Earth Song: Twilight Serenade (29 page)

“Lacking a CI to make the necessary decisions for running my ship, the medical intelligence improvised and modified my brain.” She gestured and the display showed a medical scan of her brain. The healthy brain tissue was instantly discernable from the dozens of little blocks of cybernetic computer implants. “The purpose was to both increase my mental capacity and to allow for seamless integration into the ship’s computer systems.”

“All that to act as a CI?” Jasmine asked. The look on the woman’s face told Minu that she’d never realized the extent to which Lilith had been modified.

“Yes,” Lilith said. “Discussing the procedure with the CI we now have running Fiisk Prime, and its review of my combat performance suggests I am superior to the AI combat intelligences in every quantifiable way. The only way I seem to fall short is in raw response time. But I can handle more tasks than a CI, and anticipate tactical situations better. The CI said my creativity was a fusion of a CI and a biological operator.”

“So can we operate these ships without CI?” Gregg asked. The question was a plant by Minu.

“Operate?” Lilith asked. “Yes. With any amount of efficiency? No. Certainly not in combat. We’ve created crew and command interfaces for the Ibeen which allows them to be operated with a crew of forty.”

“That’s not too bad,” Ken Benedict, Minu’s head of training.

“The Ibeen used to operate almost completely autonomously,” Minu said. “They used an unusual version of the CI that was incapable of offensive weapons use. And the Ibeen is a rather uncomplicated ship to run.”

“That is an understatement,” Lilith added. “The Kaatan is the only warship which used just one CI. The Fiisk requires two, the Guul five, and the Kiile six!”

“Six?!” Dram said, shaking his head in amazement.

“The CI were assigned different tasks. There was some overlap, but those programs allowed almost inconceivable amounts of tasks to take place with very few operators.”

“So how many to crew the ships without these CI?” Jasmine asked. “If it’s forty per CI, that’s only eighty to run a Fiisk, right?”

“No,” Lilith said. “The CI running the Ibeen are underutilized, while those running the Fiisk are being used at peak capacity. Using the experience my mother got from operating the Kaatan prior to my birth, we’ve estimated the minimum crew necessary to operate a Fiisk, even at minimal combat effectiveness, is a thousand.”

“That’s a lot,” Dram said. “Five hundred per CI?”

“More or less,” Minu said. “We haven’t tried to model that against the much larger ships. The Kiile might be less, the Guul is likely a lot more.”

“And these crews will have to be trained to interact quickly, efficiently, and under all sorts of unimaginable circumstances,” Lilith explained.

“So, what do you have in mind?” Bjorn asked, right on cue.

The discussion over about crewing the ships, Minu pushed on to what was, to her, arguably the biggest issue. And considering their reaction to her plans for crewing the ships, that was quite a statement.

“The final ghost fleet we located is within a nebula we’ve named Aether,” Minu said and the galaxy map returned. Complicated computer schematics and human brain mapping fell away into the background and faded away. 

“The ghost fleet was left by the retreating Lost task force on a trajectory taking it deep into the heart of this nebula. We initially believed it was to hide the salvageable ships. And considering this is where we found the Guul, that seemed probable.

“Our final determination though is that they were sending the salvage to rendezvous with the star system we found orbiting the magnetar at the center of the system. The star has been named after the nebula, Aether.”

The map zoomed in to show the nebula, then in for more detail on the star itself.

“Aether, as my father decided to call it,” Lilith started, managing to sound both informative and annoyed at the same time, “is a somewhat unusual magnetar in that it’s rotation is slower than normal, only twenty-two minutes in duration, and its gamma ray bursts are limited to a plane of the stars eclipse.

“The three planets found in orbit are mostly outside the gamma ray emission plane. Two of them are only in those planes for very short times, and when they are within it their orbits pass between the emissions.”

“Are you saying the star system was designed?” Jasmine asked.

“There is no doubt of that,” Lilith replied. “If not intentionally designed, the worlds were moved to their current locations. We know perfectly well The People were capable of this. You are standing on a world that proves it.” She paused to let that sink in. “Moving on, one of the two worlds is the remnants of a gas giant. It was named Asgard. It is determined to be very rich in certain rare elements only found in the center of massive gas giants.

“The next world was named Niflheim. It is the closest of the three planets to the star, and is often bathed in gamma ray bursts. It is, however, a mineralogical treasure-trove and also stocked with abundant radioactives.

“The final planet was named Midgard, and it is within the star’s lifebelt, or as human scientists name it for some unknown reason, the Goldilocks zone.” A few people chuckled around the room and she looked up, her face registering suspicion.

“Later,” Minu said. “Please continue, Lilith.”

“Very well. The planet Midgard has a standard life bearing oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere with a midrange stable temperature of 17 Celsius. On the colder side for your species, but tolerable.

“The predominant radiation it gets is infrared, however there is sufficient blue wavelength to allow unaided moving about during planetary day. The planet has a stable biosphere sufficiently diverse enough to feed humans. This includes all normal types of life from microbial up through complicated multicellular animals.

“Lastly, we found numerous cities, infrastructure, and operating farming and wildlife harvesting systems capable of supporting, at current operating levels, more than a hundred million beings.”

“It’s a damned turnkey colony,” Bjorn exclaimed.

“Yes,” Minu agreed. “And I intend to turn the key.”

“What you are suggesting,” Jasmine said, holding up a hand, “is against Concordian law.”

“Yes,” Minu replied, turning to face her. “It’s called squatting. The only thing is, this world doesn’t exist in the Concordian database.”

Dram spoke up. “I’ve reviewed the law along with some Chosen experts. There does appear to be a precedent. A species can claim a world if they are the first to find it.”

“But you said the Lost apparently built this, and that suggests all these structures as well,” Ken pointed out. “And to what end?”

“We don’t know,” Minu admitted, holding her hands wide. “We only know there is no evidence anyone ever lived there. In addition to the ground side infrastructure, we believe mining systems are in place on both Niflheim and Asgard, and we found a firebase in orbit similar to the one in Enigma. Except this one has no ships. We’ve reactivated it with the EPCs from Dervish. Its ship handling and light repair systems are currently being utilized to work on the ships we’ve salvaged.”

“So what are you here asking us for?” Dram asked. “We obviously can’t provide enough crew, even in an optimistic plan.”

“We’ll still need crew. Lots of them. In fact, I intend to review the possibility of creating a new military branch.”

“Black navy?” Ken asked.

“Why black?” Minu wondered.

“Well, in the old days a navy that operated in the oceans was called a blue water navy. So what you are talking about would be either a space navy or black navy. I just though space navy sounded too much like sci-fi.” Minu shrugged.

“So if that wasn’t your primary worry, what then?” Dram persisted.

“I want to begin a colonization effort on Midgard. And since it won’t be public knowledge that we have space ships until after our appointment with destiny on Nexus, I want to bring over Chosen, soldiers, and some dependents.”

There was a few minutes of discussion. Minu reminded everyone during the discussion that they were all that remained of humanity. And as just how efficiently the T’Chillen had nearly wiped the Rasa out of the universe.

“As long as we’re only here, we’re vulnerable.”

Finally there was a consensus in Minu’s favor. She heaved a great sigh without letting anyone else see.

“So how do you move that many people back and forth?” Jasmine asked. “Your daughter already said that there was a risk of ships being spotted going in and out of the nebula.”

“Oh,” Minu said, “that part is easy.” She pulled the item she’d retrieved from her safe out of its pocket and held it up for them to see. “And really cool.”

Sanctuary Island, Plateau Tribe Territory

Through most of dinner Minu had talked nonstop about the plans for the flight back to Aether. Aaron let her go until the main course was done and she went to get desert, key lime pie.

“We haven’t talked about what we’re doing on this return trip,” he said.

“I thought that’s what we’ve been talking about all night,” Minu laughed. But as she put the ancient plate that once belonged to her ancestor in front of Aaron she saw the look on his face. “But that’s not what you’re talking about…”

“No,” he admitted. “I was talking about myself and Mindy.”

“I’d just assumed we were all going.”

“But is that the kind of place for a baby to be going?”

Minu glanced at the guest room where the nursery was set up and Mindy was sleeping peacefully. She thought about it for a long moment. Long enough for her to sit with her own plate and take a taste of the pie. It had been a welcome home gift from Gregg’s wife, Faye, and it was awesome.

“She was born in space, dear.”

“Not by your choice. You wanted to get home to have her, you told me as much.”

Minu nodded in silent agreement. She had no choice but agree. “I have to go out,” she said. “I’m the only one that can use the device.”

“You could teach Gregg or Kal’at to do that.”

Minu thought again and slowly shook her head. “I could, but I won’t. One because I’m not one hundred percent certain how to use it until I start the process. Two is that I need to be there and make sure the rest of what I need to happen is happening.”

“I don’t know if I agree that it needs to be you.”

They finished their desert in silence then Aaron helped clear the table and do the dishes, as was their custom when on the island together. They didn’t speak again until they were sitting out on the porch under the stars. She’d dug another wooden recliner out of the storage shed after they’d married. Like hers, it had been made by Mindy Harper’s husband five hundred years ago. Minu thought it might even have been his very own.

“We haven’t had many arguments in our years together,” Minu said as they watched the dark disk of Remus racing behind the blue-green circle of Romulus.

“Only a couple,” he agreed.

“So I don’t want to turn this one into an argument. I can’t order you to go. I wouldn’t even if I could. And I can see your point about taking Mindy with me. Every fiber of my being wants to, but it makes more sense to keep her here with you. I’ll only be gone a few weeks.”

“That’s a very long time for a newborn.”

Minu looked away and sighed. “You’re not making this any easier.”

“It shouldn’t be easy.” She just stared off into the night. Somewhere a few howlers were barking at each other, but they could hardly be heard over the song of night birds. The ecology was continuing to change.

“I need to go,” she said, “and I’m going.”

“I understand,” he said. Then he got up to go inside. “The baby and I will wait here.” He stopped and leaned over to kiss her on the forehead before closing the door behind him.

Minu stayed out until Remus was gone behind the house and Romulus was well into the night sky. Even though he was her husband, she was the First, and she didn’t want him to see her crying.

Chapter 32

Julast 22nd, 535 AE

Planet Midgard, Aether System, Galactic Frontier

The Kaatan slid into orbit around Midgard with Ibeen Alpha and Theta close behind. Four Eseel flew in close formation around them. As Lilith had warned, the tactical jump with the two Ibeen proved difficult. So difficult the Kaatan made two jumps instead.

“It is an unnecessary risk,” Lilith had finally decided. So they’d taken an extra day to move the transports through one at a time. Carefully and with deliberation, as the ship’s master had required.

The flight from the arrival point within Aether’s system and Midgard was less than an hour, even by the plodding speed of the Ibeen. Minu floated in the CIC with Lilith, most of one wall of the circular space projecting space ahead of the ship, and the orbiting planet to the other side. The planet was a monochromatic painting, dark and beautiful.

As they orbited the firebase came within view. When she’d left a month ago there was only a couple ships docked to the firebase, now there were dozens. Many were Eseel being gone over, but there were plenty of the capital ships as well. All their salvaged ships not under crew were there. All except the hybrid Fiisk and the Guul.

The Fiisk was watching system defense. It orbited just outside the stable jump point, sensors ever vigilant outward where a dozen of the Eseel constantly drifted quietly. The Guul floated less than a kilometer from the firebase, two kilometers of metallic death dimly shining in Aether’s blueish light.

One of the Ibeen continued to the firebase, the other stayed in formation with the Kaatan as it set up a stable orbit. A shuttle arrived a few minutes later carrying her security detail.

“You shouldn’t have thought you could avoid me for long,” Selain joked as his squad came off the shuttle.

“I wasn’t avoiding you,” she assured him.

“Where’s the hubby and babe?”

“Back home,” she said, then promptly changed the subject. “Ready to head down?”

Selain’s head cocked fractionally at her reaction, and then he nodded. “Ready when you are, ma’am. Ranger teams have visited every settlement and industrial facility on Midgard. There is no evidence of any living sentient presence on the planet. Furthermore, there are no predators larger than a small dog. And they are not interested in humans as prey.”

“Midnight Utopia,” Minu joked.

“Some of the men have taken to calling the planet Twilight, ma’am.”

Minu thought the name a little more fitting than Midgard, but what was done was done.

“Did you bring the shuttles?” he asked.

“As planned,” Minu said. She gestured at a wall and it became a display screen showing the Ibeen behind them.

“You’ve been learning your daughter’s tricks,” Selain noted.

“Some, yeah.” Minu showed her a tiny crystalline bracelet she now wore. Minu looked at it for a second, still not sure if she liked the idea. The People’s tech used Azure for everything.

As they watched three of the Ibeen’s huge cargo balls split and opened wide. From inside of each emerged a line of four brand new Phoenix shuttles. Shorter than the needle-shaped Kaatan shuttles, they were much wider with forward swept wings and considerable cargo capacity.

The shuttles quickly broke up into groups. Some headed for the firebase, a pair farther out into the system, more towards the planet, and one flew to meet up with the Kaatan.

“So what’s the plan, boss?” Selain asked.

“I’ve got approval to start using Midgard as a base.”

“That’s excellent. Not as a colony?”

“Not yet. The council wants to wait until our little meeting on Nexus. We should be able to better research the issue of squatting a world like this at that point.”

“So what kind of base?” he wondered.

“One that looks an awful lot like a colony,” Minu said. Selain narrowed his eyes and Minu gave him a slow, deliberate wink. He just shook his head and chuckled.

The Phoenix docked a minute later and Minu boarded with her detail close behind. Just inside, the pilot greeted them.

“Welcome aboard, First,” Chris Sommercorn said, saluting in the new fashion.

“Gonna take me a while to get used to that,” Minu said, returning the salute. “How was the crossing?”

“Boring,” Chris admitted. “The grazers aren’t much for conversation or entertainment. They spend most of their time flying around inside the empty cargo balls, practicing zero gravity maneuvers, and eating salads.”

“Exciting,” Selain said, shaking the four-star Chosen’s hand.

“We do the flying, you guys can do the dying.”

“Screw you, flyboy.”

“You two play nice,” Minu said with mock seriousness to match their play.

“He better,” Chris said, “since I’m flying him down.”

“Hrumph,” Selain grunted, “I better head aft and see if there are any airsickness bags in this crate.”

The trip down was more energetic than it would have been aboard the ancient People’s shuttles. Those relied on shields and gravitic drives heavily during reentry to a planet’s atmosphere. The Phoenix, on the other hand, was more old school.

Its underside was a composite moliplas dualloy ceramic hybrid Aaron’s scientists had invented. Able to absorb and shunt away thousands of degrees of thermal buildup. Under that was a superconducting layer that kept the heat from transferring into the passenger area. Small gravitic thrusters on the wings, nose, and tail provided attitude control. The rest, as Aaron liked to say, was up to Sir Isaac Newton.

It could make a hot entry, similar to a People’s shuttle, if necessary. However that consumed power, and for human’s power was a valuable commodity. Even with thousands of huge ship scale EPCs in storage, they wouldn’t last forever. Especially with a fleet of warships. So the Phoenix just glided in.

Chris was an exceptional pilot, bringing them through the upper atmosphere with only a few bumps. Just ten minutes after departing from the Kaatan, Chris was piloting the Phoenix in an unpowered descent, sweeping over the biggest city on Midgard. Perfectly flat plains went from horizon to horizon in every direction.

“The airfield is done?” Minu asked. She’d pulled rank and grabbed the co-pilot seat. She was qualified on the shuttle, after all. Chris’ actual copilot was riding the otherwise unoccupied third seat. That position could be either sensor operator, engineer, or gunner, depending on the mission.

“Must be,” Chris said as he pointed. Just outside the city a stretch of concrete was visible extending out into the once perfectly symmetrical fields.

Minu examined the controls for a moment and tapped a few keys. A navigational beacon was identified and the approach vector fed to Chris. He grunted and locked in the approach.

“They’ve been busy,” Minu said with a nod of approval.

Chris brought them around in a series of wide sweeping turns, expertly bleeding off speed until there was a shudder announcing the shuttle dropping below the speed of sound just as he finished his final turn on line with the long strip of ceramic concrete.

“Well done,” Minu appreciated.

“Thanks, First. Your husband sat in on my Phoenix qualifications. He said I was a natural.”

Minu figured if her husband gave that kind of a complement the kid was likely an impressive pilot. Then she sighed as she thought about her baby and husband hundreds of light years away. Her breasts hurt. It had been a couple hours since she pumped.

Chris gave the shuttle another notch of flaps, getting the feel for the slightly thinner atmosphere. The generation of Phoenix he flew had been designed to operate on worlds with only 22% of the atmospheric pressure of Bellatrix. Midgard was 96%, so he hadn’t even trimmed out the wing length.

The edge of the concrete shot by below him, cross-hatched lines had been painted in infrared reflective paint making them easy to spot in Aether’s hot glow. The shuttle’s belly radar chirped in increasing pulses, telling him how close he was to the pavement. Just as the pulses merged into a constant chime he flared the shuttle out. It hovered along the runway just under two hundred kph, then settled gently onto its wheels with a little squawk.

Minu nodded again; she could see where Aaron’s approval came from. He handled the Phoenix like he’d been born behind the controls.

“How are you in space?”

“Space is easy,” the pilot said, glancing over at her with a wink. “You don’t have to worry about storms and FOD.”

Chris used the joystick to steer them off the runway and onto the taxiway just as another Phoenix could be seen lining up on the runway. Minu made a mental note to double the runways. In a minute they were taxiing up to the terminal/warehouse complex.

Like the runways, it was brand new. Minu recognized the look of a preformed facility put up by bots.

The doors to the terminal opened and a group of figures came trotting out. Several were Rasa, others Beezer. A group of Rangers followed close behind led by Captain Page. Chris got up and went back, opening the passenger doors as Minu headed back. A dozen human specialists waited for the First to pass. The frigid air of Midgard was less of a surprise than the first time. It smelled like a farm.

Minu looked out the door to see none other than Bad Cold standing with a group of equally high ranking Beezer.

“Greeting, Minu Groves,” he chuffed and grumbled, adding a bow and a flourish. “We are amazed at your new world!”

“We are unsure if we can legally claim it,” Minu said. Her personal squad dismounted and took up a casual-appearing perimeter around their leader. Minu wished they’d take it down a notch, especially here.

Bad Cold looked around, up and down, back at the buildings and at the runways. The whine of another Phoenix’s gravitic impellers was passing nearby on the way to the warehouses. Then he looked back at her.

“This appears like ownership to us!”

“What is your stance on our occupation?” Minu asked as she climbed down shuttle’s built in ramp.

“We are keen to be involved in your plans,” he spoke in his language, like listening to rocks rolling down a muddy hill. “If some of those plans bend a Concordian rule or two, so be it.”

“Only bend?”

The Beezer coughed and made a sound like a charging kloth. It had to be laughing, Minu decided.

“It is past time the natural order was upset. It seems the humans are talented at altering the way things seem to be intended to go.”

Minu shrugged and he laughed again.

“It will be interesting, at the very least.”

I’m sure of that, Minu thought as Captain Page stopped and saluted.

“Report, Captain?” she asked as she returned the salute, struggling not to laugh at the act.

“Orbital training cycle completed last week, so we transferred groundside and I’m using the opportunity to train the company in alien environs. They’re in the Misty Mountains on a two-day survival hike right now.”

“Misty Mountains?”[][]

“Yeah,” she said and produced a tablet. The captain called up an orbital map and showed her how many features had been named. She suspected her Chosen had been busy. The mountain range next to the industrial city was labeled Misty Mountains. For that matter the city was now named Moria. Yep, Chosen for sure. She hoped there wasn’t anywhere named Mordor.

“Good call on the training. Any injuries?” Minu asked.

“We had two that could not acclimate to microgravity,” she explained. “We’ve made a note on their files and they were transferred back to gravity until we came planetside.”

“Sounds like you’re managing well,” Minu told her. “I’ve talked with Ken Benedict, our head of training. We’re going to be sending Rangers in battalion strength for training. It will also ensure a standing force here.”

Capt. Page glanced at the Phoenix then upwards to space where the firebase orbited in orbit.

“That’s going to take a lot of trips.”

“Not necessarily,” Minu said with a wink. The captain cocked her head, but Minu gave her a ‘don’t worry about it’ look and that was that.

Inside the terminal building Minu found an old friend waiting. Cherise smiled and held her arms out.

“What do you think of the place?” Cherise asked as the two embraced.

“You’ve busted your asses!” Minu cheered.

“The bots did a lot of it, and the Beezer were invaluable. It took a little working with the computer systems. They’re all the same code script as used on the Kaatan, but none of it locked. Damned turnkey colony, here.” Cherise looked around. “Where’s my god-daughter?”

“Home with Aaron,” Minu said then continued on, but Cherise easily caught the tension in her friend’s voice. “The council didn’t approve outright colonization,” Minu said, and Cherise’s face darkened. “Even your proxy wasn’t enough.”

“Fools,” Cherise grumbled.

“Well,” Minu shrugged, “it is technically squatting. And the Concordia doesn’t take it well.”

Cherise passed her a tablet outlining progress on ground side installations.