MotherShip (21 page)

Becky almost saw the light go off over his head. She looked at him, her eyebrows raised expectantly as Jaric spoke.

“He could marry an alien...”

Becky's hand reacted before she realized what she was doing. Jaric fell straight backwards as she slapped him with force squarely across his face. Almost in the same moment she reached to help him, he fell out of sight.

She was a boiling mixture of emotions now, as well as thoroughly confused. On the one hand, she thought, she might be in love with Jaric. On the other hand, he sure wasn't the man she had dreamed about.

In addition, she cared about Kyle's welfare. It was all so confusing.

But she knew with sudden clarity that she shouldn't have slapped Jaric so hard. She felt her face grow flush and hot with boiling emotions.

Scrambling down her side of the ship, she raced under its belly toward his crumpled form.

“Oh. Are you all right? I'm sorry. Here, let me....”

“I...I don't think I need any more of your help for one day.” Jaric raised both his hands, protecting himself from her advances.

She rolled her eyes and felt the flood of emotions again.

“Don't you see how stupid that was—
Kyle can marry an alien
. I mean, what if I was your sister, and Kyle and I got married. Would you marry an alien then?”

Jaric groaned as he slowly, and very painfully, got up.

“Here, let me look at...”

“I said, I don't need any more of your help.” Jaric had raised his hands again as he began backing away.

She followed him as he limped back toward the Mewiis bridge.

“And,” he said to her without turning, “there might be some fine looking alien babes there among the Kraaqi.”

“You wish,” Becky whispered angrily.

“What did you say?”

“I said, ‘I bet there might be some alien hunks, too.'”

Jaric groaned and turned. But Becky passed him with a haughty
Hmmph
and kept going.

Love sure is strange. Or is it just men?
Becky entered the bridge several steps ahead of Jaric.

Kyle looked up from his displays and watched Jaric with sudden concern.

“Why are you limping?”

“Don't ask,” Jaric waved his arm at Kyle.

“Ask him about the cute Kraaqi babes,” Becky taunted.

Kyle did a double-take at his sister, and then looked over to Jaric. He opened his mouth to question Jaric.

“Don't ask,” Jaric repeated.

“May I interrupt?”

The three humans turned to the Mewiis Captain.

Captain Sharina's green complexion had deepened, and behind the bone ridge which started at her forehead and extended to the base of her skull, her head-tail flicked from side to side with rapid motion.

Becky brushed her hand through her own hair, wondering what it would be like to have a tail there instead.

“My Nav has just instructed me that we are about to enter the edge of Kraaqi space.” Subconsciously, the female Mewiis Captain began to play with the weapon strapped to her waist. “We must launch your ships. The coordinates of the nearest Kraaqi planet have already been downloaded.”

Becky looked at Kyle with a smirk. “I guess there won't be any long good-byes.”

Kyle chuckled.

“No, it is imperative we launch. The Kraaqi watch their frontiers closely. They also tend to respond with firepower first when they detect unwelcome alien ships.”

“Shoot first, ask questions later,” Jaric chimed.

Kyle nodded. “Okay, let's do it. We'll contact you and Mother in one week at the prearranged bandwidth.”

Captain Sharina nodded. “That should give you ample time not only to make contact with the local Kraaqi Band, but to also make long range communications with the Kraaqi home world. That is where the ruling Chieftains govern over the loosely bound Kraaqi Bands.”

“Yeah, I remember your briefing.”

The trio made their way to the prepped fighters and within minutes were flying through space and inside the Kraaqi kingdom.

The Mewiis ship turned and disappeared with a flash of streaking light as it leapt into hyperspace. The three humans were now alone.

Several minutes went by in stark silence as their fighters flew toward a bluish point of light—the star that the Kraaqi planet called Dosk orbited. But as the minutes passed, the silence seemed to press in upon them. Before long, it seemed they could
feel
the silence.

“I feel so strange,” Kyle said at last, breaking the spell.

“Yeah. Me, too.” Jaric agreed.

“I dunno. We've got a plan. We know exactly what to do. We've got this set for every contingency,” Kyle continued.

“Even if the Kraaqi attack and refuse to listen.” Jaric added.

“But remember Minstrel's words, ‘First Contact is the most important contact.’ We have to be extra careful.” Becky said.

The dark, foreboding silence returned. Outside their windows, the unfamiliar star patterns intensified the unnerving feeling each shared separately.

“Something's not right. I feel it.” Kyle said.

Becky looked down at her console and quickly glanced at her sensors. All was normal, only their trio of ships showed up. Becky looked up at the stars all around her—and then it hit her. She sighed and wondered how all of them could have overlooked the obvious.

“This is the first time we've been away from Mother.”

Kyle's eyebrows rose at Becky's words. Then his mind went into overdrive as memories flooded before him. Jaric's reaction was similar.

“You're right,” they said simultaneously into their comms.

“I can't believe it,” Kyle added. “But you're right. This is the first time we've ever left her.”

“She's been our whole life.” Becky smiled. “The only mother I can remember.”

Kyle stared straight ahead into the star field, silent, biting his lip.

“I remember my real mother,” Jaric began. “Just barely.”

“Mother is our mother.” Becky said defensively.

“We've always had Mother's guns to protect us.” Kyle said, interrupting her. “Her engines ready to whisk us away from danger.” Kyle ran his fingers through his hair. “But it's time we left her apron strings behind. Jaric, keep a sharp eye on your sensors. Becky, as soon as we're in range, begin a sweep of the planet. We're looking for a small, remote Kraaqi settlement. A nice, quiet corner to meet these beings.”

“Gotcha'.” Becky said.

“We'll make Mother proud,” Kyle finished.

The journey continued with little conversation, each one deep in their own thoughts. Though their thoughts were going in different directions, they began at the same moment in time and with the same point of origin; what growing up and leaving Mother meant.

Becky glanced at her reflection in the port window. She saw a woman's face staring back at her. It caused an odd stirring in her heart—deep in the eyes she could still see the child she had once been. In the face, she could see the woman she had become. But the reflection was a shimmering, surreal image with the stars shining through her in a ghostly fashion as her small ship continued its journey. As she stared, it suddenly seemed that the person she was looking at wasn't herself—it was some other person—a fleeting stranger who seemed somewhat familiar, but....

The woman in the vision shivered and took a deep breath.

I see a woman
.
But sometimes I feel exactly the way I did when I was a child.
Becky stared at the image of the ghostly woman with the stars twinkling through her
. Am I a child in a woman's body? Do Kyle and Jaric feel the same way in their minds about themselves
—
deep inside they're still a child?
Becky laughed to herself
. Perhaps I'll feel like a child even when I'm an old woman—all gray and wrinkled but with a twinkle still in my eyes.

She sighed deeply, trying to analyze her feelings. She realized with a flash of insight that she was the same person as that little girl she used to be. She just had more memories now, more life experiences. But in some ways, she hadn't changed.

Jaric and Kyle still act like boys even though they are older than I am. In many ways more so
. She chuckled softly.
Maybe boys never really grow up after all.

Becky felt something stir inside her soul as her thoughts traveled back in time. Back to her childhood long ago. Back to Mother and a feeling that seemed so familiar, so nice. Something she had not felt for many, many years. A sound. Suddenly she realized that she was humming as her thoughts were meandering down various mental paths.

The melody was an old but lovingly familiar one, unheard for many years now.

Becky smiled, and hummed the gentle, flowing tune a little louder. It was perhaps the most special music she had ever known. She thumbed the comm button, and the melody went out to the other two ships.

In each ship, Jaric and Kyle looked down at their speaker in unison. They both laughed softly.

“That's the song Mother used to play to put us to sleep,” Jaric said as he, too, remembered.

“Back in the old days,” Kyle said. But even Kyle's heart warmed with the soft humming that continued from Becky.

“I've got two targets,” Jaric said, breaking in.

“I have them, too,” Kyle said as his eyes dropped to his sensor screen.

Becky had only just begun her sensor sweep of the planet that filled half of their vision now with its close proximity. But she had already noticed that any kind of cities must be few and far between. In fact, she had yet to detect the first settlement at all.

“There's a lot of empty space down there. Should we make a break, or try a little ship-to-ship diplomacy up here?” Becky asked.

“There're coming in pretty hot now.” Jaric said.

The twin targets on their sensors had suddenly veered directly for their own formation. As they drew closer, their slim, gray profiles took shape. The Kraaqi fighters were long and dangerous looking, the bulbous rear obviously housing the engines while from their spear-like prows there extended several ominous shapes.

“Okay, watch'em close. I'll give it a try.” Kyle adjusted his comm to broadcast on all frequencies. Taking a deep breath, he began. “This is Kyle Brandon, we are on a diplomatic mission. We are humans, on a peaceful mis...”

The laser bolts leapt from both Kraaqi fighters and passed directly in front of Kyle's fighter.

“Move!” Kyle shouted.

The three arrowhead-shaped human fighters dove apart in the same number of directions with a practiced precision.

“Should we shoot back?” Jaric shouted as he punched his engines wide open.

“No!” Kyle shouted back.

“Then what?” Becky yelled.

“At least they're lousy shots,” Jaric said.

“No they're not, those are warning shots. Let me think a second.” Kyle said as he jerked his fighter over and barely avoided a deadly bolt.

Jaric was twisting his ship out of a hard maneuver when his hand hit the comm button. “Kraaqi ships, we come in peace. We come in peace. Hold your fire...” With a lightning motion, he was turning hard to avoid the bolts now heading straight for his ship.

The twin Kraaqi fighters turned again.

Becky's ship shuddered under a direct hit. Glancing at her console, she saw her shields drop thirty percent.

“Well, I'm tired of thinking,” Becky grumbled. Kicking her foot controls hard, Becky turned on the pursuer over her right shoulder. Her finger pressed the firing contact. “Think on this,” she laughed. Her bolts shot true, and the Kraaqi ship veered away, minus some of its shields.

“Becky. I ordered you to hold...” Kyle began.

“Whoa. I've got something big on my scope now, Big K.” Jaric shouted through the comm.

Four frigate-class warships suddenly appeared from hyperspace. They were shaped in similar long profiles as the smaller fighters, but the forward sections seemed oversized. All along the length of the hulls their main guns extended in two deadly rows. The four warships turned as one toward the diminutive human fighters.

“I suggest you start thinking a bit faster.” Becky said with rising concern.

Kyle growled over his comm. He nodded decisively. “Okay, let's make a run down to the planet. Maybe if we can meet them face to face...”

“...they can probably kill us faster.” Jaric finished for him.

“Enough. We can't battle those frigates. It's our only choice.” Becky turned her ship for the orangish planet. “Unless we turn and run, and we can't do that.” She said as her ship leapt forward.

“Let's go.” Kyle's ship surged after her.

“I knew I should have packed my running shoes,” Jaric shouted.

The edge of the planet grew on their viewscreens as their ships raced for its atmosphere. Behind them, more Kraaqi fighters spewed from the frigates. As the human ships neared the atmosphere and dove toward the orange surface, only the Kraaqi fighters continued after them. Above them, the four frigates began to orbit the planet at strategic positions, cutting off any hope of retreat.

“Hit it.” Kyle shouted as the Kraaqi fighters drew too near. Laser bolts leapt all around his ship as he nosed down toward the surface.

It was only as the three human ships pierced and roared through the planet's atmosphere that the first Kraaqi words were uttered to them.

“Stop. You are desecrating. Stop.”

“What does that mean?” Becky shouted into her comm.

“Look, they're slowing down.” Jaric said.

“They're still following us. Let's get down... hey, what's going on?” Kyle said.

“Their engine signatures have changed.” Becky began punching her console, trying to get a better reading on the new Kraaqi engine signature on her sensor. Her face grew more puzzled by the second. “I've never seen anything like that before.”

“Sort of like... waves of energy?” Jaric cast a quick glance at his ship's sensors. “Their engines seem to be reacting to the planet's gravity.”

“Record it for later analysis. Let's find a place to land,” Kyle ordered.

“One that has a hidey-hole, I hope.” Jaric smiled.

Becky found the spot just inland on the eastern coast of the lone continent that girdled the entire planet. It was in a narrow valley, one not easily attacked from the air, protected by huge overhanging cliffs on three sides. The three ships landed just short of a nearby forest and with some quick maneuvering, they parked their ships under the protective limbs at the forest's edge.