toward the camp. It didn’t come up on infrared so it must be cold blooded.
I went down to land in a tree for a closer look and saw a large crocodile-like creature with bone spikes protruding from its spine and tail and although it was hard to tell how big in the dark I would have guessed it was close to thirty feet long. It sniffed the air and looked right at me, opening its massive mouth and roaring. That mouth was filled with razor sharp teeth nearly as large as one of my hands. “Holy shit,” I whispered before flying back to camp as fast as my wings would let me.
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
Chapter 9 Unknown Amethyst |
As I made my way swiftly back to the camp Dennis’ voice came over the subspace comm channel. “What’s up Xia? Luiza mentioned that there might be something dangerous out there.”
“That depends,” I muttered. “Do you consider thirty foot long spiked crocodiles dangerous? This thing has a really good sense of smell, and maybe vision too; it looked right at me and roared. Is everyone inside?”
“Thirty foot…” he began in a stunned tone before sighing. “Things are never easy are they? Everyone is inside but Luiza, Matt, Lirra, and me. We all have our particle beam weapons, so what’s the plan?”
“I’m going to try to use the various medical scans on my goggles and see if I can’t find a weakness, firing particle beams in the camp at night is a recipe for disaster,” I replied quickly before landing on another branch. The camp was in sight now; I could see the heat of the fires with the infrared of my goggles as I flipped through the features for the X-Ray feature. Big and ugly was moving quickly, but it was lumbering, obviously far more at home in the water. I got a good look at it’s skull when it stopped to turn its head in my direction and roar again. The skull looked to be thick with large ridges in places where bone overlapped. It could probably stop a bullet but a particle beam shot could punch through easily enough. Finally I muttered, “Aim for the head, between the eyes if you can. The heart will be too hard to hit, so we need to try and hit the brain.”
“That’s not going to be easy in the dark,” Captain White responded. “You said its nocturnal right? Is there any possibility that the photon lamps will make it avoid the camp? Maybe it’s light sensitive.”
“It’s possible,” I agreed, “But it seems to rely mostly on its sense of smell.” Then the creature took a final look at me before turning around and heading back to the river. “Wait, it’s turning around. I think it’s used to hunting in the water or grabbing creatures drinking at the waters’ edge and decided it wasn’t worth the trouble to find out how I taste.”
“You’re probably right Commander,” Lirra said. “My people thought the same when we found signs of it on the shore. It was a good idea to make the camp where we did.”
I started to fly back toward the camp. “Regardless, tomorrow I’m having Karran set up the larger of the two EM shield generators in the center of the camp. It’s meant to protect us from storms and the like, but if we turn it on when it gets dark it should keep any predators from getting in, at least until we have a better idea what’s out there. Those Crocosaur’s are probably this world’s apex predators but that doesn’t mean that there are not others.”
“That’s a good precaution,” Captain White agreed. “So other than getting that set up, what’s the plan for the day?”
I landed by the main fire where the others were waiting. It had died down some while I was asleep but the warmth felt nice and it and the photon lamps gave enough light to see by. “I plan on getting a few hours more sleep, but after breakfast we have a full day of gathering materials and firewood and starting to construct shelters. I’ll be training Amy and Kyle in first aid and talking to our specialists about what might be useful on this planet.”
“Maybe we should send out some exploration teams,” Matt suggested.
“I was thinking of that, but setting up the EM shield, food, and shelter will be our first priorities today, and maybe finding a way to get water closer to the camp, I’ll have Xawin look into that.” I rubbed my head as I thought about it, there was so much to do and even with the longer days on this planet I wasn’t sure if we’d have enough hours in one to do everything. “When we do start sending out exploration teams I want groups with a variety of abilities. An exploration team will need a medic as well, which means Krie and I will have to switch off doing that while the other remains in camp in case of an emergency.”
Luiza sighed and shook her head. “You and Krie are spreading yourselves thin as it is, especially you.”
“There’s no helping it,” I replied with a shrug. “I won’t send exploration teams out without a medic, and Krie and I can both act as aerial scouts if needed as well. And that’s all the more reason for me to get some more sleep now, while I can. The four of you should do the same, we’ll be safe enough inside the ships and I think Kit will warn me if anything dangerous approaches.”
My sleep was restful but filled with dreams. I was actually surprised that I wasn’t having nightmares after seeing that crocosaur face to face. Instead my dreams were an entirely different type of disturbing. Erotic dreams were a new thing for me, I think I may have been too hung up on being a hybrid to know what I was interested in, or maybe I had just had low self-esteem in general. I dreamed that I was being made love to and it was so realistic. I could feel the touch of my lovers: their kisses, the hot breath, the caresses, but at first I couldn’t see their faces in the darkness until Tarek leaned in and kissed me.
~I am yours Tess’rha, we belong together my love,~ his mind voice whispered.
~But I’m not really Saer’khi… I don’t deserve your love and obedience. Dhur-tal was a mistake, I’ll only make you unhappy.~ I replied, trying to push him away as he kissed my neck. I wanted him but he was my best friend and he didn’t deserve some pretender trying to be his Tess’rha.
~The bond is made and I would not have chosen you if I didn’t love you. You are Saer’khi enough for me. You are everything to me. My happiness is secondary, I only wish to make you happy,~ he insisted.
I turned away. ~I know. How could I not know, it’s all there in your mind, and I think that scares me. Humans have no concept of such a deep connection, such a pure and selfless form of love. It’s so beautiful that it’s terrifying. I’m afraid that I’ll lose you and that will be gone.~
“So you push him away?” Matt asked, as he slowly caressed my wings, causing shivers of pleasure. “You know that you’re smart enough to realize how stupid that is. Loss is a risk we take when we love someone, but the risk is worth it. You identify as Saer’khi but you get hung up on being human. You are both and yet neither, beautiful and unique and you need to start being you. All these people follow your lead, not because you’re human, not because you’re Saer’khi but because you are a good person with good qualities.”
“But I’ve stopped hiding from others so aren’t I making progress?” I asked.
“Yes, but you’re still hiding from yourself. You denying yourself a truly loving relationship proves this. Be yourself, don’t be afraid to follow the Saer’khi traditions and still have your human quirks, both are part of you, and people love you for who you are, not what you are,” Matt scolded me before he and Tarek returned to kissing and caressing me.
I woke up and cursed, “Dammit, I hate it when my subconscious is smarter than I am.” Kit looked up at me sleepily and snuggled closer. I reached out to pet her and she began to buzz contentedly. Finally I decided to get out of bed and used the sonic shower in the room’s bathroom to get cleaned up. I felt guilty about having such luxury available when the rest of the colonists didn’t but I resolved to speak with Karran and Xawin about possibly programming one of the nanite construction kits to make a communal bathhouse with sonic showers and lavatories. I had been planning on keeping them for an emergency, but it looked like help might be on the way soon and having those sorts of facilities available would really help morale.
My uniform was probably getting pretty ripe so after cleaning up I decided to look through the clothes I had gotten before I left home for something else to wear. I felt better than I had in days once I was dressed in clean undergarments, jeans, sneakers and a backless top that left my wings free. Out of habit I grabbed my goggles as well in case I needed them and left my room to see who else was awake. Amy and Krie were both awake and my sister was showing the young girl some of the medical equipment and explaining what the purpose of each was and how they worked. “Good morning,” I greeted the pair.
~Good morning Xia, did you rest well? Breakfast was over two hours ago but we saved you some,~ Krie responded telepathically.
~What!? How could you let me sleep so long? There’s so much that needs to be done today!~
~Shush,~ she scolded me. ~Everyone knows how hard you’ve been working and you needed a good sleep. Dennis and Luiza knew what you wanted done today so they started getting people organized. Karran is setting up the EM shield generator, Xawin has some former construction workers helping him plan a water pipeline from the river and everyone else is chopping firewood, hunting, or gathering materials for making shelters.~
~But I promised Kyle and Amy first-aid lessons,~ I complained.
~Which I already took care of,~ she replied. ~You can take care of their second lesson tomorrow. Dr. Williams is studying the ore samples you got in the lab and wanted to talk to you, and Rebecca Landry wanted you to come see her when you get the chance. She’s keeping the younger children occupied out by the personnel ship.~
~Thanks sis, I’ll see Dr. Williams first, maybe she can tell me it there’s any metals here suitable to make bionic limbs for Amy.~ Then I reached over and gave Amy a hug. “Sorry I slept so late Amy, did you enjoy your lesson?”
She hugged me back tightly, “It’s okay, you’ve been working really hard since before we even landed here. Krie was really great and I learned a lot though. She’s been showing me how we’re going to make my bionics once we get the stuff to make them.”
I let Amy go and Krie shoved a plate in my hands. ~Eat first; work can wait a few more minutes. Teaching those two was fun, they were both eager to learn and I think you’re right about Amy, she’ll make a good doctor. Learning medicine might be good for her too.~
I felt bad about sleeping so long so I asked Xawin, Karran, and Captain White to give me their progress reports while I ate and listened. A water pipeline was going to take a while to construct so until then we would have to continue using the mag-lev transport and empty crates to get water to the camp. Karran had finished setting up the shield generator and was currently hooking it up to one of our generators. Captain White reported that by lunchtime we should have enough firewood to last a few days and then the crews would move on to gathering building supplies.
Once I was finished eating and listening to progress reports I made my way to the lab where a willowy blonde woman in her late twenties was seated in front of the main workspace. She was wearing goggles similar to my own that I assumed Krie had provided her with. “Dr. Williams, you wished to speak with me?” I asked.
She looked up from her work and raised her goggles to see me better. “Good morning Commander Phar, yes I did, but please call me Mandy. These goggles are amazing, so many uses, no wonder you always wear them. The microscopic vision is far better than anything we had on Earth.”
“Call me Xia,” I replied with a smile. “What can I do for you? Did you find anything useful in the samples I collected?”
She nodded as she grinned at me, “I’m seeing a lot of iron in the samples and copper. I think that there may be a good source of titanium around too, but these two samples are the most interesting.” She directed me to the gold colored ore and the strange silvery black stone I had found on the beach. “Krie was kind enough to show me how to run the analysis equipment you have here and give me these goggles so I could run some tests on these. Do you have any idea what you’ve found here?”
I shook my head, “Should I?”
She shook her head in return. “No you shouldn’t because neither do I. Neither of these exists on the periodic table of elements as we know it.”
“You’re saying I discovered two new elements? Isn’t that a bit unlikely? I’m a medical doctor, I’ll leave studying rocks to you, but I’m pretty sure new elements don’t just jump out at you,” I said with a raised eyebrow.
“On Earth certainly, but this planet has a vastly different elemental composition,” she replied. “Even your base scans detected unknown minerals, and the oceans here are freshwater. The atmosphere is comparable to Earth’s but there are distinct differences in that as well.”
“So you have no clue what these are?” I asked.
“Not precisely, the gold one I decided to call Mandium,” she said with a grin. “It seems to be a transition metal and from the tests I’ve run so far I can tell that it is magnetic, blocks radiation better than lead, and has a higher melting point than tungsten. I haven’t even found it’s melting point yet, and it has a very dense molecular structure, but if we could figure out how to process it the potential uses are mind boggling. If I had to guess, I’d say the stuff is nearly indestructible.”
“We could use nanites,” I suggested after a moment’s thought. “They don’t need to melt it, they just reorganize the base materials into a desired shape by shifting molecules, at least they do when we program them for construction or designing bionic limbs. We have the capability to produce and program nanites for bionics and other medical uses and I’m sure our engineering boys could come up with a way to program some for other uses. I wish we had a programmer for that, but If we could find enough of this metal I’d like to see how it would work for more durable bionics. It could be useful for constructing spacecraft as well once we have the resources for that kind of thing.”
“It might make for a good test for the metal’s properties,” she agreed before a frown passed over her features. “We cannot let Earth find out about this. If they discover we’re sitting on a space-age goldmine I don’t want to think about what could happen.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” I replied with a grim nod. “So what about the silvery-black rock? What’s that?”
“That is the million dollar question,” she answered with a shrug. “I think it’s some sort of polyatomic non-metal, but it has properties I’ve never seen before. It’s a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, coated with a sugary topping of ‘what the fuck?’, and it seems very resistant to sharing it’s secrets. I call it Pharite.”
“Ouch, point taken, I probably should have revealed what I was earlier,” I admitted. “It didn’t go so well the first time I did that though.”
“You seem like a good person so I don’t really care what you look like; you’ve done more for the people of this colony than anyone could ask of you. For what it’s worth though, I think it was a good idea for you to let people get to know you as a person first. I’m mostly just messing with you, but you did discover them, so one of the substances should be named after you and I thought this one suited you, you’re both more than what you appear to be.”
Mandy seemed to mean it in a good way, and I thought that she and I would probably get on well. “I’ll take that as a compliment, but what properties does this chunk of rock have that are so confusing?”
“You’ve noticed how it looks pitted but feels smooth to the touch right?” When I nodded she continued on to say, “It’s like parts of it are missing but still there, and the missing pockets are giving off low levels of radiation. I have a theory, but it’s going to sound really out there.”
“It can’t be any weirder than some of the other things I’ve seen so far on this planet,” I said with a shrug. “Lay it on me.”
She nodded as she tapped at the stone. “I’m no physicist, and I don’t know much about quantum mechanics, but I did minor in physics and I wonder if those pits are pockets of dark matter. I’d love to have someone more qualified look at it. Other than the interesting properties it has though, I don’t think this substance will be of much use to us.”
“Sure, name the useless substance after me,” I joked. “We do have a physicist here though, a Dr. Kwan I believe, I’ll see if I can find him and send him your way. I’ll have our engineers talk to you as well once they get a chance, they know their physics too and might be able to think of possible uses for both substances.”
I found Dr. Kwan with the men gathering firewood. He was an older Chinese man in his mid to late forties. He squinted against the sunlight as he looked at me after I greeted him and a look of shock and joy passed over his face. “Cally?” Then his face fell as he got a better look at me, “Oh, Commander Phar, how can I help you?”
“I think we have a task more suited to your talent’s Dr. Kwan,” I replied, now noticing the mourning band he wore on his right arm. “Could you come with me to the medical ship?”
He nodded and we walked in silence for a moment before I said, “Did I remind you of someone else just now?”
He let slip a despondent sigh. “You look a lot like my daughter Cally, she was about your age I think and she thought settling a new planet would be a grand adventure.”
“I’m sorry for your loss, I keep wondering if I could have done things differently,” I replied sadly. “Was she why you were in the colony group? Earth was pretty resistant to sending it’s scientists off world from what I’ve heard.”
“Cally was seventeen when the first Migration ships were ready to leave and she had terminal Cancer,” he explained. “She was all I had left after my wife died and the Saer’khi said they could cure her. The government tried to keep me there saying she didn’t need a guardian with her, they wanted to charge me a large fee for going with her so I sold everything I had to come with her. They used some form of nanites to cure the Cancer and prevent any other growths. She stopped aging after she came out that research lab and she embraced life like she never had before. I was so happy to have my daughter back and healthy. Neither of us ever believed any off the bad things some of the others were saying about the Saer’khi and she really admired you while we were on the Bounty.”
“She sounds like she was a wonderful girl, I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to know her. It sounds like we had some things in common. If you ever need to talk about her or anything else, my door is always open,” I offered.
“Thank you Commander, I appreciate it. I wish she could have lived to get to know you. You mentioned a task for me?”
“Please call me Xia,” I insisted. “I would like you to work with Dr. Williams to study some interesting samples I found. She thinks she may need someone of your expertise.”
After introducing the pair of scientists I went off in search of Rebecca Landry and the twenty or so children under twelve who she was caring for while their parents worked. Rebecca was a middle-aged woman with brown hair and eyes who seemed to be in fairly good health. She seemed to enjoy teaching and had a way with children and from the moment I had first met her I was glad that she was a part of our colony. “Hi Rebecca, you asked for some of my time? What can I help you with?”
“Hi Xia, I’m glad you could stop by,” she greeted me with a smile. “We were talking about the various cultures of Earth and our children from other planets were sharing a bit about their cultures, so I was wondering if you could talk to the kids about what living on Saer’kah was like for you and what sort of traditions and such the Saer’khi have.”
“I always have time to tell the little ones stories,” I said with a grin. I sat down with the children and once they had all gotten their fill of petting Kit she curled up in my lap and I started off by saying, “You all know that I was human before I was made part Saer’khi, so a lot of things about being Saer’khi took a while for me to get used to, but one thing was really hard to get used to. Can anyone guess what that was?”
“Was it having wings?” a Hispanic boy of about eight years old asked.
I laughed at that. “Well wings were a bit weird at first I’ll admit, but the hardest thing was that the Saer’khi only communicate telepathically and not only was I not used to that, but I didn’t know their language at first. So I had to learn to not only think in their language but to make sure I wasn’t thinking things I wanted kept private ‘out loud’. Another thing was that Saer’khi families are a lot different than human families.”
“How are they different?” asked a red headed girl who looked to be about twelve. “Is it like when you have two moms or two dads? When we were still on Earth I knew a girl with two moms.”
I smiled at her, “It’s sort of like that but in Saer’khi families there is one mom and several dads. I have three dads.”
“I wish I had three dads,” another boy said. “But why do you have more dads than moms?”
“Men outnumber women by four to one, but like bees the women are the ones in charge and have multiple husbands, so that there are enough available women to go around, and for other reasons too,” I told him. “Our culture has many similarities to bees actually. We all work for the greater good of our whole society and like bees there’s three types of Saer’khi: There’s the boys, or Pi’tak, who do the more physical tasks, and there’s two types of girls, the Ji’tak and the Ji’turi.”
“What’s the difference between the two types of girls? Which are you?” A Murqui girl asked.
I nodded in approval at her questions. “Ji’tak can’t have children naturally; they need to have them artificially. Ji’turi are like queen bees, there’s not very many of them compared to the Ji’tak, but they can have babies and they are treated like queens and princesses. They’re the most important people in our culture because having babies is very important to our culture. From the time they are young they are given a special diet that makes them bigger and healthier than other girls. I’m a Ji’turi and so are Tanna and Krie.”
“Are you gunna have babies?” a five year old girl of African descent asked.
I gave a nervous laugh at that. “Someday I will I guess, but I need to choose all my Tess’hir first and get married. Tess’hir is what we call our husbands. They call us Tess’rha. I’ve only chosen one Tess’hir so far though and I should have at least two or three.”
The red headed girl wrung her hands a bit as she asked. “Who is the one you chose, and how do you choose them?”
“Usually it’s someone we’re really close to and they offer to let us see the deepest parts of their minds. That’s a very personal and special thing for us and if we accept and look deep enough a bond called Dhur-tal is made. From that point on we’re engaged,” I explained. Then I added, “The one I chose is Tarek, he was the pilot on the Bounty and we’ve been friends a long time. I have to get going, but I think I have time for one more question.”
“Why don’t you tell us what your favorite Saer’khi tradition is,” Rebecca suggested.
I thought about that as I absently stroked the slip in my lap causing her to buzz and the some of the children to giggle. “My favourite tradition is Katur Soma, in English it translates to Honey Moon. It’s a big celebration where the whole town gathers together when the moon is big and yellow in the sky. It’s like New Years, and is a night when we celebrate what the past year has brought us and look toward the future. There are sweets and drinks like Passu, and people dancing in the air. Maybe someday we can all have a celebration like that here in our new home,” I suggested as I placed Kit on the ground and stood up again.
“Thanks for coming by and doing this Xia, I know how busy you’ve been,” Rebecca said with a smile. “Everyone say thank you to Commander Phar.”
There was a chorus of “Thank you Commander Phar!”
“Any time kids, you all behave for Rebecca, okay and maybe I’ll bring Kit back for another visit tomorrow.” I waved to them all as I pulled Rebecca aside for a moment. “I’d like you to start considering teaching English as a second language to the aliens and humans who don’t speak it, without the translators. We can’t rely on the translators all the time and we’ll all need a common language in the long run. Humans are the majority and most of them speak at least a little English, so that’s the logical choice.”
She nodded as she replied, “Good thinking Xia, I’ll spread the word around and get something set up with the non-English speakers.”
I was making my way back toward the medical ship with Kit on my heels when I heard someone call out, “Commander Phar!”
I turned around to see a Yazuik girl who looked roughly sixteen running toward me. Her name was Pallu if I remembered correctly and she, her parents, and her infant sister were now the only ones of their species in the colony. The Yazuik are a species of aquatic marsupials. They look humanoid with flat noses, small triangular ears and webbed hands and feet equipped the sharp strong claws for climbing trees. Their short beaver-like tails store fat and act as a rudder in water and their fur ranges from black to browns and golds and repels water and traps air to keep them warm under water and at night. They’re used to living in trees at night and spend much of their days under water living mostly on plants and fish.
“Pallu, right?” I asked as I greeted her. “What can I do for you?”
The girl looked nervous but she was doing her best not to show it as she ran her fingers through her golden fur. “Well… my father and I are far more useful under water than on land and I was hoping that you would let us do some scouting in the ocean to see what other fish or food sources might be out there.”
I sighed at that. “Normally I’d be all for that, but there is a thirty foot long aggressive reptile somewhere in that water that’s wondering what we taste like. I’m not real eager to give it an opportunity to find out.”
“That’s why you should send us,” she insisted. “We’ll be able to sense it coming long before it knows we’re there and if it’s nocturnal we may be able to find out where it’s nesting during the day so we can avoid that area.”
I thought hard about that. The Yazuik hunt by electrolocation and while their sense of smell and their vision only average this sense of electroreception helps them to locate other living creatures or sources of electricity under water or even in pitch blackness. If anyone was suited to survive out in that water it was them. They could see that monster coming from miles away. “What does your father think about this idea?”
“He agrees, this is the best time of day for us to be doing this, and we might be able to find some more food sources for the colony. He just didn’t want to go against your orders.” She didn’t seem to think I was going to buy it because she quickly added, “If we sense anything big and dangerous we’ll be out of the water long before it reaches us.”
“I’m not sure about this but you seem to know what you’re getting yourselves into. I want you both to come to the medical ship first though, so I can be sure your dad is okay with this and to give you both a subspace comm device in case there’s trouble. I don’t want any more dead colonists. Get your father and come report to me as soon as you’re ready.” As she ran off to get her father I returned to the medical ship and silently hoped that I wasn’t sending two people to their deaths.
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
Chapter 10 Noteworthy Amethyst |
Pallu’s father was named Seddar and he looked a lot like his daughter. He was a little taller and bulkier and his fur was dark brown to her gold, but the family resemblance in the face and eyes would have been obvious even if they weren’t from the only Yazuik family in the colony. I issued both of them comm units, and I would have had them wear two of our environmental suits as well, but they insisted that they would only get in the way. The suits would impede their movements and their own evolutionary adaptations would protect them from the pressure of the deeper waters anyway.
I did insist on other precautions though. First, Tarek and I would go with them and follow as best we could above the water in case they couldn’t get away from something fast enough and needed to be rescued. I also insisted that the pair both wear particle beam cylinders attached to their belts and drilled them in their use before we left for the water. I had hoped to bring Kit along as well, hoping that she would warn us if the creature decided to make an appearance, but it would have been impractical.
After I left Kit with Amy and gathered a few things that I wanted to take with me, Tarek and I left to meet the pair at the river. The Yazuik were waiting there for us, wearing only some sort of loincloths and waterproof pouches, though Pallu was also wearing a tank top type shirt for modesty. They entered the water and began to move downstream toward the ocean itself. Tarek and I were able to keep track of them whenever they came up for air, though Yazuik can hold their breath for a pretty long time, but they weren’t moving very fast so they could explore as thoroughly as possible. The sun was high in the sky when Pallu’s voice came over the comm. “Commander we’re not far downriver from our last location and there’s something you should see.”
“We’ll be right there,” I replied as Tarek and I flew toward where the two Yazuik were treading water.
The elder of the two Yazuik pointed to a grassy hill on the shore about a hundred yards further downriver. “There’s something very large and alive in that hill. I think it may be a burrow for your crocosaur. The bio-electric field we’re sensing is steady and slow, so I believe it’s sleeping.”
I nodded as I used my goggles to zoom in on the hill in question. “So they live in large burrows along the river and they’re almost definitely nocturnal, that should make them easier to avoid. I don’t remember seeing anything like that when we scouted the shore along the ocean, so it may be safer to do any fishing and water gathering there. Good work, let’s keep an eye out for more of these burrows so we can tell the other colonists what signs to look for.”
We found two more of the burrows along the river before we reached the ocean and they began to do more exploration while Tarek and I carefully watched the surface of the water for anything unusual. They found an abundance of seussfish as well as two types of smaller fish. The first was a type of tiny white fish that only grew to about three inches long and seemed to feed on algae. I called them scumsuckers. They were plentiful enough, but at their size not much good for human consumption. The second type fed on the scumsuckers and Pallu suggested that we call them featherfish. They were roughly a foot long and two inch wide fish covered with white hair-like tendrils that give them a feather-like appearance.
There were no signs of crocosaur burrows along the beach or near the ocean in general, there wasn’t even any signs that the huge beasts left the river at all. Once the Yazuik explorers got out in the deeper water they did discover something big though, a large gold colored type of fish almost as big as they were. For lack of a better name we called them sunfish. They didn’t seem dangerous and only appeared to feed on the seussfish and featherfish. The lack of any signs of the crocosaurs in such an obviously food-rich environment was a huge relief for me though it had the Yazuik pair a bit confused.
We had decided to take a short break from the exploration to rest on the beach and when Pallu came out of the water, nibbling on a raw featherfish, she was smiling from ear to ear. “Enjoying yourself?” I asked.
She nodded eagerly, “It has been so long since I had a good swim and the water here is nice and clean. The river water is quite a bit warmer but our kind is pretty used to cold water so it doesn’t bother me so much. I was wondering why those big beasts don’t come out to the ocean to hunt though, there is so much food out here and the sunfish would make a good sized meal for them.”
I gave her a smile as I shrugged. “Evolution most likely. We have similar creatures on Earth, but they’re an endangered species now. The ones in my country preferred warmer shallow waters because they’re cold blooded and get their heat from their environment. These ones are probably the same so they stick to the warmer waters of the rivers and swamps. Also they’ve adapter to hunt creatures that get to close to the water and drown them or swallow them whole. The molehogs are big and stupid and seem to be nocturnal as well so they would be a good primary food source for them. Reptiles with this kind of hunting pattern are opportunists and usually just wait for food to come to them so why go into an environment they’re not as well suited for when they can wait for food to come to them?”
“I guess that makes a lot of sense,” she agreed. “At least we know that the ocean should be fairly safe if they stick to the river. We haven’t sensed anything bigger than the sunfish and nothing that has felt like a predator. There’s lots of food available too. I grabbed some samples of a plant I think we might be able to eat as well.”
“Good thinking, seaweed might be good and fill some holes in our dietary needs until we can start planting crops. I should let Krie know what we’ve found.” I reached out through my mental amplifier to send her a ping before asking, *Krie, are you busy?*
Her cheerful mind voice replied almost immediately. *I’m studying these blue bugs we found on the first foray into the woods. They’re similar to your Earth ants but three times bigger, and the venom in their bites is an anesthetic of sorts. One of the colonists got bitten and she says the area is cold and numb. Is there something I can help you with?*
*That sounds interesting, we could probably find a use for that venom,* I replied before getting to my own matters. *I wanted to let you know that the crocosaurs prefer the river water, there’s no sign of them or any other predators in the ocean so far. Pallu and Seddar found three occupied crocosaur burrows along the river. It’s almost certain they’re nocturnal and between that, Kit, and knowing what the burrows look like we should be able to avoid them in the future. They also found some new types of fish in the ocean that should be a good food source for us and some sort of seaweed.*
She was quiet for a moment then. *That is interesting. Xawin and Sarah may have found something too. They were looking for a large grove of wingnut trees I found when we first explored the forest so they could work out how to process the sap into syrup for us and they found something else as well. There was a meadow of violet colored long grass growing nearby that Sarah thinks is a form of grain. They’re going to bring some back for me to run scans on.*
I nodded thoughtfully as I considered the new information. *Grains usually pollinate by wind so it’s not really too surprising to find some. This could be a big discovery for us though, Sarah could use it to make flour and bread and maybe pasta so we’re not stuck eating the same thing all the time. Could you send Tanna down here with the mag-lev once she’s done bringing in building supplies and whatever the hunters have caught? We’re going to try and bring some fish and seaweed back and I’m going to see if I can find any more samples of those rocks that Mandy is so interested in. Karran and Xawin will want to have a look at those samples too when they can, so let them know to go see her when they can, if they happen to report in with anything else interesting.*
*I’ll pass all of that on. Good luck fishing and rock gathering. Try and have a little fun while you’re doing it,* she suggested.
I knew Krie was concerned about how I was pushing myself, but all in all so far today had been pretty relaxing and I could get work done and still have fun with it. Being the leader may be a lot of work, but being on a new planet and discovering new things was beginning to excite me, now that the emergency seemed to be over. I looked over at Pallu nibbling at her feather fish and smiled, “You’re probably the first of any of our species to eat one of those, how does it taste?”
She offered me and Tarek each one of the several she had in her waterproof pouch as she grinned at me. “Try it and find out.”
I looked at the strange fish dubiously. “I really prefer my fish cooked.”
“Come on, try it,” she insisted, placing the slippery thing in my hand. “There’s not much meat on the bodies but the tendrils are really tasty. We’re on a new planet trying new things, just think of this as part of the adventure.”
I closed my eyes and took a tentative bite. It felt weird against my lips but I had tried stranger things on Saer’kah. The texture was actually a lot like chow mein noodles and it had a sort of tangy taste to it. It was surprisingly good. My eyes opened in surprise as I took another bite. “This is actually pretty good. Sarah will definitely want some of these I think.”
“See, I told you Commander,” she said with a grin. “You really should come swimming with us, it’ll be fun and we can gather more food with three or four of us than just two.”
Tarek shook his head after he finished swallowing a bite of his own fish. “Saer’khi and deep water don’t really mix well, our extra arms and shoulders make us top heavy which makes swimming awkward and we have to rely too much on telekinesis so it gets tiring fast. Xia would do okay as long as she keeps her wings close to her body and uses the light amplification on her goggles, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t be joining you. Besides, someone should monitor the surface just in case.”
I thought about it as I listened to Tarek’s reply. “I haven’t been swimming in an ocean since I was nine, I would probably slow you down.” I began to work on finishing my snack.
“You’ll be fine Commander,” she tried to assure me, “Before today it’s been years for me too, but swimming is natural, it will all come back. If you have trouble remembering how, I can teach you.”
“Okay, I’ll come with you, but on two conditions. First, stop calling me Commander and call me Xia, and second, help me look for some rock samples before we go into the water. I don’t want to risk getting cramps by going into the water right after eating.”
We had found seven more pharite samples as we walked along the beach to some cliffs I had noted further north than I had had a chance to go in my original exploration. The cliffs weren’t far off from our current position and it took less than half an hour to make it there. The stone the cliff was composed of was hard, sturdy, worn smooth by erosion, and of a red-gold color, but I couldn’t seem to find any openings or caves. I pulled four cube-shaped devices about the size of a baseball out of my pack, handed one to each of my companions and kept the last for myself. “What are these?” Seddar asked.
“These are core samplers,” I explained. “You stick them on the rock face or on the ground and they send out a straight line of sampler nanites roughly one hundred yards long. Those nanites send the information back along the line to the display to give an idea of the general ore composition of an area. We use them to see if rock or ore contains materials suitable for creating bionics and such, they save time on mining potentially useless areas. Seddar you can place one here on the south face of the cliff, Pallu, swim out and place one somewhere on the west face, and Tarek and I will fly up top and place the last two somewhere to the north and east. We want them at least one to two hundred yards apart so we’re getting a good sampling. We’ll have to wait roughly ten minutes for the results but the screen will flash to let you know. Once we’re all done we’ll meet back here and I can compile the results.”
Pallu headed back into the water as Tarek and I both took to the air and headed for the top of the cliff. We were going to split off north and east, but I told him to land on the plateau at the cliff’s summit. I landed in front of him and took one of his hands in both of mine. *Tarek… I’m an idiot.*
He shook his head and I could feel his confusion. *You’re one of the smartest people I know.*
*Which is exactly why I should have realized how stupid I was being sooner,* I replied sadly. *I’ve always been so concerned with what other’s see me as, that I couldn’t see that who they see me as is so much more important. You, my family, even the colonists see me as someone, a person, and not some mix of human and Saer’khi. I need to relax and do with my life what I want to do.*
*What do you want to do with your life?* he asked nervously.
*I want to be myself, free to be Saer’khi, free to have my human quirks, I want to help these people survive and make something great of this colony, but most of all, I want to do something that I should have done when I first looked into your mind…* I opened my inner thoughts to him so he could see everything I was thinking, everything I was feeling as I kissed him and thought, *Tarek… I love you too, and I would be proud to have you as my first Tess’hir.*
No more words, no more thoughts were necessary, as I could feel the love and euphoria in his mind and we just stood there for a moment kissing and holding one another before I finally broke the kiss. *We should go get these samples done, I just wanted to take a moment and let you to know how I feel so we could both stop dwelling on it.*
Fifteen minutes later we had all gathered back where Seddar was waiting and I compiled the sample readings as we walked to the stretch of beach where we would do our fishing while waiting for Tanna to show up with the mag-lev transport. The results looked interesting, but I wasn’t a geologist so I figured that Mandy would have a better idea of what was useful and what the numbers meant than I would. It was looking like there was a lot of iron and mandium in that area though and that was very promising.
Once we arrived at our fishing location I placed the cubes in my bag with the pharite samples and my medical kit. Then I took off my sneakers and jeans and folded my wings as close to my back as I could before joining the two Yazuik in the water. Swimming was like riding a bike, it all came back to me quickly, although I couldn’t keep up with the others or go very deep, and for safety’s sake I was using my telekinesis to hold my wings against my body. So while they were catching fish and piling them on the shore I was gathering fistfuls of the blue colored seaweed and spreading it out on the sand to dry out in the afternoon sun.
*Having fun?* Tarek sent me after roughly an hour of this activity.
*It’s been a long time since I’ve been swimming.* I replied with a happy sigh. *My parents used to take me all the time before my problems started and the quake hit. I forgot how fun it is, it’s a lot of work though keeping my wings from moving. I’ll need to start a work rotation now that we know there are lots of fish here and no crocosaurs. People get bored doing the same work every day and a day of swimming, even if it’s for work, might help lift their spirits a bit until we can build a water pipeline and bathhouse. I could put Seddar in charge of ocean gathering groups.*
*And that Tess’rha is why you make such a good leader,* he replied with a warm mental smile. *You’re always thinking of what’s best for everyone and how to keep them happy despite our situation. I think Seddar would be a good choice for that.*
After two hours Tanna showed up with the mag-lev and we loaded it up with the four sunfish Seddar and Pallu had caught, a plethora of suessfish and featherfish, and all the seaweed I had gathered. Then I got back into my clothes and we all headed back to camp to deliver the foodstuffs to Sarah. The chef seemed very excited by the prospect of the seaweed and the new types of fish. “We really need more greens in our diet and hopefully the seaweed will help, those big gold colored fish, we can make steaks out of and give people good portion sizes, I can smoke the seussfish so they keep longer, and I have a great idea for those tendrils too.”
I laughed at her excitement. “So I hear you and Xawin made a discovery of your own.”
She nodded happily in response. “Xawin thinks he can work out some spigots to harvest the sap of those trees for us to make into syrup and we found some light purple grain and it seems to be mature enough to harvest soon. I’m guessing it must be late summer on this part of the planet.”
“Closer to early summer actually,” I replied. “We’re in a fairly temperate zone here. We probably won’t see much snow during winter, except maybe on those mountains to the east, and with proper care we could probably get two growing seasons for some types of crops. It’s one of the reasons I decided on this landing site.”
“Good thinking there Xia,” she said with a nod of approval. “That should help the food situation quite a bit. The lumber teams even have enough land cleared on the southern edge of the camp that we can start digging fields for growing. Krie even mentioned something about planting when she was looking over the grain earlier.”
“I better go see her next then; I need to lake some samples and core readings to the lab anyway. Have fun with all your new goodies,” I said with a smile as I headed back to the medical ship.
When I arrived inside the medical ship Krie was hard at work in front of the four cloning chambers while Amy watched everything she was doing. Kit sniffed the air and jumped off Amy’s lap to nuzzle my legs and start buzzing, causing the pair to turn around. “Oh, you’re back. Did you have fun?” Krie inquired in her electronic voice with a smile.
“It was a nice change of pace,” I admitted. “Now that we know the ocean is fairly safe we’ll need to start a work rotation so people aren’t doing the same thing every day and can enjoy the water for a bit.”
“That’s a good plan,” she replied with a nod of approval. “I’m glad you’re back Xia, I wanted to talk to you about the birds and the bees.”
I grinned at her. “Didn’t Mom already have that talk with me when I bonded with Tarek?”
It took my sister a full minute to get the joke. “You do realize that humans have some very strange sayings right?”
“Yes I do,” I replied with a chuckle as she shook her head. “I assume you’re talking about the hummingbirds and honey bees we’ve been cloning?”
She nodded, “We have eight hummingbird eggs out of growth acceleration and in the incubator now and close to a thousand bee larvae ready to go. including twenty queens to start off with. Should we leave it at that and try to start cloning some of the other animals we were talking about? They were small with relatively short gestational cycles that were compatible with growth acceleration but the others are larger and will take some time to mature even with growth acceleration.”
I thought about that for a moment before nodding. “That should be a good start, we won’t have a lot for them to pollinate at first anyway. So let’s give what we have a chance to mature and breed on their own once they’re incubated and start on four dozen chicken eggs next. They won’t take near as long to mature as the cows and durla and they’ll provide more eggs and young chickens fairly quickly.”
“I was thinking the same,” Krie replied. “Amy you’ve been watching these ones grow, how would you like to help me start cloning some chickens? Bringing new life into the world is one of the best things about being a doctor. Once I’ve shown you how it’s done on one of the cloning chambers you can help by starting a batch in the second chamber while I use the third.”
Amy’s eyes lit up. “Really?!”
The young girl looked to me as if to ask permission and I had to hold back a laugh as I nodded. “I think that’s a good idea. And until they’re mature all these baby hummingbirds will need someone to care for them, someone to synthesize nutrients for them and feed them with a syringe. The baby chickens will need care when they first hatch too. It will be a huge help to the colony and be a good start for your medical training. Do you think you can manage that?”
Amy had the biggest smile I had seen on her since we landed as she nodded eagerly. “I’ll do my best!”
“I know you will,” I said as I reached over to ruffle her hair. “Consider yourself the mama bird of Unity.”
I left the pair to get to work and headed into the lab with Kit following behind. Mandy, Xawin, and Dr. Kwan were discussing the samples and their potential. Dr. Kwan was saying,” …suppose that faster than light travel would be possible with that method and a fixed source of dark matter to channel the energy. That would only satisfy the negative energy portion of the equation though; zero mass would still be required.”
“I believe that we could attain zero mass by using subspace field emitters to create something similar to a subspace bubble using the energy created by the dark matter reactor instead of the electromagnetic energy and photons of a normal particle accelerator,” Xawin insisted via his voice box.
A lot of what they were saying wasn’t really in my field off expertise, but even I could figure out the basics of what they were discussing. “So I guess you found a use for these after all,” I said with a grin displaying one of the larger pharite samples I had found earlier.
“You found more?” Mandy asked eagerly. “What about mandium? The potential for these two substances is astounding!”
I placed all the samples on the table and then added the core samplers as well. “I used these to get an idea of the minerals and metals present in that large cliff to the north of the beach and compiled the results on my data pad.” I passed the pad over to Mandy, “You’ll probably be able to make more sense out of the results than I could.”
The geologist looked over the data pad and her eyes lit up briefly followed by a look of confusion. “Forty-seven percent iron, thirty-one percent mandium, and then there’s titanium, copper, gold, silver, traces of platinum and some other metals and various minerals, and traces of pharite. But there’s no nickel and not even a trace of aluminum? Is the whole planet like this?”
I shrugged, “I have no idea, but I tried to spread out the testing for that area and make it as random as possible. So it’s good that there’s plenty of iron and mandium, is the lack of those other elements a bad thing?”
She shook her head, “They would be useful but we can do without them. It’s not so much a bad thing as very unusual. Nickel is pretty common on earth, but aluminum is one of the most common elements in the known universe, though we find it in various forms. For an area to have absolutely no trace is really strange.”
“Well you did say this planet has a different elemental composition than earth,” I reminded her. “And just because it’s one of the most common elements in our neck of the woods doesn’t mean there’s not an area where it’s not, or small pockets that are empty of it.”
“You’re right of course, but it surprises me a bit,” she said with a shrug. “At least we know of a large source of iron and mandium nearby. Tomorrow I’d like your permission to take a small team to do some prospecting. I want to see if we can find a large enough sample to run those tests on and see how durable they are when processed into bionics or other things.”
I thought about what we could spare from the other tasks we needed done. “You can have a team of six but we can’t spare any more than that from gathering food and building shelters. Ask Captain White who he would recommend. I can make the bionics for your test using the medical nanite programmer, but I’m not sure how we can make anything else.”
Xawin suggested, “There’s a nano-repair module on the personnel drop ship. It’s usually used to repair damaged components in case of situations like this where a ship is stranded. It can’t do anything terribly complex but I think I can program it to create simple things like pipes for the pipeline or smaller components for more complex items. It will not work as quickly as a regular nanite programmer would, but it will allow us to create things we need like plas-steel pipes and the simple devices Sarah needs to extract the sap from those trees.”
I raised an eyebrow at that. I had almost forgotten about the nano-repair module since everything was working fine and it was usually only used for very basic repairs. “Okay Xawin, get right on that, that’s your number one priority.”
That night before dinner, I had Karran activate the shield generator, gave the colonists a progress report, and had the various team leaders do the same. They seemed pleased with our progress. The ideas of building a water pipeline and bath house, and implementing work rotations that would allow colonists to spend their mornings and afternoons at different tasks, was received very well. People were enthusiastic and even excited about our future here and it was a huge relief to see that.
Dinner only added to the good mood. Sarah and her staff had cooked enough sunfish steaks for everyone to have a large portion, with some lemonberries, wingnuts, and a bowl of featherfish tendrils mixed with seaweed and chunks of molehog meat sautéed in a sweet sauce, made from some wingnut sap she had managed to gather while out with Xawin. She and her staff were also working on smoking the seussfish and making jerky from extra molehog meat and some of the supply of salt that came with the kitchen supplies in order to supplement our long term food supply.
I smiled at the chef as she sat down with Tarek, Krie, Tanna, Amy, and me. ”You’ve outdone yourself Sarah.”
“Just wait until we have grain and I can make flour, I’ll be able to do a lot more then,” she replied with a grin.
I nodded, “Hopefully we’ll have eggs for you soon too now that Krie and Amy have moved on to cloning chickens.” I looked out at all the people smiling and laughing as they talked around the fires and let out a happy sigh. “You know what would make this night perfect?”
“Music?” Tarek asked with a grin picking up on my stray surface thoughts.
“Cheater” I said as I leaned over and kissed him. “You could have at least let the non-telepaths guess.”
*I play the nizu rings, and Karran has a viyat. We played together a few times on the ship when we were off duty and we keep them with us. It might sound strange to the other species though,* Tanna sent me privately.
*Oh yeah, you both mentioned that when we first met and were getting to know one another,* I replied as the memory hit me. *I’d love to hear you both play. And if nothing else it will be a new experience for the other species. We all need to learn to coexist anyway; this might make an interesting start. Ask Karran if he’d be interested.*
A moment later her warm and cheerful mind voice slipped back into my thoughts. *He says he would be willing, we’ll need a moment to get set up.*
*Okay, you both get ready and I’ll let everyone know what’s going to happen.* I stood up and raised my hands in the air. “Attention everyone!” Once I had their attention I continued on. “We have a lot to celebrate and I was thinking it would be nice to have some music to make this evening complete. Tanna just informed me that she plays the nizu rings, and that Karran has a viyat and that they would be willing to play for us. I don’t know about any of the other species, but I know humans will have never heard anything quite like this before. So let’s have a warm round of applause for Tanna and Karran!”
Tanna was just finishing putting on her rings as the applause started. The nizu rings are made up of twenty hollow golden rings worn on the fingers and thumbs of all four hands and interconnected with the rings on other hands through a series of three hundred metallic strings. Various notes are made by moving all of the fingers and hands to stretch or lessen the pull on the strings and plucking the strings telekinetically. Plucking the strings harder can cause a cascade of notes through any strings that are touching so it requires a lot of skill to play.
Karran’s viyat was somewhat simpler. It’s a sort of tiny amplifier worn near the base of the wings that broadcasts the buzzing sound made when the wings are moving rapidly and by speeding up or slowing the speed of the wings it provides a sort of buzzing drum like rhythm. You would think that sounds easy to play but I tried to learn once and it takes very precise wing control not to sound horrible. The good players have amazing control and can vibrate each of the four individual wings at a different frequency to make different sounds.
They were both very good and the melody was beautiful, but would sound strange to anyone not from Saer’kah. It had taken me some time to get used to the intricacies of Saer’khi music, but hearing it again now made me smile and sigh happily. The audience was transfixed, staring in wonder at the pair of musicians, though Kit wasn’t sure what to make of it at first, and I was so focused on them that I was a little surprised when Tarek took my hand in his. *Would you like to dance Tess’rha?*
I had always been content to watch during celebrations when Ji’turi would dance with their chosen partners. I had never actually tried it myself before. *You know I’ve never…*
*Then this will be the first time for both of us. We’ll take it slow,* he assured me.
I swallowed the lump in my throat, took his two upper hands in mine and began to beat my wings, lifting myself into the air. Tarek did his best to match my speed and follow me through each turn as we spun through the air above the other colonists. As we got comfortable we got more daring, reading one another’s thoughts and using telekinesis to pull off more complex moves, never letting go of each other as we bobbed and weaved through the air in one another’s arms. Krie and Xawin flew up and joined us in the air in a dance of their own and soon others began to dance on the ground around the fire. We celebrated late into the night.
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
Chapter 11 First Steps Amethyst |
Over the next few days the camp settled into a pattern as we made ourselves more at home on Unity. Amy and Kyle were progressing well in their first aid lessons and I felt that, by the end of the week, they would have the basics down enough to be sent out to treat minor injuries. Amy wouldn’t have much to do with the hummingbirds or chickens until they hatched and that likely wouldn’t be for two to three weeks, so until then she was checking up on them in the incubator while learning more about medicine from me and Krie. We had started cloning a pair of Durla, but even with growth acceleration it would be at least a month before we had them ready to be ‘born’.
Our engineers had been keeping themselves pretty busy too, between conversing with Mandy and Dr. Kwan and their other assigned tasks. Xawin had managed to convert the personnel ship’s nano-repair module to create pipes and basic construction items, all he needed was iron, copper and other metals to begin making the pipes and such we would need to reroute water to the settlement. Meanwhile, Karran had been going over the device I had found at the base of Eric’s skull. The kill switch had seemed to render the device useless, he couldn’t figure out any way for us to use it, but on the up side it was no longer transmitting either. He also had come up with the idea to tweak the subspace comm discs to resonate at a frequency that would allow the wearers to pass through the EM shield whenever it was on at night, allowing those issued one to leave camp if they needed to, but still prevent nocturnal predators from entering the camp.
Between the molerats and the fishing we were doing very well for food and we nearly had enough temporary shelters built so that everyone wouldn’t have to sleep in the personnel ship. The rotating of duties went over very well and people were a lot happier now that part of their day could be spent swimming and doing things other than construction, digging fields for planting, chopping wood, or prospecting and mining with Mandy. The last task in particular was not well liked among the colonists who had been unfortunate enough to have done it. Mining the mandium had proven difficult, it was hard and filthy work that after only two days nobody wanted in their work rotation.
It was the evening of our fifth full day on Unity when I approached Mandy at dinner. “You look tired, how is the mining going? I’m told it’s not the most pleasant job in the rotation.”
“You have a gift for understatement,” the geologist replied tiredly. “People hate it, hell I hate it, but I’m the only one with any kind of background for it. I don’t mind doing it myself, for the good of the colony, but I hate making others do it. The good news is, we’ve found a good vein of both iron and mandium and we have extracted almost enough mandium, copper, and silicate minerals to give you what you need for Amy’s bionics and enough iron to at least get a start on the plasteel pipes for the water line.”
“And the bad news?” I inquired.
She sighed heavily. “Word has spread about how horrible the mining work is and nobody wants to do it, and I don’t want to force anyone to do something I hate doing myself. Today was especially miserable work with that heavy rain we got. We’ve all been through enough. I can’t think of any of the colonists who deserve to be forced to do that, well I can think of four, but they’re locked up until we decide what to do with them.”
“Mandy, you are a genius!” I exclaimed as I beamed at her.
“Wait a minute, you’re not thinking that we should...” she began. I could see a thoughtful look passing over her face for a moment before she grinned back at me. “You know, I have no problems with forcing those four to do it.”
“Let’s suggest it then, if the other colonists go for the idea, they’re all yours.” I quickly stood up and called out, “Everyone! If I could please have your attention!” The ebb and flow of conversations around the fires came to a halt as the colonists all turned their attention our way. Once I was sure I had everyone’s attention I continued speaking. “Mandy here has been telling me that nobody wants to have mining in their work rotation, is that correct?”
Kyles father, Woody Harris, nodded. He was a big strong blond man who had been one of the first six to help Mandy. “I usually don’t mind a bit of hard work Commander, but that was amongst the hardest, dirtiest and most unpleasant work I’ve ever had the misfortune to do. Nobody would want to do that if they had a choice in the matter.”
“And what if they didn’t have a choice?” I asked. “We still have four mutineers that we need to decide what to do with. I know a lot of you wanted them killed for what they caused, but on Earth hard labour was a very good punishment for criminals. I personally would much prefer that to handing out a death sentence when we’ve seen so much death already. A lot of you want to see them suffer and believe me, if they are on mining detail every day for the foreseeable future then they will suffer. They would also be contributing a valuable resource to the colony.”
I could see varied expressions as people mulled it over in their minds. The discussion that followed lasted for nearly an hour before all the details were agreed upon. Once the decision was made, Mandy and I left for the medical ship to inform our inmates of their new status. We approached the quarantined room the four shared and I pressed the touchpad that would release the EM shield that kept them inside. “Congratulations gentlemen, we just saved your lives.”
“They’re not going to kill us?” Jake asked cautiously.
“You all probably deserve it, but no,” I responded coldly. “Mandy and I have convinced the other colonists to spare your lives. Instead of killing you the colony has decided to give you two choices. The first option is that I personally fly you out into the centre of this planet’s largest desert with nothing but the clothes on your back and the eternal animosity of the entire colony.”
None of them looked like they savoured that choice very much as Jared asked solemnly, “And the second option?”
I looked him straight in the eyes as I replied, “That you make reparations for what you have done to these people. Until further notice, during daylight hours you will work with Mandy here mining the metals we’ll need to make life here more bearable. During the evenings you will be able to come and go around the colony as you please, with the exception of the drop ships, and you can build yourselves shelters, just don’t expect the other colonists to be friendly toward you. If you try to run, believe me the Murqui can and will track you down anywhere on this planet and when they bring you back you will be offered this choice again with the third option of death. Those are your options, so I suggest you think very carefully about them.”
Jake was frowning. “But we were trying to help our fellow humans, we didn’t…”
“Didn’t what?” I interrupted him acidly. “Didn’t think about your actions? Didn’t assist Eric Townsend in a mutiny that not only destroyed the Bounty, but stranded us here and resulted in the deaths of seven hundred and sixty four people? We all know that you did, you were there guarding the door to the bridge for him. Did you know that six hundred and thirty seven of those deaths were humans? One hundred and fifty four of those humans were children. Maybe I should show you all the list of names and ages just so you can get a better idea of how much you ‘helped’ your fellow humans. Or maybe I should have Amy come in here and let you know just how much it ‘helped’ her to lose her mother and her legs.”
I was clenching my fists tightly now and had to make an effort to control myself. “You have one minute to make your choice.” In the end Mandy had four new permanent workers, though I was pretty sure that Jake might be a problem. Sometimes I really hate being right.
I was just preparing for bed when I got the call from Lirra over the subspace comm. “Commander, one of the mutineers stole Rebecca’s comm disc and is making a run for it. He thinks he’s being stealthy, but a still-blind kitten could follow him.”
“Jake,” I grumbled. “Which way is he heading?”
“South, toward the river,” she answered.
I groaned as I put my goggles back on and grabbed my particle beam cylinder. “Of course he is. Follow him, but be careful and let Captain White know what’s going on. I’m on my way by air.” I dashed out of the medical ship, and took to the air grumbling, “I should just let the idiot get eaten and have the problem solve itself.”
As I flew toward the river I scanned the ground below me with the infrared setting of my goggles. Soon I picked up two large heat signatures. Lirra was moving through the woods swiftly and silently in pursuit and when I got close enough I could hear Jake crashing through the woods and cursing even over the buzzing of my wings. He was close to the river’s edge now, too close for my liking with that large heat signature, just a slightly different temperature than the water, moving slowly toward shore. I landed in a tree and focussed all the mental strength I could muster through my amplifier to pull him away from the water.
He screamed in surprise as I yanked him backwards, but I couldn’t be sure if that was due to the pulling itself or the monstrous head which had erupted from the water and narrowly missed snatching him up in its powerful jaws. He sat there frozen as the crocosaur emerged from the water. “Move, you idiot!” I shouted as I dropped to the ground and telekinetically hurled a rock at the crocosaur’s head. “Run! I need a clear shot! The scaled behemoth’s head turned toward me and it roared. “That’s right, you remember me, I look pretty tasty huh.” I latched onto two more rocks with my mind and launched them at the creature and it lumbered toward me. I took to the air again as quickly as my wings would let me and the crocosaur was so focussed on me that it failed to notice Lirra emerging from the trees.
The Murqui leaped onto crocosaur’s back, using its large spines to gain purchase as she moved toward its head. It began to buck and shake from side to side in an attempt to dislodge her, but using the superior strength and balance of her kind she managed to hold on and get into position to rake her claws across it’s right eye. The beast roared in pain and fury and rolled in another attempt to dislodge her. She barely leaped aside in time to avoid being crushed beneath it as Jake took off back into the woods. I didn’t have time to worry about him at the moment though, as the crocosaur was back on its feet and had lashed out at Lirra with its tail, grazing her and knocking her back. I aimed carefully with my particle beam cylinder and prayed that I would hit it as I fired.
It did hit, puncturing the creature’s skull and causing it to spasm and twitch for a long moment before it was finally still. Once I was certain that it was safe I rushed to Lirra’s side and turned on the light amplification on my goggles to examine her midsection where she had been struck. She had a couple good gashes from the spikes intersecting the large circular scar she had from the Saer bee, and a quick switch to x-ray mode showed three cracked ribs. I winced in sympathy as I looked for the wound sealant in my medical kit. “Those ribs must hurt like hell,” I told her as I applied the sealant, “do you want me to get some people out here with a stretcher? I can give you something for the pain, and I’ll give you some bone repair nanites as soon as we get back to camp.”
“I will be fine until we find the boy and return him to camp,” she said grimly as I finished applying the sealant and anti-infection solution.
“You sure you’re up to going with me?” I asked as I prepared an injection that would dull the pain she was likely feeling.
She laughed, which only caused her to hiss in pain. “I have been through worse Commander,” she reminded me, placing her hand on the edge of that circular scar. I nodded, quickly injected the painkiller, and took out some bandages in case the wound decided to re-open while we she was walking. By the time I had finished bandaging the area the pained look on her face had lessened.
It didn’t take us long to find Jake, Lirra had no problem following the trail he had left behind and he hadn’t gotten very far before he got his foot stuck in what appeared to be a slip burrow. He was trying to pull his foot free and it looked like he might have sprained something from the grimace of pain on his face. He managed to work his foot free and as soon as he noticed us approaching through the trees he attempted to hobble away as fast as he could.
I had had enough of this. This little fool had not only stolen from someone, but he had endangered himself, me and Lirra with his stupidity. I quickly caught up with him, turned him around and grabbed the front of his shirt. Then, I slammed his back against the nearest tree. Being half Saer’khi I’m a little stronger than normal humans and I can use telekinesis to make it look like I’m even stronger by using it to bear part of the weight I’m lifting. I did that then as I lifted him a foot off the ground and held him in place. “Why the hell do I keep saving your fucking life!? Listen up you piece of shit, you now have three choices and if you choose the same one again you had better damn well tow the line or when I find you next time I will kill you myself. Do I make myself clear?!”
He nodded quickly as he stared at me in terror. He didn’t seem too intent on speaking though so I slammed him against the tree again. “Well, what’s it going to be?”
“I’ll work!” he quickly sputtered.
“You had better,” I warned him. “Oh, and if you ever steal anything from anyone in this colony again, and I will know, then you will wish the crocosaur had caught you instead of me.” I said the last calmly, but my eyes were locked right on his and I made sure he knew from the look I gave him, that I meant business. “Now sit your ass down so I can look at your foot!” I snapped as I let him go.
He didn’t need to sit since he fell on his ass. It turned out he had only twisted the ankle, it wasn’t even worth wasting medical supplies on so I just wrapped it up firmly. There was no swelling and it probably wouldn’t even bother him for more than an hour or two. He could hobble home and maybe this little bit of pain would teach him to think before doing stupid things. I doubted it, but there was always hope. Once I was done checking his ankle I knelt down to inspect the burrow he had stepped in.
I frowned and cursed softly at what I saw. Jake hadn’t stepped in the entrance to the burrow like I had hoped, but rather right through the ceiling which had been softened by the heavy rain earlier in the day. His foot coming through, or possibly his struggles to get it out, had killed the two adult slips inside. It looked like the poor things didn’t have a chance as they were wrapped around one another in a protective circle. They were probably sleeping at the time. It was a sad sight and for some reason it made me confused and a bit scared as well. Wait, those feelings weren’t mine, and was that a muffled mewling sound that I was hearing?
I carefully moved the one of the dead slips aside to reveal three smaller ones, possibly ten inches from nose to tail tip, beneath it. A quick examination showed that only two of the three were alive, one male and one female. From the small size I would guess they were only a month or two old, and the fact that their canines were only just beginning to emerge seemed to support that. I picked the two kits up and sighed as I turned back to Jake and Lirra. “Let’s get back to camp, I think Jake’s caused enough death tonight.”
Jake was quiet as we made our way back to camp. I wasn’t certain if it was because he was thinking about his actions, his ankle was hurting, or because he was too scared to cross me right now, but I didn’t particularly care. When we arrived back at camp, Captain White was waiting for us. “I see you caught him.”
I nodded tiredly. “The fool nearly got eaten by a crocosaur, Lirra got injured while we were saving him so I’m taking her for treatment. If you would please return Rebecca’s comm disc to her and make sure Jake goes to his assigned sleeping spot so he can be well rested for work tomorrow I would appreciate it Captain.”
“He’s blown one second chance, and it hasn’t even been a day yet, is it wise to give him another Commander?” the large man cautioned.
“Don’t worry, Jake is going to work very hard from now on,” I assured him as I gave Jake a meaningful look. “He knows what will happen if he steps out of line again.”
Jake quickly looked away and allowed Dennis to lead him off while I took Lirra and the two kits I was holding to the medical ship. *Krie, are you still awake?*
*Yes Xia, you had me worried when you took off like that, and the noise Kit was making not long after that would have made sleeping difficult anyway,* she quickly replied. *What happened?*
*Jake happened,* I complained before quickly giving her the details on what had occurred. *I’m bringing Lirra in for bone mending, Her three lower ribs on the left side are cracked, could you prepare the bone repair nanites for me?*
I could feel her mind changing gears as she started the task. *Alright Xia, I’m preparing them now.*
*Thanks sis, we’ll be there in a moment, we’re just entering the ship now.* We made our way to the treatment area where Krie was just finishing preparing the injection gun. I placed the two kits on the examining table and my sister’s thoughts were tinged with curiosity and interest. I explained about the kits as I injected Lirra and escorted her to one of the patients’ rooms. “You should be good as new by morning Lirra, get some rest and press the touchpad if you need anything or feel any discomfort or pain.”
The Murqui woman nodded. “Thank you Xia, I will.” She paused a moment before adding, “You did well out there, with the beast and the boy. With both you did what needed to be done.”
I wasn’t so sure about that, I had lost my cool with Jake, but I didn’t want him endangering anyone else and there didn’t seem to be any other way to get that message across to him. “Thanks Lirra, sleep well.”
After returning to my room to check on Kit, who had apparently returned to sleep after scaring the hell out of Krie with her shrieking earlier during the crocosaur incident, I returned to the treatment area to see Krie holding one of the slips and seemingly giving it a stern scolding. The sight caused me to laugh, which was something I really needed just then. At the sound, Krie gave a laugh of her own, *This little boy decided to do some exploring and nearly fell off the examining table, the silly thing. His sister seems a bit more reserved.*
*Well, I’m sure he’ll benefit from your care,* I replied with a mental smile. At her brief flash of confusion I shrugged. *I’ve already got my hands full with Kit and In don’t think she’ll be willing to share me so I figured that you and Amy could take care of these two.*
Her response was a mental squee as she said, *I have the best little sister ever! Do you think we’ll be able to form a bond like you have with Kit?*
*I would imagine so, I’ll try to help you both with it, let’s take this little girl to meet Amy and we can discuss it.* I picked up the female and we made our way to Amy’s room. The motion sensor registered our approach and the door hissed open as we approached. I sat on the gel bed beside my ward and with my free hand shook her shoulder very gently. “Amy, wake up honey.”
After a moment she turned her head to blink at me sleepily. “Mmmm still tired Xia…. Five more minutes…”
“I’ll let you go back to sleep soon,” I promised her. “I just brought in some new patients and Krie is going to be caring for one, but I’ll need your help with the other one.”
Amy sat up and tried to rub the sleep from her eyes. “What happened?”
“Hold this for me and I’ll tell you all about it.” I placed the timid little slip in her lap and her eyes shot wide open. I’m not sure which of the two seemed more uncertain as the young girl and the slip stared at one another for a long moment. “This little girl and her brother just lost their home and parents and need to be cared for. Their teeth are coming in so I think they should be able to eat solid foods, but I think this one in particular is going to need a lot of love.”
Amy seemed to get over her nerves and reached out to gently pet the slip. I left Krie and Amy alone with their new pets as I went to fetch a ration bar and then I returned both were lovingly petting and cooing at the little critters. I broke the ration bar in half and gave them both a piece, telling them. “Try feeding them a little, keep petting them and showing them love, and try to think soothing thoughts at them. Kit seems to pick up on the strong emotions of even non-telepaths, so I think that anyone should be able to form a bond with a slip if they go about it right.”
Krie bonded with her little guy first, I think it may be easier for us because we’re projective psychics. Being Saer’khi though she had never had a pet before and had no clue what to name it. “How about Mischief?” I suggested after a while. “Didn’t you pick him up so he wouldn’t get into trouble while you were waiting for me?”
She nodded as she thought it over. “I guess that does make sense, Mischief it is.”
“Try and reinforce the name by telling him, both physically and mentally. I’m not sure how much good it will do, especially at that age but it seemed to work with Kit.” As she was doing that I turned to look at Amy, whose eyes had shot wide open once again. “What’s the matter Amy?”
“That felt really… weird,” she replied as she shook it off. “Kind of like I really wanted something, but it wasn’t me feeling it… I think.”
I had to laugh at that. “I think you’ve been claimed Amy. Welcome to the wonderful world of psychic pets. You should probably name her so you can both get some sleep tonight, you do have first aid lessons in the morning.”
“Okay girl, your name is Violet,” she stated as she got a look of intense concentration on her face. I managed not to laugh since I figured she was taking this very seriously and trying to mentally reinforce the name like I had had Krie do.
“Now, you and Violet need to get some sleep,” I told her as I reached over to ruffle her hair. Then I had her lay down so I could tuck her in and kissed her on the forehead. “Good night Amy, sleep well and try not to move too much during the night until you and Violet are used to her being in here with you.”
Krie and I left the room and headed to our own quarters to get some sleep. No sooner was I in bed, then Kit repositioned herself to curl up beside my head buzzing affectionately.
As exciting as getting a slip of her own was for Amy, she was even more excited two days later. That morning she and Kyle had shown that they had the basics of first aid down enough that Krie and I pronounced them ready to be official first aid attendants. We also had enough mandium and the other necessary materials to make her bionic legs. The outer surface and all weight bearing portions would be made of the new wonder element, while copper, iron, silicon, and a few other materials would be used for the nanites, micro-hydraulics and the other inner workings of her new legs.
She was so excited by the prospect of being able to walk again that I had to caution her that we couldn’t be sure how well the mandium would work and that these were experimental. After the final first aid lesson, Krie and I put her in the body mapper to calculate the proper proportions for each leg, designing them with as human an appearance as possible. Then we let her see the design and told her what her options were for design alterations and special features. She decided to keep them looking as human as possible and only asked for more powerful micro-hydraulics to make her legs stronger.
Before lunch, while her new legs were ‘baking’ we took her into one of the operating rooms and used a neuro-suppressor to render her unconscious. Surgically implanting the connection relays and nanite receptors that would translate the signals between her bionic legs and her nervous system took nearly two hours and we wouldn’t be waking her until almost dinner time, to ensure that the special healing nanites we applied to the area would have plenty of time to do their work. When the operation was over I had Krie go eat some lunch while I remained with Amy in the recovery room.
Not long after she had left a plate was placed in front of me as my mind was wrapped in a warm mental embrace. *Please eat something Tess’rha,* Tarek told me as his four arms wrapped me up in a physical embrace as well. *Amy will be fine, you and Krie are very good at what you do and you both care too much for her to let anything go wrong. You’ve taken every precaution and when she comes out to dinner tonight she’ll be walking.*
*What if this new element causes some sort of problems? What if there’s some other problem? Our medical facilities aren’t near as good as what she could be going to if we were on Saer’kah. What if I’m getting her hopes up for nothing?* I asked as I leaned back into his embrace.
*She knows that you’re doing everything you can for her and she knows that even if this set of legs doesn’t work out, you and Krie won’t stop until you make a pair that does. She adores you two and she’s a tough girl, no matter what happens she’ll be okay.* He said without a hint of doubt. *Please eat something and get some fresh air, I’ll watch her for a while.*
I gave in and ate the meal he had brought. I didn’t want to leave her though, and he didn’t want me brooding so I compromised and went to check on how the bionics were looking. The fabrication was nearly complete and they would be ready well before we were due to wake Amy. Kit stuck to my heels the whole time and soon Krie returned to join me carrying Mischief, probably to keep him out of trouble. The slip was seemingly curious about everything in the ship and my sister had to keep a close eye on him whenever he was allowed out of her quarters.
When the legs were complete Krie left briefly to set the little nuisance and Violet up with a meal on her bed so we could begin the stress and performance tests we needed to do. Everything seemed to be working properly, though we wouldn’t know for certain until the legs were connected. We called Mandy in to help us test the strength and durability, throwing every test she could think of at those metal legs, and she was like a kid in a candy store when they not only met, but exceeded all of our expectations. The stuff really was practically indestructible as far as we could tell. The only thing you could really do against the metal was reorganize its structure using nanites like we did to construct the legs. We figured that a sustained particle beam might do the trick if focussed for long enough but we weren’t willing to test that on Amy’s legs to find out.
Matt and Tarek had joined us to be there for moral support when Amy woke up as we attached the legs to the connectors and ran a full systems check before dinner, using both med scanners and simple reflex tests. When we were certain that they were working properly we removed the neuro-suppressor. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked up at us. “Is it done?”
I nodded as I smiled down at her and touched one of her knees. “Can you feel that Amy?”
Her eyes opened wide. “I can! I can feel you touching my knee!”
“Okay honey, we’re going to have you try a few things to make sure everything is working. Can you wiggle your toes for me?” I asked. The ten golden toes on her feet began to move accompanied by the very faint sound of the micro-hyrdraulics at work. “Okay now bend your right knee.” She again did as instructed and I breathed a sigh of relief. “Now this is the big one, Krie and I are going to move to the back of the room and I want you to sit up on the table and then walk to us.” My sister and I backed away from the table to wait anxiously for Amy to take her first steps.
She sat up, looked at the floor beneath her and gave us a determined look as she placed one foot and then the other on solid ground. She walked toward us slowly at first, gaining confidence with every step until she wrapped us both in a tight hug. By that time there wasn’t a dry eye in the room.
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
Chapter 12 Fun in the Sun Amethyst |
That night at dinner Sarah and her staff were serving portions of wingnut syrup for the first time along with our dinner of fish berries, nuts, and such. She had even managed to convert some of the sap to a workable form of sugar, and the new sweets raised spirits around the fires immensely. Amy couldn’t seem to sit still through dinner, but it wasn’t due to the sweets. Once she had had her fill of dinner my ward placed Violet on her shoulder and reveled in her new ability to walk around the camp fires and talk to others. The sight of Amy walking around on her own power seemed to have a similar effect on people as the sweets. She was a shining example of just how much we had been through and how we could get through it and become even stronger.
With Amy mobile again we now had two doctors and two first aid attendants and Amy’s new legs would allow her to run and jump well enough to not only get almost anywhere Krie and I could, but almost as fast once she got used to them. The day of Amy’s surgery had also heralded the completion of the temporary shelters and we would now be able to put more work into cultivating fields for planting and beginning construction on the water pipeline. With things going fairly well in camp and the mutineers working hard under the watchful eyes of Mandy and Captain White, I felt a lot more secure about sending out scouting parties to explore more of our new world.
That night I began to look through the skill sets of the other colonists with an eye for two well-rounded scout parties that would alternate scouting missions. I would only be sending out one party at a time and I wanted a medic and at least two fliers on each team in case of emergency. Having two Saer’khi per team would also allow us to communicate with an aerial scout even if comms were down for some reason. I also wanted a Murqui on each team for their hunting, tracking, and stealth abilities in the woods; a combat specialist in case things went south; and people specialized in the type of terrain we would be scouting.
Krie would be the team leader and medic for one group with Lirra as the forest scout, Tanna as aerial scout, Luiza for her combat experience, Nu-Arr, and Zheer. Nu-Arr was one of our seven Nezans and since Krie’s team would begin scouting the inland mountains I felt that he would be useful. The humanoid goats usually make their homes in the mountains and are excellent climbers. Zheer was a male Haran and the velociraptor-like people were effective in any terrain as they were great climbers, fierce combatants, and could use their wings for gliding even if they couldn’t fly.
I would lead the other team and act as it’s medic with Tarek as aerial scout and Matt as our combat specialist. Since we would be scouting along the coast I decided to have Pallu join us as an aquatic scout, her electro-location ability might also prove useful for detecting possible predators before they spotted us. Bixx would be our Haran and I wasn’t too worried about their safety since, like me and Matt, they had been part of the nanotech project. Bixx was the same age as me when they had gotten the nanites too, so we had a lot in common. When I had first interviewed Bixx that first day on the planet, I felt horrible that they would never grow into their proper gender, but the Haran said that they saw it as a blessing. Rather than being forced to conform to whatever gender fate imposed on them they could just be free to be themself. Growing up with gender issues like I had, it was something that I could relate to.
After a discussion with Lirra, I decided that a young woman named Rinnik would be the Murqui on our team; she was seventeen years old and the youngest of those that the Murqui considered adults. I chose her because Lirra thought that the girl could use a challenge and some time away from camp to put what she had learned into practice. Growing up on Saer’kah in the barracks she had never really gotten the chance to use the skills she had been taught by her parents. The past week we had been on planet had been a chance to use those skills with other Murqui present in the hunting parties, but she needed a chance to prove herself without over-protective elders watching over her shoulder. Like Pallu, she saw colonizing a new planet under the circumstances that we were as a big adventure.
Before bed Krie and I gathered our prospective team members in the forward area of the medical ship to explain what would be happening and to let them know what each of their roles would be. In addition to the medical supplies, core samplers, and other exploration gear the exploration teams would carry enough emergency rations to last several days in case of emergency and those of us with undamaged ship uniforms would be wearing them to function as environmental suits in harsh conditions. Both teams wanted first crack at exploration, but it was decided to send Krie’s team on the first day since they would be going inland and had a better chance at discovering other sources of food and supplies.
Krie’s team left at first light the next morning while I held down the fort and kept myself busy. During the morning I went to the edge of the forest with the crew that was preparing the land we had cleared of trees into a large plot of farmland for the colony. The idea was that while we would all have individual homes and property eventually, we would all continue to work together for the good of the colony. With communal farms, fishing, and harvesting of other resources, we would all have a share in what was produced so long as we all contributed to the colony. I was helping to remove a particularly stubborn stump from the ground when I got a ping from Krie.
*How are things at home Xia?* my sister asked.
*We’re making good progress prepping the land for planting. There have been a few minor injuries, but nothing too serious, so I’ve been letting Kyle and Amy handle them. They’re still too young to help with the really heavy work and I’m putting my strength to good use here. How’s the exploring going? You must have made some good distance, I can barely pick up your thoughts, even with my amplifier.* I was really having to focus to ’hear’ what she was sending.
*We’re at the base of the mountains southeast of the camp. We’re pretty much at the limit of telepathic range. Any contact from here on out will have to be by subspace comms. We found a large grove of wingnut trees and some patches of lemonberries, but not much else so far for potential food supplies.* The way her thoughts stressed the last few words made me smile.
I chuckled as I sent my thoughts back to her. *Let me guess, you found something that isn’t food supplies.*
A mental nod preceded her next words. *Tanna is doing some scouting ahead where the river turns at the mountains and she thinks that she may have spotted some sort of ruins, possibly a town. It’s overgrown with forest, but we’re headed that way now to check it out.*
*Damn! I knew inland would have the more interesting stuff, I should have made you flip for it,* I grumbled.
*Why would acrobatics help determine anything?* she sent back in confusion.
*Remember what I told you about humans using coin tosses to decide things when they want an element of chance involved? That’s what I meant,* I responded with a sigh. *Let me know if you find anything interesting. I doubt there will be anything useful after this long, but this could really help us learn more about whoever used to inhabit this planet.*
*Oh yes, that. We would have had no coins to toss though,* Krie teased. *I will contact you by subspace comms if we find anything.*
*Okay sis, just be careful, those ruins probably won’t be structurally sound,* I warned her before our contact faded.
I continued working with those clearing the fields until lunch and after eating with Amy, Tarek, and Sarah I had Amy and Kyle join me in visiting Rebecca Landry and the colony children. The sky was clear and the sun was shining and none of the colony youths had been able to leave the camp yet. Amy and Kyle had some trips to the edge of the forest but for the most part they too had been stuck in camp. As I approached with my two young companions and Kit on my heels the school teacher looked up at me and smiled. “Look kids, its Commander Phar, what brings you to visit us today Xia?”
I grinned at the older woman and shrugged, “I thought Kit and I might keep you all company and maybe I can tell the kids some stories if they’re interested. Or I have another idea if you’re all not too busy with something else.”
“You know the kids love it when you and Kit come and play or tell stories Xia. We were just trying to come up with suggestions for names for our two moons. We can’t keep calling them Moon One and Moon Two,” she said with a laugh.
“What have you come up with?” I asked. Naming the moons hadn’t really occurred to me with all the other priorities I had since we had landed.
“The children were having trouble thinking of names on their own so I suggested Artemis and Achelois,” she replied. “The children wanted me to suggest them to you actually.”
I nodded at the suggestion, but I only recognized one of the names. “I know Artemis was a Greek moon Goddess, so that sounds appropriate, I don’t think I’ve heard of Achelois though. What’s it from?”
“Achelois was another Greek lunar Goddess, a minor one,” she answered. “Her name means ‘She who drives away pain’. I thought it appropriate given what we’ve all been through.”
I raised my brows at that and smiled. “That’s perfect Rebecca; we’ll name the larger one Artemis and the smaller one Achelois.” Then I turned to the children present with a conspiratorial wink. “So now that the names of our moons have been decided I have a question for all of you.” I paused a moment to make sure they were all listening and then asked, “How would you all like to go down to the beach for the afternoon?” My question was met with excited squeals and shouts and I had to raise my hands to get them to quiet down. “If we go, you have to listen to me, Rebecca, and Pallu. And if you find anything unusual or you hurt yourself you need to tell one of us right away. Amy and Kyle will be coming as well and will be able to treat any injuries if I have to leave.”
I gained an enormous amount of respect for Rebecca as we made our way with Amy, Kyle, and the other nineteen youths down the path to the beach. The older kids helped some with the smaller ones but still that’s a lot of little ones to keep track of, teach, and entertain all day within the confines of the camp. The path to the beach had been made easier to traverse since a good portion of our food was coming from the ocean now, but one can’t be too careful with children so Rebecca and I were both sure to keep a watchful eye on the group as we walked the path. The trip was without incident though and soon we had arrived at the beach where Pallu and Seddar were leading the group on fishing duty for the afternoon.
Pallu had just added some more fish to the growing pile in the back of the mag-transport and waved as she saw us. I quickly waved her over and once she was close enough for casual conversation I grinned at her. “I figured that our children could use a day of fun in the sun. Your dad has the fishing crew well in hand so do you think you can help me and Rebecca keep them entertained? Maybe you could teach those who don’t know how to swim?”
“That sounds like fun,” the Yazuik agreed. Soon she was giving swimming lessons and playing in the water with some of the children while others ran along the beach playing games with Amy, Kyle, and Rebecca. Three children had shown some interest in building constructs in the sand. I used to love doing that as a kid myself, so soon I found myself kneeling along with them packing wet sand together and helping them build whatever ideas their imaginations came up with. The comms stayed quiet that afternoon and as I watched the children having fun on the beach and in the water I was really glad that I had thought of it, these kids needed a little fun.
Even the slips were getting involved. Violet stuck close by Amy’s side for the most part and I wasn’t sure how Amy managed it, but later in the afternoon she somehow got her young slip to find places to hide while the children sought her out. Violet was small enough that sometimes the kids really had to look hard to find her. Kit on the other hand seemed to take her cues from me, digging up sand to use in constructs and when I saw a child getting too far away from the group sometimes she was up before me, dashing over to the child and playfully luring them back to the others. The behavior of both slips made me wonder again just how intelligent these creatures were.
As the afternoon progressed it got hotter and hotter, I tried to just enjoy myself and even went for a short swim with my three architects so we could all cool off a bit. It wasn’t long after our swim when my comm unit beeped followed by the sound of my sister’s electronic voice. “I am calling to let you know about our progress Xia.”
“How is the ruin exploring going Krie?” I asked, eager to know if they had found anything.
“This was definitely some sort of town, though it wasn’t very large,” she replied. “From the construction and what few rough iron tools we’ve found Luiza thinks that their development was about equal to the middle ages on Earth. They weren’t very advanced and probably never saw the disaster coming. There are a few things that really confuse me though.”
“What things?” I inquired, making sure to keep my eyes on the children.
“The first thing is that there’s crocosaur burrows nearby, but this town was built really close to the river,” she explained. “I would have thought that with the presence of such large predators there would be some sort of defensive walls, or they would have built the town further from the river, but that’s not the case. Also I doubt their iron tools would do much good against a crocosaur, even if they did have weapons of some sort as well.”
I mulled that over in my mind a moment before suggesting, “Maybe they had some sort of biological defense mechanism, or they domesticated the slips and used them as an early warning system? I mean Kit did warn me about that first one, did you see any in the forest?”
“That’s the other thing,” she responded, making me really wish I could sense her thoughts. “We didn’t see any in other parts of the forest, but we’re seeing a lot of them in the ruins, there’s at least a hundred watching our every move. They are almost compulsively interested in us. Mischief seemed to have some sort of empathic conversation with some of them and made it quite clear that I belonged to him, but now every other member of the scouting team has been claimed by one.”
“I thought we agreed not to feed the local wildlife anymore,” I stated in confusion.
“That’s just it; they hardly had to do anything for one to stake a claim on them. Nu-Arr dropped a crumb from his ration bar and Luiza accidentally brushed one with her hand. They seemed to be in competition to claim one of us before the others did.”
That sounded more than a little troublesome. “Just how competitive are they?”
The comm buzzed faintly as she thought about it. “Not violently so, if one made a claim the others moved on, they seem to respect one another’s claims. I would say they’re domesticated, but it’s been three hundred years, shouldn’t they have gone wild by now? It’s almost like they have a genetic imperative to bond with us, like it’s some sort of empathic symbiotic relationship.”
“Maybe it is, these creatures aren’t as smart as us, but they are damn smart, so maybe domestication proved to be an evolutionary advantage for them and now they seek it out. Kit did seem interested in me when we first met and it didn’t take much to bond with her. It could be due to racial memory or something as well, they remember being domesticated so their claim is a deal that we care for them and they care for us by warning us of danger and taking care of what’s important to us.”
“You could be right about that,” she admitted. “Amy and I might have only had trouble forming a bond with Violet and Mischief because they’re so young. None of the ones that have bonded with the others are as young as Mischief is. It could be something to do with their empathic abilities not being fully developed yet at that age.”
“That’s probably it,” I agreed as I lay back on the sand. “Hopefully the slips will leave you all alone now that you’re all claimed. Your team should be heading back to camp now if you want to get back here before dark.”
“We’re packing up our gear and getting ready to head back now. We’re just waiting for Nu-Arr and Tanna to get back, she thought she spotted something moving on the mountainside while doing a flyover and he wanted to check it out. I just wanted to update you before they return and we get going. I’ll see you when we get there.” She disconnected the comm link and I turned my attention back to playing with the children.
A little over two hours later, Pallu approached me wearing a frown on her furry face. “Commander, we need to get everyone back to camp and under shelter.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked simply.
“The feel of the water has changed and the fish are moving to deeper waters,” she responded quickly. “There is a storm coming.”
I didn’t bother to ask if she was certain. The Yazuik know water better than any other species, so if she said there was a storm coming, then there was a storm coming. I just nodded and told her, “Have your dad pull in the fishing teams and load everything on the mag-transport. I’ll help Rebecca, Amy, and Kyle get the kids back to the camp. I’ll have Tarek drop what he’s doing and come back to pilot the transport back once it’s full.”
She ran off to do as I instructed and I used my comm unit to send out a system-wide call. “All team leaders, this is Xia. I need you all to have your teams finish what they’re doing, pack up their gear and return to camp as soon as possible. There’s a storm coming in from the ocean and I don’t want anybody outside the EM shield when it gets here. Krie that means your team too, double time it back here or find a place to bunker down and let me know when you do. Karran, make sure the EM shield is ready to go the moment we know everyone is safe. Tarek, I need you to finish whatever you’re helping with in the fields and come bring the transport to the camp once it’s loaded.” Once I disconnected the call I called out to Rebecca, Amy, and Kyle, “We need to gather up the kids and get them to the shelter of the personnel ship!”
With that done I turned to Kit and sent a telepathic command. *Kit, go help bring the children here.* The slip rushed off toward where Rebecca was child wrangling, leaving me with my three tiny architects. “Jittu, Xith, Mikey, I’m really sorry, but our day at the beach is over. I promise we will do this again soon, but once Rebecca and the others join us here we need to go back to camp. Pallu says there is a big storm coming and I want you all somewhere safe. So I need you all to do something really important okay?”
The Murqui girl, the young Haran, and the human boy all nodded and replied, “Yes Commander Phar.”
I smiled at their quick and eager response. The three had really enjoyed spending the afternoon with me and when I wasn’t helping them build things in the sand they followed me to go swimming or join in a game like three little ducklings, it was so cute. “Okay now, I need you all to make sure you stay really close to me until we get to the personnel ship and let me know if any of the other kids are falling behind the group. Do you think you can all do that for me?”
The three were quick to accept their new mission and soon Rebecca, Kit, Amy, and Kyle had managed to herd all the other small children to my group with the help of two of the other older kids. Rebecca instructed them to all stay together and watch out for each other and we began to make our way back to camp. Thankfully, between the children being really cooperative and Kit making sure none of them strayed, we made good time getting to the personnel ship. The camp was a flurry of activity and people returning early from their afternoon rotations, several of which came to join their children in the ship and help entertain the group of youths.
I instructed Kyle to stay with them and Amy to return with me to the medical ship so we could prepare in case of emergency. While Amy headed there I took to the air and got some altitude to get a good look toward the ocean. I could already see black clouds gathering on the horizon and the winds at the higher altitude seemed a little more intense than I had previously experienced when flying on this planet. This storm could be a rough one; I really hoped that Krie and the others made good time getting back. I quickly returned to the earth as I sent a ping to Karran. *We may have to turn on the EM shield well before dark, and this storm could be a long one, are all the solar generators charged?*
*Three are fully charged and one is at three quarters, I am linking them all now so we won’t have to change empty ones for full ones during the storm,* he replied calmly.
*Good work. Do you think the EM shield can handle whatever is coming?* I was a bit worried about that since we hadn’t had to use the shield under severe conditions yet.
*I’m sure it can Xia,* the engineer assured me. *These shields were designed for severe magnetic storms, hurricanes, sandstorms, blizzards, and even to provide safe environments on asteroids or planets with no atmosphere if necessary. They put everything they can in these shield generators to be sure they are suitable for any condition, that’s why they’re so bulky and use so much power. They include air generators and recycling systems, temperature regulation systems, bio-filters, and shield opacity controls. I’m fairly certain that it can handle whatever this planet sends our way.*
I made my way into the medical ship and pinged Tarek next. *What’s your status Tess’hir?*
A few seconds later I got a reply. *I’m helping Seddar’s team finish loading the mag-transport now.* I received an image of the fishing crew piling the gathered seaweed over top of the fish already in the transport and smiled.
*The second you’re finished send everyone back to camp and get the transport here… and please hurry, we don’t know near enough about this planet’s weather systems yet.* I really hated not knowing what to expect. How could I keep all these people safe and secure from things I have no control over or can’t anticipate?
Tarek wrapped me in a mental embrace as his mind voice slipped into my brain five minutes later. *Stop worrying Tess’rha. You’re doing everything you can, and everyone knows that. The transport is loaded and we’re all on our way to camp. I should be there shortly.*
With a sigh I sat down in one of the gel chairs in the forward section of the ship to watch Amy play with Violet. Almost immediately Kit jumped into my lap and started to buzz as she made herself comfortable. The buzzing and the presence of the slip vibrating in my lap conspired to relax me by the time Tarek pinged me again. *We’re all back. All teams and colonists are accounted for except for Krie’s team and the mining team.*
*I’ll contact Mandy and Krie’s team. Hopefully both will make it back before the storm hits. How’s the weather out there?* I inquired.
He too was concerned about the coming storm, I could feel it, but he also wasn’t panicking which eased my own worries a little. *Those clouds are getting closer, but Seddar thinks we still have a few hours before it hits land. The wind is picking up a bit and making it hard for Sarah and the kitchen staff, but they’re managing. Xawin’s team gathered as many fallen branches as they could for the fires on their way back from starting construction on the pipeline.*
*Good thinking on their part. Let me know if anything requires my attention, I’m going to contact Mandy and Krie,* I sent back.
I was wrapped in another mental embrace as he told me, *I’ll keep you updated.*
I selected Mandy’s and Dennis’ frequencies on my comm unit and opened a channel. “Captain White, Mandy, what’s the status of your team?”
“We’re in sight of the camp now, we should be there within ten to fifteen minutes,” Dennis responded. “We are all present and accounted for. I’m glad you called all teams back to camp Commander, I don’t like the look of those clouds.”
“I agree with Dennis,” Mandy put in with her slight southern accent. “Clouds like that over the ocean were never a good sign back home, and I got a feeling that’s one thing that’s not too different here.”
“Hurry back then so we can compare planetary weather systems from the safety of the EM shield,” I encouraged her.
“I’ll hold you to that Xia,” she responded with a laugh as she closed the channel.
As soon as the call was disconnected I reached out with my mind though my amplifier, searching for Krie and Tanna’s mental signatures. To my relief they were within telepathic range so I sent a ping to them both. *You seem to be making good time, where are you?*
*Tanna and I are flying back as quickly as a we can, we should be back in less than an hour if we can keep this pace up,* she replied, her attention not fully on me.
*Wait, why are the two of you flying back? What about the others?* I asked in concern. What reason could they possibly have for flying back so quickly? Did something bad happen?
My fear tainted my thoughts and Tanna responded with what I can only describe as the mental equivalent of the Cheshire Cat’s grin. *Xia, you are not going to believe what Nu-Arr and I found.*
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
Chapter 13 Stormfront Amethyst |
Nearly an hour later I was sitting on the top of the medical ship watching the approaching clouds and worrying about Krie’s team. The wind was getting strong enough to be potentially dangerous and I almost thought that I could hear thunder in the distance. Krie’s ping was a huge relief to me, and I was even more relieved when her mind voice said, *We’re approaching from the southeast, I can see the camp now.*
I flew higher into the air and used the zoom feature on my goggles as I turned southeast and scanned the skyline. I saw Tanna and Krie approaching and let out a sigh. *I was worried you wouldn’t make it back before the storm hit, are the others somewhere safe?*
*They’re right beneath us, they should be emerging from the forest any time now,* my sister replied, *but I’m not sure I would call what they’re doing safe. They are managing to keep up with Zheer at a full run though. We’ve been flying as fast as we can without risking leaving them behind or we’d have been back sooner.*
*How the hell are the others managing to keep up with Zheer?!* I asked in shock. I wanted a Haran on each scout team for two big reasons: They adapt to just about any environment well, except for extreme cold, and they are damn fast runners with a lot of stamina. On a good stretch of flat land they can get to speeds of up to forty kilometers per hour and hold that speed for long periods of time. I turned my attention toward the ground and the dust cloud that was being generated at the edge of the forest where we’d been clearing the land.
Sure enough I quickly caught sight of Zheer’s bright red and yellow plumage at the head of the cloud. Behind him though were close to two dozen black and white horse-like creatures, three of them bearing the three other members of Krie’s team. *What in the world…* Then as I zoomed in further I caught sight of a flash of lavender. *Holy shit, that’s a lot of slips. Are they…*
Tanna gave me a big mental grin. *Yes, they are herding the larger creatures, and they are using their empathy to do it. When Nu-Arr and I found them, our new slips decided to start issuing empathic orders and the larger creatures just followed us back to the ruins. They seem to be very docile, and like the slips I think they’re empathic. Krie and I can send them orders just fine and so can the slips, but non-telepaths need to be touching them to do it. When your call about the storm came in, Luiza got the crazy idea to ride them back to camp.*
*Okay, I’ll admit that’s pretty cool, but have either of you given any thought to how the camp is going to handle the horde of slips that are right on your tails?* I responded with a groan.
*We don’t have tails,* Krie shot back. *I think the slips will either lose interest in us or they will partner up with colonists. If they do the latter maybe we can find uses for them, and a lot the colonists have wanted one of their own since Kit showed up anyway. We’ll have a discussion on the potential uses for both species later, when we’re all safe under the EM shield.*
As soon as Krie’s team and their menagerie were safe within the shield’s radius I sent the signal for Karran to activate it and called Matt and Amy to join me as I made my way over to the team. I wasn’t even going to bother trying to keep track of the slips. Not only were there a lot, but the damn critters started spreading out searching for people as soon as the shield was down. They immediately converged on Sarah, the rest of the kitchen staff, and Matt who were the only unclaimed people out in the open. I sent a thought to Tarek who was with those taking shelter in the personnel ship. *Tarek, the shield is up and people can come out now. Could you do me a favor though and have everyone else wait inside for five minutes while you and Rebecca bring out all the children first? I think the kids should get first crack at these little terrors.*
*Little terrors?* he asked in confusion. I sent him a mental image of the slips and nearly giggled at the surprise in his mind. *Oh that is terrifying, just think of all the noise they will make if they think the camp is in danger. Kit was loud enough on her own. Well at least they will keep the children from getting bored, we’ll be right out. Should I tell the children what’s out there? Or keep quiet?*
*Let’s let it be a surprise,* I answered with a chuckle. Knowing that he couldn’t deceive well enough to pull off a surprise on his own I instructed him, *Tell Rebecca quietly, and warn her that these slips might be a bit eager to form bonds with people. Oh, and if you and Rebecca come out with them you might just want to have names in mind.*
With that done I turned my attention back to Krie’s team and their interesting find. What I thought were horse-like creatures from a distance were as large as horses, but physiologically closer to gazelles if gazelles had long ears and armor plating. They all had white fur, were long legged with cloven hooves, and built for speed and stamina rather than strength, though their size seemed to give them some of that as well. Their hind legs were especially powerful, making me believe that they were decent jumpers as well. Their heads were smallish and cervine looking with large brown eyes and long furry ears almost like those on a lopped eared bunny, but longer. I figured the largest adult male was about eighteen hands high and the ears were just over half that length. Luiza and the others had been using those ears as makeshift reins and it didn’t seem to bother the animals.
The strangest thing about the creatures were the keratin deposits though. Keratin is the key structural material making up the outer layer of human skin, but it’s also the key structural component of hair, fingernails, hooves and such. In addition to that present in their light fur and hooves these creatures had a series of thick black plates of keratin along their noses, the top of their heads, and all along their spines and the sides of their long flexible necks and backs. Even the upper parts of their short flap-like tails were covered in a plate of it, though their lower sides, legs and underbelly seemed to be free of them. In addition to the plates the adult males each had a single, deadly looking, black horn composed of keratin over bone emerging from their foreheads, with the largest having a horn nearly two feet in length.
“Interesting creatures,” I said as I examined the largest male, “these horns and plates are probably meant to protect them from predators. They are definitely herbivores… I wonder how they survived the disaster?”
“We found them after following a trail down to the river from some caves,” Nu-Arr offered. “I think they take shelter on the high ground at night to be safe from the crocosaurs and during the day they go down to the river to graze. A few may have hidden in those caves during the disaster and emerged afterwards to graze when the worst was over. We only found this herd, but I think there were more. They are durable and there were mosses in and around the caves so I think it was probably through that and luck that they survived.”
I nodded in agreement and turned to Krie to ask, “Any idea why evolution prompted ears like this?”
“Tanna said that when she saw them drinking from the river they lay their ears flat against the water,” Krie replied. “I think they may have some sort of sonar that helps them read movement under the water. Most of their evolutionary traits seem to be for defense against the crocosaurs or some other large predators.”
“Were they difficult to ride?” I asked, turning my attention to Luiza, Lirra, and Nu-Arr.
“Not really,” Luiza said after some thought. “They were really docile and seemed to respond well to our thoughts once we were on them. They don’t seem to be quite as smart as the slips though, and the ones we rode haven’t seemed to want to stake a claim on us.”
“I would suggest only riding the males though Commander,” Nu-Arr suggested. “We startled them a bit when we first came down the trail and they have an interesting response to danger. The females and the young ones knelt on the ground with their heads tucked in, curled up in a ball while the males pointed their horns at us and stamped their feet until they were sure we weren’t a threat. I am almost certain that if they thought we were a threat they would have attacked, but then the slips started doing their empathic thing.”
“Well I can think of a few good uses for these creatures besides riding, though having a few mounts could be a good thing as well. I guess we really should come up with a name for this species though, I can’t keep calling them ‘these creatures’,” I said as I thought about what they could bring to the colony.
“How about Unity-corns?” Matt suggested with a grin as he approached with a large slip following dutifully behind him.
“That’s terrible Matt,” Luiza said with a smile and a shake of her head, “I like it.”
I rolled my eyes at the pair of them. “We are not naming them that, we’ll take suggestions and the colony will vote on it at dinner.” Then I gave Matt a smile of my own. “I see you made a new friend, how cute.”
The cyborg shrugged. “Sure, if you count someone latching onto your leg and yelling ‘Mine!’ in your head without even buying you dinner first ‘making a friend’, then yeah I made a friend.” Then he gave me that movie star smile of his, damn he was good looking even with the scars. “Oh and just so you know, when we take suggestions for the name, I’m suggesting Unity-corn.”
By the time dinner was ready the storm was really raging outside of the shield. The wind was howling, thunder was booming and lightning was continually striking the shield and making it flare as it absorbed and compensated for the energy. The shield flares were bright flashes of blue and white light at the strike points and with the loud humming sound as the shield was struck it was almost like watching a laser light show. Our new herd of indigenous hooved quadrupeds had taken up shelter under the forward section of the personnel ship where the seven males were stamping nervously around the balled-up females and young. I had arranged for one of the large water containers to be placed nearby and had some of the colonists gather grass from around the camp for them to eat as well.
Over half the colonists, and all the colony children, now had slips of their own including Tarek, Rebecca, Captain White, Mandy, and Karran. The children were particularly excited about this turn of events while other’s accepted it as inevitable, much like Matt had. Not one of our four mutineers had been claimed though, but I couldn’t be sure if they were just hiding at the time or whether the slips had picked up on the colonists’ general animosity toward them. The slips who had claimed colonists seemed to avoid those four or even hiss at them if they got too close to their ‘pets’. I couldn’t really blame the slips. The mutineers might be working as they agreed, but of the four only Jared seemed to have any amount of regret for what they did and a desire to make amends.
There had been four name suggestions for our new species in the colony: Knightmare, Trojan, Antelorse, and much to my chagrin, Matt’s suggestion of Unity-corn. While everyone settled in and began eating, Captain White, followed by his new slip Dart, walked around the campfires with a data pad and recorded everyone’s vote. Dennis had announced the results, and I was shaking my head at the fact that Unity-corn actually won, when Mandy approached me with on two year blonde old girl crying in her arms and an identical one following close behind along with three slips. “What’s up Mandy? I was wondering if you were coming to compare this storm to those on Earth, but I can see one of the little ones is upset?”
“Nah, we can do that after if you like though,” she said, returning my smile. “Talia and Hope were playing with Jittu and their slips and Talia skinned her knee.”
I took the small sniffling girl from the geologist. “Let’s get you into the ship and have a look at you Talia. Amy, do you think you can come with us and keep Hope entertained?”
My ward stood up, and grinned at Hope. “Sure Xia, I don’t mind playing with the twins. We had fun at the beach today, didn’t we?” The little girl at Mandy’s side nodded and giggled, though she quickly glanced at her sister in my arms. The girls were usually inseparable and when they weren’t with their mom or Rebecca they were usually playing with some of the slightly older girls like Jittu. Except for Pallu’s infant sister and one of the Haran infants, they were the youngest people in the colony.
“Don’t worry about your sister; I’ll have her feeling better in no time and she can join you,” I assured the concerned twin. I led the way to the medical ship and took Talia to the examination room while Amy took Hope and their slips to her room to play. Mandy watched the pair head off to Amy’s room before following me and Talia to the examination room. The scrape on Talia’s knee wasn’t serious so I gingerly cleaned it and took a nano-spray bottle, which I set for an antiseptic spray that would heal the skin as well. “Okay sweetie this may sting just a little, but once I spray this on your knee you’ll be all better, really soon. Are you ready?”
Talia sniffled and rubbed at her eyes as she nodded. “O-okay.” Mandy moved into position behind her and held her hand while brushing her tears with the other hand and trying not to get in my way,
She winced a little as the spray hit and closed her eyes tight. I let the spray settle and breathe for a moment and then covered it with a bandage. “You can open your eyes now sweetie, we’re all done.” She opened one eye and then the other to look down at her knee and the bandage. “I want you to keep that bandage on until bedtime sweetie, would you like to go play with Amy and your sister now?”
“Uh-huh,” she replied, wiping away her tears and nearly falling off the table in her attempt to hug me.
I ruffled her blonde hair and carried her over to Amy’s room with her slip and Kit following us. Once the motion sensor opened the door I placed the girl on the floor, “You have fun, but be careful not to hurt yourself again.” She dashed off into the room with her new pet right behind her and I had to laugh at her sudden exuberance as I walked back to join Mandy in the main room.
“She’s practically forgotten she was hurt and she’s playing with Amy and Hope now,” I told Mandy with a chuckle as I took a seat. “Those two almost make me want one of my own.”
“Well you have sort of adopted Amy,” the geologist replied. “I’m curious though, could you even have children?” A blush rose to her cheeks and she quickly apologized. “Sorry, that was probably an inappropriate question.”
“We’re pretty sure I can,” I answered with a shrug. “I have all the proper reproductive organs common to humanoid females and the extra one the Saer’khi have, they all seem to work properly, and the fact that they were able to create a hybrid body for me at all indicates that we’re genetically compatible. So cross species breeding is possible, at least between humans and Saer’khi. I can’t really blame you for inappropriate questions since I’ve had one I’ve been wanting to ask you.”
“We’re friends, we can be inappropriate with one another,” she replied without a hint of concern, “and I feel like I kind of owe you one after asking what I did, so ask away.”
“Why are you here?” I asked. Then seeing the confusion on her face I quickly added, “Sorry, that did not come out right. I am really glad you’re here, you’ve been a great help to the colony, there’s some things about you that just don’t add up to me. I was looking over all the names of passengers on board the Bounty, but you and the twins were the only Williams’ listed; you seem to distrust Earth almost as much as I do, and that’s saying something; my med scans said you don’t have any cybernetic implants or surgical scars from organ transplants; and from what I heard Earth governments have been very reluctant to let anyone with a scientific background leave the planet. I was just wondering what your story is.”
Mandy seemed to consider her response for several minutes before finally saying, “After the first few Migration ships left most of the major governments on Earth started to get a lot more restrictive. They were getting rid of a lot of the non-contributing citizens and putting the rest to work on the space program, and they figured that the way to avoid any more ‘waste’, was to tightly control those of us who were left. One of the first steps was requiring married couples to have a license to have children. Only married male and female couples could get a license and only if they met certain requirements.”
I could feel the frown forming on my face, “Let me guess, one of those requirements was monetary.”
She nodded, her face grim. “There were several requirements, mostly in place to favor the rich or influential. Laws varied by country and state, but in Louisiana punishments for women not having a license, if you weren’t willing to abort the pregnancy, ranged from fines to prison time, depending on how much you ‘contribute to society’. Punishment for the men fathering these children wasn’t even a consideration. I had just gotten my Doctorate when they passed that ridiculous law and not long after I discovered that I was pregnant. The father didn’t want to be involved.”
“Did they try to make you…” the thought made me so sick to my stomach that I couldn’t even finish the sentence.
Her eyes were moist as she looked away. “I tried to hide it for as long as I could, but one evening I got a visit from some men with badges and nice suits. They couldn’t charge me with anything since I conceived before the law was passed, and I refused to do what they wanted me to. Next thing I knew I lost my job and my medical coverage.”
“Those fucking monsters. How did you get them to let you off planet?”
“I didn’t. I went to the Saer’khi Embassy in Washington and requested asylum. When I told them that I thought that my life and that of my unborn child was in danger on Earth, they had someone examine me. They discovered I was carrying twins and since I loosely met the condition of poverty with medical requirements they offered to bring me to Saer’kah to live until they could find me a home and a purpose. They didn’t have to do that, they could have refused me, but they didn’t. I never once believed Jared’s talk, the Saer’khi have always done right by me.”
I nodded. “Unlike some species, the Saer’khi value life. My mom cited a presidential decree when the university hospital I was in didn’t want to give up their guinea pig. How did you manage with twin babies in the alien barracks? That must have been rough.”
“Like I said, your people have always done right by me,” she reiterated. “They usually had me and the other mothers with small children working on sewing or something else inside the barracks so we could have the children close by and keep an eye on them while we worked. Some of the humans who had been there a while, like Sarah and Rebecca, and some of the aliens helped me out too.”
“And you said I was resistant to sharing my secrets,” I prodded her with a wink, trying to bring a little cheer to the conversation. “Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.”
“What can I say? We can smell our own kind,” she retorted with a smile.
Kit hopped up into my lap and started buzzing and Mandy’s seemed to take that as its cue to do the same. I chuckled at her confused look, probably due to an empathic request for attention. “It’ll take a little while before you start sorting out which emotions are from the slip and which ones are really yours. Have you and the girls named yours yet?”
She began to pet the slip absently. “The girls haven’t decided yet, but I’m naming mine Amethyst.”
“Trust a geologist to name a slip after a purple rock,” I said with a chuckle. “Still you might want to reinforce the name by telling it to her, both orally and with your thoughts.”
“Trust a sawbones to not know the difference between a rock and a semi-precious stone,” she shot back before saying to the slip, “Umm…. Your name is Amethyst.” After a moment of concentration her expression switched to one of surprise. “Damn that is so weird, if just picking up on emotions feels this weird it’s a wonder you ever adjusted to hearing other people’s thoughts.”
I gave Kit a good scratching under her chin and received a feeling of happiness and approval as the buzzing intensified. “To be fair, my brain was built for it, even if the rest of me wasn’t at first. I’ll admit it was an adjustment though. My family tried to make it easier on me by using both spoken language and telepathy together as much as possible when I was first learning. The hard part is keeping stuff you don’t want to share deeper in your mind, only making surface thoughts available, and resisting the urge to look deeper than the surface in another person’s mind.”
“It must be really hard to resist that temptation; I would be burning with curiosity. Did you ever look deeper than the surface thoughts?” she asked looking at me intently as she gave some attention to her own slip.
I shook my head. “If I had when I had first moved in with my family it probably would have been tolerated as a learning experience, but I wouldn’t have understood anything since I couldn’t think in their language. By the time I could think in Saer’khi I had spent enough time with them to learn just how rude they considered it. Looking deep into another’s mind is a very personal thing, reserved for mates; I’m not really sure what to compare it to. I’ve only ever looked with Tarek, because he offered and I didn’t realize what he was offering. Now we’re engaged by Saer’khi standards and our minds are always connected.” I almost laughed at the timing as I felt Tarek coming closer.
“How do you know which thoughts are yours and which are his if you’re always in one another’s heads?” Mandy asked as she continued to stroke Amethyst’s fur.
“Her thoughts are the human ones,” Tarek said with smile as he crossed the room with a plate in his hands.
Mandy stared at him as she rapidly blinked her eyes. “Whoa, was that a joke? I don’t think I’ve ever heard any Saer’khi joke before, except for Krie. She seems to have the concept of humor down pretty good though.”
“The others haven’t been around Xia as long as Krie and I have. We’ve both been close to her since she came to Saer’kah. Xia often says she is a bad influence on us,” my Tess’hir offered as he handed me the plate. “You haven’t eaten yet Tess’rha; you need to take better care of yourself.”
“But I have you for that,” I answered sweetly. “I was taking inventory and it slipped my mind. I wanted to make sure we had enough food and supplies in case this storm lasts longer than just tonight.” I could feel his deep worry that I was pushing myself too hard again and sighed. He was probably right so I took the plate. “I’ll eat, but you have to answer Mandy’s question and tell her what Dhur-tal is like.”
As I began to eat my meal I could feel Tarek trying to figure out a way to explain it so that she would understand. Finally he said, “Telepathy for us is like being involved a physical conversation for you non-telepaths. You know when it’s you speaking, and when a voice speaking sounds different than yours. Different mental voices have a different ‘sound’ to them. The bond Xia and I share is more of a feeling of closeness and awareness of one another’s presence and feelings than really hearing one another’s thoughts all the time. When two humans become close you learn to know what each other are feeling and needing without speaking through subtle physical cues; like touch, facial expressions, and body language. For us, when we’ve bonded, it’s like all those cues, and empathy with one another as well, are all present in the back of our minds whenever we’re within telepathic range.”
“So, you’re not always reading each other’s thoughts then?” the geologist asked.
“We’re aware of one another’s surface thoughts, but we filter out the unimportant things and we only go deeper than the surface if we really feel the need to, or if we want to feel the closeness of our bond. Usually when we want to be intimate and feel closer to one another we go deeper, and she can enter my mind whenever she likes, but even with our bond it would be a violation for me to do it without her consenting and wanting it at the time,” he explained.
“You make it sound like sex,” Mandy pointed out.
Tarek sat in the gel chair beside mine and smiled over at me as I ate and tried not to laugh at the comparison. Then he turned that smile on her, “It is something like that, but it’s far more intensely personal than physical coupling could ever be. During sexual acts you become intimate only with a person’s body. Delving deep into their mind you become intimate with their mind and soul, everything that they are is laid bare before you: hopes, dreams, fears, insecurities, everything. When I offered my mind to Xia, I offered all of me, forever, it is how we show our love, obedience, and devotion to the woman we love. Had she refused and not taken my mind I would have accepted that, but she didn’t and so I will give everything and do anything I can to make her happy.”
“You gotta love the Saer’khi, you all took girl power and ran with it,” she joked. “Seriously though, that’s really romantic, I wish that more human men took love and relationships that seriously. You got lucky with this one Xia. If people on Earth respected one another and cared about others’ feelings more than themselves, maybe the planet wouldn’t be so screwed up.”
I nodded in agreement as I finished eating my fill and allowed Kit to finish what was on my plate. As my slip eagerly went about the task I sent a ping to Krie. *How is everything out there?*
*The storm is still making the unity-corns skittish, but they’re starting to settle down,* she sent back calmly. *Everyone who has gotten tired of watching the lightning striking the shield have gone to their shelters to sleep or find other ways to entertain themselves. I was about to come join you in the ship, I wanted to show you the things we found in the ruins and get your input on them. I’d also like for us to look at some medical scans I took of the unity-corns.*
*Okay, that sounds good. I wanted to see what you found and talk about possible uses for the slips and unity-corns anyway. I still can’t believe that ridiculous name won.* I smiled at Mandy and Tarek as I said aloud, “Krie is going to come join us, she has the artifacts they found in the ruins and some medical scans to look at.”
Several moments later Krie had arrived and placed several artifacts on one of the examining tables for us to look at. There was some sort of simple knife, a large mallet, a broken clay bowl and pitcher, and two curved semi-circular pieces of metal. The latter looked to be some sort of weapons or cutting tools, as the outer curved edge was dulled by time but looked to have been sharpened at one point. There was a hole big enough to put the fingers of a hand through near the straight edge, and a microscopic scan showed traces of cloth fibers which we assumed had been there to make the gripping area more comfortable and secure in the hand.
Mandy had used her goggles to study them as well and once she was finished she looked up at us with a shrug. “The knife is bronze and the curved blades are iron and there are impurities in the metal of both. If these finds are anything to go by, these people were definitely pre-industrial. They were likely aware of mandium, but at their tech level they were nowhere near being able to process it. What were the buildings like?”
“They were ravaged by the disaster and time, but from what we saw they all seemed to be simple one or two floor structures made of stone and wood,” Krie replied as she transferred the data from her medical scanner to the ship’s computer. “Our assessment was also that they were pre-industrial, but there is something that has been bothering me.”
Mandy and Tarek looked just as confused as I was. We were talking about the tech level of the former inhabitants of this planet, so why were Krie’s surface thoughts focused on the unity-corns and the slips? I think Tarek was confused by this too since it was Mandy, who couldn’t pick up those thoughts, who first asked, “What?”
“I wanted to explore new planets and such so where Xia’s specialty is focused more heavily on medicine and nanotech, my main area of expertise is xenobiology,” she pointed out before getting to the topic at hand. “Psychic abilities only occur in nature extremely rarely, usually in more evolved species with higher brain functions, creatures like the Saer bees who share a hive mind, and sometimes rarely in apex predators. Since we’ve gotten here we’ve discovered two completely different species with very developed empathic abilities. The slips are clever, I’ll give them that, but their brain functions aren’t quite high enough that I would expect them to develop psychic abilities naturally. And of all the possible psychic abilities for these two species to develop, why empathy, and why both of them? The slips seem to have some sort of danger sense as well, but the level of empathy and the bonds they form with us seems out of place.”
“Maybe it’s just one more weird thing about this planet. We’ve found plenty so far, so maybe psychic abilities are more common here,” Mandy suggested.
My sister shook her head. “That had occurred to me, but then why don’t the crocosaurs have some sort of psychic ability? From what Xia has said they haven’t shown any evidence of it, and they are the one species on this planet I would have expected to have them.”
“I’m not going to complain about those things lacking psychic abilities,” I muttered. “They’re scary enough as they are.”
“So we got lucky?” Mandy asked hopefully. “I mean their empathy does make them extremely useful as domesticated animals.”
I groaned, really not liking where Krie’s surface thoughts seemed to be headed. “Mandy, I think Krie believes that they were made to be more useful as domesticated animals. She thinks they were either genetically engineered or altered somehow.”
The geologist stared at us wide-eyed. “But that’s not possible! The people who lived here were barely able to make weapons and tools by modern standards, there’s no way they had the level of technology that would be required to do what she’s suggesting.”
“That’s exactly why I dismissed the idea at first,” Krie agreed before adding, “but since we got back I’ve been comparing the scan I did of the unity-corn to one I took of Mischief. The two species share very few genetic similarities. The DNA strands looked as dissimilar as any two mammalian species from the same planet can be, but then I got to the end of the strands.” She displayed the two DNA strands side by side on the view screen and after letting me have a good look at them she zoomed in on the ends.
There were multiple branches at the end of each strand, as if new coding had been added. The branches looked different enough, which was sensible since they likely contained different genetic information for each species, but Krie highlighted one branch on each scan. “What in hell have we gotten ourselves into?” I said with a sigh as I stared at the two branches in question, the two identical branches.
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
Chapter 14 Storm Watching Amethyst |
The genetic codes of the slips and the unity-corns were fascinating. I had suggested the possibility of selective breeding to get the empathic traits both series shared, but the idea was quickly dismissed. First of all those branches were identical, and in general all the branches that had been added to the original genetic code of both species were far too organized to just be a random ability that the people here discovered and considered useful enough to breed those who showed the trait. Secondly there was the presence of empathic abilities in both species. We agreed that if the slips and unity-corns were evolutionary offshoots of the same ancestor then this probably wouldn’t be a concern, but these species were so dissimilar genetically that the possibility was highly unlikely. The only similarity between the two species was the slightly enlarged parietal and temporal lobes in relation to the rest of the brain. This was likely the physical cause of the empathic abilities, but the odds of it occurring naturally in two completely different species, from the same geographic region, were just too high.
“Maybe it’s something in the environment that caused it,” Mandy suggested at one point after checking on the twins and Amy. The three had fallen asleep on Amy’s gel bed and were all cuddled together with their slips, so Mandy had decided to just let them stay there for the night.
Krie shook her head, “No this had to have been designed. Those branches are one hundred percent identical, which makes me believe that it was intended to give them empathic abilities or it’s some sort of signature.”
“A signature? You mean like how an artist always signs their work the same way?” the geologist asked.
“Yeah, that’s exactly what she means,” I answered. “Think about it, both of these species have not only the empathy and an inherent survivability, but other traits that make them very useful as domesticated animals. The slips are omnivores, very smart, can sense predators coming, bond to people, and they even use their empathy for herding, like they did with the unity-corns. Hell, Kit was using hers to herd the children earlier today. Then we have the ‘corns themselves. They can be mounted and they’re practically built to survive against predators with their speed, armor, and those horns the males have. Not to mention they just obeyed the slips when they had every reason to either run away or defend themselves when Tanna and Nu-Arr found them.”
Mandy frowned as she considered what I said. “But the people who lived here couldn’t have done what you’re saying, if Krie’s team was right about their level of technology. So if they didn’t who did? And where are they now?”
None of us seemed to have an answer for that. Krie stared at the screen for several minutes before saying, “I have no idea, but whoever did this was very advanced. Our race has only recently begun trying our hands at genetic engineering and Xia’s hybrid form was our first big success. We couldn’t have done that without the nanites, and our mother said that the only reason she turned out so well was because humans are extremely genetically compatible with the Saer’khi and other humanoid species. What’s been done with these creatures is way beyond what we’re capable of.”
“This whole planet is one huge contradiction after another,” I grumbled.
“At least it’s never boring,” Tarek offered with a smile as the door hissed open and Matt entered from outside with his new slip happily following.
“What’s never boring?” the cyborg asked.
“This planet,” I clarified as I motioned for him to take a seat. “Did you need anything Matt? We were just discussing the possibility that the slips and ‘corns might be genetically engineered.”
He shook his head as he sat down beside Tarek. “Nope, everything is fine; Luiza was feeling tired and decided to turn in early since Dennis figured there’s no need for us to take our usual watch. He told us to take the night off and he’ll keep an eye on things. I wasn’t tired and I figured the conversation here would be more interesting than listening to old ghost stories by the fires. The scenery is better too.”
“Not enjoying the ‘fireworks’ Matt?” Mandy teased.
“It got old after the first hour,” he answered with a shrug. Then he added with a wink and that movie star smile, “Besides my bud Tarek is here alone with three lovely ladies. I thought he could use a wing man.”
“That’s ironic, since he’s the one with the wings,” I pointed out playfully. “So wouldn’t that make him your wing man?”
“What is a wing man?” Tarek asked in confusion.
“A wing man is a guy who helps a male friend get close to a girl he finds attractive,” Mandy explained. “It would be like if the five of us were at a social event or a bar or something and Krie, Xia and I were all sitting together and you and Matt walked in. Now say Matt finds one of us attractive; as his wing man you would tell us all the good things about him and try to set him up with the one you know he’s attracted to, so they could get to know one another better. Give it a try Tarek.”
I could feel my Tess’hir’s confusion and uncertainty with the concept, but after a moment he nodded. “Xia I think Matt is attracted to you. He is a good and reliable person, he told me he was something called a ‘movie star’ on Earth, and I think he would make a good husband.”
Mandy laughed at that. “That’s coming on a little strong, but yeah that’s sort of the general idea,”
To my surprise Matt was actually blushing as he added, “Also, probably not the best choice of women to try to get to notice me.”
“Why? Are you not attracted to her? I thought you were with the way you look at her sometimes, how you smile when we talk about her, and the way you two interact. Was I wrong about that? Did I misread your non-verbal cues?” Tarek asked in genuine confusion.
“Dude, she’s your fiancée and we’re buds,” Matt said with a groan as his blush intensified. “I’m not saying she’s not attractive, it’s just… it would be wrong of me to pursue my friend’s girl.”
“Why is it wrong? I am not bothered that you find one another attractive. I only told her that you would make a good husband, which is true, and by Saer’khi traditions she needs more than one. You have treated her and us other Saer’khi well since we met and I would trust you to care for her needs as much as I do. The fact that you two are attracted to one another and you and I are friends only makes you an even better candidate.” Tarek wasn’t just confused now, he was getting flustered too.
I thought about how to explain it for a moment before saying, “It’s an Earth thing. I know you were being honest and it was a sign of your respect for him and love for me, but you just told him he would make a good second husband for your fiancée. On Earth any relationship that isn’t just one woman and one man is frowned upon, they happen sometimes, but even then it’s usually same sex relationships. Multiple partner relationships are seen as a deviance.”
“You do not have any problems with Saer’khi marriage and family customs,” he argued.
I shook my head. “That is true, but living with a Saer’khi family for as long as I have, really helped me with that, and I was desperate for any kind of loving family after all my foster care issues and being in the hospital as long as I was. Matt hasn’t had the luxury of being part of that kind of family and learning all the Saer’khi customs like I have. He’s still used to Earth customs.”
“I understand that,” Tarek conceded. “I just do not understand why someone would deny their feelings and desires to hold onto the impractical and closed-minded customs of a world that cast them aside. I care for all the non-Saer’khi friends I have made here, but not being able to know what they are thinking, and why, can get very frustrating sometimes.”
“I guess it’s what I’m used to, and venturing outside of what is normal and comfortable to us is really intimidating and confusing. It’s probably a lot like how you feel about not being able to sense our thoughts when you find something we do confusing,” Matt tried to explain. “And as thankful as I am for what your people did for me, Xia’s right, a lot of this is new to me. I appreciate the compliment you were paying me, but I really need time to adapt to and accept to your customs and ways of thinking before I can let go of what I am already used to.”
Tarek nodded, “Thank you for taking the time to explain it instead of getting upset. It is of course up to you if you decide to offer your mind to Xia someday, but please do not feel that your attraction to her is wrong. Saer’khi males seldom get jealous; we grow up knowing that we will not be our Tess’rha’s only Tess’hir.”
“Okay then, I’ll try not to let it bother me then,” Matt replied quietly before adding, “Could we… change the topic now?” His slip sensed his discomfort and hopped up in his lap and the former actor grudgingly began to pet it.
“Have you decided on a name for your new friend yet?” I asked with a grin.
To my surprise he laughed. “Actually I have. I decided that turnabout was fair play and decided to call her ‘Mine’.”
Mandy groaned at that, but I think she was trying not to laugh at the joke. “That’s terrible Matt, what did you name yours Tarek? And where is it?”
“Amy suggested that I name it Fido, since I’ve never had a pet before. It’s sleeping in my room; I let it in there before coming to make sure Xia ate something.”
There was a short silence after that and Krie was the first to speak again. “Matt, I have a question for you. Tarek said you were something called a movie star on Earth, what is that?”
Matt’s face wore a look of confusion as he tried to figure out how to explain it. “I know you have music on Saer’kah, but do you have performance art? I know deception is hard for your people, but do you have like plays or re-enactments of historical events where people play parts and pretend to be someone other than themselves?”
I decided to answer that myself since I could feel the confusion in Tarek’s and Krie’s minds. “We don’t really have acting as such; too much of the communication is mental. The closest thing I can think of is Yionwa, it’ a form of dance where each dancer portrays an emotional state with their movements. Sometimes there’s one emotional theme and sometimes a large range of different emotions are involved to tell a story for entertainment.”
“Okay, it’s sort of like that,” Matt said after a bit of thought. “Movies are a form of entertainment on Earth meant to tell a story. Sometimes the stories are things that really happened, but often they are fictional stories that are meant to inspire specific emotions. Actors play the parts of the people in these stories. Acting is all about pretending to be that person in the story well enough that people watching the movie can believe that the characters and the story are real while they are watching. The ones who are really good at it are sought after by the people who make movies, make a lot of money, and are treated like royalty, and those people are called movie stars.”
“In other words, he’s really good at making people believe that he’s someone other than Matt Scott,” Mandy put in.
“But you are Matt Scott. Isn’t it wrong to deceive people that way?” Krie asked.
Matt quickly shook his head. “People go to movies knowing that actors are playing parts, and not being themselves. They usually know who those actors are and often go to see a movie because a specific actor that they like is playing one of the parts, so it’s not really deception. They know it’s not real but they watch movies to be entertained, relax, and to take their minds off how hard their own lives are for a time by losing themselves in the story. Good acting helps them to do that and I don’t deceive people for reasons other than entertainment. I probably could intentionally deceive people if I really needed to for some reason, but I act for the fun of it, and the challenge of making people believe in the character.”
“We might just need those skills if people from Earth somehow manage to show up before the Saer’khi,” I muttered, trying to hold back a yawn.
“You’re getting tired Tess’rha, you really should get some sleep while things are quiet,” Tarek pointed out in concern.
“Yeah Xia, I’ve noticed you start to get all brooding when you’re tired,” Matt agreed. “Maybe we should get you to bed.”
Mandy’s face lit up in a grin. “But Matt, I thought you needed time to adjust, isn’t jumping into bed with her moving a bit fast?”
“Even if he had offered his mind to her, we would both need to wait until we could hold the union ceremony before we would be allowed in Xia’s bed. And before that she would have to decide whether two Tess’hir were enough or if she wanted more,” Tarek said with a nod.
The non-cybernetic parts of Matt’s face were bright red. “I did not mean it that way. I think I’m going to head to bed myself, in my own bed, where there is nobody to tease me.”
We all got a good laugh out of that before Mandy finally said, “Sleep sounds good to me. Xia, do you mind if the girls stay in there with Amy? I really don’t want to wake them.”
“Sure Mandy, the girls are welcome in here any time,” I replied with a tired smile. Then I picked up Kit and stood up to head in the direction of my bedroom adding, “Good night everyone, sleep well.”
The storm was still going strong the next morning, so I set people to what few tasks needed to be done inside the EM shield. There weren’t a lot of those tasks though, so we were all trying to enjoy the relaxation while we could since we would have to work hard again once it was over to replenish our firewood, water, and food supplies. I was a bit concerned on that front and I announced that if the storm didn’t look closer to ending by the next morning we might have to start rationing. Hopefully it wouldn’t have to come to that, but I felt better preparing the colonists for that possibility.
During the morning most of the colonists gathered in the personnel ship to relax as Rebecca taught the kids a lesson about Greek mythology: The Various Gods and some of the more well-known myths and legends of that ancient culture. The children had showed an interest after she had suggested the names of the moons and Hope in particular seemed to enjoy the lesson, she even named her slip Hermes, spurring a rash of similar naming from other children who hadn’t yet named theirs or weren’t sure about the names they had picked. Talia had decided on Jess for hers the night before and seemed content to keep that name for it.
To my surprise, and great pleasure, rampant slip naming wasn’t the only result of this lesson. Other colonists asked to be able to teach a bit about the Gods, mythologies and legends of their own people and by mid-afternoon we had heard from people representing the cultures of China, a pair of African nations, Ireland, India, the Haran, the Murqui, and the Nezans. Pallu’s mother Kani had just finished telling us a Yazuik creation myth about how Jorrun, the tree God, and Seitu, the ocean Goddess, had fallen in love and together created the Yuzuik as a symbol of that love. Then she turned to me and the other Saer’khi present. “Do the Saer’khi have any stories like these?”
After a mental consensus it was decided that Tanna should answer for us. The other Ji’turi thought for a moment before finally saying, “We had some similar beliefs about our creation long ago, I think all cultures do, but the most important story we have is the story of ‘The Silent One.’ That is the story that changed us as a species and made us who we are today.”
“The Silent One?” Dallas Murphy, a willowy redhead who was one of our kitchen workers, prodded.
“Nearly a millennium ago we were only just beginning to tap the potential of magnetism and other technologies,” she began uncertainly. “We were nowhere near computers or space flight yet, but as a species we were starting to make great strides in the sciences.”
“From what I was taught I figured they were probably about equal to Earth about a century ago, but it’s hard to do any real comparison between the cultures since there are two huge differences between Earth and Saer’kah at that stage of technology,” I quickly put in as Tanna pondered a way to describe that era. “First, the Saer’khi of that time relied on solar and electromagnetic energy rather than fossil fuels. Second, the Saer’khi being a psychic race that can fly makes for a lot of cultural differences. They tended to work together for the good of the species, there was no need for things like radios or telephones, ground transportation wasn’t really needed, there were no major wars, and weapons were only really used for hunting and defense from the jungle predators.”
Tanna smiled at me. *Thank you Xia, I was not sure how to reference that in a way humans would understand.*
She was about to go on, but Woody shook his head as he interrupted. “Sorry for interrupting Tanna, but I was wondering how a species couldn’t have wars. Don’t you have disagreements over territory or differences of opinion?”
“Of course we have disagreements,” Xawin provided, “but we also can’t help but feel what each other feels and thinks. When we hurt other Saer’khi, physically or emotionally, we feel that pain too, as does anyone nearby. Would you deliberately hurt somebody or a large group of people knowing that you too would feel their pain? Could you bear the feeling as not just their bodies, but their minds go still as well?”
Krie nodded in agreement. “With the level of mental intimacy our people share it is much easier to resolve differences mind to mind then through actions that would make us all suffer.”
There was a pensive look on Woody’s face as he shrugged his large shoulders. “I guess that does make sense. Things would have been a lot easier on Earth if humans thought that way more, especially the politicians. Sorry for interrupting Tanna, so who or what was The Silent One?”
Tanna just smiled again and shook her head. “Do not apologize for asking questions Woody, it is the best way for our kinds to learn about one another. The story goes that The Silent One fell from the skies with the stars themselves. A Pi’tak named Lom was out that night watching the stars fall when he saw one bigger and brighter than all the others. As luck would have it, that star crashed not far away and he was able to find the crash site. It was not a meteorite that fell though, but rather a large metallic ship, damaged and warped from the heat of entering our atmosphere and crashing in the jungle.”
“We figure that the ship was damaged in the meteor shower and got pulled into Saer’kah’s gravitational field,” Karran clarified.
Tanna nodded and continued on with the story. “Lom found someone crawling out of the wreckage, a grey humanoid with a large head and eyes, and sent out his thoughts to see if the creature was hurt. We call it The Silent One because Lom could not hear it’s thoughts, not even the surface thoughts, and all attempts to communicate telepathically were unsuccessful. Lom ran off to get help, but when he returned with others the creature was gone. Eventually the searchers found the strange being, or what was left of it after one of the jungle predators had gotten to it. It was not flesh and blood like you and I, but an artificial construct.”
“So you’re saying that a robot from some other world crashed on your planet nearly a thousand years ago?” Matt asked.
“Yes,” Tanna agreed. “We then knew that we were not the only intelligent life out there and that knowledge fueled our desire to explore beyond our own world and find others like ourselves. The ship was mostly destroyed from the crash and what was left of the construct was in a similar state, but the components we salvaged from both were more advanced than anything that our species had ever seen before. Studying that technology, combined with the desire to seek out other intelligent species, made us move beyond just surviving as a species and allowed us to thrive and become what we are today.”
After lunch Rebecca gathered all the aliens and other non-English speakers back in the personnel ship and gave them their first lesson on English as a second language. I decided that this would probably be a good time to check that atmospheric sensors on the medical ship and begin teaching Amy to read and write in Saer’khi. The sensors showed that the current weather system was nearly passed so I was hoping that the storm should be over by the next morning or sometime overnight. Amy and I were in the lab with her holding a data pad while I displayed each of the letters of the Saer’khi alphabet on the main display screen and explained the basics of the alphabet. “Saer’khi words are constructed a lot like human words, as a combination of phonetic sounds. We use a total of thirty-two phonetic sounds and each of those has a corresponding letter. The language could be spoken vocally by other species if it weren’t for the hituv.”
“What’s a hituv?” my ward asked with a confused look on her face.
“The hituv are silent letters. There are nine of those, each representing a base emotional state, which brings the total number of letters to forty-one. There are over two hundred words in Saer’khi whose meanings change depending on what emotion is connected to it. When speaking telepathically these words are accompanied by an empathic push of the appropriate emotion, but in the written language we indicate these emotions by placing the corresponding hituv at the beginning of the word.”
I pointed out nine of the letters on the display as I continued on. “These are the hituv, and they represent love, joy, anger, fear, sadness, disgust, confusion, surprise, and pain. In the data pad I gave you I have recorded each of the forty-one letters with their names and their phonetic sounds or emotional meanings. We’ll start you off learning those and once Krie and I feel you’re ready we’ll move on to basic words.”
“What about hate? Isn’t that an emotion?” Amy asked as she looked at the letters on the display and absently petted Violet.
“Hate isn’t considered an emotion in and of itself; it’s usually based on another negative emotion like fear, disgust, or anger. Base emotions are primal, they are natural reactions. The Saer’khi believe that hate is a secondary emotion like despair or jealousy, a learned behavior, something we choose to feel or not feel when we allow strong base emotions to rule us instead of our minds,” I explained.
I received a ping from Tanna and as soon as I opened my mind to her I could sense worry in her mind. *Xia, we have a medical situation. Luiza was complaining that she was feeling cold and suddenly she lost consciousness.*
*I’m getting my things right now, did you let Krie know about this too?* I asked as I grabbed my pouch and turned to Amy. “Something’s happened, I need you to prepare room one for a patient.”
*Krie asked me to tell you, she’s examining Nu-Arr. Dennis found him unconscious on his way to the latrine area,* she responded in concern.
*Shit. I’m on my way.* I turned my attention back to Amy and frowned. “You better start prepping all the patient rooms.” Then I hit my comm disc and said, “All team leaders, there is a possible medical concern. I need you all to make sure that all colonists are accounted for and find out if anyone amongst the colonists is feeling ill. I don’t care if it’s a sniffle, a headache, an upset stomach or whatever else it might be. I want anyone who is feeling even the slightest bit sick to assemble outside the medical ship until Krie and I can have a look at them.” Then I took off at a run out of the medical ship and toward the personnel ship.
Luiza was fevered with an elevated pulse and labored breathing when I got to her. She was also shaking violently. “Does anyone know how long she was feeling ill?”
“She seemed fine last night,” Lirra replied. “She asked for an extra thermal jumpsuit after breakfast, but I didn’t think that was too unusual since I was feeling a bit cold myself.”
“Matt, help me bring Luiza to the medical ship. Lirra, I’ll want to check out you as well, and anyone else who has been feeling cold.” I thought about that and shook my head, “Check that, I want all colonists to be ready to provide blood samples as soon as possible. I want to know what this is, who has it, how serious it is, what’s caused it, and why.”
Once we had fully examined Luiza and Nu-Arr, taken blood samples, and had them resting as comfortably as possible in quarantine shielded rooms, Krie and I spent the rest of the afternoon taking blood samples from every colonist and finding out what symptoms, if any, that they had. With the exception of Krie and Tanna the whole exploration team was sick. Whatever this illness was it was a virus with a short incubation period that hit hard and fast and left those infected weak with a high fever, nausea, and acute respiratory problems.
By dinner time well over half of the colonists were showing early symptoms and by late evening almost all the colonists were ill to some degree; we had to move Krie’s affected team members to the medical tubes to keep them hydrated and their vitals steady. Even Krie and Tanna were starting to become fevered and the Saer’khi immune system may not be as adaptable as a human’s, but it is very aggressive. The only people who seemed to be immune were Matt, Sarah, Dennis, Bixx, and myself, but that was because our nanites were programmed to destroy any foreign organisms or substances that were deemed harmful like virus’ and poisons.
The only good thing about this was that since the exploration team was hit first we had a pretty good idea where to start looking. First we used our goggles and medical scanners on the few artifacts they had found in the ruins and then we turned our attention to the ‘corns. We were looking over blood and hair samples when Krie pointed out tiredly, *Look at this Xia, I think I’ve found our virus. It’s mutated some, but the DNA markers for this virus I found in the Unity-corns blood are identical to what we’ve found in the infected blood samples.*
*These ‘corns are probably survivors or have an inherited immunity to the original virus and they’re just carriers now, it’s probably spread through physical contact, bodily fluids and such,* I replied.
*Now that we know what caused it, what do we do about it?* my sister pondered. *It’s too late for normal vaccination methods. Could we use nanites to take over for the immune system temporarily?*
I shook my head after considering it. *No, they could become dependent on the nanites afterwards and I don’t think I’m a good enough nanite programmer to make them do something as complex as completely taking over for the immune system or even to isolate that feature from my own nanites. Perhaps something more limited? We have a simple nanite program that’s designed to search out and destroy Cancer cells and I think I could alter it to do the same to this virus using it’s DNA as a targeting parameter. If I make them permanent and self-replicating, with only that purpose, then they should make the host immune to this virus and any future mutations. If it works we could use the same method as a vaccine for future viruses as well.*
*Okay, so what do you need me to do? Nanites are more your thing than mine.*
*You’re going to get some rest and get some fluids into you while I work on the nanite program,* I told her sternly as I began to move my hands over the input screen to pull up the nanite program I wanted. *And get something to eat from Sarah. With Amy and Kyle sick now too I’ll need you healthy enough to help me administer the nanites when they’re done.*
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
Chapter 15 Ray of Light Amethyst |
I was looking over the program I had come up with on the display screen and hoping that I hadn’t done anything wrong with the nanites as they were being produced. Sadly I didn’t have any more time to wait and try and come up with something better. Most of the colonists were burning up with fever and too weak to move and we had long ago ran out of beds to put the patients in. Those not in the medical ship were as comfortable as my sister, the other Saer’khi, Matt, Dennis, Sarah and Bixx could make them and even the Saer’khi were too becoming weak and ill to be of much help if I waited any longer. It was this or nothing.
I continued to look for any possible problems until the humming or the nanite programmer came to a stop and the indicator showed that the task was complete. I hadn’t found any possible problems and now there were enough naniite injectors with the ‘cure’ to inoculate all of the colonists as well as the unity-corns just to be safe. I would have to start a list of mandatory inoculations and such for any visitors our new home might get, but that would have to wait until I was sure this was working and the colonists were showing signs of improvement.
The first patients on my list were those in the medical tubes. They had been sick the longest and were suffering the worst symptoms. Their illness had progressed into a third stage evidenced by sores, mostly along their arms and torsos. Once the four of them and all the Saer’khi were dosed I distributed all of the remaining injectors amongst those of us still standing with quick instructions on what to do for the non-medical people. “I’ll take the people here in the medical ship with Tarek to help me. The other colonist names are divided into lists on these four data pads so you’ll work in teams of two with each team taking a list, Krie will work with Bixx, Dennis with Karran, Sarah with Xawin, and Matt with Tanna. We’re doing it this way so there’s someone with nanites on each team in case those of you without start to feel worse and so we can inoculate everyone faster.”
“How do we know if the nanites are going to work?” Dennis asked. “I’m not saying that I doubt your skills as a doctor, but this illness is pretty rough and it’s hit the whole colony in a day.”
“That’s exactly why we need to try this cure, I’m not sure I have time to come up with something else and everyone is counting on us. I’m pretty sure it’ll work though and hopefully we’ll see some improvement in the next hour or two as the nanites do their job.”
“Ummm, I have a question,” Bixx said while raising one of its feathered arm/wings. “Why are we sticking the nanites in the unity-corns as well? Aren’t they already immune?”
“They are,” I conceded, “but they are also carriers. If we want to make sure nobody else gets this, like the Saer’khi rescue teams or future colonists or children, we need to eradicate the virus from local carriers as well. Trust me; it’s better to err on the side of caution. Hopefully if these nanties do what they’re supposed to we’ll have a good way to combat illnesses like this in the future. Let’s get moving, I want everyone inoculated ASAP.”
After all the colonists and ‘corns were inoculated I had Tarek, Krie, Tanna, Karran and Xawin get some rest while Bixx and Dennis helped Sarah to make large quantities of a soup made from molehog meat, some dried seaweed and a bit of lemonberry juice. Many of the colonists hadn’t been able to eat much, if anything at all, at dinner time due to the nausea and everyone needed something to help them keep their strength up. I was glad there were only seven Nezans amongst the colonists though; they were herbivores and the seaweed, berries and ration bars weren’t much of a diet for them. I was going to have to hope that when this emergency was over that we could start planting crops and harvesting that lavender grain soon.
While they were making enough soup to feed the weakened colonists I was doing rounds with Matt and constantly checking colonists for any signs of improvement. It wasn’t until long after the colonists who could eat had been fed and I had sent the others to bed for some rest that I began to see those signs though. The last of those to show signs of having the virus recovered the fastest, but by the early hours of the morning I was seeing improvement in Nu-Arr and the other exploration team members as well. Children had been hit particularly hard by the virus and it came as a great relief to find that even the medical scans of the twins and Pallu’s infant sister Lanni, the youngest of the colonists, were looking a lot closer to normal.
I was about to finish my latest rounds by checking up on Jake, Jared, and their fellow mutineers Tony and John, when I got a ping from Krie. *You’re still awake? It’s after four in the morning. You sent me to bed over seven hours ago.* I was much relieved that her mind voice didn’t seem as strained as it had earlier when I sent her to bed with the other Saer’khi.
*Somebody needed to be awake in case someone took a turn for the worse,* I responded tiredly. *I’m the only one besides you with medical experience who was in any shape to do it and you needed rest, I was worried about you.*
*Well, now you need rest and I am the one who is worried,* my sister admonished. *You have been working alone all this time haven’t you?*
*Sort of, but I’ve had KIt keeping me company on my rounds,* I admitted sheepishly.
*Go to bed Xia, I’ll take over; I’m feeling much better now,* she told me with concern in her mind. *If anything happens I’ll let you know.*
I knew she was right, I’d done my part and I really needed some sleep in case anything else happened. *Okay, I’ll go to bed, but call me if you need me. I’m glad you’re feeling better, all the colonists are starting to look better too, I was about to finish my rounds with Jared, Jake, and our other troublemakers.*
*I’ll do that; you and Kit go to bed. What are our priorities today?*
*I think almost everyone is going to be feeling pretty weak today, though we really need to replenish our supplies a bit since the storm seems to be calming down now. Anyone who’s feeling strong enough to gather food, water, and enough firewood for cooking fires should do so. We just need enough to pad our supplies for today’s meals and we can use the climate control on the EM shield to keep things warm tonight if needed. Other than that we’ll let everyone rest and recover,* I replied after a bit of thought. *We’ll hold off on more exploration until tomorrow, and from now on we’ll need to do regular med scans of our teams and anything we find before returning to camp as a precaution. I really don’t want this happening again.*
*I really wish we had thought of that before, but hopefully we’ll be more prepared now in cases like this. Sleep well Xia, I’ll wake you if anything happens, but I want you to try to get at least eight hours.* she told me before turning her mind toward starting rounds.
I headed back to the medical ship and went to Amy’s room to check on her one last time before turning in. Violet was curled up on the pillow beside her head and my ward looked to be sleeping somewhat peacefully, which was a bit of a relief since she had been having some trouble with nightmares since the disaster on the Bounty. Her breathing sounded a lot better than when I had sent her for bed rest, and a med scan showed her pulse and respiration were pretty close to normal again. There wasn’t much difference from when I last checked on her and I felt she could still use more rest so I tried not to disturb her as I quietly left her room. With that done I made my way to my own bedroom, where I quickly shed my clothes and climbed into the welcome embrace of my gel bed where Kit snuggled up beside me and I fell asleep almost instantly.
When I awoke Kit made unhappy noises as I disentangled myself from her and I received a mixture of sleepy, grouchy and confused feelings from her. I gave her a stern look and sent her, *Well if you’re still tired then sleep a bit longer, I didn’t say you had to get up with me.*
The slip’s response was a sleepy snort before she curled back up and closed her eyes. I merely shrugged and prepared myself for the day by washing up and getting dressed in clean panties and a light blue sundress with sandals. *How are things looking?* I sent to Krie after a quick ping to let her know I was up.
*Much better than last night,* she replied. *Most everyone is still feeling a bit weak, but those who are feeling strong enough are helping gather food and firewood. Some are helping Sarah with lunch as well, but I have been cautioning everyone not to overdo it. Kyle and Amy have been helping me do rounds every hour, just to be on the safe side. I’ve been worried people might injure themselves by working too hard in their weakened state. Jared is waiting outside the ship to speak with you when you have a moment.*
*Jared? What in the world would he want to talk to me for?* I stated in confusion.
Krie gave the equivalent of a mental shrug. *I have no idea, but he came in after breakfast and when I told him you were still sleeping he said it was important and that he’d wait. He’s been waiting outside the ship since.*
*I guess I’d better go get this over with.* I grumbled.
I made my way out of my room and outside the ship to find Jared sitting on the ground outside. As soon as he saw me the mutineer scrambled weakly to his feet. I might as well get this over with, I thought again to myself as I walked toward him. “Look Jared, if this is about the mining, don’t worry, everyone is getting a day off today except for food gathering and other necessities. You all need some recovery time. Other than that though I can’t change your punishment, it was decided on by the whole colony…”
“ It’s… uh… not about that,” he stated nervously.
I raised an eyebrow in curiosity as I asked, “What is this about then?”
He was hesitant as he spoke. “I… I wanted to say… thank you, I heard you stayed up all through the night working on a cure for the virus we had and checking up on all of us, even those of us who don’t deserve it. I’m sorry… for everything. I owe you and everyone else here, especially the Saer’khi and other aliens a big apology and I want to do that… I think there are ways I can help this colony… I’ll still help with the mining, but there are other things I can help with too. This is my home now too and I should do everything I can to help us survive here.”
I stared at him for a long moment. That was the last thing I ever expected to hear from him and my first instinct was suspicion. “Why should I trust anything you say?”
“You shouldn’t,” he agreed. “I wouldn’t in your place either. I was a fool, but since we left Saer’kah I’ve nearly died twice, and once was because of my own actions. Facing death changes a man’s perspective. I’ve been thinking about the afterlife, where I might end up spending it, and people there I’d rather not face until I’ve made up for some of the things I’ve done. I’ve been thinking about those things you said that day you assigned us the mining job. You shouldn’t trust my word without a good reason; I know that, but I’m telling the truth… that’s why I want you to read my mind.”
My eyes shot wide open and I’m pretty sure my jaw dropped as well. “Do you even know what you’re asking? I could see things you don’t want me to.”
He began to fidget nervously, but showed no signs of reconsidering his words. “We don’t have any priests here and confession is supposed to be good for a man’s soul. You said a person can’t lie that way, so I figure that’s the closest thing to confession I’ll find here, maybe you could even forgive me… I…”
“I’m not your priest Jared,” I told him with a frown. “And even if I somehow did forgive you, you’d have to earn the forgiveness of everyone else here as well, I can’t give you that.”
“I know that, and I want to earn that forgiveness. There are ways I can help this colony, but nobody is going to listen to me as things stand. I’ll apologize to the whole colony, publicly, as a start. If anybody is going to accept my help or advice though, I need to convince you first. If I go around trying to start projects without your direct approval, people are just going to think I’m up to something… I know I’ve earned that, but right now this colony needs skills and experience, even mine.”
I sighed as I considered his words. “I won’t promise anything more than this, but if you’re absolutely certain about this I will look into your mind. Come into my office and let’s get this over with.”
We were both sitting in gel seats in my office and I had just finished eating a ration bar to tide me over until lunch when I asked Jared one last time. “You’re absolutely sure about this?”
“I am Commander,” he agreed nervously.
I took his hand in mine and cautioned him, “This might feel a little weird and I’ll ask questions to make sure you’re not hiding things once we get comfortable, but for now I just want you to relax while I form the link, so think of something peaceful.”
He closed his eyes and after a few deep breaths I followed suit as I tried to filter out the signals his brain was sending to the rest of his body. I thought I could smell fresh air with a hint of other pungent earthy scents and I could swear I was hearing the sound of cows in the distance. A horse whinnied and I opened my mental eyes to see Jared astride a beautiful chestnut colored horse. There were indeed cows in the distance in a fenced off field and a large garden nearby with an attractive brunette woman in coveralls and a large straw hat kneeling in the dirt pulling weeds. This was too real to be some sort of imaginary happy place, the scents, the sounds; even the tiny details of the place itself were too ingrained. *This is a memory of a real place isn’t it?* I asked.
The Jared on the horse looked down at me and nodded with teary eyes. *This was my ranch; it was in my family for generations and was one of the last independently owned cattle ranches in Montana. I grew up here, and I thought I would die here as well. Growing things, raising and caring for animals, it was in my blood.*
*We really could use someone with experience in that,* I admitted reluctantly before asking, *and the woman?*
His voice caught as he replied, *That was my wife Anna, she was my high school sweetheart. If anything meant more to me than this ranch, it was her.*
*What happened to her?*
*She lost her battle with Cancer seven years ago, after the first Migration ships left. She had been fighting it for years, since Jake was four and we lost the ranch paying for her medical bills and radiation treatments. I’d have rather lost the ranch than her.* He paused a few seconds to collect himself as a feeling of profound grief gripped him. *When we heard news about the Saer’khi’s medical techniques we had hope for the first time in years, but we had already lost everything and we couldn’t afford the five thousand dollar fee for the hospital to send her to the Saer’khi. I tried to raise the money, but there was no jobs available that I was qualified to do.*
*Wait, what fee?* I asked.
*We were told that because so many people worldwide needed the Saer’khi’s advanced medical techniques that they were being referred on a case by case basis and that the fee would help move Anna to the top of the list,* he replied sadly. *I kept hoping that one of the Saer’khi would see her need and take pity on her, but it never happened.*
He couldn’t lie to me like this and this grief, this feeling of helplessness was so very intense that it had to be real. I was so mad that I almost lost the link between us. *There were no fees, at least not from the Saer’khi side of things. Humans are another story.*
*But they told me…* he began to argue
I took a deep breath as I tried to focus once more on his thoughts and feelings. *Jared, there were only three Saer’khi from the medical field sent to Earth, three to see to the implementation of their medical technology and move those who needed the care the most to Saer’kah. Three people assigned to a planet of billions. They couldn’t possibly see every case and they trusted humans to send the worst cases to them for immediate treatment. In fact, they pushed for federal mandates to do that in most countries, but they couldn’t possibly ensure that every hospital on Earth was doing that so there were some of us who slipped through the cracks. Take me for instance, I was being studied for research and they didn’t want to let me go. I wouldn’t be here if one of those three Saer’khi hadn’t stumbled upon me at UCLA.*
I was assaulted by feelings of grief, regret, guilt and anger, *Oh God…* he spoke quietly. *After Anna died, I blamed the Saer’khi… I despised them. For years I told everyone on the street that would listen that they couldn’t be trusted…*
*Let me guess, that’s when Eric recruited you?* I said bitterly.
He nodded in the affirmative. *He brought me and Jake to a military base and we stayed there until they were ready to put us on one of the last Migration ships. They gave me a gun to put with my belongings and told me that I was to get as many humans as possible to distrust the ‘bugs’ until Eric could make his move. They never told me much, but I heard things.*
My interest was piqued. *What kinds of things? Anything that might affect us?*
*Things like they would have a way of locating Eric when the time came and that they needed to start space colonization soon if humans want to be able to compete on a galactic scale. There was concern that Earth lacked the resources for it, even with the Saer’khi tech and that it would take years to construct colony ships. There was also something Eric mentioned one night while we were drinking,* he said uncertainty and I could feel his concern in his mind. *Have you ever heard of Roswell, New Mexico?*
*A little, I used to watch the sci-fi channel a lot before the great quake, most people seem to associate it with UFOs I think,* I responded.
*That’s the place,* he agreed. *Eric told me that in July of 1947 a UFO appeared out of nowhere, high in the upper atmosphere above American soil. The military thought it was some sort of new spy plane and shot it down. It crashed on a ranch near Roswell, but the crash mostly destroyed both the ship and it’s pilot. When they figured out what it really was, they put together some cover-up about a weather balloon and hauled off the wreckage to a nearby military base for study. When the Saer’khi showed up with their tech the military started looking at ways of using that tech and the remains of the crashed ship they’ve been studying to build a working ship that will give the United States the edge in Earth’s new space race.*
*So they might have a functional ship soon? A military one?* I asked with a grimace. This did not bode well. If they managed to complete a military ship capable of interstellar travel and Eric’s locator had given them our location, we could all be in danger.
*it depends on how successful they’ve been, they could already have it or still be years away,* he muttered in reply.
*That is not reassuring, but it is important for us to know about that possibility. Thank you for telling me.* I told him.
*It could affect the whole colony, you needed to know, and I need to start doing my part here. I’ve done a lot of stupid things I have to make up for, and I was so blinded by my own hate and grief that caused most of these people to lose people they loved as much as I loved Anna. I don’t expect forgiveness, but I would like to try to atone and help this colony succeed.*
*I think a lot of people would have reacted like you did in your place, I don’t forgive you yet, but I may be able to some day. I can’t speak for anyone else, not even the Saer’khi, you’ll need to prove yourself to the other colonists. And if I do forgive you it will be only you, not Jake, or the others.* I stated clearly.
There was disappointment in his mind, but I could sense that it wasn’t about my reaction. *I tried to talk to them about this over breakfast and convince them how wrong we were, but they’re all their own men and I’m not the leader I pretended to be. I’ll do whatever I can to atone, but they’re responsible for their own decisions from now on, even Jake.*
*I appreciate you at least trying. You’re not the man I thought you were Jared, it takes courage to admit you were wrong and to try to atone for it.*
*I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see,* he said with a mental sigh. *After what I’ve done I probably won’t make my way to Heaven, but if I somehow do, I’d like to face Anna as a man she would be proud of. To do that I’ll need to know what we have to work with. Now what can you tell me about, those horse-like creatures and those critters everyone seems to be keeping as pet’s now?*
Jared’s public apology at lunch came as a shock to most of the colony and was met with distrust until I assured them I had read his mind and that he was telling the truth. Even after that though, people were only slightly less hostile toward him. It was no less than we had been expecting though and he knew he had a lot of work to do to change public opinion of him. He did mention that he had some ideas though on how to prepare the cleared land for planting crops faster. He even figured we could start that day after lunch.
While I was encouraged by his new found eagerness to help the colony I had reservations about that idea. “That’s hard work, and I really don’t feel good about people pushing themselves that hard after being so sick” I stated, shaking my head.
“I don’t think you need to worry about people overworking themselves,” he replied. “They can mostly do it sitting down if I’m right and they’ll just need to supervise.” Then he pointed to one of the slips, “You said that those slips are smart and listen to instructions well right?” At my nod he continued. “Those critters are burrowers, so we’ll just get them to help us by doing what burrowers do best, digging. Then once they’ve done that we can get the male unity-corns tilling the loosened soil with those long, sharp-looking horns. With the animals helping we could be ready to plant in a few days tops.”
I had to admit that it wasn’t a bad idea, and from the thoughtful looks I was seeing other people were realizing that too. Finally I nodded. “Alright, anyone who has a slip, feels up to it, and isn’t working on something else can meet up in the southern fields once lunch is over to get started." I began to eat my cooling lunch, letting my mouth work on autopilot while my thoughts returned to what Jared had revealed about the ‘Roswell Project’. Should I inform the colony about this? It wasn’t really an imminent threat, after all the ship may not be finished yet or even for years, and if they had more agents like Eric in other colony groups they might not even follow his locator first, especially since it had stopped transmitting.
If I told them about the possibility now it would just upset people for no reason. Besides, if any ships entered this system the long range scanners on board the medical ship would alert us. Again I wondered if I was really qualified to be in charge of this colony. I must have thought it ‘out loud’ because Tarek’s voice slipped into my mind slightly confused and trying to reassure me, *Of course you are Tess’rha, of the three Ji’turi here, you’re the highest in rank.*
The sigh I let out was both physical and mental. *This isn’t just a Saer’khi colony Tarek, all the species deserve a say in who should be in charge. Jared shared some disturbing information with me, and I think we need to talk to Dennis and Luiza about it, and maybe a few of the others as well.*
After lunch, while many of the colonists were out at the southern field, I gathered the other Saer’khi, Dennis, Luiza, Matt, Mandy, and Lirra in the main area of the medical ship. Once I was done telling them all that I had learned from Jared, Luiza frowned. “I guess we’re going to have to look at military countermeasures after all.”
I nodded sadly in agreement. “Sadly, there’s no way we can build a military ship of our own. Even with all the resources at our disposal, we have no way to produce something of that scale and the drop ships aren’t meant for combat, they’re only meant for traveling in and out of the atmosphere. We need to get better organized. I can’t keep pretending to be in charge here, we need a stable and organized government to make these kinds of decisions.”
Matt shook his head, frowning at me. “Xia, we’re already as stable and organized as we’re going to get for the time being. If we try to institute a new government now it’s just going to make people uncertain and destabilize things. Besides, even if we held an election at this point you’d probably win anyway.”
“I doubt that,” I muttered, “I’m not near qualified to be in charge of this colony.”
“No,” Mandy disagreed. “Matt’s right, except for Jake and the others that were associated with the mutiny, almost everyone would vote for you. Matt, Dennis, Lirra, Luiza and I have been keeping our ears open just in case, but we’ve heard nothing but good things about you from the colonists of all species. People like and admire you, you take the time to do the little things most leaders don’t think about, you took what was a disaster and organized us to make things not just bearable, but even pleasant here, and you’ve proven time and again that your first priority is keeping everyone in this colony healthy, safe, and as happy as possible.”
“We need stability and right now people see you as that stability. You also delegate well,” Dennis put in. “The very best commanders assign those under their command to the tasks they are suited for and trust them to do what needs to be done. If you don’t know anything about a problem you find one of us who does and you set them to it. You’ve taken all the people in this room and made us your advisers, and right now we’re advising you to keep things as they are. This is as organized and stable a government as we’re going to get at the moment and people need to see that we’re going to continue to do everything we can to keep things running smoothly and improve our situation here.”
*They are right Xia. I know that you didn’t ask for this, but you are a good leader, the kind we need right now. Just keep doing what you have been and trust us to handle what you can’t.* Krie’s thoughts wrapped around my own like a warm hug.
They were right. Things were going pretty well so far because of how we had been doing things, and now was not the time to rock the boat. “Fine, we’ll keep thing as they are for now. Dennis and Luiza I want you to start brainstorming on possible defensive strategies, for both on and off planet. Karran, I want you to work with them on that and think of any ways the tech we do have could be used creatively. I don’t think this is an imminent threat, but it won’t hurt to be prepared.”
After our meeting I had everyone head to the southern field to help with Jared’s idea while I went around the camp to take a quick inventory of our supplies. As I looked around I realized that my friends were right. The destruction of the Bounty and being stranded on a planet with little or no apparent resources and dangerous predators had been a disaster. Looking at things now though, we had enough food and water, we had shelters built, we had things organized fairly well, and most importantly we were alive. Everyday this place became less like an emergency landing site and more like a home. Sure the planet was strange and unfamiliar in a lot of ways, but that just made it seem even more amazing that we were surviving, and even thriving here in the face of all the adversity we had gone through. Maybe I hadn’t done such a bad job after all.
When Kit and I I finally got to the field people were resting and enjoying the fresh air and afternoon sun as they had their slips working on the fields. In fact the only one lifting a shovel was Jared. I headed in his direction to chastise him for doing physical labor when he should be resting, but I found my path blocked by Jittu, the five year old Murqui girl who often played with the twins and had been one of my three constant companions during our beach day.
She just stood there nervously for a moment, clutching what looked like a wooden doll. Then she blurted out something in Murqui that I couldn’t understand. There was something about hair and the doll, but I missed the rest of it. Since the translator didn’t pick up on it I figured it was probably something that had no real equivalent in other languages. Her mother Trill was approaching and gave a throaty chuckle as she saw my confused look. “She was formally asking you to be her Niadu. She was nervous though, and speaking too quickly, so I’m not sure how much the translator caught. Basically she asked for you to provide the hair for her niadu doll.”
“Niadu?” I asked uncertainly. I wasn’t familiar with that word.
“I asked Rebecca and the closest translation we could come up with is ‘soul parent’. The Niadu rite is one of our most sacred traditions,” Trill explained. “When a kitten is born, the parents form a doll for that child. The doll has no features until the kitten chooses their Niadu. The Niadu is the warrior that the kitten most admires and would like to be like when they become an adult, the one they will go to for their training when they enter puberty and the one that would watch over them should something happen to their parents. When they decide who they want to be their Niadu they ask them for some of their hair to begin working on the doll.”
I wasn’t quite sure what to say to that, I was deeply honored by it, especially since the Murqui didn’t share many of their traditions with other species unless it was necessary. “Has she thought about this? I’m not even a Murqui, or a warrior really.”
Trill nodded seriously, “She was adamant about it, she sees you as this colony’s greatest warrior and her father and I approve of her choice.”
“Well if you’re all sure about this, then I would be honored to her Niadu. So what happens when I give her the hair?” I asked as I looked through my medical bag for something to cut off a few locks of hair with.
“She will add the hair to the doll and she will keep working to try to make the doll look as much like you as possible until she reaches puberty and begins her training, when she will give it to you. It symbolizes that she is becoming like you in spirit,” the Murqui woman explained.
I found the scissors I usually kept for cutting bandages and carefully cut off a lock of hair where it wouldn’t be too noticeable. Once that was done I put them back in my bag and asked, “Is there anything I need to say or do?”
She offered me a data pad. “I am not yet familiar with your written languages, so I told Rebecca what needed to be said with the translator and had her put it on this for you in English.”
I took the data pad and as I held out the hair for Jittu to take, I read the words out loud. “I accept you as my spirit child and offer you part of myself so that we will be bound in spirit. Share of my strength, courage, and wisdom and become a warrior worthy of our people.”
Jittu took the hair solemnly and said, “Thank you Niadu.” Then she beamed at me and hugged me tightly before running off, clutching the doll and hair tightly.
Trill laughed as her daughter dashed off, “She is eager to get started on it. I cannot thank you enough for agreeing to this, she wants to be just like you when she grows up. I do not think she could have chosen a stronger or more valiant warrior. I should go help her get started Commander, I’ll see you later.” She headed off after her daughter and I couldn’t help but smile as Kit and I got to work with the others.
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
Chapter 16 Traveling Amethyst |
The rest of the afternoon was pleasant and with the help of the slips we managed to get a fair amount of earth churned up, and nearly a third of the southern field was now done. With luck it could be finished in another two days and we could begin planting soon. That night there was a feeling of accomplishment as we ate dinner. I think that people were beginning to see that we were actually doing pretty well for ourselves considering how grim things had looked when we had first arrived on Unity. More than that though, people were happy to be alive and healthy. Despite everything that our journey and this planet had thrown at us we were still alive and improving our situation every day and that alone was an accomplishment worth feeling good about.
As I sat eating that night, I had to smile to myself as occasionally Jittu would run up with her doll in her hands and give me an appraising look. My wings seemed to be of particular interest to my new spirit child and I figured that she was trying to figure out how to make them and get them to look right on the doll. I just tried not to let myself be distracted by it as I ate and while Krie and I helped Amy to study her letters for the Saer’khi written language.
When it started to get dark we put the data pad away and joined in the general conversation. Artemis was already high in the sky and Achelois would likely be joining it soon. It had been a little hard at first adjusting to having two moons, since both Earth and Saer’kah only had one, but we were all beginning to get used to it. Personally, I was beginning to find it reassuring in a way; it was like a reminder that no matter how dark things seemed on this planet, that there would always be light. I smiled to myself as that thought came to me and I looked up at Artemis, until the sight of a shooting star caused me to sigh.
That had been the third shooting star I had seen since the sun went down and, while I hadn’t been paying attention those first few nights on Unity, the past several nights I had been seeing an increasing number of them. It was the last evidence of the Bounty. I had asked Karran earlier and he believed that the explosion of our ship had sent some of the smaller debris of the explosion toward the planet. None of it was large enough or moving fast enough to be a danger to us or the medical ship’s long range scanners would have let us know. Mostly it was just small bits burning up in the atmosphere and causing the shooting stars, it was possible we might get some small meteorites and other tiny debris too, but he thought that what didn’t get caught in the debris field around the planet would be relatively harmless. I tried to put it out of my mind for a bit when Tanna and Karran decided to get out their instruments and entertain us all for a bit.
I think Dennis had caught me watching though as while we were listening to the music he said. “I still can’t get used to seeing two moons up there. How does that even work? Why aren’t we getting more extreme tides and other stuff.”
I considered the question for a moment before shrugging. “I’m no expert in planetary physics Captain, but I know that this planet is a minor miracle statistically speaking. Multiple moon planets seldom have the capability to generate and sustain complex life. Usually the moons have too much mass and their orbit is too close so they end up causing far too much gravitational effects, and rarely they collide if their orbits aren’t complimentary.”
“So why haven’t they then?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.
“The two moons look around the same size from down here but Achelois is much smaller and closer to the planet while Aretemis is larger and further out,” I explained. “Relatively speaking they’re small moons as well, their mass combined can’t be more than one point two percent of the planet itself if I remember the calculations we made. The spacing of their orbits means that Achelois is orbiting the planet at nearly exactly double the time it takes Artemis and it has a stabilizing effect of sorts. They’re staying far away enough from each other for Achelois not to be pulled into Artemis’ orbit and have the two collide, but yet they are both small enough that the tides aren’t more severe.”
He nodded, but then frowned as something else occurred to him. “But the planet had a third moon once if you’re right,”
I nodded in agreement as I thought about how best to explain my theory. “I think the third moon may have been larger and much further out in orbit and an asteroid hit it hard enough to break it apart. It sent some pieces raining down on the planet and the rest further out of orbit to create the debris field we appeared in. Some of the smaller debris has stayed in orbit though, which made landing a ship here a bit difficult. If we contact Saer’kah we’re going to have to warn them about that, they may only be able to get to the surface by drop ship. The colony ships and mother ships are too big and appearing too close is likely to get them damaged by the debris.”
The cyborg shuddered at whatever memory that brought up. “Yeah, we really don’t need a repeat of the Bounty.”
”No we don’t,” I agreed, “and even a small piece of debris could cause a disaster if they appeared out of subspace in the wrong place.” The mere thought worried me immensely. Tarek of course sensed my agitation at that line of thinking and promptly asked me to dance. It was just the distraction I needed.
I turned in early that night and was up before dawn the next morning to wake the other members of my exploration team. Once we were all awake and had eaten a quick breakfast of ration bars and molehog jerky we started making our way south along the coast. Tarek spent a lot of his time scouting ahead by air, but we were keeping in constant contact telepathically so he could keep me informed of anything he was seeing. As I walked along with the others we kept our senses peeled for anything unusual, but I also used it as an excuse to get to know my other team members better.
I had gotten to know Matt pretty well, since we began the trip on the Bounty and not only was he a good friend I could joke around with, but there was also that mutual attraction between us that was hoping he might someday be comfortable enough to pursue. He really was a lot of fun to be around and when he smiled at me or talked to me like he was actually enjoying my company it never failed to make my heart flutter. I had never been one of those Matthew Scott fan girls on Earth before the Great Quake, but I sure was now. It wasn’t because he was famous though, or even that he was attractive and had an amazing smile (though that was part of it), it was because he was a great guy who treated me as he would any other person.
Bixx and I had a lot in common with getting the nanites at such a young age and often feeling that we had to prove ourselves to others. We both wanted to be seen as the adults we were inside and not the teenagers many people saw at first glance. Where I had worked hard to become a good doctor, Bixx had embraced the fact that it would never have to take on a gender assigned role with its people. Instead of having to follow the ‘men are hunters and warriors and women are home makers’ ways of its people it had decided to pursue more intellectual pursuits and had developed an interest in electronics. As we talked more I began to think it might be a good idea to have it learn from Karran or Xawin. They could use the help and it was certainly interested in what they did.
I had gotten to know Pallu a bit already. She was impulsive and outgoing, but she would follow orders well too. The Yazuik was fascinated by the whole planet around us and her eagerness to explore our new world was infectious. I had wanted her on my team for her swimming and electro-location abilities, but it was more than that that would make her a valuable resource to my team. She saw this as an adventure and a challenge, and she was the kind of girl who gave one hundred and ten percent when she was challenged.
Rinnik was the biggest surprise though. She was a bit shy at first as she tried to get a feel for us, but as we moved southward along the shoreline and got to know each other a bit better she started to open up more and more. My first surprise was that her Niadu was none other than Lirra, which certainly explained why Lirra had suggested the young Murqui for my team. Lirra still tended to get a bit protective of me from time to time and she probably figured that if she couldn’t watch over me personally, than who better than the girl she had been training herself. Rinnik had taken her assignment to heart and was determined to do her best to keep me and the others safe. Once we managed to convince her that she could relax around us and still do that she became a lot more talkative.
On the whole I was feeling pretty good about my team. We all got along well, were eager to do the job and discover what this planet had to offer, and while they all respected my authority they also treated me as a relatively normal girl. Being Commander Phar was fine for the camp, people needed me to be that there, but it was nice to just be Xia for a while too, and I got the feeling that Bixx, Pallu, and Rinnik understood that as well as Matt and Tarek did.
By lunchtime we hadn’t found anything of interest and I decided to report in while Pallu caught us some fish for lunch and Rinnik and Bixx gathered wood for a fire to cook them on. Krie was quick to acknowledge my ping. *How’s the exploration going Xia*
*Well it’s a nice day for a long walk on the beach,* I admitted as I lay back on the sand and Kit curled up beside me, *but we haven’t seen anything terribly interesting so far. I guess we all can’t be lucky enough to discover signs of civilization and strange new species on our first day. We’re going to have lunch and go on for another hour or two before we head back. How are things on the home front?*
*Replenishing our supplies is going well and the team I have working the fields is making good progress too, we could be ready to start planting tomorrow afternoon.* she replied cheerfully.
*That is good to hear,* I sent back with a smile. *I’m going to enjoy the sun while I wait for lunch, I’ll report in if we find anything interesting.*
*Enjoy yourself Xia, I’ll talk to you later.* I tried to get more comfortable in the sand and give Kit some affection as we broke contact and watched Matt try to play fetch with Mine. I was thinking that he really needed to think of a less confusing name for the poor thing when Tarek settled down beside me and began absently petting Fido. He reached out with one of his free hands and I took it in my own without a word as we just lay there together enjoying the quiet moment. Before long Rinnik and Bixx returned and got a fire going. Pallu returned not long after with enough seussfish and featherfish to make a good meal for all of us and as they cooked we talked about what interesting finds might be waiting out there.
We were all hoping that we might discover something big or incredible, but I tried to be the voice of reason and remind them that thus far there hadn’t been much ecological diversity to be found on Unity. The ‘corns were a great find, but only species with similar survivability and/or a lot of luck would have been able to survive the cataclysm that had hit this planet. We had already been extremely fortunate in what we had found. It was of course possible we might find more ruins, but that was probably the best that we could realistically expect. Sadly though, we hadn’t found anything of interest by the time we had to head back to camp. We had continued making our way along the shoreline, but it seemed to always be just more of the same: Rainforest with occasional sandy or rocky beaches.
When we returned to camp the southern field was almost entirely ready for planting and people were in good spirits. Work on digging the water pipeline was proceeding well too and it was good to see everyone feeling better with more energy than the day before. I had been half afraid that something would have gone wrong while my team was out exploring, but much to my relief all the reports that I received and went over during dinner that evening showed no real problems with things progressing as well as could be expected. Still, between the time I was finished eating and the time people started heading to bed, I made sure to go to each of the campfires and see how the other colonists were doing, if they needed anything, or had any concerns.
I awoke in the early hours of the morning to a pulsing sound/sensation in my mind and a flashing image of a roughly spherical silver object. At roughly the same time Kit began shrieking. I shot up into a sitting position and had barely begun to realize just what it was when the pulsing suddenly stopped. Kit was staring at me in confusion and worry and I had to stroke her fur gently and assure her everything was alright before I could get out of bed and into my ships uniform. *It’s okay Kit, I’m pretty sure I know what that was and it wasn’t anything dangerous.*
Once I was dressed I dashed out the door to the main area of the ship. I wasn’t the only one awakened as both Tarek and Krie were coming out of their rooms after hastily getting dressed and Amy was rubbing her eyes sleepily as she asked, “Is somethin’ wrong? Violet was screaming.”
“It’s okay Amy,” I quickly reassured her. “It was just the ship wide alert system. It sends important messages to all receptive psychic’s in the drop ship and it looks like the slips got the message too.” While the Bounty and other colony ships had internal subspace vocal communications, that was really only for the benefit of the colonists. Most of the crew notifications and communications were designed to be done psychically since the crews were meant to be all Saer’khi and psychic communication is generally faster and more efficient for us.
Once I had gotten Amy back to bed, Krie, Tarek, and I headed to the drop ship’s pilot’s compartment to see what the alert was all about. It was some sort of message, but there wasn’t enough sent before it stopped transmitting to make much sense of except for the fact that whatever was transmitting had been sent by the Saer’khi. *Tanna might have a better idea, since she’s our communications officer.* Tarek suggested after a few minutes of trying to puzzle it out.
I pinged Tanna, Xawin, and Karran and when all three had sleepily responded I sent, *We just got an alert, but it suddenly stopped transmitting. I’m going to need you in here Tanna, and it might be a good idea for you boys to come as well.*
Five minutes later the trio had joined us in the ship and Tanna was looking over the communications logs. *It looks like a subspace communications relay probe dropped out of subspace and stared scanning and transmitting messages, but I think it might have appeared in the debris field and gotten damaged before it could complete it’s task. We sometimes send a large amount of probes out ahead of search and rescue ships if we want to search a large area of space quickly. They are small, can travel a lot faster than ships because they don’t have crew to keep alive, and they do not use up as much resources as sending ships to search the same area, so it’s easier to form a search grid and locate missing ships faster.*
*Damn,* I cursed, *that could have helped us communicate with Saer’kah, or at least told them where we are.*
*It still could,* Tanna said with a smile. *The long range scanners say it’s still up there, it’s just not transmitting or scanning.*
Karran’s eyes lit up at that, and I think we could all sense the idea forming in his mind. *If we can get that probe, I might be able to use it to increase the range of medical drop ship’s subspace communications system enough to allow us to reach the closest subspace anchor and send messages along the subspace beacon network.*
*I know just what we’re doing today then,* I replied with a grin. *Sorry Krie, but your team will have to wait until tomorrow for more exploration. You and Amy will need to get what supplies you might need for today and set up base of operations in the personnel ship. We’ll need the medical ship since it’s smaller and more maneuverable. Xawin, keep working on that water pipeline, but be prepared in case Krie needs you for any other engineering related matters. Karran and Tanna, you’ll be coming with Tarek and me. Let’s all get a few hours more rest because we’ll be leaving right after breakfast.*
There was some excitement among the colonists as I informed them of the appearance of the probe over breakfast. The mere possibility that we could use it to contact Saer’kah, if we could manage to retrieve it, had us all in high spirits as everyone finished the meal and left for their morning tasks. While Krie, Amy, and I moved enough medical supplies to last the day into the personnel ship, Tarek and Tanna began going over the pre-flight checklist for the medical ship and Karran made sure everything was secure for the trip.
We set up the temporary medical centre near the personnel ship’s pilot’s compartment so that Krie would be able to keep I contact with us while we were gone. When that was done I gave my sister and Amy a quick hug goodbye and I headed back to the ship to join the others so we could launch. Our slips had been given stern orders to stay with Krie, since we couldn’t be sure how they would react to being on the ship during this operation. Once I was on board and the airlock was sealed I sent to my companions, *Okay, we’re aboard and ready for take-off. You two can take off when ready. Anyone have any ideas on how to get the probe on board?*
*We’re taking off now then Xia,* Tarek replied first.
Tanna replied to my question as I was securing myself in one of the seats. *We can use the tractor beam to pull the probe close to the ship. You and Karran still have fully functional ships uniforms so you can go outside the ship and bring it in through the airlock once we get it close enough.*
*A spacewalk huh? Sounds like fun, but Karran and I only did that once during training and this is going to be real. You and Tarek would be better choices; you both had full space agency training, but you’re probably right. With all the debris up there we’ll need our two best pilots in there.* I was a little nervous since the only experience Karran and I had with spacewalks was one simulation and it had been weeks before.
*Don’t worry Xia, I’ll keep in contact the whole time and help you both through it. You should be fine though,* she assured me, *it’s just like flying, you just use more telekinesis and don’t use your wings.*
Just over half an hour later we were navigating the debris filed as we approached the area the signal had last transmitted from. I was in my bedroom getting into my uniform when Tanna sent me a ping. *We’ve found it Xia. Visual enhancement shows the probe is still mostly intact, it just has a good sized tear in the outer shell, it probably took a hit from one of the smaller pieces of debris that get pulled into the atmosphere and burn up. We’re locking on with the tractor beam now and we’ll try to pull it as close as we can to the airlock.*
*Thanks Tanna, I’ll be on my way to the airlock in a moment,* I answered as I finished adjusting my uniform. I quickly pulled up the hood and sent a mental command to the nanites to engage the environmental suit mode. All seals on the suit closed up tight as the transparent face shield formed and sealed as well. As soon as the suit was airtight the oxygen recycling and temperature regulation systems came online with a slight hissing sound. The HUD on the outer right edge of the face plate lit up, showing the status for all the systems and once I was sure everything was green I gave a sigh of relief and headed to the airlock.
Karran was already waiting for me and completely contained in his uniform as well. *Ready Commander?* he sent me with a mental grin.
*You better believe it,* I replied, sending my own grin back. *I’m nervous as hell, but really excited too. I wonder if Neil Armstrong ever felt like this.*
*Who is that Commander?* the burly Saer’khi asked.
*He was the first person from Earth to walk on our moon,* I explained. *He was a pioneer of sorts, the first to make that giant leap for mankind out in space, to let us know that it was possible for us to really explore space. I think if I’d known I was supposed to be the one to name the Bounty I probably would have named the ship the Neil Armstrong instead. I kind of admired him.*
*You are a pioneer too Xia,* the engineer pointed out. *You’re the first commander of one of these mixed colonies, you were the first to set foot on Unity, and you discovered two new elements and some new species. Maybe someone will name a ship after you some day.*
I was blushing fiercely in my suit and about to object when Tanna informed us, *The probe is as close to the airlock as we can manage.*
*Thanks Tanna, we’re entering the airlock now.* I replied as I pressed the button for the airlock door and we stepped inside. Once the door was sealed behind us I entered the command in the console to slowly vent the atmosphere and turn off artificial gravity. While we waited, we secured our plasteel tethers in place and attached the leads to ports on our belts. It took several minutes, but soon our faceplate HUDs showed the lines were secure and I was able to open the outer hatch.
As the hatch opened and we used our telekinesis to guide ourselves outside I got my first unimpeded view of the starry expanse of space. It was at once the most beautiful and frightening thing I had ever experienced floating out there. With the ship behind me it was just me and Karran among the space debris with all those stars in the distance and the planet far below us. I could almost forget why I was up there until the virtual targeting reticule in front of my left eye flashed and drew my attention to the probe. *We have the probe in sight,* I sent to my companions on the ship.
*Okay, keep watching for any moving debris and use short telekinetic bursts to make your way there. Remember there is no gravity or friction or anything out there so you should not need to use much power.* Tanna continued to coach us as we carefully traveled the short distance between the ship’s airlock and the probe. I made sure to keep my eyes peeled for any moving debris, but we managed to make it to the probe without incident.
The metal sphere was roughly four feet in diameter and had a long gash along the outer surface that looked to have damaged some of the outer components. Karran and I both touched the outer shell at nearly the same instant and Karran sent, *We have made contact. The outer hull and some of the components are damaged, but I am pretty sure I can salvage the long range subspace components, and possibly some other useful components as well.*
*Bring it in when you’re ready,* Tanna replied, *but take it slow and easy. We do not want it or the two of you damaged.*
After some deliberation Karran and I decided it would be easiest for us both to manoeuvre to the side of the probe closest to the ship and just direct it and ourselves to the airlock by reeling our tethers in and keep it slow, steady, and on course with a series of carefully timed telekinetic pushes. We would stay on opposite sides so that if it started to go off course one of us could redirect or push it back as needed. It was a long careful process, and we had to stop once to avoid an errant bit of debris, but eventually we managed to get it and ourselves back into the airlock.
I sealed the outer hatch and used the panel to restore the atmosphere while Karran gently pushed the probe to the floor plating. Once it touched the plating I restored the artificial atmosphere as well and we disconnected the tethers and returned them to their compartments. By the time we had finished that task, atmosphere had been restored and I was able to open the inner airlock door so we could roll the probe inside the ship and seal the door behind us.
Karran had begun securing the probe and looking at the damage as soon as we had gotten our uniforms back to casual mode from environmental suit mode. While he was doing that I asked Tanna and Tarek to do a quick run around the planet while I took some scans. I wanted to make sure the debris field wasn’t going to cause us any problems on the surface since we were up there anyway. The debris appeared to be orbiting the planet like the ice rings of Saturn and seemed to be in a stable orbit. It was so spread out though that it was going to be hell getting anything larger than a drop ship close to the planet.
Finally I went to join Tarek and Tanna in the pilot’s compartment. *I’m all done with the scans. It’s about what we thought, we’ll need to let any relief missions and future visitors know to not come out of subspace too close to the planet, there’s just too much debris spread around in orbit.*
*I’ll make sure to mention that if Karran gets the subspace communications range increased enough that I can send a report to the space agency,* Tanna told me with a nod. *On the other hand it does give us a pretty good natural defense against attackers.*
*Well let’s get back to camp and see what’s for lunch,* I said as I considered that. *Karran how long do you think it will take you to get the parts you need from the probe and make the modifications to the subspace communications system?*
*I’m hoping I can have it all done sometime tonight if the work goes well Commander,* the engineer offered.
*Karran, if you can pull that off, you’re going to have a lot of colonists very happy with you, including me,* I sent back with a grin. *Tanna, I think once we get back to camp you, Krie, and I should start working on putting together all the information we’ll need to send to Saer’kah. Our location and status, the mutiny, the possible sleeper agents, everything we know about this planet, and whatever else we can think of.*
The other Ji’Turi nodded as she and Tarek began plotting a safe course to take us back to the camp. *That is a good idea Xia, we will want to send that information as soon as we have the capability. The sooner they know the sooner we’ll get help.*
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
Chapter 17 Sparks Amethyst |
As we made our way back to the settlement, I decided to change out of my uniform and back into the ankle-length teal skirt, sleeveless cream-colored halter neck blouse, and beige sandals that I had been wearing before my spacewalk. I had just joined the others back in the forward section when we arrived back at the camp and touched down. It looked like our timing was good, as Sarah and her staff were serving up lunch and over half the colonists were already eating. Once I had ensured that we all had gotten our meals, we decided to go about our new tasks without delay.
While Karran got to work on dissecting the probe Krie, Tanna and I started compiling all the information we felt was necessary to send to Saer’kah as we ate our midday meal. With what had happened on the Bounty, its destruction, and all that we had discovered since, the report was going to be a lengthy one. Still, we managed to enter all the relevant information by the time lunch was over. So while everyone else was heading off to their afternoon work assignments, we decided to return to other tasks as well while we waited anxiously to see if Karran would be as successful as he was hoping.
Things had been going well in the settlement during our brief sojourn into space; the southern fields were ready to plant crops, work on the water pipeline was progressing well, and no accidents or injuries had been reported. While Krie decided to oversee the planting of the fruit, vegetables, and herbs that Sarah had recommended, Tanna went off in the transport to assist the hunting and fishing teams. I decided to return to the medical ship to get Amy working on practicing her Saer’khi alphabet and take care of a few of the minor tasks that needed doing while I had some relatively free time.
Since I was optimistic about contacting the Saer’khi soon, I created a file in the main computer on the necessities for any visitors or new settlers on Unity. Vaccinations would be vital, though the success of the nanites in fighting our recent outbreak would likely help a lot with that. Another concern of mine was population growth, we didn’t want to grow too fast and strain our resources. Also, we were becoming a close-knit community and I wanted to make sure any new settlers were personally interviewed before being allowed to join that community. It might seem paranoid, but we had already suffered because of one spy and I didn’t want another. Personally I thought it would be nice to have more people with professional or scientific backgrounds, but I wanted to see more Saer’khi and other non-human species to round out the numbers a bit as well. Don’t get me wrong, I was damn proud of all we had managed to accomplish so far, but two thirds of us were unskilled labour and a little diversity can go a long way.
With that small task completed I decided to check on how Amy was progressing before moving on to the next task I wanted to accomplish. I made my way to my ward’s bedroom, carrying Kit and showing her some affection through petting, scratches behind the ears, and empathic nuzzling. Once the door had opened at my approach I peeked inside and asked, “How is it going?”
Amy sighed as she looked up from her datapad and started giving Violet some attention. ”It’s going to take me forever to learn all this.”
“I didn’t say it was going to be easy,” I agreed as I took a seat on the gel bed beside her. “It took me nearly six years to become completely fluent and my first two years on Saar’kah were spent getting to know the basics of Saer’khi medicine and learning to think in Saer’khi. We’ll be doing the same with you, teaching you about all the different equipment and basic techniques while you’re learning to read and write the language. Luckily you won’t have to learn to think in Saer’khi, just read and write it. Once you have that down we’ll start putting reading assignments on your datapad and give you more advanced and structured hands-on lessons. How fast you learn then will depend on a lot of things though.”
“Like what?” she asked, shifting position to lie on her side.
“Mostly on how dedicated you are to learning,” I replied as I found a particularly itchy spot to scratch on Kit, causing the slip to buzz contentedly. “It’ll also depend on what areas of medicine you want to specialize in and how well Krie and I can teach you. It’s definitely going to take you longer to train than it did us though, since we can’t use the memory archive to help you learn faster.”
“I kind of want to do like you do,” Amy said without a second thought. “You know, the general medicine that people need every day, what to do in emergencies, and making bionic limbs and stuff.” Her eyebrows had risen at my last comment though and her curiosity got the better of her as she inquired, “What’s the memory archive?”
I considered how best to explain it before answering. “The Saer’khi have technology that can transmit thought into data and vice versa, that’s how the voice boxes work, they transfer the Saer’khi’s mindspeech to data and then translate that data to one of the languages that are programmed into them. The memory archive uses that technology as well. The greatest minds in their fields have transferred copies of their memories, technical knowledge, and experiences… everything they have learned in their field. All of that information is stored in in the archive in pure memory form.”
Amy was staring at me wide-eyed at this point. “You don’t use books or datapads to learn?”
“We do have our amassed knowledge in simple text form as well, which is how we’ll be teaching you,” I clarified, “but telepaths can learn ten times faster by using the archive. When I was able to think passably in Saer’khi our Mom gave me and Krie memory nodes so we could start taking our advanced lessons from the archive. The memory nodes are kind of like datapads that we can download our chosen areas of study onto and they transmit the memories to our minds as thought patterns. By clearing our minds of everything else and only focussing on the knowledge we’re receiving, six hours of memory integration is like sixty of reading and other learning methods combined.”
“That sounds a lot easier than reading everything,” she commented with a sour expression. “Are you sure I can’t learn that way?”
I reached over to ruffle her hair. “Sadly, only telepaths can receive the signals that the memory nodes transmit on and, without knowing Saer’khi, it would all be gibberish to you anyway. It’s not as easy as it sounds though, it takes a lot of mental discipline to clear your mind of everything and focus on just learning what’s being poured into your brain. It took me a while to be able to do it as efficiently as Krie. The nodes block out other telepathic signals so that other Saer’khi don’t interrupt us and only have a range of two meters to keep others from being distracted by our lessons.” I frowned and let out a sigh as I thought about how even one memory node could help us. “Even if you could learn that way, while we do have a copy of the memory archive that Krie managed to get from the bounty with the other medical gear and supplies, all of the memory nodes we had were destroyed with the Bounty. It’s too bad really, I would have liked to learn more about nano-programming, and I know the others have some things they wouldn’t mind learning to help the colony as well.”
Amy’s frown mirrored my own, but her expression quickly changed to a thoughtful one as she said, “Karran and Xawin are really smart though, couldn’t they make one?”
I stared at my student as I processed what she had just said and blinked in surprise. Why the hell hadn’t I thought of that? “Honey, you’re pretty damn clever yourself,” I told her as I reached out to hug her, causing empathic protests from both of our pets as they were squeezed between us. Then I sent out a wide-range ping to all the other Saer’khi. *Karran what’s the progress on the probe?*
*The components I need to increase the medical ship’s subspace range are undamaged. I think I can definitely have it working sometime this evening,* was the engineer’s cheery response.
*That is great news,* I replied happily. *I’m sorry for interrupting you all, but Amy just had an idea and I wanted to run it by all of you and see if it’s possible. Could you boys use anything we have here to make a memory node?*
*I think it could be possible,* Xawin replied after a moment, his surface thoughts going over our inventory. *A datapad and a voicebox could probably provide most of the components. Computers and electronics are more your field though Karran, what do you think?*
The other engineer’s thoughts were tinged with glee as he replied, *I can do it. It won’t take long and I can start once I’ve finished increasing our communications range. I can scavenge some components and wiring from the probe for that as well, but I’ll need a datapad, one of the spare voiceboxes, a subspace comm unit if we can spare one, and someone to assist.*
*You have them,* I sent back eagerly. *If Xawin’s working on something when you’re ready to go I’ll send Bixx your way, it’s interested in learning that kind of stuff.*
My next order of business was to see four of my patients who were long overdue for some preventative medicine. Sarah, Dennis, Bixx, and Matt all needed the upgrades for their nanites that I had received before leaving Saer’kah and, since I seemed to have some time, I felt that there was no time like the present. Sarah was the first of the four to arrive, since lunch was over and she had some time before she and her staff would have to start preparing the evening meal. She walked into the examination room carrying a bundle of lavender and black fur in her arms that was buzzing happily as she petted it.
"Good afternoon Sarah,” I greeted her with a grin as I prepped the nanite injection, “are you ready for some upgrades? Do you have any questions about what I’m going to do?”
Sarah gave the injection gun a curious glance. “I thought that you were going to upgrade the nanites already in my system Xia, so what’s that for?”
“These little buggers will permanently maintain the nanites already in your system and give them increased resistance to EM radiation as a precautionary measure,” I quickly explained as I motioned for her to sit on the examination table. “I will be slightly modifying the programming of the nanites already in your system as well though, they were too aggressive before, they attacked everything equally. They will still maintain your immune system and heal you and such, as they always have, but they will no longer see semen as a threat and will actively avoid a growing baby so that it can develop normally without any nanites entering its system. This will to allow you to become pregnant if you wish, and will prevent the nanites from affecting an embryo should you get pregnant.”
A look of uncertainty spread over Sarah’s face as she placed her slip on the floor and sat down on the examination table, so I placed my empty hand reassuringly on her shoulder. “You know, we don’t have to do that part if you really don’t want to. I just thought that you might like to have the choice, and don’t worry; I was given these upgrades myself before we left Saer’kah and I’ve seen no ill effects, they were tested vigorously before I received them. You can keep the nanites the way they are if you really want to though, it’s an effective form of birth control.”
“Oh, no, I’d like the upgrade,” she quickly assured me. “It’s just… since my accident and leaving Earth I never really thought about having kids. I suppose we’ll all have to eventually for this colony to work, but it just never really entered my mind.”
“Are you suuuuuure?” I teased with a lopsided grin as I retrieved my nanite programming node and strapped it to her arm, then I set the pre-selected program to run. “I’ve seen the way you and Dennis have been talking during meals lately.”
Sarah turned as red as a cherry tomato and I couldn’t help but giggle as she sputtered, “I… what… no! There’s nothing going on between us!”
“Reeeeeealllly? There should be the way you two have been looking at one another.” I giggled and teased again as I looked over the results on the programming node. “It’s going to take a minute or two for all of your nanites to reset with the new programming, so why don’t you tell me all about what’s not going on between you and Dennis.”
“Okay, okay, I’m interested in him,” she grudgingly admitted. “He’s a good man; sweet, easy to talk to, he’s always looking out for everyone, and he’s pretty handsome too. I doubt he’s interested in me though.”
“I dunno, I’ve seen the looks you’ve been giving him and he’s been looking back, with a very similar expression on his face. Why do you think he’s been sitting and talking with you during meals? Sure he’s nice and talks to everyone about the progress they’re making, but with you it’s different; he sometimes babbles, or doesn’t know what to say, and I’ve never seen him do that with anyone since we first talked on the Bounty. I think that maybe he’s interested, but just doesn’t know how to bring it up, it’s not like he can ask you out to a movie or something. Maybe in this case he needs you to take the lead.”
She stared at me for a moment, apparently uncertain of what to say. Finally, she smiled and wrapped me in a bone crushing hug. Once she had freed me she smiled and said, “You’ve grown up a lot since we first met in that lab, and even more since we left Saer’kah. I’ll try talking to him tonight and see where it goes.”
I grinned at her as I checked the status of the programming node. Happy with the results, I removed the node and injected her with the new maintenance nanites. “Well, you’re all done, the new nanites are in place and your baby factory should be open for business again, good luck with the talk.” I paused a moment, trying to hide the grin and putting on a pensive expression before asking, “Now, as your doctor, should I be recommending some form of birth control?”
Sarah turned beet red once again and delivered a light punch to my shoulder. “Ooooooo, stop it you! Thanks for the check-up, and the talk, I’ll see you later.” With that she headed off to get started on the evening meal preparations, leaving me madly giggling behind her as I started getting ready for my next patient.
Things went quite a bit quicker with Bixx, since they only needed the maintenance nanite injection. Matt and Dennis only needed the maintenance nanites as well, but I took considerably longer with them since I wanted to have a good look at their cybernetic limbs and do some routine maintenance. Once I had finished with them I took the time to check on how the planting was going and get progress reports from the other teams. Things were generally looking good; the planting would probably be done by the next day thanks to Jared’s suggestions, the water pipeline was going smoothly and would probably be finished in three days or so, and Xawin had people clearing a large area for the bathhouse in preparation. Not long before the evening meal came along Karran had finished increasing the range of the medical ship’s subspace communications and, while he and Bixx had started work on the memory node, Tanna and I sat nervously at the comm.
*Any luck?* I asked, nervously wringing my hands.
*There’s some sort of local interference, let me see if I can filter it out Commander.* Tanna suddenly let out an excited mental squeal that caused her voicebox to buzz slightly. *We have contact! We’re connected to the subspace beacon network. Commander, shall I begin sending the data burst that we prepared?*
*Please do,* I replied, letting out a deep breath that I hadn’t even realized I had been holding. *How long do you think it will be before we get a response?*
*It’s sent Commander. As for a response time, it depends, but if there are still ships in this area of space looking for us we could receive a reply as early as late tonight or tomorrow morning, I think. Otherwise it will have to travel all along the network to Saer’kah, in which case it may be three or four days before any response reaches us.*
*I would prefer the first possibility, but I’ll be happy either way,* I sent back, happier than I had been since we had set out from Saer’kah. *Any idea what that interference was?*
Tanna frowned at the communications console as her four hands flew across it. *At first I thought it might just be local ambient radiation, but it appears to be some sort of subspace pulse, repeating every three seconds. It’s extremely faint, which is probably why we weren’t picking it up before. I’ll set up a more intense, long-term scan and see if I can pinpoint a location, or at the very least a direction. Hopefully we’ll know more before we go to sleep tonight.*
*Okay good, I don’t like surprises, so if it’s something we should be concerned about then I want to know. Now, if you’re done with that, let’s go get some dinner.*
Dinner was a happy affair that night and Karran was the man of the hour as the other colonists all seemed to want to thank him with a companionable slap on the back or a hearty handshake. I also noted that Sarah and Dennis were having quite the close conversation. Dennis was a bit awkward, which is always entertaining to see in such a usually cool and collected soldier, but Sarah seemed to be taking the lead and eventually, when they headed off to find a quiet place to talk privately, they were holding hands. They weren’t the only new pair I saw getting cozy either as Woody Harris and Rebecca Landry seemed to be hitting it off rather well too.
The night was cool and crisp and I was feeling pretty good about things as I sat by one of the fires talking to Krie, Matt, Tanna, Karran, Tarek, Mandy and Amy about anything and everything. The fire was beginning to die down and I was about to add some more wood to it when I noticed that we had run out. “I’m going to go get some more wood from the pile,” I told the others, standing up and stretching a bit before heading off to the main wood pile that we had set up at the west side of the settlement.
“Wait up, I’ll give you a hand!” Matt called out, and I turned to wait a moment as he caught up. We walked around the other campfires with our slips close on our heels, laughing and snippets of conversations ringing out around us as we went. Once we had gotten away from the noise of the campfires I took a deep breath of the fresh evening air and decided to make a quick detour. We weren’t that far from the ridge overlooking the ocean and I wanted to take in the sight for just a minute or two. Matt didn’t seem to mind though and followed along, standing beside me as we reached the ridge.
Artemis was large in the sky ahead of us and Achelois bathed us in cool cerulean light from above as both moons reflected in the shimmering sea, stretching far off toward the horizon. I was starting to get used to the sight of two moons, in fact they were a bit of a comfort now, and I took another deep breath of the night air before sighing in contentment. This night, after a day filled with good news was like a balm for my soul, and I just drank it in.
“Beautiful,” Matt whispered beside me. I turned to smile at him and suddenly he froze uncertainly. “I wasn’t talking about you Xia, I meant that it’s a beautiful night… not that you’re not beautiful, I mean you’re gorgeous… I just meant that…”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the look on his face as he tried to dig himself out of whatever hole he imagined he had put himself in. I stepped toward him waggling my finger teasingly as I queried, “Oh my, what is this I’m seeing? Matt Scott, movie star and heartthrob, is stumbling over his words?” I was laughing considerably less when the stone I had stepped on shifted underneath my sandal and I fell toward him.
Before I could even use my wings to steady myself Matt had caught me in his arms. My breath caught in my throat and my pulse quickened as I collapsed against his chest. The scent of musk and metal tickled my nose and I found that I liked that scent, his scent. I could hear his heartbeat quickening as well as I stood up again, my lips dry and my breath quickening as I tried to swallow the sudden lump in my throat. I looked up and found myself staring into his eyes, one cybernetic and one a pale blue that rivaled the moon above us.
His eyes were locked on mine as he asked, “Are you okay?” It was little more than a whisper, but it didn’t matter, it was just the two of us, the moons above and the sound of the ocean, and in that moment I wanted so very much to kiss him. Through the white noise of the signals his brain was sending along his nervous system I could hear his surface thoughts, he wanted to kiss me too. Thoughts became deed as we drew closer, our bodies pressed together, firm flesh and metal pressing hard against my breasts with his strong arms wrapped tenderly around me as our lips finally met.
At first our lips barely touched, timidly teasing more than kissing in that first moment of uncertainty. That brief contact set my every sense on fire; his scent, his touch, the taste of him consumed me, it was an inferno that burned all hesitation to ash as we both hungrily sought out more. For what seemed both an instant and an eternity our lips battled and our hands explored one another’s bodies, seeking out new sensations and a deeper, more complete connection.
When we pulled apart we were both gasping for air, our hands still clutching at one another’s dishevelled clothes. We stayed there, standing in one another’s arms, for several minutes as our breathing and pulses slowed, unwilling to say anything to end that moment. It was Matt who spoke first. “Oh God, I am so sorry Xia, I… I shouldn’t have done that.”
“There’s no need to apologize,” I assured him, softly tracing my index finger down his cheek and then along his jawline. “I enjoyed that, and it felt like you did too. It was just kissing and we’re two consenting adults.”
“No! I mean yes I enjoyed it, but I shouldn’t have done it. You’re Tarek’s fiancée! What would he say if he caught us doing that!?”
“He’ll most likely encourage us,” I replied candidly. “We’re always picking up one another’s surface thoughts and emotions, and I was just really enjoying that. Fetching firewood just isn’t that exciting.” Perhaps that wasn’t the best time to remind Matt of the link that Tarek and I shared. He put his face in his hands mumbling, “What have I done,” to himself.
I had to physically grab him by the jaw and raise his head to that he was looking straight at me. “Matt, listen to me. Tarek is Saer’khi, he won’t get angry or jealous, and I may not look completely the part, but I’m Saer’khi too. You are not ‘making the moves’ on me behind his back, betraying him, or forcing yourself on me. I still need at least one more Tess’hir before Tarek and I can be wed; it’s not just a social thing, but also a genetic imperative for our kind to have a large pool of DNA to work from so that the best qualities of all of us can passed on. You’re not hurting Tarek or me by liking me or finding me attractive, in fact it’s the opposite.”
He seemed to be thinking over my words, so I pressed on despite the nervous fluttering in my chest. “Tarek likes you and thinks that you would make a good Tess’hir for me and I’m inclined to agree with him. I’m very attracted to you, you were one of the first to see me for who I am rather than what I am, and I genuinely like you and enjoy your company. I’m not asking you to offer me your mind right now, I’m just asking that you try to relax about this, keep an open mind, and see where it goes. Can you do that? Not just for me, but for yourself and Tarek as well.”
It was several agonizingly long moments before he finally took me uncertainly in his arms once again and said, “I’ll try.”
Tarek gave us a knowing smile as we returned to the fire and Matt quickly busied himself with adding wood to the fire as I put my armload of wood nearby, but not too close to the fire. I had just managed to sit down again, with Tarek on one side and Matt on the other, when Tanna pinged me. *What’s up?* I inquired lazily as I tried to get cozy.
Her reply came almost before I had finished sending her that thought, full of confusion and urgency. *I came to check on the comm to see if we had any response yet or if the long term scan had pinpointed that odd subspace pulse,* she quickly explained. *Commander, there is something that you really need to see.*
*I’m on my way* I sent back as I got to my feet with a sigh. Then to the others sitting around the fire I quickly explained, “Tanna says she has something important for me to see, and it sounds like it can’t wait.”
“Is it bad news or good news?” Mandy asked, standing up as well, causing complaints from the sleepy twins and all three of their slips.
“I’m not sure,” I admitted with another sigh, “and I’m pretty sure Tanna isn’t either.”
“Maybe we should all come with you then,” Mandy offered before turning to Amy and asking, “Would you mind having Hope and Talia for a sleepover again?”
“Of course not, the twins can have a sleepover with me any time they like,” was my ward’s quick reply. She took each of the girls by the hand and told them, “Let’s go get ready for bed girls.”
Mandy gave her thanks and then quickly kissed each of the twins good night before we all headed into the medical ship to join Tanna. When we arrived moments later, The Saer’khi in question was frowning and looking over data on the comm station’s screen. “So, what’s up Tanna?” I inquired as I entered the room with Mandy, Matt, Tarek, Krie, and Karran hot on my heels. “Did we get a message from a Saer’khi ship, is this about that subspace pulse, or do I have something else to worry about?”
Tanna’s surface thoughts were still confused and jumping around a bit, but she turned when I addressed her and tried to explain. “It’s about the pulse Commander, but it could very well be something else to worry about as well. I set the scan to look for patterns, or any data bursts that may be carried along the pulse, but there’s no data and the only pattern in the pulse is the three second repetition. It’s like it’s a distress signal or possibly a tracking device and its very close.”
“Do you think it’s a ship? And how close are we talking here, is it in this solar system?” Matt asked in sudden interest.
“If it is a ship, it’s not a Saer’khi ship. Saer’khi subspace signals are very recognizable, there’s a kind of unique signature, and this is nothing like it. As for how close it is, it’s not just in this solar system, it’s on Unity. I’ve tracked the signal and its most definitely coming from somewhere in this area.” She brought up an image of one of the planetary scans, zoomed in several times until we were looking at the northern continent, and then highlighted an area.
I just stared silently for several minutes, and I wasn’t alone. Finally I turned to Krie and sighed. “I know you and your team were looking forward to getting back to exploring tomorrow, but I think it might be best if my team goes out tomorrow instead.”
My sister nodded, but didn’t turn away from the screen as she agreed. “Yes Xia, I think your team definitely needs to explore the coastline some more.” She just kept staring at the highlighted area on the screen. From the scale of the map the area seemed to be roughly fifty kilometers in diameter and along the coastline to the south of us, within a hundred kilometers of our settlement.
“Just when we think things are starting to go smoothly, we get thrown another curveball,” Mandy muttered.
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
Chapter 18 Checking the Pulse Amethyst |
I woke up well before dawn the next morning, got dressed in my ships uniform, sent a mental message for Kit to follow me, gathered everything that I thought that I might need for the exploration and headed out to wake up the other members of my exploration team as quietly as possible so I wouldn’t wake Krie or Amy. Once we had each eaten a ration bar and some smoked suessfish, we packed some supplies just in case we had to stay searching for more than just the one day. Then Matt, Rinnik, and Pallu mounted three of the male unity-corns so we could be on our way.
Tanna had put all the data about the subspace pulse, as well as the map of the search area, on my datapad and I was hoping that if we pushed hard enough that we would be able to get there within two or three hours. So while Bixx ran alongside the ‘corns southward along the coastline and our slips gave chase, Tarek and I flew above, making sure to stay within sight. We weren’t flying at our top speed, or even very high, but it was nice to be able to let loose a bit and just enjoy flying until we reached the target area.
After an hour and a half I decided to take a brief break on the beach to rest the ‘corns and to allow Bixx, Tarek, and myself a short repose as well. We allowed the ‘corns a good drink and some grazing, while the slips kept them from wandering too far and the six of us spoke about out current mission. “So, what do you think is giving off that pulse Xia?” Rinnik asked as we all took a seat on a fallen tree overlooking the vast expanse of water.
“It could be anything,” I replied with a shrug and a small sigh. “It could be big or small, hidden just about anywhere, and fifty square kilometers is a fairly large area to be searching. Whatever it is though, since it’s giving off a subspace pulse that probably means a ship or some sort of device that’s currently active, and if it’s active that means that it’s using electricity and possibly giving off heat. I’m hoping that Pallu’s electroreception sense and the infrared setting on my goggles will help us to find it easier.”
“Do you think it could be someone following Eric’s tracker?” Matt asked, a concerned look on his face. “I mean, the signal did just appear yesterday.”
I shook my head after a moment of considering that. “I suppose that it is possible, I did say it could be anything, but I don’t think it’s that. It didn’t just appear yesterday, it was just so faint that we weren’t able to detect it before, so it’s probably short range or something is interfering with the signal. We were only able to detect it yesterday because we managed to increase the power and sensitivity of the medical ship’s subspace communications array. Who knows how long that it’s been transmitting though, whatever it is.”
“How long do you think it will be before we get there Xia? And what’s the search plan when we do?” Pallu inquired.
“I think we’re about halfway to the northern edge of the search area. If we keep pushing as hard as we were before, I would estimate we’ll get there in an hour, maybe an hour and a half. When we get there Tarek and I will do an aerial search along the coastline and you’ll search the water Pallu. The rest of you will start a search of the beach and treeline and look for anything out of place. We’ll continue south until we reach the southern edge of the search area or until we start losing daylight. If we don’t find it today we’ll start setting up camp at dusk to continue the search tomorrow and look further inland if we have to.”
I let the plan sink in for a moment, before standing up and stretching, my eyes drawn southward as I too wondered just what would await us there. Tarek’s mind voice interrupted those thoughts, as he wrapped my mind in the warm and loving thoughts of his own. *Tess’rha, you really need to stop worrying.*
*I can’t help it Tess’hir, I don’t like surprises and I have no idea what might be waiting for us. For all I know I could be horribly wrong and we could be walking into some kind of advance base camp of United States military, here to take this planet from us by force,* I thought back at him.
*If it is, then at least we’ll know about it and be able to send that information to the settlement,* he replied, standing up and taking my hand in his own. *No matter what it is, we’re not going to be any better prepared by brooding over it.*
*You’re right, I’ll try to relax a bit and just enjoy this until we’re sure whether this signal is going to be a problem or not.* With that settled I took a deep breath to calm myself and turned back to the others. “Okay team, break time is over, let’s get moving again.”
It was a little over an hour later that we arrived at northern edge of the search area, though I wasn’t quite sure that we were at the right place until I saw the five large red-gold colored stone spires offshore, like some giant hand emerging from the water and reaching for the sky. It was the exact landmark I was looking for so I immediately set everyone to their assigned tasks and uninstructed them to check in regularly via sub space comms. Tarek, Pallu and I set our slips to herding the ‘corns and making certain that they wouldn’t stray from Matt and the others while they were searching the beach and treeline.
Near midday, I called a break so we could start preparing something for lunch. None of us had seen a whiff of anything that could be causing that signal and, in addition to being hungry and tired, we were all starting to get a bit frustrated from our search. So while the others gathered wood for a fire and Pallu did some fishing for our meal Tarek and I searched by air for some wingnut trees or lemonberry bushes so we could eat more than just fish.
Tarek was the first to find something, a small grove of wingnut trees and I just kept searching while my Tess’hir gathered enough nuts for a meal. I was about to give up when something caught my eye, a group of trees with large bright aquamarine leaves. Except for the wingnut trees, all the other trees that we had discovered so far on Unity were conifers. Curious, I landed and went in for a closer look.
The aquamarine leaves were nearly a foot in length, half a foot wide, and roughly pear-shaped with a texture resembling palm leaves. The trees themselves were roughly thirty feet tall, bore rust colored bark, and hanging from the thick branches were round, purple, coconut-sized fruit of some sort. I quickly removed my scanner from my medicine bag and ran it over one of the purple orbs. The scan determined that it wasn’t poisonous and seemed to contain large amounts of vitamin C, as well as trace amounts of potassium, vitamin A, and vitamin D.
Pleased with my find, I gathered six of the large fruit and once I had them awkwardly stacked in my arms I flew back to the beach to join the others. Matt was just starting a fire and Tarek and Pallu had yet to return from their respective quests for food, though Tarek arrived a few minutes after me with his small pack filled with wingnuts. While we waited for Pallu to return, and the other’s examined the fruit that I had found with deep interest, I looked over the map on my datapad and brooded about just how long that it might take us to actually find what we were looking for.
We were looking for a needle in a very large haystack, and we all knew it. I needed to find a way to narrow down our search or we could be looking for a long while. So far, those of us on foot hadn’t covered more than three kilometers in the hours that we had been searching and had yet to find anything of interest. Tarek and I may have covered a lot more ground, but we hadn’t found anything of interest either except for those fruit; and while those would be useful and possibly give more variety in our diet, they were not what we were looking for. Even with my goggles set on infrared I had yet to see any major sources of heat, or even minor ones that weren’t attributable to slips, treemice or molehogs.
I was still lost in those thoughts, and absently stroking Kit’s luxuriant fur, when Pallu returned with her waterproof satchel filled with suessfish and featherfish. “Xia!” She called out, quickly handing her satchel over to the others and motioning for me to join them
“Not much luck fishing?” I asked as I placed Kit back on the ground and walked over to join them, forcing myself to smile. “You were gone a while, I was able to find some interesting fruit though, maybe we can take some back for planting an orchard near the settlement.”
“I’m sorry for being gone so long Xia, but I think I may have found something. I went to the deeper waters hoping to catch a sunfish to last us a few meals when I sensed something big. This wasn’t a living creature, bioelectric fields generated by living creatures fluctuate and have a certain ebb and flow to them, but this didn’t. It was way too constant and steady to be the bioelectric field of a living thing, it has to be artificial.”
“You found it?! Where is it?!” I pressed, nearly squealing in delight as I hugged the soaked Yazuik.
“It’s out toward the deeper waters southwest of us, it’s pretty deep though. I could probably handle the depth, but I’m not sure if even I can hold my breath long enough to thoroughly explore the area by myself,” she replied with a dejected look once I had released her.
I practically dove into my medical bag, quickly producing one of the black masks that covered the mouth and nose and converted carbon dioxide into breathable air. “You can wear this Pallu, and you won’t be going alone. My uniform is still fully functional, and the environmental suit mode can be adapted for exploring space, toxic atmospheres, or under water.”
Pallu seemed to consider the idea for a moment before nodding eagerly, “That could work, we’ll have to communicate by hand signals though.”
“I think we can manage,” I responded with a nod of agreement. “We’ll have lunch and then wait an hour before going. I’m going to call Krie and let her know our progress before we eat.”
I got comfortable on the sand as I tapped the subspace comm to Krie’s frequency. “Hi sis, how are things going at home?”
“It’s good to hear from you Xia, I was starting to get worried. Things are progressing as well as can be expected here, but there’s been no response to our subspace message yet, are you having any luck there?”
“We’re taking a break for lunch now,” I replied. “I found some sort of fruit that I think will be a good source of vitamins and Pallu was out gathering fish when she sensed something deep under water, it could be what’s producing our subspace signal.”
“That could explain why the subspace signal of that pulse is so weak, if it’s having to push through that much water,” my sister said pensively. “Oh and fruit of any kind would really help our dietary needs here, especially us Saer’khi and the Nezans. That’s a great find, make sure to bring some back with you if you can.”
“I’ll tell Tarek where I found the trees and he and the others can gather some while Pallu and I go investigate her find later this afternoon. I’ll report in again later with whatever we’ve found.”
“Okay have fun, and please be careful,” my sister’s electronic voice replied.
“We will,” I assured her before disconnecting from the channel.
The others had already begun cooking the suessfish, shaving the tendrils off the featherfish, and shelling wingnuts for lunch by the time I was finished talking with my sister and it wasn’t long before lunch was ready. The fruit I had discovered, which we had decided to call applums for now, had a thin skin, much like an apple, peach, or plum, and a large seed at the center. It was juicy and deliciously sweet, with just a touch of tartness, and we all enjoyed the rare treat immensely. Rinnik didn’t have much since the Murqui are mostly carnivorous, but she seemed to find the taste as pleasing as I did. As we ate we discussed the plan for the afternoon and I explained to Tarek and the others where I had found the trees and what to look for.
Just over an hour later, the others left in search of the applum trees while Pallu and I prepared to explore the watery depths. Once I was certain that her mask was securely in place and wouldn’t come loose accidentally I sent the thought to the nanites in my suit to switch to underwater exploration mode. Immediately the suit tightened around me and the helmet formed to create an airtight seal as the HUD came online and showed that the air circulation and filtration system and light amplification were now active. Once my boots had widened and lengthened to form large flippers and a sturdy opaque material formed between the fingers of my gloves to produce a webbing, the transformation was complete and I joined Pallu in the water.
We had been swimming for what seemed like a long while before Pallu stopped in front of me and gestured downward. I followed her down and we were almost at six hundred feet down when we saw something made of silvery metal on the ocean floor partially covered with silt. It was large, at least twice as large as the personnel drop ship, saucer shaped, and I couldn’t help but think of little grey aliens when I saw it. We quickly spread out to explore the surface of the craft and I tried to get a better view of the craft as a whole as well.
I was quickly forced to revise my first assessment as I looked it over more thoroughly. It was more of an egg shaped craft with two large semicircular wings or fins that met in the middle at the front and rear of the craft to give a disc-like appearance. There was maybe six inches of space separating those wings though and, while people probably wouldn’t notice that while it was in flight, it was quickly obvious to me as I looked it over. One of those wings had been badly damaged, a good three quarters of it torn right off, which I surmised was why it had crashed.
A tap on my shoulder brought me out of my assessment of the craft and I turned to see Pallu behind me, motioning for me to follow, so I gave her a thumbs up and let her lead the way to whatever it was she had found. When we arrived she pointed out what appeared to be some sort of large circular airlock and I began to search for a control panel of some kind. It didn’t take me long to find what I was looking for, though it didn’t seem to be operational. Below it though, was a small recess with a kind of lever hidden inside that I was hoping might be some kind of emergency release.
I turned the lever and in a burst of bubbles from displaced air the airlock door opened. “Good,” I thought to myself, “it looks like it hasn’t taken on water, maybe it’s just that wing that was damaged.” I motioned for Pallu to follow me inside the airlock and led the way. Once we were both inside the small compartment, I looked for the panel on the inside and found it to be a pair of touchpads that unlike the outside panel seemed to still be in working order. There didn’t seem to be any writing, color or anything else to indicate which did what so I pressed the one to my right, hoping that the one closer to the outside was meant to depressurize the compartment and open the outer door and that the one I was pressing would allow us access to the inner ship.
It seemed that I had guessed correctly, since the outer door sealed and water was flushed from chamber. Soon the water was completely flushed, and just as my suit began to detect, much to my surprise, the presence of breathable air in the chamber the inner door hissed open. “There must be some sort of sensors that detected the presence of water and flushed it,” I commented thoughtfully as I checked one more time to make sure the air was breathable before sending my suit the mental signal to change it back to its regular uniform mode.
“That went a lot easier than I thought it would,” Pallu agreed cheerfully after taking off her mask and shaking out her fur a bit.
“Which means, given our luck so far, that it’s about time for something to go horribly, horribly wrong,” I retorted wryly.
“Come on Xia, we’re deep under water in an alien spacecraft, this is so exciting. We’re going to have so much fun exploring.”
I had to admit that it was pretty exciting, my pulse was racing as I wondered what we were going to encounter next. “You’re right it is exciting,” I conceded with a grin. I still felt it appropriate to make sure that we were careful though, so I warned her, “Just keep on your toes, and keep an eye out for any internal ship defense systems.”
As we walked around those rounded hallways we explored what rooms we found to discover that, aside from the damage to the wing, the ship seemed to still be in good working order. Lights were coming on as we walked around and doors opened as we approached them, making me believe that they were set on some kind of heat or motion sensor. I figured that whoever built this ship, they built it to last and the only reason that the outer airlock control panel hadn’t worked was due to a prolonged period of exposure to water. The rooms we explored all seemed to be mostly empty though, so I figured that they must have been meant for crew quarters or something. Eventually we found a vertical tube with pulsing lights and metal rungs heading both up and down. “This must lead to the other decks,” Pallu offered. “Shall we go up or down?”
“Let’s try up first,” I suggested. The tube was roughly four feet wide and the moment I stepped inside onto the slight platform to reach for one of the rungs I felt myself become weightless. “Whoa, there’s some sort of anti-gravity field in here. Who the hell built this ship? It’s still in excellent condition despite who knows how long under water, the air is still clean, it still has power, it’s responding to our presence, and now antigravity? This is waaay beyond what any of our peoples are capable of.”
Pallu followed me into the tube and giggled as she began to rise off the platform, “Wow, is this what flying feels like?”
I turned to give her a wicked grin. “No, this is what flying feels like.” Then I used my telekinesis to send us both shooting upward briefly until we reached the next deck, which I assumed was also the top deck, given that that is where the tube ended.
“I can’t wait to do that again,” the Yazuik said, still giggling as we exited the tube.
The room we had entered was dominated by several large view screens and there was a large assortment of various smaller terminals, some of which looked to be displaying sensor readings, though most of them weren’t active at the moment. “What do you think? Some sort of command deck?” I inquired of my aquatic companion.
“That would be my guess, though you’d know better than me Commander Phar,” she poked playfully.
I just stuck out my tongue at her, causing her to giggle again as we took a better look around. Sadly there were just a few more empty rooms off the main one, one that looked like it might have been the captain’s quarters, and another with a few terminals inside that could have been an office or a situation room, but it was hard to tell without any furnishings. “This is really starting to unnerve me,” I muttered as we reached the anti-gravity tube again.
“What is?” Pallu asked, cocking her head in interest.
“These empty rooms,” I explained. “It looks like this ship was meant to have a crew, but we’ve seen no furnishings, no mementos or personal trinkets, nothing that would indicate that a crew lived on this ship when it crashed. Granted, it could all be hiding in secret compartments waiting to emerge when needed, given this level of technology, but we haven’t seen a single body or any kind of remains either.”
“You’re right, it seems awfully sterile for such a large ship,” the Yazuik admitted with a frown. “There had to have been a crew, so where are they?”
“Let’s go on to the lower levels and maybe we’ll find out,” I replied, stepping back into the anti-gravity tube. “We’ll start from the bottom and work our way back up to the deck where we entered from. First though, I’m going to contact Tarek.”
I reached out with my mental amplifier and latched onto Tarek’s mind to send a ping. After a brief pause I sent, *Tess’hir. We found the source of the subspace pulse. It’s a ship unlike anything I’ve ever seen before and under a good six hundred feet of water. There’s clean air and we’re exploring it now.*
*A ship Tess’rha? Do you think anything on it could be useful?* his mind verily buzzed with interest and excitement.
*Probably,* I agreed, *whoever built this was pretty advanced, I’m just not sure how we would retrieve it this deep in the water. It’s twice as big as the personnel drop ship. Please update the others and report in to Krie, maybe have Karran and Xawin discuss retrieval options.*
*I’ll do it immediately Tess’rha, have fun exploring, but please be careful,* he sent back, still excited, but tinged with a bit of concern.
*We will and I’ll try to report in when we’re ready to call it quits.* I let the connection fade and turned back to Pallu with a smile, “Tarek will update the others and report in to Krie, so let’s finish looking around.”
There were five more decks below the one we had entered on and as we explored I became more and more concerned. The entire ship seemed to be in excellent condition and there was no sign of any bodies or personal effects. There were four other airlocks that we found as we made our way through the ship and the bottom deck had what looked like a large bay door in the floor that could have been used as an exit/entrance or for loading and offloading cargo.
Other than those doors, the bottom deck resembled a garage of sorts, complete with what appeared to be a dozen various vehicles of some sort that had been knocked to the forward area of the ship in the crash. They even looked like they might be repairable if any of our people could figure out the specifics of what they were and how they worked. It was nice to dream for a brief moment about what the ship and what was on it could mean to our colony if we could actually get it to the surface somehow.
That dream didn’t seem likely though as we made our way through the next three decks all of which I had to assume were the engineering section. The decks were all filled to the brim with machines and terminals with readouts that I had no way of understanding. We had been exploring the ship for several hours by the time we got to the last deck below the one we had entered from. The third deck opened onto a large and brightly lit open area that could have been a hydroponics garden if it wasn’t so empty. Doors from that area led to what seemed like more crew quarters in the forward area and in the aft to a large area that I was pretty sure was some kind of sickbay with all the beds and various instruments that accompanied them.
I felt a little more secure in an area that was somewhat close to my own turf, so I looked keenly at all of the instruments, trying to figure out what they might be used for. It was as I was doing that that I heard Pallu call out, “There’s another room back here.”
I halted my investigation for the moment and followed the sound of her voice toward the door she had found. I was expecting another empty storage room, since we had already found one near the sickbay’s entrance, but nothing could have prepared me for what we found when that door hissed open. It was a small room, approximately ten by twenty feet, with ten large chambers lining the walls, five on each side of the room, each large enough to fit a person inside. The door to one of the chambers was open, but all of the others were closed, with the small glass windows frosted over and various indicator lights flashing a slow and steady green. The most shocking thing though was the little grey alien sitting in the center of the room.
It looked like a Roswell alien with its large head and tiny little body and limbs, but I was pretty sure that it wasn’t an alien. The Saer’khi had given an almost identical description of the Silent One, and that had turned out to be some kind of robot, and although it wasn’t breathing or moving there were no signs of decomposition once I had gotten close enough for a cursory examination. A closer look with my scanner showed that I was right, it was made of metal and though it was remarkably preserved, it seemed to be turned off, or out of power, since I couldn’t see any physical damage to account for its inactivity.
The chambers looked to be for cryogenic stasis, but a look in the windows didn’t show anything inside. Still there had to be something inside, or else why would the devices be on? I was still trying to make sense of the chambers when Pallu asked, “So what do you think all of this is?”
“Well that,” I answered, turning around to gesture to the grey, “is a robot of some sort. A machine made to look like a living being. I don’t think it’s damaged so it probably shut itself down or it’s out of power.” Then I turned back to the chambers with a frown as I tried to figure out what was wrong with this picture. “These seem to be cryogenic stasis chambers. The theory is that you freeze the person and suspend their life functions for a long journey or if they’re ill you freeze them until they can be cured. I thought that maybe the crew placed themselves in stasis for a trip or maybe even when they crashed so they could wait for rescue, but that doesn’t make much sense.”
“Why not? These ones seem to be on, why have them on at all if they’re not being used? These things are using an awful lot of electricity for something that is doing nothing,” she argued.
I sighed and thought the problem out a moment before trying to explain my point. “Well if there is anything in those things I can’t see whatever it is through the window. That means that they are either empty or whoever is in there is too small to be seen. If it were the crew that wouldn’t be the case, because why build the cryo chambers so big if their species is so small? You’d build them to fit a person comfortably but take up as little space as possible. The size of the beds in sickbay, some of the other instruments aboard, and even the dimensions of the ship corridors also support that the people who built this ship are comparable in size to us.”
“If it is that small it can’t be too dangerous, so why not just open one up and have a look? If it looks dangerous we’ll just close it back up again. Come on Xia, where’s your sense of adventure? Aren’t you curious?”
“Okay, okay I’m curious,” I admitted, “but we’ve also been gone a while, and the others may be starting to worry.” I tried switching my goggles to x-ray mode to get a peek at whatever was inside, but whatever alloy the chambers were made of prevented me from seeing past the outer shell. I groaned, the curiosity eating away at me, and came to a decision as I stared at the chamber. “Well I can’t see inside with my goggles, so let me see if I can figure these things out. Their technology seems to be fairly intuitive, so it shouldn’t be too complex…”
After a few minutes I thought that I might have it figured out. I took a deep breath and pointed to the control panel on one of the chambers. “I believe that this pale blue area starts the freezing process, while the yellow area starts the defrost sequence, and this red one must be the door release. That means these symbols down here are probably numbers to set a timer, but since none of those symbols show on either of the readouts I see, I’m going to guess that there’s no timer active at the moment. They were probably waiting for someone to rescue them so why set a timer?”
I tentatively reached out and pressed the yellow area of the touchpad and immediately heard a slight bubbling noise from inside the chamber as the frost on the window began to melt. It was a good five minutes before the defrost sequence finished and a blinking light came on beside the red area I thought might be the door release. That was when I heard the muffled screaming. I swiftly hit the red area and the door released and opened with a hiss.
Inside was a small green humanoid with little tufts of pale green hair on its head who was screaming loud enough to wake the dead. It was a baby. I was so shocked that I immediately picked it up and began to rock it my arms, cooing softly at it. Once she had settled down a bit I tried to get a better look at her. She was definitely a girl with two arms and two legs that weren’t any different than those of a human baby. She probably could have been a human baby if not for the six stubby little barbed tentacles emerging from her back and her coloring. Her eyes were a deep brown and her skin was almost all a dark hunter green, though she had a spattering of freckles all over her body and the inner part of her tentacles that were both a yellowish green that seemed to glow with a light all their own.
When I could finally take my eyes off the baby I turned to Pallu with a massive grin. “Krie is going to be so pissed that we found this first.”
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
Chapter 19 Third Step Amethyst |
The baby had started to cry again so I began to rock and coo softly at her, unconsciously sending comforting thoughts her way. Much to my surprise I felt something being sent back to me, it was barely more than a vague mix of emotions and babbling, but it was definitely being projected from the child. She wasn’t just projecting though, her mind was clinging to my own like a life preserver. I was so distracted that I was only half paying attention to Pallu, who was examining the robot.
“I don’t sense any electricity running through this, but there’s something there in the chest, maybe it was turned off and that’s its power source. I wonder if there’s a way to turn it back on,” she muttered, probably thinking out loud more than actually speaking to me. Suddenly Pallu jumped back, bumping into me, and I had to tighten my hold on the baby so I didn’t drop her.
“Pallu, what are you…” I didn’t finish that sentence as I noticed the robot getting to its feet, its gaze locked on me and my Yazuik companion.
“I’m Sorry! I was just examining it, I didn’t mean to actually turn it on!” Pallu blurted out.
“Yazuik,” the mechanoid said with a cursory glance at Pallu before tilting its head to regard me. In a living creature I would have thought that the gesture indicated curiosity or confusion, but it wasn’t alive. “And you appear to be a #&%/human hybrid. Do you comprehend my speech patterns?”
I held the baby close as I watched the strange robot cautiously and nodded. I wasn’t quite sure what word he had used before ‘human’, but I had understood enough. “Yes, my name is Xia, I’m part human and part Saer’khi, and the Yazuik Is Pallu.”
“Saer’khi, understood. Thank you, I shall add that information to my database. You may call me Third. I did not think that your species would have advanced far enough for interstellar travel yet, much less evolved socially enough to cooperate and interbreed in the three hundred and sixteen solar rotations that I have been offline. Perhaps the Saer’khi would, it has been a millennium since Fifth stopped transmitting, but when I went offline Humans and Yazuik were still in their social and technological infancy.”
“Okay Third, I have some questions for you if you don’t mind,” I said, while still rocking the baby and trying to mentally soothe it.
“You may proceed,” Third replied in its steady electronic voice.
“Where is the crew of this ship?” I asked first, wanting to get that mystery out of the way.
“I am the only crew this ship has ever had and would have remained so until it was time to pass it on to the inheritors, had it not been damaged,” the robot responded.
“The inheritors?” Pallu and I both asked at the same time.
“The inhabitants of this planet,” Third clarified. “The Txela, and like your species they are one of the Nine.”
I shook my head sadly as I watched the robot. “I hate to break it to you, but there are no inhabitants of this planet except for some of the local wildlife. They all got wiped out around three hundred years ago.”
Third mimicked my motion, shaking its own head in return before making its way to the chambers to its left. “That assumption is incorrect Xia, the child you are holding is one of the Txela and eight more infants remain in the cryo-stasis chambers. Three hundred and sixteen solar cycles ago I foresaw the destruction of this planet’s third moon and attempted to safeguard the future of the Txela by warning them. They would not listen, they believed me to be one of their gods threatening destruction. So I made them believe that I required their newborn children to appease myself and the other gods, so that I could collect enough infants to reseed their people once the planet was livable once again. It took me too long to gather these newborns though and as I attempted to leave the planet the ship was struck by a fragment of the moon and we crashed here.”
I stared at the infant in my arms, feeling her hunger in my mind as she clung to me and knowing that she needed to eat something soon. This was especially important if she was a newborn as the robot had implied. I continued to soothe her both physically and mentally as I processed what Third had just revealed. These infants were the last of their kind and the rightful inhabitants of Unity. I was still burning with the need ask questions but it was starting to get late and I wasn’t sure we that we had much daylight left. “Pallu, could you hold her for a minute so I can focus enough to talk to Tarek?” I asked offering the baby to my companion.
“Sure, I’ll take her for a minute,” Pallu agreed, taking the infant from my arms, which caused her to immediately begin screaming again.
“I would not advise that,” Third cautioned. “Now that she has formed a mental bond, the child will not want to be without her mother for several days at least.”
“Whoa! Hold it! What do you mean by her mother?” I asked, taking the baby back to settle her down again. To my relief she did so, to a degree, she was still hungry and clinging tight to my mind, but at least she had stopped crying.
The mechanoid gave me a long look before speaking again. “The Txela imprint on the first mind they have contact with, usually their mothers. It was imperative that I took newborns for this very reason, even though it resulted in my search taking far too long. Had they been allowed to bond with their mothers before I put them in stasis I could not have separated them without negative psychological effects to the children and birth mothers.”
“I guess I had better start thinking of names then,” I muttered as I gazed down at the child and sent her warm and loving thoughts. “What do these infants eat? They’re humanoid with primarily mammalian characteristics, maybe with some cephalopod ancestry, could the milk of one our species sustain them?” I asked the last question as I thought of Pallu’s mother who was still nursing her infant daughter.
“With a diet containing the proper vitamins and nutrients, any mammalian milk would sustain the children,” Third agreed. He was also quick to caution me though. “However they may only wish to feed from their mothers while the bond continues to develop.”
I nodded curtly as I considered the child in my arms and the others in the cryo chambers. I also thought about the ship and what it and everything on it could mean to us if we could get it to the surface and somehow make it space worthy again. We didn’t plan on leaving Unity, but the thought of having an advanced alien ship in our possession if and when Earth came calling was too tempting to ignore. Then I was forced to attempt to split my attention between the child’s need for mental soothing and affection and sending a message to Tarek. *Tess’hir, how much sunlight do we have left?*
*No more than an hour or two Tess’rha, how did your search go?*
*We found the motherlode,* I quickly replied. *We absolutely need to salvage this ship, it is now our top priority, but first I’ll need to find a safe way off for me and the baby. Contact Tanna and Krie and tell them that we’ll need them here in the medical dropship to bring us back to the settlement as soon as possible. I need to tweak my nanites and Krie will want to know about this.*
*I will contact them immediately Tess’rha* he replied. There was a brief jump in his thoughts then as his mind suddenly processed all of what I had sent. *What baby?*
*It looks like we’re going to be parents Tess’hir,* I sent back a bit uncertainly. Sure I wanted a family some day, and I had kind of adopted Amy, but was I really ready to be a mother right now? I quickly stomped those feelings out of my mind, not wanting to negatively affect the baby, before sending another burst of thought to Tarek. *Congratulations, it’s a girl, now please contact Krie and Tanna, and gather as many applums as you can, we might as well bring them on the drop ship as well. I’ll see you when I figure out a way to get back to camp.*
I turned back to Third and sighed, “Is there any way off this ship safely for the baby? I don’t want to risk taking her out in water this deep, even if I had an extra environmental suit for her. We’ll try to salvage the ship and the other infants as soon as possible, but this little one needs to be fed and I can’t do that here. I don’t want nine hungry babies on my hands either at the moment, it’s better to wait to defrost them until we can find volunteers among our colonists to become mothers for them.”
“I concur,” the robot agreed. “I shall attempt to assist you in your plan to salvage the ship, if we use the ship’s antigravity field, then your people may have an easier time raising the ship. For now, we will use one of the escape pods. It will be buoyant enough to reach the surface and we can utilize the thrusters to navigate to the shore.”
Third led us to one of the outer hallways where it pressed against a barely noticeable indent in the wall, causing a seam to appear in the wall and open up into a large circle, behind which there was a spherical windowed hatch. The hatch opened up to reveal a small ovoid craft with a largely white interior that could fit six adults comfortably. I climbed inside, with Pallu close behind me as I tried to find a comfortable seat on the marshmallow-like benches along the walls and focussed my mind on sending the baby loving comforting thoughts and feelings. Then our mechanical guide followed us in and sealed the hatch behind us before passing us to get to the pod’s forward section and tapping a series of colored areas on the control panel.
We shot out of the ship going probably several hundred feet before we slowed and began to rise. Gradually we rose to the surface and once we were there I showed Third the rough location of our campsite on my datapad. “Extrapolating optimal course,” it said as its hands flew across the control panel once more. Then the pod turned roughly thirty degrees and headed straight for the shoreline.
When we arrived at the campsite the others had a large pile of applums gathered, resting on a carpet of the large leaves from the same tree. None of my team were at the site though, so I assumed that they were out getting another load. With as many as there were there, the whole colony may just be able to enjoy a nice treat with the evening’s meal, if we were back by then. Kit and the other slips were keeping the unity-corns from straying, though Kit quickly darted toward me to rub herself against my legs buzzing happily as I sat down and began to gently stroke her fur with my free hand.
Once she was satisfied with the attention my slip quickly hopped into my lap and inspected the baby sniffing curiously at her and then to my surprise she rubbed against the infant and began buzzing once again, projecting affection. Was it because she sensed me doing the same, or was it something more? I stopped to regard the baby in my arms. “You’re going to need a name,” I thought aloud. Then after a moment I smiled as it came to me. “Well we did find you deep under the water, so how about Shui?” I held her close, cooing softly at her as I wrapped her in the warmth of my mind, sent loving and comforting feelings to her and told her, *Your name is Shui.*
While we were waiting for the rest of my exploration team Pallu told Third how we had ended up here, making me sound a lot more heroic and competent than I actually thought I was. She was just finishing the story when I felt Tarek’s presence growing closer and managed to get to my feet without jostling Shui too much, though Kit let out a sleepy protest. Once my Tess’hir had arrived, and deposited his armful of fruit carefully on the pile, I smiled at him and walked over to greet him with a kiss, being careful of the baby between us.
Tarek returned the kiss eagerly, but was very careful not to hold me too tightly. Then he looked curiously down at Shui and then his eyes widened in surprise. *She’s like us.*
*She seems, at the very least, to have telepathy and empathy,* I agreed, *but she’s still a newborn so who knows what other abilities she may have. Her species were the original inhabitants of this planet and there are eight more babies just like her on that ship in cryo-stasis. This one thinks I’m her mother though, so I’ve decided to name her Shui.*
*That sounds like a nice…* He trailed off, eyes wide as he stared over my shoulder. *The Silent One.*
*That is the one who controlled that ship we found. It’s a robot, and it placed the children in cryo-stasis so that their species wouldn’t die out when the third moon was destroyed. We’ll discuss all of this at dinner tonight once we’re back home,* I promised. *I think that it may be able to answer a lot of questions.*
The rustling of trees nearby heralded the arrival of Matt and the others who added their fruit to the collection before staring in turn at Third and Shui. I was about to explain things when I got a ping from Krie. When I pinged back she sent me in a worried tone.*What is wrong with your nanites? And what is this about a baby?*
*Nothing is wrong with my nanites,* I carefully reassured my sister. *I’ll explain in detail later, but I have a baby here, from the original sentient inhabitants of Unity. She’s a hungry newborn and she thinks that I’m her mother; I’ll need to tweak my nanites to alter my hormone levels so that I can start producing milk for her or else she’ll starve.*
Krie’s mind was suddenly aglow with excitement. *You actually have a sentient creature that we’ve never encountered before?! We’re almost there I’ll see you in a few minutes!*
Both Tanna and Krie had a similar reaction to Third as Tarek had, but I took the time then to give everyone the short version of our exploration of the ship to ease their curiosity. Then, while Tanna helped the others load the fruit and our supplies on board and herd the ‘corns into the medical dropship’s small cargo hold I joined Krie in the med lab where she immediately started fussing over the baby. She wanted to do some scans as well, but once she saw how the Shui reacted to being separated from me she decided to wait until I could feed her and have her sleeping for a bit.
Shui’s reluctance to be away from me caused another issue though; I couldn’t make the changes to the nanites while holding her, so I had to carefully watch and instruct Krie on how to do it. It was annoying, but it was a relatively simple change to make, and once I was certain there were no errors I had Krie upload the new data to the programming node and update my nanites. Despite how quickly my nanites usually healed me or fought off viruses I knew it was going to take a little while for me to see much change since, although my hormone levels had been altered, it would take a bit of time for me to start actually producing milk. It wouldn’t be near as long as on a person without nanites, but I feared that I wouldn’t be able to feed Shui until well after we returned to the settlement.
By the time we were finished the others had finished getting everything on board with Third’s help. *Krie and I are ready to go whenever you are Tanna,* I sent to the other Ji’turi after a quick ping. *Have we heard anything on the comms from home yet?*
*Nothing yet, the search ships must have gotten out of range or gone off to drop search probes in another direction before we managed to increase the comms range. If that is the case, I estimate another three days before we get a response directly from Saer’kah.* I could feel the slight rumbling in the ship as we lifted off and then Tanna playfully jibed, *We’re on our way Commander, or should I call you Nharys’kal now? You’ve grown up so fast.*
I gave her a mental raspberry at the term ‘honoured mother’ since it was a highly respectful term, but one usually used for much older Ji’turi. *Don’t make me turn this ship around young lady.* I could still hear her mental giggling as I broke off contact.
We arrived shortly before dinner was ready and I asked Third to wait in the dropship so it wouldn’t spook any of the colonists before I was ready to reveal it’s presence. As the others guided the unity-corns back to their pen, Krie and I grabbed a few applums and went to go see Sarah by the cooking fires with Mischief and Kit right on our heels. “Hey Sarah, try this, it’s an excellent source of vitamins that I found while we were looking for that subspace pulse. I call them applums.”
Sarah looked up from the sunfish steaks she was cooking and reached for the offered fruit, but stopped to stare at the newborn in my arms. “I see you found something else of interest as well,” she commented.
“Ummm… yeah,” I was a little bit embarrassed about it since Sarah would probably tease me as bad as Tanna had earlier. “This is my… umm… daughter, Shui.”
Sarah nearly dropped the fruit that I had handed her and broke out in a grin, “Wasn’t it just yesterday that you were going to give me the talk about using protection?”
“Haha, very funny,” I retorted drolly, with roll of my eyes for good measure. “I’ll explain it after dinner, but I do want your opinion on that fruit.”
The chef took a bite out of the fruit and her eyes widened as she broke out in a grin. “Please tell me you have more of these. We could serve them fresh with meals, juice them or maybe even make a nice wine from them eventually, and this is a great find for the Nezans and you Saer’khi.”
“We have a bunch of them,” I replied with a nod. “If we keep the seeds I was thinking we could start an orchard just past the gardens. It will take a while to have that ready, but now we’ll know what to look for on explorations as well until then. The others should be bringing out the rest of the fruit for you shortly.”
It was then that Shui started screaming, displaying a perfectly healthy set of lungs. There was no soothing her now, she was too hungry, and now half the people in the settlement had stopped to turn and stare at us, making me blush a bit. I sighed, feeling all those eyes on me, as I sent a thought to the nanites in my uniform to open a seam over my left breast and let the hungry newborn go at it, hoping that I had at least started producing something for her to eat. Sarah raised an eyebrow as Shui started to eagerly suckle but said nothing. She was sucking a little hard at first for my comfort, but then I felt a sort of release as her mind started to calm and her suckling became less insistent and more rhythmic and relaxing.
Nursing was a strange sensation that made me feel warm inside, and it seemed from the happiness and satisfaction that Shui was projecting that I was producing at least a little milk. “Well duty calls, but at least I can do this sitting down,” I told Sarah and my sister. With that I gave them both a brief wave and left them to sit down at one of the fires beside Amy, Mandy, and the twins who were all watching me intently. “It’s a baby,” I told my ward as I sat down tiredly beside her. “Her name is Shui and she’s going to be your little sister from now on.”
“Geez Xia, I thought you went looking for a signal, you are like the magnetic north for strange discoveries and turns of events. How the hell did you end up with a baby?” Mandy asked with a look toward Shui. Amy and the twins were fascinated though, Hope and Talia reaching out hesitantly to touch the infant as she suckled as Amy did as well, though she cautioned the twins to be gentle.
“Well you see Mandy, when two people love each other very much…” she didn’t let me finish, blowing me a raspberry instead. I just grinned at her and promised, “I’ll explain it all after dinner, there’s a lot to tell and I’d rather tell everyone at once.”
As if on cue Sarah called out that dinner was ready and while the other colonists all went to get their evening meals I remained sitting and nursing Shui, since I figured that trying to get my own meal and eat while feeding her would be problematic at best. I was wondering if I should try to make some sort of carrying sling for her when others began joining me at the fire once again. Almost all the space around the fire had been claimed, and I had just switched Shui over to my other breast, when Tarek sat down beside me with two plates, smiling as he offered me one. “She seems happier now, but you need to eat as well Tess’rha.”
“That’s going to be awkward like this, I’ll eat once she’s finished,” I told him as I considered the plate held before me. There was a large sunfish steak with some roasted wingnuts, lemonberries, and a half applum, all of which made my mouth water.
“You have one hand free, and I think that I can spare one of my four to hold the plate while you feed yourself,” he pointed out.
“You’d better listen to the man, or one of us might decide to feed you ourselves,” Matt pointed out from my other side with that movie star smile of his. He had been watching me nursing since he sat down with an uncertain expression on his face, but it seemed that he had decided to just roll with it. “Cute squid… err kid,” he added with a brief nod toward Shui. “I take it you’re going to keep her then?”
I relented and used the fork to retrieve a bite of the sunfish steak that someone had apparently already cut into bite-sized portions for me. I savoured the taste for a moment, chewing slowly before swallowing and then I nodded. “She thinks I’m her mother, so I can’t very well foist her off on someone else.”
The rest of dinner passed with Mandy teasing me good-naturedly about just how much work I was in for now with Amy, Tarek, Krie and Matt offering to help where they could. The conversations at the other fires seemed hushed and I often noticed as I ate and nursed that there were a lot of quick and curious glances in my direction. Finally, once I had finished eating my dinner and people had settled into the lull of post-meal conversation I stood up, earning a sleepy protest from Shui, who was starting to doze off while suckling.
I called out for attention and once the conversations had all come to an end I addressed everyone. “I know there’s a bit of confusion and a lot of curiosity about this little bundle of joy I’m holding. When we set out this morning we were looking for an odd subspace signal further down the coast, and what we found was, quite frankly, amazing. We found an alien ship, more advanced than anything I’ve ever seen before on the ocean floor, it’s mostly intact and functioning, and now one of our top priorities will be salvaging it and making it space worthy again.”
I let what I had just told them sink in before I continued. “Pallu and I explored the ship and found this little girl that I’m holding right now in a cryo-stasis unit. She is one of the original inhabitants of this planet, and there are eight other newborns just like her who I would like to bring into our little community. Any women who would like to adopt one of these babies please come and see me so that I can prepare you before we retrieve them. Watching over these babies was a robot calling itself Third, he rescued them when their people faced annihilation and I suspect he might have a lot of important information for us.”
After that I sent Pallu to the medical ship to get Third and asked it to tell us its story. Several million years ago there was an advanced species called the Lhatahn, that Third had also called the Originators. These people explored life-supporting worlds all over the galaxy, but they found no other sentient life. Not wanting to be alone they began seeding various planets in our galaxy by attempting to induce evolution in adaptable and fairly intelligent species found on those planets through the use of genetic engineering using their own DNA as a basis. Over the ages they continued to monitor these species and further their evolution, but only nine were considered a success: Humans, Saer’khi, Nezans, Murqui, Yazuik, Haran, Txela, Kraahl, and Tiyranhi.
Humans had been considered the most promising, since their ape ancestors were very similar to those that the Lhatahn themselves had evolved from, but all nine species showed remarkable potential. Once the Originators had gotten them to an evolutionary stage where could truly be considered sentient they pulled back to allow their creations to develop in their own ways. They built nine ships and each ship had a robot like Third, who were tasked with watching over their assigned species, observing their development without interfering in it, and when the time came that they were socially and technologically advanced enough to explore the stars they were to turn the ship over to them and tell them how to find their creators.
Third though, had discovered a conflict in its programming early on. The Txela were surviving, but not thriving, and the many powerful predators on Unity, such as the crocosaurs, threatened to cause their extinction. If the Txela didn’t survive, then it could not fulfill most of its programming, but it was not prepared yet to interfere with their growing culture directly. That was when it had used the knowledge of the Lhatahn stored in its database to alter the genome of two other less survivable creatures to create the slips and unity-corns. It increased the slips’ intelligence, made them more adaptable, and gave them their danger sense, empathy, and a need to establish a symbiotic empathic link with sentient creatures. The ‘corns were altered to make them more easily domesticated, give them their keratin armor and horns, and increase their empathy.
Once it had finished creating a small population of both creatures, it placed them in an area where they would be sure to come across the Txela and continued its silent and invisible observation. Together the three species began to thrive until Third observed a massive asteroid on a collision course with Unity’s third moon. That was when it decided to warn them, or if that failed gather enough children to reintroduce the Txela to the planet when it had become livable again. When the ship had crashed it placed itself in a position to watch over the children and went offline to conserve its power, planning to wake again after four or five hundred years to begin it’s preparations for reintroducing the Txela.
“And then we showed up,” Dennis offered once the mechanoid had finished its tale. “So these Originators, are they still out there? And what about the others like you?”
Third answered nearly immediately. “I cannot say for certain, I have not received any new orders or updates from them since I first began my observation of the Txela. I still receive data from two of my counterparts, though they will not contact their respective species until certain social and technological criteria have been met. Many appear to have gone offline following their species making contact with the Saer’khi though, perhaps due to a programming conflict. We were given no explicit orders regarding what to do if any of our respective species should be contacted by another. My counterparts on Earth and the Saer’khi home world were destroyed and stopped transmitting long ago.”
“That would probably explain the Silent One and the crash near Roswell in 1947,” I interjected. “Do you have any ideas how we could salvage your ship Third?”
“The lower maneuvering thrusters were damaged in the crash, but we could use the anti-gravity field generator to make it easier to raise it to the surface by some other means,” the robot offered.
“If there’s no gravity affecting it, two of us wearing environmental suits should be able to get it to the surface using our telekinesis,” Karran suggested. “Then, once it’s there, we just tow it here with the tractor beam from one of the drop ships.”
I nodded thoughtfully for a moment before breaking into a grin. “That’s a good idea Karran, if you’re finished on the memory node I’d like to have you, Tanna, and Tarek to help with that tomorrow. I’ll come to coordinate, but I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to do much else. I think that’s it for tonight everyone, enjoy the rest of your night and Krie and I will be in the medical ship if any of you want to talk to me about adopting a baby.”
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
Chapter 20 Baby or not Baby? That is the question. Amethyst |
With the colony meeting over, I took my now sleeping infant to the medical ship so that Krie and I could run some tests on her, though I was a bit surprised as Tanna tagged along as well. Both of my fellow Ji’turi were very focussed on the tiny green baby in my arms as we walked toward the examination room. *You are sure that you’re ready for motherhood Xia?* my sister asked, her thoughts carefully controlled, but her emotions thick with worry and concern.
*Whether I am or not, this little one thinks I’m her mother and I won’t abandon her to someone else knowing that,* I responded firmly, although they could both probably pick up on my nervousness and uncertainty easily enough. *It’s a bit of surprise, but I’ve felt her mind in mine and she needs me so I’ll do my best. Do I really need to remind you of all people that I’m older than I look?*
*I know you are,* Krie prodded gently, her own concern and confusion dominating the forefront of her mind. *It’s just that none of us are even married yet.*
*It will be a lot of work raising a newborn too,* Tanna interjected, *especially in our current situation.*
*It’s not like it’s unheard of for a Ji’turi to have children before being married, it happens a lot Krie. Besides, Shui is adopted, just like Amy, so it’s not like I’ve actually gotten pregnant myself. Besides I have one Tess’hir already chosen and if things work out well between me and Matt then I’ll have two, that’s more than either of you, and they can help me once Shui stops being so clingy.* I tried not to let my annoyance with them show, but I don’t think that I was very successful.
*Actually,* Tanna sent a bit nervously, *I have my first Tess’hir too. Karran offered me his mind last night.*
Krie and I both reached out to hug her and squeed excitedly, *Congratulations Tanna!* She didn’t send any direct speech back, but her surface thoughts and emotions were a whirl of happiness, gratitude, and affection.
*You two are so good for one another. I wish Xawin would ask me, I think he wants to, but he gets so nervous and shy around me. Unless it’s something related to the colony his surface thoughts get all jumbled and hard to follow,* Krie said with a mental sigh. *It would be easier making this decision if I knew I had at least one Tess’hir already.*
*OmiGod! You two aren’t trying to talk me out of it, you’re both thinking about adopting one as well!* I tried to keep that sudden thought directed solely at the two of them so I wouldn’t wake Shui.
*Why would we try to talk you out of it?* Krie queried. *You have already made your decision and I believe it to be the correct one. You’ll be a wonderful mother, just like you’re a good leader.*
*We both have been thinking about it since you told us about the other infants in the cryo-chambers,* Tanna added. *We were hoping that if you were certain about your decision that it would make ours easier as well.*
*I think this is something that you both need to decide for yourselves,* I told them both after a moment of thinking it over in the deeper recesses of my mind. *I think you’d both be great mothers, especially given the fact that these infants seem to share our mental gifts, but really you have to decide if it’s something that you personally want. Like you said Tanna, it’s going to be a lot of work, but is it going to be worth it to you? Will it make you happy? Only you can answer that, so you need to ask yourselves what you want to do.*
*You’ve been a mother less than a day and you already have so much great motherly advice,* Tanna teased with a mental smile as she wrapped me in a physical hug.
*Mom would be proud,* Krie agreed as she hugged me as well. *I’ll think it over for a while and I’ll let you know later Xia.*
*Me too, I’ll talk it over with Karran as well and come find you if I decide to do it,* Tanna agreed. *I’ll speak with him while I check the long range scans and the communications console for anything new.* She gave us both one last hug and then headed for the pilot’s compartment.
*I guess we should go see what exactly we’re dealing with then,* Krie said with a smile, though her surface thoughts were still uncertain and confused as she led the way into the examination room.
Once we were inside and I had placed Shui on the scanning bed, we ran every medical scan we could think of on her before Krie and I started a physical examination as well. Although she had a few differences from other humanoids, she seemed to be very similar in most ways, biologically-speaking. Similar enough that we could tell that she seemed to be in good health. Once we had finished weighing her, we started taking the other important measurements and checking her pulse, breathing, and reflexes while trying not to wake her.
With her first physical out of the way we began looking at her from a xenobiological standpoint. *Note the dark green skin, camouflage do you think?* Krie half asked and half commented. *I first thought that it might be an adaptation to hunt at night, but the inner part of the tentacles and those freckles all over the skin are a pale green-gold so I’m not sure, maybe it’s just a trait from their deep-sea ancestors.*
*Those green-gold parts seemed to almost glow in the dim light outside and in the ship. Let me get the lights,* I replied before telekinetically hitting the light controls for the room and plunging the room into near darkness. The only light was now coming from our datapads and the pale gold light from Shui’s tentacles and freckles. *Natural bioluminescence, that’s interesting.* The golden light seemed to brighten and fade like a pulse, over and over in a soothing pattern. As her tentacles swayed in her sleep it became oddly hypnotic and I leaned in closer before managing to shake myself out of the trance that I had been lulled into and quickly hitting the lights.
It seemed that I wasn’t the only one trying to shake off a trance either as Krie wondered, *What was that?*
*Maybe you’re right about them hunting at night,* I suggested after a moment, *except they don’t go after the prey, they get the prey to come to them.*
*You’re probably right, and maybe that’s what those barbs on the tips of the tentacles are for. Their prey gets close enough and then they strike.* She quickly flipped through the scans we had taken and zoomed in on one in particular, the deep cellular scans. *There’s some sort of gland and a small cavity, it looks like a fluid reservoir, located near each of the barbs. I’m going to see if I can extract a small sample if it’s okay with you.*
I nodded after a moment of consideration. *That’s fine sis, we need to know what we’re dealing with before getting all those babies adopted, and for all we know those barbs could excrete some form of deadly neurotoxin... one little accident and someone could die. Just please try not to wake her.*
Krie set one of the injection guns for sample gathering and I watched nervously as she took her sample, or rather as she was about to before Third’s voice interrupted. “You need not complete a full examination. I assure you that Shui is quite healthy and I am capable of telling you about the Txela in great detail. I have observed them for millennia.”
I nearly jumped out of my skin at the robot’s silent approach, clutching my now rapidly beating heart. I hadn’t sensed its approach at all. Krie did jump, the injector gun flying out of her hand before she managed to get a telekinetic grip on it and place it harmlessly back on the scanning bed. I mentally cursed in a mix of Mandarin and English as Krie and I tried to calm ourselves. “Please don’t sneak up on us like that,” I finally managed to get out once my heart had lowered itself from my throat and stopped racing so I could breathe again.
“My apologies to you both, I am accustomed to observing without making my presence known. I had assumed that you would sense me without my cloaking field generator active.”
“Cloaking field generator?” Krie and I both blurted out at the same time.
“The Originators required us to be able to observe their progeny without being detected ourselves,” Third explained. “To that end they equipped each of us and the ships with cloaking field generators. The field warps space along the outer surface of our bodies or the hulls of the ships to make it appear as if nothing is there, allowing us to remain undiscovered.”
Both Third and the ships could cloak themselves? That could potentially be very useful. “Why didn’t you tell us about this earlier?” I asked. I knew it wouldn’t have made ay difference, but it would have been nice to know.
“You did not ask,” the alien android responded simply.
“No, I guess we didn’t,” I agreed with a sigh. “When we have time I want you to tell me about all of the capabilities of both you and that ship. For now though, maybe you can tell us about the Txela.”
It turned out that Krie’s hypothesis about them hunting in the dark was correct, as was my theory about having the prey come to them. The Txela had evolved from a species of squid-like cave-dwelling creatures that would draw their prey in with their hypnotic bioluminescent lightshow and then render them helpless and strangle them to death. The Txela had retained a lot of these traits as they evolved and as they became a more mobile humanoid species they developed other traits as well.
Modern Txela were colored to blend into the dark forests at night and had a nictitating membrane on their eyes that both added extra protection and gave them a form of night vision by enhancing ambient light. The barbs on their tentacles injected their target with a fast acting but non-lethal toxin that made them unable to move or feel their entire body until it was metabolized. They used this both to quickly and cleanly kill their prey while it was paralyzed and to give short term relief to comrades who were injured and in pain.
From the sound of it the toxin acted as both a paralytic and an anesthetic, but from what Third told us it didn’t seem to stop the lungs from working like most paralytic compounds I knew of. At least it wasn’t deadly, but I felt we should be cautious regardless, even if Shui and the other infants wouldn’t be able to produce a large enough dosage to fully effect an adult humanoid from just one of their barbs until they were in their teens. It was possible if they used all six at once, but Third assured us that would be unlikely unless they felt threatened in some way.
As a species the Txela were at least as intelligent, physically adaptable, and survivable as the other humanoid descendants of the Originators. The fact that they possessed both psychic abilities and a full written and spoken language before the destruction of the third moon proved this. Third probably wouldn’t have had to interfere with the slips and unity-corns at all if there hadn’t been so many large and dangerous predators like the crocosaurs inhabiting Unity at that time. In a way Unity was a lot like Saer’kah then, almost every other living creature could and would have preyed on the Txela given the chance. The only reason that the Saer’khi had survived as a species was that we possessed psychic abilities and could fly, while the Txela only had one of those advantages.
Third couldn’t tell us much about the Txela’s psychic abilities beyond their apparent need to psychically imprint and that they had displayed telekinetic abilities. They had mostly used spoken language when in speaking distance, but Third had theorized that they used their psychic abilities to communicate over longer distances. Until then it had only observed the telekinesis and discovered the imprinting through observation. It seemed pleased when I confirmed that Shui seemed to possess both telepathy and empathy, as it had merely assumed that there was, at the very least, one or the other by a thorough examination of the Txela genome and comparing it to DNA samples of the Originators themselves. Records of the Originators experiments on psychic abilities in lower lifeforms and genetically creating such creatures had provided additional data and allowed it to create the slips and unity-corns.
Third had given us a complete course on Txela biology, pointing out areas of interest on the scans we had taken of Shui, and it had just started in on genetics when we got our first prospective adoptive mother. I excused myself as soon as I saw Lirra enter the examination room carrying a large crate from our unused supplies with two pieces of wood on top. Mandy was with her and she gave me a playful smile as the pair approached with their slips following close behind.
“How are you enjoying motherhood?” Mandy teased.
“Well, it’s not what I was expecting,” I replied as I picked Shui up, careful not to wake her as I led the pair to the dining/living area of the drop ship. “For one thing, I kind of expected to have nine to ten months to get used to the idea first. Are you both here to volunteer? What’s with the crate and the wood?”
“I would volunteer, but I still have my hands full with the twins,” Mandy admitted sadly. “Thankfully Amy is watching them for me in her room so I can help you and our other new mom’s out. You’re all going to need to make some diapers and a baby sling so you don’t have to hold them all the time. I figured that I’m the logical person to help with that since I had to do that with the twins in the barracks on Saer’kah. The crate has some of that cotton-like cloth and some needles and thread, but I’m not sure what the wood is for, Lirra said you’d both need it.”
As Lirra placed her burden on the table I sat back in one of the chairs and placed my sleeping infant in my lap smiling at my Murqui friend as Kit hopped into my lap to snuggle with the sleeping infant. “Have a seat, we might as well be comfortable. So I take it since Mandy has taken it upon herself to teach us new moms that you’re volunteering?”
“Yes Xia,” Lirra admitted as she sat down. “As you know my mate is dead and, after my injuries from the Saer bee attack, I can not bear children of my own. I would like very much to adopt one of these infants.” She took the two pieces of wood from atop the crate and handed me one of them. “I will need to craft a basic niadu doll for my child and I thought that you might wish to do the same, since you have become Jittu’s Niadu.”
I smiled as I remembered Jittu nervously asking me to be her Niadu. “I’d love to Lirra, would you be willing to teach the other mothers about this tradition and show any of them who wish to do it how to make a niadu doll as well? I think that is a wonderful tradition, and I believe that incorporating traditions like that from all of our respective cultures will help us to become closer as a colony and understand one another a lot better.”
“If others wish to learn I would be happy to teach them,” the Murqui agreed.
“I think we should start with making some nappies though,” Mandy put in with a laugh, “hopefully we can manage to get Shui bundled up before she decides to pee on you.”
“Good idea,” I replied in wholehearted agreement. I may have been fortunate enough to have other clothes to change into, but that was an experience that I would rather avoid if I could help it.
“Do you have something really absorbent that we can sew in as inserts? Preferably something that will dry easily?” Mandy asked as she took the small laser cutting tool that had been included with the durable white cloth and started cutting out a rough diaper shape.
I considered that for a moment before smiling as I thought of just the thing. “We have a lot of extra thick cloth pads for first aid, they’re maybe three by eight inches and can absorb a lot. They’re meant to be reusable through washing and then a sonic bath to get all the water and blood or other fluids out. We managed to get a lot of those off the bounty and they should do the trick. I’ll go grab some once I manage to extract myself from Shui and Kit.”
“I could hold her for you for a few minutes if you don’t mind Xia,” Lirra offered a bit nervously. It was weird seeing a Murqui nervous about anything, but I had a feeling that Lirra had been wanting a child of her own for a long time and now that the opportunity had fallen into her lap she was probably a mix of uncertain and excited about it.
“Sure, just try not to wake her or she’ll start screaming for me.” I shooed Kit from my lap and picked up Shui to offer her to Lirra. Then, once she had her cradled comfortably in her arms, I dashed off for the supply room to fetch a few dozen of the cloth pads. When I returned Mandy was trying to keep quiet enough to not wake the baby while laughing hysterically, and Lirra was holding Shui out at a distance and wrinkling her feline nose. The Murqui’s tunic was damp and dripping down the front and I had to scrunch up my face to keep from giggling. “You had her for like two minutes, and I was holding her most of the evening, how did you manage to...” I couldn’t hold it in after that and started giggling.
“Baby physics,” Mandy explained as she tried to stop laughing. “When they’re not wearing a diaper, the one who holds them the least amount of time is guaranteed to get hosed down.”
Still giggling I put the stack of pads on the table and used one of them to try to dry off both Lirra and Shui. Once I was happy I took Shui back and managed a somewhat serious apology. “Sorry about that Lirra, you can use the bathroom in my room to clean up if you like, there’s a sonic shower in there.”
While Lirra was off cleaning herself and her tunic, Mandy was showing me how to make the nappies when Rebecca and Sarah showed up. Both women wanted to adopt one of the Txela infants, but neither was sure that they could really spare the time since Rebecca already had enough kids to look after during the day as our schoolteacher and Sarah was kept extremely busy with managing the kitchen staff and preparing the colony’s meals. Both of them gave a lot to our community and if they really wanted one of these kids I didn’t want to deny them that.
When Lirra returned and as we all worked with Mandy on making diapers I explained to all three of them about the Txela babies; how they’d have to be careful of the tentacles and why, the need to tweak their hormone levels so they could lactate, and the fact that these children were empathic and telepathic and wouldn’t want to leave the sides of their new mothers for several days at least while they formed a mental bond. “I guess that leaves us out for sure then,” Rebecca said with a sigh once I had finished.
I shook my head as I gave Rebecca and Sarah a very serious look. “No, I wouldn’t be telling you what was involved if I hadn’t already decided that you will each have one. We can’t be thinking of why you can’t do it. We need to think of ways that you can. Sarah, do you have anyone among your staff who could become an apprentice of sorts? You should probably be thinking of training someone for that anyway. You could teach them and just handle the management while the baby is developing the bond and we’ll all have to make baby slings and basinets anyway, since we can’t be carrying them with us all the time. You can still do what you usually do while the baby is sleeping too.”
Sarah’s face bore a pensive look for a moment and then lit up. “Lily is pretty eager to learn and she’s got talent. She’s only seventeen and was assigned to the kitchens just before we left Saer’kah, but she’s been helping me with some of the more complex dishes and she wants to do more than just the basics.”
“Consider her your new apprentice then,” I said with a grin before turning to Rebecca. “You should have an apprentice or a teaching assistant too. Now that we have the fields planted and the shelters finished we can probably spare someone. Maybe Erin Hughes? I know she had no real work experience on Earth, but wasn’t she a university student before her accident? She’s smart, responsible, and eager to contribute. She can probably teach them a few things you don’t know and she’s good with the kids.”
“You’re right, Erin would be good and I think she’d welcome the challenge of it. She’s really too tiny to be chopping trees and hauling firewood anyway.” Rebecca was smiling now as she considered it. “I think this could work Xia, are you sure about this though?”
I crossed my arms over my chest and nodded. “Of course I am, caring for these kids is important too, and if we didn’t have so few people when we had to start getting shelters and the fields ready I probably would have had apprentices shadowing those of us with valuable skills anyway. Krie and I already have Amy as an apprentice and we should be thinking of apprentices for Mandy and a few others too.” That was when Shui woke up and began screaming both physically and mentally. She was hungry again and she wanted to be held.
By this point Mandy had finished sewing the first completed nappy and instructed me how to put it on and how to tie it firmly, but not to tightly, on either side. Once that was done I made an opening in my uniform over my right breast and let Shui have at it while softly cooing at her, gently rocking her, and reassuring her with loving empathic caresses. Soon her contented murmuring filled the back of my mind. “Awww you’re so cute when you go into Mom-mode,” Sarah teased, causing the others to laugh.
“She’s probably going to be hungry every one to three hours for first few weeks and she’ll mostly sleep between feedings, but I’m afraid that you and the other new moms won’t be getting much sleep for a while. You’ll have to get used to sleeping when they do for the most part, so it’s a good thing that Unity has twenty-eight hour days, you’re all going to need that extra few hours of rest,” Mandy told us with a grin. “I’m just glad it’s not me this time, still all of you should consider yourselves lucky. On Saer’kah I had to work like everyone else but the days were almost two hours shorter than on Earth and I had two newborns to nurse and care for. So I hope you all remember during those sleepless nights that things could be worse.”
It was as I was feeding Shui that the rest of our volunteer moms started to gradually make their way in to join us. First there was Tanna and Krie, and that didn’t surprise me too much since they had both voiced an interest earlier, and as Saer’khi they would be well suited to caring for and teaching psychic children. Next there was Dallas Murphy, the tall and willowy redhead who worked with Sarah and was in charge of those cleaning the pots, pans, and other dishes between meals. Finally Luiza came in with one of our other former military personnel, Corporal Dorothy Quinn of the Royal Canadian Air Force, or Dot as most of the colonists called her.
You wouldn’t think that Dot was former military from her appearance: She was nearly as short as Luiza, but without the former Navy Seal’s petite figure. No, Dot was buxom with waist length honey blonde hair and cornflower blue eyes. The only thing about her that didn’t seem to radiate femininity was her right arm, which was cybernetic up until just below the shoulder, reminding me that I should get her in for routine maintenance. The former combat pilot was even dressed femininely, wearing her usual slightly worn and dirty pink and white floral sundress with white sandals, and her slip was laying over her shoulders like a fur stole. I really hoped that we could do something about the clothes situation soon, since most of us, including Dot, only had what we had been wearing when we had to evacuate the Bounty.
I smiled up at the pair as they entered and I switched Shui to my other breast. “So, you both want in on this too?”
Luiza looked uncharacteristically uncertain, wringing her hands and scuffing her foot as she tried to give a casual-looking shrug and her slip Loco darted around her legs nervously. “Well, I’m not getting any younger, and I guess if I ever want kids I should be having them soon, so we were talking about it and…”
“We were thinking of adopting one together,” Dot finished for her while taking Luiza’s hand tightly in her own. “Since we can both nurse one though, we’ll take two if you don’t have anyone else. We both want kids and as wonderful as Loco and Camilla are, they’re just not the same,” she finished while giving the slip draped over her shoulders some affectionate petting and scratching.
“I’ll gladly take you up on that, since it’s getting late and it looks like only the eight of you feel up to the task,” I replied. Then I began giving all of the new mothers the same talk about the Txela and what raising one would entail as I had given the others earlier while I finished nursing Shui and the others worked with Mandy on a supply of nappies. Then we kept on working as Lirra explained the niadu dolls and the tradition behind them and Rebecca sometimes put it in terms that everyone could understand, as she had for Trill when Jittu had asked me to be her Niadu. Everyone seemed to like the idea though and Lirra went on to explain how the dolls should be made and how we should explain them to our children once they were old enough to understand.
It took almost two hours to make two dozen nappies to start me off with, but with the pleasant conversation it really didn’t feel that long. We knew we’d need to make more over the next few days so that all of us would have enough when the other babies were ready to be thawed. I also managed to sew a halfway decent baby sling during that time with Mandy’s help, so it looked like I would be as prepared as I could be when we attempted to retrieve Third’s ship the next morning. By then we were all starting to get pretty tired though so I called an end to the meeting and headed off to bed with Shui.
Since I didn’t have a basinet or a crib for her, and I didn’t want to risk getting tentacle-poked in the middle of the night by accident, I piled some clothes into a makeshift nest and covered her with a thermal jumpsuit so she wouldn’t get cold. Then I curled up beside her and tried to get some sleep. I was just starting to relax when her screaming resonated through the room and my mind was similarly filled with her mental screaming, need for mommy, and hunger. It was just the beginning of what would turn out to be a very long night.
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
|
“You look like hell Xia, did you get any sleep last night?” Mandy said over breakfast. Almost everyone else was finished eating and ready to go about their tasks for the day, she had already sent the twins off with Rebecca, and I had started Amy working on the studies that I had assigned her for the day while she would be on call for first aid. I was trying to finish my own meal as I fed Shui, but it had been slow going.
I shook my head in answer to the geologist’s question and muttered, “I don’t think so. If I did, it wasn’t very much.”
“Welcome to motherhood,” Mandy offered with a sympathetic sigh. “It was times like this that I really missed coffee while I was in the barracks with the twins. You really look like you could use some caffeine.”
I groaned in agreement. “I was too young to have picked up that habit while I was still living on Earth, at least before my time in the hospital. They never gave me any while I was in there either. We have some stimulants I could take, but I don’t want to start using them as a crutch, especially since our supplies are limited at the moment.”
“Okay, just try not to do anything too strenuous, you have a habit of pushing yourself too hard, and right now that’s not going to do you or Shui any good,” she cautioned as she lightly hugged me.
“I’ll just be observing the retrieval of Third’s ship, Karran and Tanna will be doing all the heavy lifting,” I assured her.
“Good, you should try to get some rest when you can too, we need you at your best,” she said, giving my shoulder a quick squeeze before heading off to wrangle up her crew. “Anyway, I should go collect the chain gang and head out to the mining site. I’ll see you later Xia.”
I waved goodbye and finished my meal, waiting until Shui had eaten her fill, and was beginning to doze off in my arms, before returning my dishes to the cooking area. Dallas took my metal plate, cup and utensils with a smile and a wink. “Good luck out there today Xia, we’ll try to keep the settlement in one piece while you’re gone.”
“You’d better,” I joked back with a wave and as much of a smile as I could muster in my sleepy state. Then I made my way back to the medical dropship with Shui snoozing in her new sling and Kit following close behind. Once I had gotten there I quickly snatched up my medical pack, adding some of the nappies we had made the night before, my water bottle, some ration bars, and some reusable sanitary cloths. Then I quickly checked on Amy and Krie, giving them both a quick hug, before leaving them to join my teammates for the retrieval operation.
The others were eager to get going when I arrived at the personnel/cargo dropship. I had felt it better that we take it, rather than the medical dropship, to retrieve Third’s ship for several reasons. Firstly, I would rather have the medical ship stay at the settlement in case there were and accidents or injuries that required more than simple first aid. Secondly, the personnel ship was larger and both its engines and its tractor beam were more powerful than those on the smaller dropship. It might not be as maneuverable or quick, but we wouldn’t need either of those qualities for today’s mission. Finally, if something went wrong, and for some reason we couldn’t retrieve the entire ship, than we could use the personnel ship to ferry over anything useful that we could manage to retrieve.
Once I had stepped inside and sealed the airlock I buckled myself in to one of the seats, having to adjust Shui a few times while being careful not to wake her. Then, as I ensured that I had a good hold on the baby, I sent out a quick ping to Tanna, Tarek, and Karran. The latter was already strapped into one of the other passenger seats, along with Third who was seated nearby as well, and as soon as I felt the three other Saer’khi acknowledge my ping I reached out with my mind to speak with them. *I’m buckled in and ready to go when you are.*
*Okay Xia, we have already completed the pre-flight checks and we are ready to launch,* Tarek replied. *Are we headed straight for the coordinates of Third’s ship?*
I gave the three of them a mental head-shake before replying, *No we’ll go back to the camp we made yesterday first. We can retrieve the escape pod that Third used to get us off the ship there and Third can use it to get Tanna and Karran aboard the ship. He’ll need to be aboard to start up the anti-gravity field, and it’ll be easier for Tanna and Karran to just leave by an airlock and use the magnetic boots feature on their suits and walk along the hull to get into position to raise it. Are you two sure you’re going to be able to manage it alone? It’s at least twice as big as this dropship.*
*It should not be a problem,* Karran assured me as the dropship lifted off. *Without gravity effecting it we should be able to raise it just fine. It is going to take quite a bit of effort, but I am sure that we will be able to manage until you can get a lock on it with the magnetic tractor beam.*
*We can handle things from here Xia, we all know what to do and it’s going to take us some time to get on the ship and into position to raise it. You should get some rest while you can, we will have Tarek wake you when we are ready to begin raising the ship,* Tanna offered.
*Yes Tess’rha, please get some rest, I shall wake you when it is time,* Tarek quickly agreed, concern tinging his thoughts. I was too tired to argue the point and, once I had placed my seat into a reclining position, I allowed myself to close my eyes with Shui clutched closely to my chest. I was asleep within minutes and soon dreaming.
I tugged nervously at the robe I was wearing, staying close to the table with the sweets, juices, and the mugs of Passu that sat beneath the flowering branches of the massive Vysila tree. The robe was white and gold, displaying my Ji’turi status, and embroidered with the cursive sigils that displayed my lineage as one of the daughters of Khella Phar. Krie flitted down toward me from where she had been dancing in the golden moonlight with a determined look in her eyes, wearing a robe that matched my own. *It’s Katur Soma Xia, you should be dancing, having fun, and meeting people,* my sister complained.
I was dreaming… I remembered this day, it was the last Katur Soma I had spent on Saer’kah. I let out a sigh and looked above me at all the couples dancing in the air, half-wishing Tarek were here to dance with me. I already knew him. That was part of the problem though, it had been a week and a half since he had left for the space academy after my accidental claim of Dhur-tal on him and I could still feel the distant presence of his mind in my own. Since then Mom and Krie both had been pushing for me to try to find another Tess’hir among the Pi’tak I knew or to meet some new candidates at events like this. It wasn’t just Saer’khi males they were pushing on me though, as they were constantly ‘encouraging’ me to be more social with the human men at the barracks when I made my deliveries to look for promising candidates there too.
I was starting to get frustrated with their ‘strike while the iron is hot’ view of getting me married off properly. And it looked like my sister was going to do her best to try and find me an eligible male tonight. *Ugh,* I counter-complained. *I don’t want to find another Tess’hir, I have one too many as it is. Can’t I just renounce this whole thing and become a lesbian?*
*I am not familiar with that word little sister,* Krie sent back to me, her mind awash with confusion. Out of all of my family, Krie had taken best to learning English and I had even taught her to use wordplay and a lot about human cultures. Since I had joined her family just over six years ago we had become more than sisters, we had become best friends and she didn’t seem to mind my little quirks, they were just part of who I am. Once in a while though, I still managed to say something that she couldn’t understand and the English word ended up as gibberish in her mind.
“Lesbian,” I enunciated clearly out loud so she could hear the word properly, as I often did during these moments of word-confusion. *It’s what you call a female who has no sexual interest in males, but who prefers females.*
My sister gave me a confused look and her mind voice reflected that confusion as she asked, *You have these lesbians on your homeworld then?*
*Yes we do, we also have males who are only interested in other males, and people who are equally attracted to both genders. The standard is for males to like females and females to like males, but in humans there’s a wide spectrum of sexuality.* I admitted.
*How do they have children?* she asked, her brow furrowing and her thoughts tinged with wonder and confusion. She didn’t seem to think it was wrong or disgusting or anything, she just didn’t get it. She even seemed a little bit fascinated by the idea.
*Usually they adopt children from other people who don’t want them, or those that have been orphaned.* I replied with both a physical and mental shrug.
*Who would have children and not want them? Earth sounds like a strange place, but I do not think that you can choose such a thing as becoming one of these ‘lesbians’ Xia. Saer’khi are only ever sexually attracted to the opposite gender. Procreation is not just an option for us, it is a genetic imperative that is very strong for our kind. It is part of who we are. Now that you have one Tess’hir, you should find at least one or two more so you can start your own family. Do you not feel it?* She placed her hands on her hips as she waited for an answer, her surface thoughts laced with concern.
I blushed and nodded, though then I quickly shook my head. I had been feeling things since I had bonded with Tarek: His constant presence in the back of my mind and a desire that I couldn’t quite place. At first I had thought it was sexual desire, and I had been fantasizing about more that a few of the Pi’tak that I knew. There was a human too, one that I had noticed briefly at the barracks on my last delivery. I hadn’t gotten a good look at him since I had only seen him in passing from across the large dining area as I was leaving for the day, but he was blond, well built with what looked like cybernetic arms, and didn’t appear too much older than I was. The sexual desire only seemed to be a small part of it though, it was a desire for more than just that and in all honesty it confused and scared me.
*Yes! No! I don’t know!* I finally blurted out into her mind. *I’m confused, I don’t know who I am half the time, let alone what I want. I need time to figure it out on my own before I go making lifelong commitments for myself, or to anyone else. Besides, who knows, Tarek may just find some cute Ji’turi at the space academy and forget all about me.*
Krie shook her head sadly, hugging me tight and wrapping her mind protectively around my own like a warm blanket. Her words were serious though when she finally spoke. *Please do not get your hopes up about that Xia, some day you will have to face Tarek again and the bond you share. I will be there for you if you need me, but in the meantime will it really hurt you to meet some people and see if you can connect? There is nothing wrong with making friends.*
*I’ll try Krie, but I won’t promise anything else. The ones that I’ve talked to so far have been courteous, polite, and eager to please, just as they would with any other Ji’turi, but they have no interest in me other than that. When they look at me they think I’m a child still, I can see it in their surface thoughts, and the worst part is that I’m probably older than some of them.* I nervously ate a few sweets as I looked up at the Saer’khi dancing to the music in the sky above us, then washed them down with a mug of Passu before nodding to my sister and taking to the air at her side.
I danced with several more Pi’tak that night, but it was the same as it had been before. They were more than happy to shower me with attention and treat me like a princess, I even genuinely liked a few of them, but as we spoke their surface thoughts told me all I needed to know. *You are such a nice young Ji’turi, and smart too. Maybe I will have the honor of offering you my mind, when you are a little older.*
Of course none of them knew why I flew away sad and hurt, but the feelings were there just the same when I once again gave up and returned to the base of the tree to drown my sorrows in sweets and far too much Passu, switching my thinking to Mandarin to keep my depressed surface thoughts private. The really sad thing was that I couldn’t even get drunk from the Passu. I could get a good buzz going if I kept drinking, but my nanites saw the alcohol as a poison and aggressively attacked it, preventing me from actually getting flat-out drunk.
When we returned home that night I laid awake in my soft gel bed for hours in a spiral of depressive thoughts. “Nobody is ever going to see you as anything but a child here at best. On Earth I’d be even more of a sideshow freak than I was before, ‘Come see the Amazing Unaging Halfbreed Girl!’ I mean what are you anyway? Human? Saer’khi? Both or neither? Yeah, your family loves you and sees you for who you are, but will anyone else? Ever? Well maybe Tarek… No! I’m not interested in him that way, he needs a real Saer’khi girl anyway. Let’s face reality Xia, you’ll never really fit in anywhere. You should have known that things were going to end up this way. Mom or Krie can keep pushing you at guys until the universe comes to a fiery end, hell you’ll probably still be around and the same age to witness it, but no matter what they think you’re never going to get married or be a mother.”
It was Shui screaming in my mind and on my chest that woke me. She was hungry again and uncomfortable, I was pretty sure that she needed her nappy changed. I tried to shake off my ironic dream and started to console her, rocking her gently and cooing softly into her ear and her mind. *It’s okay, you’re fine Shui. Momma will change your nappy and then you can eat.*
After coaxing Kit awake and out of the position that she had taken up curled up in my lap after I had fallen asleep, I managed to extract myself from the straps, and the seat, and turned to kneel and place Shui on her back in the seat I had just vacated. Carefully I untied both sides of the nappy and wrinkled my nose at the smell as I opened it up. Ugh. That was a lot of poop; stinky, sticky, only half-solid poop. I attempted to ignore the smell and Shui’s screaming and just got to work, trying to think soothing thoughts to her as I did. Taking her gently by the ankles I raised her bottom and used my other hand, and one of the reusable sanitary clothes to clean up her bottom as best I could before wetting a second cloth with some of my water to finish the job. After a quick inspection to the area showed her to be properly cleaned, I spritzed the area with a disinfectant spray from my medical bag that should prevent diaper rash and put the new nappy on.
She wasn’t near as upset by this time and her screaming had settled into little hiccoughs as she began to calm down. I could sense that she was a bit hungry, but it seemed to be the nappy that had been bothering her the most. *There we go, all better now. Momma will feed you in a minute Shui,* I assured her as I attempted to figure out what to do with the soiled nappy and cloths. I finally shrugged and put Shui in her sling for the moment while I took the soiled nappy and cloths into one of the transport’s two bathrooms, between the passenger and cargo sections. Then I set to cleaning them up as best I could with the sonic wash, followed by scrubbing them down with the antibacterial scrub foam, and then repeating the sonic wash.
Satisfied with how clean and dry they were, I returned both the nappy and the cloths to my medical pouch with the others and opened a seam in my uniform to let Shui start feeding. *Tarek, any word from Tanna and Karran yet?* I inquired as I headed toward the front of the ship to join him in the pilot’s compartment.
*They exited the ship from an airlock a few minutes ago and they are now making their way across the hull to the best position to raise the ship. Third activated the ship’s anti-gravity field before they left the ship so they should be ready soon Tess’rha,* he replied as I entered the compartment. *Did you sleep well?*
*About as well as I could reasonably expect,* I replied with a mental shrug. Then I turned to give him a stern look, lacing my thought with unhappiness as I added, *You were going to let me sleep through this whole retrieval operation weren’t you?*
The presence of his mind shrunk away from my own in a blend of guilt and worry. *You were so tired Tess’rha, and sleeping so soundly. You push yourself too hard sometimes and you and Shui both needed your rest. You weren’t planning on doing anything but observing, so I thought it was best to let you sleep and only wake you if necessary.*
A soft sigh escaped my lips. I couldn’t really blame him for being concerned, and I had needed the sleep. In all honestly I was still tired, but since I was already awake and feeding Shui more rest would have to wait. *I get it Tess’hir, that’s just you being you, and you were probably right.* I wrapped him up in a warm mental embrace and leaned over to lovingly kiss him. Then I made myself comfortable in the navigator’s seat, softly cooing to the baby in my arms.
As I sat down Kit hopped up in my lap and I had to split my affection between the slip and my baby. My baby. It still felt really weird to me thinking of Shui that way, not unwelcome, just weird and a bit jarring. It wasn’t that I didn’t want her, it was just that she was a surprise and unlike a lot of mothers who were surprised by a potential new child, I didn’t have all those months of pregnancy to get used to the idea, it had all just happened so suddenly. One minute I only had myself to worry about… well myself, my friends and family, and over two hundred colonists, and the next I had Shui too.
Despite the shock of it, which seemed to be wearing off some, I found that it was more than just not wanting to foist her off on someone else when she was my responsibility that made me want to keep her. I was happy to be her mother, I wanted it. She was strange and adorable and I might not have given birth to her, but with the mind link we shared it didn’t matter, she was my baby. How could I ever think of giving her up when her first babbling thoughts had echoed in my mind and forged that link, a link I could feel growing steadily stronger with each passing hour.
Smiling to myself, I lightly rocked and fed Shui in one arm and fussed over her, using my free hand to carefully scratch all those annoying places on Kit and fondly pet her, all the while sending loving and affectionate thoughts to them both. Those thoughts were interrupted as I received simultaneous pings from both Karran and Tanna. A moment later Karran’s mind-voice called out excitedly, *We are in position and starting to bring it up now! I wish you would have been able to join us though Commander, even with the anti-gravity field on, lifting this ship is probably going to be difficult.* The last part sounded strained as he shifted almost all of his focus to using his telekinesis.
*Yes,* Tanna quickly agreed, her own mind voice sounding distracted and just as strained as Karran’s from the effort she was putting out. *This is really stretching it… It’s just so... big!*
I snorted and giggled, trying to keep my amusement to myself and in the deeper recesses of my mind as much as possible. They didn’t need the distraction right now of me explaining just how dirty that had sounded. I would have to remember to tease Tanna about it later though. Still, I wish I had been able to go down with them to lighten the load. It had taken Tanna and Karran over half an hour to raise the ship close enough to the surface for the dropship’s tractor beam to get a solid grip on it, and the whole time they had been pushing their telekinetic abilities to the limit.
Once the pair was back on board the dropship, and we were on our way back to the settlement with Third’s ship in tow, Shui had finished feeding and fallen asleep. Tanna was making straight for the pilot’s compartment, but I put a quick stop to that. *You’re not going anywhere Tanna,* I quickly scolded my fellow Ji’turi. *The two of you are going to rest for a bit while I run a few scans and give you a good once over to ensure there haven’t been any negative effects from your efforts. You were using your telekinesis well beyond what you’re both used to for over half an hour.*
*I’m a bit tired, but otherwise I feel fine,* Tanna protested. Karran though, knew better than to argue with a Ji’turi who also happened to be his doctor and commanding officer and had already sat down.
*That wasn’t a friendly request Tanna, it was an order; from either your Commander or your doctor, take your pick,* I told her sternly before smiling at her. *Now could you please hold Shui for me while I get to work?*
She looked at me in confusion for a moment and then seemed to realize what I was asking. *You are going to let me hold her?* Her face lit up and her mind-speech was suddenly radiating joy and excitement.
*Well of course,* I replied sending her a mental image of the Cheshire cat’s grin. *I need both hands for this, and you’re going to have to getting used to holding a baby sooner or later. You’ll have one of your own soon enough.*
Tanna let out a mental squee as I placed Shui gingerly in her arms, and you would have thought that she was the proud mama the way she was grinning as she held the green-hued infant. I had to stop myself from giggling as Tanna cooed to and gently rocked Shui in her arms. I briefly wondered if I looked that sappy when I held her, before turning to Karran so that I could look him over first. I started with simple things like visual and auditory response, then I used my goggles in several different modes, while physically checking his pulse. Finally I produced the handheld bio-scanner from my bag and ran it over his body making sure to do a thorough job of scanning his head to get decent readings of his brain activity. It would have been better and gotten more detail with a full scanner like the one in the medical ship, but this one would work.
Karran checked out fine, there didn’t seem to be any issues or anomalies from his efforts so I had Tanna reluctantly hand Shui over to him while I ran the same tests on her. Again there didn’t seem to be anything alarming or unusual, but I felt better having done it. I didn’t want anything happening to my friends because I was negligent on my duties as their doctor. They meant too much to me to risk that, everyone in the colony did.
By the time I was finished with Tanna we were within sight of the settlement. I had just taken Shui back from Karran and put her securely in her sling when Tarek sent, *Where should we put Third’s ship Tess’rha?*
The ship had proven to be larger than I had first suspected, perhaps a little more than twice the size of the personnel transport, and that wasn’t including the large wings, one of which had been sheered off when it had crashed. *Let’s put it on the edge of the settlement where we had this dropship before, there should be enough room, and we can put this one down behind the medical dropship on the northern side,* I suggested.
It was a tight fit, but we managed to get both ships landed in the proper places without damaging anyone’s shelters. It was nearly lunchtime and many of the people returning from their morning work shifts for lunch stopped to get an eyeful of the colony’s large and shiny new arrival. As we ate I had gathered my advisors to discuss the new ship and what it could mean for us. All of us Saer’khi were in attendance, as was Matt, Dennis, Luiza, Mandy, Lirra, Sarah, and of course Third.
I had decided that for now, nobody would be allowed inside the ship until we had a good idea what technology might be hidden away in there and a decent idea how some, if not most, of it worked. With that in mind, Third would be keeping the garage bay doors and ramp closed for now and would be monitoring the ship closely during the evenings. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust the colonists, well except for certain mutineers, but while I had the results of too much curiosity sleeping and nuzzling against my chest, I couldn’t let the others repeat that lapse of judgement with something potentially far more dangerous than a baby. I didn’t want anyone accidentally activating something they shouldn’t, getting hurt by entering the wrong area, or giving the engineering team even more work to do to restore the ship.
Third would be teaching us how things worked soon, starting with Karran and Xawin so that the two engineers could assist it with repairing any damaged systems, the outer airlock controls that had been damaged by so long under water, and any damage to the vehicles in the hangar. Xawin expected to have the water pipeline finished by the time his team finished their afternoon work shift, so he would be free to work with Karran and the mechanoid starting the next day. Now that we had the water pipeline in place we just needed to make sure that we had suitable materials for the construction nanites to work with to build the bathhouse.
As lunch neared its end we discussed the ship itself, the vehicles on board and how they could be useful to us, especially if an occupying force came from Earth before help could arrive from Saer’kah. At my request, Third had transferred some high resolution scans and schematics of the vehicles in the garage so that we could see what we had to work with. There were three different types of vehicles in the garage, and four of each kind.
The first of the three types was a large transport and cargo hauler meant for loading and unloading supplies, similar to the mag-lev transport we already had, but considerably larger. They would make things easier for the colony, but were by far the least interesting of the vehicles. The second type was some sort of multipurpose planetary exploration vehicle that seated up to ten people and which Third assured us could travel at fairly high speeds at low altitude with it’s antigravity field. It could also move along the ground on rough terrain, had a submersible mode, was resistant even to the high heat of molten lava, and had retractable drills and particle beam cutters for mining and underground exploration. Mandy was understandably excited about those, which she dubbed Crawlers due to the dozen retractable bug-like legs they used to get around in all-terrain mode.
The last type was the one that Tanna, Tarek, and I found the most interesting, and Luiza gave a low whistle before saying “I have to show these to Dot later, she would love to fly something like this.” It was a type of small and sleek single occupant trans-atmospheric vehicle that resembled an aerodynamic fighter jet, if aliens had built a fighter jet. All four of its wings were swept forward and the tail was sort of bulbous, containing multiple smaller versions of its main ion thrusters for maneuvering. There were similar thrusters located on the wings as well for high speed tilts and spins. It was fast, maneuverable, and designed for exploring asteroid belts or high speed travel in an atmosphere or space. I called them Hornets.
“So what kinds of weapons do these vehicles and the ship have?” Dennis finally asked the android.
“Weapons?” Third asked, tilting its head slightly in confusion. “It is possible that the particle beam cutters on the vehicle that you have designated the Crawler could be effective weapons, but the ship was meant to be used first for unseen observation. Once I had passed it on to the inheritors, both the ship and the vehicles inside were meant for peaceful exploration, and to seek out the Originators. Why would they put weapons on them?”
Dennis placed his head in his hands and shook it sadly as he muttered, “Oh I don’t know, maybe because during our exploration there is the possibility of meeting people who want to kill us?”
“The Originators concluded that the only other sentients that any of their nine child species would be likely to encounter would be one another. They determined that adding weapons would not be logical as they did not wish for any of their children to harm or kill one another, thus only defensive measures were put in place,” the android said matter-of-factly.
“Wishes don’t always come true,” Luiza spat bitterly. “Many humans, including those in charge of certain Earth governments have no problems harming and killing their own kind, let alone other species. And we’re pretty sure they’ll be coming at some point to take this planet from us by force.”
“Especially if they ever find out about those new elements that Xia discovered when we got here,” Mandy added with a sigh.
“Could we modify them and add some weapons in case of an invasion? What defensive measures do they have?” I quickly shot off the questions after I considered Third’s explanation.
“The Originators did not upload weapon specifications as part of my programming, it was considered unnecessary,” the robot explained before adding. “Though I believe that any weapon systems of sufficiently small size could be installed into the wings of the vehicle designated Hornets and incorporated into their systems without compromising the vehicles’ function or aerodynamics, resulting in a negligible change in performance. As for the defensive systems, I must admit that the transports have none, they were not meant to be put in hazardous situations. The ship has both the cloaking field generator and high output zero point energy shields, as do the Hornets. The Crawlers are equipped only with the shields.”
I nodded thoughtfully for a moment before finally speaking. “Okay then Third, your first priority will be those defensive systems and figuring out what other repairs are needed to get the ship and any of the vehicles that may have been damaged fully functional again. Xawin, research what weapons we might be able to fit into those Hornets and work with Third on making it happen. Karran, I want you working with Third on whatever repairs it feels are most important to the ship, you can start this afternoon. I also want you both learning everything you can about that ship and how it works from Third, you’ll get familiar with any details it can provide you with; schematics, blueprints, instruction manuals, or whatever else it might find in it’s memory banks.”
“Yes Commander!” the two Saer’khi engineers replied. I could still sense the excitement in their thoughts as our group split up to get to our afternoon duties.
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
|
A lot happened during the next day and a half, the first of which being that Third and Karran had finished their assessment of the damage to the newly recovered ship. Almost all of the ship’s systems had remained in good working order, with the outer airlock controls being the worst off. Those repairs were coming along nicely though and soon the only thing we’d need to do to get it flight-worthy again would be to replace the shorn wing. The vehicles in the garage had needed a little more work, but Xawin was working on those as he tried to figure out what types of weapons we could mount inside the wings of the Hornets. He was also using the memory archive to learn how to build those weapons. The ship remained off-limits to anyone but our engineers for now though, until Third could start teaching us about all of the technology inside.
Secondly, we had gathered enough of the proper resources for one of the nanite construction kits to begin building the large pre-programmed bathhouse that same afternoon that we had recovered Third’s ship. It had been properly connected to the water pipeline and rearranged the matter of those resources into the pre-set form, and by late the next afternoon it was complete. The required stone, ore and wood had depleted our resources for the moment, but to the colonists it was well worth it. I was already considering using the second construction kit to make a proper colony kitchen or possibly some sort of defenses for our settlement, but we would need to gather more resources first. For the latter option I would also need to wait until I could be parted with Shui for long enough to use the memory archive; to learn to program non-medical nanites and to get a working knowledge and blueprints for whatever I wanted them to build that wasn’t already pre-programmed.
Thirdly our food situation was very good at the moment. I had sent a crew with Tarek in the personnel dropship that morning after retrieving Third’s ship, to gather the remaining applums from the area where I had discovered them. Not only had they returned with the new fruit, but with a large harvest of winguts and lemonberries as well. In addition to all the fish and molehog meat we were pulling in lately, we would have been in good hands with just that. Sarah had gone off to check on that field of lavender grain she had discovered shortly after our arrival though and had judged it read to harvest, so soon we would be able to add some grains to our diet as well.
We also had the birds and the bees to help pollenate our future crops and provide additional food sources in the near future. We had released the bees, which we had cloned, into the wild and the hummingbird eggs had hatched as well. Now, whenever Amy wasn’t working on her studies or giving first aid she was spending a good deal of her time with the hatchlings, watching over them and feeding them a special nutrient fluid with a small syringe. It looked like she would have her hands full soon with the chickens being near ready to hatch as well.
As for our new colony children, I had decided to wait a bit to defrost the other Txela infants because, with as much attention as Shui needed from me, I didn’t want nine of us to be feeling that strain all at once. Our colony was doing well, but we didn’t want to stretch our resources too far with nine more mouths to feed and nine less people to contribute to the important work for as long as it took for those infants to properly bond with their new mothers. In the end I had decided that it would be best to stagger the ‘births’ every two weeks to allow for that bonding time, and to not strain the colony too much at once until we had more resources to work with.
I spent most of that day and a half caring for Shui and doing whatever light work I could, such as setting up the nanite construction kit or working on carving Shui’s Niadu doll when she was sleeping. Our bond was getting ever stronger and as much as I was unprepared to become a mother, I found myself extremely happy that I was. She still in her clingy stage of only wanting to be held by me, but as inconvenient as that could be at times it also felt nice. I was happy in a way that I never had been before. I had a child to soothe that Saer’khi maternal instinct and the people of the colony didn’t see me as a freak or a child, in fact for the most part I was liked and respected. I even had one Tess'hir, possibly two someday soon since things seemed to be going well with Matt.
Life on Unity was good, people were feeling good about making progress on our new home, and the newly finished bathhouse seemed to really help the colonists’ dispositions. It felt good to be making progress and to see actual results of our hard work. So, after dinner that night there was a relaxed and jovial air to our growing settlement. That very night we had even decided to come up with a name for it. I was nursing Shui after dinner while the other colonists all tried to come up with a somewhat suitable name for our new town. A lot of names were going back and forth, but none had really seemed quite right yet and there were only seven serious suggestions so far. “Do you have any ideas buddy?” Matt asked Tarek after somebody had suggested Botany Bay, which was met by a chorus of groans. Still the name was added to the growing list on Dennis’ tablet like all the others.
“I am not sure Matt,” my Tess'hir replied. “I think it should be something that embodies what we have achieved and that represents the spirit of the colony as a whole. Despite being so far from help and our dire situation when we got here, I think that we have done pretty well for ourselves so far.”
“Bud, you just used the words ‘so far’ twice in one sentence,” Matt teased with a laugh. A thoughtful look came over his face and he broke out in a grin. “That’s not a bad name, and it certainly does reflect the heart and soul of this colony of ours. Hey Dennis, hand me that datapad, I’m going to add Tarek’s suggestion.”
“But I didn’t suggest anything Matt,” Tarek said. His thoughts were a bit confused, but I couldn’t really help him since I had no idea what Matt was talking about either. Given that Matt’s ridiculous name for the unity-corns had won and stuck though I was a little curious and apprehensive about what he might suggest this time.
It was close to ten minutes later that the suggestions just started getting too ridiculous, due to the jovial mood of the colonists. We had ten serious suggestions by then though and decided to put it to a vote. Dennis approached each colonist in turn, showing them the datapad with the list of names and any notes on why each of them would be suitable. Once the suggestions had been read he had them tap on the name they were voting for, while the pad kept an unseen tally of how many times each name was tapped. When it was finally my turn I looked over the names in the list: Touchdown, Cratertown, Paradise City, Xanadu, Freedom, Sliptown, Seaside, Botany Bay, So-Phar, and Phoenix.
Although I finally got Matt’s joke upon seeing the list, I didn’t really feel strongly about any of the names so I tapped Freedom, since it was sort of along the same lines as planet’s name of Unity. “Very funny Matt,” I told him as I passed the datapad back to Dennis. “You really need to stop suggesting names for things.”
“Hey, I think it’s a great name and it’s perfect for our motley little crew of misfits. Besides Tarek wanted something that reflected the spirit of our community and I couldn’t think of any good names with ‘Xia’ in them,” he teased me with a wink.
“You couldn’t think up any good names with ‘Phar’ in them either apparently,” I quickly retorted as I shifted the now sleeping Shui into her sling. Then, since I had asked Dennis to make sure I was the last to vote, I turned to the former soldier and smiled. “So Captain White, would you care to announce the name of our settlement?”
Dennis called for attention and once the crowd was quiet enough he used that parade-grounds voice of his to announce, “Our little slice of heaven here on Unity now has a name! The winner, by a landslide, and the new name of our settlement is So-Phar!”
I cringed, probably blushing a deep shade of crimson, as I groaned and turned to Matt. “That’s it, you don’t get to name stuff anymore.”
“You’re just mad because it won,” he countered with one of his movie star grins.
I was about to counter his counter when Tanna pinged me. I could feel the excitement in her mind with the ping itself and even more so when she sent, *Xia you need to come to the communications console!*
*On my way Tanna,* I responded as I stood up. Then I tried to politely excuse myself to Matt and the others nearby. “Please excuse me, Tanna needs me at Comms, I’ll be back shortly.” Then as I left with Kit on my heels I swung around to point at Matt, “And don’t you think this is over handsome, I’ll get you back for that horrid name later.” Then I was dashing off back to the medical ship and the communications console inside.
Tanna was waiting for me with the biggest grin I had ever seen on her face and her mind was just brimming with excitement. *We got a data burst from Saer’kah! I’m de-encrypting it now so we can read it.*
I squealed in glee, both physically and mentally, causing Shui to stir from her sleep. Then, after a small self-chastisement, I shushed and cooed at her softly to calm her before she could start screaming and hopefully get her back to sleep, *Momma’s sorry Shui, shhh sleep now.* Once I had her settled again I turned my attention back to my fellow Ji’turi and we looked over the data from the transmission.
Saer’kah had gotten our message and was sending a kian’ja class vessel with new supplies and equipment for the colony and to help us get set up. As far as they were concerned the colony was ours, but they were happy that we had survived and eager to help us get on our feet as a new member planet of the Interstellar Alliance. They also wanted to trade for some of the mandium we had discovered as soon as we could get proper nano-mining facilities set up to extract and process it. Pharite samples were also of great interest to the scientists on Saer’kah. From the sound of the message we could probably expect the ship to arrive within ten to fourteen days from the time we received the transmission. *Holy shit, they’re sending a kian’ja?* I gasped in awe. Kian’ja class vessels were usually only used for first contact or other uncertain situations were there could be an element of danger involved. They were nothing like the colony ships or migration ships; they were massive, imposing, and bristling with weapons. Think mothership and then think bigger.
*That’s what the message says. The Ji’turi Council have taken your warnings about Earth pretty seriously too from the looks of it. Look here, they have been scanning humans who haven’t left on colony ships yet and they have found a few other devices like the one Eric had on other Americans. They have been finding hidden weapons and some sort of small communications devices as well. Not just on Americans either, there were people from several different Earth nations with hidden weapons or communications devices, some based on our technology.*
*What kind of communication devices? And what are they doing with the people they’ve caught?* I asked in concern.
*They varied in size and tech levels by the countries that had sent them, most were based on our own comm discs. They were small and fairly easy to hide on a person. The council was still having some engineers look over them when the data burst was sent. As for the spies, they will be sending them back to Earth once they’ve been thoroughly questioned telepathically. They have already closed their embassies on Earth and removed the Saer’khi ambassadors. The other member worlds of the alliance will be doing the same. Earth is officially out of the alliance. We have never done that before with a species that we have befriended.* The last was sent in a state of shock.
*To be fair, the majority of governments on Earth haven’t been very good friends to the Saer’khi, mostly they’ve been taking advantage of us. Not all humans are bad, we know that, but I’ve seen first hand how so many of them can screw over other humans, especially if they’re different or from another country. If they can willingly treat others of their own species that way, should we really be surprised that they’re doing it with us too?* I pointed out bitterly.
Tanna frowned, but I could sense the agreement in her thoughts, tinged with worry as she asked, *Do you think this could lead to war?*
*Not open war,* I replied after a moment to consider it. *At least not if there’s anyone with half a brain in office. Half of the countries on Earth are probably still fighting each other, despite Saer’khi efforts to enlighten them. It would be stupid to start a war on a front they aren’t ready for, so for now they’ll probably just bend over and take their punishment. They might still try underhanded tactics or spying here and there, but they know damn well that they don’t have what it takes to beat Saer’kah in an actual war, the tech advantage is just too great right now and they wouldn’t just be declaring war on the Saer’khi but the whole alliance. I don’t think even the stupidest of them would want to piss off the Murqui or Haran home worlds, they’re both nearly as technologically advanced as Saer’kah now and a whole lot scarier if you were to get on their bad side.*
*That could be why the council is sending a kian’ja. To make it official that we’re a part of the alliance and to protect our interests until we can get set up properly as a colony. It appears that the Bounty wasn’t the only colony ship that they lost contact with,* she offered with a frown, her surface thoughts dark and uncertain.
There were some very happy faces and cheers once I exited the medical dropship and announced to the colonists that we had finally heard from Saer’kah. Excitement seemed to buzz in the air at the thought of help being on the way, and the new supplies and equipment that would help us to thrive as well. The news concerning the state of affairs between Saer’kah and Earth though was met with mixed reactions. The optimists among us felt that with the Saer’khi sending such a large and heavily armed ship that nobody from Earth would dare to come after us. Then there were those of us who sided with good ole Murphy and were expecting the other shoe to drop at any time.
I and most of my close friends and advisors were in the second camp. Given our luck so far, and my own distrust of Earthers, I felt that we shouldn’t let our guard down yet and that we should keep going as we had been planning until that ship from Saer’kah was safely within dropship range of Unity. Earth could still get to us first and, though I didn’t want to distrust any of the colonists that I had gotten to know over our journey and time here on Unity, those easily hidden communication devices still gave me pause.
I had gathered my advisors in the dining area of the medical ship to discuss our plans in case forces from Earth arrived first. Once we were all settled I leaned back in my chair, slowly rocking Shui in my arms as I attempted to get the ball rolling. “Okay everyone, let’s talk scenarios and our responses to them. Dennis, Luiza, Dot? You’re our most experienced military personnel, so what kind of attacks could we expect do you think? Our intel from Jared indicates that the United States likely only has one spacecraft available, if that, but we have no idea about its size or capacity.”
“It really depends on the size of the ship,” Dennis said with a frown. “It could be just troops or there could be some aircraft and ground vehicles as well. For ground vehicles we may have to use those Crawlers, it sounds like they’re durable and they’re the only thing we have with anything close to weapons on them. Any chance we could whip up some anti aircraft weapons?” He looked toward Xawin and Karran as he asked the last.
“Not with what we have available at the moment,” Karran replied with a sad shake of his head.
“The Hornets are nearly ready to fly and I should be able to install high powered particle beam weapons in the wings,” Xawin put in once Karran had said his piece. “I should be able to fashion all the parts that I would need for them in the personnel ship’s nano-repair module now that we don’t need it for making plasteel pipes. I have an idea for a targeting system that should not take much work as well. I could be done within two days if Bixx can help me.”
“That sounds good,” I agreed with a nod.
Dot’s grin threatened to split her face in half. “Well that means a possible dogfight, and that’s where I come in. Luiza showed me the schematics and I’m pretty damn sure I can learn to fly one of those babies. We may even be able to harass the ship before it enters our atmosphere if those Hornets really are trans-atmospheric. The cloaking devices and shields should give us an edge in aerial or space combat, but we’ll need the best pilots we have available to learn the ropes.”
“Most of us Saer’khi have at least some basic flying experience with the drop ships and mag-lev transports, but our most experienced pilots aside from yourself would be me, Tanna, and Xia,” Tarek quickly supplied.
“Good, we’ll all need to familiarize ourselves with the controls and get some practice in as soon as those babies are ready,” the buxom blonde pilot stated with an eager grin. “Third, can you give us all a crash course on how to handle them?”
The android tilted his head at Dot as if confused. “I can easily instruct you in their operation, although I would advise not crashing.”
“It was a figure of speech,” Dot explained with a giggle as she shook her head. “I have no intention of crashing.”
As Third nodded Luiza laughed. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to wait to get one of those in the air honey. As good as it will be to be prepared for ground vehicles and aerial or space combat, we’ll also need to be prepared for possible surgical strikes or Special Forces. I’d suggest putting our EM shield up as soon as we know they’ve arrived and use the Crawlers and guerilla tactics to fight them if it comes to that. We know the terrain so we can set traps and ambushes or lure them toward where the crocosaurs feed or nest.”
I nodded curtly. “You’ll be in charge of the Crawlers, coordination, and defending So-Phar, if it should come to that Dennis. Dot, you’ll be in charge of combat when we’re up in the air. Luiza, you and Lirra will work with Matt, the Murqui, the Haran, and the Yazuik on guerilla warfare. We’ll start training in place of the afternoon work details once the Crawlers and Hornets are prepped.”
“Amy and I will handle the medical side of things,” Krie added as she looked at the grim faces around the table.
“I’ll be here with you, unless we have to deal with an air assault,” I agreed, sighing wanly down at the infant in my arms. “If that happens I’ll probably have to leave Shui with the two of you.”
“We’ll take good care of her Xia, you can count on us,” my sister quickly assured me.
That was when Tanna practically flew into the room from the direction of the communications console. “We have a problem,” she announced without preamble, “Someone just sent a subspace message and it was not me.”
“How is that possible?” Mandy pressed, a frown scrunching up her usually pretty face. “I thought that only the Comms console in this dropship was able to do that right now, and only because Karran increased its range.”
“I thought so too,” Tanna replied grimly. “This was not a normal Saer’khi signal and I probably would not have detected it at all if I hadn’t been at the console sending a reply to Saer’kah at the time. The signal is being sent through subspace, but not along our subspace beacon network, and the signal strength is far stronger than anything I’ve ever seen before. Could it be from your ship Third?”
The android shook its head. “No that is not possible Tanna, I have deactivated the subspace distress pulse and that is the only subspace signal that it would emit without someone with a working knowledge of the ship present to send a transmission. I am capable of utilizing subspace laser transmissions to communicate and exchange information with my fellow observers, but I have only connected to our network once since I rebooted.”
Tanna, Third and I made our way to the Comms console where Tanna had Third look at the signal. “What do you think Third?”
The robot carefully looked over the signal that Tanna had recorded before stating. “The signal strength and modulation is very similar to the subspace laser communications signals that my fellow observers and I utilize, except that the frequency is different. It is possible that the device which sent the signal has been adapted from the subspace network chip of one of my counterparts. I must also conclude that the device which sent the signal is on this planet and within close proximity to our current location.”
“So it could have been reverse-engineered by someone who had a damaged one of your kind?” I asked, hoping for clarification, but fearing the answer I might get. “Let’s say for example on Earth?”
“That would be a logical conclusion Xia,” the android agreed. “If that signal is being sent to someone on Earth, I would estimate the time of arrival to be thirty-seven hours and twelve minutes from now.
We returned to the others at the table and I sat down with a frown, my heart racing with anxiety as I muttered, “That signal wasn’t sent by Third or his ship, and it certainly wasn’t sent by us.”
“Do I want to know that means?” Sarah inquired with a heavy sigh. She already did know though, I could see it in her eyes. She wasn’t alone either since, from the looks on their faces, everyone else in the room knew too.
I practically growled, cursing Murphy and his damned law. “It means that we still have a spy.”
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
|
I looked around the room at my friends and advisors. At the moment they were the only people I could really trust, we had all been here in this room together when that transmission had been sent. I supposed that if the device were small enough it could have been hidden on one of them, relaying our talk and all of our defense plans to Earth. I didn’t want to distrust any of them though, they had all become good friends and were instrumental in helping the colony run smoothly. Still, except for Lirra and the other Saer’khi in the room they were all human and most of them were from the United States.
“No,” I told myself firmly, “It’s not any of them. I need to trust some people and these are my friends and family. None of them would do that.” Then I sighed and spoke aloud, explaining exactly what we had discovered from the communications signal that Tanna had recorded. Then I looked around the room once more and said, “We need to find this spy quickly and find out exactly who they’re reporting to, what they’ve reported, and any other useful Intel. Any ideas on how we can do that?”
Karran was the first to speak, his voice box buzzing slightly as he considered the problem and then turning to Third he asked, “Could you change the frequency of your subspace laser communications signal to match the one that Tanna recorded? Maybe use that to expose, or at the very least locate whoever is doing the spying?”
“It is probable that I can utilize my subspace laser communications system to locate and identify the culprit,” the android agreed.
“That’s a good idea,” Dennis quickly agreed, “but if you can do that quietly and without them knowing that we’re on to them, all the better.”
“That is possible,” Third quickly agreed, “I could utilize my systems to identify them while my cloaking field generator is engaged.”
“What do you have in mind Dennis?” I asked with an arched eyebrow. I really wanted to find them and get all the answers that we wanted as soon as possible so that we would know what we were up against, but Dennis was the military officer. He knew tactics better than I did and it sounded like he had a plan.
“I think that we need to start using this spy to our advantage,” he offered with a grin. “I think that it’s a good guess that they’ve been reporting about our progress here, Third and the ship, and any public knowledge we’ve made available to the colonists that would interest Earth. I don’t know if this device the person is using can send photos, but I would imagine that they’re building up sizable dossiers on everyone in this room as well. So at this point we have to assume that Earth has all of the information that any of our colonists do.”
I nodded reluctantly, “I would like to know specifics, but you’re right, they probably know everything except what’s in the ship, what it and Third are capable of, and the defense plans we’ve been coming up with this evening. What do we do then?”
“We let them keep thinking that we have no idea that there’s still a mole. We feed them selective information and manipulate their work rotations so that they aren’t seeing anything important. Their reports to Earth continue as scheduled until whatever ship they’re sending arrives,” Dennis suggested.
“It’s going to be pretty hard to hide that we’re training people on the Hornets and Crawlers,” Mandy pointed out.
Captain White gave a curt nod of agreement. “We have four pilots for the Hornets, so let’s choose four we can trust for the Crawlers as well and we’ll do the training well away from So-Phar. Sarah, you told me that the grain you found was ready to harvest? Where is it exactly?”
Sarah looked thoughtful for a moment before replying. “Its south of us, and it takes a good hour at least to get there from here. That would take them out of So-Phar and keep them far enough away to not notice anything out of the ordinary. It’s going to take at least a week for a small group to harvest all of that grain, and it makes sense to make it a priority anyway, given how short our diet has been on grains and how much I could do with some to improve our menu.”
“We’ll need somewhere to hide the Crawlers and Hornets too, preferably as far from that grain as possible. If we move them to and from the ship everyday there’s too much chance of someone noticing and letting it slip to the wrong person. I’ll need somewhere suitable to train the Murqui, Haran, and Yazuik in guerilla tactics too,” Luiza pointed out.
“There’s a small cave system in the cliffs to the northeast,” Mandy suggested. “I discovered it when I was first scouting for good mining sites for iron and mandium. There weren’t any sizable deposits of metals we needed, so I decided on the site we’re mining now near the coast. Those caves could hold the vehicles, and it might make good training on the Crawlers to do some excavating to expand them a bit.”
“I want you leading the Crawler unit Dennis. So, once we find out who the spy is, I want you to find three more people we can trust to pilot the others,” I told the Captain.
Dennis nodded his head, a pensive look on his face. “I have some people in mind, but we’ll need to see who our mole is before I make any final decisions.”
“Third, we need to know now any and all details that might be useful to us in defending ourselves and our colony from a possible attack. What capabilities your ship has and the one from Earth might have; scanners, travel speed, and useful technology that you might have up your sleeve. Don’t wait to be asked specifically about specific technologies. We need to know everything now.” I leaned back in my chair, watching the robot as Shui began to stir, her hunger penetrating my mind.
As I fed Shui we all listened as Third began to divulge specific technologies from its ship, though it also had the entire data archives of the Originators available should we have need of information or technology not included in the ship itself. If I hadn’t figured it out by the quality of the ship, the cloaking field generators, and the anti-gravity fields, I would have learned then that the Originators were a lot more advanced than we currently were. In some ways the Saer’khi had advanced beyond what they had explored, but their technological path was different enough that it would be like comparing apples and bananas.
For one thing, the Originators never used subspace to travel, it had been only theoretical to them and the research line had been abandoned when they had developed FTL drives. Yes, they had faster than light travel, so it was possible that Earth had a ship capable of it. The problem with that, according to Third, was that Earth would likely be inexperienced with that drive, if it had survived the crash at all, and with deep space navigation. Travelling through normal space at faster than light speeds required constant course corrections as well, to avoid things like stars, black holes, and asteroid belts. The Saer’khi, on the other hand would be travelling slower even with subspace being compressed, but they wouldn’t have to stop for anything or change course, merely follow the subspace anchors that we had dropped on our way to Unity. So it would be a race between Earth and Saer’kah to see which would get to Unity first.
The originators also hadn’t used nanites much since their early development. The Saer’khi nanites used what matter was already there to complete their work, repairing tissue or using the body’s own regenerative abilities for medical purposes. For construction they shift and reorganize pre-set matter into specific shapes, patterns, or complicated structures using stored blueprints. The nanites that Earth had been developing were more used as self replicating building blocks to create whatever was needed, but I couldn’t be sure of the state of that technology since had left Earth. What the Originators used was equally effective, but a lot faster than both, they used matter conversion.
There was a large matter converter on the ship, in one of those engineering rooms that I hadn’t dared turn anything on in, and it wasn’t just in the room, it was the room. There were also smaller versions of the same thing in each of the crew quarters. The things basically broke down matter to the subatomic level instantaneously and then rearranged electrons, protons and the like to reform those materials into the desired shape, material, or both according to whatever blueprints had been provided. The only limitation seemed to be that it couldn’t safely create living organic matter. Complex organisms were too… complex. With the matter generators, the proper blueprints, and enough raw materials to convert though, we could effectively arm all of the colonists with Saer’khi designed weapons, and construct the weapons for the Hornets, in hours instead of days.
The sensors in Third’s ship were also far more advanced than on even the medical dropship. It could detect individual life signs from orbit and distinguish between them and sense spatial anomalies or signals clear to the edges of the solar system. It could also connect to dozens of cloaked satellites in orbit to keep track of planetary life signs in real time. Most of those satellites were destroyed along with the planet’s third moon, but three had survived and were still functional. Third would be sending them an order to reposition their orbits for maximum coverage as soon as it returned to the ship.
It was of course their medical technology and sickbay that had captured Krie’s attention, as well as my own. Their genetic engineering and cloning abilities were light years ahead of our own and, while they may not have used nanites like we do, they did have a faster and more stable form of growth acceleration, high-speed tissue regeneration devices, gene re-sequencers, and various treatments for radiation exposure just to name the highlights. We couldn’t wait to learn how to use everything in that sickbay.
The next morning at breakfast Third tracked down our mole. Angela Conner was a quiet woman who did her work, didn’t complain, and seemed shy, but was usually friendly whenever someone did speak with her. She was the type that got lost easily in the crowd, and now I had to wonder if that was by design. She hadn’t really spoken with me or any of my inner circle directly since we landed and she was one of the few colonists other than the mutineers who hadn’t been claimed by a slip yet. Was that because she had purposely held back when that swarm of slips had followed Krie and her team home on that day of the storm, or simply because the slips were good judges of character?
Xawin had assured me that between having Bixx to work with him and having Third show him how to use the matter converter that they would be able to have the Hornets ready for the next day, even if it took them all day and into the night. With that in mind, at lunch I announced that the lavender grain Sarah had discovered was ready to be harvested and that the work crew for that would be decided that night and that Dennis would be informing those pulling harvest duty in the morning while issuing other daily rotation assignments. The plan was to rotate Angela between the harvesting and fishing crews where she would be well away from where we were working on training and drills with the Crawlers and Hornets. I had decided to put Woody in charge of the harvesting operation and I figured that I could trust both him and Seddar to keep a watchful but not obvious eye on her when they were let in on the plan.
Pallu would be doing her fishing in the mornings, but in the afternoons she would be the sole Yazuik training in guerilla warfare with Lirra, Matt, Luiza and a good portion of our Murqui and Haran populations under the guise of hunting. During those afternoons, Dot, Tarek, Tanna and I would be training on the Hornets and Dennis and his crew of Yvette Thorston, Ken Davies, and Kasumi Fujikawa would be training on the Crawlers. I approved of Dennis’ selections.
Yvette was a tall, blue-eyed and raven-haired, Nordic beauty from Iceland with a cybernetic left hand and a no-nonsense attitude that had earned her a lot of respect among the other colonists. She never complained or tried to shirk her jobs and she was always willing to help others with theirs as well. She was a little unapproachable to most people at first because she expected everyone to work hard for the sake of the colony and she didn’t approve of goofing off while there was work to be done. If she was on the job she was all business. Once she was relaxing though she was like a whole different person; friendly, supportive and always quick with a friendly slap on the back or a crude joke. I had liked her from the moment I had first talked to her on landing day.
Ken was a grizzled Bering War veteran. He had never seen active duty but rather had been a mechanic in the motor pool. His right leg was cybernetic up to mid thigh from when a bomb hit a little too close to the motor pool on the base he was stationed at in Alaska. He had been working on a vehicle at the time and when the bomb had shaken the building and caused the vehicle to fall on his leg, crushing it. He shared Yvette’s general attitude about work and the pair could often be seen relaxing together in their down time.
Then there was Kasumi. She was a one of the sweetest and most caring people in the colony, always willing to give a hand, one of the first to try to get to know the people of other species in our new home, and apparently one of my strongest supporters since we landed on Unity. When others had still been unsure about my leadership, my age, or the fact that I was a hybrid, she had made no qualms about the fact that she thought that I was the right woman for the job. She was a tiny young Japanese woman who had been sent to Saer’kah in the first Migration ships when she was fourteen, due to the fact that she was born blind and suffered from severe epileptic seizures that caused her to remain hospitalized for nearly a year before the Saer’khi found her. We had a lot in common actually with being Asian, hospitalized for much of our youths, and having our bodies fighting against us until the Saer’khi came to save us.
I had discovered while getting to know her a bit that Mom had actually been the one to see to her treatment and recuperation while I was still in my stasis tube. She had managed to remove the brain tumor that was causing the seizures and had given Kasumi a set of bionic eyes that not only let her see normally, but included the same alternate vision modes that my goggles gifted me with. Now that she had been given her sight and a new lease on life Kasumi was like a cheerful little whirlwind, smiling and laughing everywhere she went despite our grim situation at first. That cheerfulness had proved infectious as our situation began to steadily improve and now you would be hard pressed to find people in the colony that didn’t consider Kasumi a friend to some degree. She would have made a great candidate to become a mother for one of the Txela if it wasn’t for the fact that she was already three months pregnant.
Thinking about the three of them, I had decided that they and anyone else with cybernetic body parts would need some routine maintenance, so I decided to get to it before we started getting too busy with defense preparations and the like. I had examined Matt’s and Dennis’ recently, so I let them go about their afternoon work as usual while one by one I called in Amy, Dot, Yvette, Ken, Kasumi and a half dozen other colonists with replacement limbs. Amy’s limbs seemed in good shape, but I had made those myself, and not long ago at that, but all of the others needed some small tweaks or repairs and I was glad that I had thought to look them over.
Kasumi was my last patient and in her usual chipper mood. Dennis had already explained to her, Yvette and Ken what was going on and what they had been volunteered for and Kasumi seemed particularly excited to be trying to learn to pilot the Crawlers. I was hoping that she might have known more about Angela than I did, what with her being so friendly with everyone, but apparently the woman didn’t even let her get all that close. With talk of more serious matters over I had her test the adjustments that I had just made to her eyes. “Is everything clear now?” I asked as she blinked several times.
“Oh that’s much better,” she said with a grin. “I didn’t realize just how grainy my vision was getting.”
“You should have come to see me about it sooner,” I said shaking my head.
“You’ve been busy Xia, especially since you became a mom. How is Shui doing anyway?” She leaned over to smile at the infant currently sleeping in her sling. “She is such a cutie. I would have adopted one myself but you know…” she trailed off, giving her belly a gentle pat. She wasn’t obviously showing yet, but there was a slight roundness starting to make itself known.
“You still should have come to see me,” I insisted, but with a smile. One couldn’t not smile while talking with Kasumi it seemed. “Shui is doing well thanks, she’s still mostly just sleeping, eating, and dirtying nappies, and she’s not quite wanting to be away from me yet, but she’s healthy and seemingly happy. Seriously though, I’m your doctor, your friend, and the only one qualified to work on your eyes, so you should have seen me as soon as you noticed problems. Besides, we don’t get to talk much and I should be giving you a prenatal exam as well. Would you like to get that over with now too?”
“Sure! We might as well since I’m already here,” she agreed.
I began with her vitals, asking as I checked her pulse, “Any complaints that I should know about? Discomfort? Our diet hasn’t really been the best since coming here, so I’m a bit worried about your health and the baby’s.”
“I have no complaints really, other than the odd bout of morning sickness,” she replied with a shrug. “I guess I’ve been a little tired too.”
I finished checking her vitals and used my goggles to run a few quick scans. “Well everything looks good Kasumi, but I’m going to give you some calcium and vitamin supplements just to be on the safe side. I can’t really tell the baby’s gender yet from these scans, it seems to want to keep it a surprise for now what with its current position.”
“You’re the doc, Doc,” she said with a grin.
I tried my best not to laugh as I searched for the prenatal multivitamins that Ji’Turi used. We had a decent supply of them and they would provide all the vitamins and the extra calcium that I wanted Kasumi to have. Finding a bottle I handed it to the tiny woman and instructed her, “Take one with every meal.”
She took the bottle, giggled, and gave a crisp salute. “Yes Commander! One with each meal. Oh and when Shui is ready for some time away from you let me know, I should probably start getting some practice in if I’m going to be a supermom like you.”
“You’ll have to get in line behind Amy and my sister,” I retorted. “I’ll keep you in mind though. I wouldn’t worry about it too much though Kasumi, you’re going to be a great mother. Now get out of here and get back to work.” I playfully shooed her from the room and she gave me another sassy little salute before turning around and heading back to her assigned work for the afternoon.
For the next week the entire settlement seemed to be on edge, waiting to see who would arrive first, the Saer’khi or forces from Earth. We all tried to keep as busy as possible, especially those of us training to fight, if it came to that. We managed to keep Angela where she couldn’t see anything important and kept our progress reports on the ship and other matters during evening meals boring and only partially accurate. The Hornets were easy to fly, compared to the Saer’khi drop ships, and we were getting used to them quickly, and having fun doing so. Dennis’ team seemed to be doing equally well with the Crawlers.
We had also used the matter converters that we now controlled to create a supply of particle beam cylinders, in case it came down to fighting invaders instead of waiting them out in the EM shield like we planned to do. The idea was to wait for Saer’khi backup, and to use our other military strategies only as a last resort. A lot of that though depended on how large the ship was and what Intel on it we could get from the long range scanners on Third’s ship.
Shui wasn’t sleeping as much and didn’t seem to need to eat quite as often, though she continued to have quite the appetite when she did. Our bond had slowly settled into a strong mental connection that seemed just as deep as the one I shared with Tarek. It was strange, now that she was starting to get more comfortable being without me I found that I didn’t really want to be apart from her, if I could help it. Her presence in my mind was strong, unless I purposely blocked her out to give myself some privacy, and she was capable of projecting her infant thoughts and emotions to the other Saer’khi now, and even non Saer’khi, if they happened to be holding her at the time. She also seemed to pick up on their projected emotions.
It was late on the eighth night after we had discovered the presence of our spy that I was awakened by Kit shrieking, which of course woke Shui and got her shrieking. I tried to calm my baby girl when Tanna pinged me. *Xia are you awake?*
*Of course I am, who could sleep with all this racket?* I responded, my head pounding and my eyes twitching from the noise as I cradled Shui in my arms and tried to calm her.
*I’m in Third’s ship, we just picked up something big on the edge of the solar system. At its current speed it should reach the outer edge of the debris field in seven and a half hours.* There was a pause for a brief moment before she continued. *Third says that it’s likely that it is the ship from Earth.*
*Shit! I guess Earth got here first. The slips can’t have detected that though, so what in the hell are they going on about.* That was when a vision flashed into my mind of someone laying still on the ground by the EM shield generator and Angela standing above them with a particle beam cylinder in her hand.
I didn’t waste any time changing out of my nightgown, I just snatched up my own particle beam cylinder, placed Shui gently back on the bed and ran for all I was worth. *Angela is trying to take out the EM shield,* I sent to the other Saer’khi, not even bothering with a ping first.
I was the first to get there. Angela was rapid firing the cylinder at the shield emitter with Eddie Cruz, one of those who had volunteered for night watch, laying dead at her feet. I fired at her, but I was running so I only managed to wing her on the shoulder as the emitter sparked and smoked and the shield fell.
“Drop it Angela!” I called out, but that was when I felt something hit me from behind and a particle beam blew through my chest. I fell to the ground, my chest on fire and coughing up blood. I knew right away that this wasn’t good. The beam had probably cauterized the wound and missed my heart, but it had possibly punctured my right lung and there was severe trauma. I lifted my head to see where the shot had come from and there, standing behind me, was Jake with a particle beam cylinder his hand.
My vision was starting to get blurry and I gritted my teeth as Angela and Jake stood above me. “I hope you left that kid where I can find it Commander,” Angela said with a sneer. “My bosses may want to do an alien autopsy or two and I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. I wish I could get a sample of those nanites of yours too, people would pay good money for those, but then we’ll have the ability to make more once we get control of the ships.”
A lavender blur attached itself to Angela then as a shrieking Kit bit and clawed at her. She tired to shake the slip loose, but Kit was having none of that. It was then that I felt Tarek coming closer and when Angela did finally manage to shake Kit loose she was sent flying into the remains of the EM shield emitter with a crash and a sickening crunching sound. Jake was looking around frantically as Tarek appeared, his dark blue skin blending into the night sky. He tried firing at him, but Tarek was keeping to the air, dodging the frantic shooting and moving to quick for Jake to get a clear sense of just what, or who, he was facing. “Who’s out there?!”
“Heh,” I laughed, coughing up more blood as I did. “That would be my… husband, and is he ever *cough* pissed. Oh and… Jake. Remember that *cough* promise I made you?” His eyes widened as I reached out with every ounce of concentration I had left to take his neck in a tight telekinetic hold, and then I snapped it like a twig. I was vaguely aware then of shouts and people approaching, but that’s about when everything went black.
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
|
I awoke with a tingling throughout my chest, a fading burning that more annoyed than ached. I squinted my eyes as I opened them against the light of room and the first thing I noticed was that I wasn’t in the medical dropship. No, this was definitely Third’s ship. I was naked on one of the beds in the sickbay and a sort of retractable canopy with built in devices that I couldn’t make heads or tails of was sliding out from its position above me and back into the bed. As I was still trying to get my bearings Krie came into my field of vision and covered me with a thermal blanket.
*Try not to move yet,* my sister’s voice cautioned me, *You would be dead if that beam had hit your heart or punctured both of your lungs instead of just the one. If it hadn’t been for your nanites keeping you alive and healing you, you would have died. Between that and Third showing me how to use the high-speed tissue regeneration on the med bed, you’re fully healed, but you should rest a while. I would suggest at least an hour of rest. When you’re ready to get up, your uniform is on the bed beside yours, your nightgown was a lost cause.*
*How long was I out? What’s our status? I need to know what is happening.* I sent back to her, though I didn’t move for the moment. I could sense Shui in the back of my mind, her infant mind reaching for mine now that I was awake and it felt like she was upset. Kit too had sensed that I was awake and I could feel the slip’s sudden burst of joy being send along the connection that we shared.
*You’ve been out for just over six hours Xia, you had us all worried,* Krie explained, concern emanating from her mind as she wrapped me up in a mental embrace. Her surface thoughts were filled with worries about my close call and the possibility of losing me like she had her other sister Jhirai.*Third and Karran have used the matter converter to construct a new EM shield emitter and generator and Karran is setting them up now. The EM shield is bigger and more powerful than what we were using before. The ship from Earth should reach the debris field within an hour, but they’re going to have to slow down considerably to navigate it safely, if a ship that large can manage it at all. Either that or they’ll have to go around and try to approach from the other side of the planet, but that would probably take even longer.*
*I feel fine sis, you did a great job and I know it probably wasn’t easy with it being me and using tech that we haven’t been trained on. I’ll have to thank Third for showing you how it worked. Did Eddie pull through?* I asked, remembering briefly seeing him on the ground near the EM shield emitter when I had arrived to stop Angela.
*Eddie and Jamir are both dead.* The sadness and anger in my sister’s mind at the loss of life was thick and almost smothering. *Jamir was attacked from behind, his throat was slit and he probably didn’t even know what hit him. His particle beam cylinder was missing so we’re assuming that they used it to kill Eddie and then took his as well so that Angela could destroy the shield emitter and have Jake waiting to kill anyone else who approached. Jake and Angela are both dead too by the way, and so are the other mutineers, except for Jared. Dennis and Luiza wanted to confine Tony and John in the medical dropship behind EM shields, but they… resisted.*
I knew that I had killed Jake, it was the last thing that I could recall before blacking out, and Angela’s death didn’t really surprise me either with the way that Tarek had sent her flying into the remains of the EM shield emitter. Six more lives lost, and from the looks of it they probably wouldn’t be the last. Four of them may have been traitors and spies, but Eddie and Jamir were good men and their loss would be felt by the whole colony. *What about Angela’s communication device?* I asked hoping that we could salvage at least some useful information from this mess.
*Dennis searched her body and found a knife and the communication device. It was damaged, but Xawin said that it is mostly superficial and he is working on restoring it so we can look it over.* That was when Shui’s screaming, both mental and physical hit me like a punch. I could feel both her and Tarek approaching and looked up to see my Tess’hir entering the medical bay with the Txela infant cradled in his upper arms. They weren’t alone either, as Matt, Amy and Jittu were only a few steps behind Tarek with my eldest adopted daughter tightly holding the hand of my Murqui spirit-child.
They all looked relieved to see me awake and alert. My baby was very hungry though, and really wanted her mommy, so I reached out to softly brush her mind with my own. The mental caress was gentle and loving as I told her. *I’m here Shui. Everything is going to be okay.* Then I looked up at the group and attempted a smile. “So, I get visitors now?”
Matt gave me a smirk, but I could see in his one natural eye that he was worried about me as he spoke. “Well pretty much everyone in So-Phar is wanting to make sure you’re okay, but Dennis and Mandy have managed to convince everyone not to overwhelm you and keep it to just family for now.”
“I see,” I replied as Krie helped ease me into a sitting position and Tarek handed Shui over so that I could feed her. Once she was suckling contentedly at my breast and I could feel her mind nuzzling in the embrace of my own I looked at my gathered family. My sister, my Tess’hir, two adopted daughters, the adoring Murqui who had been so eager to have me as her Niadu, and then there was Matt. He had been slowly adjusting to the idea of Saer’khi marriages and I would happily take him as my second Tess’hir if it was something that he was interested in. My life certainly had changed since we landed on Unity.
Now that I was properly sitting I gave those gathered a reassuring smile. “I’m fine, don’t worry about me. It’ll take more than that to bring me down.” Amy and Jittu seemed to take that as their cue to practically jump onto my bed to hug me. It made feeding Shui a little awkward, but she was really too hungry to care and very involved in sating that hunger. Since it didn’t seem to be bothering her too much I wrapped my free arm around the other two girls and held them both close for a moment. “Its okay girls, Krie patched me right up. What kind of adoptive Mom, or Niadu, would I be if I let myself die from something like that?”
Jittu was saying something as I let the pair go, but she was blubbering, sniffling, and talking so fast that the translator was having a tough time picking up what she was saying. I softly stroked the young Murqui’s hair. “Shhh, calm down Jittu. You asked me to be your Niadu because you felt that I was the greatest warrior in the colony right?” I waited until she had nodded her brown-furred head and then cupped her chin so that she was looking right at me. “Even the best warriors can be surprised or make mistakes. The important thing is that we learn from those mistakes, that we see them, not as a weakness, but as an opportunity to become stronger. Jake was a coward who attacked from behind with a long range weapon while hidden because he was afraid of me. So why am I alive and he isn’t?”
The Murqui shook her head in confusion, still sniffling a bit. “I don’t know Niadu.”
Since becoming Jittu’s Niadu I had been trying to learn as much as I could about the Murqui’s warrior/hunter culture whenever I had a spare moment by talking to Jittu’s parents, Rinnik, and Lirra. My occasional sessions with Lirra since I had become Shui’s mother had been the most informative though, as my friend coached me in many Murqui legends and traditions whenever we had been working together on the Niadu dolls for our Txela children. It had not only given me an appreciation for Murqui culture, but it had also given me insight into why Jittu may have chosen me as her Niadu and what kinds of lessons that she may need from me as her role model.
I ruffled Jittu’s hair again as I told her honestly, “It is in part because of my nanites keeping me alive, so I was prepared as a good warrior should be, but it is also because I have Sihrval, the warriors heart. He fought for nothing but his own gain, but I had important things to fight and live for. It was that which gave me the strength to stay alive and defeat him when he thought that he had won, and not die on the battlefield. This colony is our clan, our triihal, and they wished to harm us all. No good warrior would allow harm to come to their triihal if they still had breath in their body and I have to keep on living to protect and provide for us all, be a good mother to my children, and train them and my niahisse to defend the triihal when I am old and grey.”
She was still a bit teary-eyed when she looked up at me, but she nodded and managed to say, “Yes Niadu.”
I kissed her softly on her furry forehead and gave her a serious look. “I am fine little one, I will be out and about in an hour or two. Now go niahisse, I believe it is your job to spread the word of my victory and carry my words to the rest of the triihal. Tell them that I will not allow myself to fall to such a cowardly attack and that I will address them all in two hours.”
The young Murqui nodded and quickly blurted out, “I will Niadu!” Then she was off.
“She was so worried about you, we all were,” Amy said as she sat on the side of the bed her eyes moist.
“I’m not checking out anytime soon Amy. Like I told Jittu, I have too much to live for and too much to do. Besides, didn’t I promise to take care of you and teach you? I don’t plan on breaking that promise. I know that if I did die that you’d still have Krie, Tarek, and Matt, but you’re just starting to get over losing your real mom and I remember what that pain was like, so I’m not going to let you lose me too. Not when I have a say in the matter.” I wrapped her up in my free arm and held her close for several minutes before finally letting her go.
Krie and Amy returned to the medical dropship then so that Amy could check on the chicks and so that the pair could begin setting up for a possible triage situation in case of combat in or near So-Phar. If it came to that we were probably going to be best served by using the medical devices and techniques that we were already familiar with until Third could teach us how everything in the sickbay of his ship worked. Krie had also made no attempt to hide the fact that she thought that Matt, Tarek, and I should have a bit of time alone.
As soon as the pair had left the room Matt glared down at me and took my hand that wasn’t currently cradling Shui in a grip that I thought might crush it if he wasn’t careful. “Don’t you ever scare us like that again, I thought that we were going to lose you. Our nanites don’t make us indestructible you know.” As he gripped my hand I could sense the emotions running through him; fear, love, and concern mostly, though they were all a bit hard to read at first from the signals that his brain was sending being ‘translated’ for his bionic limbs.
“Angela was trying to destroy our EM shield and we needed it for our defense with Earthers on the doorstep and I was the first person there,” I replied, trying not to snap at him because I knew that he was just worried and upset. I had a brief flash of memory, of my first and only aborted attempt to live in the barracks on Saer’kah before moving in with my family. What those men had tried to do to me before I escaped, what they had done to my wings, and how long that it had taken for my nanites to heal me and grow my wings back after. I shuddered at the memory and gave Matt a long hard look. “If anyone knows the capabilities and limitations of our nanites it’s me.”
Tarek of course sensed my unease and wrapped me up in a mental embrace, though he wasn’t going to go easy on me either. “The EM shield emitter and generator can be and are being replaced, you can not be Tess’rha. I was so scared that I was going to lose you when I got there and saw you laying on the ground. I could barely sense your thoughts.”
“I know!” I felt bad about snapping, neither of them really deserved it after all, they were just showing how much they cared about me. “I should have been more careful! I was half asleep and there was an immediate threat to the colony and a man who I might have saved if I had gotten there quick enough, I am not going to apologize for trying to do something about it. I admit that I should have gone in there with a better plan and I’m sorry for worrying you. Sure, I was wounded, but I managed to pull through because I had my nanites. Eddie and Jamir are both dead though because I didn’t lock that bitch Angela up when I first found out about her. Tell me, what’s the real tragedy here?”
Matt looked like I had slapped him and took a step back while Tarek’s thoughts were filled with guilt and worry. “Tess’rha, you can’t blame yourself for…”
I cut Tarek off. I knew what he was going to say and I didn’t want to hear it just then. “I can blame myself. Six more lives lost, two of them good men, because I decided to go along with this misinformation plan. Well I damn well hope it worked, because the cost was high enough.”
“Xia, we all agreed to the plan, this isn’t just on your head. She seemed to be just observing and sending messages to Earth, we had no reason to believe that she would pull something like this,” Matt said shaking his head sadly as he tried to calm me down.
“We all agreed, but I’m the ‘Commander’, I could have vetoed the whole thing and locked her up tight,” I quickly countered before my anger got the best of me. “No reason?! Does anybody remember Eric Townsend?! Angela was a fucking Earth spy, she was lying to us all from day one, and she was keeping at least one device hidden from us! We had every reason to think that she would pull something like this eventually!”
We were all quiet for a long while after that as I tried to calm myself down. My flare of anger had frightened Shui and now I was trying to soothe her, and myself by mentally and physically snuggling her while focussing the deeper recesses of my mind on other things. As much as I blamed myself for my short-sightedness and the deaths of Eddie and Jamir I also knew that there wasn’t anything I could do about it now, so I needed to focus on things that I could do something about. It was a bit like triage for my thoughts, trying hard to tell myself that there was nothing I could do for patient one and that patients two onward would be dead too if I didn’t act quickly and decisively.
Once I was calm again, with my thoughts in order and a plan in place I took a deep breath before hesitantly speaking again. “Tarek, Matt… I’m sorry. I’m not mad at you, or even myself really, I’m angry about this situation. I’m angry that Earthers have to be so selfish and ruthless and that we’re suffering for it. We’ve lost so many lives already because of their greed and self-entitlement and I don’t want to lose any more, at least not on their terms.”
“I know Tess’rha,” Tarek said, sadness evident both on his face and in his mind. “I love you and you are not feeling this alone though. We are all angry, we all feel the losses of our fellow colonists, and we all…” He trailed off uncertainly.
“We all want to start kicking their asses for a change?” Matt suggested helpfully. ”Well, great timing for that with a whole ship of Earth’s military practically in orbit.”
As much as I was inclined to distrust ‘Earthers’, even I knew that they weren’t all responsible for our problems. Not all people on Earth were greedy, self-centered and willing to do anything to get what they wanted. Not even all nations were like that, but we couldn’t really afford to hope for the best while dealing with a planet where the bad seemed to far outnumber the good. That was why the Saer’khi had cut off diplomatic ties upon finding so many spies sent to Saer’kah for the colony project, and it was probably not done lightly since it had been the first time that it had ever been done with an allied planet. “They don’t really represent Earth as a whole, but they are the ones who have been the source of all our grief so a little payback would be nice,” I admitted. “They’re Americans, like we used to be, I just hope that the other former Americans among us can handle fighting them.”
Matt shook his head sadly. “We all stopped being Americans the moment that they shipped us off to another planet. We all have a new home now, a home we want to protect, and they’re our enemies. We all accepted that the moment that Eric’s actions stranded us here and you banded us together. You named this planet Unity and we are all together in this, no matter what happens.”
Shui had apparently eaten her fill and the snuggling along with the warm loving thoughts that I had been sending her since I had calmed myself down were conspiring to make her content enough to sleep. Tarek held out his arms and leaned over to softly kiss me before offering, “Let me take Shui back to your room on the medical ship for a nap Tess’rha. Matt mentioned wanting to talk with you privately for a bit before we came to visit and I can watch over Shui until you’re feeling strong enough to get up.”
“Thank you Tess’hir,” I replied, handing Shui over to him and kissing him back tenderly. Then I sent him mind to mind, *I’m sorry for worrying you so much Tarek. I love you and I’d never do anything to hurt you if I could help it. I should have been more careful, but if there was a chance that I could stop Angela or save Eddie’s life I had to take it.*
*I know,* he agreed, wrapping me up in the warmth of his mind as he took Shui from me, smiling down at her. *I love you too, and if you had not taken that chance you would not have been the Ji’turi that I love, so I understand why you did it. Just please be more careful in the future, I don’t know what I would do if I lost you.* Then he kissed me one more time and left me alone with Matt.
There was an awkward silence once Tarek had left the room, Matt and I both looking at one another, uncertain of what to say for several minutes. Finally it got to me and I pulled off the thermal blanket, swung my feet over the side of the med bed, and reached for my uniform sitting on the bed to the right of mine. I should have probably waited until I was alone, and I was a bit self conscious about being naked in front of Matt, but I couldn’t just sit there in bed while Matt figured out whatever it was he wanted to say. He and Tarek had both already chewed me out for being reckless, so that couldn’t have been what was on his mind.
Matt had turned away to give me some semblance of privacy to dress and it wasn’t until I was completely dressed that he managed to say, “Xia… for a while there I thought that we were going to lose you, we all did. I know that we’ve only known each other since that first day on the Bounty, but I’ve never met anyone like you and I don’t think that I could handle losing you now that I’ve gotten to know you.”
“Well I am the only Human-Saer’khi hybrid, at least that I know of,” I offered.
“Come on Xia! I’m trying to have a moment with you here!” he sputtered as he instinctively turned around. He looked like he was ready to turn away again, but when his eyes roamed over me and discovered I was wearing my uniform he managed to stop himself. Instead he looked down at his feet as a blush painted his cheeks.
“I think you’re better at that when there’s a script involved, oh great and mighty movie star,” I teased. Hey, he constantly teases and flusters me, so a little payback is just fair play. The look of frustration and uncertainty on his face though made me decide not to push it any further. Whatever he wanted to say, he was having trouble with it and I’d never known Matt to lack confidence about anything before. So I sat back down on the med bed and sighed. “I’m sorry, please continue.”
Matt took a deep breath and nodded slowly, though it was a moment before he managed to tentatively speak again. “Like I said, I’ve never met a girl like you before, and it’s not because you’re half Saer’khi. You’re smart, funny, brave, and beautiful and sometimes you just frustrate me beyond belief. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately and when we almost lost you I realized just how much I would be missing without you. Now if this were a movie, I’d be kissing you, telling you that I love you and asking you to marry me, but our lives aren’t that simple are they?”
“I don’t think my life was ever that simple, yours probably wasn’t either,” I pointed out, though I smiled to encourage him to keep talking.
“Well here’s the thing. Those people on Earth can have their simple lives if they want them, but here we don’t have to limit ourselves to fit in. We live in a supportive colony made up of so many different cultures, people who accept one another without judgement, and I guess it’s taken me a while to get used to that. I don’t want to take you away from Tarek, he’s one of my best friends, but maybe that will just make it easier for us all if I join him instead.” Matt had been fidgeting nervously as he spoke, but now he took a deep breath as he knelt down before me and then he looked up into my eyes. “Xia… my mind is your mind.”
I stared at him for a long moment my eyes wide and it felt like my heart was about to explode out of my chest, and given that I had had a particle beam blow through my chest not that long ago, I had a pretty good basis for comparison. Once I finally caught my breath and my pulse had slowed I noticed that he hadn’t moved, he was still there, waiting. So I did the only thing that made sense, I cupped his face in my hands, and reached out for his mind.
It was a bit strange with the static produced by the signals sent along his nervous system but his mind was there and open to me. Even though his emotions were all over the place the only negative ones seemed to be fear and uncertainty and I attempted to allay those as I explored his mind carefully, my mental probe like a lovers caress, loving and soothing. He held back nothing, his emotions, doubts, fears, and memories all there for me to see. I took my time exploring, getting to know him as only he knew himself and each new discovery just made me feel that much more connected, that much more in love with him.
It was nearly an hour later that I retreated from his mind, soothing his fears and wrapping him up in my loving embrace as I fell to the floor and kissed him. My mind and body were both electrified, every nerve ending and firing neuron in a state of bliss and wonder that I had only felt once before, and I knew that he felt exactly the same. We were connected now and for a while we just knelt there in one another’s arms enjoying the moment. And when we finally pulled away and stood up I could still feel his mind, not as strong as Tarek’s but definitely there, even though we were no longer touching. I had to wipe joyful tears from my eyes as I leaned forward, kissed him once again and said, “Thank you Tess’hir.”
“Anything for you Xia,” he replied, flashing that movie star smile. Then tentatively, he asked, “So what do we do now.”
I thought about if for a moment. “Well long term, we start planning the marriage ceremony since I think I have the only two Tess’hir that I’ll ever want. But, short term we have other things to worry about. The enemy is at our door and we need to kick them to the curb. Once I get some status updates from Tanna and Third I’ll need to address the colony as a whole so we can plan our final strategy. Let’s get going Tess’hir, they may have claimed first blood in this war, but we’re going to end it.”
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
|
Matt and I left sickbay and made our way through Third’s ship and up the anti-gravity chute to the command center where the android and Tanna were looking over a pair of the large display screens. One showed scans of the solar system and another seemed to be a view of the continent that we were located on. “What’s our status?” I asked as we came within casual conversation range.
*Xia! It’s good to see you up and around, we were all so worried when Tarek found you,* Tanna sent mind-to-mind her thoughts filled with relief. Then, taking a deep breath to get her thoughts in order she began speaking aloud for Matt and Third’s benefit. “The approaching ship has slowed and is taking the long way around the debris field,” she said while pointing out a large blip on the screen. Then she pointed to a group of smaller blips. “We think that those are some sort of shuttles, they are too large for short range fighters, but quite a bit smaller than our dropships so we think they may be for dropping personnel. They separated from the ship when it reached the debris field and they’re making their way through it toward the planet now. Third estimates at least five hours for them to make it through and reach orbit at their current rate of speed.”
“The main ship will take twice that time to maneuver around the field,” Third quickly added. “They cannot utilize their FTL drive safely in the middle of a solar system and the sub light engines appear to be inadequate for a ship that size, given their current velocity.” The android then pointed to the second screen. “As you can see, I have repositioned the cloaked orbital satellites to provide coverage of Unity’s northern continent so that we may track troop movements in real time.”
“Now I guess all we can do is wait and plan our counter attack,” Tanna said with a sigh.
“How fast could the hornets maneuver through that field?” I asked after a bit of thought. “We need to buy time until the Kian’ja gets here from Saer’kah. Maybe we can slow the main ship down and take out a few of those shuttles before they can land.”
“To safely traverse the debris field from orbit to the larger ship’s projected trajectory, I estimate just under two hours, with the same amount of time required to return,” was the Android’s response. “Locating and disposing of the smaller vessels inside the debris field may prove difficult though.”
“Well at least it’s an option, and it could slow them down until our reinforcements arrive,” Matt pointed out.
“I’ll bring it up when I address the colonists,” I said with a grim nod before turning my attention back to Third. “Krie said you showed her how to use the tissue regeneration on the med beds and that probably saved my life, or at the very least sped up my recovery time significantly. Thank you.”
The robot gave one of its curious head tilts. “I was programmed to watch over this planet’s inhabitants and to serve their needs once they were ready to meet the Originators. You lead those who currently live on Unity, representing many of the Originators’ child races attempting to live in peace with one another. You have made the care of the Txela children a priority, including them in your community. I will therefore serve the needs of this colony. The loss of your life would have dealt a significant blow to your people and endangered both them and the Txela infants. I could not allow that to occur. This colony must be preserved.”
The whole colony seemed to be gathered in the area where we ate our meals and there was a palpable tension in the air. I had already talked to the other Saer’khi via telepathy and commed Dennis and my other advisors, so they had all dropped what they had been doing to join the impromptu meeting as well. “Attention everyone!” I called out. The nervous buzz of conversations slowed and then quickly stilled as all attention focused on me for the moment.
“Let me first begin by saying that any rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated, you won’t be rid of me that easily.” The crowd erupted into a loud cheer and it was several minutes before they settled down enough for me to speak again. “Anyway, thanks to Krie and Third I’m up on my feet again and eager to deal out some payback and defend our home. Our situation is this: We have a large military vessel from Earth currently making its way around the debris field to approach Unity. It has dropped what looks to be close to a dozen smaller shuttle-like craft which are currently making their way through the debris field and we estimate around five hours before they can enter orbit and start dropping off whoever or whatever they’re carrying. Make no mistake, this is an invasion, but Unity is ours and I am not going to let anyone try to take it away from us!”
After another thunderous cheer I started to lay out the plan for those not in the know. “As you all can see,” I said pointing upward, “Karran has the new EM shield generator operational. He’s told me that with our new generator we can probably keep the shield up continuously for three days before we’ll have to switch or recharge the power. Sarah tells me that, with some rationing, our current food supplies could last us close to a week. We have reinforcements coming from Saer’kah so all we really need to do is survive and buy time until they can get to us. We have plans place to try to buy us that time, but for that we’re going to need everyone’s help.”
Nervous conversation began to filter through the crowd so I raised my hands again for silence. “Most of you will be staying under the safety of the shield and will be issued particle beam cylinders in case of the worst case scenario. I know that every one of you would be willing to fight for our new home, but I’m really hoping that that won’t be necessary. Those of you staying under the shield, try to keep busy and don’t lose hope or panic. Remember that Krie, Amy, and Kyle will be available for first aid or other medical issues, as will I when I’m not organizing or involved with our defense. I’ll let Captain White explain our plan.”
Dennis nodded and turned to the crowd to address them in his booming parade grounds voice. “A lot of our defense will involve equipment that we found on Third’s ship that we have repaired, and in some cases weaponized. We will be sending four space-capable one-person crafts that we call Hornets out as our first defense to attempt to harry and delay our opponents and if possible prevent the shuttles from reaching the planet. Should any of the shuttles enter orbit they will attempt to shoot them down or force them into a landing far from So-Phar. That is where our Crawlers come in. They are heavily armored and will be prepared to take on any ground vehicles or concentrated attacks. We also have our resident former Navy Seal working on ways to keep any ground forces from reaching So-Phar.”
Luiza grinned at the offhand introduction as the small and deadly woman spoke up. “We know the terrain and they don’t so if they get forces on the ground we’ll be fighting a guerilla war. They think we’re all a bunch of castoffs, rejects, and aliens. We’ll let them keep thinking that until we drive the knife home. We hit and run, set traps, and hit them with every resource this planet has to provide.”
“So that’s the situation everyone,” I told the other colonists with a grim expression, “but as you can see we’re doing everything we can to stop our visitors. Those of you not directly involved, if you think that you help with anything please talk to Dennis or Luiza. Otherwise keep each other company, keep hope alive, and if it should come to it, keep each other safe. I don’t want to lose any more colonists if we can help it. It’s never been the planet or the resources we have that make Unity such a great colony and home, it’s all of you. Now let’s get ready to defend our home.”
It was several minutes before the applause had died down and the crowd started to dissipate. I was about to go check on Shui so that I could feed her again before heading out with Dot, Tarek, and Tanna for the cave we had affectionately started calling the Hornets’ Nest when Sarah approached me, shoving a heaping plate of food in my hands. “Eat,” my friend told me with a serious expression. “You nearly died, and you missed breakfast, so you probably really need it. I saved one of the last applums for you and there’s an extra helping of honey.”
I didn’t argue. I was already starting to get lightheaded and shaking a bit from low blood sugar and I was starving. The honey and fruit would give me an immediate boost while the protein from the grilled molehog slices and smoked seussfish would keep me going for a while. The plate even had some of the lavender grain made into something like oatmeal, which went well with the honey. Sarah had named the grain whoat, since it had a lot of similarities to wheat in nutritional value and possible uses, but the seeds were more oat-like in texture and size and had a slightly nutty flavor.
Once I had finished eating it all under my friend’s watchful eye, Sarah gave me a small roughly made satchel with several ration bars, some molehog jerky, wingnuts, and smoked seussfish inside. “That’s in case you’re in the Hornet for a long time or need to crash land or something, if you ration it could last a few days if necessary. I’ve already given Dot and the others theirs. Be careful up there.” She hugged me tight and then took my plate to head back to preparing the midday meal.
I was again delayed from going to see to Shui when I found Matt, Tarek, and Krie all talking in the living area of the medical dropship. Almost in the same instant that I felt her ping Krie was near-smothering me in mental affection. *Congratulations Xia! I’m so happy for you sister!*
*I take it that Matt told you that he offered me his mind?* I replied as I smiled and returned my sister’s mental embrace.
*Well he tried to, but he was a bit awkward about it,* she replied, her mind filled with humor and elation. *Tarek sensed the extra presence emerge in your mind when Dhur-tal was made and wanted to welcome him to your Kal’aish. Xawin finally got up the nerve to ask me earlier while you were recovering so now I have Tess’hir too.*
Matt was currently blushing a bright red as Tarek told him, “I am so happy that you finally asked her Matt. You are a good friend and you and Xia care deeply for one another. I cannot think of a better addition to Xia’s Kal’aish. Now she will just need to decide if she wants to add any more Tess’hir and we can begin planning the ceremony.”
“Thanks bud, it’s still a bit strange to get used to, feeling her in my mind all the time, but you’re a good friend and I don’t mind sharing her with you. What’s a Khalaishe though?” Matt responded, smiling at his fellow Tess’hir.
“In human terms, the closest thing I can think of is harem,” I told him with a grin. “And as for more Tess’hir Tarek, I think I’ll be happy with just the two of you, so we can start planning once this situation with Earth is dealt with. Now as much as I love you all and would love to stay and chat for a bit, I should feed Shui and hand her off to Amy so Tarek and I can get in the air.” I hugged each of them tightly and headed into my bedroom to check on the baby.
Shui was still napping, but I woke her to feed her since I would probably be gone anywhere from four to six hours even if things went well and I didn’t want her to be too fussy when I left her in Amy’s care. Krie would have to be ready in case of a medical situation and while she might ask Amy to assist, if it came to that there were plenty of volunteers to watch over the baby for a while. Shui didn’t eat too much since she had fed only two hours before, but she was pleasantly full and a bit sleepy once again as I helped Amy put the baby sling on and showed her how to nestle Shui comfortably inside. Wrapping the infant up in a warm mental embrace of all the love and affection I had for her I told her, *Momma has to go for a while, so your big sister Amy is going to take care of you.*
I repeated it physically for both their sakes and kissed them both on the forehead in turn. “I’ll be back as soon as I can Amy, hopefully she’ll nap for some of that time, but this should be a good time for you to get used to spending time together as sisters. Just be careful of the tentacles and try to both talk to her and send her thoughts of love, reassurance, and affection. Kit will be watching over both of you, Krie will be here to help whenever she’s not too busy, and I’ll still be in subspace comms range the whole time.”
*Watch Amy and Shui, protect them,* I sent to Kit as I took her in my arms to nuzzle her and give her loving scratches. The slip had been worried since I had been injured and Krie had had a hard time separating her from me when she had taken me to Third’s ship for medical attention. The whole time that I had just been feeding Shui she had been nuzzled up against me buzzing happily and sending happy feelings into my mind. She seemed reluctant to leave my side now, but I sensed something like an affirmative as she hopped up onto Amy’s bed beside Violet and began to watch the pair with surprising intensity.
“Don’t worry Xia, Me and Violet will take good care of my little sis,” Amy said as she grinned and reached down to tickle Shui’s feet, causing her to squirm and emit a sound close to a sleepy little giggle.
“I know you will Amy, extra nappies are in my room on the bed and if you need help with changing her and cleaning them after Mandy said she’ll show you and Krie how, she has plenty of experience. If she gets hungry before I get back Pallu’s mother Jinna has offered to help,” I added somewhat nervous at leaving them. I knew that I could count on Amy, but I felt better knowing that my sister, Mandy and Jinna were there to back her up. The Yazuik woman still had her infant daughter Inja in her pouch and said that she had plenty of milk to spare for a feeding or two if need be, now that Shui wasn’t as clingy with me. I knew that everything was well in hand, but I just didn’t want to leave my girls alone. I guess that comes with being a mother. With an uncertain sigh I gave both of my adopted daughters one last hug and then I was off to the Hornet’s Nest.
Even once we had left the atmosphere the Hornets handled like a dream. When we first started training with them I had noticed how intuitive and simple the controls were. It wasn’t even too different than flying a dropship, using mostly the control sticks and a pair of foot pedals for acceleration and deceleration. The only really big difference was that people with only two hands could fly them just as easily since there weren’t near as many touch screens and they were all located within easy reach of the pair of control sticks.
I had especially liked Xawin’s idea for controlling the particle beam cannons he had incorporated into the ships. Instead of adding a bulky and out of place control panel for targeting and firing, we were all wearing a pair of the goggles that I favored for all the various vision modes. An extra mode had been added to these that was like the normal vision mode, but with a pair of targeting reticules linked by a subspace connection to the cannons themselves to control the aim. When both reticules overlapped on the target in our vision then we could fire by using a spoken command.
Third had made a small alteration to the Hornets as well while I was recovering and Karran was setting up the new EM shield. Since the Hornets’ communications systems used the same subspace laser communications system that the android itself did, and Earth was using technology based on it, Third had changed them to continuously scan all frequencies and automatically settle on any that were currently in use. Earth had apparently been rotating their frequencies with their spy for security, which was why we hadn’t been able to listen in on the last received transmission the night before, the one that had instructed Angela to destroy what they apparently thought was our only means of defense. Third was hoping that this way we would be able to listen in on their communications chatter while keeping in contact with each other and home base by using our regular subspace comms units.
It was about when we were approaching the debris field that the ship to ship communications crackled to life as it suddenly settled on a frequency that was currently in use. “…no word on the status of the colony defenses yet Commander Jenkins. Agent Conner may be acting under radio silence. You are to proceed as instructed and complete your mission, Destiny out.”
“Yes Sir!” A second voice that I assumed was Commander Jenkins responded. “You heard the Captain people, let’s get through this asteroid belt so we can do our jobs. Maybe we can be back to the Destiny in time for dinner, its Salisbury steak night.”
My hands were clenched on the control sticks so I took a deep breath to calm myself and tapped the ship’s communications console. “I’m sorry Destiny, but Agent Conner is too dead to answer your call right now.”
“Who the hell are you and how did you get on this channel?!” the first voice roared in anger.
“This is Commander Xia Phar, and I’m sure you’ll find that we’re just full of surprises,” I shot back. “We’re all nice and cozy under our shield, but thanks for your concern. It means a lot that you stopped by. Sorry you made the trip all this way for nothing. Turn around and go home and this won’t have to escalate.”
“The halfbreed,” I heard him mutter before he said, “I’m Captain Roosevelt of the U.S.S Destiny. Give us what we want Phar, and I just might be willing to do that. We’ll go home and leave you in peace.”
I couldn’t help but think there was a silent ‘for now’ tacked on to the end of that offer and his tone really bothered me. He obviously didn’t think much of us, and me in particular. Well, if he wanted to treat me like a child instead of taking my warning then two could play at that game. “Do you have a list? I might have to check it once or twice. So what do you want for Christmas little boy?”
I could have sworn I heard him growling for a moment before he responded. “Give us the android, samples of the two new elements you’ve discovered, samples of the medical nanites that keep you from aging, and your medical ship so we can create and program more.”
“They don’t want much at all do they? Just the one being in the known universe that has all the knowledge of the Originators in its databanks, my ship and nanites, and access to two wonder elements,” I thought to myself angrily. Even if they did leave as promised they’d probably be back eventually, but I didn’t want to even think about what they’d be back with if I put all of that in their hands. Not that I was inclined to do so anyway, but at least we knew exactly what their priorities were. I responded in disbelief, “You really go for the big ticket items don’t you? Sorry, but I just checked my list twice and what do you know, you’re on my naughty list. I’m all out of coal though so how about if we just spank you until you cry for your mommy and head for home?”
“Bitch!” the captain of the Destiny roared. Then he ordered, “All shuttles switch to the next channel in your rotation and proceed with your mission.”
I tapped off the ships outgoing communications and activated my subspace comms disc as we considered the debris field ahead of us. “Well that went well.”
“At least we know what they want,” Dot replied, echoing my thoughts. “Xia and Tanna see of you can do something about slowing that big ship down and Tarek and I will stay here and patrol for any shuttles to leave the debris field. We all stay cloaked and keep our shields active for maximum safety at all times. I am so glad that we had the time to test these things in space and make sure the shields wouldn’t interfere with the cannons.”
“We’re on our way, let’s go get them Xia,” Tanna put in, her voice carrying a healthy measure of determination.
We all faded from conventional sight as Tanna and I maneuvered into the field using the ships’ long range sensors to chart a course toward the Destiny’s projected location. Each of our ships still showed on one another’s sensors as well, but only because our sensors were set to search for the distorted multi-frequency signals that the other Hornets, and all other cloaked technology from the Originators, emitted to prevent crashes between them. Since the Destiny hadn’t been giving off such a signal when it arrived in our solar system Third concluded that they didn’t have the ability to cloak, or sense anyone else who did, since both were tied into the same system.
Tanna and I spent almost the next two hours navigating the debris field and listening to the chatter on the Destiny’s new comm channel. It wasn’t anything about their mission, just general chatter, anti-alien sentiments, and boasting. I could have jumped in to mess with them, but I wanted the Destiny and anyone associated with them to believe that it was a fluke that we had stumbled onto their frequency before so we could maintain our advantage when orders and mission chatter were discussed on channel.
“It’s so huge!” Tanna exclaimed as we broke free from the debris field and caught sight of the Destiny. “It’s almost as big as a Kian’ja.”
“It may be big, and I’m detecting an EM shield like those we use on Saer’khi ships, but it it’s underpowered and there are gaps and weak spots all over the place from trying to cover the whole thing. They’re probably using it mostly for protection from cosmic radiation,” I replied while trying to keep myself from teasing Tanna about her comments about size whenever we seemed to encounter ships lately.
“Well from what Jared told us, it sounded like they were rushing to complete it and Angela probably told them that we wouldn’t have any means to fight back until we get reinforcements from Saer’kah. Third was right about its sub-light engines too, they’re not near powerful enough for a vessel that size. Whatever they are using to power that ship isn’t near enough and it is really hurting their power efficiency. A ship that big and slow isn’t impressive it’s a big fat target,” Tanna said sounding completely dumbfounded.
“Then lets get in some target practice,” I shot back, my face lighting up with a grin.
“Careful ladies,” Dot’s voice cautioned. “They could, and probably do, have weapons on that ship and they might not be able to see you, but they will probably be able to tell where your shots are coming from. Your best strategy is to duck and weave, choose your targets well, and change locations between shots to make it harder to attack you.”
“We hear you loud and clear Corporal,” I responded as we zipped in and fired at our first targets. Our first shots barely damaged the hull, it was pretty damn thick, our particle beam cannons weren’t meant for taking on something that size, and we weren’t able to stay in one spot long enough to generate a sustained beam that could penetrate it. We had to quickly vacate the areas we shot from as railgun fire strafed toward our positions and then search for areas to hit that could slow them down. It went like that for a while, us trying to hit soft spots and fleeing before railgun fire could track us and then moving to another random spot. “Tanna, there’s a gap in their shield between the upper sections of the two main sub-light thrusters. Maybe if we target the thrusters directly we can slow them down.”
“I see it Xia and I am locked on target, from my angle it should hit the right thruster. Let’s hit it on the count of three. One... two… three!” We both gave the verbal command to fire, our particle beams striking both thrusters and resulting in small explosions, and then some secondary explosions as we moved out of the path of railgun fire. When we were able to look again the main thrusters were dead and the Destiny was listing a bit and attempting to reorient with its secondary and maneuvering thrusters.
“Got them!” I cheered as I heard Tanna give a squeal of celebration. “Now let’s see about those secondary thrusters.” It took several passes but we were able to take out two of the three secondary thrusters, though the last pass had tested the efficiency of the Hornets’ zero point energy shields as I got peppered by railgun fire and they got close to hitting Tanna with a missile barrage as well. Their response time was getting faster, and I didn’t want to press our luck after that, so we turned back toward the debris field satisfied to have slowed them down to a crawl. “That should slow them down enough to give us some breathing room, provided we can do something about those shuttles. We’re on our way back to you to help with that now Dot, if they get there first you and Tarek try to keep them occupied until we get there.”
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
|
With the Destiny slowed down, it was now time to take care of the shuttles making their way through the debris field. “I think we can destroy those shuttles before they even make it out of there,” Tarek suggested over subspace comms. “They are about halfway through now, and it’s taking them a while, but the sensors on the Hornets are pretty good. Now that they’re closer we’re able to pick up the ion trails that the shuttles are leaving and I am detecting fourteen individual ion trails. Between our sensors and the Hornets’ small size and maneuverability, we should be able to navigate the field and effectively track them.”
“And with our cloaks they won’t see us coming,” Dot quickly agreed. We can hit and run and at the very least delay them if they can’t navigate that maze as well as we can. Maybe we can even take them all out before they can find their way out and reach orbit. We’ll head in now and start picking off those closest first, Xia and Tanna come at them from behind and start with any stragglers.”
“We’re on it Corporal,” I replied as Tanna and I started navigating the maze back the way we came and made our way toward the nearest ion trails on our sensors.
Dot and Tarek encountered their targets first. Our first sign of their attack was when the enemy comm frequency suddenly came alive with a panicked voice. “Destiny! Something just hit us out of nowhere! Controls aren’t responsive! We’re going to…”
“Woohoo! One down thirteen to go!” Dot called out over our own comms.
“This is Destiny,” Roosevelt’s voice called out. “All shuttles be advised, the enemy has some sort of stealth fighters. Numbers and capability are unknown at this point. Split up and try to make orbit. If you encounter enemy forces try to take them out any way you can.”
“What the fuck are we supposed to use?!” another voice exclaimed angrily. “Harsh language?! These are personnel shuttles, not fighters! We were told this would be an easy in and out, no weapons needed until we were on the ground, a simple snatch and grab!”
Another blip that indicated an ion trail suddenly went dark as Tarek’s voice said, “That’s two. Those shuttles are heavily armored, but their ion thrusters and spaceflight stabilizers seem to be vulnerable to attack.”
Tarek and Dot managed to bag two more each before we caught up and encountered our first targets. I almost felt bad for them as I heard the panicked voices of our enemies calling out to one another over their comm frequency. They knew that they were in way over their heads at the moment and that their chances of getting out of the debris field and planet-side were growing slimmer by the second. This was war though. We didn’t start it, and we didn’t want it, but we weren’t going to just roll over and let them take what was ours without a fight. If they weren’t going to surrender now that the odds seemed to be in our favor rather than theirs, then that was their problem, not ours.
As soon as we were in range of the group of blips Tanna peeled off and we each went after our intended targets. Now that I was able to get a look at the shuttles close up they appeared to be less than a quarter of the size of our medical dropship, and a lot of that size was the armored hull, so either it wasn’t carrying a lot of gear and/or troops or it was really crowded in there. I was guessing thirty troops at most per shuttle, less if they had any bulky gear with them. It didn’t really matter to me how many people were on it though, I couldn’t let those shuttles land if I could help it.
The pilot of the shuttle I was after was good, rolling and weaving through the debris field as I tried to get a lock on him. He was getting the most out of that shuttle. It wasn’t very maneuverable with its bulk, but he was making the most of his surroundings by darting through large chunks of space rock and making it very difficult to get a lock on him. I finally managed to lock the targeting reticule in my goggles on the shuttle’s thrusters and as soon as the second reticule overlapped the first I gave the verbal command to fire. The rear half of the shuttle exploded and the rest careened off to crash into a large chunk of lunar debris that dwarfed it in size.
I can’t be sure how long that our game of cat and mouse went on with those shuttles, but we did manage to take out all fourteen of them. It seemed too easy to me though. Granted, we were in cloaked ships that were fast, maneuverable, and designed for exploring asteroid belts and the like so I shouldn’t have been surprised at our seemingly easy victory, but I couldn’t help but feel like something was wrong. Maybe I was just getting used to the other shoe dropping, but as it turned out I was right.
“Xia to So-Phar, we’ve cleaned up the mess in the debris field and we’re heading on home to plan our next move,” I called out over subspace comms once we had done a quick sweep of the debris field to scan for any further ion trails.
There was a delay of almost a minute before we received a response from Third. “Xia, you must hurry back. I am detecting six more shuttle type crafts approaching the planet. I believe that they branched off from the others as they entered the debris field and followed the outer edge of the field to approach Unity from the other side of the planet where the debris is almost non-existent. They will be able to enter our atmosphere within the hour.”
“Shit! How the hell did they manage that?” I snapped, cursing myself for not seeing that coming.
“Those shuttles couldn’t maneuver worth shit at speed, but they were pretty quick on the straightaway,” Dot suggested. “If they were going around the debris field, and not having to make their way through a bunch of space rocks, they were probably able to really open them up.”
“Well we’d better do the same if we’re going to stop them from landing,” I grumbled. “You said that they’ll be there within the hour?”
After another brief delay Third confirmed. “Yes, within the hour. The shuttles are significantly smaller than the Destiny and travel much quicker than it at sub-light speeds.”
“We’ll be back as fast as we can, but it’s going to be cutting it close. Tell Dennis and Luiza to be ready to roll out the welcome mat,” I told the android with a sigh as I plotted the fastest course I could out of the debris field and put on as much speed as I thought that I safely could.
The shuttles had already entered the atmosphere by the time we made it back through the debris field and Third had briefly lost track of them during that time. By the time he had found them again using the cloaked satellites they were already landing on the coastline, about thirty klicks south of So-Phar. We managed to find their landing site and used our particle beam cannons to make sure they wouldn’t be returning to those shuttles, to either try to get away or retrieve any useful supplies from them. Unfortunately, the troops they had been carrying had already managed to disembark and make for the cover of the forest.
Since our part in the defense seemed to be done with for the moment we decided to return to the settlement. “So-Phar, we’ve done all that we can for the moment, we’re on our way home now. Is the welcome mat out yet?” I sent over subspace comms as we headed north to take the Hornets home and return to base.
“Roger that Commander,” Dennis’ voice confirmed. “We’ve got their position and Crawlers are on route now with Lt. Sanchez’s welcoming party on board. We’ll drop them off on the other side of the river so they can set up the party favors to let our guests know that we’re thinking of them and then we’ll fall back to our side of the river to set up a perimeter.”
“We have roughly four hours until darkness falls, and they’re roughly twenty three klicks from the river. They could make it there by dark, but it’s unlikely given that they’re on rough and unfamiliar terrain. We’ll set up the party favors and then find a place to lay low until they’re ready for a little company,” Luiza added.
“Be careful out there Lieutenant, I don’t want to lose anyone if we can help it. Third counted fifteen bodies per shuttle from the satellite feeds, which means you’ll have roughly ninety combatants out there, so you’ll be outnumbered,” I cautioned as a wave of anxiety hit me. That’s when it really hit me that we were at war. Now that the adrenaline rush from my near constant activity in space had subsided I became aware of not just the shuttles that we had destroyed, but the people who had been on them, living people not too much different from me and the other colonists. Sure they might be working for Earth, but that didn’t mean they were all selfish assholes, hell some might really be just following orders.
No, I didn’t have the luxury of doubting myself, no matter who they were as individuals there were still here, still attacking Unity and trying to take what was ours. They didn’t have any reservations about killing us to take it either, so if we didn’t fight back then it could very well be the people that I cared for who would die. I couldn’t let that happen, not after everything that we had been through together so far. With that in mind I tried to trust in Luiza’s and Dennis’ abilities and allow myself to be somewhat reassured when Luiza replied, “We’ll be careful. Try not to worry Commander; we know the terrain, we’ll know where the traps are set, and the Murqui and Haran are well adapted to attacking their prey quickly and silently in the dark.”
“We’ll leave you to it then, good luck Lt. Sanchez,” I replied, desperately hoping that she was right.
The evening meal was almost ready to be served by the time we had returned to So-Phar and landed the Hornets at the outer edge of the settlement. Once we had given Karran the signal, he had briefly turned off the EM shield so that we could enter and then as soon as we were inside the perimeter it was back up again to keep us all safe. While Tanna went to spend some time with her new Tess’hir and Dot went to go await the meal and socialize with some of the other colonists a bit, Tarek and I headed back to the Medical Dropship. *We’re all back safe and sound,* I sent to Krie on the heels of a ping.
Things had been fairly quiet during our mission, with no real medical issues to speak of, so Krie and Amy had the ship set up for triage as best that they were able. *I am so glad that you all have returned safe,* my sister sent back, wrapping me in a mental embrace. *We were all worried about you.* Her thoughts were still worried, but now about those who were out preparing to hassle the enemy on the ground. I couldn’t blame her really, since I was feeling the same way.
Speaking of worry though, I was a bit concerned not to see Amy and Shui with my sister in the receiving area. *How did things go with Shui while I was gone?*
*Shui was a bit fussy at first, but Amy managed to settle her. Jinna fed her about two hours ago so Amy took her to her room for a bit of playtime and a nap. They both needed the rest I think, because I checked on them a little while ago and they were both fast asleep. Amy was a big help getting things set up for emergency care when Shui was napping earlier though, so between that and doting on Shui the rest of the time, she deserves the rest,* Krie informed me with a smile and a loving warmth in her thoughts.
*Thanks for keeping an eye on them, and on things here,* I replied as I hugged her tightly and sent my own warm and sisterly thoughts her way. *I’ll go wake Amy, dinner should be ready soon, so we can head out and eat together. There’s not much more we can do now but listen to the comms to see how we’re doing, and be ready in case things go badly, so we might as well do that along with the rest of the colonists.*
Amy was fast asleep, with Shui nestled safely and comfortably in a nest of blankets beside her. The infant Txela was sleeping contentedly as Kit and Violet watched the pair of sleeping girls attentively. *Good girl Kit,* I sent to my slip as I went to sit on the bed and gently shake Amy’s shoulder. As soon as I was sitting Kit hopped into my lap buzzing happily as feelings of relief and love assaulted my mind. I sent similar affections back to her as I focused on waking my eldest ward. “Amy honey, wake up. I’m back and it’s time to wake up for dinner.”
“Huh? Xia…” Amy seemed to stir, but wasn’t quite awake yet.
Tarek had come in with me and was grinning down as Amy as she mumbled in her half-asleep state. “Come on Amy, it is time to eat. I am sure that watching your little sister for so long was exhausting, but we’re here to relieve you now, so come eat and you can tell us how things went while we were gone.”
“Huh? Xia… Tarek…” Amy replied sleepily before becoming fully cognizant of the world around her, and our presence. Then Tarek and I were both smothered in a bone crushing hug as she fully awoke and pounced on us each in turn. “I’m so glad you’re both back safe, are Tanna and Dot…”
“They’re both fine too,” I assured her. “We took out most of the shuttles, but some managed to sneak by on the outer edge of the debris field. Luiza and her team are out preparing their ‘welcome to Unity’ party now.”
Amy frowned at that, but nodded as I took the baby sling from her and put it on. “I hope they’re all going to be okay.”
I tried to give her a reassuring smile that wouldn’t show how scared I was about them not coming back as I picked up my baby and settled her comfortably in the sling. “They’ll be fine Amy. Luiza was a Navy SEAL and she’s a terror in a fight, Matt’s pretty tough and hard to hurt too, and the Murqui and Haran are all warriors and at home in the darkness. Plus they all have their slips with them to help dig traps and warn them of danger.” I knew most of those in the welcoming party fairly well and a loss of any one of them would be not only heartbreaking to me personally, but to the whole colony as well. There were so many things that could go wrong, so many good people who could die.
Luiza may have had the training, but she hadn’t been in the military for nearly seven years since a perforated lung had ended her career. Matt had just become my Tess’hir and despite his bionic limbs and nanites he could still die, my own close call had proven that well enough. Rinnik may have been Murqui, and she would be working with Lirra, but this battle would be her first real test of her warrior training. Then there was Jittu’s parents as well. What if something happened to them? Could I really raise Jittu in the Murqui way as I had promised when I became her Niadu? I tried my best not to think about it all, at least not at the forefront of my mind where my fellow Saer’khi or Shui might pick up on those apprehensive thoughts.
Dinner was an uncharacteristically quiet and somber affair. We were all worried about how things were going to turn out and about those of us who were out there fighting for our lives and freedom instead of being safe under the EM shield with the rest of us. Karran had managed to fix Angela’s communication device, so we were able to listen in on their comms without having to join Third in his ship. Tanna had gone to join the android though to keep an eye on the sensors, in case the Destiny had any other surprises to send our way and to let us know of any frequency switches on the Earthers’ comm channel. It was as we all sat there after dinner, close to two hundred people anxiously crowded together listening to that one small device and one of our own subspace comm units, that our visitors discovered the first of the traps, the hard way.
They lost three people to traps and were forced to progress more carefully, and slowly after that. From their comm chatter they had thought that this would be a cake walk once they got here, but our greeting out in space with the Hornets, and the party favors that they had ‘discovered’ were quickly relieving them of that notion. They also apparently had an idea on how to get past the EM shield when the time came, should it still be up. They had some sort of devices that would resonate at a frequency that would allow the wearers to pass through it, once they found the right frequency, much like Karran had modified a few of our subspace comm discs for that purpose.
By nightfall the Earthers had lost several more troops to cleverly hidden traps and that was when the operation began. Luiza’s team had left their hiding spots and were teaching them that night on Unity was a beast, and that beast had claws, and lots of teeth. Murqui and Haran attacked from the shadows, swift, silent, and deadly, taking down a soldier or two only to disappear back into the darkness as others attacked from another spot. They could see them somewhat with night vision goggles, but darkness wasn’t the only problem since there were traps to worry about and the Murqui and Haran were both fast and possessed true night vision. They had lost nearly half their troops by the time they reached the river, while our own losses had been mercifully light, though painful to those of us listening in as we lost Loxx and Jittu’s father Tekku to lucky strafing fire.
Pallu was ready for them at the river though. Crocosaurs were fast in the water, but not as fast as a Yazuik and she had managed to somehow get three of them to follow her toward the gunfire. “Well those things are angry and hungry. It’s a good thing we Yazuik can climb trees as quick as we swim.” I heard her voice say amid distant gunfire on our comm frequency.
That was just before I heard one of men on the Earthers’ channel say, “We’re at the river! Everyone get out of the woods and to the water! They’ll have to leave the cover of the trees to attack us and we can take them out! Use the rocks near the water for cover in case they have ranged weapons!”
“On it Colonel! Wait a minute, that’s not a rock, it’s moving… Aaaaaughhh!”
“That was a really nasty idea Pallu, I love it,” Luiza’s voice came over our own channel. “We’ve got them now Commander! They have three pissed crocosaurs in their midst and we’ll keep our distance and fire at them from the cover of the trees with our particle beam cylinders. Captain White, how do things look from the other side of the river?”
“We’ve got a good bead on them Lieutenant, so we’re ready when you are,” Dennis quickly replied. “Just give the word Commander and we’ll fire.”
I was torn. As much as I hater these Earthers for what they were trying to do to us and for how Earth in general had treated us, they were living people and we had won. I looked down at Shui, contentedly suckling at my breast and sighed. I couldn’t have those deaths be on my conscience, not without giving them a chance to surrender first. “Warning shots first, let them know they’re surrounded,” I ordered, hoping that it wouldn’t come back to bite me in the ass later.
“You got it Commander,” Dennis and Luiza replied, nearly at the same time. And then the sound of particle beams firing rang out over the distant sound of gunfire and screams.
I activated the Earth comm unit. “This is Commander Phar. You are surrounded, and we could kill you all any time we like, but I’m going to give you a chance to drop your weapons and surrender. If you surrender then we will chase off those crocosaurs and you will be treated well as prisoners until you can be returned to the Destiny. If you decide to refuse my gracious offer then I’ll let my people enjoy the show while those crocosaurs tear you apart and then have them finish off those of you who manage to survive once the ‘saurs have had their fill.”
Roosevelt’s furious voice came over the channel screaming, “Phar! You’re the one who is going to surrender you half-breed bitch!”
“That’s funny, I thought that people normally asked for surrender when they are actually winning a battle Captain Roosevelt. Besides, I wasn’t asking you, I was asking your men on the ground. Don’t you men think that your captain has underestimated us and put you in danger enough? Surrender, and I won’t let any harm come to you until you can be returned to the Destiny or....”
“I have a full barrage of 50 megaton nuclear missiles ready to launch at your settlement as soon as we reach orbit Phar,” Roosevelt interrupted me. “We would rather get everything we came for, but I have the authority to destroy your colony and everyone in it if I think you’re a threat and we can still come out ahead by claiming the planet and mining those elements for ourselves. If you surrender we’ll let you live, as laborers.”
I was cursing silently, unsure if the shield could take that kind of beating, but pretty sure that that answer would be a ‘no’. There was also our people outside by the river to consider. They’d be caught in the blast as well. That was when Luiza’s voice came over our comms system. “They’ve dropped their weapons and we’re driving off the Crocosaurs now Commander. As soon as we’re sure that they’re fully unarmed we’ll move in to restrain them with the Crawlers covering us.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. At least that was one problem dealt with. “Good work everyone, keep a good eye on them even after you have them restrained though.” Now what to do about Roosevelt? I tapped the Earther comm unit again. “Are you insane Roosevelt? Your own people are down here and well within range of such a blast. I know you don’t think much of us, but do you really think so little of the men under your command?”
“They knew the risks going in and the rewards are worth the spilled blood,” he replied callously.
That only made me furious, how could he claim to be a leader and treat the lives of those under his command with such little regard? It sickened me. That was when I received a ping from Tanna followed quickly by a wave of relief and joy that engulfed me as she sent her thoughts. *Xia! Three ships just appeared from subspace to surround the Destiny! From the energy signatures I would say that one is a kian’ja class vessel and the others are Murqui and Haran ships.*
*It looks like the cavalry is here,* I replied, my own thoughts ecstatic as a grin painted itself onto my face. “Roosevelt, I’m going to give you one last chance to surrender. You may have noticed those energy surges near your ship, those would be our reinforcements. Those are combat-ready ships with the most advanced weapons systems that the Saer’khi have ever designed. Stand down now if you know what’s good for you.”
Tanna’s next thoughts were a jumble of confusion and fear. *We’re reading weapons fire Xia! It’s from the Destiny!*
Xia Phar had a good life for a human on Saer’kah. She didn’t wear a restriction band and the Saer’khi family that had raised her since the Migration treated her like one of their own. Others humans on Saer’kah though had no reason to love the Saer’khi . At least Xia had some semblance of freedom. So when the humans decide to rebel against the Saer’khi and she discovers the real reason for the presence of humans and other aliens on Saer’kah Xia decides to take action. Enlisting the help of her family and her friend Tarek she forms a plan to get everyone out of the alien barracks without arousing suspicion and get them off Saer’kah on one of the newly built colony ships. Sounds pretty easy right? Now Tarek’s crush on her is the least of her problems and leaving Saer’kah is just the beginning.
|
“What in the Hell do you think you’re doing Roosevelt?!” I snapped out over the communications unit we had gotten from Angela. “Are you insane?! You’ve lost and you’re outnumbered!”
“If we can’t have the android then nobody can!” Roosevelt yelled back.
*The weapon launched from the Destiny appeared to be some type of missile Commander,* Tanna sent me, though the fear in her mind seemed to have calmed. *The kian’ja vessel destroyed it before it could enter the atmosphere though and all three allied vessels have opened fire on the Destiny.* I quickly passed that information on to the colonists gathered around me, waiting with bated breath, for news of what was happening. The news was met with a chorus of relieved sighs followed quickly by cheering.
The battle that followed was over quickly, the hastily built Destiny was just no match for three ships with some of the most powerful weapons that the Saer’khi had ever produced. Soon a feminine electronic voice came over our subspace communications frequency. “This is Commander Vassai Issar of the kian’ja class vessel Katur Saal, calling Unity. We are here with the Murqui vessel Narishe and the Haran vessel Lhuur’hijx to offer aid and bring relief supplies.”
“We read you loud and clear Katur Saal, this is Commander Xia Phar and are we ever happy to hear from you. You got here just in time,” I sent back as all the stress since the destruction of the Bounty seemed to melt away.
“We are happy to be here and to hear that you’re still alive,” Commander Issar replied. “We are reading escape capsules from the Earth vessel, we will collect them and take the occupants into custody to join others waiting to be returned to Earth on Saer’kah, and then we will be ready to start bringing down supplies at your earliest convenience.”
“We have some captives down here that you can take back to Earth along with them,” I agreed. “We will require anyone planning on visiting the planet to be immunized against local viruses, but we can’t wait to see you in person. I will have my Communications Officer transmit the details to your ships and work out the specifics.”
Once the welcoming party and their captives had been brought to So-Phar, and the latter secured temporarily behind photon shields in the patient rooms on the medical dropship, we began seeing to injuries. None of our people were too seriously hurt and Amy and Kyle were able to treat most of them with first aid. There were a few gunshot wounds and a broken bone or two that kept Krie busy though, and while she was seeing to them, I went to check on our prisoners with Luiza, Matt, and Dennis watching very carefully.
They had all been disarmed, and while not all of them were injured I would be seeing each and every one of them to issue one of the nanotech immunization shots that I had developed for the virus that had hit us so hard. As much as I disliked them, and hated the governments of Earth for how they had treated us and what some of them were trying to do, I couldn’t allow the risk of the whole planet being exposed to such a virulent virus. First though I was sorting their injured out and treating the worst off first.
The worst off turned out to be a young man who couldn’t have been more than nineteen or twenty and had been knocked around and nearly eaten by a crocosaur in the mayhem. He had several nasty gashes from the spikes on the beast’s tail, had lost one of his arms below the elbow, and scans with my goggles showed that he had suffered five broken ribs and several other broken bones. Luiza had applied a tourniquet and treated as best she could, but he needed some serious medical care. I sedated him first and then set the bones where I could and injected him with bone repair nanites targeted to repair the broken bones on his left side; ribs, hip, femur, and fibula. Following that I properly amputated the stump beneath his elbow, cleaned out the gashes and applied a nanite spray to both them to heal both the wounds and the bruising. I would have to work on a replacement limb for him later, but I had done what I could for him for the moment.
The others were fairly easy after that, minor slashes from claws, a broken bone here or there, and the odd grazing wound from particle beams. Still, it took a few hours to get them all straightened out, on the road to recovery, and immunized and it was starting to get late by the time I was finished. The first patient, I planned to check on in the morning to ensure he was properly healed and create a replacement limb, but things looked promising when I checked on him after finishing with the others.
By that time Tanna had arranged for the Katur Saal to begin sending down our replacement supplies in the morning and Commander Issar would be coming down with the first load. Until then we would all see to our dead and get some rest and the Katur Saal would be dropping off the six automated nano-mining and metal processing stations that they had brought to place on a few of the larger chunks of rock on the outer edge of the debris field. Those would extract and process all of the useful metals, break apart any remaining rock into smaller chunks, and prepare it all to be brought planet-side to provide base materials for the nano-construction kits to work with.
I still had a few more important things to do before I headed to bed for the night, and it looked like the whole colony was still awake anyway. I wanted to go speak with Loxx’s mate Rhyxxa, but Bixx had stopped me to tell me that she had already begun his funerary rites. I was told that as soon as his body had been brought back to So-Phar she had blooded his body, removed the feathers from his wings, and buried him outside the settlement with the help of many of the other Haran settlers. There she would pray over his grave in seclusion until dawn wearing the mourning crown composed of his gold and red feathers. When light came the next morning she would approach everyone from their clan and offer them one of his feathers as a reminder of the Haran who had died in glorious battle. All those who received such a token would keep it displayed on their person as a show of respect for the following ten days.
Since it would be unspeakably rude to interrupt Rhyxxa during the death prayers, I went to speak with Trill and Jittu about the loss of Tekku. “I am so sorry, the whole colony feels your loss. Tekku was a good person and a fine warrior. You should be proud of him Jittu, he died protecting his triihal, and there is no death more honorable for a Murqui warrior.” I felt horrible as I spoke those words. It was my fault that he had been out there and I couldn’t help feeling responsible for his death.
“He chose to be there, do not blame yourself Xia,” Trill told me as she reached out to hug me, being careful not to disturb Shui in her sling. “You are right, Tekku died an honorable death and we will both mourn him and celebrate the safety and freedom that his death has earned us. Would you help us with the final rites Xia? As our Commander and Jittu’s Niadu, I can think of nobody better to do this.”
“I would be honored Trill, what do I need to do?” It was the only thing that made sense to say at the time.
At Trill’s request I gathered all of the colonists, except for Rhyxxa who was busy with her own rites, and together we gathered most of the remaining firewood to build a funerary pyre. As most of us were busy with that, the Murqui among us went to gather thirty-two long sticks from the forest, one for each year of Tekku’s life, to fashion into torches to be stuck in the ground around the perimeter of what served as our town square, the place we all gathered for meals and meetings. Once the unlit torches were placed and his body was set upon the pyre I began the rites by calling for the attention of those gathered.
A silence fell upon the square and I began to speak in as loud and clear a voice as I could. “We are gathered here tonight in Tekku Square to pay homage to a great warrior. Tekku died a most honorable death, protecting the people of his triihal from harm and ensuring that we could all live on in his place. He was a good person, a loving mate and father, and a mighty warrior who will be long remembered by our people. Though his body has gone still, his nia, or soul, is still bright and alive. Tonight we free his nia to that which is beyond us and purify his body. His light lives on,” I finished as I lit the pyre.
Once the flames were going and his body had caught fire, I reached out to light one of the smaller pieces of wood that I had fashioned into a torch and held it in the flames emanating from his body until it caught fire and then held it high for all to see. “See here! This is the last light of Tekku’s nia, and I ask that his mate and kitten help me to share that light with his triihal one last time before he moves on.”
Jittu and Trill stepped solemnly forward to light their own small torches from the one I held in my hands and then the three of us went to light each of the thirty-two torches placed around the square in turn before returning to the center and placing our torches upon the pyre. “Tekku’s light surrounds us, and he will protect us this one last night until that light goes out completely and he moves on. Let that light bathe us all so that we too can become great warriors for our people and so we can say our goodbyes.”
Conversation began again slowly. Mostly it was people talking about what we had been through and remembering moments that they had shared with both Tekku and Loxx. Trill said a few words and shared some of her own memories as well and the whole thing turned into a wake of sorts for our two lost colonists and friends. I also used that opportunity to update the colonists on what was going on with our prisoners, and about the visitors that we would be getting in the morning. Our future was looking bright now, and the two of them had died helping to secure that future.
Once I had updated all of our colonists on what would be happening the next day, after the torches had gone out and the pyre was reduced to mere embers, we all broke up for the night and headed to bed. It was nice to be able to sleep without worrying about what new horror the next day might bring and, once I was curled up in bed with Kit snuggling me and a freshly fed and sleepy Shui within arm’s reach, I just closed my eyes and savored the moment. It wasn’t long at all before I succumbed to the most contented sleep that I had had in… well ever really.
On Earth I had had my issues and health problems plaguing me even before my parents had died and, while I loved my Saer’khi family, I had always felt like an outcast on Saer’kah due to only being half-Saer’khi and my nanites keeping me young. Now, on Unity, I had friends, family, a place, and people saw me as me, not as a half-breed or some child. Things may have started off rough for us, but we had gotten through it all together. This was my home and that was something I was never going to want to give up, not for anything in the universe.
First thing the next morning we all gathered around for breakfast and though I still felt the sting of our losses I was extremely grateful that those losses had been so light. Seeing all the colonists of the various species gathered and interacting as friends made me realize just how much that we had accomplished on Unity. I thought about those closest to me too; my sister Krie, my Tess’hir Tarek and Matt, my adoptees Amy and Shui, my other fellow Saer’khi, Sarah, Dennis, Luiza, Dot, Rebecca, Mandy and the twins, Kasumi, Lirra, Rinnik, Bixx, Pallu, and Trill and Jittu. Despite his bad start, even Jared had something to contribute here. We were a strange group, but together all of us colonists had made this work, and that was something to be proud of.
It was just before breakfast that Loxx’s widow Rhyxxa returned to camp to offer one of her late husband’s feathers to all the members of their clan. By the time breakfast was over every single member of the colony bore one of those gold or red feathers someplace on their person in a show of solidarity, no matter what their species. I placed Shui’s and mine in our hair and I noticed that we were far from the only ones to do that.
It was shortly after we were finished our meal that the six massive cargo dropships landed on the beach and a dozen Saer’khi emerged from them wearing Saer’kah Space Corps uniforms. They had also been joined by dropships from the Narishe and the Lhuur’hijx carrying their respective commanders, Kinna and Dhisxx, as well as several Murqui and Haran volunteers to help us properly set up the colony. I approached the tall honey-haired Ji’turi in the lead and her Haran and Murqui counterparts with a smile. “Commander Issar, Commander Kinna, and Commander Dhisxx, welcome to Unity, to you and your crews.”
“Thank you Commander Phar, please call me Vassai though,” she responded via the electronic voice of her voice box.
“Of course Vassai, and you can call me Xia, we’re fairly relaxed here. If you’ll all follow me to the medical ship I will make sure that you’re all properly immunized before we get to work.” I gestured toward the medical dropship and led the way with them following close behind.
All of our visitors seemed friendly and eager to assist, particularly the Haran and Murqui, who saw work needing to be done and were eager to do it. I found myself liking Vassai almost immediately. She was a friendly Ji’turi with a tendency to tease and she reminded me a lot of Tanna. She also had a science background, in nanite programming and starship engineering and design, and was very interested in how I had programmed nanites to destroy the virus by using its own DNA as the targeting parameter. She thought that it could change planetary exploration by making it much safer and was going to recommend that it be taught to all ship medical personnel. She also wanted to know everything I could tell her about Third and its ship. Once I introduced her to the android she was like a kid in a candy store.
Once she and her people were immunized though, they got straight to work helping us unload those massive cargo dropships. Apparently those were being given to the colony as well since we would need them for future mining operations and to load or unload trade goods from allied ships. Four of the ships had been filled with stone and metals that had already been extracted and/or processed by our new automated nano-mining and metal processing stations. The others had been filled with mostly quick-build nanite construction kits and a pair of wood harvesters that would help with both clearing land and getting wood to use as a base material along with the rock and metals. The plan was apparently to start by getting proper facilities set up and then worry about bringing down supplies once we had places to actually put them.
Krie, Amy, Kyle and I were kept pretty busy that morning. Not only were we immunizing anyone from the Saer’khi, Murqui, and Haran vessels who wanted to come down via personnel ships and help with the colony construction effort, but we also made a very basic bionic limb for the Earther who had lost his arm. It was as basic as we could make it and made of common metals since we didn’t want to put any of our mandium in the hands of anyone working for Earth. The only extra feature we added was the touch sensitivity for humane reasons. Once that was done, he had been returned to his room, safely behind its photon shield until after lunch. Then Vassai and I took the medical dropship up to the Katur Saal so that the prisoners could be put in sealed rooms with food dispensers that would provide only the most basic nutrients to await transport back to Earth.
Once the prisoners were placed in the only rooms that they would likely see for a long while, Vassai offered. *I was thinking that you might like a tour of my ship before we head planet-side again. First though, I think there is a prisoner that you might want to meet in person.*
My interest was suddenly piqued, by both offers since I got a sense of just what prisoner she was talking about in her surface thoughts. *I would love a tour, I’ve never been on a kian’ja class vessel before, and if that prisoner is who I think it is, I think I might like to see him face to face.*
She led me to a room and opened the door so we could enter, flanked by two large male Saer’khi. The room had been trashed, anything not bolted down thrown around like a child had thrown a tantrum. A man with greying hair in a military uniform turned to glare at us. “You bugs are going to pay for this! Mark my words!” Then he seemed to notice me for the first time, his face contorted in rage and he lunged at me. “Half-breed freak! You’ll pay for turning your back on your own people!”
I sent him flying back with a telekinetic shove. “Roosevelt, I thought that captains generally went down with their ships.”
“Really?” Vassai interjected, “He was on one of the first escape pods we found.”
“Figures,” I muttered acidly. “My people are down there on that planet, the people you tried to kill. You’re welcome to try to make me pay Roosevelt, after you’ve been sent home and reported your failure and the loss of the Destiny to your superiors. I doubt they’ll be too happy about that. Maybe you’ll get to find out how they treat their non-contributing citizens now that they can’t just ship them off to another planet.”
Vassai nodded and smiled. “He won’t be the only one discovering that Xia. Every human in the colony program is being interviewed telepathically. Any that were sent to spy or sabotage or because they were criminals will be sent back to Earth and the countries that sent them. After that the Allied planets will cut contact with Earth until it can learn the spirit of cooperation that our alliance stands for.”
With that we left and Vassai gave me a tour of the Katur Saal. It was an impressive ship and her crew clearly respected and trusted her greatly. I even told her as much. Her response surprised me a little though. *They’re a good crew, but this will probably be my last mission as a Commander. My Tess’hir and I just wed and I have been thinking that I want to find a colony where I could be useful to settle down in and start a family. Let me know when you decide to take on more colonists, you have started a good thing here and I think that I would like to be a part of it.*
I did have to admit to myself that she would be a good candidate with her background in nanite programming and spacecraft engineering and design. We could always use another good nanite programmer and, with all the tech available from Third and its ship, Unity could find itself eventually becoming not just a hub of trade for its precious metals and other resources but also a research center in combining Third’s technology with our own. There was also the dark matter aspects of Pharite to be explored and the various other technologies that Third and its ship contained in their databanks. The possibilities were endless and Unity would be the center for all of it.
It was as we discussed this and headed back to the medical dropship that Vassai and I found a very familiar Saer’khi waiting for us in the hangar, whose presence was as surprising as it was welcome. It was my father, or at least one of them. I flew across the hanger to hug him, wrapping him in a mental embrace as well and it was a good thing that Tarek was watching Shui for me while I was on the Katur Saal or I might have forgot her presence and squished her between us. *Hased, what are you doing here?!*
*Your mother was worried and asked me to come check on our daughters since she, Dhee and Lonin are too busy interviewing humans in the various barracks on Saer’kah,* he explained. *How are you and Krie? I was so worried about both of you when we lost contact with your ship, are you both well?*
*Things have been a bit rough,* I admitted, *but we’re both fine and we have sooo much to tell you about.*
So-Phar changed a lot over the next ten days. With all the land we cleared and the materials we were getting from the automated nano-mining and metal processing stations up in the debris field we were able to not only get some more crops planted and an applum orchard started, but also get the really important buildings for the colony in place. Now, in addition to the public bathhouse, we had a large dining hall with a nice full kitchen for Sarah and her staff to work in, a schoolhouse, a small hospital, a granary, a warehouse, a sawmill, a workshop, a research and development center, and a large dormitory that would work until people could build more permanent homes. There were more buildings on the way as well.
With our increased resources and less work for a lot of our prospective mothers we also brought the remaining eight Txela infants out of cryo-sleep. So we had three baby boys and five more baby girls added to our little community. Those moms were going to be busy for the next week or two, but they were also very happy and had bonded well with their new children. The children seemed to be just as healthy as Shui too, with no major health issues to worry about when Krie and I looked them over, much to everyone’s relief.
Last, but not least, we had an election during that time, or tried to anyway; I was the only one who was nominated though and anyone that I nominated refused to run so I was stuck with the position. The only things that were voted on was what to call the position and who we would be in charge when I couldn’t be. Commander won the vote for the title so it looked like I was still stuck with my title as well. As for my ‘Assistant Commander’, well Tanna won that honor. That seemed to fit since she had technically been my second in command on the Bounty and she hated being in charge as much as I did. We both tried to take it in stride though, since we had gotten used to it by this point.
Hased spent all of that time with us on Unity, helping out where possible, spending time with me and Krie, and getting to know our new Tess’hir and adopted children. Amy, Shui, and Krie’s new Txela son Naren had him beaming with pride for us, as did my sister’s and Amy’s somewhat exaggerated stories about my importance to the success of the colony and the discoveries we had made. He and Matt got along really well, although it was cute seeing Matt all nervous around him at first. And Hased was the teddy bear in the bunch, just wait until he met my mother and other dads. If I thought matt was nervous meeting one of his new father-in-laws though, Xawin was even worse. Krie thought it was adorable.
Eleven days after its arrival the Katur Saal was ready to head back to Saer’kah. The Narishe and the Lhuur’hijx had already left a few days before for their own home worlds and Vassai wanted to get the prisoners back to Saer’kah so that they and the others like them could be sent back to Earth, and she was eager to start her new assignment as well. That assignment would be finding some more colonists, besides herself and her Tess’hir, interested in coming to Unity. I didn’t want a lot of colonists, just thirty or so, enough to add a little more genetic diversity without straining our current resources. Not counting the Txela, who were the only ones left of their kind, we had roughly two hundred colonists and three quarters of those were human. Of the one quarter that weren’t human, there were only four Yazuik, seven Nezans, and six Saer’khi including myself. I was really hoping to pad those numbers by ten to a dozen each and balance things out a little.
Hased would be heading back to Saer’kah with Vassai to update the rest of our family on our lives. It was a bit of an emotional goodbye for all of us involved, especially when Matt, Tarek and Xawin took Amy and the babies aside to let Krie and me have a moment alone with our father before he left. There was a long embrace, both physical and mental, none of us really wanting to let go. When we finally did Hased promised, *We’ll all come to visit as soon as things settle down on Saer’kah. We’ll need to start planning Xia’s wedding after all, and yours too once you find another Tess’hir Krie.*
I nodded as I gripped Krie’s hand tightly in my own, sharing our strength. *I guess I’ll need that cheongsam you sent with me after all.*
He kissed each of us on the forehead, between our antennae. *I never had a doubt that you would little flower. I may not know what the future will bring for you now, but I am certain that it will be a great one. One thing that I do know is that when I tell them everything I’ve learned since coming here that your mother, Dhee, and Lonin will be as proud of you both as I am. Xia it is so good to see you finally living your life and being seen for who you are inside. It is good to see both of our daughters finding a place where they feel like they belong. Is there anything that either of you wish me to tell them until we can come to visit?*
*Tell them that we’re happy and that we love and miss all of you a lot,* Krie managed, a bit teary-eyed.
I nodded slowly, my own tears welling up as I added, *And tell them thank you, to all of you. You gave me a family when I had nothing and I will always love all of you. I may not have wanted to leave you when this whole thing started, but we all know that my nanites keeping me so young made it hard for me to fit in on Saer’kah. Here, on Unity, people see me as me and I think that I’ve finally found a place that I can call home.*