Infinitys end books 7 9, p.42
Infinity's End: Books 7-9, page 42
Evie checked to make sure it was clear, then stepped inside. It was cool in here, but not so cold she was shivering. In front of her was the wall of shelves where the crew had sustained themselves for seasons and years at a time while Zenfor and the others rebuilt the ship. Now they contained nothing but the bodies of her victims.
She placed her hand on the wall, noting the names of each person she’d killed. If she had just done one thing different—if she’d never have gone out searching for the Honduras—it wouldn’t have ended up this way. Or if she’d fought harder against Rockron and not agreed to let him examine her mind. Or if she’d stayed up on the ship with wave three, instead of telling Volf to do it because she was too worried about Laura. Or if her father had told her about the sword maybe she would have just left it back on Sissk rather than bringing it along and wielding it like she knew what she was doing. Every decision she had made had led to this and she would take it all back if she could.
She choked back a sob and moved her hand over to Laura’s shelf. Inside the woman she loved lay peacefully, her body preserved until the funeral. The truth was they’d had plenty of time to have ceremonies on the way to Sil space, but Cas had said it wasn’t the right time. Not until they could take a solemn moment and give their comrades a proper sendoff. Everyone was on edge and he didn’t want an Athru ambush to disrupt the ceremonies. Evie found she couldn’t disagree. “I really miss you,” she whispered, her hand still on the shelf. “And I know I don’t deserve to talk to you, not after what I did, but I don’t know who else I can go to.” They hadn’t been together long, but she’d never connected with anyone like she had with Laura. The woman just got her, instantly, and that had been a rare thing in Evie’s life. Laura would have understood how hard this Esterva thing was, she would have been there to help and support Evie through it. She hadn’t realized how much she’d leaned on that support until it was gone. “I want to tell you how sorry I am,” she finally added. “I just wish you could hear me say it.” She leaned down and lightly kissed the drawer, it was cold against her lips.
Evie looked over at the shelf next to Laura’s. Inside were the remains of Captain Greene, having been inside for over eighteen years. She sighed. “I guess I didn’t turn out to be captain material after all. You should have chosen a different first officer.”
The sound of a throat clearing cut through the air. Evie spun on her heels to see Xax standing behind her. “Sorry,” Xax said. “I needed something from cold storage. I didn’t know anyone was in here.”
Evie dropped her gaze. “It’s fine. I just…needed to clear my head.”
The air hung between them, heavy with expectation. “How are things going with Esterva?” Xax asked. “She’s out of the brig now, right?”
“How’d you know?” Evie asked.
Xax shrugged her top shoulders. Her lower hands held a small screen. “I like to keep track of potential unknowns on the ship. In fact, I’m still going over her scans. There’s a lot to unpack here.”
Evie nodded, then headed for the door before the silence between them became any more awkward. “I’ll leave you to it.”
“Have you ever read my personnel file?” Xax asked. Evie turned back to her. Xax’s top arms were crossed and she leaned against the side of the door frame, her six eyes sparkling.
“Of course. I read it as soon as I came aboard. Why?”
“Because none of it’s true,” Xax said, a smile on her face. Evie narrowed her eyes. What was she saying? Was Xax as spy too? Was she like Martial? “Well, all the medical qualifications are true, but most of the history isn’t.”
“What are you talking about?”
“About forty standard years ago, I was stationed out on Axinal-Illitaxica, do you know it?”
Evie thought for a moment. “It’s a Yax-Inax colony, a moon orbiting a gas giant in the Messer system.” She paused. “Wait, forty years ago, your file has you listed as only forty-five. You were serving when you were five?”
“Unfortunately, that was a lie too. I’m older than what my file says. By about twenty years. It was a conscious decision on my part to help it look like I had nothing to do with the incident.”
“Incident?” Evie asked.
“I’m not sure how familiar you are with Yax-Inax history, but at the time we were in the middle of colony disputes with the Ramothians. It was before they’d joined the Coalition. But because Axinal-Illitaxica was so small, we must not have warranted very high on the priority list. We called for reinforcements and even the Yax-Inax governing body put in a special request. But we were five hundred colonists on a disputed world. What was the Coalition going to do, come in with guns blazing? They were trying to hammer out a peace agreement with the Ramothians. They didn’t want our problems to inconvenience the negotiations.”
“I don’t remember any of this,” Evie said, thinking back about Coalition history. There had never been a mention of a skirmish on Axinal to her knowledge.
“Probably because of me,” Xax said. Evie didn’t know what to say to that, so she kept her mouth shut. “I was one of the only people on the colony well versed in biologics. And I volunteered to build biological weapons to show the Ramothians we meant business. Except I screwed up. A missile went off when it wasn’t supposed to and killed over a hundred Yax-Inax.” Her mouth turned down, as if she’d eaten something sour. “I am responsible for the deaths of over a hundred of my own people.”
“I’m so sorry,” Evie said.
Xax nodded. “Me too. At the time I thought I was doing my duty, that I was doing what was necessary for my people. And it all blew up in my face, literally.”
Evie had to work to control her breathing. It was horrific. “What did you do?”
“What else could I do? The Ramothians weren’t stopping. So, I kept building weapons.”
She couldn’t even look at Evie anymore, Xax just stared at the floor. “How?”
Xax shook her head. “I don’t know. Going back after the accident was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But I had a job to do, and I was the only one who could do it. I had a responsibility, and as bad as it was, I had to see it through. More people died after that. And then a few more. And finally, the Ramothians broke off their attacks, a condition of being admitted to the Coalition. I guess someone on Earth was listening after all. But both sides took heavy losses.” She laid the screen down and wiped the edges of four of her eyes with her hands.
“Why isn’t any of this in the official record?” Evie asked.
“Because most of us knew we’d be tried for war crimes for being associated with the creation of biological weapons. We wiped our identities from all the systems, and a special branch of Yax-Inax security made sure we had alibis when Coalition Command came knocking, which they eventually did. It was why I changed my age, so it seemed like I couldn’t have even been there. Of course, the Coalition didn’t want the general populace to know two of their member units had been involved in a very costly war, it was bad for the Coalition image. So, they spun it. Declared Axinal-Illitaxica off-limits long enough for the fallout to subside. Most of it was Zyrr Phax’s doing, she was a master at spin. To my knowledge, it was what propelled her to the highest levels of the media. She started out as one of us, but over the years I feel like she became more of a foe.”
Evie thought back. Hadn’t Cas said Phax was at his trial for using the trans-dimensional weapon? “Why are you telling me this?”
“You deserve to know,” Xax said. “And to let you know you’re not alone. Sometimes we can do everything we’re supposed to, and things still go wrong. Terribly wrong. But that doesn’t mean we stop trying. You couldn’t have done anything different than what you did back on that planet, because you are who you are. You were always going to make those decisions. Maybe they were mistakes and maybe they weren’t, but you can’t second-guess yourself. I spent a decade or more doing that, and it never led me anywhere. I want to save you the same amount of pain.”
She was right. If Evie could go back she’d probably make all the same decisions again, that’s just who she was. She couldn’t change her own nature.
“If you feel you need to tell the captain, I understand,” Xax said. “Technically I should be behind a force barrier for the rest of my life.”
“Are you kidding?” Evie asked. “You’re one of the best doctors this ship has ever had.”
Xax smiled. “Don’t let Box hear you say that.”
“I’m not getting you thrown in the brig. Plus, I think Cas would be with me on this one.” She took a deep breath, exhaling through her nose. She did feel a little better. She hoped Laura would recognize she never meant to hurt her or anyone else. She might even be proud of Evie for overcoming what she had. Even though it had come at a great cost.
“Well,” Xax said, picking up the screen again. “I guess I better get back to it.” She turned to leave.
“Wait,” Evie said. “Didn’t you need something from cold storage?”
Xax grinned. “I got everything I needed. Thanks for listening.” She returned to sickbay, leaving Evie standing near the stasis units, wondering how best to see this thing with Esterva through. She needed to reach back to her roots and stop dancing around the issue. She couldn’t second-guess herself, she should just ask her questions. All of them. Whatever happened, happened, and she’d deal with it accordingly, no matter how horrifying the answer.
Determined, Evie left the morgue behind.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Adjust the output to seventy-two percent, and initialize the transitory particle interceptors,” Zenfor said. The viewscreen had turned back into a map showing the surrounding area, but all that showed on the screens were stars and other stellar phenomena.
“The particle interceptors?” Zaal asked. “But won’t those—”
“And keep an eye on the subharmonic oscillation,” Zenfor added. “If the frequency is too high, we’ll never find them.” She turned to Cas. “The ships generate a specific kind of field that resonates between this universe and the space beneath. It’s the quickest way to locate Sil ships in the general vicinity.”
“That works for me,” Cas replied. He didn’t know what she was talking about, he’d never heard of a transitory particle interceptor before. But given how much work Zenfor had done on this ship, he wasn’t surprised she’d added some of her own systems no doubt based on Sil technology.
“I think I have it,” Zaal said. “But the signal isn’t stable.”
“It doesn’t need to be,” Zenfor replied. “We just need to send out one burst. Whenever you’re ready.”
Cas realized she was talking to him and he sat up straighter in the captain’s chair. “Tileah?”
“Ready, sir,” she replied.
“Activate the interceptors,” he ordered. A white flash filled the screen for a moment and then the map returned, this time with three small red dots on the other side of the Sil border.
“There they are.” Zenfor walked over to Zaal’s station and tapped a few buttons. “Those two there are the behemoths we encountered before. Our best bet is to use the one that’s isolated from the others. Based on the feedback we got from the pulse, it looks to be a regular-sized ship, not a behemoth.”
“Too much to hope for a scout ship, huh?” Cas asked. A Coalition starship (even one with Sil enhancements) had never gone toe-to-toe with a Sil destroyer. The best anyone had ever achieved had been the Achlys and its ill-fated mission to retrieve a Sil scout ship. The scout ships weren’t much larger than the biggest shuttles, and they had very few crew aboard. It was why Rutledge had chosen one as a target, rather than go up against something bigger. Because even though the Achlys had been larger, the scout ship still outclassed it in weapons and maneuverability. According to Samiya, it had only been because the then Captain Soon had lured them into a trap that the ship had succumbed at all. If Tempest was going up against a full-sized ship, they better be ready.
“Scout ships aren’t plentiful, it could take weeks to find one along the border. The Sil don’t send them out often,” Zenfor said, still messing with Zaal’s controls. “I think this might be the Bortos, but I can’t be sure.” She stared at the image on the screen.
“Is that a problem?” Cas asked.
“No, we can still get in, but it helps if I know the ship and its crew. They can be different. And as you witnessed, the ships change when they wish. They’re temperamental, and Bortos has a reputation for being one of the less cooperative ships.”
“I still can’t believe I’m hearing this,” Hank said from the first officer’s seat. “Living ships? Bonded with your people? It’s—”
“—kind of amazing,” Samiya finished. “I’d love to know how your relationship with them developed. Are the ships built, or grown? And how are the crews assigned? What happens if the ship doesn’t like someone, does it just blast them out of an airlock?”
“The ships are…cultivated,” Zenfor said. “Because they are connected to the space beneath we don’t build them from scratch as you do. It’s…difficult to explain.”
“Are they a naturally occurring being or did you engineer them?” Zaal added.
Cas put his hand up. “Listen, we’re not doing twenty questions right now. We need to determine if this Bortos is a good target and if we can survive a strafing assault. What sort of countermeasures should we expect?”
“Assuming they don’t try and destroy the ship on sight, the first thing they will do is set up a variety of gravity nets surrounding the area in the hopes Tempest will fall into one of them. If that happens, they’ll be able to crush this ship into a cube no more than one square meter in size.”
“God-damn,” Hank said.
“It’s a powerful weapon, but not without its disadvantages,” Zenfor said.
“Was that what your ship used on us back near the Quaval system, when we first met?” Zaal asked.
“It is,” Zenfor said. “Then you didn’t have the ability to scan for the gravity nets, but now you do. If you can keep Tempest out of the nets and moving before they have a chance to fire, we might be able to get a shuttle down to one of the docking hatches.”
“Wait a second,” Hank said, standing. “No one said anything about a shuttle. I thought we were poaching their weapons.”
Cas shook his head. “I’ve been down that road once before and I don’t plan on revisiting it. We need to get in and speak with the Sil ruling body—the Sanctuary as Zen calls it. We have to make our case.”
“And tell them what? They’ve already made it clear they’ve sided with the Athru,” Hank said. “What’s going to convince them we’ve got something to offer?”
Cas didn’t want to admit he didn’t have much of anything. He could give them the scans of Omicron Terminus, the Bulaq and the Athru planet, which might help with their star charts. But other than that, he had very little. They’d already incurred Mil’less’s wrath, he didn’t want to exacerbate the problem. But at the same time they were out of options.
“If you’re accessing this…space beneath,” Samiya said from behind him. “Why not just collect the negative-mass particles from there and come back? Why risk pleading a case you know they won’t agree to?”
He’d considered that option. But dismissed it because it meant stealing their technology again. Though, if Esterva was right and all of this was his fault, perhaps taking a second look at a backup plan wasn’t a bad idea. They were right, what if the Sanctuary rejected them again? Which was likely. They’d be left with no recourse and most likely Cas and Zenfor would be put to death. Perhaps stealing the particles was what they needed to do to survive. A pit formed in his stomach, but Cas ignored it, weighing the pros and cons. “Would it be possible?” he asked.
Zenfor stopped messing with Zaal’s controls and turned to him. “To remove negative-mass particles from the space beneath? Yes. Though dangerous. And not with your existing equipment. We would need a containment system. But the portals that open to the space are guarded.”
“Can we get past the guards?”
“I can. But the ship will also know and try to stop us if we’re not authorized. The ship can do what it wants, it could send you into a room with no doors and no windows, one that slowly shrinks until all the oxygen runs out or you’re crushed by the walls, whichever comes first.”
“That sounds like a cheery prospect,” Cas replied.
“What I can’t do is collect the particles and lead you to the Sanctuary at the same time.”
“You’re saying we need a third person.”
“I’ll do it,” Samiya said, raising her hand and standing. “I would love to see the inside of that ship.”
“Commander,” Hank said. “You can’t be serious about going along with this plan. If anything, the captain shouldn’t even be going. The captain’s place is on the bridge, though some people seem to forget that.” His eyes bored right into Cas, but he paid the larger man no mind.
“I’m only here temporarily,” Cas replied. “So, my loss won’t make that much difference. But I’m also the only one who has successfully negotiated with the Sil. It has to be me. I’m not sure they’d listen to anyone else.”
“They might listen to an Athru,” Hank suggested.
“Send Esterva in? I’m sure by now word has come from Sissk that she’s a traitor, which the Athru will have relayed to the Sil. We can’t assume they aren’t talking. And that means her word would mean absolutely nothing in there.” Cas turned back to Zenfor. “How do we get onboard the ship?”
“When a Sil ship generates a gravity net, it uses a lot of power to increase the relative gravity of a specific area. That power is drawn evenly from all over the ship as to not make any one system more vulnerable than the other. But when a ship is holding more than two or three nets open at once, hoping to catch their enemy, their offenses and defenses are weakened. Our strategy should be to force the ship to generate more than two gravity nets, avoid them, then lay down cover fire while a small shuttle hides in the crossfire and docks with the Sil ship. If I can keep the ship calm, it won’t immediately alert the crew to our presence. But the Bortos might not be cooperative. In which case we wouldn’t have a lot of extra time to reach our destinations.”
