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  Chapter 06 - HELL’S BUTCHER SHOP

  5 May 2173 – Thursday

  HD-19373 [Iota Persei]

  Ensign Xiu-Li Chen regained awareness and then opened her eyes. By then, sound and stench again confirmed her present surroundings as unchanged from the last time she’d passed out, so seeing them was... she closed her eyes.

  She was in Hell’s butcher shop...

  And no one else was left alive to get her out.

  XIU-LI

  A Resources Survey Mapping Party did not usually have a Tac officer in it, but Captain D. “Bert” Matisou was being much more careful these days. And when newest Tactical Division Ensign Xiu-Li Chen wasn’t tying down e-mag baseplates during turbulence, or teaching fighting skills (and also learning, from Commander Takaguchi, more than she had wanted to believe she needed to), or cleaning all of the weapon contacts (from the big e-mag guns to magpistols, Tactical played a role, and there were 40 magpistols and magrifles – each! – just for starters!) or taking a brigwatch (of all things!) – she was “available” for exactly this sort of duty.

  HD-19373 [HIP 14632/Iota Persei] was a G0 star 34.3 light years “north” of Earth and SolSys, first visited by humans almost a decade before in 2163, but not “hazard cleared” for further exploration or colonization as “many unusual environmental findings” were examined (no one wanted a repeat of the Niv experience, so this was considered routine). It was 53.5 light years from the star Cape Of Velvet orbited, Beta Hyphi.

  That had meant ninety five days in hyperflight, three full months of mission planning (goals, geographic areas, mission maps and task timelines) and operations preparations (science packages, personnel gear kits for the surface teams, rations, sleep tents, and so on).

  The science mission was under the charge of Lieutenant Kimsen Ramble and his deputy, Lieutenant (j.g). Thierry Ribaud, but primary ops prep and planning were undertaken by the always extremely capable Lieutenant James (“Dopey Jimmy”) Herkle, one of the ship’s most liked Command Division officers. He would lead Team B’s four members on the first canyon survey.

  Then there was the Orbital Mapping Team, which converted a shuttleRunner into a giant mobile radar/camera/map data collection platform; the orbital Science Division lieutenants and ensigns were working on targets to observe and making lists, endless lists of them; and there were some hopes that the shoreleaves missed on Velvet might be worked in after a week on station. After a five week trip in hyperflight to Cape Of Velvet, their disasterous reception there and a very uneasy week while they resupplied, then thirteen and a half weeks in hyperflight transit to HD-197373, they were a crew eager to finally start work.

  IWG-SS JOHN A.WHEELER came out of hyperflight and began to move in through the system on MirMat, passing the outer gas giants and scanning en route to the inner system. Finding the system “free of radio signals or other emission evidence of life” (as the Fleet handbooks defined it, even systems like the jungle worlds of Jade and Cape Of Velvet, reeking oxygen, chlorophyll, and just enough trace methane, which all screamed out LIFE!) Matisou ordered final approach to the target planet – which some were calling “Percy,” as HD-19373 was seen from the Earth in Sol system as within the constellation named Perseus.

  The orbital groups started work the moment the stars and planets appeared again, working their scans (including ones looking back out toward the gas giants and beyond) as Dr.Truhart, doubling as science officer (“purely administratively!”) had them all jumping.

  As compensation for having to double up his medical and science officer into one on WHEELER during this mission run, Matisou had gotten the best Division lieutenants available, and it was a good group of self-starters who were awed they were being alllowed out at all.

  Truhart’s nearly relentless quest for precision kept them sharp when they presented any project proposal ideas to WHEELER’s “Science Administrator” for approval (or a surgically precise dissection of the rejection), and resulted in a very efficient, unusually creative set of projects for the collection of information.

  Matisou knew a “real science officer” would have found it chaotic and not-by-the-book, but no one could argue with Truhart’s application of medical science to data study when the results began coming in from the two databalls they had left along the way.

  HD-19373 had been part of a “free navigation” survey (FreeNav Two 2162-2165) that first went to Tau Ceti (11.9 LY from Earth) then on to HD-39587 (35 LY from Tau Ceti, to a sunstar with a planet now called “Heart”). From HD-39587 (“Heart”) the transit to HD-19373 was 24.1 LY. After this planet, the ships on the survey had returned home to Sol.

  At 34.3 light years distance from Earth, the planet at HD-19373 was the last leg of a long, long jump into the dark for two heavily laden drumships (the new graviton composites were not developed until 2164, so the older spin-gravity systems were still in use) that lumbered along, trying to survey at least a little bit of an awful lot, in as short a time as possible. Most of it was done by robot “databalls” launched and used as remote platforms to explore and record data.

  After an initial analysis and review, a dozen sites were identified for an actual ground survey and a local sampling visit.

  The 2163 survey mission set up two base camps on the planet surface and worked outward from there. Both were cleared out when their survey was concluded. It had been a very short mission, with results tantalizing enough to make the planet worth a more directed mapping survey, especially for some “rare earth alloys” which were critical for “doping” the graviton composites used in starships to provide internal gravity.

  A “Rare Earth Alloy” (REA) was an unusual combination of “rare earth” elements, the same as found on Earth in small amounts, but blended into a new metallic alloy with unexpected quantum properties. They were discovered in the Belt, then found in planetary cores in the Gem Isles, at the binary system Procyon A/B. The stellar explosion creating the white dwarf B star had burnt off the crusts on its two remaining outer planets and one around the companion F5 A star, exposing the cores while the dance of the binaries eventually tore up any other accretion bodies that did manage to accrete and form. This exposed their cores and made the Gem Isles a tremendous source.

  REAs were a perfect example of something undreamt of on Earth: not an undiscovered element but a new natural alloy formation, only learned about once it had been discovered, and only discovered by leaving Earth and looking around in other places.

  Certain REAs were needed for both MirMat and FTL drives. Belt supplies were haphazardous compared to large asteroid bodies with rich veins of different high grade alloys running through them, as the Gem Isles had. It made the Gem Isles a hot-bed of starship engine drives construction, on a pace to rival Earth’s Belt Yards. It also moved the REAs to the top of the resource list.

  Then in 2164 N. Hensridge discovered that one alloy had graviton field generating qualities. That revolutionized starship construction and redefined REAs as above the top of the resource list.

  There were other conditions that could expose REAs: on the pleasant blue green planet circling HD-19373, there were reports about a heavily canyoned, deep impact area that had very high REA levels. At a minimum this represented upheaval in the surface rock down to core levels, but some thought an impactor might be the source, a core remnant chunk that had sailed in and either scattered itself through the range or gone in under it, the residual heat causing the range itself to form.

  Whatever the source (and if they could figure that out, great), it was there, and now WHEELER was there to better quantify and map the size, grades and range of the deposit.

  As there were also questions of extracting any deposits found, Chief Engineer Lieutenant Commander Aria Threnody was Mission Leader, in charge of nine crew; they would work as two teams of five, with the experienced Lieutenant Herkle in charge of “B” team.

  Since the rescue mission fourteen weeks earlier, Xiu-Li had found herself relentlessly rewarded for her good work w
ith more work, and lots of it.

  Captain Matisou had even sparred with her in the gym, and it was clear she needed more “mud” on her “classics.” If he had used the “dirty tricks” Commander Takaguchi had been teaching her, then the Captain, with his weighty experience, could have really hurt her. Being Captain, he was too honorable to cheat, although she was certain that he knew everything Commander Takaguchi knew – and a lot more besides.

  Xiu-Li was actually working on her gravity skills and striving for a less than deadly response menu – even if it meant fighting dirty, in the “classics” sense.

  In any event, as Aria and the Captain were reviewing the plans for the mission, he said, “Oh yeah, you’ll need security along too.” He looked over at Takaguchi. “This should be an easy mission. Bit of a hike, though.” They all knew Ensign Philip Knight was an excellent Tac officer, but somewhat deficient in his physical fitness.

  Takaguchi looked at his roster list and said, “Ensign Chen, then.” Matisou looked at Aria and raised his hands – okay?

  “Acceptable,” Aria replied, familiar with the non-verbal cues of her captain.

  So Ensign Xiu-Li Chen found herself hiking along the floor of an old lava tube (a “rille”) with Chief Engineer Lieutenant Commander Aria Threnody and eight of her fellow crew, including Markis Karaff, cleared for a chance to get out. Julissa Martines was also along (the last person Xiu-Li had “been with, sort of” before Orlando... )

  Trouble there.

  After taking a break from Tania, Orlando Timbers had been on the rebound, even if he said this didn’t matter. And wanting Orlando had been better than having him; it was a little clearer to Xiu-Li now why Orlando and Tania had worked so well as a couple, and perhaps even what Orlando saw in Tania – who Xiu-Li liked but could hardly imagine being “involved” with.

  And even if her dates with Orlando had been pretty passionate lately, it was still very early on – just a few weeks? – We seem to be doing well, but...

  This change in scenery was very nice.

  They were supposed to split into two groups to do a fast, broad preliminary survey, and return to their camp by shuttleRunner One for data review and an overnight. The following morning they would pick up camp and hike to a final target zone, where they would stay for up to two nights, then hike back and return to WHEELER. On this first hike it would be up to Lieutenant Ramble and his Science Division team of Ribaud, Karaff, D’Arial and Addams to decide if there was enough around and ahead worth surveying to keep them there for 72 hours, or modify the plan tomorrow and fly somewhere else.

  Aria Threnody’s “A” party was Lieutenant Ramble, Ensign Martines, and Crewpers Markis Karaff and Kirk Dalby (the Engineering Division member); Lieutenant Herkle was second under Aria and would lead the “B” party of Lieutenant (j.g). Thierry Ribaud, Ensign Xiu-Li Chen, and Crewpers Clarissa D’Arial, and Barry Addams.

  At the moment Addams and Ramble were leading the way over and through the terrain, Addams on point, Ramble setting the course, everyone else following – usually scrambling, as Addams and Ramble were often very competitive.

  Xiu-Li climbed between two boulders. The roof of the lava tube had long ago collapsed; but while lava had flowed through the tube, the heavier “rare earth” elements had settled to the bottom of the slurry and then onto the botttom of the tube. It was a question of percentage and grade plus the presence of any possible larger “accretion nuggets” as to whether or not there was a deposit worth mining. Since these “rare element alloys” had become so critical in doping the materials used in modern starship construction, they were “an essential and strategic resource,” worth claiming – and even possibly defending.

  Sure, you could fly around in a drumship like the CALIPER, one of the ships that had done the 2162 Free Nav 2 Survey (Xiu-Li was twelve when it started; she had put ship and crew holos on her roomscreens) but trips in hyperflight always required a drum shut-down. That meant several weeks in zero G, and it was not comfortable travel for many.

  Then there were all the transitions up to and out of drumspin and gravity – they took a lot of time, and the centrifugal and Coriolis effects inside a 100 meter drum spinning once every thirty three seconds or so were really unpleasant on the body and inner ear. It was like an atmospheric jetcraft in a constant turn.

  Xiu-Li looked up at the clouds scudding by. It was another of her Favorite Science Moments to imagine herself as Nate Hensridge, out in the Gem Isles, just goofing around, accidentally discovering that certain applications of energy and vibration to a very specific grade and type of Rare Earth Alloy caused a local gravitational field to form –

  That alloy could be formed into a composite. The composite was able to create a gravitational field, and after a lot of purely empiric testing and re-testing, the first ship with artificial gravity entered the Fleet in 2167 – the year Xiu-Li entered Space University on Earth.

  By the time she graduated in 2172, it was no big deal – JOHN A.WHEELER, launched in 2171, had very sophisticated gravity control systems, but ten years earlier a rotating drum like CALIPER’s (creating gravity via centrifugal force) had been state of the art.

  And REAs made it possible.

  She chuckled. I haven’t thought of Nate in years!

  Now, where were guys like Nate Hensridge in this day and age? Xiu-Li laughed out loud (quietly –”Ha!”) Easy question – they are all out getting rescued from their latest wrecked test ship ( – “I really thought I had it set right this time, it just, just –” Nate had said. Just crumpled into a ball? I haven’t seen that before, good looking, you trying to impress me? A fifteen year old genius of some kind, with your own ship? Ha-ha! You’ll have to try harder – but not very much!)

  Xiu-Li was glad she was where no one was looking back at her face – she had the goofy grin on her face that thinking about Nate usually gave her, rare though it was that he came to mind.

  Everybody got that way. Planetfall triggered memories and new recollections with every encounter as one took stock and compared old with new. And a good hike got endorphins surging like any decent workout – or sex – did. Xiu-Li was hiking; she was growing both nostalgic and generally physically stimulated.

  And with REAs their target, it was only natural to think about Nate Hensridge – he’d been her first love, first lover, and her experiences since had revealed how lucky they had been together (except, of course, for him living in the Gem Isles, eleven and a half light years from Earth at Procyon A/B, which was a lot further away from the Station at L5 than Earth, the Moon, or even the Belt was).

  It had been a short but extremely delightful romance after they finally pried the frame of a twisted airlock apart enough so young Xiu-Li could slip inside and pass the cable Nate needed to climb free. She had been fourteen and Nate was fifteen, and her mother said if either had been a year older, they wouldn’t have fit through in their vac-suits.

  Mom never minded Nate – I guess she liked him; thank Space she never met Cesar!

  Xiu-Li looked back at Threnody, who was taking wide angle scans of areas behind them.

  I wonder if Aria ever had a Nate? Or if she just got the Niv versions of Cesars (Mr.disASTER!)... or any Orlandos? Hmm. Maybe I should ask her advice – “Lieutenant Commander Threnody, I’m just starting to get involved with this guy and I’m not sure he’s really ‘over’ his last girlfriend, even though we’re kind of fooling around a bit – “ And Aria would say, “Please, Ensign, clearly define that terminology. Engineering is not an imprecise science.”

  And I’d say – meet you after work?

  Xiu-Li shook her head and picked up her pace. Getting silly.

  Clarissa D’Arial looked back at her and giggled. “Me, too!” She took a hop off a boulder and landed ahead of Xiu-Li.

  Did I say that out loud? I am getting silly! At least Clarissa was a friend, a crewper who had outranked Xiu-Li in service time but was the first to celebrate Xiu-Li’s early promotion to Ensign. Since she was quarte
red right next door, she had also helped Xiu-Li cope with life on a starship.

  Especially after the violent events on Cape Of Velvet.

  Clarissa’s father was a commander in Space Fleet but had been in ground actions in an army before joining the Fleet. It had been terribly embarassing the first time Xiu-Li had woken up on the deck of her quarters in a wrap of sweaty sheets, Clarissa kneeling down next to her, responding to a scream so loud she had heard it through the hull metal wall between them. Before Xiu-Li could even decide whether to deny the nightmare, Clarissa had said softly, “You’ll be okay. My dad got those... it’s your brain at work on some hard things.”

  “How did you know?”

  “I heard you scream.” Clarissa had looked away.

  Xiu-Li then realized how loudly she must have screamed – so no point denying the obvious. “Th-thanks. I… I couldn’t run.”

  Clarissa looked back at her and smiled. “You were either all tangled in your sheets or you had a ‘frozen dream,’ during the semi-paralyzed state of sleep.”

  “Oh, of course.” Xiu-Li was able to take a deep breath. “Thanks, Cee.”

  It had happened again; the second time Clarissa had brought along fixings for hot cocoa and coaxed Xiu-Li into talking about it, which had helped immensely. The answers to some questions Clarissa asked her revealed new perspectives in emotion and information that had good practical sense analysis applied, rather than just Xiu-Li’s rather more pitiless, relentless approach to her own actions.

  And to her fears, which did need some airing out and further distillation.

  She saw Clarissa stop, look back at her, then ahead, and back. “Pretty, hm?” she said as Xiu-Li drew near. “Do you think Lissa needs a break?” She fell in beside Xiu-Li.

  “Mmm... not yet.”

  Julissa Martines was pacing Markis Karaff, who was chattering away into a dataStik (and also to Martines). Julissa looked back at Xiu-Li, who smiled in sympathy.

  After his rescue on Velvet, Karaff recovered fairly well, but was now newly high-strung and probably having anxiety attacks. This mission was in his area of expertise, the area for study was both rugged and isolated (there were no signs or sensor indications of a current local large animal presence for a hundred kilometers in any direction on this volcanic range), and so Dr.Truhart hadn’t objected.

  Markis Karaff was definitely starting to respond to the work at hand; he was calling his readings in to Ribaud and constantly urging him to tell Ramble, whenever he wasn’t pestering poor Martines with comments.

  As for Ensign Julissa Martines, she was the hydrology expert (there were glacially fed river systems ahead), and Crewperson Kirk Dalby was along to provide a body – Dalby was a big, smart, strong hardbody from Engineering Division, along in case the Runner had mechanical problems, but good in a fight too.

  Just in case.

  Martines turned and mouthed HELP! with a grin.

  “You’re on, Cee,” muttered Xiu-Li.

  Xiu-Li watched Martines walking ahead, D’Arial now on a scramble after them, then looked around. Her own job was security so she held no scanners, but carried a magpistol on her belt and a magrifle slung over her shoulder (“in case you meet an angry space moose,” Takaguchi had said; she was a Tactical Division ensign, she was in no position to refuse: she took the weapon, clearchecked it, and put it on – and she did carry a Tac DataPad and Transmitter [DPaT] scanner/comm unit).

  In any event, Xiu-Li would not be spending time with Karaff this trip. She was on an uninhabited planet with no major large fauna nearby, a tactical officer designated as “the official security presence.”

  At the moment, walking along a narrow lava tube meant one good blast down it could kill them all, so Xiu-Li thought her presence was symbolic, as she wouldn’t be able to do much once killed.

  Aria Threnody ranged around, moving fast. She was doing everything from scouting with security in mind to taking some readings herself. She was responsible for both the overall party and for the taking of measurements — they wanted four different “general sets” to be averaged together from the main tube, and at least two sets were needed from each five person group when they reached the tumbled area far ahead that was their target, and split up to survey it. For the moment, she scanned the walls and floor of the collapsed tube.

  Aria climbed onto a boulder. Xiu-Li watched the Niv’s frame ripple with muscle. She knew Niv were stronger than humans and wondered by how much.

  Aria looked down at her as she passed. “I am going to try and contact WHEELER; this appears to be a clear contact zone. Please ask Mr.Herkle to halt for a ten minute break for water and rest.”

  “Aye, m’am.” Xiu-Li scooted off after the others, turning a bend ahead.

  ARIA

  Threnody tried a comm on her Eng DPaT. Comm conditions had been complicated by the narrow twisting geography and the presence of both rare earth alloys and other minerals as well. Static fuzzed loudly, then Aria could just barely hear WHEELER acknowledge (Manda – who had been more moody than usual of late about her “break-taking” from Orlando Timbers).

  Suddenly there was a thumping “boom!” and part of the rocky walls ahead started to rain into the tube.

  As a great dusty roar filled the air, the ground shook and Aria was toppled from the boulder. She managed to tuck herself into a ball before crashing onto the ground. She tried to ride through the tremors until she could breathe again.

  Once the roar subsided she stood up and started forward. Just around the bend, the tube was choked with huge blocks of rock.

  She called out; the only answer was another roar of rockslide, somewhere up ahead.

  She tried using the comm to raise the survey party – silence, and cruel static.

  She stood there.

  Later, she would reflect on her mental state, but all she did was stand there; after about eight seconds Aria Threnody shivered, turned around, and climbed back up onto the boulder.

  This time her hail came right back – Matisou himself. “Aria,” he said, “We may have company coming in here.”

  TANIA

  The Captain seemed to know exactly what to do, Tania kept telling herself, so be calm, because he knows what he’s doing.

  The appearance of a large ship followed by two smaller ones at the extreme outer edge of the system by the gas giants (seen on the databall feed and transmitted via hypercomm) made the entire bridge crew gasp.

  Comm exchanges between the three were unintelligible, although received clearly, and the look on Commander Takaguchi’s face as he tried to identify them made it apparent to her that these were actual aliens.

  The Captain stood up, his face going cold. “Enronn, I’m going to want to get that moon between us and them as soon as we’ve raised the landing party.”

  Debitts looked around, a question on his face... then got busy with his navigation board. Matisou looked at Tania. “What’s the signal time in realspace?”

  “Twelve hours and twenty minutes, sir.” That was their current distance at the speed of light – the databall was itself about twenty minutes “in,” so what they were seeing was from twenty minutes ago.

  A ship could cover a lot of real space in hyperflight, so they might be due to arrive at any moment...

  The ships were on the edge of the system, near the largest gas giant. Flashes of light and hot pulses of energy were seen passing between the larger one and both smaller ones.

  Matisou and his first officer exchanged glances, with some relief evident – the ships could fight each other out there as long as they wanted to. “I can’t quite get an identity yet, sir,” Takaguchi reported tightly.

  Matisou nodded. As long as none of them vanished into hyperflight (insanity, so close to a big gravity well anyway), then they would take some time to manuver...

  The comm crackled from planetside: Aria Threnody, her voice hazy in a static filled signal.

  “WHEELER, go ahead,” said Tania, but static and warble was the o
nly reply, then it dropped out.

  Matisou gave Tania a nod and said, “Keep trying.” He looked at Takaguchi. “We may have to use a Runner to keep an eye on them if we try and stay hidden behind the moon. I want to stay out of this. In fact – Enronn, can you calculate what the heading of the big one was before the others showed up?” On their current track they were pursuing each other around the far side of the gas giant, and would be going behind it in three more minutes – a perfect time to get WHEELER moved without being seen. He flexed his fingers. “Think we have enough time to get them back up here?” he said quietly to Takaguchi.

  The first officer looked at his Tactical data fields and bit his lip. Then Takaguchi shook his head. “Not unless they’re pre-flighting it this very second. We must presume this area can be observed directly on line of sight, and perhaps scan as well. Moving outside the atmosphere to meet us can be tried just once, and it will advertise our presence.”

  In a moment, Enronn put up a graphic: it was clear the big ship’s probable track pointed toward the planet WHEELER was orbiting.

  The comm crackled, then Aria, very clear, hailing WHEELER.

  Matisou said, “Aria, we may have company coming in here.”

  There was a buzz of static: one of the ships had exploded, lighting up the suface of the dark moon facing them, causing the atmosphere of the gas giant to flash with light in a bright ring.

  “Space!” hissed Enronn.

  The bridge crew watched the view monitor in shock. A moment later the big ship came wobbling into view – “He’s gone into orbit around the moon!” said Takaguchi.

  Suddenly Tania was very scared.

  Aria’s voice, very clear now: “Captain, there has been an large avalanche which separated me from the group. There is no answer to voice or comm –” it broke off and there was a gasp “– and at present I am going back to the Runner to try and fly over a rockfall which has prevented my advance on foot.”

  They could actually hear the sound of her feet thudding on the rocks, and Tania shivered – Threnody was running, at top speed. She snuck a look at the Captain. His brows were creased, eyes worried. Takaguchi had his arms folded.

  Matisou looked at the monitor. The smaller ship emerged from behind the planet, tumbling slowly. “Your E.T.A. to the Runner?”

  “Ten minutes.”

  Tania could imagine Aria, legs flashing, running over the rocks.

  The Captain took a deep breath and shook his head. “Two small ships and a bigger one entered the outer system firing on each other; the big one was heading this way. We will break orbit and use the moon to hide us. Proceed with whatever measures you see fit and monitor us every four hours but do not try to make contact until we contact you. Condition 17-C.”

  “Understand all orders. Candle 17-Candle Out.”

  Tania felt her stomach lurch. Aria’s slight emphasis on “all,” the Condition 17 (it meant an alien hazard) – now she knows there’s a big problem up here –

  No matter what happened, Aria would be down there alone, alone because Xiu-Li and everybody else had been caught in an avalanche –

  Orlando!

  Although Tania had “been taking a break” from Orlando for a month and a half, she was still Orlando’s friend. Orlando had been dating Xiu-Li for a few weeks or so, and Tania had a sudden thought – I’d better tell him before any rumors reach him.

  Tania tapped in a text and sent it, also giving Orlando her next break time (unless new events prevented it).

  And then Tania Manda tried not to think about Aria Threnody, or poor Xiu-Li. She had work to do here – intercepts to track, and the strangest language – that’s what it was, they were guessing – she had ever heard.

  She shivered. That’s because it’s the first alien language any of us has EVER heard!

  She looked over at Matisou, who looked back and grinned. “Keep those channels clear, Ensign. And make sure you and the observation teams are getting it all.”

  “Aye, sir!” Tania gulped, and got to work.

  Matisou looked at his helmsman. “Okay, Mr.Debitts, please get us behind this planet’s moon.”

  XIU-LI

  Xiu-Li scooted around the bend and ran lightly over the rocks until she could see the group, which had already stopped. “Dopey Jimmy” was looking back for her and Aria, while everyone else drank water. Martines was listening while D’Arial spoke to Ribaud. Ramble was talking to Addams and Karaff, waving his hands, trying to describe something both smooth and a covering – probably a thick deposit, or perhaps cracks in the tube floor that were filled up – yes, that’s what it was.

  That would be a very heavy concentration of material along the length of this rille. That was a lot of alloy, and if it was the right grade, a lot of graviton composite. Other REAs had other uses, so this was a major planet-based deposit under an atmosphere – and under a beautiful G0 sun, just like Earth.

  Perfect.

  Dalby was rearguard, one of her old pals from the cable teams. He nodded to her as she passed him. “Chief’s just behind,” she said.

  Ahead, Martines turned to say something when there was a deep cra-ack–BOOM! and the rocks above Dalby gave way – they came loose and fell vertically, choking off the gully and catching Kirk Dalby under them.

  A dark, roaring cloud of dust filled the air as the WHEELER crew stared at each other.

  “The whole mountain’s going!” screamed Addams, starting to run. He and Ramble took off up the rille.

  Herkle looked around and said, “Let’s move it, folks!” A boulder rolled into his leg and shattered his ankle; he gave a great gasp and fell. Ribaud took one side and Xiu-Li the other and dragged him forward and clear.

  After forty meters they reached a wider semi-circular opening made by previous rockfalls. They stopped to get their breath and splint Herkle’s leg – Xiu-Li’s medic skills clicking in, while Ribaud checked everyone else quickly. The ankle was profoundly smashed, but the imobilfoam she sprayed over it would cushion it and prevent most movement. She gave him a pain patch as well.

  “Ambushhhh-shhgrkkk!!”

  One word.

  Screamed once, from somewhere ahead.

  Cut off abruptly.

  Herkle looked around. “Did you hear that?”

  Xiu-Li nodded; so did Martines, D’Arial and Ribaud. Karaff had started shaking, and now he huddled against the rock wall. D’Arial went over and rubbed his back, but there was no real response.

  To Xiu-Li, it had sounded like Ramble, and the word ending in a half gasped gurgle suggested a throat injury. She didn’t verbalize her thoughts (Karaff was already a wreck) but the expression on Herkle’s face indicated the same sort of thoughts running through his mind.

  “Magpistols ready.” His face was grim and gray. He looked at Xiu-Li. “Scout the way, with Martines as relay. I’m going to try the comm.”

  “Aye, sir.” Xiu-Li drank a water ration – it was very hot here.

  She was aware they were all staring at her. She was about to go forward into an unknown force, alone. She didn’t feel particularly brave or heroic; she was actually just plain curious whether there was an ambush ahead or not, and happy she would know first.

  “Nervous?” whispered Martines as Xiu-Li slipped past her.

  “Curious,” whispered Xiu-Li in reply. Martines gave her a grin.

  It would be a neat trick to advance up the gully without being seen – she looked at the boulders and rocks on the ground and started crawling. It took her ten minutes to slither her way far enough forward to see that the gully opened into a wider, flatter area; there was a fissure in the far wall but she couldn’t see if there was any outlet or if the gully continued.

  There was movement – shadows, a flash of material – but nothing specific. There did appear to be blood on the rocky trail ahead, beyond the wider area.

  Xiu-Li slowly crawled back and reported, drawing a map in the dirt. Karaff now seemed catatonic, while Martines, D’Arial and Ribaud were key
ed up but still rational (“calmly tensed”), while Herkle was their rock.

  A nervous rock. As Ribaud and Martines moved ahead to take watch, Xiu-Li drank some water, watching as Herkle studied the map. They had no outlet for retreat, and there were an unknown number of hostiles ahead.

  He shifted his leg – he must be in discomfort, even if the painkillers were working – and took a deep breath. “Could you see who they are?”

  “No, sir. Wearing same general uniform type we are, a field jumper or overall, darker colors. I couldn’t see details but there were no flashes of color or fringes or things.”

  She finished her water; they could wait, or they could move forward. If they waited, the enemy would have to come to them, but could instead just drop more rocks onto them, if the objective was merely to kill them.

  One of the strategic problems here was no clear idea what an enemy using both indiscriminate rockslides and subtle ambush was seeking – their death, or capture? Their element of surprise was gone but the enemy position was better, even if all they did now was wait until the WHEELER team’s supplies ran out.

  The primary concern was the risk of another rockfall, which would both kill the WHEELER crew and deprive them of any chance to either strike back or even try a breakthrough – an option that took a lot of gutsy desperation to try.

  Herkle didn’t like the idea of sitting there until the enemy blew the mountain down on their heads again. It likely meant immediate death under weapons fire to run forward, but they might hit some of the hostiles, and surprise might even gain them a breakthrough.

  “We’ll run forward in squads,” said Herkle. He pointed to D’Arial and Martines. “A.” Ribaud and Karaff and himself. “B.” Then at Xiu-Li. “You’ll go free-range and cover us?”

  “Aye, sir.” As peaceful as Xiu-Li was, her instinct to defend her friends – and herself – was blood strong now. This might all turn out to have been a misunderstanding, but they had to survive first to learn that if that was the case.

  She realized he’d asked it as a question. If he needed a volunteer, he must think it was dangerous.

  They dumped all non-essential gear and loaded their mission kit bags with water, rations, survival gear. It was very quiet as they did. Herkle kept trying to look like he wasn’t in pain and poor Karaff just slumped there, not responding. No one knew if he would go when they ran, but Ribaud could carry him (so could Martines or Xiu-Li, for a couple of hundred meters at least). The main question now was Herkle, who would hobble at best and fall down quickly at worst (but could, and would, order them to leave him behind).

  Xiu-Li went first, crawling her way to her previous point. They would move up along the opposite wall until they were even with her, then move on as two squads. She would parallel them on the other side with a different angle of vision and return fire, if there was any.

  They got Karaff to his feet and the party moved forward.

  Everything happens at once –

  Karaff suddenly jerks to a halt, screams – and bolts forward.

  Xiu-Li jumps up and tackles him to the ground, raising a cloud of dust. Karaff shouts, kicks and rolls beneath her; he thrashes and moans in terror. Xiu-Li hears scrambling behind her –

  Martines crashes into the dirt next to them, and D’Arial takes up a position on the opposite wall, just ahead of them. She fires forward.

  There is a crackle of return fire ahead of them. Martines takes aim and fires: there is a dying roar.

  A dull crack – rock explodes from the rocky walls above them.

  Martines pulls on Karaff and Xiu-Li scrambles out of the way as a large slab slides right into D’Arial’s spot on the wall.

  Two large shadows move forward, toward D’Arial’s site –

  Xiu-Li stands up and fires: two full power magrifle pulses at the rock walls ahead, then one at each of the advancing shadows.

  Two grunts – a roar of falling rock ahead, hoarse screams cut short –

  Then silence... pebbles falling...

  “Space, Jool – you got ‘em all,” Martines said. “Right back at you, you creeps!”

  Xiu-Li looked over to where D’Arial had been.

  Martines saw the glance. “She’s gone, Jool.”

  Xiu-Li looked back. “I have to be certain, Lissa.” She tossed the magrifle to her friend. “Get Karaff back to Herkle and Ribaud.”

  Martines scowled, slung the rifle, and started dragging Karaff. “Be careful, Jool!” she called softly.

  Xiu-Li darted across the gully, where the haze of fresh rock dust drifted still.

  She found D’Arial pinned tightly against the wall of rock by the giant fallen slab.

  Clarissa D’Arial was conscious and did not look to be in pain. She grinned at Xiu-Li. “My foot tickles, but I can’t feel it.” Her eyes were a bit glazed. “Oh, Space, I’m thirsty,” she whispered.

  Xiu-Li had two water rations in her pack. She took off her outer windshell, folded it into a pillow, and knelt down next to D’Arial. She carefully put it under Clarissa’s head.

  “Space, I’m s-so thirsty.” D’Arial was in shock, and dying.

  Xiu-Li opened the ration. “I’m so sorry, Cee. I’ve only got two.”

  “Oh, space, yes, Xiu-Li, please, please, I’m so thirsty.” She laughed weakly. “It’ll be like old times... oh, oh...” Xiu-Li poured the water into Clarissa’s open mouth. “Mmm, th-thank you! Mmmm!” When Clarissa was finished, Xiu-Li resealed the empty bottles.

  Xiu-Li tenderly cleaned off Clarissa’s face. There was a shout – from the gully ahead – hostiles. Clarissa was now screened if one didn’t know she was there (all of the hostiles who had seen her were now dead). “We’ll be back for you, Cee. We’ll get you out.”

  She gave Xiu-Li a weak smile, but D’Arial’s eyes were rolling slightly as Xiu-Li slid out of the from under the slab and crawled backward.

  Xiu-Li knelt there a moment and checked her magpistol: out. It made things harder, especially as she could hear one hostile calling to another. The call was a cross between a hoot and some garbled syllables and clicks – language, but which one?

  She crouched, took a deep breath, then started running back toward their rally point.

  Halfway across an energy blast whines out and shatters a rock on the ground just ahead of her.

  Xiu-Li twists around as she hits on the sandy grit and throws her first blade – sees a head jerk back, trailing red – then she’s up in a sprint.

  They fire at her as she races forward, and she dives toward the rocky gap, under the covering fire of Martines, just ahead of a wall of roars, hoarse screams and thudding feet – she lands just outside the gap, behind a rock, across from Martines.

  Xiu-Li lays there panting and changes power packs as Herkle and Ribaud both go lurching forward, roaring, “WHEELER!” and back up Martines.

  A rush of feet – Xiu-Li pops up and fires, a roar of pain – a heavy body thuds onto her – her second blade flashes, she shoves it deep –

  Roar-shouts, in front of her –

  – now behind her –

  Whine of a power pack –

  Herkle screams, Ribaud coughs and groans – suddenly there is a rumbling roar –

  The third landside hits them.

  TANIA

  WHEELER had just reached the moon when the smaller ship broke orbit and moved toward the inner system, on the same course the bigger ship had been on – toward planet “Percy.”

  “It’s using a drive with a MirMat-type signature,” Takaguchi said. “That could get as high as a third speed of light, pretty fekkin’ fast, and putting them thirty six hours out – unless they’re in a crazy hurry and jump it,” he finished in a mutter.

  Matisou turned to Takaguchi and said, “Let’s get that mapping Runner ready for fast response and use it as our sight observer.”

  “Aye, sir. Armed or rescue response?”

  Matisou frowned with worry. “A little of both, I think.”

  “Aye, si
r.” Tania noticed Takaguchi looked a little worried too.

  Matisou looked at her. “Ship-comm clip. Let’s update the crew.”

  “Aye, sir... go.”

  “This is the Captain. We are taking steps to avoid being seen by some ships engaged in their own dispute. Lieutenant Commander Threnody is flying to investigate reports of an avalanche. I will keep everyone updated as I am able. Remember, people, keep putting one foot in front of the other and everybody makes it through together.” He cut it – Matisou preferred to solve the problem and then give a fuller report after the fact, especially since so much was now still unknown.

  He was also a good speaker, and he had never needed to recut a ship-clip that Tania could recall. She set it up and broadcast it.

  They had put the moon between them and both alien ships with no problems and sent the shuttleRunner forward to a position in low moon orbit, just over the horizon. Hanging against the moon’s crater battered face, it was operating passively and difficult to see, using the telescopes to look and old fashioned antenna dishes with low power receivers to listen. The view was perfect (they could see both ships and relay both databall and real time images), and everyone was on strict “comm for priority ONLY.”

  That meant little for a comm officer to do until the Runner’s recordings of system traffic were returned (they were considering a tight laser comm beam from the Runner, but were not yet decided; as for her own sources, the moon now shielded them, except for the outer system databall still tracking the ships).

  Tania had confirmed the language being used was unknown to any Earth/InterWorld Group data base.

  It wasn’t a dialect, it was not an Sol variant alternative language (like Nivn – the only Reprogram Plan the Niv people had famously refused as being just “too stupid” to do), but it wasn’t modulation ghosting, a techno/natural artifact, or just gibberish with clicks and slurping: things repeated. There were glottal stops and pauses, certain tone-sets reoccurred.

  It reminded her of the first times she had ever heard traditional Asian languages: there were structures, but her ear had taken some time to find them, even when her brain told her they were there.

  Tania was no linguist – everyone in the IWG spoke Standard on space business, and literally until this moment there were no really “alien” languages, just different human ones – but she had excelled in her cryptography courses as part of the Tactical component present in comms work. She had perhaps eighty seconds of material from each ship so far, but...

  She informed the Captain, who nodded as if he knew already, keeping his face blank. “See if there’s any structure, but don’t lose too much sleep over it; it may be quite a while before any of this makes sense.”

  That was two hours ago, and since then the ship they called an “Egg Boat” had reached the planet and taken up a geosynchronous orbit, roughly over their survey area. She had set up cryptanalysis protocols for further contacts (using phenome stops as code group points) and a program so all the comms traffic from both WHEELER and its shuttleRunners could be run and analyzed.

  Dr.Truhart was very curious about it; he had been on the bridge with Takaguchi, trying to deduce things from the very brief, very long distance views they’d gotten. There had been no other actions, and her watch was about to end – in fact, Ensign Drury was stepping through the door. He saluted the bridge/Captain and walked over to Tania. “M’am, I am reporting for duty,” he said formally, and then saluted her.

  “Sir, you have watch,” Tania Manda replied formally, saluting him back. “Phil, we’re maintaining full ‘comm for priority’ status and monitoring all traffic in the system via the Runner; two alien ships are fighting each other. One’s in moon orbit at the outer gas giant, the other’s in a geosynch orbit over this planet, right where our Runner and survey mission is planetside.”

  She paused. Drury looked so shocked. “Umm, breathe, Phil... there you go.” Tania checked her comm board to give him a chance to get used to the idea – he was serving on the bridge and needed a clear picture of the situation, which had details the average crew was still unaware of.

  “Nine members of the survey mapping party were cut off from Chief Threnody by an avalanche three hours ago; no contact has been made since; the Chief was going to fly around the area and see if there is any sign of them. The Captain will decide when we will return.”

  That was pretty much everything. Drury was her equal in service time, and very good at the basics and creative use of technologies (just not tops in cryptanalysis). He knew proper performance and didn’t need prompting. Now he nodded. “Status report acknowledged.” He saluted again.

  Tania saluted and stepped away from the communications station, Drury stepped forward, and the change of watch was complete.

  She looked around the bridge, where the same process was now repeating itself as the whole watch rotated over fifteen minutes (it was staggered so the entire bridge did not change at the exact same moment, leaving stations unwatched; and the Tactical underwatch and engineering stations wouldn’t rotate for another thirty minutes more, although Tania doubted either Takakguchi or Matisou would be leaving the bridge any time soon).

  She caught a glimpse of Matisou’s face as he huddled with Takaguchi by Tactical; they’d paid no attention at all to the change of watch around them. She felt like personally telling him she was going off duty, but by now knew that she would be called if they needed her, and there was no point in not eating and sleeping – both required for best performance – and that Matisou would not want to be interrupted if he was hatching plans, which his serious but confident expression appeared to indicate.

  At least they were safe, for now.

  Tania moved toward the door, feeling the fatigue setting in as adrenaline started to fade. She knew things might be different down on the planet. Aria might be caught up in a landslide herself, dead or unwilling to indicate the presence of others by calling for help, even if not killed outright... or anything.

  As the shiplift door closed, she thought about Orlando, who was meeting her for dinner... and the long wait ahead for more information from the planet’s surface.

  It would be night soon down there and she wondered what Aria was doing – and how Orlando was coping with the news of Xiu-Li.

  ARIA

  Aria Threnody looked at the moon and debated her options for a moment as she meditated on its craters and the presence of WHEELER behind it.

  It would be dangerous to travel at night, but her vision was much better than normal human vision (especially at night; Tau Ceti was a little dimmer than Sol, and the Niv had designed eyes that covered a darker range), and it was a three quarter moon. She would run the risk of being picked up on infrared scanners, but that could be reduced by staying under the foliage – whether the unknown ship was even looking was another variable (it was prudent to act as if they were, so she would).

  Staying put to rest was an option, but she did not yet need rest, and she knew that any survivors were probably not getting any either.

  As she walked, she reviewed her report to this latest point:

  She had reached the shuttleRunner soon after signing off.

  Once airborne, she saw a wrecked ship, roughly Runner sized, had sliced through some trees; it had been easy to miss the entry scar when they had landed earlier, and it was luck that had she caught the right angle to see the hole through the trees and the wreck.

  She banked immediately, dropped into the sun setting onto the horizon, minimizing her exposure as much as she could (invisible in the setting sun, she calculated).

  It was just a short hop past the hole in the trees and the crashed ship to the avalanche scar area. Aria had stayed so low she had whacked branches and now she dropped the Runner in under a canopy of tall trees with all the skill of a trick pilot (she brought it in backward, setting up for quick exit). The branches overhead would assist in hiding it from general orbital scans.

  Then Threnody sat there shaking.
<
br />   It took her more than three minutes to settle herself. She was up to Position 23 of the First Meditative Movement before she was calmed enough to stop the thought exercise and open her eyes.

  When she did, she was Niv Threnody. On the ship, she wore mental blinders and padding; it let her blend in a bit more easily – on WHEELER she was more “Earth Human,” less Niv.

  That was no longer the case at this time.

  The sniff she took could smell dust leaking in from around the hatch edges; the sounds she could hear through the hull were all registered and sifted for any threat. Her movements were now lightning fast and precise: what the ultimate blend of fast twitch fibers and adrenaline being moved by the crystalline guidance of intention produced.

  Aria sighed – to dissipate some of the intensity. This was crisis, she wasn’t supposed to feel good about it – on the other hand, if this is feeling confident to the task, then so be it!

  She went into the rear and took out the magpistol from the officer’s locked hideaway box – just one clip in it, standard. No spares.

  That wrecked ship had looked as if it had been damaged rather badly by space weapons fire (melt and pinpoint blast holes), and then by some shield problems on atmosphere entry (scorched black streaks across surfaces and in some seam areas), and it had been hard landed – but survivably. It was on the other side of the lava tube “rille” valley, and it was damaged beyond repair at this point (the hull had breached).

  Its presence meant the WHEELER party was not the only group of sentients currently out here.

  Sentients, not humans.

  The ship that had crashed out there was not a human designed ship.

  Aria looked around the shuttleRunner, then went to the main compuSys core. She opened the panels and got to work, thinking about the alien ship as she rigged a line that would destroy core, contents, and probably the shuttleRunner if anyone opened this door without checking with her first.

  She had recognized the alien ship’s parts, of course, spread over the big gouge in the ground and exposed through the hull (fuel pumps and Higgs field coils were universal) but they were – different. The curves were of odd shape and the ship frame was just slightly iridescent where it was exposed – and still intact, where most human frames would be gone, smashed. It wasn’t Niv, it wasn’t from one of the Niv Offshoots – this was alien, scaled for approximately humanoid frames and bodies (there were no large water or gas tanks or alien creatures laying about gasping for air or water or whatever they needed; her extrapolation was a rational one).

  It raised implications.

  Aria grinned mirthlessly (“It raises implications” – The Great Niv Understatement!) and took a deep breath.

  It might mean additional rescue resources. That would require a degree of altruism not often found among humans or Niv, but which did occur in both groups – Captain Matisou had it, for example.

  Lieutenant Commander Aria Threnody did not, and she knew it. She did do the “right things” most of the time, but often for other completely different reasons. If the aliens were altruistic, great; now she thought about what less altruistic sentients might do...

  The crashed aliens probably needed life resources; if they had been human, they would be slightly more likely to hoard and try to add to their stores – even by force (unless there was a Matisou-like sentient among them).

  That might mean the survey party had been under observation, so an accidental mis-step landslide or deliberate avalanche was a possible tactic, since no one had felt the area was in any way geologically unstable as they had advanced. There had been no ground tremors before the fall.

  Recalling the event, there had been a cracking boom – she had interpreted it then as rock splitting and falling, but that was based on no other sentients present in the area. Explanations now ranged from a mis-step to deliberate action, which included use of power weapons and other explosives. It also could be related to the activity going on in the system, where other attacks had just occurred.

  It was unpleasantly possible the survey party had been outright attacked – and not by human “O.P.P.” thugs this time.

  Aria had only gotten a very quick glimpse of the alien shuttle before reacting, and the damage to it – whether it could fly or not – had been her main concern. If sentients had been aboard they could have survived and could either plant charges or use a blast weapon to make a rockfall occur, as a tactical manuver, or an automatic tripwire boobytrap.

  Like the one she finished rigging in the compuSys core. Aria knew the boards were easy to tripwire (and now did so with some encryption codes), and it was the core of the compuSys – with plenty of random and other information about Earth, the InterWorld Group, and humanity – that could not get into alien control.

  It was prudent to continue concealment, so she had carefully approached the avalanche site, climbed down, and looked it over.

  There was one body buried under the rocks, a male WHEELER crewper – she couldn’t see who it was, just the sex, but gray stripes on the field uniform legs meant it was engineering, and the size – Kirk Dalby.

  Threnody felt cold despite the still heat of the dying day.

  It was quiet inside the lava tube – sounds above it were muffled. Dalby – she took a slow, quiet, breath, ‘Listening’ – but she could not sense any other clear, sentient minds within five hundred meters of her.

  There was nothing else in the immediate area of the rockfall... but up the gully her eye caught something fluttering. It was a water wrap label, and when she reached it she could see a mission kit bag under a rock just ahead. She moved forward and suddenly came to a wider pocket in the rock tube.

  Here there was a pile of gear – and two bodies. Crew bodies.

  Ribuad, scorched across the chest and half buried under a hill of gravel slide, and Herkle, one leg obviously smashed, the other one cut off, chest buried under a pile of rocks. There were blast marks on the rocks and walls.

  Anyone not killed in the rockfall was missing.

  Just up the gully was a broad channel. Here there were alien bodies, a number of them... and one crew, crushed by a fallen rock slab. It was Crewperson Clarissa D’Arial. There was a very peaceful look on her face and a datastik recorder near her head – she appeared to be sleeping, her head resting on a folded windshell, but Aria’s sensitive nose could smell the torn body beneath the huge slab of broken rock.

  Aria sighed, picked up the datastik, and looked over the scene.

  Three alien males were sprawled near D’Arial’s body; twelve meters beyond them three males and a female were laid out dead around the gully mouth ahead, while just beyond them and up the right side she could see Addams and Ramble – Addams had been blasted, and Ramble’s head was nearly cut off his body.

  The aliens all wore dark, single colored jumpsuit-type field uniforms, similar in design and function to what she herself was wearing. Space faring, intelligent, organized aliens. Violent ones.

  What an unpleasant way to finally meet Sentients.

  One of the Sentients near D’Arial had a shiny blade sunk into his head. It was a butterfly sword.

  Her stomach flipped. Xiu-Li wasn’t here now, but she had been.

  Aria took a deep breath. Xiu-Li will want this back, and we might need it.

  It took all her focus to pull the butterfly sword out of the dead Sentient’s head. It wasn’t very bloody, at least. She looked away as she wiped it on his filthy jumpsuit, searching for the path the aliens had taken here.

  There was a scar on the mountainside above and a dimple in the gully wall ahead...

  She looked down at a dead Sentient male.

  He was just under two meters tall, a broad shouldered, heavily muscled, soldier-type (bandolier slung over his dark jumpsuit, boots). He was dark haired, short bearded, with pale white, creamy skin – or maybe that was sallow death. They had large heads, two eyes with vertical pupil slits, peglike teeth that looked sharper than human teeth, and noses with smal
l nostrils. Faces were muscled enough for expressions – this one was surprised, one was blank, the other had an angry expression, showing the teeth... or maybe that was agony.

  Aria looked away and “breathed without breathing.”

  This was what every cynical human had always claimed would happen at first contact with aliens: instant conflict, to the death. It was exactly what the Niv had planned for, and yet she knew how unprepared they all might really be.

  Perhaps this was all a misunderstanding. In fact...

  Threnody was puzzled. Two legs, two arms, two eyes – I’ve met an alien and it looks like a beefier version of us? She knew of some Niv Offshoots who were biologically further out there than this alien appeared to be.

  Naturally, she had no Sci DPaT (which was specialized in the scanning and collection of science data) but her Eng DPaT could get heat, sonic, materials analysis, and some other sorts of scans. Aria held it up and hit the COLLECT DATA pad; after a moment she looked over at the trail behind her.

  The Eng DPaT beeped – she’d gotten image and whatever else it could capture. Now she had to balance time versus opportunity.

  They could fly the Runner on remote from the ship, once they resolved their situation. She had to think of her mission as an ongoing sweep – she would be following her people to where they were taken, and she would probably not be returning here.

  Maybe no one ever would, depending on what else was happening in this system.

  She ran to the party’s last rally point and grabbed a mission kit bag, dumped it out, ran back to the three aliens by D’Arial. Threnody only gagged once as she went through the zip pockets of the aliens, taking whatever was in them and dumping it into the bag.

  She looked over at D’Arial. The wind blew through her blonde hair... and she was perhaps only sleeping...

  Aria gasped and ran back to the gully. Once there it took a few moments to get Dalby’s chrono and then Ribaud’s cross and Herkle’s dizni-charm. She used a kit bag she found to repack all the water and most of the gear (not wanting to leave materials for alien analysis), and then it took just a moment to set her magpistol and shoot two more rockfalls.

  Threnody trotted back to the gully mouth, where Addams and Ramble were probably ambushed, and the three males and a female had been killed by a rockfall – WHEELER’s crew, returning the tactic and killing four, due in part to shrapnel effects from shattered rock.

  They had broader faces and higher cheekbones, but they really were quite human looking. The female had a surprised look on her face; just slighty smaller than the males, her face was – she looked like a human who looked like a cat. Her eyes must have been purple, and the high cheekbones were to assist with using the teeth, judging by the way her mouth had relaxed and exposed them. She had two small breasts.

  Threnody emptied their pockets as well, took Ramble’s chrono and Addams’ earstud, and moved on. She couldn’t risk firing a slug shot here if the alien camp was nearby, as she suspected it was.

  Aria moved forward another thirty meters. There she found a fissure in the gully wall, with a trail going up it.

  Here she paused.

  Consider the available information:

  Most people had survived the rockslide.

  Addams and Ramble had tripped an ambush but had warned the other rockslide survivors, giving them a chance to regroup.

  They had run into a party of at least eight hostile Sentients, with six male and one female Sentient dying in the ensuing encounter.

  There had been a firefight, with Herkle and Ribaud dying in another rockfall. This buried the two dead crew and presumably caught D’Arial and caused incapacitation and allowed the capture of Martines, Chen, and Karaff (Aria did not believe Martines or Chen could be taken alive if awake and able to resist).

  They might have gone in either direction along the lava tube, but it was very difficult to climb up out of it. This fissure was a natural ladder, the only one in either direction before the avalanche created a precarious ramp and rockface that only a desperate person might possibly climb.

  This fissure was the most logical path to take to get out of the gully and return to a prepared position up the mountainside.

  Aria studied the fissure. Boobytrapped? If so, what type? Tripwire, sensor (motion, light, pressure, sound?) Even a vidchip with remote trigger was possible – and these were just the first three categories she thought of initially (it was pointless and terrifying to try and speculate about wilder extremes yet). If they had ships whose drive guts she could recognize, there were likely other techno parallels as well, probably including Rare Earth Alloys and a fondness for G0 stars.

  – no, don’t think about that now –

  Okay. If she could eliminate some techno traps then she could judge her chances better. She started looking.

  Because she was Niv it only took her ten minutes to decide the fissure was reasonably risked (nothing she could detect).

  Threnody climbed smoothly up the narrow trail. Once it reached the hillside above the gully it flattened out and the walk was easier. Furrows in the soil in some places suggested dragged feet; in the setting sun it was difficult to tell, when the ground dipped away into shadow – then the sunstar dropped below the horizon completely.

  Aria saw the trail curving left, while a hill began to rise up to the right. There was a faint track up there; if she backtracked, she would be able to climb the hillside and look across to the main trail below.

  As she walked back and then started the steep climb up, she was aware of the fantastic sunset in the distance. Night would play a new factor in her plans, and she stopped to think about how best to next proceed.

  There was enough tree canopy going up the hillside to shield her from orbital detection and enough thick general brush below her to screen from infrared from across or below. She could see that the trail she was climbing on did parallel and overlook the trail below as it wound along the base of the hillside. She could move forward and might even spot signs of an encampment.

  It was getting dark, and the stars were coming out. There was a cool breeze coming off the hill and under different circumstances this would be fully pleasing; as a Niv, at least she knew it was irrational to feel guilty for the very nice sensation of feeling the breeze generated as it passed over her, and Aria just enjoyed it.

  So she stopped and watched the moon rising over the horizon, drinking water, plan-checking. Then she started hiking, reviewed her report – and after two hours it was nearly as dark as space under the trees and the trail was getting rocky. She was exhausted and aching from the bangs and bruises she’d received – she had to stop for a break now, or else arrive incapable of assisting or responding.

  Aria found a good, strong tree, isolated on a bluff edge, and climbed half way up. She wrapped two straps around a thick tree branch and slung her sleeptube hammock below it. She crawled in and lay there a moment, just to rest her muscles, let her body – and let herself – relax. After a moment she unzipped her mission kit bag and pulled out a food bar and some water.

  After eating, Aria looked at the datastik – there was a fifty three minute message on it, recorded that day, soon after the time of the avalanche. She put it back in her pocket; it would help to keep her awake later, so she’d review it then.

  For now, she put herself into a restorative trance, meditating…

  TANIA

  Orlando ate the rest of the “blueberries” from dessert as Tania checked her messages. There was a number code text from Drury: “no changes.” It was nice he’d thought to send it.

  She and Orlando had somehow found their appetites when they went to eat and then retired to Orlando’s quarters for a few drinks and dessert (thawed berries, from the supply runs done after the incident on Velvet).

  At dinner Orlando had been quiet at first, then opened up. “They” (he and Xiu-Li) were just getting started; it was a shock but they hadn’t been in love like... well...

  It’s me! (…yes, I
feel guilty, but... ) It’s me! Then Tania had changed the subject.

  She always minimized the true depths and extents of her various relationships when talking about them with her current lover. It didn’t matter now, anyway – even if Orlando preferred to hug and cuddle much more often than actually make love (Tania had found it a little annoying... until she had missed it when she needed it: like now).

  Orlando had thought maybe Xiu-Li was a bit intimidating. Not that she wasn’t tender and caring, she just needed time to change her moods between tasks, and some were dark indeed (as a Tactical officer and medic). Xiu-Li was capable of all the coolness of a Niv, but the personal price was revealed on the pillow after fooling around.

  Yeah, Orlando understood, but after a day working medical himself, he wasn’t, like, always receptive to the darker parts of Xiu-Li Chen.

  Tania was much lighter, even when she was angry or needed some consoling; Tania had a chip on her shoulder, but she worked pretty hard (and was almost delightfully shallow and uncomplicated otherwise, which he liked, but he would never tell her that. But he had told her everything else... and he kept looking so stricken that Xiu-Li was dead, his face so mournful... )

  It was very evident the two of them missed each other.

  After dinner it made sense to return to Orlando’s (Tania was “visting him as he mourned Xiu-Li’s presumed death,” and Orlando was “keeping company with Tania, because she was his friend, after all;” not that any crew ever took sides, especially as there were many others to mourn).

  There was really nothing to do but wait, which made them both anxious, which both knew, and knew the other felt the same. When they poured brandy and toasted absent friends, Tania began to cry. Now it was Orlando who gave her a hug and comforted her. It meant that before much more time passed, the consolation menu went into some unexpected options.

  Goodbye, poor Xiu-Li... good luck, poor Aria...

  To absent friends.

  XIU-LI

  Because her stomach was empty, Xiu-Li tried to not throw up.

  It was not easy.

  She regained consciousness with a pounding headache, in a plaswalled quickshack that stank of fresh and old blood. There was a light cube in a corner, dim light outside the windows and door – night was falling. There were four sleeping pallets laid out by the light cube, and four packs heaped in the other corner like they were camping here.

  She did a doubletake. The lightcubes had fractalized holoprograms, and the cubes weren’t cubes – they were spheres.

  Okay – from the future, or aliens. Xiu-Li sighed. Just my luck.

  Her naked body was in pain from head to toe, pain composed of many different sources. She was pretty certain she’d been stunned at the same time they’d triggered the final rockslide – that was a baseline level of full body muscle soreness, over which many abrasions, bruises, cuts and twists contributed. She was also lashed to a wooden ‘X’ frame, tilted against a wall but still hanging off it from her wrists.

  There was a leg hanging there, still wearing a Fleet boot – it was Herkle’s.

  Dopey Jimmy’s dead! And why is his leg hanging over there?

  She heard language and closed her eyes to mere slits.

  Martines and Karaff were carried in unconscious by several dim figures (two legged, two armed), and dumped onto the floor.

  Their language was a series of trills, warbles and clicks, with liquid tones and shifts – and one short sound group, more than others. As they moved around, she caught more glimpses of them.

  There were four medium framed warrior women and one larger warrior man – a retainer and bodyguard, dressed sensibly in a jumpsuit, who ducked his head down a lot – here now in the quickshack with her.

  The way the four women slung their wicked looking rifles around and the short battle swords each one wore suggested a martial situation of some sort. But they wore capes over tunics, not sensible-for-soldiering jumpsuits like their retainer was wearing.

  So that made them all... what?

  They had skin tones ranging from light olive to a rich cinnamon hue. The women appeared to have breasts – they were as muscular as the male, but there were boobs up there the male didn’t have (although movement, the tunics, capes and her limited vision might all be playing tricks). The women’s faces were slightly more heart shaped and their heads and faces smaller; all were high-cheekboned and quite feline in facial look (not furry, of course).

  Sentients. Aliens.

  Maybe this will make sense before I die... hmm, their cheeks are even higher than mine are. Their eyes were in oval sockets; she couldn’t really see them yet.

  The one who seemed to be in charge looked at Xiu-Li and held up her hand. The others froze, all looking at Xiu-Li now. The leader laughed and said something.

  Laughter – cruel.

  The male retainer sort of slinked his way toward Xiu-Li, but with a skitter. When he reached her, he peered at her with gold irised cat’s eyes: vertical pupil slits, framed by goldflake.

  They were so beautiful close up that she opened her own eyes and stared at them.

  He blinked and jumped back. The other three laughed.

  Laughter: slapstick? Cruel humor?

  She kept staring at – Servant, decided Xiu-Li. After a moment he began to twitch his head slightly. Suddenly he ducked his head down altogether, looking at the floor.

  The one with the flashiest cape now said something, and Servant flinched, looking over at her –Queen, decided Xiu-Li.

  The Queen spoke again.

  Servant turned back. Now his face was truly alien – and he looked hungry.

  “Qet,” said Xiu-Li, staring right at him.

  Servant flinched and blinked.

  The other three flinched and blinked, then looked at each other and blinked. Then Queen said something to Servant, looking from him to Xiu-Li and back.

  He looked uncertainly at Xiu-Li, and then down.

  Submission posture! Xiu-Li kept herself steadied.

  Queen growled.

  Xiu-Li watched her deep ruby eyes flash – and a curious dropping down of her upper lip, over her teeth. She’s angry, so she hides her teeth – but they can be shown when laughing.

  Servant looked at Xiu-Li. He was obviously torn.

  Xiu-Li took a deep breath. “Qet,” she said forcefully, and she pulled her upper lip down over her teeth.

  Servant hesitated and again ducked his head. Xiu-Li looked over at Queen.

  The leader was studying her, head tilted. She spoke to the other females with her, but did not break eye contact with Xiu-Li. Servant was semi-frozen there; whatever might happen next, he didn’t look as hungry any more.

  He was, though. The leader grabbed Herkle’s leg and threw it at Servant, who bowed deeply and scuttled out.

  Queen nudged Karaff’s limp form and growled. The other three sprang into action, lashing Martines to another wooden X-frame.

  The other three were younger than Queen; one looked like her “Sister.” Another one, now starting a fire in the big cookerstove, was younger and harder to place, but “Cookie” did seem related in some way, however.

  The youngest one – the “Princess”– was beautiful, distinct from her mother, “Queen.”

  The two older females took off their capes and started on their boots. The Princess stood over Karaff and nudged him.

  Queen barked at her. She jumped and scurried over. Queen scolded her, laughed and clapped Sister on the shoulder.

  Getting ready for dinner meant taking off their clothes. The Princess helped Queen unstrap her boots and peel them off and Cookie helped Sister. They removed their tunics and everything else.

  They had skin and feathery hair; the feathery hair varied in type and distribution, but main points were quite similar to human (scalp, armpits, genitals). There were additional velvety hair “panels” along spine and ribs, which made them look like beautifully athletic humans with natural racing stripes; they were almost like tattoos, bu
t each was distinct and arose with a natural grace, closer to a tiger’s pattern... except where disrupted by scars.

  Queen was a physical warrior whose scars bespoke her ability; Sister and Cookie were less scarred, while Princess had only one scar – but bore a fresh cut on her arm, wrapped.

  Once they were all naked (small, athletic breasts) they stood in a loose circle around Markis Karaff.

  Xiu-Li’s heart sank. Then she could smell meat cooking – the Servant, camping outside and at work on Herkle’s leg.

  The smell seems to drive the four Sentient females into a rage of bloody hunger. Without another sound they descend upon Karaff, knives flashing – his eyes open and he screams as he disappears under the four hungry, naked female Sentients. Bloody bits of uniform flew from the circle as they ate him alive.

  Xiu-Li closes her eyes and meditates as if she were a radiating star... she thinks of Aria, for some reason – as well as wondering, for how long will her own star shine?

  ARIA

  Aria awoke and extricated herself from the tube hammock. She stretched out, rolled up the hammock, drank two water rations, and started hiking.

  Three hours had gone by; the moon was now at an angle and behind her, lighting her way below the tree canopy that hid the sky above her, now mottled with clouds. They would interfere with comms and energy weapons like lasers, and with some scanning sensors.

  She soon became fully occupied with negotiating the rugged terrain at night. Aria kept a steady pace and hiked until she saw a flicker of light in the darkness of the hillside across from her.

  It was a fire, as the optical magnifier in her Eng DPaT showed, using it as a telescope. There was a large figure next to it. On the far corner of the level shelf of rock was an old pre-fab plaswall survey quickshack, from the 2164-65 FreeNav 2 survey by CALIPER (Captain Matisou had told her there were six of them along the valley – he’d been on CALIPER as first officer, in charge of the Volcano Valley/Deep Punch Survey).

  She moved slowly until she was directly across from the rock shelf and settled down to watch. Threnody took out Clarissa D’Arial’s datastik and activated it:

  “D’Arial, Clarissa, ident ESU 2272S-003-W-L-R, th-this is... m-my report. Lieutenant Herkle’s leg was broken in the landslide, then Addams and Ramble were ambushed and attacked, and then s-so were we... unh... We rallied and the lieutenant decided to move forward since retreat was impossible. Ensign Chen gave us cover.

  “As we were trying to move forward they set off a rockfall and I got in s-some trouble; Xiu-Li got them before they could get me, and I think Lissa got one too. She took Karaff back to the rally point, then Xiu-Li came to check me and she gave me something to drink, but we could hear m-more of them coming and I made her go back. I could hear two get near, but Xiu-Li got ‘em both. Some other ones passed me, but th-they never saw me.

  “I couldn’t really see much after that but I heard Lieutenant Herkle and Thierry shout ‘Wheeler’ and there was a lot of magpistol firing, then there was another rockfall, and I m-must have passed out when my rock shifted too. When I woke up, it was quiet. I called out a few times, but I don’t think anybody else made it. I never saw our attackers clearly and their shouts were too muffled to capture. I will wait here. This concludes my report.”

  There were personal messages to family and crew friends, all with succinct phrasing and clarity. Then she said, “I’m really tired now. I have to rest.”

  A long gap, just the sound of wind and pebblefalls, then: “I wi’, I wi’ Jooli wa’ here again,” said a very weak sounding D’Arial. “She was so-o... so-o-o swe-eet... mmm, water...” And then a distinct sigh, followed by thirty seven minutes of wind sound until the chip ran out.

  Aria put it away and checked the site; the big form was throwing bones into a corner before laying down by the fire. The shack beyond was very dimly lit.

  She took a deep breath and settled into a light trance to clear her thinking way, then Aria meditated over the death of gentle Clarissa D’Arial, who had been honorable in all her actions, and Dalby – Big K, a promising mechanical engineer, skilled with deep space fabrication, now lost; and for the others.

  Niv did not favor burial after death; religion was of a more depersonalized belief (descended from Zen Buddhism on Earth) so after the death of a person, the body was immaterial and cremation or biorecycling were the two cultural options.

  But for a moment, she recalled the way the stones had rolled. Big K had a tomb. Not a great tomb of Old Earth, but a real tomb. It was one engineer saluting another, she had decided...

  [ Suddenly there is a star hanging on a wall before her! ]

  Aria shook her head, the image of a star ahead in the darkness fresh in her mind.

  There were no Niv here – that was not a Niv image, and she would have Heard them when she Listened (unless they were shielding, but no – )

  It could only be Xiu-Li Chen.

  No one else from the survey party could possibly achieve that level of radiative focus meditation. It was an extremely impressive piece of thought, perhaps even beyond Xiu-Li.

  I must not be irrational, thought Aria. If Xiu-Li is a Sentient captive she may already be dead. I must consider all other possibilities as well...

  [ I am here. ]

  With a gasp, Aria’s eyes flicked open. Xiu-Li was alive!

  She was alive, and in the building across the way. She had been able to make a Deep Image Meditation contact without any Niv D.I.M. tutoring, with just Earth meditative focus... Aria reached out and Listened, but the moment was past.

  Helix, the training she must have had! Of course, Earth is the Source Of It All.

  Aria took a deep breath, then stood up and stretched. She told herself she wasn’t excited. It is a response to stress, of course. She was trying to avoid thoughts about Xiu-Li – about Chen’s current situation, trying to pretend she wasn’t becoming – call it curious – about the way Chen approached reality.

  Aria frowned.

  Niv didn’t “feel curious,” they asked questions and pursued science because it was “rationally efficient to increase time paid to areas where talents are strongest.” Perhaps they admitted to being “intrigued.” “Intrigued” was the Niv version of being “curious,” the more “advanced” way of looking at things.

  She had begun to wonder about that, immersed in the purity of her engines: the clean annihilations of antimatter, the coaxing open of hyperflight. All of it seemed a lot more precise than arguments about whether being “intrigued” was indeed more advanced than being “curious,” and why that even mattered when there were so many questions to answer in the Universe, and so vast a range of things that one could be “interested” in (Thank Helix that word still applied to both cultures!)

  Yet Aria had always been curious about the humans from Sol.

  Aria sighed. She would never be a traditional Niv, no matter who in her family might believe otherwise (perhaps it was their duty to maintain hope). She wanted to explore space, she wanted to build the engines she travelled on, and the InterWorld Group wanted good engineers so engine and ship failures could be minimized – a variable reduced so other causes could be discerned. The IWG-SS JOHN A.WHEELER was her ship – from frame up, through hull and engines, first runs, and now an extended survey mission – and where it went, so did she (although she was consulting long range on two Earth Star Yard projects and would make visits to three more the next time they were in Sol System).

  And Aria found the company of certain humans very satisfactory time spent, while one or two consistently surpassed the best of her Niv times. Even when they were at their most irrational. Even when they were being hostile and irrational toward her.

  “Sol humans” (any human not a Niv) generally had motives linked to their emotions, so it was easy to detect their thoughts, but it was much harder to anticipate their final actions, unlike Niv. Niv appeared more impassive but they were culturally driven toward generally rational, logical thinking that actively
questioned the role of their own emotions in the process, to be aware of them. The paths of thought that resulted were usually similar, so arriving at parallel conclusions from equal information was common among Niv – they often “thought alike.”

  “Sol humans” did not behave that way.

  They all had opinions, they all had “views,” and they could use the same facts – or falsehoods – to construct entirely different ways of approaching task or topic. These were often highly creative but without discipline of genius – falsehoods and unsupported fact was often just as good as solid fact and reproducible event when it came to planning and execution, it seemed. They rushed ahead on a raft of unchecked facts and often went over a fall. Sol humans could suddenly reject proven information because of “a feeling it’s ‘fishly’,” or they acted on a “hunch,” and will “take a chance,” while fear at times could prevent lifesaving actions or cause failure in ops execution.

  The results they had managed to achieve – when the raft struck good sailing and a brave new vista opened (like the star colonies, the Niv colony among them, of course) seemed to be living examples of Chaos Theory. There was very little of the Niv thought consensus or the predictability that science offered.

  It always made Aria Threnody curious to see what resulted from their chaotic approach, and she was becoming curious about Xiu-Li Chen in particular as well –

  Who is this Sol human with areas of such Niv-like ability?

  XIU-LI

  Xiu-Li stretched painfully and opened her eyes to confirm it was morning – daylight. There were no Sentients in the shack.

  Martines looked at her, whispered hoarsely, “They’re aliens, right?” Xiu-Li nodded.

  They both ignored Karaff’s torn body. After the Sentients finally laid down on their pallets – three at a time, the solo overwatch changing every three hours over the next ten – Xiu-Li had slept or passed out.

  She had been working out the hierarchy from their actions. It looked like the ones she thought of as Queen and Princess were mother and daughter; Sister was either a sister or a life partner, and Cookie was their servant, as was the male Servant – who slept outside.

  The three women had a network together that was independent of the alpha female, Queen – perhaps the level of eye contact was to serve her better, but it really didn’t look that way. It looked as if they were all tolerating a tough alpha-female personality.

  Xiu-Li could see through the windows that the female “Qet” seemed to be having some comm trouble. They walked to a patch of open ground, struck a pose, Queen shouted into her comm unit, and waited. A few seconds later, when nothing else happened, there were shouts and growls of rage. The four women evidently decided to move off and try elsewhere, for their voices gradually faded... leaving just their Servant in camp.

  Servant walked in with a hip-high shaggy, scaly limbed reptillian thing on a thick chain. “Vorrdawg!” he growled at them. “Vorrdawg!” He laughed coarsely. The vorrdog sniffed Karaff’s blood, growled, and strained eagerly forward.

  He let it go – it jumped up and the remains jerked as the vorrdog’s big ripping jaws tore off gobbets and cracked joints and bones. It did not pause even when Servant snapped the long leash to the collar around its neck.

  Servant untied Martines and made her drag Karaff’s body out of the shack, following with the hungry vorrddog. They did not return immediately...

  Xiu-Li felt some warm liquid on her wrist – blood, from chafing. There was a chance she might be able to get her wrist free, if it was slippery enough.

  Well... it was something to do...

  ARIA

  The Sentients acted oddly as morning sun lit the cloudy sky overhead a silver gray, with far off breaks of blue on the horizon.

  Four females would walk around, then stop; the one in the best cloak would talk into a comm; they would all strike a pose (there was no question about the action of doing so, either) and wait for several seconds. Then they would each yell in their comms and start walking again as the process repeated three times, until Best Cloak got so angry she threw down her comm unit and stomped on it, while the other three looked down at the ground and away.

  After a moment the next oldest one pointed up to the hill above the camp. Best Cloak snarled but stomped toward the hill, followed by the other three.

  It was early morning. The bright sunlight on the far horizon was pointed in her direction so Aria dared not move yet or they would see her. She breathed deeply and settled herself.

  Aria thought about the behavior. Unless they were shooting an image of some kind, there would be only one reason to freeze in one spot – they must have some sort of tachyon transport field technology and were unafraid to use it. Given their repeated failure to achive a lock through the clouds, the basis for their confidence in the spooky technology was unclear to Threnody; perhaps that was why they struck a pose? (No; “striking a pose” was a behavior related to cultural dynamics).

  It... was worthy of a pose. Travelling that way was essentially a “naked” hyperflight jump, from point to point, without a ship. If Niv theories were correct, there were corollaries from that analogy that would be critical if Niv/humans ever did perfect the process: one was that it would be limited to distances that could be reached in the travel time that a human could hold their breath.

  One second in hyperflight equalled a distance of 208 light seconds: a Standard Unit (from the old “Astronomical Unit”, the distance from Sol to Earth, 150,000,000 kilometers), which took light 8.3 minutes (~500 seconds) to travel at the speed of light, took just 2.4 seconds to travel in hyperflight.

  That was adequate distance for most cargo and personnel transfer purposes, and from planet to orbit would be fairly instantaneous. It was unknown whether a naked trip through hyperspace was even psychologically survivable; or maybe they’d be lucky and there would be no sensation.

  The Niv Sciences Institute had spent the past seven decades on the problems and were planning inanimate tests in two years – it was one of the Original Study Projects.

  They had not even perfected it yet.

  These Sentients appeared to have done so, but limits to the technology were apparent. For the fourth attempt, Best Cloak pointed to a trail on the hill, and they started to climb toward higher ground.

  As soon as they were in the treeline, Aria started to move. She had gone no more than five meters when she saw new movement in the camp and froze.

  Servant ambled from the curved near corner and went into the shack. He had a squat four legged form with him, on a chain leash at his side.

  Keeping low, Aria dashed to a better position to see into the camp without being seen easily. She crawled under a bush and peeked just as Julissa Martines dragged a terribly torn body from the shack.The Sentient Servant male followed – the enormous dog-like reptile, straining on the chain leash to get at the body, dragged him along.

  The hunting beast was tied firmly and left to gnaw the corpse, and Martines was kicked in the head. It sent her crashing down to the ground, and the Sentient next kicked her onto her back. As Martines lay there dazed and gasping, the Sentient stepped forward and gave her another kick in the head.

  The Sentient then went over to a large plastic water barrel and filled a bucket. He tossed it on Martines, who tried to catch what she could in her mouth. The male then thrust the bucket at Martines and let her fill it, drink, and fill it again. Then he kicked the staggering Martines back into the shack.

  I will give them a moment to settle themselves inside, thought Aria. It is pointless to speculate upon the identity of the body that Martines had dragged out, whether it was Xiu-Li or Karaff.

  The shack and camp across the way was silent and still.

  Why do I – Oh. I am feeling something. Disappointment? Ah, my response to a failure in rationality, when new information upsets a much cherished chain of rational thought and behavior completely...

  What if that was Xiu-Li?

  Keeping her eyes
open, she took a deep, slow breath of meditation.

  Then Aria started moving.

  MATISOU

  Captain “Bert” Matisou was almost restless enough to act out of sheer frustration, and it was making them nervous – just look at Manda! (Tania was actually preoccupied, not certain if she felt guilty or not about comforting Orlando as she had last night, but certain she did not like the current situation they were in any more than Matisou – or Takaguchi).

  Matisou knew he was making them all tense, but there was nothing he could do – the situation had protocol and logic to it which he would now follow as coolly as possible. It required the more formal behavioral structure and that removed the lighter air he encouraged in general on the bridge and on board WHEELER.

  It’s Action Stations – they’re supposed to be a little tense.

  They had classed the smaller ships as about half the size of WHEELER and named them “Egg Boats.” The bigger one, classed as twice the ton size of WHEELER (making it JUPITER Class) was now tentatively tagged as an “Egg Burner,” and Takaguchi was fairly sure it had weapons living up to the name. When it had taken out one of the smaller Egg Boats, that blast had lit the outer edge of the system like a second sun. Whether weapons fire or the blast itself had damaged the Egg Burner and the remaining Egg Boat was not known.

  There were few comm intercepts, and those received so far had not been traced to either ship in particular. It was possible the Egg Boat in geosynchronos orbit was in direct line-of-sight short range comm that the MapRunner couldn’t detect; Matisou chose to assume that they were, and plan accordingly, rather than risk taking a listen with the active instruments on either the Runner or WHEELER, which so far appeared to have escaped detection (or at least, active notice) by either of the ships.

  Given the firepower of the Egg Burner and Egg Boat – which might both attack, each for their own odd Sentient reason, if they knew of the presence of WHEELER in the system – it was the one piece of luck that had gone their way (he had decided the level of firepower witnessed thus far meant the risk of a hostile response outweighed taking any chances with altruistic scenarios).

  After a dismal lunch (he had not quite mastered the final skills of captaincy yet, so he found he couldn’t eat when crew were in peril), Matisou reviewed the situation on the bridge with Takaguchi and Lieutenant Lobo from Engineering, who were both every bit as eager to get to their people as he was.

  As second engineer, Lobo analyzed the ships since they’d first entered the system: “The big Egg Burner can’t turn quickly but it has a hell of a punch if it shoots you; after it came around the gas giant it was moving a bit erratically, but got fine control back in ten minutes and managed an orbit. Since then its orbit has been decaying, so I think maybe the engines need some work.

  “The smaller Egg Boat looks like a ship built around a weapons platform – half our size but same number of magcannon-type banks and equal to our power. It was tumbling and venting from primary engineering, but it corrected the tumble, headed in, and was able to take up and has since maintained a geosynch orbit over the planet. They patched the breach, but...”

  Matisou nodded. Any blast capable of breaching a hull usually caused severe internal hull and shipframe structural damage all around the breach. “Atmospheric entry is out now, and they’re too small to have anything like shuttleRunners on board,” he observed.

  Lobo nodded. “Maybe an escape pod.”

  Takaguchi scowled and said, “Couple of ShuttleRunners? That Egg Burner could hold two or three. Easily.”

  Matisou nodded thoughtfully. “The small ship... they could be moving on, but they’re not. They could have chosen any orbit, but they chose a geosynch, not even trying to use a lower orbit to make their detection difficult. As long as they stay here, it’s obvious they haven’t gotten what they wanted from below. They can’t land, so unless they’ve got Tachyon Transport Field tech licked, they are counting on their version of a Runner, if they have one. Even if they have T.T.F., they may have trouble with it from Rare Earth Alloy interference. Given our comm difficulties, if they’re in the same area on the planet surface down below as we were, their T.T.F. might not get through cleanly.”

  Takaguchi paled. “Captain... that avalanche – that’s a good way to start an ambush, and that’s the way a Sentient might set one up. I mean – if they’re down there already.”

  Matisou’s face hardened. “You mean maybe the ship’s trying to pick someone up?” He looked at Takaguchi and Lobo and then at the screen, relaying theirMapRunner view of the planet. “And someone is trying to prevent pick-up.” Now he frowned. And my people might be down there in the middle of this mess! “Fekk!”

  XIU-LI

  Martines had given Xiu-Li a pat on the shoulder when holding up the bucket for a drink of water – hours ago, it must’ve been (the sunlight outside was fading now, on their second night of captivity).

  Martines had next tried to hit Servant with the empty bucket, but Servant had laughed and shot her with a stunner. He had thoroughly felt Martines up while tying the limp woman back on to her X-frame – he was curious, but only a little. Then he’d laid down and taken a nap.

  Xiu-Li had kept working her wrist, and waited.

  The Sentient women had come back not long before, angry and hungry, and started stripping.

  Xiu-Li, eyes closed, could still feel the pat on her shoulder.

  Queen came over to her.

  Xiu-Li opened her eyes.

  Queen’s eyes studied Xiu-Li. She put her hand out behind her and gave a short cluck.

  The other four looked up at her, faces surprised. All of them spoke at once, and it seemed they protested what she had said.

  Queen’s eyes never wavered from Xiu-Li’s; in fact, after a moment her face changed – you see what we must put up with? it seemed to say.

  The Queen’s other response was to close her hand and then open it – her slender fingers pointing together into a sort of spearhand look.

  They fell silent and looked to the floor immediately. Servant shambled to a small, dark green box that was different from all the other boxes.

  Queen took it, held it up, used it to scan Xiu-Li, looked at it, chirped, and then held it up under Xiu-Li’s face.

  Xiu-Li could see it – it looked like a scanner of some kind, made of some iridescent dark green material. A puff of gas shot out of it, went straight up her nose. By the time she even realized it, her body had already inhaled it, and she began to sneeze.

  Queen scanned her again and threw the unit to Servant as Xiu-Li’s eyes began to water and blur, she was sneezing, then suddenly a terrible headache ripped through her sinuses and exploded backward through her head as everything went black –

  ARIA

  It took most of the day for Aria to work her way down and then across the valley, requiring a long trek to cross where she would not be seen from the perches above, where the four females had gone.

  It was mid-afternoon before she was on the hillside just above and overlooking the shack and camp below; it was late afternoon when she finally crawled to a point with good local tree cover and colorful vegetation she could hide in and still observe the camp below.

  The camp was quiet except for the creature chewing bones and the rare flash of Servant, moving around.

  The Sentient party returned, arguing, but all were amused by the creature’s efforts as they passed it. The Servant again settled down outside the shack.

  The reptile growled and looked up from its meal – almost fully consumed by now – and peered around until it was looking in her direction. Aria froze, but looked at the leaves – the wind was not blowing past her toward the camp, so it was not scent. Was it sound? Or even psi, telepathy, or empathy?

  After a moment it looked past her, then returned to its meal.

  Maybe it’s just a habit. Aria took a deep breath. I hope those are not Xiu-Li’s bones.

  She shook her head. It must be fatigue – the loss of any
life diminishes the universe – Xiu-Li and Markis Karaff are the... they’re both human, so they are both the...

  She breathed deeply. No. They are not “the same.” They are different. And hope is a feeling, not a rational... facts were that only Martines was seen alive (and she was a ‘warrior’ type, as was Xiu-Li. But not Karaff).

  A voice called out from inside the shack, just loud enough Aria could hear it. The creature jerked up and loped over into the shack. It growled, and there was a series of growls into grunts.

  Oh, Helix, what now? Aria turned her attention to the rocks around the camp, looking for a way down for later, in the darkness.

  Hang on, Xiu-Li!

  MATISOU

  He sat on the bridge watching as night covered their survey site on the planet, an image sent from the MapRunner on the moon’s horizon. As best they could tell, the ship had either not been noticed or was unworthy of a response (even via remote, like missiles or databalls). No one had a complaint about that, of course.

  Neither he nor Takaguchi could sleep. They were both on the bridge on the overnight – but the crew seemed relieved to see them there. Relieved and reassured – everyone was a little rattled by the events to date. Those who were unnerved used training and routine to keep moving forward, but nothing made crew feel cared for better than seeing senior officers working on the problems.

  Matisou sat at Tactical and pulled up Takaguchi’s analysis of the weapons observed. He yawned, then frowned. “Oh, fer Space sake.” He hit the comm. “Engineering, Matisou.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  “Is that you, Lieutenant Lobo?”

  “Aye, sir.”

  “What are you doing there on this watch?”

  “Wolves sleep lightly, sir.”

  “I expect my people to sleep in beds when they can.”

  “Yes, sir, I’ll do that when I feel sleepy, which’ll be when our folks are back up. Naps’ll do until then, sir. How can I help you up there on the bridge, sir?” Observing that Matisou wasn’t in bed, or in his quarters, or even in his office.

  Matisou sighed. “Okay. I’m inquiring about the blast effects of antimatter and high yield electromagnetic pulse weapons, as directed in the report you assisted Commander Takaguchi with.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “This looks to me like you’ve got no clear idea what’s going to happen.”

  “Yes, sir. We are neither a deep gas giant JUPITER Class physically shielded ship, nor are we some sort of specially made warship with super shields. We know the graviton composites have allowed us a field of intense enough local distortion to drive away dust, meteorites, most debris around us as we move.

  “We also have other types of measures for those threats, and certain energy types are dispersed, dissipated, or diverted by the graviton systems, but little is known about effects of deliberate short duration high energy weapons-type exposures – everything has been designed assuming science-type environments, where you would be expected to veer away before reaching design limits. We have some shields, yes, but we are not what a Tactical officer would define as a ‘shielded’ ship.

  “In short, sir,” concluded Lobo, “Our most critical defense will be distance.”

  Matisou smiled. “Always a good one. Please activate the landed Runner’s remote flight system in the morning.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  “And I order you to use a sleeping bag at your post in the engineering spaces during this crisis. Not slumped in a chair. If you don’t have a sleeping bag –”

  “Sir! I do, sir. Thank you, sir.”

  “I will be checking, Lieutenant.”

  “Understood, sir.”

  “Captain out.” He looked over at Takaguchi, seated at the science station and waved him over. “So, worst case – will we get crushed, or fried by a blast?”

  “Are we betting?” Takaguchi stood and stretched.

  “Okay. What for?”

  “A kilo of the most exotic decaff.”

  “Yum. And the outcomes we’re betting on?”

  “We might just ride through it like a bubble among the waves, or the bubble might pop, and we’ll either be fried or crushed.”

  “Okay, that’s two death outcomes to one life. You want to give me some odds here?”

  Takaguchi shook his head. “I don’t see why.”

  “Well, do you think we’ll ride through, or be destroyed?”

  Takaguchi gave him a look.

  “Destroyed then – well... I’ll guess we ride it through, if we’re far enough away to survive the energy pulse effects. As they’ll have to be coming to look for us, our odds of avoiding it are high.” He stood up and walked over to a bridge window, where he looked down at the dark moon below, stretching. He was getting tired again, and would go back to their quarters soon.

  Takaguchi stood near him. “Do you think anyone’s still...?”

  “We know Aria survived to call us, so that’s one. She knows it was a C-17, so she won’t be surprised down there. She’ll be on her guard.” He looked old. “As to who survived an avalanche – that’s what’s been driving me crazy. All we know is they were cut off, not their conditions.”

  “It’s like last time.”

  Matisou looked at him. “Do you –” He turned and looked at the bridge crew. On the underwatch there were less people, and people were beyond earshot. They were in a little area called the Captain’s Gallery where the window was: a semi-alcove in a bridge corner, set off for quick chats and showing visitors a view.

  He looked back at Takaguchi. “I keep telling myself that’s just impossible. Those were natural causes. This might... well, similar, but coincidental.” He looked down. “This is tough, being back here. Knowing she’s buried down there.” He looked at Takaguchi. “It was a raw deal, Jason. Things had a way of turning out for most of us, but for the others and her, it was a... a raw deal.”

  The first officer nodded somberly. “Yes, Bert.” He looked out the window. “There’s a special notes set for the end of this survey, isn’t there?”

  Matisou jerked alert. “Spacenuts, you’re right!” He looked at Takaguchi. They were supposed to be opened at the conclusion of the survey here, but under the circumstances...

  They had served together since the University, so it was no surprise they both headed straight for the mess hall and the Captain’s Booth for coffee and the secure link-in to the compuSys core.

  The compuSys actually offered an argument about releasing the file.

  Matisou frowned. “It cites the date and wants to know why we’re early!”

  Takaguchi took the mugs from Kimonetti and sealed the door behind him. He gave one to Matisou and went over to the window and looked out. No one ever tired of actually looking out a window when there was real space out there.

  And this damned planet had them both...

  Behind him, Matisou laughed. “That did it. I told it to check the Conditions menu and number 17 and it opened right – oh, fekk!”

  Takaguchi whirled.

  Matisou’s face was a mask. “The artifacts.”

  Takaguchi sat down, stunned. “Here?”

  Matisou nodded. “Here.”

  They looked at each other. “Fekk.”

  Nine years ago they had come here to survey the system and the habitable oxygen, nitrogen, trace methane, chlorophyll rich planet in orbit around the star HD-19373/HIP 14632/Iota Persei – it was called ESPC-12. They had already been to two other systems along the way, and the crews were tired but very happy with the last green jewel visited six weeks earlier.

  Again, they had success. It did come with a cost in lives from a natural disaster, but upon their return, the general efforts of the two ships and their valiant crews were celebrated in most systems.

  The FreeNav 2 Northern Survey had found plenty of resources.

  The two biggest things found on the survey, however, were two very small pieces of metal.

  One was an eight centimeter by ten cent by two cent
thick piece of starship hull/frame metal with two types of markings, etched and painted – evidently some revision of the etched original. It was radio-carbon dated as “current era,” or just as “recent” as any hull from the last two hundred years would read.

  The second piece was two cents wide by four cents long by an eighth cent thick, identified as a broken short sword blade, made of steel that had been folded and refolded repeatedly in a pattern similar to the traditional process of ancient Sol System Earth Japanese swordmaking; but this steel was from asteroidal resources, featuring just the slightest trace of iridium. It was dated at 2,000 years before current date, but faster than light travel always played havoc with deciding how to interpret dates.

  Either way, they were alien to the planet they were found on, and alien to Earth. No one from Sol system had been this far out before. The markings on both metal objects were not human, and their existence indicated the existence of another space capable species.

  This was information no one wanted to reveal. Compromise in discussions led to a “fuzzing out” of the exact location of discovery, or even that the artifacts were from the recent survey at all – they were always defined as “recovered by IWG scientists” but the location was never given.

  Meanwhile, at the time, there was an investigation by IWG. The possibility of a cultural contamination had always been drilled into the crews on survey missions and they took this tack with the northern shield team (geologists on a volcanic survey who actually found the pieces, along a river bank).

  Nothing else was found; it was a totally haphazard finding, and the flash flood that killed five of them (and the dog, that damned “stowed away” dog) the very next night gave a hint as to the possible reason no other evidence of previous visits or visitors was left intact – anyone camping there was at risk.

  The recovery team had found everyone downstream, including the dog, and buried them in the foothills they had been heading for, away from the fast changing river that had claimed them.

  The shocked survivors had said little then, and never said much about it later. They were evacuated directly from planet to ship once the flash flooded river had fallen and the three of them were found. It was easy to swear them to secrecy, and they were rumored to have felt “forever cursed” – it was only eight or nine years earlier, and for a long time had been kept quiet.

  Inevitably the artifacts were raised to justify IWG Space Fleet budgets, and by the truly concerned (InterWorld Group ships might carry magpistols but no one was bearing an ancient Peacemaker Colt Revolver from the Olde West Days – what sort of culture was this?) Should we be at all worried? How altruistic was a culture that could travel faster than light but were literally swordbearing? (They weren’t even energy swords like in millions of science fiction holos, which might have gained public favor; no, these were just terribly efficient weapons in small spaces, without any powerpacks or working parts needed to function, capable of arm’s distance attack in almost any environment a human could work in).

  They continued to diffuse everything about the artifacts, the most critical element being the exact location – which system they had been found in, and when. Over the years as people tried to look back and find out, they had narrowed it to a Northern system, but not which one.

  Those in the IWG had other ideas, especially crews from the Northern Survey. But no one really knew for sure, it seemed. Everyone soon knew something had been found besides REAs, but no one knew who had found it. There had been enough parties going around that anybody could have found it – and many felt someone had dropped it or caused a contamination. The flash flood and two bad falls resulting in deaths shocked everyone and made the crew as a whole more reticent and private, less likely to talk about events.

  Because Matisou had been there before, he was selected to go back and look some more, but they didn’t want to prejudice him. He had always answered their questions about his views on the artifacts in such a way that IWG knew Matisou really knew little about them.

  Let alone that it was a CALIPER team that found them.

  Possibly even by his wife, or their dog, digging along the bank; the actual discoverer was among the five dead, and none of the survivors knew who it had been.

  Takaguchi gulped some coffee.

  Matisou took a deep breath. “I knew we had heavy REAs, and I knew they’d be easy to get to. When we went back under high secure I thought it was more like a corporate secret, because of the REAs.” The rich deposits were a serious strategic resource and it was not at all unusual to ramp up security because of them. He shook his head. “But the artifacts, fekkin’ hell!” He looked over at Takaguchi’s face and narrowed his eyes. “Spit it out, Jason.

  “Well, I – I knew it was the artifacts, I mean, I heard a mission explanation, but I thought it was JUPITER at HD-39587. They took a longer time to be discovered because they were in storage.” Here at HD-19373 the JUPITER had stayed out by the two gas giants while CALIPER had moved in to survey the planet ESPC12 and found REAs there.

  Matisou frowned.

  Takaguchi looked out the window. “It was a Tactical Division thing. You always told me I had to follow my Division orders no matter what or who I might want to talk them over with. Especially the tough ones. Plus at the time I think we were all sort of... everybody was hanging onto the rules by then, Bert. Remember?”

  “Yes.”

  “They never let me talk to Grillet or the others. I know if things had been different, they couldn’t have pulled it off.” He meant if Matisou’s wife had survived the flash flood.

  Matisou took a deep breath. “No, she’d have been screaming about it the moment she got back. Instead, we were operating in chaos, and it let them shroud the find.” He nodded. “Okay. Point, set, match. Dumb Bert, Smart Tak, and moving on: these events cannot be a complete coincidence. We have ships flying around here, getting blown up by each other. Looks to me like a good explanation for smashed hull bits here. What we’ve heard to now, and what’s in the artifacts file – which looks like everything up to date of departure from SolSys – they are connected. Yes?”

  Takaguchi nodded gloomily. “Yes. But you’re not ‘Dumb Bert.’ We were all... I mean, I know we finished out the five weeks after the flood, but everybody was on autopilot. Thank Space we were all trained and experienced or we’d have missed something and killed ourselves on return.” He grinned at Matisou. “You did a good job of that, Bert. Keeping us organized no matter what else was going on.”

  Matisou sipped his coffee and looked at the inner screen view of the planet below, under highlighted optics. “What the hell else is down there? And I have to tell you, Tak, I’d feel a damned sight better if Threnody was on board, in case we learn the hard way what happens to us if something explodes nearby.”

  Takaguchi watched Matisou closely. “This is not a repeat, Bert.”

  Matisou looked at his first officer. “No. This is worse.”

  “It can’t be.”

  “Why not?”

  “One, I checked with Meteorology and it’s not local rainy season.”

  Matisou stared at him, then chuckled. Takaguchi grinned just a little – it was such grim humor, but Bert Matisou needed that now as memories crowded in.

  “Well, I suppose there is that in our favor,” Matisou said dryly.

  “Two, Aria was alive when last we checked.”

  “True enough.”

  Takaguchi looked back at the moon below them. “What are they doing out here?”

  Matisou shrugged. “Rare Earth Alloys, if nothing else; plus they want G-zero stars and atmospheres like ours, so those things alone are reasons.” He grinned mirthlessly. “The same reasons we’re way out here.”

  Takaguchi grinned. “Captain –” he began (and Matisou knew he was in for a razzing) “– the species imperative is no doubt as you say, but I was wondering more along the lines of this particular group. For example, our survey ships are not in the habit of entering a new system while vi
olently attacking each other. Why have they?”

  Matisou nodded. “Yes. I’ve got a feeling they’re here to get something or someone.” His comm chirped. “Matisou.”

  “Lieutenant Lobo. Can I be received on a screen, sir?” He sounded excited. Matisou went to the wall unit and switched the internal screen to comm and called Lobo in engineering.

  Lobo needed a shave, but only by strict regulations – visually, it made him look tough. So did his flashing eyes. “Sir, we were working to identify the location of Runner One –”

  “I thought I left orders for ‘in the morning’?”

  Lobo paused. “Sir, you left orders for ‘remote activation’ to be available in the morning. For that to occur requires location of the vehicle in question, which has been going on since you gave your order to prepare the remote access system.”

  Matisou cleared his throat. “I apologize, Lieutenant. And for the record, let it be known that, unlike all of my fine young officers on the great ship JOHN A. WHEELER, I really do need my sleep.”

  Lobo blinked. “S-sir, th-that’s n-not needed. I just wanted to report that we located our shuttleRunner and also crash landmarks with vehicle remains, consistent with an Egg Boat, at the end of a crash track.”

  “That is excellent work. How?”

  “The passive supercool array found their heat differences. It was on the mapping Runner for deep sky work.” Lobo grinned. “It was one of Ensign Luna’s ideas.”

  Engineering and Science were in a competition for bright ideas and discoveries; Luna was Engineering Division with science crosstraining.

  “It also indicated the area all around here is something like shattered top crust, with hot springs and volcanic activity all around this valley.” He looked up. “Infrared will be unreliable to the north, where our team was heading; there are several underground rivers of varying temperatures there.” He looked at his chrono. “I’ll leave these now and update you at Divisions, sir.”

  Matisou smiled slightly. “Thanks. Good work, Lieutenant.” He turned off the comm and peered at the mapping image. “Looks like an ‘Egg Boat’ ship.” He looked at Takaguchi. “We’re figuring how many crew in an Egg Boat?”

  Takaguchi thought about it. “Sixteen to twenty four.”

  “Versus one, no more than ten.” He rubbed his face. “They’re in the woods here... here’s the rille and canyon complex. If they came down this way here, it would lead them to this side of the valley, just outside the canyon mouth.” He looked at Takaguchi. “I think we put a quickshack there. I’m almost sure we did. Right?”

  Takaguchi nodded. It was on the alien’s side of the valley; the WHEELER team had planned to enter via the rille, and would have ended up walking along the floor of the valley to the canyon complex proper. He looked over at the Captain. “Even the science crew know enough to circle back to the Runner if something happens. Maybe they’re just waiting for our clearance.”

  Matisou’s eyebrows went up. “That’s a refreshing thought after a long dry spell.” He looked skeptical. “Rather unlike you to be so optimistic, however.”

  Takaguchi looked grim. “On the other hand, unless Threnody got to them and told them we had a Condition C-17, they would have called in on their own, if they could.”

  There was a moment of silence. “The rille and canyons have a lot of REA interference.”

  “Bert, you’d do better to believe Aria found them.”

  Matisou rubbed his face. “Mmpf. What do you make of the artifacts coming from here?”

  Takaguchi shrugged. “I’ve always thought the analysis went overboard. Yes, they’re proof of another alien culture in the Universe, but not when they were – well, here, I guess it turns out – or where they came from. They indicate there was an alien starship here that either left trash or blew up, but after that it gets overblown. All the stuff about the presence of writing, advanced metallurgy – well, not really amazing, is it, when it’s in conjunction with star travel, which pretty much needs both, doesn’t it? – and a fondness for swords. All of it very ‘interesting,’ but never meant much in the abstract.” He shook his head. “Now we have these crazy fekkers running around in our backyard.” He scowled. “Our backyard! Running around it with fekkin’ swords, for fekk’s sake!”

  “Any way to guess blade sizes?”

  Takaguchi frowned in thought. “Good question. It’s been too many years since kendo school. On the other hand, if we’ve really got full access to files on the artifacts...” He went over to the array in the corner to access the compSys.

  “You know... if there are aliens down there with blasters and swords, we’re going to lose a lot of people.”

  “Mmm-hmm.” Takaguchi was working the compuSys. “Hmm. I’d guess these are shorter swords. I’d always heard it was a ‘blade’ but no details. Now I see... yeah!” He slapped the wall. “These aren’t ‘long swords’ of the samurai, they’re shorter – the katana short sword would be closest. They were used in battle or to commit hara-kiri.”

  Matisou was puzzled. “Why is that good?”

  Takaguchi gave his captain a reckless grin. “It means that if our tactical officer is alive, and somehow it’s just blade versus blade, she has a chance.”

  Matisou stared at him. “What are you drinking, Tak?”

  “Just coffee, Bert.”

  “Please expand.”

  Takaguchi shook his head. “Whether it was ceremonial or worn for every day use, it says something to carry a sword and a blaster. It is a major trial to get our non-Tac officers to even touch weapons, so our current cultures are different.” He grinned. “But if we we go back about 500 years, to feudal Japan, late 1600s, under the Tokugawa Shogun, then we see a parallel. Samurai warriors representing the feudal clans wore both long and short swords, and they could strike down and kill any peasent who offended them by not bowing, for example.”

  “A proud people.” Matisou nodded.

  “Yes. The arrival of guns adds a similar element but it also led to the end of that style of warfare; Japan always revered the sword, and does so even now. Yet they, like China, did not have a significant naval fleet at the time of their great early civilizations. They did not get out much until they industrialized in the 1900’s, and defeated the Russian Navy in 1905.”

  “So here we have a proud people who are getting out. With plasma, laser, blast, and kinetic weapons, no less.”

  “As are we.” WHEELER carried plasma and magcannon.

  “Yes.” He looked at the screen. “Pride goes before a fall.”

  “Their pride, or ours?”

  The Captain did not answer.

  XIU-LI

  When Xiu-Li next regained consciousness her headache was gone but she felt funny in there.

  It was dusk now; when she slitted her eyes she could see they had indeed prepared themselves more like supplicants celebrating, with painted designs and special jewelry. It bespoke a culture capable of starflight but practicing death beliefs and animism – apparently carnivores, as there were plenty of other things to subsist on here.

  Or maybe they’re just meatfreaks...

  “Qet-Qeta, the repairs are nearly complete.”

  “Those lizards are such fools!” Angry female...

  “The chief engineer reports that alloy caught in the field is the cause of the damage.” A male voice?

  “Yes – the alloy in her head!” A snort. There were chuckles.

  It was not Martines talking.

  It wasn’t actually English; it was something else, but then she was hearing it in Standard, like an overdub, the actual words in the background.

  “Qet-Wia, am I appropriate?” Female voice.

  “Yes, Princess.” A raspier female voice: through slitted eyes Xiu-Li saw the “Sister” – “Qet-Wia” – looking at the designs on Princess. Sister was finsihed, as was Cookie; Servant still wore his trusty soldier’s coverall uniform, over by a large open metal case, closing up a comm. Where is – ? Ahh, over there! Queen
–

  – who is literally right next to her, in one single longjump of a bound. No run up, just a three meter jump from standing, both jump and landing totally cushioned, completely smooth, totally effortless.

  “– there! I said she was awake! She is the warrior among them, although this one –” Queen gave the still unconscious Martines a nudge with her foot “– was as fierce as any little sister.”

  The way she raised her leg... where had Xiu-Li seen that? A two hundred year old Hollywood-film... Sam Neill, Laura Dern... Classic Park?

  “And I, mother?” asked the Princess – younger, not yet as fully developed in mind or body as Queen or her aunt or the other one, but still quite well muscled and probably stronger than Xiu-Li.

  “You? You were brave enough to kill dinner for the servant!”

  By the reaction of the girl this was not the compliment she had hoped for. The other two women had watched all this in respectful (fearful?) silence.

  “Oh, do not glower, Princess! You fought nobly enough – there were no cowards among us.” The Queen chuckled. “More that can be said for that pitiful Qet-prey of yesterday!” She looked right at Xiu-Li. “Be sure you tell her this is in respect for her fighting with such spirit of honor. She is even worthy of... not-Qet.”

  There were murmurs of approval from the others, and mutters of, “N’Qet, n’Qet!”

  Xiu-Li glared at Queen. Martines had awoken after the Qet had finished with Karaff and saw the end results but not the actions that had caused them. She had seen enough to assume that something similar would be in store for she and Xiu-Li.

  Xiu-Li wasn’t certain she could tell Martines that the means of her death was a form of respect. It wouldn’t matter to Martines, was not likely to lessen the fear and pain, and it felt like she was doing their filthy work.

  Xiu-Li did not speak.

  The Queen pulled out her wicked blade, waving the air in front of Xiu-Li. “I could always qetcla your tongue out as a treat for the hungry vorrdog, if you don’t want to use it.”

  Xiu-Li said nothing, her face impassive.

  Queen reached out and stroked Xiu-Li’s cheek. “Ahh, you are close Qet...” Queen chuckled and walked over to the other three.

  Xiu-Li felt Martines looking at her, and saw the bleak expression on her face. She had no illusions about the likely fate ahead for them, or who would be next to meet it.

  There was really nothing either could think to say: “I’m sorry”? “tough luck”? “I’ll miss you”? “I wish I could help”? “See you soon”?

  Martines coughed. “What’d they do to you?” she gasped.

  “Some kind of translator.” Xiu-Li swallowed. “Lissa...”

  “To the service,” croaked Martines, with a bitter rictus of a grin.

  “Past, present, and future,” said Xiu-Li, just low enough that the Qet ignored her; she had a big lump in her throat, thinking that Martines was about to join the other lost crewmates included in the other half of the toast (“To absent friends”), provided Xiu-Li survived this encounter herself. The lump became more icy and she sought clarity – anger, especially rage, would not help her at this point.

  Cookie and Servant dragged the X-frame Martines was tied to over to their cookerstove, and stood it at a 70 degree angle.

  Cookie stepped forward – and Queen thrust a slender needle into her neck.

  Cookie stiffened and crashed over, paralyzed.

  “A chef? A chef?! Your butchery is as sloppy as your plotting,” said Queen.

  The hapless Cookie lay there, her eyes rolling.

  “Did you think my pack would ever let your kind in? That no one would tell me of your attempts to subvert the beliefs of others?”

  Cookie strived to form words.

  Queen paced around her. “I don’t care whatever it is you try to say – you are below even a Qet-prey, fit only for the animals. I don’t want to hear it, not now, not ever, ever again, so –” She looked over at Servant. “Take what you want and give the rest to the vorrdog.” She turned to the others. “Do let’s try to not to let this affect this very solemn transition for these honored n’Qet.”

  “Yes, Qet-Qeta,” the other three replied.

  “Qet-Qeta! You display improper honor to us!” Xiu-Li yelled.

  Everyone froze. Even the now paralyzed Cookie stared at Xiu-Li.

  Xiu-Li continued, heart pounding. “If you intend to show honor to us, end consciousness swiftly then, not as a dozen clumsy animal slashes.” She heard Martines start to pray.

  The Qet were all frozen, staring at Queen, who was staring at Xiu-Li. “You take many liberties. What is your species name?”

  “You need concern yourself with my personal name only. It is Xiu-Li Mariposa.”

  “‘Jooli Mari’Posa’?” Queen blinked. “Too long. Your names are absurd. It must take forever to transcribe them!”

  “‘Jooli,’ then, as you put it.”

  “I’m hungry, Mother!” whispered the Princess, looking over at Martines and licking her lips.

  Martines had no translator, but the gesture was so clear that her prayer faltered for a second. She looked at Xiu-Li, smiled once, closed her eyes, then resumed praying softly.

  Ignoring Princess, Queen asked “Does that alter the result?”

  “Yes.”

  The blade she carried flashed –

  “Very well,” said Queen as it hissed through the air –

  The prayer stopped and Martines gurgled.

  Xiu-Li closed her eyes as tears filled them.

  “I have honored your request, Jooli,” said Queen. “You, take away that vorrdog food and get started over there.”

  “At once, Qet-Qeta,” murmured Servant, dragging Cookie away.

  Xiu-Li was angry the tears running down her cheeks were so visible as she opened her eyes and glared. “I thank you. It must be understood between us that I will not let you live should I get free. I somehow cannot believe such behavior is truly Qet – do you in fact represent your species? – but I believe I will be safe in culling you from your species-pack.”

  It had been an insult based on guesses, but it caused a great consternation. Then the Servant bent over to avoid visible reaction while he “got to work” on Cookie, as Sister and Princess both started blinking and looking at Queen.

  Queen blinked and tilted her head. “What riddles do you speak in, Outworlder? Perhaps I should reharvest the nanos and deprive us of conversation if insulting inquiries are all you will offer.”

  “It must be difficult to lead a pack in your culture. You have had some success, however?”

  “My sister was a great leader before –” said Sister.

  Queen turned and glared, hand signal flashing. She then turned back to Xiu-Li. “That was very interesting, Outworlder. I see there are ways of similarity between us.”

  Xiu-Li sighed. “There were stages in our culture when a vanquished enemy was eaten to honor them or transmit their best properties to others.” She looked back at Queen. “But that was long ago grown out of, long before we reached the stars.”

  “If others choose to deprive themselves of an edge on the Universe, so be it. That alone is not a reason to stop one’s self, is it?”

  “If this practice is a mainstream part of your culture, we will be in for some cultural clashes.” Xiu-Li was also thinking about the way it had just been rationalized and justified into practice and policy. “Still, I have heard you called ‘Qet-Qeta,’ which seems to be something like ‘Qet-Qet Female,’ and I think of as ‘Queen.’ I am impressed, but seek better understanding.”

  Princess piped up this time. “She is the Mother Female of Qet.” Queen gave her an indulgent look, then a haughty one to Xiu-Li.

  Xiu-Li nodded. “Yes, I see. That’s why you’re all hiding here.”

  Queen hissed. “Why do you say that?” She stretched her upper lip down, covering her upper teeth.

  “Well, we’ve surveyed here twice now, and we never found any trace of ci
vilization, occupation, or any other signs of habitation. And you were not broadcasting on any radio or other general transmitting frequency – so you’re hiding, since your weapons indicate a high level of technology and I’ll bet your communication and transport devices are advanced as well. You’re not sending any signal except when you want to, on a tight beam.” Xiu-Li’s voice was dead. She was alone here now, all alone. She would indulge herself in pushing to understand as much as she could before they finished her off one way or another (and unsure she’d be able to do much with her arms or legs even if she got loose – she had been tied this way for hours).

  Queen blinked and looked at her trio. “Why don’t you think this way? None of you has provided me with even a guess as to who the creatures were, or what they might be capable of.” She looked back at Xiu-Li. “Reports about you were further limited by the absence of any surviving Qet-Set members sent for you. Well. You are not from here, are omnivores, and tend to offer little fight despite advanced weapons, but not in every case.” She sniffed. “Qet-prey, mostly.”

  The other two chittered, fell silent as Queen chuffed. “There are two exceptions here tonight – there are some in every pack. I wait to see how the flock votes, as we put it in the Qet Council.”

  “When was that, Qet-Qeta?” So there was a government.

  Queen stared at her – and Xiu-Li started to freak a little. “That was before I realized that some ways to power are proven to be worth the price of cleaning qetcla blades.” Queen grinned and turned away. “We can ‘chat’ later. I have been hiking all day and I am hungry.”

  “Because you can’t get a good tachyon transport field lock through the clouds?”

  “Perhaps. The report is clear weather in the morning.”

  Xiu-Li closed her eyes and fell silent while the three got to work on Martines. Off to one side, Servant finished with Cookie. He clicked a call and then she met the vorrdog, who came in and had a whole mouthful of knives to use on the traitorous Cookie – who was still alive.

  At some point it all went away – Xiu-Li passed out.

  MATISOU

  Unable to sleep again, he got up and prowled the corridors of his ship, where at least it looked like he was going from somewhere to somewhere. The few crew Matisou saw out on the night overwatch were all happy to see him, and their warm response helped him.

  So did Truhart, who was emerging from the mess – which had been opened by Kimonetti for coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and cookies, a sign of how many individuals were restless this overwatch.

  Truhart had a bag full of cookies – still warm. Matisou looked at him. “Aren’t you on a percentage carbo diet, Kev?”

  “You’re right – you better help me. Here, take one.”

  “Hmm... oatmeal raisin. Mmmm. Veyey tayf-tee – mpf.”

  “Chef promised me to stay healthy if I’d approve it as a morale and nutrient enhancer.”

  Matisou frowned. “You think morale needs enhancing?”

  Truhart snorted. “Purely a QM rules requirement for use of the flour. People are all ready to do whatever you ask us to do – not sleeping well, but ready.”

  Matisou relaxed. “That’s what I thought.” He studied Truhart. “I thought they seemed a bit anxious, one or two I met.”

  “People are anxious to do their part right, Bert.” He shook his head. “It’s reassuring to see you, but they also want to do it right for you, so they get a little, umm... well, anxious, but only that they will screw up.” Truhart grinned. “Most are so inexperienced they don’t know enough about what to be scared of, anyway. Except of you, of course.”

  Matisou smiled. “Not all of ‘em. Some are – cheeky, you’d say.” He nodded. “Good call on Ensign Luna’s idea.”

  Truhart nodded, smiling. “The Science subteam thought that a waste. It was ‘too noisy’ because of ‘solar and atmospheric reasons’ and it wasn’t ‘sensitive’ enough to find body heat among other sources.”

  Matisou nodded. “Go on.”

  Truhart shrugged. “I’m a simple soul. Body heat in a cool forest: could you see it, or not? Why not look, just to look? Then you could say you looked in every way that made reasonable sense.”

  “Too bad we can’t always be that precise.”

  Truhart grinned. “It’s merely a question of scale, Bert. And as I was gloating over our finds and wondering about whether aliens were warmer or cooler than we were, Lieutenant Day pointed out that the sounds of heartbeat and even breathing might be different as well.” He grinned more widely. “Directional microphones and variable heat detectors on the VEOptics glasses are the result; filters to screen out all other sounds. Active programming. Designs ready to go and eight prototypes ready for the primary rescue team.” Matisou nodded, and Truhart’s grin faded. “It’s a damned thing when such brilliance is because of such disaster.”

  “Okay, Kevin, how would you categorize this – the artifacts were found on this planet, as I’ve only just – what?”

  Truhart looked perturbed. “That’s typical, isn’t it? Send us out here because we’ve been here before, but don’t brief us in advance!”

  “They didn’t want to prejudice our view.”

  Truhart’s eyes flashed. “Those fekkin’ beerheads!”

  Matisou raised his eyebrows.

  Truhart took a deep breath to steady himself. “Let me put it like this: what R.O.E. level did you set?” The amount of force allowed was determined by the rules of engagement level.

  Matisou looked puzzled – and annoyed. “None.”

  “You sent Chen along on general principles, with a magrifle in case they ran into wild beasties, right? Because that would be all one might expect from a planet that was empty eight years ago?”

  Matisou nodded thoughtfully. “I should have updated that when I gave Aria her orders…”

  Truhart waved his hand. “Immaterial now. Everyone’s on their own down there, Bert. We’ll figure that out later. My point is, if they tell you that this planet’s been visited at some time, probably not too awfully long ago – Years? Decades? One or two centuries? – you’d send out a differently composed survey, with full R.O.E. briefings, and Jason on tactical, maybe even leading. Just in case they happen to stop by for a chat while we’re puttering about with our rocks. Right?”

  Matisou nodded. “Right.” He took another cookie.

  “So rather than tell us mission relevant information up front, we drift in. Unprejudiced, but also uninformed – and untrusted, if it is presumed we cannot self-monitor and correct for bias.” He shook his head. “This served neither the Tactical nor Science Divisions. I wonder how this was decided... still, we’ll just make the best of it.” He smiled. “As usual.”

  Matisou nodded. “Right. Like your VEOpts improvements – a very good idea.” He swallowed the cookie. “I think IWG Central just figured that nothing would happen, and this way we would go collect whatever we got and look later to see if there was anything else down there.”

  “Why would they set it up so we don’t look for... ?”

  “Yep. I don’t think they wanted us to look very hard, because they want to start living projects here; the ban on development and the media campaign of possible radiation problems was probably the hardest sell ever in the Space Consortium’s Planetary Projects Committee, and I’ll bet it was the toughest position they’ve ever stood for – and for over eight years – but finally those folks were unable to maintain it.” He shrugged. “So: send us back to look around, but not too hard – and if a good, solid bioscience survey doesn’t find ‘further evidence of technology or other civilization,’ then maybe those two artifacts are on the older side.”

  “People wouldn’t have wanted to live here anyway, once they found out.”

  Matisou grinned. “Don’t be so certain, Kev. We’re out here on our routine mission, and two thirds of the crew have always hoped we might meet a real alien. Getting into a Space University, either of ‘em in Sol System, isn’t easy; moving to a planet as a
First Wave Colonist is a lot safer these days, or it’s supposed to be. Hell, Kev, half the Earth might’ve moved here.”

  Truhart sighed. “If they’d been right, and nothing happened.” He looked at Matisou. “Do you think they’ll move ahead anyway?”

  Matisou nodded, then shrugged. “It depends on what’s happened.”

  XIU-LI

  Ensign Xiu-Li Chen regained awareness and then opened her eyes. By then the sound and stench had once more confirmed her present surroundings as unchanged from the last time she’d passed out, so seeing them was...

  Hell’s butcher shop.

  And no one else was left alive to get her out.

  She closed her eyes. They’re finished with Martines so I’m next. Might as well walk on my beach... it might be her last meditation.

  Instead, she tried to get her wrist loose –

  – and was very surprised when it slipped out from under the loop!

  She stared at her hand – it was numb, and she wasn’t certain what she was looking at for a moment. Then it took just a second to grab the rope and hold it, but it was a struggle not to indulge herself and lower her arm.

  All three Qet appeared to be sleeping, but that didn’t mean that they were.

  Okay, one hand free, two feet and another hand to go. And it’ll take some time to get proper sensation back in my feet, once I get free.

  Right.

  …what Wu-Wei Do techniques could I use that... (all the hand techniques she could imagine, in one box)... and what would I need to do? (Hit to stun and humiliate, because all three are about to hack her and it was finally done for, or – some sort of punch for knock out, or a spearhand technique, to kill?)

  Problem was, it depended on their three versus her one fourth. Which meant timing would be critical: it had to be one to one combat, and she’d probably be cut down by the two others on the response.

  And then an amazing thing happened:

  A growl, outside the shack –

  – and a spatter of falling rocks.

  All three Qet jumped up.

  Sister ran to the door. “Qeti-Vaa is not there.” She ran out of the shack, into the darkness.

  Queen went over and looked out. She gave a low, chuffled growl, then she looked back at Princess. “Kill her now, and come outside.” She went to the gear trunk, grabbed a gun, and went out of the shack.

  Princess picked up a qetcla blade and walked toward Xiu-Li. The smile on her face actually made her deadly cold eyes pretty.

  Xiu-Li took a deep breath. Too bad...

  ARIA

  Moving quietly, Aria climbed down the rocks.

  She had waited until what she judged was the coldest part of the dark night. She had memorized her trail, and it proved silent all the way to the rocks behind the servant. She was somewhat concerned too hard a blow might kill him, but could not risk a strike that did not knock him out.

  The boulder she threw at him did a great job of knocking him out, just the thud of rock on meat, and he toppled silently. Threnody dragged him over to a group of big boulders and dropped him there. Then she took a deep breath, pointed her magpistol, and kicked a large boulder toward the valley the camp overlooked, audibilizing a growl as she fired at the snoring dog reptile.

  Aria had barely ducked when the first Sentient woman ran out of the shack, soon followed by the larger leader. It was clear they were skilled killers, holding a short sword in one hand and some sort of energy pistol in the other. The first Sentient was checking over the perimeter as the other, larger one – Best Cloak – just looked around.

  The first one is almost on top of the rocks where Aria had hidden the servant.

  The big one peered into the corner where the dog reptile was; seeing it dead, she shouts, turns, and runs back into the shack. The other one stands on the rocks and hesitates...

  There is an unearthly screaming roar from inside the shack.

  The smaller Sentient woman starts toward the shack.

  Aria pulls herself around the boulder she’d been hiding behind and rolls –

  There was another roar – of great rage –

  Aria rolls herself hard into the Sentient woman’s knees.

  The Sentient hits the ground flat out, before she can even cry a warning, air knocked out of her with a great whoosh, her blade and pistol flipping across the dirt.

  It doesn’t knock her out, however, and she squirms around and tries to punch Aria. If she manages to land a punch it will hurt Aria badly. She is as strong as Aria – maybe even slightly stronger, and differently trained.

  Then she flips on top, and they faced each other – Aria feels hands around her neck, starting to close, a pair of indifferent green vertical slit eyes – no, they blink – the Sentient is curious what choking Aria looks like.

  Aria’s own hands climb up the sides of the Sentient woman’s head, until her thumbs rubs the Sentient’s temples.

  The woman looks surprised and starts to squeeze Aria’s neck.

  Aria sighs, breathes deeply, and summons forth Movement 22 of the First Meditation: her hands go flat against the smooth skull, grip, and rotate (her Teacher’s voice: “You compress hard, create a black hole hard, and then rip spacetime to spin it.” “Yes, Sifu!”)

  There is a snapping sensation through her arms, a very loud crackling noise.

  The hands drop from Aria’s neck, she push-pulls the head in her hands, and the dead Sentient’s limp body rolls off to one side and away from her.

  Aria rolls away and gets to her feet, blinking her eyes, trying not to be sick. She looks over at the shack, which has now been silent for some time, it seemed. She picks up the alien pistol and starts walking toward the quickshack...

  A blast of bright pain as a heavy hand crashes into her head –

  – on her knees, flashing pain echoing through her head, no energy to rise, can’t coordinate enough to stand – Aria looks up –

  The Sentient servant male raises a hand to strike her again – a long looking “short sword” blade gleams in it –

  Aria can’t even raise her hands. She takes a slow, deep breath instead. Too bad...

  XIU-LI

  Smiling, Princess Qet came to kill her.

  Xiu-Li saw it in slow motion, already using her mental focus to create her own strike point and sharpen her strategy...

  Princess steps right toward her, blade at her side –

  “Sorry, Princess.” Xiu-Li’s hand flashes out, fingers pointed –

  They plunge into the Qet’s throat. The dark eyes bulge – the blade jerks up – she is very strong, and powered by death –

  Xiu-Li pulls her fingers out, grabs the Princess’s blade hand at the wrist, and with one swift, twisting snap, guides the sword deep into its owner.

  The young Qet looks down at her hand and the sword it has stuck through her chest.

  The Princess looks up at Xiu-Li and blinks. Her hands drop to her sides. Xiu-Li grabs the knife handle and holds it as the Qet slides off the blade and drops onto the floor.

  Xiu-Li considered it all part of the same unreal miracle that she didn’t cut herself to shreds with the super sharp short sword, the way her hands shook as she sliced her bindings off. Now – some clothes! She moved toward the pile of Space Fleet uniforms thrown in one corner, hoping hers was there.

  Movement – uh-oh...

  The Queen appears in the doorway. Her deafening roar of rage and pain rattles the quickshack’s plaswalls.

  Queen raises her pistol – Fekk, this is it! thinks Xiu-Li.

  – over her head –

  – and, growling, Queen throws it as hard as she can at Xiu-Li.

  Xiu-Li dodges it – Fekk! If I’d caught that, I’d have a gun! —

  The short blade flashes – with a second scream, this one of battle, Qet-Qeta jumps right at Xiu-Li.

  Slashing silver arcs – CLANG!

  The clash of blades makes her blade nearly fly from her hand, and Xiu-Li smells sparks – Uh-oh! Help me,
Space Mother! A quick back slash almost gets the alien weapon knocked loose from her numbed fingers as she slips out of range.

  Queen growls.

  Xiu-Li considers options, comes up with none. Queen can just jump from standing as far as any human longjumper; distance is no barrier, so Xiu-Li might as well fight close as she can. In fact, if the Qet are a non-contact species then perhaps they will be weak on the inside – if I can just dodge her cutlery and get in there...

  The Queen relies on brute strength and the quickness of big leg muscles, and she has survived so many, many fights. Her angry bull rush quickly subsides into a mechanical and scowling hot coolness. Queen uses her blade to set up kicks and punches when not trying to slash or cut Xiu-Li with it – a blur, but one Xiu-Li can easily see into.

  No different from blade sparring, really –zzsssh – OUCH, shit, hope that’s not too deep – zzzh – Fekk! – zzssh – zzhsss – zshhh – ooops! – zzh–zz – “Unh!”

  Uh-oh. Fekk! That’s bad. That one’s – fekk, that’s it!

  Xiu-Li triple kicks Queen, the last connecting to her head and stunning Queen just enough that on her inside pass, Xiu-Li slashes at Queen’s sword arm – her right. The alien blade lays bare her alien bones.

  Queen flips the sword to her other hand and chuffles. “Despite my anger I am impressed with your skill and see that my poor daughter was terribly overmatched. I will enjoy eating your liver, Jooli.”

  “You’ll have to find a new chef first, won’t you?”

  “I do not need a Chef to cook hoo-mons, Jooli.” Her lip drops over her teeth. “Meat is meat.”

  “I am not your meat yet, you big brainless Qet-not has-been.” Xiu-Li figures one of the three phrases should enrage Queen –

  Queen roars, and the respite is over as she charges again.

  This time Queen attacks with a flurry of slashes: exhausting, never ending slashes – each one to be dodged, deflected, parried, re-directed, or otherwise avoided. It’s clear that Queen is stronger on her left side than her right, but has only basic techniques.

  Queen is a weaker technician with her left arm, but strong enough that she is just as dangerous – more so, as Xiu-Li begins to tire and weaken, and of course, fight a left handed opponent – somewhat novel for her.

  Xiu-Li hits something wet on the floor – she slips a little –

  Xiu-Li feels a hiss across her scalp – oh, FEKK, no! –

  She hears a grunt of frustration as she dances backward. No blood? No pain? Not from my head, at least. Must have been close.

  CLANG! More sparks – dodge kick, elbow, ah-ha! Kick – WHAM!

  Okay, this bitch – POPP!– Shit! Is going to hurt me if she hits me like that again –

  POWW! “Ahhhh!” Xiu-Li falters, stunned, falling backward.

  Queen suddenly emerges from her crouched fighting stance –

  – raises her qetcla to spring forward and bring it down –

  Xiu-Li rolls to her feet as Queen springs. She executes a turning flying roundhouse kick to the Queen’s ribcage and finishes with a sharp upward sword thrust combination –

  Queen’s open ribs and lower belly take the kick – Queen bends forward slightly in response (Damn, this Qet bitch is solid muscle! thinks Xiu-Li) –

  The Qet’s silver blade starts a counterslash strike –

  …drops onto the floor.

  Xiu-Li’s qetcla is shoved up under Queen’s chin, emerging from the top of her head.

  Queen’s eyes cross as she staggers backward, arms waving, mewling softly, until she falls on top of her daughter.

  Xiu-Li crouches there, waiting... but it’s really finished.

  Xiu-Li picks up Queen’s qetcla and her uniform, then all the uniforms. Let’s try to delay giving the enemy any more information. Xiu-Li slides on her boots.

  She walks out of the shack and sees Aria, who is dazed, on her knees, her uniform slashed, face cut and bleeding, looking up at –

  – the Servant, about to stab her –

  “YAA!!!” the blade leaves Xiu-Li’s hand –

  – the Servant halts his thrust and starts a look over in her direction – Xiu-Li jumps –

  The heavy blade thuds into his neck – he staggers slightly –

  – Xiu-Li’s flying side kick connects on the blade handle, and sends the rest of the blade through his neck.

  As the blade slides through his neck, the strike knocks him off and away from Aria, who puts her hand to her head.

  The Servant crashes onto the ground and then there is... silence.

  Silence.

  Xiu-Li staggered over to the water barrel and poured herself a bucket. She tried not to gulp it but drained it nonetheless, and poured another. She carried it over and put it down next to Aria.

  Xiu-Li looked at Aria, who still looked stunned – there was a slash through her uniform on one shoulder, she had a cut on her left eyebrow near her temple. Bright red blood trickled down.

  Wow... her blood is really red!

  Xiu-Li looked around. Sister was lying there, not far from the Servant. She was dead – the dark bruises Aria had showed the hard damage she’d taken before using a skill to defend herself. Poor Aria! Niv so rarely killed things.

  “Are you seriously hurt, Lieutenant Commander?” asked Xiu-Li, squatting down to look in her eyes.

  Threnody gave a start and blinked. She looked at Xiu-Li and her mouth dropped open.

  “Hey, Lieutenant Commander? You okay?”

  “I am... alive.” Aria actually sounded surprised. She looked at Xiu-Li, then past her toward the shack.

  Xiu-Li shook her head, then reached out her hand. “May I?” She felt the side of Aria’s head. “Ah, you’ve been hit hard and then knocked around a bit, I’d say, Lieutenant Commander.” Suddenly she realized she was still naked, covered in dirt and blood, and must look pretty fearsome...

  Xiu-Li abruptly sat down. Everything had gone gray, and it was still spinning.

  Aria, expression neutral, was on her knees and unzipping her uniform top –

  Now just a second – this can’t be real! –

  – and removing her bra. Aria’s breasts swung free –

  – wait, this can’t be right...

  Aria’s breasts disappeared back into her uniform – zip. She tore a pocket flap off her uniform and used her bra to tie it firmly around the deep slash on Xiu-Li’s left arm.

  Oh. Forgot about that. “Thanks, Aria.”

  Aria looked at her, and a smile curled the corner of her mouth for just a second –

  – she’s beautiful when she smiles – no, I’m still seeing things –

  There was a hard crackle of static from a Sentient comm unit near the Servant. After a moment there was a hum and the bodies of Servant and Sister disappeared.

  “We must evacuate this area,” said Aria. “A further patrol will likely follow, and their Tachyon Transport Field technology seems to be in an operational phase. One moment.” She walked away.

  Xiu-Li looked at metal boxes the Servant had been sleeping on. The corner box had a pictoglyph of a booted foot over an oval button. “Permission to leave some mines to slow up any party fielding in, m’am?”

  Aria had walked to the rocks and retrieved her mission kit bag from the rock trail she had used. Now back, she cocked a brow. “And if a party from WHEELER passes through first?” Her eyes had cleared, full Niv poise and balance returned.

  “We can leave one in plain sight at either end; only people fielding in would have no way to know they were there.”

  Aria nodded. “Very well. I will assist to save time.”

  They put the last ones down as they backed from the camp.

  Aria slung her mission kit bag and Xiu-Li put on some shorts she had cut (she didn’t want to get her uniform all bloody). “Which way should we go, m’am?”

  “There is a trail north. I do not think it prudent to return to the shuttleRunner at this time. The route has areas exposed without the presenc
e of cloud cover, the absence of which is responsible for their tachyon field device now working, and we are also three or four hours hike to it. I recall there are meadow areas north, where we can contact the ship. The initial trail is through rilles and will screen us.”

  “Aye, m’am.”

  They had been hiking hard for twenty minutes when they heard a distant crackling blast.

  It was much less satisfying than Xiu-Li had supposed it would be. It confirmed the tenacity of the Qet, who were following up just as humans would, and showed some tactical predictability in this group. It also meant any Qet survivors or further Qet search parties might even now be starting out to follow them, and they would have no way to know it. Be nice to know just how many Qet are aboard that ship, Xiu-Li thought.

  She sighed.

  ARIA

  The overhanging rock walls still prevented comms unless the receiver of the signal was directly overhead, and that was with the general units; thinking about it, now that she had Xiu-Li, and the immediate threat was literally behind them, she supposed she was required to use a laser comm for tight beam and a no intercept comm, but the ship would be a hard target to acquire.

  No. They had to get into a position to receive the carrier wave from the ship, whenever it was sent, and then see what developed.

  Aria put her DPaT away and walked back to the strip of grass by the frigid river they had been following north, into the canyon they had originally wanted to explore. Xiu-Li, asleep, was curled up on the warm grass.

  She sat down next to the sleeping ensign. It would be an irrational accident for her to die now from drowning by rolling into a river while sleeping!

  She looked at the sleeping human, still naked from the waist up, filthy... beautiful.

  Seeing the grinning Sentient male drop his sword after a blade from nowhere had flown into his throat had taken so long to actually register in her mind that Xiu-Li was squatting next to her and asking her if she was okay before Aria realized the Sentients were dead and they were both still alive.

  When Xiu-Li asked if she was hurt, Aria did not know what to say. “I am – alive.” Yet she was more than just alive; she could feel the wind brush her skin, smell all of the different trees, hear the far-off nightwolves, all more clearly than before...

  Aria had looked over at the silent shack and then at Xiu-Li, who just shook her head. Eight crewmembers dead! Aria’s head began to pound, and she had winced in pain...

  Pain she still felt now, but not physical.

  She took a slow, deep Centering breath.

  Aria had read the Helix Niv Manifesto and Codicil. It was in the Codicil that goals were specified, and Xiu-Li had all of the elements of a classic Niv “Warrior Scholar”: high skills in the arts of war and peace, compassion, self-sacrifice, diplomacy.

  Just then, covered in filth, both bearing the marks and smelling of battle, she really was just like one, too: naked, sweaty, bloody, injured, and ignoring it all to offer someone else help.

  Xiu-Li as Niv warrior Scholar... interesting.

  Then Xiu-Li had groaned and abruptly collapsed down into a sitting position, looking dazed and puzzled. There was a long slash on her left arm, visible only because blood was still oozing from it.

  In no time Aria had taken off her bra, torn a flap from her uniform, and tied ithe dressing over the wound.

  Xiu-Li simply said, “Thanks, Aria,” and Aria had felt a powerful surge within her.

  She wanted to say something witty!

  Aria had a tremendous urge to try “flirting” – I want to flirt with a Hero, like in an old romance holo!

  Such a silly think that Aria felt her lips twitch – Xiu-Li would certainly be surprised!

  Aria was a bit surprised herself. Niv culture, with a smaller population and the bio modifications of the Great Change, recognized the true transience of life and the ways people may meet, spend time together to learn something, and then may choose do anything from move on, to stay put and learn more.

  Aria knew the Sol System Belt was a “loose” zone but the inner planets were more conservative. She didn’t want to offend anybody, and of course there were boundaries but... this wasn’t the military, and humans in space are driven to cuddle, so outlawing it was asking for constant violations.

  Aria Threnody! This is completely Irrational!

  Then the Sentient comm had crackled static, and the bodies of the servant and the younger woman vanished, along with Aria’s grin. A working Tachyon Field Transport or “a flying Higgs Field carpet” (and beings who were unafraid to risk using it!) changed strategy and tactics...

  The hike had made Aria concerned about Xiu-Li: she was not exhibiting any of the “shock” behaviors Threnody had often seen in humans after an intense experience. Xiu-Li seemed as matter of fact as any Niv… until she had begun to tire at last.

  They had stopped in a wide gully then Aria had climbed higher and tried a comm. No use, but she could see there was one area of rockpools just ahead that looked extremely interesting. Now she had returned to find Chen asleep, which delayed current movement to…

  Xiu-Li frowned in her sleep.

  Threnody had seen the bones from what Servant and the dog reptile had been eating. She was still able to refrain from speculating on what Xiu-Li had seen while captive; sleep was probably good, but would be… disturbed for some time.

  Aria found it... tempting... to consider trying an empathic bridge. Xiu-Li had the ability – her previous image contact proved it, but a bridge was invasive and not really ethical without...

  No! What is wrong with me? Perhaps it was taking the Sentient female’s life?

  No – that was the rational response for that situation.

  No... I seek to relieve Xiu-Li’s pain!

  Shocked, Aria rocked slightly, took a deep breath to steady herself.

  Many Sol Humans were balls of turmoil and usually seeking relief, swamped by their irrationality, where Xiu-Li ignored her pain when she had to; and where a Niv would be almost haughty, about this, Xiu-Li appeared to be unaware of this selfless quality she had.

  She’s in psychic pain of a type I actually could help her with, but it would never occur to her to ask for assistance. She will suffer on and merely ignore it – unlike Tania Manda, who could “really wallow in it,” as a female crewper once commented.

  Space, the cruelty Xiu-Li must have witnessed...

  Aria looked away. I will tell her I can help her meditate.

  It was still too soon to permit reflection on her own images of death and her near death, or the surge in her heart when she looked at the Sol human woman who had now saved her life – such an interesting mix of near-Niv dedication to the rational disciplines with purely Sol human emotional passions and desires (everyone had heard about Orlando Timbers seeing Xiu-Li, the first really serious “dating” anyone had seen the new crewper doing; consensus was that she could do better, but that was because Orlando was so well known – nice enough guy, but anybody would be better).

  Aria listened to the water rushing past, and breathed.

  The river was narrow, deep, and cold – fed by vast glaciers melting on the slopes far above. There were enough old lava tubes and sulfur deposits to indicate ongoing volcanic activity throughout this range. She had seen algal growths in smaller streams and pools in the area ahead – Aria suspected there might be a hot spring just around the next rocky fold, which would be tempered by the glacial river water into a milder temperature range, and would assist in treatment of their injuries.

  For the moment, she closed her eyes to slits and entered a light meditation...

  XIU-LI

  Hey –

  The Qet steps up behind Aria and thrusts a long sword right through her –

  Aria’s head jerks back as bright red blood spews from her mouth and the spearsword emerges from her, rising up, up, up –

  Xiu-Li screams and kicks –

  “Ensign. Ensign! – Xiu-Li, Xiu-Li, you are safe. Sa
fe.”

  Xiu-Li twisted – Aria held her, she was lying next to a riverbank in warm sunlight, and everything in her body hurt. “Unnnnnnh.”

  Aria frowned in concern. “Are you hurt?”

  “N-no,” she croaked. It was hard to believe she wasn’t dead. This was so very unreal… I can’t imagine Aria would hold me like she’s... Ahh, she feels good, pressed against my back... Umm, too bad… guess I really can’t just snuggle here... “Very s-sore.”

  “If you can walk twenty five meters, I can offer an assistance for that.”

  They more or less stood up together. Walking hip to hip, they went around the next rocky corner...

  It was a grotto, of sorts. Fifty or sixty meters across. They stood there, frozen. Amazed. Stunned.

  Alge stained the walls, different colors at different temperatures, creating a living tapestry. There was a thick stream of water gushing from a crack, waterfalling down to the river, falling into a hollow oval in the rock, maybe thirty meters by ten, creating a deep pool with no alge in it that swirled gently until it mixed into the river at the lowest bottom end.

  Xiu-Li gulped some water rations while Aria examined the pool and found it safe – not too hot, not rough, not deep, no detectable biological hazards. “The risk is acceptable. Do not –”

  Xiu-Li jumped in without taking off her “shorts” the moment that Aria said “acceptable” (luckily there were no unseen underwater hazards).

  The rock pool proved to be a smooth, deep oval depression, perfect for bathing. It was away from the river but mixed with it enough to be about 28 C in the middle – warmer at the hot stream end and cooler at the river end.

  Xiu-Li floated as Aria turned away and methodically stripped off and folded her clothes before turning. Her face was impassive, and Xiu-Li chose that moment to turn and remove her “shorts” and fling them by the rocks, so Aria could make her entrance in private and –

  Warm, strong hands touched her back. “Ensign Chen, I believe a series of aural chakra accupoint stimulations would assist with your recovery,” said Aria. “I am also curious to hear your initial report, if you could make one.” So as she hung off the warm rock edge and semi-floated, Xiu-Li gave her report as Aria worked on her back.

  The first part was easy: “Lieutenant Herkle had already stopped everyone, waiting for you and I. There was a cracking sound, and an avalanche. Dalby was killed. Lieutenant Herkle’s leg was broken.” Now it was getting a bit harder. “Addams and Ramble ran forward to scout. Ribaud and I picked up the lieutenant and the rest of our group then moved forward thirty five or forty meters to a wide, open semi-circular area between the rockwalls.” She paused and drank some water. “I heard someone yell ‘ambush,’ so did Lieutenant Herkle, Martines, D’Arial, and Ribaud. Karaff began suffering from shock. Lieutenant Herkle asked me to recon forward, I did; we reviewed the sitmap and he decided to rush forward in squads, by force.” A quick sip. Aria’s long fingers were doing great things to her poor shoulders and upper arms.

  Xiu-Li took a deep breath. “As we advanced, Karaff... slipped and fell. There was another avalanche, a rock fell on D’Arial... we pulled back. They rushed us. I thought I heard Lieutenant Herkle and Lieutenant Ribaud shouting ‘Wheeler’ before I went out.” Her throat had a lump in it, and she drank more water.

  Aria was silent but her fingers and the delicious warm water were reassuringly soothing.

  “I woke up in the quickshack. There were four alien sentient women and their servant. They call their species Qet. They had us, Martines and Karaff and I, and they – first they – they k-killed Karaff... and then... they killed m-Martines. When they heard the rockfall they woke up and had to respond; I was able to get a hand loose and kill the one sent to kill me. I got loose, got past the leader, and came out in time to see the servant about to behead you.” Xiu-Li shook her head. “Space, this has been all split-second timing and critical distances.”

  After a few moments of silence during which those powerful hands worked the tensions out of her body, Aria said, in a low voice, “They were wearing jewelry and paint. Was this in your honor?”

  “Yes, they felt they had to honor us, that we were both ‘true warriors’ and worthy of ceremony.” Xiu-Li laughed mirthlessly. “This was after they ate Karaff alive. They killed Martines first, and more quickly, but still... did the same thing. And they would’ve got all dressed up for me.” Finishing the water ration, she was feeling so much better that she shivered as she thought about it – here we are, an Ensign and a Lieutenant Commander, floating in a mixing pool!

  It was more unreal stuff. What a mission this turned into! Xiu-Li took a deep breath. “I thought I was all alone down here.”

  “No. I called the ship to report and learned Sentient ships had entered the system, fighting, and we were in Condition C-17. When I moved the shuttleRunner I saw a crashed ship, and I concluded this is an internal political dispute of some type. I trailed your captors but I... I waited too long and should have moved much more quickly.” Her low voice dropped to a whisper.

  “They would have killed you. If Queen hadn’t killed Cookie, I doubt I could have escaped – but with only three Qeta and their servant, and then two of them lured outside... I was able to.” Xiu-Li shook her head. “It seems irrational to self-berate about results of a sequence of events and timing one cannot control.”

  Aria paused.

  “Oh! I am sorry, Aria. I intended no insult.” Xiu-Li blushed.

  “There is no insult to your observation.” She touched the back of Xiu-Li’s neck. “Have you applied it to yourself?”

  Her heart swelled. “Of course, Aria. I’m beating myself up, and I miss my friends already. I’m not as Niv as I wish to be.” She tried to swallow the lump back in her throat. “They are all my friends – all of them gone, and from a cosmic coincidence of timing. But I mean, if I’d stopped Clarissa, or –” She sighed raggedly. “Honestly, Aria. I really think we each did as much as we each could possibly do, and as soon as we were able to. And if you think about it, we did well to survive the encounter at all.”

  “Again, a sound, rational argument.” Their ten had bested at least a dozen; Xiu-Li had personally killed at least half that dozen by herself – at a high cost to all. “I must thank you for saving my life. You used their name?”

  Xiu-Li turned slightly and looked back at Aria. “Qet. And if you hadn’t come for me, they would have killed me.” She shook her head. “I might have gotten loose and given them a fight, but without you distracting them, the situation would never have developed where I could actually get loose and still get out of the shack alive.” She looked back to the rockwall. “I thank you.” Xiu-Li took a deep breath and slowly turned around to face Aria. “You have some injuries yourself, Lieutenant Commander. May I attend to their treatment?”

  Aria blinked, then thought about the idea.

  Xiu-Li’s heart pounded – that’s more like the old Aria, nothing like the overly formal Niv style to make her reboot a smidge – and then Aria moved to one side and leaned back against the rock edge.

  Xiu-Li knew Aria’s head must hurt because her breathing speeded up when the cut and the bruises around it were probed. She used the first aid box from Aria’s mission kit bag to clean and field seal the cuts on Aria’s head and shoulder, feeling Aria’s dark brown eyes on her as she worked.

  Xiu-Li was tired but feeling better, and this was no time to take advantage of Aria, even if she was starting to sense that perhaps maybe she actually could (Ahh! I’m her hero!) if it was something she wanted to do.

  Something about the moment was making her feel...

  Oh – Aria saved me, too – she’s my hero!

  Well...

  No, it wouldn’t do, and so she kept it all squared away – no matter how weird Xiu-Li felt, no matter how much she wanted to hug the shyly trusting third officer, kiss her and – well, she wasn’t even so sure herself, and this was all something to do with the moment. Some strange celebration of survi
ving, that was it – an endorphin surge.

  On the other hand – Orlando would have been incapable of saving her.

  Once back on WHEELER, he probably would not even hug her until she was in a clean new uniform. He liked his women as clean and shiny as he kept himself.

  It wasn’t a “dealbreaker” for her, but... now Nate was a hero, but he was a clumsy hero, so he was dangerous to be around. I felt safe in his arms, because that meant he wasn’t off in one of his experimental vehicles, risking his clumsy life, and because I trusted him with mine, as long as I wasn’t in one of his vehicles.

  If only she could find a brilliant but safe hero – a-ha! That was it.

  The Universe is dangerous. Orlando – let’s face it – looked really handsome and sexy, and he felt that way, and it was quite exciting, but until Xiu-Li had started thinking about all this to distract herself from Aria Threnody in a pool with her on an exotic planet, she had not once imagined herself as “back on the ship, safe in his arms.”

  Back at her post, back in her quarters, back in the gym, yes, kidding with... well... back drinking coffee, “Lone Wolf” Lobo was there – they were going over an optics cable run the Captain wanted, and it was back at her post, but it was also Lobo…

  Lobo? A very long reach – but again, not Orlando. Nice guy, Orlando, but –

  Even Aria was a better – whoa!

  No. It just would not do.

  “There. That should do for now,” muttered Xiu-Li. The cuts were clean, and the bleeding stopped. Xiu-Li moved away and splashed backward, even managing a backstroke (her shoulders at least functioned again!)

  The pool was two meters deep in the middle, and swimming was a dream – even more unexpected than meeting aliens had been, oddly enough. She did some laps to work out her kinks while Aria got out and got dressed – using the water draining from her to wash blood stains out of her uniform.

  Finally, it was time to get out, and as she slid on her uniform, Xiu-Li watched Aria climbing up the rockwall to a high, clear point.

  Xiu-Li had just started up when double tracks of reddish plasma scratched the night sky in a triple pulse of fire. She looked up to see them returned as a single blast, then another triple pulse follow up.

  By now she had reached Aria. “None of those are InterWorld Group weapons, are they, m’am?” Back to business...

  Aria turned and looked at her. After a moment she looked up again. “No, Ensign Chen. They are not.”

  TANIA

  Her fingers flashed as she swept the planet below for signals. Tania was sweating slightly, looking for any response to their carrier pulse.

  The big “Egg Burner” ship had stabilized its orbit, and after many hours had finally broken it while behind the planet, emerging to head in toward the inner system. The smaller “Egg Boat” in geosync had powered up weapons, as had the incoming Egg Burner, all with comm silence. As the Burner made its final approach there was an exchange of signals, in an unknown language.

  The battle had been fierce, the Egg Burner capable of delivering triple pulse fire from its two-point weapons bank, so the Egg Boat had used faster turns and flight techniques to minimize damage. It could still damage the Burner and did so; still, after just five exchanges the smaller ship’s single point, single pulse weapon stopped firing after several direct hits.

  Before its engines or lifesystems could be targeted, the Egg Boat accelerated and speared deep into the Egg Burner, just forward of its engine section.

  Mouths dropped across WHEELER’s bridge. It required dedication to ram an opponent; in space, surviving that tactic was difficult.

  The Egg Boat’s engine core ended up inside the Egg Burner’s main section, ahead of the drives, which had been on full and were not altering. The impact started the Burner rotating as it accelerated, so the big ship corkscrewed slowly away from both planet and moon, on a trajectory heading out of the ecliptic at high speed with no way to slow down.

  Takaguchi swore. “The engine cores are both damaged – they’re going to go critical once the shielding power systems fail.” An uncontrolled antimatter blast would send an energy pulse shockwave through space, especially if both went simultaneously.

  Matisou tapped his chair. “That won’t be nice to be around, outside an atmosphere.” He looked over at Tania. “Okay, Ensign Manda, see if our people are out there. Mr.Debitts, take us to the planet, into a geosync over our people’s signal. Mr.Takaguchi, keep a close eye on the hulks – weapons fire, core flips, anything, and send the mapRunner into geosync near us.” He hit the chaircomm. “Mr.Lobo, the time has come, and I trust you’ll be set when we need you.”

  “Aye, Captain. You’ll be suitably awed all around.”

  The bridge laugh rippled. Matisou grinned tightly. “We will now anticipate no less, Lieutenant. Bridge out.”

  So here they were, over the planet again, trying to raise both people and shuttleRunner autopilot, using the heat map for the latter.

  BEEP!

  “We’ve got the Runner, sir!” called Tania.

  Debitts turned to a panel. “OK, powering up – looks good – okay, sir, we’re ready!”

  Matisou smiled thinly. “Very good, Mr.Debitts. Let’s get her back on board. Is the mapRunner in place?”

  “Aye, sir,” called Takaguchi. “Waiting for drop coordinates.”

  “MapRunner – Ensign Durling, right?” Durling had the current twelve hour watch as pilot, if he recalled correctly.

  “Sir!”

  “Are you ready, Ensign?”

  “Aye, sir!”

  “In and out, Ensign. Careful on your landing. Watch out for hostile parties.”

  “Aye, sir!”

  “Team on its toes.”

  “Aye, sir!”

  Matisou sighed. He looked over at Tania. “Ensign Manda?”

  Her fingers danced over her readouts and inputs. “Nothing yet, sir.” Where are you? Is anyone left? It’s okay! Come out now! Please! Hurry! – but protocol dictated just a carrier pulse, which would activate their comm unit alerts, reacting like a radar pulse to any unit worn or carried by a living crewmember.

  There was a beep, then another one. “Captain, two comm signal-backs – coordinates to Mr.Debitts.”

  “Got them! Course plotting – set – sent to MapRunner – all ready, sir!”

  “Very well, Ensign Durling – take her down. Good luck, MapRunner. Bridge out.”

  Tania suddenly jerked upright. “Captain!”

  ARIA

  The alert beeped.

  Aria turned and pointed the comm at the sky. “Threnody to WHEELER.” She looked at Xiu-Li, seated on the rocks just below, and the grassy meadow reachable by the trail just above where Xiu-Li sat next to the mission kit bag, drinking water. From her latest highpoint she recognized a perfect landing strip, assuming the explosions in space had all been Qet-related.

  “WHEELER!” came Matisou’s voice. “Prepare for pick up assistance.”

  “Understood. Meadow eight hundred meters south, will guide.” It would work! As she had planned... this time.

  “Acknowledged.”

  Aria thought a second: the Captain might like to know the other survivor, but I can’t give a name. “The butterfly sword is still sharp.”

  “Acknowledged. Ten minutes. We are under a time constraint. Out.”

  Aria frowned and closed her comm. It would take her at least six minutes at a forced march to reach the meadow, about three minutes to reach Xiu-Li... she bounded down the trail as Xiu-Li looked up.

  XIU-LI

  When she finally collapsed, it was with bitter knowledge the Niv had beaten her. Xiu-Li knew Threnody was stronger than a human, but still thought she could beat the engineer; now here she was, collapsing as Aria started yelling.

  Aria had checked in with WHEELER and updated Xiu-Li as they shared a refilled water ration, indicating the Runner’s landing zone.

  Xiu-Li had looked at their pick-up point, in a meadow on a hillside far above th
em, and then down at her feet. You have got to be out of your...

  After a moment, she decided to treat the thing as one of those survival exercises at the University, exactly the sort of brainless superhuman effort that no one would ever have to actually do in real life (they hadn’t actually trained to be soldiers, after all).

  She had gotten going immediately, and soon they were racing along, pacing each other, pushing each other – until in her mind Aria was “you Niv bitch” as her barely reinvigorated muscles soon tired, and her head started to slide around slightly.

  So Xiu-Li pressed harder, taking the lead, until at last she tired and slowed. It was hot up here in the sunny meadow. Beautiful, smelled great, but hot!

  Threnody passed her, and then suddenly stopped.

  Xiu-Li crashed into her and plopped down onto the grass.

  When she tries to get up, she can’t. She looks up at Aria, wondering why she isn’t standing up next to the engineer as she expected, but her aching legs and feet won’t respond –

  In fact, they don’t hurt anymore, which is nice –

  No, wait. I can’t feel them at all. Now, that can’t be good.

  Threnody yells, lights flash past - - -

  The Niv beat me... oh well... guess she’s supposed to, really, but...

  Xiu-Li lies there... does she feel Aria Threnody’s hand in hers as the noisy sky finally churns into warm blackness?

  MATISOU

  The spinning ships were almost ninety thousand kilometers away, still tumbling.

  Takaguchi calculated that one drive core or the other would go in any minute, but it would not take more than thirty or forty seconds on full MirMat in the opposite direction to provide distance for a hyperflight jump. His scowl was tentative, which was a good thing; now it was just the matter of getting their crew back that had him worried.

  Matisou was worried too, but he sat there calmly enough. It was all timing now, one thing after another until they could get clear, and it was timed against an unknown quantity: how long before either of two unstable antimatter drive cores experienced uncontrolled annihilation and exploded?

  “ShuttleRunner One in geosync one kilometer above us, sir,” reported Debitts.

  “Very well; after we have taken the mapRunner back on board and have cleared the bay, dock Runner One and then clear us out at maximum drive.”

  The comm crackled: “WHEELER, Map; all okay and returning.”

  Matisou looked at Takaguchi. “Still no system activity, sir; ships are ninety two thousand kilometers away.”

  “Our reception ready?”

  “Aye, Captain.” The Medical Quick Response Team would meet the MapRunner, and then Debitts would bring the other Runner in on remote as quickly as possible. “Here they come, sir.” Takaguchi put on the aft camera, and the MapRunner flew up toward them and then into the shuttleRunner bay. The docking tube extended toward the hatch.

  Aria and Xiu-Li are on board, thought Tania. Poor Xiu-Li... I hope she doesn’t get too messy over Orlando!

  “You’re up, Mr.Debitts, as soon as you have bay clearance confirmed.” He saw the Medical Quick Response Team was already out of the docking tube and into the corridor, on the way to Medical.

  “Aye, sir.” Debitts activated the program. “Runner One on auto approach to dock point.” By the time it was at the docking point eighty meters off the bay, the MapRunner was empty, hatch closed. Debitts now took over the main flight controls and glided Runner One into the bay, next to the MapRunner.

  As soon as it touched the deck, he brought the main drive engines to power and sent them heading out of the system in the opposite direction from the deadly cores about to blow. It took fifteen seconds for the bay doors to close and WHEELER couldn’t go into hyperflight until they were; some distance from planetary gravity wells was also needed.

  It would be ninety seconds at maximum MirMat, waiting for a pulse of destruction to annihilate them.

  “Nice Runners work, Mr.Debitts.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  The shiplift doors opened, and then onto the bridge walked a battered but unbroken Lieutenant Commander Aria Threnody.

  XIU-LI

  The Doctor seemed to be looking for reasons to let her go, but kept delaying actually doing it.

  Truhart had found nothing on his scans to explain how Xiu-Li had been able to understand Qet. He concluded some sort of earplug or maybe a mastoid bone patch had been used, which her physical exertion or the fight or even the swim might have dislodged. He asked her if she had seen horrific things (she said yes, she had) but did not immediately seek details; he got to work on fixing the minor, more conventionally physical problems (like the deep slashes and cuts).

  She was sore all over, generally beaten up and had cuts (some dramatic), bruises (some dramatic), and some twisted joints, but no bones broken, no infections, and no internal injuries. He had already told her to report back to Medcal if she had trouble sleeping or bad dreams or intrusive memories.

  Then he had given her a comm pad and discretely ducked away.

  The chrono read 2010. Xoiu-Li saw Orlando had left a message, as had Tania, coinciding with news of re-contact; both originating from Orlando’s quarters, within minutes of each other. Tania, in her usual unsubtle rush – marking her territory, perhaps? I wonder if Orlando knows she sent one?

  It wasn’t that Orlando wasn’t lovable – Love’s just not enough in a Universe like this. You have to work together and be able to rely on others; Orlando would give his life for fellow crew, but he could never lead a rescue party – that was not quite within him...

  In a flash, it was clear to Xiu-Li that they had no future – she would eventually lose patience with him – so there was merely playfun ahead of them.

  Now, is that what any of us deserve?

  She took a slow breath. Truhart’ll be back in a minute.

  Orlando was on his garden project for shipservice before his 2100 overnight duty watch in the medical section began, so she sent a quiktxt and then left him a slightly longer message – the ominous “I’ll call you when I’m feeling up to it,” (often the precursor to “let me check, and we’ll try to meet for a coffee,” which signalled the return to “neutral relations” and the end of a more personal relationship aboard ship, where nobody ever really wanted to “break up” with anybody).

  Soon it’ll be coffee with Orlando, and he’ll be telling me all about Tania Manda.

  She looked up at the ceiling. It was hard to feel pain about it; given all she’d seen and been through in the last thirty six hours, losing Orlando was actually a relief (she hoped Orlando would take it well, actually).

  The question here is, what does this mean for her and others like, well – Lobo, or... or even... Aria?

  No that was silly... something about the setting. Stop it!

  Xiu-Li heard the doctor returning and put on her “best face going forward” look.

  The Captain (looking so-o-o terribly concerned!) was with him when Truhart opened the sliding door. Truhart bowed his head and then moved away, leaving them alone.

  “Are you okay, Xiu-Li?” The way Matisou toned it – she could answer any way she had to, or chose to...

  “I am not hurt too badly, sir. I think Lieutenant Commander Threnody got the worst of it. Are we okay sir?”

  He smiled, but sadly. “We’re safely in hyperflight to Heart, the nearest IWG admin center for debrief. The Lieutenant Commander insisted on a data download before she would consent to appear here, but she seems in good health.” The warmth turned worried. “She didn’t see everything that you have, however.” Matisou frowned. “Do you think you can tell me about it now?”

  “Yes, sir.” She gave him a quick report while he crossed his arms and walked back and forth. He did not ask questions. His eyes touched hers when she needed to know she was being heard, and that what she said made some sort of sense, even when it didn’t, even when what she’d seen and now said was senseless.

 
; “…I violated your R.O.E. level, sir.” In the end, Xiu-Li wanted to account for the deaths that her actions alone had caused. She was now looking straight up at the ceiling.

  He cleared his throat. “Ensign Chen, I do appreciate your disappointment with violating any rules of engagement levels, but I don’t think you were given one, as I was made aware. Further, I was informed recently that ‘the artifacts’ were found on this planet, something that surprises neither of us now.

  “Had I known this, WHEELER personnel would’ve been at Action Stations and planet parties given R.O.E. One status.” Matisou shook his head. “In the circumstances you faced, you acted with skill and restraint, and fulfilled your ultimate duty to protect other IWG Space Fleet personnel – just like I do. To date your instincts and response have been on target in every case. I will be glad to review every case with you, should there be future ones.” He gave her a tired grin. “You’ve convinced me you’re not a bloodthirsty soldier-type, Xiu-Li. I want you to know you have my full confidence and support in your decisions. I expect you to continue responsible applications of your skills, and I don’t want you to start hesitating because you know I don’t like lives wasted – bold action during a sudden attack may preserve lives.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  He studied her. “Let me also say that you are never obligated to accept orders you know would put you in a position that could only result in the deaths of others. You are no one’s soldier or assassin, Xiu-Li, but the abilities you have developed are needed in a modern Space Fleet, and both the Tactical and the Intelligence Divisions will be getting this action-intel as a matter of course.”

  She looked alarmed. “Sir, I just got here!” but she saw his hands raised, and subsided.

  Matisou looked impressed with her control. “Easy, now, ensign. The earliest I would let you leave my ship is with a promotion to lieutenant, and a decent skillset opportunity to use your all of your talents and experience. Right! Understood? Good!” He smiled for a second. “You will have a number of opportunites offered to you because of events here, and some you might not have thought of, that was my point.”

  “Captain, shouldn’t we anticipate problems with Qet?”

  “These appear to have been... Qets not in favor with other Qets, as you reported. The bosses might not want any real publicity at all about it.” Matisou shrugged. “I hope we are anticipating trouble, because we will need ships built that can withstand those weapons... Are you really okay, Xiu-Li, or are you screenfacing me?” He said it gently, and he was really concerned.

  She swallowed. “I’m relieved to be here, sir. I don’t have any broken bones or obvious internal injuries I’m aware of. My thoughts are – well, I’m a bit tired, but I don’t feel freaked out. I’m rather sad, of course, but I’m very much looking forward to analyzing the Qet comms and the tactics used. And I’ll do what the Doctor tells me.” She studied him. “There was nothing any of us could have done except what we did do, sir.”

  He studied her, arched a brow, and nodded slowly. “Well,” he said, after a moment or two. “Commander Takaguchi said he expects you back to watch duty as soon as the Doctor clears you. He wants to begin the tactical debrief when you’re up to it.”

  “Yes, sir. I believe the Doctor said I would return to duty in 24 hours, but could leave any time ‘soonerish.’”

  “Yes, I... asked him to keep you here just a bit longer.” He smiled sheepishly. “Sorry.”

  “No problem, sir.” She saw the Doctor appear, smiling.

  “Ahh, are we ready to leave at last?” said Truhart. As Matisou turned to leave, he mentioned to Truhart that Aria would be stopping by soon.

  Xiu-Li was glad she was off Truhart’s medical monitors as her heart raced just slightly, recalling their... Stop it, Xiu-Li! Enough!

  She saluted the Captain as he stood in the door for her to pass, on his way back up to the bridge.

  ARIA

  The bridge was tense when Aria entered it, fresh from the shuttleRunner. WHEELER would be prepared to fight if attacked, but otherwise they were going to head out of this system as fast as they could, before the explosion, and as quietly as possible; considerable uncertainty existed as to whether any more hostile ships were out there. Any relief over the safe return from the surface was fast moderated by the technical details of moving WHEELER clear of the system in time, and further offset by the loss of eight crew down there. Rumors of the events and the attacker’s actions were already circulating.

  Tania Manda gawked at Aria when she stepped out of the shiplift and looked around the bridge.

  Matisou took one look at her and stepped over, relieved to see her, very concerned. “Are you all right, Aria? How’s Xiu-Li?”

  “Superficial injuries for us both, sir. She is by now in the Medical Section.”

  “Why aren’t you there now as well?”

  “I came to make my report first, sir.”

  Matisou held up his hand. “I appreciate that. We’ll be clear in ninety seconds. Unless you have something of acute major tactical importance, I think you should go to medical, record your log, and I’ll expect your full report at 0800 Divisions in the morning.”

  She nodded, then handed him a small zipkit. “I removed these personal items for the families and used rockslides to create two tomb structures while still minimizing sign of further presence.”

  Matisou stiffened, taking the zipkit. “Thank you,” he said softly. He looked at her. “Tell me, Aria, do Niv believe in burial?”

  “No, sir. Bio-recycling or cremation is preferred.”

  “Then why did you take the time to do so?”

  She peered at him, puzzled by his query. “Because they believed in it, sir.”

  Matisou studied her and nodded. “Get yourself checked.”

  Aria nodded stiffly. “Very well, sir. I will download the collected data so it can be accessed, and then go to medical.”

  Matisou opened his mouth, looked in her eyes a moment, then just nodded. He stayed on the bridge for the ninety seconds it took to exit the system and cross into hyper, then took a deep breath and turned the bridge over to Takaguchi. “I’m going to medical to see Chen,” he added. He paused at the science station, next to Threnody. “Shall I tell the Doctor to expect you?”

  “Yes, sir. I will be leaving in a moment.”

  “Please do; unless we are under an attack, it’s bad business for officers to bleed on deck.” Matisou’s eyes twinkled just a moment – he was glad she had survived, even as the losses of the others weighed so heavily on him.

  Then he was gone, headed for medical, as Aria looked around the deck for blood, and of course found none. She knew the cut on her shoulder had dried already, while the one on her face...

  Xiu-Li... Threnody started on the datadisk.

  After thirty seconds, WHEELER dropped out of hyper. The ship was now thirty standard units away from HD-19373, or thirty times the distance from the Earth to Sun, watching feeds from the databalls in the system. At this distance it would take 240 minutes for any signal travelling at the speed of light to reach them, but only thirty seconds for the Tgen based hyper comm signal to reach them.

  Aria finished D’Arial’s report and exhaled; now to quickly chipload Manda’s comm intercepts, and soon she could rest...

  “Aria – good to see you,” murmured Takaguchi. “Think she’ll be okay?”

  How long had he been standing there? “I think so, sir.”

  “And you?” Xiu-Li’s touch – the concern in her eyes – “Aria? You okay? You’re bleeding...”

  – I’m not supposed to feel this way! Aria looked at him. “All superficial, sir. I will be attending to the cosmetic aspects shortly.”

  Takaguchi’s voice dropped slightly. “Was it bad – and did she do well?” Only minimal information had been exchanged under the C-17 Priority ONLY comm status: the number of dead.

  Aria straightened and looked at him, thinking over an answer to his question. He eyed the cut on her
shoulder; the whole watch had seen the holes and rips in her uniform.

  There was a flare of light from the system behind them. “There they go,” sighed Tania as the blaze flared across the viewscreen. It had happened ninety six seconds after they had crossed into hyper.

  “Yes.” Aria handed him a chip of D’Arial’s datastik download – the last meander cut out. “For the ship’s records.” The room tilted oddly. “I think I am going to medical now.”

  Takaguchi looked at the chip title, glowing red: D’ARIAL, C – After Action Report.

  Threnody stepped out of the shiplift to go to Medical Section and found the Captain there, waiting to go back up to the bridge. He looked haggard. Eight crew!

  Matisou nodded somberly, lost in thought.

  “Captain, we just monitored an explosion consistent with drive core failures near the HD-19373 system,” she said.

  “They never had a real chance.” He scowled. “And you two –” He shook his head. “It’s a miracle you were able to save her.”

  “I believe Xiu-Li has mis-interpreted my actions as some sort of deliberate diversion to save her.” Aria scowled. “I was clumsy.” She looked at him. “She saved my life as well.”

  Matisou blinked. “She did?” He smiled weakly. “She left that out.”

  “Yes sir. A servant who I had rendered unconscious woke up and attacked me as I tried to recover from my just concluded encounter with a different – Qet.” She cleared her throat. “He struck my head, dazed me, and was about to cut my head off with a Qet blade when she killed him.”

  Matisou shook his head, exasperated but pleased. “Jool has saved half the damned bridge crew in the last three months,” he said. “I’ve never heard her talk about it once. I’ve asked – nobody else has, either.”

  “She does seem remarkably unaffected by her achievements.”

  Matisou nodded. “The crew are. They really respect her.” He looked down. “But she doesn’t appear to have too many close friends, and Jool lost two of them on this mission.” He looked at her. “I want to put a science and tactical package on a shuttleRunner, maybe both of ‘em. Once you’re back to duty, can you fit that in?”

  “Aye, sir.” The corridor wavered slightly. She summoned all her control. A project working with Xiu-Li! Aria even used the thought to give her the energy to straighten, as if nothing was wrong with the tilted floor under her feet.

  Matisou did a doubletake. “See you at 0800 Divisions, or when the Doctor says so, okay, Chief?” he said quickly. He looked annoyed with himself for talking on and on while she was hurt, and delayed her no longer.

  The Doctor turned as she entered. “Good evening, Lieutenant Commander. The Captain said you would be by soon.”

  Aria looked around, saw that Xiu-Li was gone.

  “Now, then,” said Truhart, oblivious to her disappointment. “Are there cuts anywhere else beside the obvious ones? Is there any pain or damage anywhere else that we need to concern ourselves with?”

  XIU-LI

  Her body ached a lot less and Xiu-Li was thinking about trying to get a snack (but for Space sake, no meat! ) when her door chimed.

  It was 2220 ship time – early enough for a visitor... but none were expected (without Julissa, or Orlando, or Clarissa, there aren’t many friends left to stop by and visit – ) Xiu-Li took a deep breath and went to the door.

  It was Aria Threnody.

  She stood there stiffly, a big commisary container box in her hands. She wore gym sweats, the ends of her hair were damp, and she had an unusual expression of uncertainty on her face.

  Xiu-Li stood there, trying not to stare (Space, she looks cute!) and intensely curious. “I hope you are well, Lieutenant Commander?”

  “I am in no grave discomfort, Ensign Chen. And you?”

  “I’m very sore, but I’m sure I’d be worse if you hadn’t helped me. Thank you, m’am.” Aria looked so stiff and serious that Xiu-Li naturally responded in kind. She looked at the box and then at Aria. “How can I help you, m’am?” Xiu-Li was suddenly aware of the breeze from the corridor licking around her bare ankles and running up her bare legs – reminding her that a long sleeptee and panties were her only clothes. Xiu-Li motioned Aria inside.

  Aria hesitated, visibly. “I took the liberty of getting some food as I knew we were both going to miss the evening meal in medical. Chef sends best regards.” She swallowed, then stepped in, the hatchdoor sliding shut just behind her as she stood there next to Xiu-Li. “Please, call me Aria,” she said quietly, then looked down.

  Something else she’s not saying yet... what if... she... ? Xiu-Li flushed. The room swayed slightly.

  The hand that touched her shoulder was burning hot through her sleeptee, and she leaned against it. “Ensign... ?”

  Xiu-Li heard so much in that one word, heard depths where she’d expected none – no, I’m hearing things now. “Aria. We should eat.”

  As Xiu-Li sat on her couch she couldn’t believe that Aria had brought her dinner and they were going to eat in her quarters here, together – this was sort of like a... a... a date! (In fact, Aria Threnody had looked positively shy when asking Xiu-Li to use her name!)

  Inside the big container was a square insulated box and other smaller food containers. They put them on her day table.

  The insulated box contained, “A flat bread with melted cheese, tomatoes, and spices on it. It is called pizza,” finished Aria. “Chef suggested it when I expressed interest in expanding my mostly vegetarian diet to fare beyond Niv foods. I have not previously had the chance to actually try it until tonight, when Chef insisted that something special should be made.”

  “It smells delicious.”

  “Yes, the aroma is quite... refreshing.” Never having eaten it before, Aria looked slightly perplexed as to her next action.

  Xiu-Li giggled and used silverware to pry a square piece out of the box, then passed it onto Aria’s plate. She served herself a slice. Aria watched her blow on the corner and then bite into it. Perfect!

  When she opened her eyes, Aria was looking back at her, an amazed expression on her face as she chewed her own bite.

  Xiu-Li smiled. “Mmmmm.” Nothing like good pizza.

  Aria swallowed her pizza. “Delicious.” She looked at Xiu-Li. “I have noticed that everyone seems inordinately concerned with some minor, superficial lacerations of mine. May I ask why this might be so?”

  “Aria, when Sol humans care for one another they express their affection and concern by inquiring about one’s health; it can also be a way to deliver a compliment, depending on how one’s wound is obtained.”

  “I noticed there was – laughter – in one situation when Chef burned his hand in hot water.”

  Xiu-Li giggled. Chef Kimonetti had used such language! “That was both a response to his reaction and relief he was not injured more seriously.” She tilted her head. “Niv do laugh, don’t they?”

  “Of course, if something is humorous. Laughter has been part of human life for five million years.” Aria looked at her. “I noticed you asked about my injuries, you expressed concern, and reacted with an attempt at humor.”

  Usually Xiu-Li would riposte that remark, but she decided that Aria could hardly be expected to understand Sol human humor, let alone its purpose in social exchange.

  Aria was still looking at her, waiting for a response.

  “Yes. I did.” And having answered, Xiu-Li sat there and breathed for a moment. Had she felt Aria’s hand holding hers before she finally collapsed down there? It had been dreamlike...

  “Earlier you suggested explanations for this Sol human behavioral response,” said Aria. “May I ask which one applied in our particular situation?”

  Xiu-Li finished chewing the last bite of her first slice. Niv were much more used to long gaps while rational arguments were being constructed and reviewed, so she could really think for a moment – long beyond the point where her past lovers would have asked her if she had been listening, or was
still awake, or something (except for Nate, who had always assumed she was just still thinking, as he so often was – just never about her, or what they had been discussing).

  Aria just ate pizza and waited, like Nate Hensridge did long ago.

  I wonder if she’s anxious about this? Since Xiu-Li had decided her answer long before, she let the silence stretch until it was a little unfair – she was not sure why. “The emotions I felt then were gratitude for your rescue of me, my fears you had been injured on my account, along with intense admiration, affection, and respect for you –” she took a deep breath. “– the latter three being of a more permanent emotional state where you are concerned.”

  Xiu-Li looked for something to drink to cover the big lump in her throat. I’ve said it now – I think. There were two canisters. Her mouth dropped open when she hit the release on one and heard it bubbling away – that smell – “Aria, Chef gave you champagne?”

  Aria’s dark brown eyes dropped to the canister. “Chef said a bubbling white wine was indicated so ‘the bubbles will tickle you into a better state of mind.’ Is it alcoholic?”

  “Yes. Maybe you’d better –”

  “I would like a full glass, please... I believe our service has a tradition of honor that requires some toasts.”

  They exchanged somber glances.

  “Yes, m’am,” said Xiu-Li.

  She unwrapped the two graceful crysglas flutes tucked inside the box container and poured. As she watched the first foam subside, Xiu-Li was trying to guess if they would just trade off toasts, and which she would get. She added a bit more to each flute, and gave one to Aria, who had finished her slice of pizza.

  They stood up.

  Aria, as senior officer, raised her glass first. “Today I was saved from death by the actions of a crewmate. To her I offer my thanks... and to the Service, past present and future.”

  “To the service.” Xiu-Li drank. Mmmm! “And thank you, m’am.” She cleared her throat. “To – t-to absent friends.” Tears rolled down her cheeks and she was not ashamed, but still relieved it was a private toast, and five or six tears was it. True tears could come later.

  “Absent friends.” Aria drank; she had drunk half a glass so far.

  They paused a moment, then sat down.

  Aria studied the tiny bubbles in her glass. “This is an unusual glass.”

  “Yes, it’s specially designed for drinking champagne. It’s narrow-mouthed to slow gas diffusion, and one holds the stem so as to prevent heating the champagne with body heat.” Xiu-Li then put it to use.

  Aria shifted her grip to the stem of her flute, looked at Xiu-Li for confirmation, then finished the glass in one gulp!

  Aria looked at her as Xiu-Li’s mouth dropped open. “This is a most curiously... ‘happy’ wine.”

  Well, that’s a pretty rational description of it. “Yes, it’s known for that.” She watched Aria get a second piece of pizza out and attack it. “It gets me pretty buzzed. What about you?”

  Aria tilted her head slightly. “‘Buzzed’? You mean ‘drunk’? Oh, no, not on a wine like this.” She ate more pizza. “This is a most nicely satisfying meal. May I have more champagne?”

  Xiu-Li refilled the flutes. She’d always liked Chef Kimonetti, but this was giving her a whole new appreciation for the value of a really good chef, and it wasn’t merely cooking.

  “I have performed a quick review of the intercepted comm signals and chiploaded them for your review.” She looked at Xiu-Li. “Did the doctor explain why you could understand Qet?”

  Xiu-Li shook her head. “He said it was a patch or earpiece that washed away – he found nothing on his scans.”

  Aria went to the desk and slotted the chip. “I want to play some comm and see if you still understand it. Agreed?”

  “Sure.”

  Aria hit play.

  Qet slithered from the speaker: “You Qet-not renegades will never survive.”

  Xiu-Li chuckled. “Let me guess: big ship to the smaller one. It said ‘You Qet-not renegades will never survive.’”

  Aria looked at the screen. “Your point of origin is correct. This was broadcast shortly before they attacked.” She looked at Xiu-Li. “Evidently you do still understand Qet.” She went thoughtful. “You understand the context of a meme unit like ‘Qet-not’ as well, don’t you?” She was trying to gauge how much interaction Xiu-Li had had.

  Xiu-Li nodded and sighed. “Just a random act of violence by a universe, then. Perpetrated by individuals no longer in this one.” She sighed again. “Thank Space!” she said, and drank some champagne. Xiu-Li looked at Aria, who seemed a bit bright-eyed. “Thank you!” she said, and drank to the slightly surprised Aria. “If you hadn’t gotten the two of them out of that hut, I’d be dead, Aria. Now, Sol humans do get drunk on champagne, and I have gotten tipsy, and brave. We say ‘in drink there is truth’. You’re being awfully nice to me. Why?”

  Aria held her gaze several seconds, until shy uncertainty made the third officer drop her eyes. “I am unsure.” Many of the physical sensations that were sweeping her were known to Niv (and to Aria) but she was somewhat surprised to feel them in this situation; and they were triggering flaws with her control. “To give you thanks?”

  “That’s sweet, and we’ve thanked each other a lot. Can it be that you need a friend? Someone with brains to keep up with at least some of your interests? Friends teach us things and help us pass the time.”

  This somewhat unexpected answer made Aria raise her head. Aria’s lips twitched, the dark brown eyes flickered and dropped down again. “Your offer of friendship comes at a time of some chaos, given the circumstances between us.” The eyes came back up. “It is deeply appreciated... and accepted... if you will have me.”

  “I am honored. I have lost too many friends today... as I first thought when the door chimed.” Xiu-Li looked down, cheeks burning. “Again, I wanted to thank you, too. You’ve always been sort of a hero of mine.” She looked up. “That has now become the actual situation.”

  Aria blushed again. “Perhaps. Yet you did not tell the Captain of your saving me from the servant.”

  “Really? Well, I was still a little dizzy.” Xiu-Li grinned.

  “I do not think my clumsy assault and its accidental distraction merit the term ‘heroic’ as defined by your throwing a sword at a Qet about to cut my head off.”

  “Sounds as if we were both heroes. And as for your kindness in caring for me afterward?”

  Aria looked down. “It would be irrational to have permitted your injuries to cause any further debilitation to you.”

  “You didn’t have to bathe with me.”

  Their eyes locked. Aria’s eyes flickered. “I was injured as well, and soaking assisted me.”

  “Oh. That’s rational.” Xiu-Li smiled. “It was about as opposite from everything else I’d been through as I could ever imagine. It was... beautiful.” She was thinking about Aria.

  “Yes,” said Aria. She stood up and looked through the box. “I was only able to find one of your swords but...” She pulled out a tied roll of Niv silkn. “It would be in keeping with tradition to substitute weapons taken in battle for those lost in the struggle.” She handed the roll to Xiu-Li, who stood up unsteadily to receive it.

  Xiu-Li took the heavy roll and bowed formally. “Again, deepest thanks. I had not even thought about it.” She unrolled the Niv silkn. Inside was one of her butterfly swords and two Qet qetclas. Differing in grip and curve, they were otherwise nearly the same balance and size. It flashed through her mind that the Qet investigating mission (of course they would send one, and it was probably en route in hyper at this very instant!) would find her butterfly sword, as well as some of the Space Fleet gear the “renegades” had probably stored somewhere.

  Xiu-Li re-rolled the blades and put them into her martial arts drawer. She was aware how the sleeptee riding over her nipples were making them tingle, harden, and tingle more (it wasn’t Aria exciting her!) and how she seemed a bi
t – what were they discussing here? It was one thing to goof around with ensigns, this was the third officer who she was...

  …was thinking about?

  But here Aria is, and she is…

  …is… is hanging out with me after inviting herself in, and bringing me presents.

  In my quarters.

  Just accept it, and remember that denying a reward is in some cultures is sometimes an insult. I owe her a reward as well, and if, well, then that is… oooooh, she was so nervous!

  She turned and faced Aria, who had gathered the plates and trash and put them in the box. Aria had a medium dark blue bottle in her hand, and studied it curiously. “Chef did not tell me about this.” She held it up.

  Xiu-Li’s jaw dropped. “Deep Blue Belter!” she said, staggering slightly. She went scooting back to her martial arts drawer.

  Space it! We’re ALIVE, let’s dare to LIVE! – saucily bending over as she bent down and dug out two shotglasses.

  Aria seemed – pleased – to see them in her hand. She arched a brow over sparkling brown eyes, and said, “Those look traditional.”

  Xiu-Li suddenly froze – I almost forgot, it’s been so long, but there’s quite a ritual if you want to do it all. A shiver tickled her, then a wave of shivers. This might end in... “If I didn’t know better, I’d say Chef was trying to get me drunk.”

  Aria looked at her and handed her the bottle.

  There was a tiny card on a cord around the fat bottleneck: To Life! – DM

  Space, this is from the Captain! She looked at Aria. “My mom always had a bottle locked away.”

  “Were disasters so common then that such a supply was required?”

  Xiu-Li smiled. I do so love Niv thinking sometimes. “We were a search and rescue group. Well, Life can be celebrated at any time after any disaster, was the way I heard it put.”

  “Then I suppose this situation meets the tradition and qualifies.”

  They had survived. Chef Kimonetti had sent champagne. The Captain had sent this bottle. The orbital tradition immediately after a disaster was for survivors to gather and drink a shot to celebrate life. The bottle held eight shots, the size of an escape runner, on the optimistic assumption all flightchairs will be full. Once the bottle is opened, it must be finished at the sitting.

  She looked at Aria and took a deep breath. “If we open it, we’ll be pretty drunk when we’re finished, at four shots each.”

  “Both of us are on medical leave for 24 hours, Ensign Chen. Neither of us has watch duty tomorrow morning.”

  Xiu-Li giggled. “Lieutenant Commander Threnody, are you encouraging me to get drunk tonight?”

  Aria shook her head. “No. You know I have been in trouble with this particular beverage before.” Her brow arched. “Perhaps I jump at any excuse to dance with it again... unless you are not up for it, Xiu-Li.” They stood there, facing each other.

  Alive. Together.

  Xiu-Li grinned from ear to ear, twisted open the bottle, and poured two shots. The dark blue translucent alcohol was laced with threads of gold. “To Life!” she cried.

  “To Life!” replied Aria.

  Xiu-Li’s eyes watered as she poured the next round – the taste was pleasant but still strong, and it burned as well as soothed – then Aria took up the second shot and said, “To Life!”

  “To Life!” replied Xiu-Li, drinking her second. The second burned less, tasted much better, and – Hmm! Interesting effect! She paused. It tasted good, at least. Aria seemed to be in no distress – maybe even swaying slightly... or was her vision blurry? Her belly was warm and tingly now, and she felt pretty good.

  Aria stretched. “I find my injuries hurt less.”

  Xiu-Li laughed, and stretched too. “You’re right. Wait until we feel our hangovers tomorrow, though.”

  Aria nodded. “I have heard of this. I am not, however, drunk. I experience the taste and some physical flushing and other sensations associated with alcohol, observe a long and honorable social tradition with a –” Her eyes flickered. “– A new friend and fellow crewmate.” She stretched her arms out and dropped them.

  Xiu-Li nodded, heart beating faster. That pause, and the order of her definitions... “We have spent half of our evening thanking each other, Aria.”

  Aria looked startled. “Is this a real ‘evening’?” She suddenly looked shy.

  Xiu-Li sighed and smiled at her. “Yes, a very nice one so far. I was hungry, alone, and susceptible to loneliness after a miserable day at work... and I made a new friend. I would be honored to study any of the many accupoint muscular or meditative techniques to heal or use that you think I could learn.” It was a reason to spend time together that bore scrutiny. “Your physical meditations are private, but you might learn new body techniques through study of a spiritual Earth art like Tai Chi, a highly meditative martial art style from China. I know two forms I could teach you.” That would be a public reason to be seen together that would support private time.

  “What you suggest is rational – ”

  (Space, yes! thought Xiu-Li)

  “– but difficult.”

  (Fekk, no!)

  “– Because the Captain has assigned us to putting a new sci-tac sensor package on one of the shuttleRunners; that will take time.” Aria’s brow arched. “I am certain we will work out some sort of schedule as we progress.” Her gaze sharpened. “You recognized some ‘physical meditations,’ you said?”

  Xiu-Li kept her face still. Aria had definitely learned how to fight, and that might not be exactly consonant with the public image the Niv wanted to project. “I presumed your culture has some sort of yoga or similar art, or meditative forms to prevent physical deterioration caused by too much thinking in situ.”

  “I studied at the Niv Exosciences Institute. Part of exoscience is the study of Niv science and the actual historical record, not merely what people say about it today.” Aria sighed, then her lips curled as she smiled. “Dr.Watson Helix’s ideas about rational culture are still not the only ones held on Niv; some fully reject the path of rational dominance of thought behavior altogether, and still indulge in the vast, endless ocean of emotions – like Sol humans always have – but they generally leave Niv altogether.

  “Then there are those whose rational view dictates learning a discipline to prevent the senseless loss of one’s life to a random act of personal violence – that in a one-to-one situation when attacked, it is irrational to apply the usual rational pacifism of Dr.Helix and accept injury or death.” Her brow arched. “This point of view is held by Niv working in the intelligence service as well as the Self Defense and Niv Space Service. Politicians argue either side, and Niv diplomats tend to pretend there is no such thing, except in their most secret meetings.”

  “Tai Chi is the physical study of balancing forces.”

  “That would be interesting to compare – but I was speaking of Dr.Watson Helix.”

  “The meditations of the Niv Warrior Scholars.”

  Aria nodded. “And heroes.”

  “Heroes to be rewarded with due service.” Xiu-Li poured two shots. “Or are you a Scholar I serve?”

  “A Scholar of Niv often forges alliances through effective sexual technique, whether as reward for a heroic act or to assist in surviving defeat in battle or a School defeat.” Her eyes dropped. “I am not a Scholar, in any event.”

  “Sister, yes you are.” Xiu-Li laughed. “Sometimes we all are, Scholar Aria!”

  “Do not call me that.”

  “Or what, you will pout like a princess?” Xiu-Li shook her head, grinning at Aria’s annoyed expression.

  “You are better defined as a Warrior Scholar than I am, if you are seeking the truth, Xiu-Li.” Her voice was slightly slurred. “I am too much the engineer, too much the scholar.”

  “I have seen you fight. I would not want to try it.”

  The Niv woman sighed. “Yet you had to save me.”

  “You are not being rational about this.”

&nb
sp; “…no.”

  Xiu-Li looked at her. “Aria... there was nothing you could’ve done. I couldn’t help Markis, I hardly helped Lissa... at best, you would’ve ended up under the rocks with D-Dalby. I mean, if you’d been walking back with me. Instead, you ended up creating the very situation I needed to... to get loose.”

  Aria’s dark brown eyes searched hers. “I have never actually had to... take life by hand. The most overly vigorous male responds to a genital kick. No one was ever strong enough to try to choke me.” She looked sad. “I was so... sorry she was giving me no other choice.”

  “How did you even know I was in the shack?”

  “I caught your meditative radiative star image.”

  Xiu-Li blushed. “Oh.”

  “You are very skilled.” Threnody nodded wisely.

  “I should send you some images of my island; I’ve been studying meditation and working on it since I was ten.”

  “That would be interesting to explore.”

  “Mmmm-hmmm.”

  “What are you looking at?”

  “Your eyes.”

  “What about them?”

  “I like them.”

  “Do you often find yourself attracted to eyes?”

  “Not particularly, but every now and then.” Xiu-Li smiled. “Of course, the eyes you see looking back most often tend to belong to those of a lover.”

  Aria looked away. “I heard you were – ”

  “It would appear two old friends consoled each other over the reports from the planet surface of my loss, and I believe they see what a truly fine match they are together. I wished them well, and I’ll sit down over some coffee one day with my friends Orlando and Tania and talk about it.”

  The Niv woman was silent, looking back at Xiu-Li as she had spoken.

  Xiu-Li stood up unsteadily and walked over to her desk. She punched in a music program.

  Neither of them was sure what to do, or if they wanted to do anything, which to Xiu-Li meant doing nothing; this was still not the right moment (maybe there wouldn’t be one) and that was okay – Aria Threnody would be an interesting person to know. She was sort of “crushing” on her because of the whole “hero” thing, anyway. They weren’t Sisters, weren’t going to be, not that way; but they were going to be friends, and they had survived a ferocious, deadly encounter.

  Xiu-Li looked at both third shots. “I was just thinking... we both survived a pretty deadly encounter.”

  “Yes. On both sides.”

  “Oh, yeah.” She handed Aria a shot. “I hope you don’t mind a drink to that? It was pretty fekkin’ awesome, wasn’t it?”

  Aria took the shot in one hand, put her other arm around Xiu-Li and hugged her. “I do not object, Xiu-Li Chen.”

  There was a formality in tone that made Xiu-Li forget how good it felt for Aria to be holding her. “May we toast to that, Aria Threnody of Niv?” She used her free hand to lift her shotglass. “To Life!”

  “To Life!”

  The warmth of the third shot was matched by the arm around Xiu-Li’s shoulders, and it was very nice indeed.

  “You admire eyes,” whispered Aria.

  “Yep. Qet have beautiful eyes, don’t they, but then they get so cold –” Xiu-Li broke off and shivered. “Orlando has nice eyes. So does Wolf Lobo.” She felt Aria rub her back. “It’s – it’s those cold, cold Qet eyes –” She now started to shiver continuously, heart starting to pound –

  “Shhhhh. Stop that, Xiu-Li. You’re safe on WHEELER. I’m here. I’ll stay here, if you want.” Aria rubbed the shivering hero. “It’s been a mess, but we got out of it. We’re okay now.”

  Xiu-Li gave a great sigh and the shivering slowed. “Sp-space, I’m a m-mess here.”

  “You don’t drink often.”

  “Hardly ever – three times a year.” More often, recently, given the number of Toasts.

  “Please, Xiu-Li. Why not lie down – there you go.”

  “Thanks.” She lay down and Aria sat down next to her. Xiu-Li gave a great big yawn – it was catching up to her quickly now, all of it. “Did you ever, you know... daydream... about anybody on the crew?”

  Aria blushed. “What do you mean?”

  “Well... you’re a senior officer, so you don’t date. Daydreams are something else, like me and Dopey Jimmy.” She looked at Aria. “Sorry I asked,” Xiu-Li sighed. “Nevermind.”

  Aria’s dark brown eyes flashed. “Please. If you would ask one of your other friends, please, ask me.” She smiled. “I am quite new to this, but I assure you, I am interested.”

  Xiu-Li giggled. “Well, okay, but I warn you right now, it’s all the alcohol talking... I’m just curious.”

  Aria looked down. “One of the innovations of the Great Change was a form of reproductive control. In order to ovulate, Niv women must refrain from orgasm for over thirty days. This causes a cascade of hormones.” She looked up. “So Niv women tend to, mmm, daydream at least once a week, if not once a month.”

  “Mmmm. Nice.” Xiu-Li looked sleepy. “You have beautiful eyes too, Aria.” She closed her eyes. “Very nice.”

  Aria smiled at her. “Do you like cats?”

  “Mm-hmm.” She smiled sleepily. “I used to have a cat.”

  “Good.”

  “Mmm... why?”

  “It’s a... traditional quantum companion on Niv.”

  “It suits the Niv...” she chuckled. “Very apt.”

  Aria blushed. “Is that a... a Niv joke?”

  Xiu-Li’s eyes cracked open. “Just an observation by a lover of cats, who prefers reserves of passion to the slobbering affections of dogs.” Now Xiu-Li opened her eyes fully. “Although I have met some dogs I am in awe of, like the Tracker Corps.”

  Aria grinned. “Please. I was – teasing you? Teasing you.”

  “Well... I suppose you’ve earned it. At least in private.”

  The Niv laughed. “Not easily earned.”

  “No, I’d really rather have caught your eye on some project on the ship. Instead we solved a bigger exercise together. And lived to tell about it.” Xiu-Li closed her eyes again. “My hero.”

  “Don’t call me that.”

  “Don’t save me next time.”

  “You’re the hero.” Aria sounded odd.

  Xiu-Li cracked an eye. “Wait. Didn’t we agree we both were?”

  Aria looked down. “Okay, but please don’t call me that.”

  Xiu-Li sat up. “I’m sorry, Aria.” She put her arm around the Niv third officer and hugged her.

  Aria sighed. “Let’s face it: my mission cost us eight people. I supposedly saved the quiet one, who’s really rather sassy when you get to know her. Maybe I’m just sensitive as a cat, but that’s not what I call a hero.” She looked at Xiu-Li and smiled. “A hero throws a blade from three meters away and follows a perfect hit with a knock-out kick, then keeps quiet about it.”

  Xiu-Li grinned. “A hero is anyone who survives. But I won’t call you one, as you’re apparently as sensitive as a cat demanding attention about it.”

  “Thank you, Jool. I guess that means I won’t tell the captain the next time you save me?”

  “You’re welcome. And I will never tell you what to say, Aria.”

  They looked at each other, black eyes into brown ones; Aria moved, Xiu-Li moved, they kissed. Once... then twice...

  To Life!