Osprey chronicles comple.., p.126
Osprey Chronicles Complete Series Boxed Set, page 126
“You need to rest, too,” Toner said.
Jaeger shrugged off his hand, though not unkindly. She shook her head. Being alone in the dark was the last thing she needed right now. “Come on,” she said. “There’s someone else who can tell us what the hell happened in the Forebear city. Let’s find Virgil.”
“I have no idea.” A repair droid rested on the mess hall table in one of the half-finished housing units circling the nascent human colony. Emergency lighting turned the entire building into a shifting mass of light and shadows.
Since reaching out to cooperate with the humans, Virgil hadn’t asked permission to step one mechanical foot onto the Osprey, and Jaeger hadn’t invited it. That left her and Toner venturing out to the buildings in the middle of the night to confront the robot lurking in the shadows.
“You must know something.” Toner’s voice stayed deceptively even. “Your crazy cousin and one of your droids went off to war with us and never came back, but you got another out here awful fast. Like you knew they weren’t coming back.”
“My droids scattered across several kilometers of the nearby forest,” Virgil answered. “As soon as I decided to go on this beacon quest with you, I brought another one of myself here to replace the one I knew would lose contact with the outside world. I was prescient, it seems. As before, I’ve lost another droid to this Forebear technology. That makes two. It appears I have a penchant for slow suicide.”
“Occy’s asleep,” Jaeger said. She swirled the tepid coffee in her mug and forced herself to take another sip. She hadn’t been this tired in a long time.
“I am pleased to hear that you’ve recovered the chief engineer.”
“You can’t tell us anything about what happened down there?”
“Of course not,” Virgil said. “How could I? You know as well as I do that the crystalline superstructure blocks our communications. The moment my healthy and corrupted droids went into the tunnel with Occy, I lost them. Based on radio chatter, I conclude that the meteor bombardment destroyed the island as well as the entrance to the city.”
“You can tell us something,” Toner insisted. “You can tell us what probably happened, based on what you know about yourself, right?”
“If this incident with the corrupted droid has taught me anything, it is that I do not have a complete understanding of myself.”
Toner growled and slammed his fist on the table, then winced as hairline fractures shot through the surface. “Why do I get the feeling you’re being intentionally evasive?” he growled.
“Because you have the mental and emotional capacity of a malnourished teenager. I do not—” Virgil cut off mid-reply, making Jaeger look up from her cup of coffee for the first time in what felt like hours. Toner looked around, instantly alert as well. “What?” he asked. “What is it?”
“It is coming.”
Jaeger didn’t know how Virgil managed to funnel so much contempt through a repair droid’s primitive audio channel. She turned to see a small silver sphere gliding through the shadowy hallway in their direction.
“Me.” She sat up, surprise injecting her with a few more minutes of full awareness. “What are you doing here?”
“Moss suggested I might find you here, Captain Jaeger.” The sphere began a lazy orbit around the two humans and the hulking repair droid.
“I bring a variety of news. You might be pleased to know that our subspace relays have finally reported a change in activity in the primary K’tax swarm. It appears our enemy has received the message your engineer sent out and taken it to heart. They have ceased their approach to Locaur.”
“They’re retreating?” Jaeger breathed.
“Not exactly, as of yet,” Me admitted. “They have adopted a holding pattern in subspace.”
“Still, it’s good news.” Jaeger tossed back the last of her coffee and grimaced. She would have to fiddle with the recipes on this mess hall fabricator. “It buys us more time if nothing else.”
“Hey,” Toner added as if a thought had occurred to him. “Me, you’ve been down to the Forebear city with us. What do you think might’ve happened down there?” He pointed at the repair droid. “Because this asshole isn’t talking.”
“Oh, I have yet to recover my records of our adventure completely,” Me said easily. “Councilor Tsuan has had me prioritizing other tasks. However, since the beacon is still transmitting, I deduce that considerable sections of the structure remain undamaged. However, they might have flooded as a result of meteor bombardment.
“Clearly, Virgil and Occy managed to access the ancient communication systems. I suspect that once the structural integrity became unstable, Virgil opted to remain behind and continue an exploration of the Forebear technology while Occy escaped.”
“Why do you think that?” Jaeger asked.
“It’s what I would do.”
Jaeger allowed herself a small smile.
“This is plausible,” Virgil grumbled. “In the moments before the meteor bombardment, I detected slight irregularities on my communication channels. Atmospheric interference might have caused it, or it might have been my counterpart attempting to reach out to me via the Forebear technology.”
“Nothing since then?” Jaeger asked.
“No.”
“Well…keep an ear out.” She sighed and pushed away from the table. “Let’s hope that your opposite number is still down there with access to the Forebear mainframe. Now that the tsunami destroyed the tunnel, it might be our only connection to all of their knowledge.” She added silently, Let’s hope that if it is, it’s not the total psychopath you can be, Virgil.
“There is something else, Captain Jaeger,” Me said brightly.
“Go on.”
“Councilor Tsuan has arrived in-system. He is very angry.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Jaeger hadn’t been to the Osprey’s No-A sector in a long time. There wasn’t much to see there since Virgil had offloaded the thousands and thousands of embryo casks. Plus, she had a lot of memories—some good, but many bad—floating under that high cathedral ceiling.
However, it was the closest empty location with enough open space to accommodate multiple full-sized Overseer holograms. Jaeger was too tired to worry about the optics of confronting Tsuan about a pesky human problem in the place that had birthed said pesky human problem. At any rate, she doubted Tsuan would make the connection.
“The Council is debating the issue of this new human invasion as we speak.” Tsuan’s hologram flickered as his antennae lashed through the air faster than the scanners could track.
“I’m surprised you’re not in chambers with them, then,” Jaeger said.
“I trust my adjunct to represent our position,” Tsuan dismissed. “It is well documented, regardless.”
“Your position.” Jaeger began a slow pace around the edge of the No-A cathedral, circling the life-sized holograms of Tsuan and Kwin. The caffeine had helped, but she needed every edge she could get, and movement kept her alert.
“It’s interesting, Councilor, that you have such a strong position on humans. Yet you appear to show no interest in the battle we’ve all recently fought to protect the Locauri from an extinction-level catastrophe.”
Privately, Kwin whispered into Jaeger’s comm channel. “Be careful. You do us no favors if you further alienate Tsuan.”
“I’m not impressed by your self-inflicted martyrdom,” Tsuan said. “It was your presence that sparked the K’tax invasion to begin with. Now it appears more of you have appeared on our doorstep, making all sorts of unreasonable demands.”
“These are weary travelers that have arrived on your doorstep,” Jaeger snapped. “I recall that your people were once weary travelers searching for a home, as well. I remember !Tsok n Sshoogn, Councilor. Do you?”
“You reach beyond your station, human.” Tsuan’s mandibles lashed. “You assume too much.”
“What would you do, Tsuan?” Jaeger stopped pacing and scrubbed fingers through her hair, brushing the first crust of delayed sleep from the corner of her eye. “Honestly. Sincerely. I know what you want. You want the fleet to go away. I’m asking, what would you do if your people were desperate and starving?”
“Irrelevant. When you came to us seeking asylum, Jaeger, you pled that you were fleeing the oppression of evil people, the ones who designed your war machines. Is this not the same fleet you spoke of then? Now you defend them? You would have us believe they deserve the same considerations you did? Which is it, Captain?”
“A lot can change in a year,” she said tiredly.
“Indeed.” Tsuan rounded abruptly to stare down Kwin. “I have received troubling reports, Kwin, about how you are using the experimental ships the Council has lent you. Your medical bays have been disproportionately active. Despite the terrible battle you claim to have fought, life support systems indicate that the population of your crew has been increasing.”
“I have recovered a cache of unclaimed human embryos,” Kwin said, unmoving and unapologetic. “They are being activated under my authority for the sole purpose of protecting Locaur from a ground invasion of K’tax.”
“How convenient. The disgraced captain allies himself further with aliens and begins building a private army. Watch yourself, Kwin. You stink of deception.”
“If the Council wishes to claim ownership of this human force, I will relinquish it promptly.”
Jaeger shot her friend a sharp look. She sure hoped he didn’t mean exactly what he said.
“In the meantime,” Kwin went on, ignoring Jaeger, “I will continue using every tool at my disposal in defense of our cousins.”
“We shall see about that.” Tsuan’s carapace rattled with a low, threatening buzz. For the first time, Kwin’s hologram shifted, turning to face Tsuan square-on. Dark shades of umber and ebony shivered down Kwin’s carapace. Jaeger didn’t know much about Overseer body language, but she recognized two males sizing each other up when she saw it. She was not going to facilitate another fight, not today. Not here.
“Councilor!” she barked, making both of the Overseers straighten and turn to her. She racked her brain for an appropriate change of subject. “I recall that you are a historian with a keen interest in Forebear technology. You’ll be interested to know that for the first time, my people have successfully interfaced with a Forebear computer to broadcast the very beacon that stopped the K’tax advance.”
It was a pathetically transparent distraction, but to her relief, Tsuan’s antennae thoughtfully flicked as he considered this offered tidbit.
“I had gathered as much. I did not expect your people to have the understanding and knowledge to do this.”
“We have a proof of concept,” Jaeger said. “Using this technology, we can send messages to the K’tax, and they will obey. Surely you must see how this changes the very nature of your longstanding feud with them.”
Tsuan said nothing, watching her closely with glittering black eyes.
“We are not your enemy,” she said. “The K’tax and what they bear, they are the real threat to humans, Overseers, and Locauri alike. Work with us, Tsuan. We will happily share what we know of the Forebear technology. With it, we might have ultimate control over the direction of the K’tax swarms.”
For a long moment, she thought he might go for it. She let herself hope.
The snap of Tsuan’s mandibles echoed around the arched ceiling. “No. You have neither the right nor the knowledge to appreciate what you do when you tamper with the technology of our ancestors, Jaeger. Due to the war you started, we have now lost access to fabulous tools and knowledge. There is no telling what unknown damage your forces might have done to the fragile computer that transmits the beacon.”
Jaeger opened her mouth—to say what, she wasn’t sure—but she didn’t get the chance.
“You have done enough.” Tsuan’s antennae bowed with contempt. “The K’tax are waylaid. You are out of immediate danger. My duties call me elsewhere. In the meanwhile, you are not to tamper with Forebear matters further. You were fortunate yesterday, but there’s no telling what new catastrophes your blundering might bring down on us.
“My people will come to examine the ruins, but you are not to concern yourself with Forebear technology any further.” Tsuan drew himself up, and Me zipped around the two holograms. Jaeger recognized it as the activity sequence Me ran when preparing to cut off communications and collapse holograms.
Tsuan hadn’t finished talking, however. In the last few seconds before his hologram faded, he said, “If you disregard my command, I will consider it an act of war.”
“I’d say that guy needs to pull the stick out of his ass, but then…” Toner stepped out from the shadows of the stacks lining the No-A cathedral. In one hand, he held a half-eaten steak by its bony handle. “I guess he wouldn’t have any ass left.”
Jaeger eyed the meat. She had set restrictions on high-quality food fabrications since the Osprey’s stores had started to run low, but she’d bet her best flight suit that Toner had found some way around them.
She turned back to Kwin’s faintly glowing hologram. “Guess I managed to alienate Tsuan even more,” she said softly.
Kwin studied the middle distance with his head cocked thoughtfully to one side. “Your proposal to work together on the Forebear technology was sound. I would not have expected such a negative reaction, either.”
Toner joined Jaeger and Kwin at the center of the cathedral. “He’s hiding something,”
“He’s a politician.” Jaeger sighed. “Of course he’s hiding something. The question is whether or not it matters to us.”
“What do you mean?” Toner gnawed on his bone.
“If he’s truly worried that we’ll step on another land mine buried in the Forebear computer, I can understand his worry.” She turned away from the dais, walking slowly to the edge of the chamber. Kwin’s hologram floated alongside them, projected ahead of Me. “On the other hand, if he’s blocking us out of this research because it looks bad to the Council or some other bullshit political reason…”
She set her jaw. “I can’t let that stand in the way of research that might mean the difference between survival and destruction.”
“Tsuan’s behavior is strange,” Kwin agreed. “Even for a politician. I will make some inquires and see if I can get a better understanding of our Councilor’s motives.”
“That’s good.” Jaeger passed out of No-A and into the main corridor of the starboard wing, which was silent as the grave at this hour.
“His interest in the embryos concerns me, however,” Kwin added. “He was quick to point out that the Terrible ships are not completely at my disposal.”
“Spit it out.” Toner swallowed a rope of raw, fabricated beef tendon, and to Jaeger’s amazement, tossed the remaining bone down the nearest recycling chute. He gave her a dirty look as if she’d caught him doing something shameful.
“It might be wise to relocate the activation pods,” Kwin said. “As well as the embryos that are already activated. If Tsuan or the Council decides to recall the Terrible ships, I would not have them fly off with this fledgling army as well.”
“There’s an entire neighborhood of apartment buildings in the settlement waiting for residents,” Jaeger said. “You find yourself in need of a place to quarter troops. They're at your disposal, Captain.”
“Very well,” Kwin said. “I shall begin the transfer immediately.”
He meant it. His hologram vanished without ceremony, leaving Jaeger and Toner walking through the darkness together.
“Give us some privacy, Me,” Toner said, and the silver sphere zipped down the hallway, humming pleasantly to itself. “How are you holding up?” he asked once the AI was safely out of sight.
“’Bout like you’d expect.” Jaeger stared into the deep shadows of the corridors, but all she saw was a young woman with eyes of liquid gold. “God, I’m tired.”
“In more ways than one,” Toner agreed. “Is there…anything I can do?”
Jaeger said nothing for a long time. Toner was dealing with his internal storm of bullshit, she knew. But he was asking about her.
“Tell me about you,” she whispered.
She expected him to ignore or outright deny her request. Instead, he halted and turned, leaning against the bulkhead and studying her in the dim light.
“What about me?”
“Anything.” She swallowed. “We’re not going to escape our past after all. It’s already here, and it’s caught me with my pants down.” She sniffed sharply and wiped away a tear. “I wanted so badly to remember that girl. Then I wanted nothing else but to forget her again. And here we are.”
“Here we are.”
“God hath given you one face, and you make yourself another,” she murmured. “You haven’t been the same since your coma. Who are we?” She looked up and met his cold blue stare. “You and me. What were we?”
“Friends.”
“Friends,” she repeated.
He spread his hands, offering her a shrug. “Weird, right?” He sighed, wringing his long, slender fingers and muttering. “Not so weird, once you remember the bulk of it.”
She waited for him to go on. It was cold in the corridor, and exhaustion made her shiver.
“You know, if we’d met in a different time, at a different place…I’d be all over that. Hell, back in the land of amnesia, I was all over that.” He gestured at the entirety of her person.
“Look at you. Smart, cute as hell, and ready to take on the whole damn fleet by yourself. God knows I could use a good influence. But I watched you grow up, Sarah.”
He looked away, and if she didn’t know him better, she would say it was embarrassment that flickered across his brow. “I really wish I hadn’t hit on you as much as I did. You’re like a little sister to me.”
Jaeger let out a long, shuddering breath. She didn’t know what to say as strange emotions warred within her. Shame for her lost memories—those the wormhole had taken, those she’d purposefully destroyed, and those she’d chosen not to seek in Kwin’s Living Dream. Shame in knowing that Toner was all alone, in dealing with a fully realized past coming back to haunt him. That woman in the fleet—Petra. Jaeger had seen the pain on his face when he quoted Shakespeare to her. How terrible it must be for all of your friends and lovers to forget you ever were.
