Far Space (36 page)

Jennifer guessed they were no more than seventy meters away, the maximum distance visibility allowed even in this bright, clear water.

“Oh, God,” Jennifer muttered.

“Yu’os’ help is all which will keep us alive,” Rosh replied.

A keening noise drew Jennifer’s attention to Myrna and Sue. Myrna was chittering and gurgling something. Jennifer did not need the translation to guess the terrified emotions pouring from the Soo’s mouth.

Jennifer was in too much pain to think of anything other than just staying conscious as Rosh dragged her through the water. She looked back and immediately wished she had not – the creatures were now only thirty meters behind. To Jennifer, they appeared to be the same species as the one she, Rosh, and Myrna had just dispatched. “Anytime you want to jump in, God…” Jennifer muttered.

At that moment, Rosh let go of Jennifer and turned to face the attackers, spreading his arms in a defensive posture. “Forgive me for failing you, Human,” Rosh said. He put himself between Jennifer and the attackers.

Jennifer sensed Myrna slowing.

Rosh must have seen the same thing, “Make for the home natata, Myrna! Do not stop! The others will help you!”

Clicking her beak in agony, Myrna obeyed. Still holding Sue tight, she shot past Rosh and Jennifer.

Jennifer watched, wide-eyed as the nearest beast hungrily reached out its four clawed tentacles, ready to snatch both her and Rosh up as meals. She reached for knife but found only an empty sheath.

“Crud.” Jennifer realized she had let go of the knife after the last encounter. “Rosh, Help Myrna with Sue!”

“You are taio,” Rosh said as way of explanation.

Jennifer heard new cries in the water. Her translator was suddenly filling her ears. “Makaro!”

Long spears struck the nearest creature, which had been intent on eating Jennifer. The Soosuri projectiles impaled the creature with deep, moist sounds.

The beast spun away, shrieking in pain.

It was music to Jennifer’s ears.

It took a moment for Jennifer to appreciate the change of fate. She turned her head enough to catch sight of the twenty Soosuri jetting to battle with the hunters.

It was over in a few minutes. Though savage, the larger hunters were no match for the smaller Soo or their coordinated feints and counter attacks. Six carcasses were soon drifting to the reef covered floor of the amphitheater-like space.

Jennifer pulled herself across the sand of the brightly lit sea floor with her left arm, unable to use her paralyzed right arm. She managed a few flopping kicks to push her toward where Myrna had paused with Sue’s still form, her gaze held by the spectacle of the warrior Soosuri taking on the attackers.

Finally able to lie next to Sue, Jennifer reached out and touched the Soo’s face. “Sue?” Myrna floated close by, trying to keep the wound in Sue’s side closed. Jennifer and Myrna’s eyes met. Myrna dipped her head toward the wound. Glancing at the gash, Jennifer’s heart sank. Given what she knew of Soosuri physiology this was not a wound Sue would likely be able to survive. In fact, Jennifer was surprised Sue was still alive at all.

Jennifer glanced back at Sue’s face and found the soo looking back at her in an unfocused way. Sue’s iris’s dilated as she reached out for Jennifer’s arm. Jennifer offered her hand and squeezed Sue’s hand.

“Jennifer will be okay,” Sue managed.

“Sue will be okay,” Jennifer offered.

“Ahe’,” Sue said after a moment of intense pain crossed her face. “Sue joins the Son…life aniya…life aniya.” She slipped the gold band from her kannai finger and pressed it into Jennifer’s grasp.

Unable to speak, Jennifer squeezed the ring tight and lowered her forehead to Sue’s. Holding Sue in those last moments of her life, it took her a moment to realize the rest of the Soo had gathered around.

Myrna started the Soosuri chant. She was soon joined as more Soo picked up the song. Jennifer was soon lost in the rising, wordless tune which managed to convey grief and hope, pain and joy. Consumed for the moment in her own sorrow, Jennifer felt as if she could stay there on the ocean floor listening to the song forever, holding her friend, her taio.

Grief flooded her mind. Pain enveloped her body.

A dark shadow passed over the amphitheater and caught her and several other of the Soo’s attention. The song faltered and drifted away on the warm currents.

Jennifer’s heart pumped harder until she realized it was not another attack.

It took a moment for her translator to pick up the muttered word being passed around the group.

“Va’a. Va’a…”

Before passing out again from her pain, Jennifer felt a tendril hope. Something she had not felt in weeks. “Va’a. Thank you, God.”

A ship had come.

C-31R SOF Reconnaissance Spacecraft - “Reaper 16”

Star System 4576B, Far Space

Ian gazed at the main monitor. They had just executed their sixteenth jump from Jupiter Space. Since the tragedy at the fourth jump, there had been no problems. Due to the extra time they had allowed for some of the quiet observation in a few of the more cluttered systems, the trip had taken longer than expected – nearly nine days. Still they had made it.

Once in System 4576B, Ian ordered nearly twelve hours of quiet time. This was supposedly a system with a confirmed Soosuri presence. Whether they were some sort of religious outcasts or not, they were still Soosuri. And in the three encounters with which Ian could use as a meter, the aliens always shot first and never asked questions.

Reaper 16 had been in system for fifteen hours when they finally reached the second planet from the local sun.

“There’s no sign of a ship?” Ian asked. Where could Jennifer be?

“No sir,” Ghost replied. “We’ve been able to scan all the landmasses, which is not saying much. Nothing is popping up.”

“Would we be able to see a stealth ship?” Ian asked.

“You can if you know what you’re looking for,” Ghost replied. “Stealth is made to make detection hard, not impossible.”

“All ships with wormhole drives have some sort of stealth coating,” Robin volunteered. “We’d be able to find anyone except another SOF ship who really did not want to be found. These guys didn’t have a SOF ship, that much Yates would have known.”

“Let’s check the islands again,” Ian said. “Make sure we don’t miss any small ones. They made it here about two weeks and ago. They shouldn’t have picked up and left already. That’s not nearly enough time to do a meet and greet, especially if you have to learn the language first.”

“What if they found what they came for,” Robin began, “or decided to go to another Soosuri planet?”

“Then we need to find out what they learned,” Ian said. “Pick up their trail here and see where it leads.”

Robin nodded and went back to her controls.

The bridge was quiet as the trio let the spacecraft’s sensors do their job.

Ghost leaned forward suddenly. “Sir, I think I’ve got something.” He tapped his control board and sent the feed to the main display.

The screen showed a patch of white-tipped waves rolling across the ocean. In the distance there was a stretch of rocky land. Below the waves there were several large black objects.

“Are they animals?” Ian asked, his mind immediately thinking of whales.

Ghost shook his head. “No, sir. It’s a debris field, all metal. And a strong magnetic reading…the signature matches a solid state anti-matter containment sphere. Those things are designed to survive anything but a direct hit.” Ghost paused a moment before adding, “It’s strange though…”

“We’re in Far Space. You’re going to have to define ‘strange’.” Robin said.

“The equipment’s having trouble sorting it out,” Ghost said, “but there may be two sources to this mag reading. It’s weird.”

Ian thought back to the ship they had encountered after their fourth jump. The massive explosion had probably been from a containment field breach from one of their rail gun shots. “Take us down low.”

Ghost skimmed the waves. No one spoke. They saw no signs of survivors.

“Circle around the island,” Ian said. “Maybe something washed ashore.”

Ian’s heart sank. To come so far only to find wreckage was more than he could absorb right now. All he could do was focus on the next step. At least
that way he did not have to imagine Jennifer, after all they had been through, dying out here on this nameless planet.

“There!” Robin pointed at the main screen. “No! Go back!”

Ian took control of the camera and zoomed in. The sand was disturbed around a rocky shelf and what looked like packing crates had been piled against a rock wall. “There were survivors,” Ian breathed. “There must have been another ship or something and they were trying to hide whatever they salvaged.”

“Shall I land, sir?” Ghost asked.

Ian wanted to do nothing else. He paused though and verified, “Still no contacts?”

Robin checked the sensors again. “Sky is still clear. And the minisats we left in orbit are reading a lot of nothing.”

“Take us in, Ghost,” Ian said. “Nice and easy.”

“As always, sir.”

On the ground, Ian had to force himself from bursting out of the airlock. People smarter than him had thought about landing on other planets and had provided the SOF crew with protocols in case they ever found themselves in this sort of situation. This was a good idea since SOF crews did most of the recon work. Until a settlement with the Soosuri could be reached, the civil authorities were not about to let any exploration missions or colonization move beyond the solar system again. So, it was left to the stealthy military forces to explore Far Space where they had to be ready to deal with any hostile environment.

Staring at the view screen, Ian thought the environment looked anything but hostile. He had been on beaches back on Earth which were not as nice.

Within a few minutes, the exterior sensors had concluded the air was breathable and a first run at the bio sensors showed nothing which could hurt humans. But it was humans they were missing.

Ian began to wonder if the ship had crashed after the crew had stacked their gear here. Perhaps they were attacked, which would explain the dual readings Ghost had gotten over the wreckage.

Are you here, Jennifer?

“Sir, I’ve got something else,” Ghost said.

Ian leaned over Ghost’s seat to look at his display board. “A signal? Is it coming from the packing crates?”

Ghost shook his head. “No sir, from that way.” He took control of an exterior camera and panned it to the far end of the beach.

Unseen from the sky, a small opening in the rock was just visible at the end of the rocky shelf above the beach.

“It’s a military grade transponder,” Robin said checking the signal. “It’s meant for CSAR.” All personnel on military missions had specialized survival equipment designed to help them get through an emergency. The survival vest often proved to be a pilots’ best friend if he found himself down behind enemy lines. One of the key items was the radio; to be used to help guide the nearest Combat Search and Rescue team to your exact location. Getting shot down over enemy territory was not too likely in space, but still, old habits were hard to break. For security purposes, military transponders only were active when the user turned it on, usually for limited periods of time. Otherwise they were set to ‘dead man mode.’ In this mode, the person in need of rescue might be incapacitated and unable to activate the transponder. That, or he was in a state for which the mode was named. In such a case, the transponder could be remotely activated by an interrogation signal.

“Why didn’t we pick it up earlier?” Ian asked.

“I didn’t think to send a CSAR ping until after we were down,” Ghost admitted. “Sorry, sir.”

Robin was shaking her head. “Wouldn’t have done you any good, sir. Look at the signal strength. The only reason were getting anything now is because our antenna is looking down the throat of the cave.”

“Alright,” Ian said, straightening up. “Robin, I need you to keep the engines warm. I don’t want any surprises. If you get pinged and we’re not back, get to safety and circle back later. Ghost and I will take enough rations for a week.”