Twilight Serenade, page 3
part #6 of Earth Song Series
Chapter 3
Octember 27th, 534 AE
Chosen Council Chamber, Stevens Pass, Bellatrix
If there was anything Minu disliked more than being in charge, it was dealing with those whose approval she needed before she could do the things being in charge required. The life of a Chosen was one conundrum after another, and this was one of the worst.
“Thank you all for coming,” she said to the assembled group. All the two-star Chosen councilors were in the Council chambers: Dram Aluvala, Second in Command of the Chosen and Scouts Branch; Cherise Macubale, Logistics Branch; Gregg Larson, Rangers Branch; Jasmine Osgood, Science Branch; newly promoted Kenneth Benedict, Training Branch; and lastly, the aging but still formidable, Bjorn Ganose, former head of the Science Branch. Including Minu, there were seven voting members. A young five-star from logistics sat to one side, running the recording apparatus.
“Okay,” Minu addressed her Council, “I’m reopening something that came up before I was the First. I’m talking about our freedom.” She could see they had mixed reactions. “Jacob’s position was that leaving the Tog’s protection was dangerous. But, as you can all see, we’ve outgrown any protection they can offer us.
“We’re exposed on the galactic stage now. If there are species in the Concordia that aren’t aware of us, they’re either minor or uninvolved. We’ve battled several higher order species and come out on top every time.”
“Not so much with the Mok-Tok,” Jasmine pointed out.
“The credit for that fiasco belongs to my predecessor,” Minu reminded her. Jasmine nodded somberly. Jacob had disappeared, and no one knew where he was. The only certainty was that he hadn’t left the planet. “If we leave the Tog, we will have the opportunity to make political alliances with species other than the Rasa. We’ll be able to sign new leaseholds, and we won’t have to share our profits with the Tog. We’ll gain unrestricted access to the valuable information in the Concordian databases. And, we’ll have the right to declare vendettas and wars.”
She looked for some sign of exultation on the Council members’ faces, but she found none. Kenneth, the new member of the Council, didn’t have as much information to work with, so he was researching information on his tablet. As he was a martial arts instructor, Minu knew he was unfailing in his attention to detail. He might cause a hitch in the discussion. Cherise tugged at her bottom lip, her eyes unfocussed, as she thought. Bjorn was excited by the mention the database, and he sat back with a blissful look on his face. Gregg was solidly in her camp, as was Dram; both wanted military flexibility and were tired of serving under the Tog. Jasmine shook her head ever so slightly.
“You really think this is the best course of action?” Dram asked, starting the conversation.
“What do we really gain from the Tog?” she asked in reply.
“Anonymity,” Jasmine said.
“In a manner of speaking,” she countered. “But I think we all agree that our anonymity is becoming increasingly marginalized. We’ve been attacked on this planet once, and we have aliens here all the time. Frankly, I’m surprised no one has figured out where we are just by taking a fucking picture of the night sky.” Minu took a deep breath and released it slowly through her teeth. “I understand we all have strong feelings about this. Some positive, some not so positive.” She looked at Gregg and Dram, then at Cherise and Jasmine. “Some of you don’t know what to think.” Kenneth looked up from his tablet and sighed, nodding. “Just know this, I’ve talked with P’ing and hse told me everything I told you. There is no debt, and they’re willing to ally with us militarily, at least with their starships. Lilith says their stealth frigates are formidable.
“We’re at a crossroads. Everyone can agree on that, right?” Everyone nodded. “We may well have passed the point of no return. It’s likely we passed it the last time I was gone, and the previous First hired out the Rangers as a mercenary force. We’re on too many radars. We’ve made a few friends but more enemies. If we try to withdraw, I’m afraid it would do more damage than if we try to push forward.”
She looked at them and considered carefully what she said next. “You had enough faith in me to put this single star on my sleeve. I have a plan that could not only make humanity safe but get us a seat at the big table.” They all nodded and glanced at each other, most smiling slightly or shrugging. “So, I’m asking you to trust me again.”
* * *
Minu walked into her small office in Stevens Pass and almost collapsed into the old overstuffed chair. It was the one from her childhood in which she sat in her father’s lap and played with computer chips while he read reports. Chosen would come in, he’d give orders, and they’d leave. In her early formative years, she saw what it was to be Chosen and had caught the bug. She couldn’t quite bring herself to take the chair and move it to Ft. Jovich, her unofficial seat of office. It rightly belonged here.
Her feet and back hurt, and the baby had kicked through the entire meeting. She had almost three months to go, but she was convinced she’d never make it.
Minu leaned back with a sigh and put her feet up on a small side table, then she took a long sip of tea that she’d brought back from the meeting. It was a decent tasting herbal blend suggested by her doctor. After she’d rested a bit, she picked up the phone and dialed her office at the fort.
“Office of the First,” answered a feminine voice.
“Afternoon, Ariana.”
“Hi Minu, what can I do for you?”
“We need to begin making arrangements for an extended deep-space mission.”
“Sure. How many are going, and who?”
“I’ll have a list in an hour.”
* * * * *
Chapter 4
Octember 29th, 534 AE
Unknown Location, Deep Space
Aaron stared at the walls of his tiny compartment and tried not to think about how long he’d been there. It wasn’t hard, since he had no concept of the passage of time. He marked his days by when his meals were delivered. Twice a ‘day’ he was given trays of shipboard nutrients like what he’d gotten on the Kaatan before it became more proficient in making human foodstuffs. His best guess was a month.
A few weeks earlier, one of the ship’s crew members had briefly interrogated him. The Squeen didn’t offer any details about who was doing the interrogation. He was merely asked who he was, what he’d been doing on the Tanam ship, and a few other unimportant questions. That was it. He’d been returned to the tiny stateroom and hadn’t seen another soul since.
The only other things they’d given him were some clothes (obviously created by the ship) that could be placed in a cleaning slot that returned them in five minutes, and a standard issue tablet with extremely limited access to the ship’s network. He’d tried a few creative hacks, each of which had cost him a day of suspended activity. Eventually, he stopped trying and merely used it to write some rudimentary games and keep a sort of diary. Keeping any sort of accurate record wasn’t easy, considering his rudimentary access didn’t provide date indexes.
He’d just finished his second meal of the day, and he was trying to decide if general boredom would kill him before culinary boredom, when the door suddenly opened. He was so surprised, he just sat on his bunk for a minute blinking at the Squeen, who stared back at him.
“You come with me,” it said finally. The alien’s squeaking and snapping were interpreted by the translator Aaron wore, the only piece of equipment he’d been allowed to keep after his capture. Aaron shrugged and got up to follow.
The ship was larger than he remembered from the previous times he’d been out of his compartment. The interior corridors didn’t have the short-angled feeling of those on the Kaatan, although there was considerably less headspace.
After a minute, the escort delivered him to an armored door he assumed was in the center of the ship. The Squeen entered a code into the access pad, and it rumbled aside to reveal a CIC not too dissimilar from the one on the Kaatan. This one was staffed by a dozen of the ship’s masters.
Luckily, Aaron had experienced zero gravity before, so when he crossed the threshold, it didn’t catch him by surprise. The Squeen followed him in and stood guard by the door as it ground closed.
The CIC was dark and, outside, the stars slid by all around them as if he they were flying through space. It was set up remarkably like the one on the Kaatan before Lilith was born and became the ship’s master. Groups of the rodent-like Squeen manned the ships’ sensors—engineering, conn, and combat controls—while three hovered in the center, surrounded by dozens of tiny, floating, information screens. There was no way to decipher the rank of the beings in the group as the only clothing they wore were vests that held equipment. Aaron pushed off toward the center.
“You have been a problem for us,” one of the three floating in the center said, its words rendered by Aaron’s translator. Two of the three Squeen floated away on some other task, leaving behind the one who’d spoken. It regarded Aaron with his tiny black eyes. “I am Sure Strike, captain of the cruiser, Octal 1.”
“While I am sorry for the inconvenience, it is hardly my fault I am here.”
The Squeen regarded him for a moment longer before turning its attention to the screens. “We could have left you in the destroyed Tanam ship.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Sure Strike looked back at him and snapped his teeth together, hard, twice. Aaron wondered if it was a shrug. “I wish I knew. I am aware of humans from a discussion with the seeker Quick Finder. He told me your leader, Minu, rescued him and the leader Strong Arm from the Tanam some time ago.”
Aaron nodded. The event had happened during the Tanam’s failed assault on Serengeti. “Yes, I was there.”
“We are curious about your species,” he said, “and finding you on a Tanam ship, after that earlier incident, confused me.”
“I can imagine.”
“Can you? We decided to deviate from our current mission and take you to Strong Arm. He is a leader, I am only a captain. He can decide what to do with you.” A crewman manning the conn said a single word Aaron’s translator didn’t pick up. “We have arrived.”
The moving, distorted star field resolved with jerking suddenness, revealing a nearby star shining a ruddy shade of red. The star, itself, was not spectacular, but the fleet floating nearby was.
Aaron lost count at fifty ships of varying designs. Small, medium, large, and hulking, they floated alone and in groups, some moving, some stationary. Many appeared brand new, sleek and dangerous. Others looked like they had been pieced together from garbage and were incapable of holding an atmosphere, and it seemed as though they would disintegrate if they accelerated even slightly. Maybe they never moved.
“This is fantastic,” he said in a breathless voice.
“Is it?” Sure Strike asked, his translator conveying a distinct tone of doubt. He gestured grandly toward the assembled host. “Welcome to our home, human.”
* * * * *
Chapter 5
January 7th, 535 AE
Jumpoff, Galactic Frontier
“I’ve always wondered what the planet looked like from orbit,” Minu said in the CIC. The walls had been turned into the huge screens Lilith preferred, giving everyone a view of space and the single planet orbiting below the Kaatan. The world was completely white with a few spots of iridescent blue.
“Ice Ball might have been a better name,” Kal’at joked. Minu grinned and shook her head. The Rasa got more human every year. “It would have been nice to know, years ago, that this was the world you use to stage your missions.”
“I’m sure a lot of species would like to know. We’ve used this world as a jump off point for as long as the Tog have been sending us on errand runs throughout the galaxy.” Minu glanced at a screen showing a compressed view of the galaxy arm they were in. “I had no idea it was so close to Bellatrix.”
“Four hundred and seventy-one light years is hardly close, Mother.”
Minu chuckled and shrugged. It had taken them four tactical jumps and two days’ cruise to arrive at the world of perpetual ice the Chosen had used innumerable times over the decades. For Minu and others, it only took one step through a portal to reach the world. It was a concealed location that allowed personnel to move without anyone noticing.
“We’re here within an hour of the scheduled time,” Lilith confirmed.
“Great,” Minu said. “Prep the shuttles.”
* * *
In the steadily falling snow, three of the Kaatan’s four shuttles were parked in a ring around the portal. The portal was in a border region of the tidally-locked world where it was never completely dark or light. Minu had visited once when it was raining rather than snowing.
She stood beside one of the shuttles, wearing her tiger-striped Ranger uniform, with her shock rifle slung barrel down across her back. Her personal squad, led by Sgt. Selain, was with her. Kal’at waited by the second shuttle, and a pilot named Chris Sommercorn, a four-star logistics Chosen from the Summit Tribe, commanded the final shuttle.
Minu checked her chronometer as the final minutes clicked off, and the portal came alive. The squad of Rangers quietly slid their weapons forward, just in case. A second later, the image cleared and revealed the inside of a large bay full of Beezer. The Rangers calmed.
Minu waved, and the Beezer began passing through the portal. In a couple of minutes, fifty had come through and moved to the side. Each one carried a massive duffel bag. The Beezer sported unique face trimming, tattoos, and scrimshaw engraving on their horns. The most ornately decorated one walked over to Minu.
“I am Pakata.” Minu’s translator rendered the huffs and grumbles of the Beezer into English. “I speak for the Jofo clan on Beezer. We have accepted your contract. Hakaga (Badcold) sends his greetings.” He finished with a modest bow.
“I welcome you, Pakata,” she replied and bowed in return. “I believe your clan has won a most lucrative contract, though there is risk.”
“We understand that, First. There are those among the Beezer who understand that risk accompanies possible gain.” Minu nodded. “We also know what you did for us on Serengeti.”
“And what was that?”
“You saved us from the Tanam, and we’re grateful and willing to help you.”
“Pakata, I think we’ll get along fine.”
“We stand ready to serve.”
“Thank you. Please split into teams and board the shuttles.”
The fifty Beezer quickly divided into two teams of twenty and one team of ten, and each team headed for a shuttle. Kal’at greeted the leader of his group, and Sommercorn met his. The introductions seemed congenial all around, and Minu nodded in satisfaction. It only took a short time to get everyone aboard. Pakata and his team boarded Minu’s shuttle. It was crowded because each Beezer was easily two or three times the size of a man, but they managed. The Kaatan’s shuttles were bigger on the inside than they appeared from the outside because so little room was needed for engineering.
“I wish we had time to retrieve the gear that’s here,” Minu said to Lilith as the shuttles took off in formation. “It’s been sitting here for weeks.”
“It should remain safe for quite some time,” Lilith pointed out. “We are already stressing my ship’s facilities with so many life forms. It would take hours to transfer all the heavy equipment from the surface of Jumpoff to orbit. And most of my cargo bays will be occupied by our passengers.”
According to Lilith, the Kaatan could only be configured for twenty cabins in its present load out. The cabins were spacious enough for two or three humans, but only one Beezer could fit. So, they had agreed the group’s leaders (one for every five) would get cabins while the rank and file would bunk communally in the cargo bays. There were also twenty Rasa aboard (at five to a cabin), and that was just about all the Kaatan could handle.
“I don’t like not being with you,” Selain grumbled as the Beezer finished loading.
“As we discussed, there will be little opportunity for your services. You are going to be working with the training regime I set up. Once we have surveyed the fleet, and if everything goes as planned, you’ll come out.”
“I still officially disagree with the tactic.”
“And I note it,” Minu said, then held out her hand. He took it, and they shook warmly.
“Be careful,” he said. Without another word, he led his men toward the portal and home.
The trip to orbit was quick, and Minu was grateful. The smell of twenty Beezer crammed into the shuttle horn to horn with seven humans was not conducive to interspecies relationships. She had to remind herself that she probably didn’t smell great to the buffalo-like beings either.
Minu watched the Beezer carefully. They were not the sort of beings who enjoyed enclosed spaces. Their leasehold, Serengeti, was a vast, open planet with endless, grassy plains and few cities. Their large settlements resembled parks more than cities. And to Minu’s knowledge, none had ever been on a starship. The shuttle had artificial gravity and other than sitting quietly and chuffing to each other, they seemed fine. But she thought it best to ask.
“How are you doing, Pakata?”
“I will be well,” he replied.
“Would you like to see the ship?” Pakata’s head bobbed, so Minu touched a control. The front of the large cargo area became a display. They were already outside the atmosphere, propelled by the shuttle’s powerful gravitic drive, and they could see the ship ahead of them. The Kaatan looked like a needle piercing a ball, the sleek and bulbous shape, creating an unusual visual effect. It shined like mirrored silver as it quickly grew on the display.
“Strange looking,” Pakata grumbled. “Not what I expected.” Minu nodded, she’d felt the same way when she first saw the Kaatan-class ships. “Does it have a name?”
