Lacuna: The Ashes of Humanity (5 page)

"Yes, Captain." Jiang's round face was pulled tight, her teeth clenched with a mixture of fear and anger. In many ways, her face mimicked that of the dragon tattoo on her arm. Liao had seen it after Jiang was injured. "What message?"

Liao did not know precisely how to put into words what had happened. She would be dispatching a whole crew with as much time to put in as much information as she could, but she couldn't begin to decide what to tell them.

So, as all good captains did, she delegated. "Tell the allied ships there what's happened to Earth. Relay that Velsharn is our rendezvous point, and tell them to make their way here when their business is complete. Give them as much information as you can, and request aid from the Telvan. It looks like they'll be paying back their debt a bit sooner than they anticipated."

"Very good, Captain. Should I add anything else?"

"Tell them not to hurry. There's nothing we can do for Earth, and if the Toralii Alliance find us and decide that they're not done killing today, we don't want to have everyone here when they show up."

Jiang acknowledged her order and went to work. The internal communications link lit up.

"Captain," came Lieutenant Cheung's voice, an edge of urgency to her tone. In the background, the murmur of voices filtered in like static. Angry voices. "We have a ship full of people who are hot, panicked, and thirsty. There are insufficient toilet facilities and no water. What are the provisions for catering for them?"

"Tell them to stand by," she said. "We're looking at options to resettle them now."

"That's ill advised, Captain. These people can't see what you see. If we don't give them some kind of concrete answers about their future and soon, we're going to have a riot on our hands. That is not something we want to deal with."

She appreciated the urgency of the situation, but acting unilaterally was ill advised. The
Washington
would be in a similar situation. They, too, would want to unload their passengers.

But she had to do something.

"Cheung, let me talk to them. Hsin, patch me into the other ships, the Broadswords too. Put it out on every frequency."

She gave Cheung and Hsin time then spoke. The words felt as though they were coming from someone else's lips.

"Survivors of Earth, this is Captain Melissa Liao. We have escaped, and I ask for your calm, understanding, and cooperation in the days to come. Please be assured that the crew of the Pillars and I will do all we can for you, but I also ask that you follow any orders from the crew. Survival must come first. We are currently orbiting a planet that may suit as a home, albeit temporary. It's warm, temperate for the most part, and capable of sustaining Human life. Lots of oceans. We are, however, liaising with the other ships who have escaped—and I stress to you that other ships
have
escaped—and that we're going to begin resettlement as soon as possible. We're looking to start the disembarkation process shortly. I will update you on the situation when I can. Captain Liao out."

"Very good, Captain," said Cheung. "I'll pass a recording around to the other sections." She cut the link.

So much was going on in Operations that Liao tried to screen out the least important conversations and focus on critical matters. Her ears found a conversation between Iraj and Jiang. "Sir," Jiang said, "no go on the Broadsword launch. The hangar bay crew reports that the hangar is full of people. They can't decompress it."

"That's going to be a problem," said Iraj. "Tell them to move as many people as they can to the upper decks—it'll get crowded, but we need to deploy those Broadswords, and we might need to do it in a hurry. I know the hangar bay's a big place, and we need that space for people, but our strike group are a big asset for us right now."

"Agreed," said Liao. "But get some crew, anyone, to distribute some water and supplies to those people. Make sure they don't panic or get dehydrated and do something stupid."

Iraj nodded. "I'll see to it," he promised, and Liao let him work.

"Mr. Hsin," she said, pulling on her long-range headset. "Put me through to the
Washington
."

Within moments, Anderson's southern accent filled her ears. "
Beijing
actual, this is
Washington
actual. Good to hear from you."

"It's good to hear from you, too," she said. "We didn't think we were going to make it for a bit."

"We have a ship-load of civilians who aren't dealing with the change in circumstances too well. I assume the
Madrid
is in a similar situation. Break." Anderson spoke to someone on the other end of the line. He left the mic open, possibly out of respect to Liao, although the conversation was too low and too accented for her to make out. "Apologies, Captain Liao, there's been a development."

"Good news or bad?"

"Unclear. I ordered a headcount of the survivors on board. We've taken on a little more than we anticipated. We're going to need to start offloading these people if we want to get combat effective."

"We've got similar problems," said Liao, "but frankly, the more Human beings we can save at this point, the better."

"Suggestions?"

"Let's start shuttling people down to the surface. We have six Broadswords in our inventory, although some are damaged, and one is earmarked for relaying our situation to the Belthas system."

"Glad you're taking care of that," Anderson said. "Our hangar bay is full of people."

"As is ours, but we're in the process of fixing it."

"Hopefully not by venting them into space."

Normally she would find such a joke funny, but not today. "No."

"Very good, then. We'll work on freeing our hangar bay too. When our birds can launch, we can start loading people from various airlocks on the sides of the ship."

"Good plan," she said. "We'll do the same. Make sure the civilians get plenty of water. They're crammed in there pretty good, and the ship's going to get awfully hot."

"Agreed, I was going to say the same thing."

"Then let's get to it. Pick out an island, and we'll meet you there. Liao out."

She took off her headset and looked at the damage control screen on her console. Red circles—hull breaches—pockmarked so many areas of her ship. Others were yellow, areas where the weakened hull had begun to ablate away. Spiderwebs of yellow ran throughout the superstructure, revealing for the first time just how badly damaged the ship was. They might not be able to charge the hull with so much damage.

Her ship was dying.

A light flashed on her internal thermal readout. The hangar bay doors were opening; Jiang had managed, somehow, to clear the hangar bay. The ship launched one of their Broadswords. Liao watched it go, unable to shake the feeling of guilt that settled into her stomach for the first time. That ship was going to tell James what had happened to Earth, happened to all of them, and relay the most dire information any Human being had ever been told.

And it was her fault.

"You okay?" asked Iraj, his voice low so only she could hear.

She couldn't tell the truth, so a gentle lie would suffice for now. "I don't know yet." She straightened her back. "Get me a headcount of the survivors, and then let's start shuttling these people down to the surface."

"I was thinking about that," said Iraj. "Did you want to land the
Beijing
on the surface?"

Land the entire ship again? They'd done that on Earth, but with the amount of damage he'd received, Liao was reluctant. "Seems risky, twice in one day. What if we can't take off again?"

"That's a problem for the future," said Iraj. "We need to get these people some fresh air, some space, or we're going to start losing them. It's a risk, yes, but if the Toralii Alliance comes around, our chances of hiding are much better on the surface than in space."

That was a point. A planet was a big place, even one mostly covered in water like Velsharn.

"Also," Iraj continued, "it would also allow us to set up a base of operations and have shelter and a rallying point for all these civilians. The ship has energy, supplies, environmental controls; it's a much better solution than just dumping them out in the open with a handful of tents and good wishes."

She nodded along as he spoke. "I think I like this plan."

Isle 301, southern Velsharn

The
Beijing
touched down on one of the southern islands, the 301st surveyed by the
Madrid
, nestled in a valley between two sets of mountain ranges. It was a wooded area, with tall yellowish trees too bushy and distinctly alien to her, but it was safe and secure. On the other side of the mountains, the land became more tropical and then it gave way to a beach.

The civilians spilled out like a broken can of beans. Liao, watching them through the ship's external cameras, couldn't believe the crew had crammed in as many as they had. The civilians stumbled, covered in sweat, into the cool salty air, their relief palpable. Their stay aboard her ship had not been pleasant.
 

A work detail was organised, comprised of marines and civilian volunteers, to clear landing areas for the Broadswords. Cheung broke the group up into task groups and set them to work. Jiang and Dao coordinated with the vessels in orbit, and soon Broadswords from the other Pillars started falling through the atmosphere, a dozen shooting stars that flamed out and turned into ships, dropping more people off into the area near the
Beijing
.

Liao left Iraj in charge of the ship and went to survey their new home, two marines falling into step with her. She left through the hangar, which Rowe had opened to permit exit to all the civilians, and walked down the metal deck. The place was just as she had left it.

The woods were full of birds, the sound a chorus despite the confusion of the ship landing in the area. The sky above was a strange blue-purple colour, and overhead one of Velsharn's moons drifted between patches of cloud. It was evening, and the air was cool and sweet.

It almost could have been Earth, almost. Yet she felt no joy at seeing it.

As she stood there, taking in the view of the sky and the second wave of Broadswords streaking across it, a man approached her. One of the civilians. He was middle aged, heavyset, with huge hands and stringy brown hair. Her marines stopped him, but she gestured for them to move away.

"You're Commander Liao, right? I recognise you from the news."

"Yes. That's me."

He extended his hand. "I'm Alistair Shepherd. I'm a retired police officer. I just wanted to thank you for pulling us off-world back there."

Liao took it, giving a firm shake. "A pleasure, Alistair."

"Where are we?"

"This is Velsharn. A planet within Telvan space. I've been here before."

He looked around, then up. "I thought as much. We knew the Pillars crew had been to other worlds, but… the specifics weren't clear. The news didn't really tell us much." He pointed upward. "The sky's weird."

"Get used to it," she said with a smile. "There's a good chance we'll be here for some time."

Shepherd glanced at her. "We're not going home?"

Of course. They couldn't know, being inside a ship the whole time. They might have suspected, perhaps, but it all happened so fast…

"No. There's not much left of Earth, I'm afraid. Just a burned out husk, from what we saw from orbit. The storms you experienced weren't localised. In fact, Houston was one of the last areas to be truly affected by the worst of it. By now, though, it's the same as the rest of the planet; scalded and uninhabitable."

His shoulders sank, and Liao knew she should feel pity for him. Instead, all she could manage was a strange sense of detachment.

"Thank you for telling me," he said, and then wandered off. He seemed to be in a daze, shocked by how quickly he'd been taken here. Liao let him go without comment.

Crowds of people milled around, but no others approached her. Their eyes were elsewhere; on the ground, on the sky, on the strange flora and the mountains on all sides of the valley.

It was good to get away, to have a moment to herself. It was the first time she had done so since the battle at Belthas IV. How many hours ago had that been? Had they had a shift change yet? The details of it all seemed fuzzy.

Liao shrugged off her jacket, folding it under her arm, and then slipped into the crowd. She wasn't trying to hide, but she didn't want to be found. A subtle difference in her mind. The further away she got from Operations, the further away she was from the things she had seen there and the less real they felt.

The people around her were dirty, confused, listless. Liao weaved through them easily, walking nowhere, until the crowd began to thin out. At the edge of the sea of people, something caught her attention.

A damaged, detached gun turret from a Broadsword, turned upside down in the dirt, converted into a latrine. Four fire blankets were hung up on metal struts to give a modicum of privacy. A short queue of people waited to use it; further down was another, and another. Drag marks in the dirt lead from the hangar bay.

The smell was strong, but the wind was taking it away from the ship and the people. Cheung had done good work.