M'tak Ka'fek (The T'aafhal Inheritance) (45 page)

“What was that you said about marriage?”

Polar Bear Quarters

Bear was greeted by most of the polar bears when he entered their quarters. Several of the senior males rose up on their hind legs and traded blows with him—the male polar bear equivalent of a handshake. As things quieted down a bit Bear looked around, but could not see the bear he was looking for. 

“Can't find someone, Pihoqahiak?” asked Aurora, standing with several other she-bears.

“Yeah, I was looking for Isbjørn, but it looks like she isn't here. She's not hurt or anything is she?”

“She's fine. Come with me.”

The group of female polar bears led the huge male to the side of the habitat, up to a half hidden opening. Bear was actively sniffing the air—he could detect Isbjørn's scent, and something more.

“You can come out now, Isbjørn. Pihoqahiak is here with us.”

A white head poked out of the opening, followed by a much thinner Isbjørn than Bear remembered.

“Are you all right, babe?” Bear asked with concern in his voice. He moved in Isbjørn's direction, eliciting growls from several of the females. “What the hell is wrong with you?” the confused male bear asked.

“Hello, Bear,” said Isbjørn with a demure bearish smile. “It looks like the universe hasn't managed to kill you yet.”

“You know it, babe. What's with your friends here?”

“The girls are just nervous about how you are going to take the news.”

“News? What news?”

From behind the she-bear poked two small, furry faces. Sniffing the air and looking quizzically at bear, the two cubs emerged from behind their mother.

“The news that you are a father—again.”

Bear took a step toward Isbjørn and her cubs, causing the gathering of females to once again growl in warning. Then Bear understood.

“Hey, knock it off! I'm not some mindless bruin! I'm not going to hurt them, those are my cubs too.”

“I told you, girls. Pihoqahiak is not your average male bear.”

“Yeah, well we had to make sure. I wouldn't let some of the other males anywhere near my cubs.”

As the band of she-bears reluctantly stood down, the cubs made their way to their father. After sniffing him excitedly, each grabbed a foreleg and tried to tackle the bemused daddy bear. Evidently the cubs—growling and biting as cubs at play do—had decided that Bear was OK by them. Isbjørn walked up to Bear and nuzzled the side of his neck.

“Welcome back, you big lug. I hate to say it, but I missed you.”

All bear could do was sit back and blink, overwhelmed by the radical notion—at least for a male polar bear—that he now had a family.

Return to the M'tak Ka'fek

A day after his triumphal arrival, Capt. Jack returned to his ship. With him was Ludmilla, who had told him she was never letting him board a space ship without her again. Also on the shuttle were Beth and Billy Ray, who had been enjoying a passionate reunion of their own following the Peggy Sue's arrival at Farside. Rounding out the party were Gretchen and TK, in his electric wheelchair.

“Wow, she sure is a beauty,” TK offered as they approached the M'tak's side.

“That is a really big ship, Captain,” added Billy Ray. “I never saw her up close back at Sirius. By the way, that ship graveyard is no longer there.”

“Really?” said Jack.

“Yeah, we passed through there on our way back from Gliese 581, after picking up the Triad Guardians. Nothing left but a degenerate matter object that must have erupted after we left the first time.”

“Oh it erupted, Captain Vincent. That's how we ended up halfway across the Orion Arm. I'll have to tell you about it over dinner some time.”

“Yes, a dining in, in the ward room so we can stop calling each other by rank,” added Ludmilla.

“It's all right, Colonel. I still haven't gotten tired of being called captain.” Billy Ray smiled widely and Beth covertly elbowed him in the ribs.

“All right newcomers, you might want to watch this, seeing how its your first time docking with the M'tak,” said Sandy from the flight deck. “It may look like we are going to collide with the ship but trust me, she'll be right.”

Despite the warning, Beth and Billy Ray both gripped their chairs tightly as the shuttle slipped smoothly through the seemingly solid side of the larger spaceship. Unfazed, TK said, “now that's something. There's gotta be a million applications for that trick.”

* * * * *

Standing on the shuttle bay deck were Bobby, Mizuki and JT. The Captain's party marched down the shuttle's boarding ramp and halted at the bottom. An invisible boatswain's mate began piping 'Over the Side,' while Jack saluted JT, who was acting Officer of the Deck. 

“Request permission to come aboard, Sir.” Boarding a Navy ship, military personnel salute the colors and the OOD, before asking permission to board. The M'tak Ka'fek flew no colors, but tradition demanded that the question be asked and the OOD be called Sir, even by an admiral or the ship's captain.

“Come aboard,” replied JT, returning Jack's salute. “Welcome back, Captain.” With boarding formalities observed, the two parties greeted each other with handshakes, hugs and broad smiles. Gretchen and JT exchanged pleasantries while invisible sparks flew between them. Before their enforced separation they had been lovers, if not actually in love. They were warrior buddies with benefits, and it looked like that arrangement would resume.

“TK, you mentioned the selectively permeable hull opening,” Jack recalled. “The M'tak is a technological goldmine. In fact, I think you and Ludmilla will want to visit the medical section after the general tour and dinner.”

“Yes, Jack. After reading your after action report I am most anxious to see the ship's sickbay. This wondrous ship holds the promise of so many advances in the future, and not just in warfare. It will revolutionize healthcare and medicine.”

“That is a most probable outcome, Dr. Tropsha,” said the ship's AI. “At the very least, I would expect your species' longevity to be extended to several hundred years.”

“How do I address you?” asked Ludmilla, unsurprised at being addressed by the sentient ship. Talking ships had become a normal part of her life.

“Please call me M'tak, Doctor.”

“Very good, M'tak. When we get time, I will want to examine Ms. Ogawa in detail.”

“Yes, Ma'am.” The AI had considered the relationship between Jack and Ludmilla and come to the conclusion that they effectively formed functional unit. As far as it was concerned she ranked only second to the Captain.

Seated in his powered wheelchair, TK looked around the cavernous shuttle bay. “You know, the Peggy Sue is a mighty fine ship, but this, this is a by God starship.”

“I am honored to have you aboard, Mr. Parker,” intoned the ship. “If not for you the Peggy Sue would never have been built, Earth-life would not have ventured forth into the galaxy, and I would have never been rescued from semi-death drifting off Sirius. Because of you, Earth was able to fend off those who would have exterminated all life in this system. You, TK Parker, were the nexus from which the history of the Galaxy has been changed.”

“Well, these folks had something to do with it, along with a whole bunch more back at the base.”

“I didn't think that I would ever live to see the day, TK,” Jack added, “but I do believe that M'tak made you blush.”

“That's all well and good,” the embarrassed Oil man replied, “but seems to me we got stuff to do. We got a Fleet to build, a planet to heal and a solar system to colonize. We probably should keep searching for other forms of life too—whether friendly, hostile or otherwise.”

As the senior officers conversed with each other and the ship, to one side the younger officers exchanged introductions. The two tall officers from Farside stood before the two young explorers just returned from the stars.

“You're a commander now, Billy Ray?” said Bobby, perhaps a tiny bit jealous. “Does this mean I have to call you sir all the time, pardner?”

“That's 'pardner, Sir', Mr. Danner,” Billy Ray said officiously, and then broke into a grin. “I wouldn't worry about it, Bobby. I'm sure that those who accompanied the Captain on the greatest voyage in human history will be suitably promoted in due course. In the mean time, I would like you to meet Lcdr. Elizabeth Melaku, squadron commander of Farside's corvettes.”

“It's very nice to meet you, and please call me Beth.”

Bobby nodded. “Beth, may I present Dr. Mizuki Ogawa?”

Mizuki smiled and bowed to Beth and Billy Ray. “Commander Melaku-san, it is an honor to meet you. Commander Vincent-san, Bobby has often spoken of you during our voyage.” Above her a swarm of brightly colored butterflies swirled in a rainbow display.

With a discreet glance at the overhead display, Beth returned Mizuki's bow. “I am honored to meet both of you. I have heard so much about you from Billy Ray. I think we shall all become very good friends.”

Following the senior officers into the ship proper, Billy Ray and Bobby fell in behind their significant others.

“Yer lookin' right fit, Bobby, you must be working out. But either you shrank or Mizuki grew a couple of inches.” 

“I'll fill you in on that later, Billy Ray. Let's just say that the ship really takes care of its crew.” Ahead, the butterflies—a cloud of placid blues and greens—flowed through the doorway in pursuit of their goddess.

“What's with the flock of butterflies, pardner?”

Bobby rolled his eyes. “On Ring Station, Mizuki took out a bunch of attacking hostiles with her katana—the one Dr. Saito gave her. That impressed the flying alien fan-boys so much they've been following her around ever since.”

“Pretty.” 

“They're a real pain in the ass, but she likes them and the Captain let 'em come along. She even talks to them in Japanese—it's like being in a Godzilla era monster movie.”

“You must have seen some weird stuff out there.”

“No weirder than running around with a hold full of warrior vegetables.”

“You got a point there, Bobby.”

“Yeah, I can't wait to see what happens next.”

Epilogue

System of the People's Moon

Over ten years had passed since the People's disastrous attack on the planet known as Earth. Their ship, the
Destroyer of Worlds
, never returned from that hellish system. The world that the People called home was actually a large moon orbiting a gas giant in a binary star system just over ten parsecs from Sol. About the size of Titan, it was escorted in its orbit by two much smaller moons in its L4 and L5 points. With temperatures that caused methane and ethane to fall as rain, it was a world inhospitable to warm life, but then the People were not warm life.

Neither were the pseudo-arthropods adapted for conditions favored by the Dark Lords. They fell in the uncomfortable position between the darkness and the light, between the dark ones and warm life. As such they were recruited for service as a slave race, minions to the Dark Lords, who seldom ventured forth from the frozen rogue planets they favored.

If any of the moon's inhabitants had been looking at the sky in just the right location they might have spotted a strange phenomenon—a reflective ring in space that for an instant was wreathed in stars. It was the mouth of a wormhole, a tunnel between distant locations in 3-space. From that gaping orifice emerged an object ten kilometers in diameter. The asteroid was made primarily from an iron/nickle blend with an average density of 8g/cm
³
, giving it a total mass of roughly 4.2 trillion metric tons. 

The object was traveling at a velocity of 10,000km/sec with respect to the gas giant that the People's moon orbited. With careful observation the inhabitants of the People's moon would discover that it was headed toward the gas giant and would barely miss striking it. With closer measurements it would become evident that the massive asteroid would arrive in 20 hours, at a point tangent to the moon's orbit. This would occur just as the moon itself reached that same point in space. The asteroid was going to strike the moon head on. 

The moon itself had an orbital velocity of 5.6km/sec, but that hardly mattered. Given the asteroid's mass and velocity a collision with the moon would deliver kinetic energy equivalent to 50,000,000,000,000 megatons of TNT.

A few hours before the impact another ring of stars heralded the arrival of a ship. The vessel was not of Earth manufacture, nor was it a part of Earth's Space Navy. It possessed drives and weaponry that Earth's shipyards had yet to duplicate, including the capability to create wormholes. That ship was the ancient T'aafhal battle cruiser M'tak Ka'fek.

On board the M'tak Ka'fek were an odd assortment of creatures, most of them from Earth itself. Seated in the commander's chair was its captain, a human named Jack Sutton. Next to him was his wife, Ludmilla, and their two children. The elder was a boy, eight years old, named Roger after the Captain's father. The younger was a girl of six, named Svetlana, after Ludmilla's sister. Svetlana, which can mean light, blessed, or holy depending on context, was not living up to her name. 

“Why are we here? There is nothing to do here. This is boring!”

“Hush, Sveta,” her mother admonished. “This is an historic occasion. One that you will be happy you attended later in life.”

“She's such a brat,” Roger said. He loved his sister, but picking on each other is what young siblings do. 

“Do not pick on your sister, Roger,” said Jack out of parental reflex. Behind him he heard TK chuckle.

Standing in what its occupants had dubbed the “old folks'” section were TK Parker, Maria, Isbjørn and Bear. TK had not needed a wheelchair for almost ten years, ever since Ludmilla convinced him to spend a few days in the medical section's regeneration tanks. He was also looking decades younger than his nearly ninety years. After discovering that he had another century to live he came to his senses and asked Maria to marry him. She agreed, becoming an honorary member of the old folks' section.