Infinity's End: Books 4-6, page 27
“Like?”
“Cas thinks we should make an alliance with someone before these little ships cripple us.”
Laura grimaced. “What do you think?”
“On one hand I think he’s right. An alliance makes sense. We could pool resources, fix ourselves and get home faster. On the other hand, I can’t ignore the possibility we’d be opening ourselves up to even further trouble. Who’s to say whomever we make an alliance with decides to take what we have by force? Or sabotage us?”
Laura wiped something at Evie’s cheek. Her finger came away with a dark smudge. Some of the fluid from Laura’s face must have transferred to her own. “It’s a gamble, you’re right. But do we have a choice?”
“For the time being we still do. But if Zenfor can’t get those engines back up and running we’ll be out of supplies and energy in less than a season.”
Laura’s eyes danced. “Are you just venting, or do you want my opinion?”
Evie shrugged. “Both. Neither.” She chuckled. “I don’t know. I just…wanted to see you. We haven’t had much time together since…this.” She waved her hand at the back wall.
Laura turned to face the maintenance crew, still working hard on removing all the necessary components. “Yeah, it’s great because when the designers built this ship, they put the most essential components of the defense systems behind everything else. Which was stellar planning on their part.”
Evie almost laughed out loud. “I’m sorry. What’s the prognosis?”
“Maybe another day to get it fixed?” She turned back to her. “And before you tell me that’s too long because they’ll be attacking again soon, I already know. But we can’t go any faster, it’s delicate work.”
“Damn,” Evie replied. Laura had read her mind. They needed to get the weapons systems back online for the next attack, which could come anytime in the next six to eight hours if they kept to their “schedule”. “Looks like we’ll have to send the spacewings out.”
“Because I’m awesome I’m going to go ahead and tell you why you came down here in the first place.” Laura leaned in.
“What?”
“Not only did you need the opinion of the most qualified member of your crew about our current predicament, but you also wanted to ask me out on a date.”
Evie crossed her arms and mirrored her movement, giving her an easy shove. “Is that so?”
“By my count we’re a few behind. And you can’t blame me for wanting to see you more.”
Evie huffed. “I’ll just have to rectify that. I have an excellent assortment of ration bars stocked in my quarters for later.”
“Gourmet ration bars?” Laura asked, her eyebrows wiggling.
“You know it. Only the best for you.”
Laura laughed and turned to face Evie. “Sounds wonderful.” Her eyes flicked back and forth, and Evie felt more vulnerable than she ever had in her life. But it was a good kind of vulnerable, the kind she wanted but so rarely obtained. She felt as if Laura could see the real her, the her beneath the surface, the one where all the bullshit was stripped away and what remained was Evie’s true essence. She’d never felt that with anyone else, and before Laura, hadn’t even known it to be possible. But she was sure in her conviction that Laura saw her for who she really was.
“What do you think I should do?” she whispered.
Laura’s face softened. “You really want my opinion?” She hesitated a moment. “I agree with our first officer. I think if the principles of the Coalition can work back home, then they can work here too. It’s like starting over.”
Yeah, except out here we don’t have the Claxians to watch over us as we reach out to other species. Was she the only one who thought seeking out other species was a bad idea? All she could think of was how it had led to a Coalition full of subterfuge and secrecy. As best she knew the Claxians still didn’t know about what Admiral Rutledge and the crew of the Achlys had done when they’d captured a Sil ship and tried to use its technology. And that was something she was complicit in. If they were willing to hide something like that from their closest allies, how many more secrets did the Coalition hold? Were the Claxians or the Untuburu or the Yax-Inax keeping secrets from the humans? And where would it end?
“Evelyn? Sweetie, are you okay?” Laura asked.
Evie gave her head a little shake, fluttering her eyes. “Sorry. I just zoned out there for a minute. You really think we could make an alliance work?”
“Well, I mean don’t go after the biggest and baddest species out there. I’d talk to someone who was in a similar position as us. Someone who couldn’t necessarily overpower us if they got too desperate. But who also needed help.”
“That’s a fine line to walk,” Evie replied. “Especially when so much of this space isn’t charted.”
Laura grinned. “You’ll figure it out. Now let me get back to work otherwise I’ll have to file a formal complaint.”
“That sounds like a threat,” Evie replied.
“You know it,” she said, echoing Evie’s earlier words.
She took a deep breath. “My quarters for dinner? Fifteen hundred?”
Laura began strolling back to the maintenance crew. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Evie kissed her index and middle fingers and stretched them out to Laura. Laura mimicked the movement then turned her attention back to her job. Evie let her eyes linger a moment longer before leaving the science wing. As she made her way back to the hypervator to return to the bridge, she pondered Laura’s advice. Maybe she and Cas were right. But they couldn’t go into this thing blind and full of optimism. They needed to be careful. But if the only reason she was hesitating was because of the current state of their own Coalition, then it didn’t make sense. She needed to wait to hear back from Cas. In the meantime, it was imperative they defend themselves against the next attack. She tapped the comm in the back of her hand. “Chief Rafnkell?”
“Go ahead, Captain,” the chief said.
“I need you to prepare four of your fighters. It seems our primary weapons systems won’t be back up in time and we’re going to need some defending against the next attack. Be prepared to launch at a moment’s notice.”
“Finally,” Rafnkell said. “A suggestion, Captain?”
“Go ahead.”
“Let us sit out there in wait for them. We can use Tempest as cover. They won’t know we’re there until it’s too late.”
“Will you be okay out there for a few hours on your own?” Evie reached the hypervator, stepping inside.
Rafnkell chuckled. “The space corps can take much worse, trust me. They used to drop us out on Set and make us survive a week on our own. A couple of hours in a spacewing is nothing.”
“If you say so, Chief. Proceed at your own discretion. They could be here any time.”
“Acknowledged. Rafnkell out.”
Evie took another breath. Hopefully they’d have better luck. Now, if only Engineering would cooperate.
Chapter Six
Cas stepped through the main rollaway door that separated Engineering from the rest of the ship. It was stuck halfway in place and when he pushed on it, it didn’t budge a centimeter. There was barely enough room for a human to make it through the opening, he didn’t even want to know how the four-meter-tall Sesster made it through.
“Commander!” Cas glanced over to see the newly promoted Lieutenant Tyler jogging toward him. Tyler had been instrumental in keeping Engineering from collapsing entirely during the attack and Evie had rewarded him with a well-deserved promotion. But his already-present anxiety had only seemed to increase in conjunction with his newfound authority.
“You don’t have to call me that, Tyler, I’ve told you before. I don’t have an official rank, just a position on the ship,” Cas replied.
Tyler took a breath. “I know, it’s just easier. Commander, it’s a mess down here. My guys did the best they could while it was depressurized but we’ve got a lot of major systems that will need full overhauls. Those mines really fucked us.”
Cas blew out a long breath. “Give me the worst of it.”
“Long-range comms are down. Probably for good. We have internal ship communications and we can do short range to shuttles and nearby planets but that’s it. Nothing beyond a light year. The transmitters have been destroyed and building a new one will take longer than getting back to Coalition space.”
Damn. He was afraid of that. Without the comms they couldn’t even reach out to any nearby ships; they’d have to wait until they came in close. “What else?”
“Sesster says the undercurrent system is salvageable, with the right components. For now, any further use is going to put strains on the system and possibly cause a rupture. We’ve only got three of the four emitters working. I realize we’re out in the middle of nowhere and we can’t stay here, but for the time being we recommend sparing use of it only.” He wiped his brow, sweat was pouring down from under his crop of red hair.
“Have you spoken to Zenfor about her technology?”
Tyler’s face turned into a grimace. “I tried. She wasn’t in a mood to talk.”
Cas nodded. “Don’t worry. I’ll speak to her. Anything else?”
“I’ve spoken to Uuma and we think we can get the weapons back without too much of a problem, but we’ve got multiple parts of the ship where I’m worried about the structural integrity. Volf and I agree we’ll need to focus our efforts on containing those sections unless we want the ship to pull itself apart in the undercurrents. If we could find a fresh source of galvanium we could be back up and running with modest repairs. Our other option is to build an energy collector with what we have on-hand and try to synthesize what we need. But that will take a lot longer.”
Cas sucked his lips between his teeth, thinking. They needed the collector, even if it would take forever. “If you can spare the people, get started on the collector. There’s no guarantee we’ll find the materials we need out here. The sooner we get started, the better.”
Tyler nodded. “Yes, sir.” He turned to some of his staff. “Sophie! Get down to science one and find Doctor Amargosa. We’re going to need her help.” He turned back to Cas. “She’s got a background in thermal dynamics.”
Cas wasn’t sure if he meant Sophie or Amargosa. Either way it didn’t matter. It was clear Tyler had really stepped into his role here and was handling things nicely. Cas glanced over to the massive form of Commander Sesster, who lay in his custom-built cradle at the far end of the room, operating many of the Engineering components from inside. “Where’s…” He saw her before he finished his thought. She was over close to Sesster, bent over a console, her stern face like a blade in its intensity. He hadn’t been looking forward to this. Cas turned back to Tyler. “Carry on.”
Tyler nodded and returned to his duties while Cas made his way across Engineering. There was debris everywhere. Evie had filled him in on how they barely got out after the mine had blown a hole in the deck below. And how Box had been instrumental in helping everyone escape. He’d never tell him to his face, but Cas was proud of how far he’d come in such a short time. And he felt guilty for keeping him on the Reasonable Excuse for all those years. Box thrived when he was around more people and when he had something worthwhile to do. Piloting a junky courier ship hadn’t been enough for him and Cas couldn’t help but think where Box might be had he not been holding him back.
Probably fencing stolen net dramas in the Sargan Commonwealth a voice deep inside him said.
He approached her from the side, making sure to stay where he knew he was in her peripheral vision. From the scowl on her face the last thing he wanted was to startle her and have her rip his head off in retaliation. He’d already endured two punches to the face and wasn’t sure he could take another hit without some brain damage. “Consul?” he asked.
“Caspian.”
“How are you feeling?”
“What does that matter?” Her eyes hadn’t left the screens she’d been staring at. Though it didn’t seem like she was changing any of the inputs.
“I just figured since you almost died out there—”
“I told you. Sil lungs are resilient and Xax didn’t need to keep me. I’m fine.” She tensed and Cas’s eyes narrowed. She’d managed to reset the undercurrent system by exposing herself to the vacuum of space, and she’d only needed minimal recovery time in sickbay. But he knew better than to push the issue. It was a bad idea to argue with a Sil. Or, at least, this particular Sil.
“What’s the story with your enhancements to our engines?” Cas asked.
“I told you I’d get them fixed and I will.” There was an anxiousness in her voice he’d never heard before. Even when she was wrong she had conviction, but this sounded like something else.
“When can I tell the captain they’ll be ready? With the undercurrent offline I know she’s—”
“They’ll be ready when I say they’re ready,” Zenfor growled. Her two-meter frame seemed to heave with fury.
Cas took a precautious step back. “I’m going to need more than that. Hours? Days? Weeks?”
She flashed him a glare that he thought would pierce his soul, her mouth curled into a snarl. “It’s your damn primitive equipment. How am I supposed to get anything done with your ancient technology? It might as well be two Guursels pulling a cart.”
Cas had no idea what a Guursel was, but he caught the general idea. “That doesn’t sound promising.”
She slammed her massive hands on the console, cracking it straight down the middle. Lighting flashed through Cas as for a brief moment he thought she might actually lash out at him and the crew. Everyone had stopped what they were doing, save Sesster, and were now staring at her. She took a deep breath—though Cas noticed another tiny shudder—and took two steps to the right, activating the console beside the one she’d broken and bringing up the same information as before.
“Zenfor, give me the truth. How bad is it?” Cas asked.
“The system is offline, and I don’t know if I can repair it. Not with the equipment I have here.” She turned to him again. “How do you deal with it? So many things going wrong. Sil ships have natural built-in redundancies. We don’t experience failure on this scale. Things don’t keep going wrong.”
“The ship has some redundancies, but not enough to combat the kind of damage we suffered. The ship’s armor wasn’t up when the mines hit us, and they struck some strategic points which—” He’d only just now realized how surgical the strikes had been. Close to the bridge. Close to engineering. Enough to knock out their propulsion but not enough to destroy them completely. That ship that had been hiding in the time pocket had wanted to reach them, not destroy them. But for what? Threat assessment? They’d probably never know.
“This ship isn’t a ship at all. It’s a child’s toy,” Zenfor growled. “If we find suitable replacement parts, I won’t be standing by idle. I’m tired of my life being in the hands of people who don’t understand basic physics.”
At least she wasn’t talking about abandoning them. Though he wasn’t quite sure what she was hinting at. “I’ll tell the captain the system is down until further notice,” he finally said. “Or until we can resupply.”
“And rebuild,” she added.
Cas thought that was about as good as he was going to get. He left her to ponder at her station. She still might find a way out of this with what little they had on-hand, but everything kept coming back to restocking and resupplying the ship with the necessary components. Sure, they’d had some replacement components on-hand, but a lot of those had been blown into space during the attack and they’d had no time to retrieve them. Which meant unfortunately it left them undersupplied and out of luck when it came to repairing a lot of the existing systems. He hated to do it, but he’d have to inform Evie right away. Maybe it would help convince her to make a decision about searching for help. Or even entertaining Vrij’s “offer”.
As Cas left Engineering, he caught Tyler giving him a friendly nod. Surprised, he returned the gesture and left feeling more confident than when he’d come in, despite the bad news.
You seem distressed. What can I do to help?
Zenfor grimaced as she stared at the console. The information wasn’t going to change, the calculations weren’t going to magically work themselves out, so why did she continue to watch the screen like she might see something she hadn’t already been over a thousand times?
Because you don’t want to let them down, Sesster said in her mind.
That’s not it, she thought. It was strange communicating this way, but she preferred it to verbal communication. It reminded her of being home, where not everything had to be done manually. Talking to Sesster was easier than anything else on this ship.
Thank you, I feel much the same way. Inside, she smiled, though she’d never let it show on her face. She preferred to keep it all hidden. And now for Sesster too, she supposed. But that was okay, she didn’t mind him seeing. He’d been the primary reason she’d been interested in coming on this ship in the first place. You flatter me.
It’s true. It was why I volunteered to come aboard rather than stay on the Coalition starbase with Mil’less.
You miss her very much. His thoughts pierced her. There was a drawback to this kind of communication; little could be hidden or obfuscated. And she wasn’t one who was open with others. It is okay to miss people. I too miss my own kind.
She hadn’t considered that. I hadn’t considered your feelings about your own people. Would you like to speak to me about them? In addition to listening to his concerns it might also keep the focus off her for a while.
You don’t have to use subterfuge with me. If you don’t wish to discuss your situation, please say so. No deception is required.
Inwardly she grimaced. I apologize. I’m not used to being the focus of anything. It’s…uncomfortable.
That is alright. I will take you up on your offer as it isn’t often I am able to speak of my people. Especially in the presence of other Coalition members. But you…you might understand better.
