Infinitys end books 7 9, p.54
Infinity's End: Books 7-9, page 54
“You’re all a gaggle of idiots,” she interrupted whoever was talking. “This should not even be discussed.”
“I agree,” Hank said. “We’re better off without him.” He turned to Gysan, the one Zenfor had shoved against the wall for having been on Rutledge’s ship. “I can’t believe you’re actually suggesting we let him help.”
Gysan shook her head. “I know. He doesn’t deserve it. But Hank…think about what one of those devices could mean for this cause. We’d finally have an advantage over those bastards. I don’t like Rutledge any more than you do. But the Athru are worse. Much worse.” She turned to Diazal. “No offense.” Diazal didn’t respond.
“Based on probabilities, Mr. Rutledge is only offering us part of the story. There is a good chance he has other capabilities he hasn’t brought to light yet. I am not a card player, but if I were, I’d say this is his opening bet,” Zaal said, impassive as ever. If there was one person Zenfor didn’t understand, it was the Untuburu and his desire to fit in with the humans. Why make yourself to look like everyone else around you just for their comfort?
“Are you saying if we refuse, he might up the ante?” Hank asked.
“No,” Diazal said. “We’re not going to play his game. Either we agree we’re going to trust him to help us by allowing us to use this technology, or we find another way to accomplish our goals. He’s not going to goad us into his machinations.” She seemed serious. Zenfor could only conclude she was as angry as Caspian about Rutledge’s betrayal; she just wasn’t showing it as much.
“What are we supposed to do, take a vote?” Hank asked.
“No,” Zenfor offered.
“I say we can’t let this opportunity pass us by. We might not get another,” Samiya replied. “Yes.”
“I wasn’t serious, but okay,” Hank said. “No.”
“I agree with the commander. It is a serious tactical advantage,” Zaal said. “Yes.”
Everyone, including Zenfor looked at Evie. “It doesn’t matter what we say,” she said. “It’s up to the captain. All we can do is present him with all viewpoints.”
“Does that mean your vote is yes?” Hank asked.
Zenfor made a noise deep in her throat. “This bickering is pointless. Sit here and debate this all you want, it changes nothing. If you decide to work with him, I guarantee we will all regret it.” She stormed from the room, barely waiting for the doors to open for her. She bypassed the bridge and went straight to the hypervator that could be used to access the conference room directly. If she had to return to the bridge and look at that ship on the screen again she might lose it this time. As it was, she’d done a fair job keeping herself together. If they weren’t going to take care of this threat, she would have to do it herself. There was no other choice.
Chapter 6
The corridors were busier than usual since the Sil had sent over teams of their engineers to help improve Tempest’s systems. Due to Zenfor’s upgrades while they were on the Athru planet, most of the big structural work was already done and left alone. Cas wasn’t sure how he would have handled it if they needed to strip the ship down to its crossbeams and started over from scratch.
He couldn’t get over the strange look she’d given him when he left for sickbay. He’d never seen that look before. Was it because she was angry at Rutledge’s presence, or was there something else? Maybe he’d ask her about it if he felt the timing was right.
Cas skirted the edge of a Sil team working on one of the power conduits—neither acknowledging the other—and made his way to the primary sickbay entrance. Inside, Box was hunched over one of the consoles, cleaning whatever alcohol he’d poured all over himself out of his inner workings. Cas expected one of his trademark smart comments to greet him but when Box noticed him, Cas knew something was off. His eyes were dimmer than usual. That only meant something very bad. “What’s wrong?”
“Captain.” Cas turned to see Xax, standing at the entrance to her office adjacent to the main sickbay. “May we speak in private?”
Cas glanced at Box, then back at Xax and followed her in. He didn’t allow them to settle. Now was not the time to tiptoe around their problems. “What is it? Is it a malfunction? Is he losing synaptic response? Maybe if I—” Xax’s eyes narrowed at him.
“Captain, are you referring to—?”
Cas motioned to Box. “Him. That’s why you wanted me down here, right? Something’s gone wrong?”
Xax glanced at Box through her window that shared a wall between the two spaces. He feverishly scrubbed at his superstructure. “Box is fine,” she said. “I’ve just returned from Engineering. It’s Commander Sesster.”
Cas’s heart fell. He was relieved there was nothing wrong with Box, but he wasn’t happy to hear Sesster might have a new problem. He’d been getting regular updates on him and everything had remained constant ever since they’d returned from Athru space. “Go ahead.”
“I’ve started detecting cellular degradation all over his body. I’m afraid his condition is getting worse. If we don’t find a way to wake him soon, he will die.” Though her voice remained even and professional, Cas caught the hint of a twitch in her upper left eye.
“Xax, I don’t mean to be insensitive, but how the hell do we do that? We’ve tried everything. At least, everything I know to try. You told me yourself you’d exhausted all of your remedies. What else is left?”
“Taking him back to be in the presence of other Claxians.” She said it with such confidence, like it was a simple matter of moving him across the hall, despite the fact he was four meters tall and probably two hundred kilograms.
Cas scoffed. “I’m not sure you know this or not, but there are about a billion Athru between us and the only other place in the universe with Claxians.” He bit his lip. “I’m sorry. That was unprofessional. I know I don’t have to tell you the obstacles. But it’s just not possible. Not until we’ve found a way to drive the Athru from Coalition space. And we can’t do that until we have the full strength of the Sil fleet behind us.”
She remained clinical. “I’m just giving you the facts. If Sesster stays on this ship another week, he’ll be dead.”
Cas cursed under his breath. “What good will taking him back to Claxia Prime do? Other than place him in the presence of other Claxians?”
Xax tapped a button on her desk and a 3-D image came up between them. It showed what looked like one of the Claxian tentacles in great detail. Cas could see the millions of nerve endings on the appendage. “The Claxians have an intricate neural network built into their bodies. Much like a human bloodstream carries red blood cells, it carries electrical impulses through their bodies at tremendous rates. It is how they prefer all their interactions, in-person and with physical contact. It’s how they live and how they mate. It bypasses all known forms of communication, and yes, that even includes their ability to read and transmit thoughts. Quite frankly, it is an amazing evolutionary development.”
Cas thought back to Sesster as he had been, all alone in his cradle in Engineering. Keeping the ship moving, making sure the crew could get to one place after another. All the while sacrificing his well-being, his mental health. “It must have been torture for him. All alone on this ship.”
“I can’t imagine it was pleasant. Though while he was in good health physically, his mental condition was deteriorating. I think when Tempest returned the first time under Volf’s command, the mental stress finally got to him, and his mind went into a protection mode. But he’s been this way for too long, and without the mind, the body just cannot survive any longer. The only way I know to wake him is to return him home. Every artificial remedy has been fruitless.”
Zenfor. She had known this news was about Sesster. And Cas had made her a promise that he would get Sesster back home before something terrible happened. Which meant unless he was willing to let Sesster die, he might not have a choice but to accept Rutledge’s help. At least with the time bubble technology they might be able to find a way to get Sesster home before it was too late.
“You say he has a week?”
Xax shook her head. “Maybe less. The cellular degradation is accelerating. Regardless of what happens, he will need rehabilitation services on Claxia Prime in order to regain his full functionality.”
Cas stood. “Thanks for giving me a heads up. I’ll…keep you updated. We might have a potential solution, but don’t hold me to it yet.”
Xax stood as well. “I know you’ll do everything you can.” Cas turned to leave. “If I may,” she added, “the crew thinks you’re doing a good job. Morale seems to be improving, despite our circumstances.”
He was glad to know he wouldn’t be facing a mutiny anytime soon. Deserting the Coalition seemed like a pretty minor thing when the entire future of their people was in jeopardy. “Thanks. That helps.” Cas exited her office and approached Box, using one of the sonic brushes to blow liquid from his servos. “You heard?”
“She just uploaded the report into the computers. I download a backup copy of everything that comes through sickbay.” Box scrubbed harder at his joint. “Damn scorb.”
“Serves you right for making an ass of yourself over there. What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking: Box, these kinds of days don’t come very often. If there’s something you want to do, do it now. So that’s what I did.”
Cas arched an eyebrow. “You’ve always wanted to be doused in alcohol?”
“See, if you watched any net dramas at all you’d get it. When the hero wins a big race or even the guy who helped the hero, everyone comes around and celebrates by opening as many bottles of scorb as they can and dumping them all over each other. It’s like a scorb orgy. I decided it was high time for a Box orgy.”
Cas pinched the bridge of his nose. “Those are two words that should never be uttered together ever again.”
“Plus, how many other machines do you know who have earned the Coalition medal of honor? None, that’s how many.” He stopped scrubbing and polished the medal affixed to his chest again. It reflected the lights from sickbay.
“I need to tell you something,” Cas said, trying to ignore Box’s self-indulgence. “That ship—it belongs to Rutledge. He wasn’t killed on Eight. He’s been hiding out in Sargan territory.”
Box stopped what he was doing and stared at Cas. “What’s he doing here?”
“He says he wants to help. Claims to have taken some of the Athru tech from their ships. He can make his own time bubble.” Cas glanced around to make sure no one else was close enough to listen in. Nurse Menkel was on the other side of the sickbay and Xax was still in her office.
“Do you believe him?”
“He managed to get past the Sil border undetected, and you know how strict they are about monitoring their territory. Unless he managed to coerce the Sil to let him in and the probability of that scenario was one-hundred percent impossible.”
“Agreed,” Box said. “What are you going to do?”
Cas shook his head. “I don’t want him involved. I don’t even want him alive. I thought about stalling him out but given this situation with Sesster and the fact we’re at a standstill with the Sil…I just don’t know.”
“You should talk to Captain Jann about it. Your thoughts are always clearer after one of your late-night trysts.”
Cas stared at Box. “And just what the hell do you know about my…evening schedule?”
“Nothing! It was only a supposition. You’re dating her, she’s dating you…you spend time together off-duty. One can only assume you’re making the beast with two backs at night.”
Cas massaged his temples. “Please don’t call it that.”
“I’m only repeating what is a widely-accepted human euphemism. Don’t get all prudish on me.” He resumed cleaning his joints with the sonic brush.
“You haven’t started up your experiments again?”
Box didn’t even flinch. “Nope. Dead in the water. As ordered.”
“Good. Make sure it stays that way. And leave the genetic manipulation to Esterva.”
“Whatever you say, boss.” Cas wasn’t sure if Box was humoring him or not. Children of disparate species weren’t common, and those who did survive often couldn’t have their own children. Cas understood the desire from multi-species couples (and triples, etc) but he considered it a disservice to the child. Evie seemed to be the exception. He wasn’t sure if it was because of the Athru’s superior genetic skill, or if she’d just been lucky, but she’d managed to be a perfect fusion of the traits of both her parents; to the point it enhanced her physical and mental attributes beyond the source DNA. It was something that no other multi-species coupling had ever produced.
Cas left Box to his cleaning, making a mental note to send Vrij back into Box’s room just for a routine sweep. Just in case.
Chapter 7
Zenfor stomped down the corridor, not bothering to hide her anger. Those that saw her coming jumped out of her way, and those that didn’t were rewarded by being knocked over or to the side with the swipe of a hand or collision of a shoulder. She didn’t care. This ridiculous notion the captain had entertained had to be stopped. If she didn’t do something, they could very well end up inviting this man on board. And Zenfor knew in her core it was a bad idea.
He was supposed to be in jail. Cas had assured her he would sit in a small cell for the rest of his life and rot there. And she was content with that. While Sil doctrine dictated he be killed for his actions, she liked the idea of allowing him to suffer another thirty or forty of their years, wasting away behind a cell, unable to experience anything beyond its four walls. According to human tradition, it was a life of misery, one many prisoners took their own lives to avoid. That would have been a fitting end.
Instead, the man who had betrayed her people, who had overseen a mission that had killed ten Sil civilians, including her second Gla Messtak, was captaining his own ship, roaming the galaxy as if nothing had happened. And that smug look on his face had told her everything she needed to know: he wasn’t sorry. Not that it mattered if he were, he was a dead man either way. But at least to see some sort of change in the man would have given her greater confidence about the people she had aligned herself with. No Sil would act as Rutledge had. Most were much more like the crew of the Tempest, willing to accept responsibility for their deeds, regardless of the cost. But this man, this Rutledge, had broken his own system of rules, flaunted them in front of others and then not paid the appropriate price.
But he would pay now.
Zenfor entered the Bay, scanning the room for an empty shuttle. A series of the mid-size ones sat off to the side, the cowling on some of their engine components removed. She’d forgotten they had been upgrading the shuttles as well, in the event they were necessary for evacuations or support craft. Three Sil crew teams stood in different areas around the shuttles, using their expertise to enhance the shuttles’ capability far beyond what the Coalition species could manage. Zenfor stood off to the side, not wanting to engage any of the teams in further insults. She knew she was a pariah and didn’t need every Sil to remind her of that.
At first it had been hard. But at some point she’d become used to the idea, proud of it even, until she got into skirmishes with the other Sil regarding her status as an outsider. If there was one thing the Sil didn’t like, it was those who violated their doctrines. Zenfor had been around humans long enough to realize those doctrines were rooted in millennia-old superstition. And she had no use for them anymore. The only upside was the other Sil were the only ones on board who could match her strength and give her a physical challenge. It was fortunate Xax was so proficient in repairing Sil biology.
“Come to watch?”
Zenfor turned to see Saturina Jann, standing off to her right with her arms crossed, staring at the Sil teams as they worked. “No.”
“Me either. But seeing as they are taking apart every ship we have, I don’t have much of a choice. I don’t guess you could ask them if they could at least let my people watch what they’re doing? If something goes wrong out there, I need to know we can fix it on our own.”
“Nothing I say will make a difference,” Zenfor said. “They consider us both inferior now.”
“So that’s how it is, huh?” She continued to stare at the shuttle teams.
Caspian had told Zenfor of Jann’s resilience, especially in the face of dire circumstances. He’d described her as one of the most stalwart people he knew. “That ship out there,” Zenfor nodded, beyond the Bay opening, even though nothing was visible other than a small section of her home planet, its purple hue glowing in the darkness of space. “Its captain is Daniel Rutledge.”
Jann finally faced her. “What?”
“He should be dead,” Zenfor growled. “I should have killed him the moment I set eyes on him.”
“You’re serious,” Jann said.
“I came in here to steal a shuttle. I planned to fly over there, tear through his bulkheads and crush his windpipe between my fingers.” She stared out at the planet beyond, willing herself to calm down.
Jann looked at her expectantly.
“But that is what they would do, isn’t it?” she said, glancing at the Sil working on the ships. “They would want to exact revenge, to do whatever was necessary to kill those that had wronged them. They are ruthless in how they follow their prescribed roles, unable to waver. Unable to make their own decisions about their lives. They are tasked as warriors, they kill. If they are tasked as engineers they repair. And if they are tasked as leaders, they sit and squander all their time until they are free from obligation.” Upon seeing her people, her fury had been redirected.
