Human, page 13
part #1 of Humanity Ascendant Series
After triggering a coalition war, the Lord of Kish had decided to ease off on the raiding, so he had a few extra teams, all grown at great expense, with nothing left to do. Eth had helped him select crews for the second and third scout-ships from among the many Humans now serving in the fleet.
They had off-world combat experience but they were still green at running ships of their own, except for the shuttles they’d used on raids. “This is a captains meeting,” he told them, “so you all qualify for entry. Don’t let any of those guys in there back you down. You give them a single opening and they’ll be all over you.”
He grinned at their alarmed faces. “But try to have fun!” He turned and led them inside.
The large oval table had been sunk down flush with the floor and a holographic projection of the enemy force was filling the middle of the room.
The buzz of argument stopped as they all turned to look at the three Humans. Eth forced himself to keep walking as though he weren’t doing this for the first time. His legs felt as like they were made of lead and he was certain that he was now overcompensating by putting too much roll in his gait.
He came to a stop and gazed up at the projected fleet. It was far better to ignore the Quailu captains before they got a chance to ignore him. The two Humans with him followed his example.
His discomfort faded as the image grabbed his attention. Why were they just sitting there? He’d assumed they were on their way to attack one of Uktannu’s systems, but this behavior made no sense. They’d been in the border zone but it was a foolish place to assemble an attack on Mishak’s uncle.
Mishak came in, nodding to his assembled captains, Flag Captain Rimush in tow. “Gentlemen, we can all congratulate ourselves on an excellent first skirmish! We’ve given our foes a rough handling, costing them a cruiser, and we’ve validated the concept of a dedicated scout-ship design.”
Eth kept his eyes on Mishak but he knew he was back to being the center of attention.
“Our new scout crew however,” Rimush interjected, “moved off-station without notifying fleet command.”
“That’s right,” Mishak confirmed. “Perhaps the warrant officer commanding that ship can clarify why.”
“We had a possible contact,” Eth explained. “It needed further investigation. I decided there was too much risk in sending a signal back to the fleet until we knew what was out there. If our signal bounced back their way and got intercepted, we’d have found nothing out there.”
“Are you suggesting this should be added into the standard operating procedures for scouts?” Rimush asked.
“Not quite, sir. I think it should be tolerated on a case by case basis. It does carry a risk of the scout being destroyed and leaving the fleet blind.”
“How fortunate for you that we’re still alive to agree with your actions!” Mishak grinned. “On to the next matter. Who in the seven layers of hell did we fight and what were they thinking, sitting in the Kwharaz sector?”
Eth had been savoring the relief at not being sanctioned over his decisions but Mishak’s question yanked him back to the present. “Repairs, My Lord?”
“They showed light battle damage,” Mishak confirmed. “Nothing severe.”
Eth stepped closer to the projection. “We assumed they were on their way to some black-flag operation, trying to implicate us…”
“Looks like they were on their way back instead,” Mishak finished for him.
Eth nodded absently. “I suppose, if you’ve just shot up an objective while pretending to be someone you’re not, you don’t run straight home, you run to an enemy’s territory.”
“How do you know they’re trying to conceal their identity?” one of the captains asked.
Eth looked at Mishak.
Mishak reached into the display. “We haven’t shown everyone the full picture yet,” he explained. With both hands facing palm-outward, he pushed the display back and Your Last Chance came into view. He set the display to begin the playback and stepped out of the way.
There were a few chuckles as the tiny little scout-ship began her attack run on the enemy cruiser. The chuckles turned to surprise as their first round stopped the cruiser from powering her main drives.
“What exactly did you do there?” Rimush demanded.
“We fired a nanite slug, sir.”
“That’s damned expensive!”
“It is, Captain, but we couldn’t get our hands on warheads. Our engineer programmed them to stay together and send out spikes in random directions. We got a lucky penetration.”
“They’re firing on one of their own ships!” a captain exclaimed.
“That’s why we believe they were trying to remain anonymous,” Mishak explained. “They didn’t want us talking to that crew or downloading their nav records.”
“You were damned lucky you backed off just before those warheads went off,” one of the Humans said in awe. “Damn near got sucked into the event horizon.”
Horizon.
Eth grabbed the display and pulled it back to the main enemy fleet. “We don’t need their nav records.”
Mishak turned to face him. “You know where they were?”
“Not yet, My Lord, but I know how to find out.” He stepped back. “Computer, give me a sphere around the enemy force, just big enough to contain all of the ships.”
The projection system added in the sphere.
“Did the BDA team assess the existing enemy damage?”
“They did,” Rimush confirmed.
“How long were they working on repairs before we arrived?”
“No more than four hours.”
“System, back up the display to the starting time of the battle, then back up another four hours.”
The collection of enemy icons coalesced into a single unit icon in the absence of individual ship data. This was before Mishak’s force had made contact.
“Now, based on your best estimate of a standard raiding force’s path-speed, expand the sphere while reversing the clock accordingly. Overlay any sub-dimensional messages with emergency tags that coincide with the outer surface of the sphere. Give it a fifteen percent margin of error in terms of when the surface passes the source of any signal.”
He stepped back and watched as the sphere grew. The projection had to keep zooming out to keep up with the expanding orb. Signal indicators began appearing at the surface but they were mostly single-ship distress calls – a freighter that lost power or a courier ship that passed too close to a black hole and fell out of path.
The viewable area now included all of his uncle’s holdings as well as most of his neighbors and, as it expanded into the side of Sandrak’s fief, the side farthest from Throne World, a planetary distress call appeared.
Eth let it continue for a few more seconds but then stopped the display. “Anyone care to place a bet?” he asked, opening the details for the planetary emergency. “Raiders. Five cruisers and six frigates. They destroyed the orbital patrol and bombarded three cities.”
“Sounds familiar.” Mishak gave Eth an approving nod.
“Just an economic disruption,” one of the captains ventured, but his face colored at the obvious disdain he felt over his easy answer.
Eth was one of the assembled leaders who made no attempt to hide their feelings. He knew the safe course of action would be to keep silent but he hadn’t been made for caution and he had an example to set for his two Human petty officers.
“Their objective had nothing to do with the economy of that world,” he said politely but firmly. “Their goal was to elicit a reaction from our overlord, Sandrakwilu – may he outlive us all.” He bowed his head as he named their overlord, the noble who ruled their lives in the emperor’s name. The assembled captains did likewise, bowing and murmuring the traditional blessing.
“Small wonder they went to such lengths to protect their identity,” Eth continued. “They attacked one of the most powerful lords in the empire, one with a reputation for his love of the old ways. Few lords would dare to anger him and none would consider doing it on their own.”
Mishak raised an eye ridge at him and Eth nodded affirmation. “My Lord, whoever carried out this attack has a powerful backer. Someone strong enough to balance the scales against our own lord.”
“If we found them in this sector,” Rimush mused, looking over at Mishak, “they might have been planning an attack on your uncle’s holdings as well.
Mishak nodded. “We’ll need to be much more careful. From now on we come out of path farther out from our destinations than usual. You never know when they might try to ambush an arrival corridor.”
This was met with grunts of approval.
“Thank-you, gentlemen.” Mishak’s tone managed to convey that the meeting was now at an end. “Warrant Eth,” he called out as the group began moving toward the exit. “A moment, if you please.”
“I’ll see you down in the hangar,” Eth told his two protégés.
Mishak waited until the hatch snapped shut. “You said a strong lord was backing this incursion, but you were holding something back. What are you reluctant to say?”
Despite having shared intoxicants with Mishak, Eth hadn’t quite expected this level of consultation, though he suspected old Ab had enjoyed their lord’s confidence in the past.
Perhaps this was how such an unlikely relationship began. Eth had undoubtedly gotten his lord out of a very sticky situation, not only against Chiron, but with his father as well.
He looked Mishak in the eye. “You know there are no lords with the power to risk your father’s wrath.”
Mishak shrugged. “This is true, but a coalition…” he trailed off, sensing Eth’s response.
“Strength, Lord, lies half in your mind and half in your people. Even the most brilliant fruit of imagination withers on the vine without people to carry it out. You can’t form a coalition, even an undeclared one, without a lot of people getting involved.
“Certainly you can negotiate a pact in secret and only muster your forces at the last moment, but too many people will still know.”
“And any three might keep a secret,” Mishak said grimly.
“Providing one of them has murdered the other two,” Eth finished the old saying. “A coalition is too clumsy. That leaves only one lord.”
“Tir Uttur.” Mishak waved the recording out of existence. “The emperor believes we pose a threat to him.”
“Don’t you?”
“Our very existence causes him to worry about the chances of his daughter being elected to take his throne. Usually, an heir apparent like Tashmitum is confident of ascension. She has all the requirements, brains, beauty and lineage, but we have a very strong argument in our own favor.”
“Power,” Eth said. “Raw, naked power.”
“And looks,” Mishak grinned as he gestured at himself but then his face darkened again. “If the emperor thinks this is the way to neutralize us, he’s even more unhinged than I’ve heard.” He shook his head and smiled. “Most nobles would give their third testicle to take his throne, so his paranoia isn’t entirely unwarranted.”
“You don’t want it?”
Mishak seemed lost in thought for a moment, but he shook it off and grinned at Eth.
“I have more sense than that. Power isn’t a plateau to rest upon; it’s the tip of a dagger.” He clapped a hand on Eth’s shoulder and guided him toward the exit. “I have no desire to spend the rest of my days trying not to topple off.”
Risk and Reward
A New Pattern
N oa stepped back beyond the demarcation line on the deck. Any nanites beyond that line were fair game for the regrowth of the Last Chance’s new bridge but the system was prevented from using any other material. He’d placed a large block of the microscopic robots between the pilots’ seats, though he expected the new design to actually use less material.
Still, no need to take chances.
“Already making upgrades?”
He jumped at the voice. The hangar was projecting a barrier around the scout-ship during the regrowth for safety‘s sake. Only engineering specialists could pass such a barrier.
He caught his breath and turned to face the intruder.
“Hello, Allatu.” He should have realized she might drop by. She’d shown a keen interest in the development of the small ship, along with other things. Her help had moved its development along far faster than Noa could have done alone.
He’d had time to think about the other aspect of their interactions. She wasn’t the first female Quailu he’d ever met, but he had never noticed one of them before. In the past, they’d always been aloof but Allatu had refrained from the engineering chief’s abusive agenda toward the Humans even if she did steal Oliv’s calibrators. Stealing kit was a time-honored tradition in the house forces.
It was during the race when he’d finally come to see her not just as a Quailu but as a female Quailu – a very female one. Her playful shove at the start of their race and her grace in beating him had changed his perceptions. Picking up on those feelings, she’d developed an interest in him as well.
It was the oldest story in the universe. Few things are more attractive in the opposite sex than a reciprocal attraction. It offers a heady mix of excitement and validation, and Noa was transmitting without any of the mental filters used by the Quailu.
Allatu couldn’t help sensing his growing attraction and she seemed to forget what it was that she’d planned to say next.
Noa could feel his pulse pounding and, though his conscious mind didn’t note it, his subconscious registered the flushed skin around her neck and the dilated pupils of her eyes. It increased his own response which she immediately felt.
In essence, it was a feedback loop that neither could have stopped on their own, though he knew there was a risk of being discovered.
Hands wandered, crew-suits were shed. Allatu turned around and pressed back against Noa, reaching back to guide him.
And he forgot all about being discovered.
E th turned out of the side corridor from his quarters to find himself several meters behind Damkina, one of the engineering crew.
He was heading to the hangar bay. Noa was re-growing the bridge of their scout-ship today and Eth was already thinking of a few other holdovers from the old design that were better off left out of the new layout.
His eyes widened as he realized he was watching the subtle grace of Damkina’s form as she walked ahead of him. It was more than grace. He was suddenly aware of a strong physical attraction.
He was designed to avoid fraternizing with his own subordinates but none of the Quailu on the flagship fell under that umbrella. They weren’t so different from Humans as to preclude the possibility of attraction.
And he was feeling that attraction for someone with empathic abilities…
Ears red, he’d ducked into a side passage, looking for a chance to cool off. She’d stopped as well at a locker out in the main corridor as he was turning aside. He started, slightly, when she came around the corner.
She looked at him blankly, the usual face for the empathics on the Dibbarra , but she tilted her head forward aggressively.
Eth knew she could feel what was on his mind. What do you do in a situation like this… apologize for mental lechery?
“I’ve got the time if you do,” she rumbled, leaning in even closer.
“What?” he blurted. You know exactly what she’s talking about, you idiot. Stop messing around and say yes or I’ll stab our brain with a calibrater…
A mental response serves as well as a spoken one with the Quailu. Damkina pressed one hand on the scanner by one of the doors and grabbed the front of Eth’s suit with the other. She dragged him into what seemed to be her own quarters.
He’d sought refuge from his attraction outside her very door? If that’s not a sign from the Universe then I don’t know what is.
She guided his hand down the front of her suit, which had come open at some point. “A little to the left,” she gasped.
Eth’s relief at her willingness to ask for what she wanted wasn’t lost on Damkina.
It turned out to be a very instructive encounter.
They were still lying together in her bunk when the door whispered open. Neither had thought about locking it when they’d entered the small cabin.
“Zaidu?” she growled. “What brings you here? Come again to tell me how you’re willing to ignore your better judgment for my sake?”
Eth sat up to look past her. Zaidu, apparently, was the name of the rump-sniffing fool who’d tried to trip him in the senior NCO’s mess.
And Zaidu was staring daggers at Eth.
“Do you have business with either of us, Surgeon’s Mate?” Eth demanded negligently, refusing to acknowledge the Quailu’s anger. “Business that can’t wait till later?”
Zaidu’s skin was dark below the eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. His fists clenched.
Finally, he found his tongue. “You’re beneath my station anyway!”
“Honestly,” Eth replied before Damkina could, “I didn’t even realize you were interested in me.”
“I…” Zaidu trailed off into a stream of guttural incoherence. Finally, he slammed his palms together and shook them at the couple, which must have meant something on his own home-world. He spun on his heel and stalked off, chased down the corridor by Damkina’s rumbling laugh.
Eth eased back onto his elbow, grinning at her. “Sorry about that,” he said with mock solemnity. “I had no idea the poor fellow was into me!”
She broke out laughing again, dropping back onto the bunk, one hand going to her belly. “Enough!” she said, still chuckling. “You’re gonna give me hiccups!”
She gave him a nudge. “Go ahead and get dressed. It’s pretty clear that you want to get somewhere important right now and I need to put the other half of my brain to sleep so I’ll be ready for my shift.”
Eth sat up, looking down at her face, one eyebrow raised. “You mean you’ve had half your brain asleep the whole time?”
