Shepherd Moon, Part 4

Shepherd Moon
by Bobbie Cabot

PART FOUR
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SALAD FORKS AND OTHER THINGS

- with a nod to the masters of space opera: J. Michael Straczynski, Larry Niven, David Brinn, E.E. (Doc) Smith,Iain M. Banks, and, of course, George Lucas.
My thanks. And my apologies.

“Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have
that awareness, you have good manners, no matter which fork you use.”
- Emily Post, author and founder of the Emily Post Institute, late 20th Century Earth

“Good manners can replace morals. It may be years before anyone knows if what you
are doing is right. But if what you are doing is nice, it will be immediately evident.”
- P.J. O’Rourke, journalist and writer, early 21st Century Earth

“Learn young about hard work and manners - and you’ll be through
the whole dirty mess and nicely dead again before you know it.”
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, novelist and poet, 20th Century Earth

“Aliens, humans - labels hardly matter: at the heart of things, what one needs
to know is that, beneath the exterior, we are all people, and we should treat
each other as people, according to one’s traditions and culture. That’s
what good manners are. If you have that, it’s easy to make friends,
whether they be Human or Elyran, Dixx or Detterex, Arachnian or Erocii.
All it takes is a laugh and a smile. The problem, of course, is to understand
what a smile looks like for an Arachnian or a Dixx.”
- Dr. Alexandra Romarkin, Secretary-General of the New United Nations, 2310 Earth

Shepherd Moon, Chapter 12: Homeward Bound

It had been a few days since the battle engagement with the aliens and the rescue of the Arachnians. Human-Federation history will record that engagement as the “Battle of Pluto.” Very misleading, of course, since the battle was nowhere near the sub-planet. But since it happened at a distance from the sun the same as Pluto (specifically, the exact distance as the nearest point of its orbit around the sun, and on the same orbital plane), it was a convenient name. But that was still far into the future. For now, it didn’t have a name yet.

At the moment, the remaining Tiros and Detterex Empire ships, composed of nine battle cruisers, four escort cruisers and a tanker, had disengaged and moved away at high sublight, and had taken a curving, decelerating path that would take them to Earth, decelerating all the way. Fourteen out of an original twenty-two ships. And since they were now moving substantially less than light speed, they’d only be on Earth in a month - maybe more since they seemed to have designed their path to specifically take a long, slow way around.

That was still a lot better than the Federation ships - out of an original nine ships, there were only three Elyran and two Dixx cruisers left. A sixty percent survivor ratio for the Empire ships, and fifty-five percent for the Federation. Such low survival ratios have never been recorded in any Elyran engagement in recent years, making the battle one of the worst military engagements.

Military strategists on the Earth were actually a little dumbfounded by these numbers. In the first place, they were hoping a military engagement could have been avoided altogether - they were only able to send a force of three cruisers after all, to meet thirty-one ships. If they couldn’t avoid a battle engagement, their pessimistic predictions showed a four-to-one win-loss projection, or in other words, nineteen surviving alien ships to zero survivors for Earth. It’s no wonder that the “Earthers” were dumbfounded.

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The Earthers could actually intercept the remaining Empire ships if they wanted to long before they reached Earth, if Seeker and her ships didn’t have to escort the Federation aliens, or if they used some of their other ships outfitted with the PRC’s Type One or Type Two FTL engines and inertial converters. But they didn’t: Mia was under orders, and the Admiral of the Fleet declined to send more ships.

Silverman was painfully aware that most of his fleet of fifty Type One interstellar cruisers and fifty Type Two interplanetary cruisers were still in various states of readiness - only two of the new-generation ships were running - the Hermes and the Constellation, and they were Type Twos (not counting Seeker and the other pre-FTL ships, of course) and they were already engaged. Five other Type Twos had, however just been launched a few weeks ago, and were already undergoing shakedown.

Silverman had decided that the Hermes and Constellation couldn’t be pulled out of their current mission, so he was hoping that the other new ships would be done with their try-outs soon. He had been lucky with Hermes and Constellation, launching them untested and only almost finished - it was a miracle that they didn’t blow up or something. But he didn’t want to risk that again. In three weeks, another twelve new Type Twos would be ready for their shakedown (making a grand total of nineteen), and maybe even a couple of the Type Ones might be ready for commissioning soon. He’d at least have something flying that he could count on other than Hermes, Constellation, and the old, retrofitted and oversized Seeker.

The production of the new ships weren’t really problematic for Silverman. New Copernicus was already configured to manufacture hull sections and bulkheads for the so-called “Enterprise-Class” fusion ships, as well as to assemble them. That was why the Propulsion Research Commission’s design for Earth System’s first FTL ship was so heavily-influenced by that ten-year-old design: Marta Running-Stream intended for the new ships to be easily manufactured by using the foundries, molds and forms New Copernicus already had for creating, cutting, pressing and molding the hulls and bulkheads for Enterprise-Class ships. That’s why internal construction of the Type-Ones and Type-Twos was very similar to the fusion ships, and therefore easy.

Prior to their new slew of orders for Type-One and Type-Two FTLs, New Copernicus’ production was about one fusion cruiser a year, but at full capacity, the New Copernicus Shipyards could churn out three to five ships a month, which was now the norm. It has to be that way because their contract with the government was to complete the one hundred ships within two years. But they knew that this wouldn’t have been possible if the system’s government didn’t arrange for other manufacturers to be involved.

All the major systems and components were outsourced: the specialized electronics and other related components were mostly off-the-shelf and could be outsourced to the factories of Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune. Actually, there was enough in stock with the various retailers on Earth, so the factories were geared more to replace Earth stocks. As for the specialized gases, chemical components and materials required, Venus would ship them in thousand-gallon cargo containers fired into lunar orbit via rail guns (the only delivery system that would allow them to hit the required 1,700 miles per second, and higher without resorting to FTL). As for the electromagnetic containment systems, they came from the labs in Mercury – the system’s experts in tokamaks and plasma containment, while the FTL systems came from the PLC labs on Earth.

As for the raw materials that they needed for the hulls, which was, by far, the biggest supply concern that New Copernicus had, the Ceres Consortium on Mars provided refined iron, steel and aluminum from their mining and refining operations on the sub-planet, Ceres. They, of course, had to get sufficient supplies of carbon from Earth and Venus to produce the steel that New Copernicus needed, but Mars was managing that. Almost daily, the Consortium would fire large kiloton-sized billets of refined metals into lunar orbit via rail gun. Their mining operation had also liberated large quantities of H2O and other minerals, which Mars was now stockpiling on Mars’ surface. In fact, soon, they might have enough H2O to begin terraforming, making Mars the third planet in the system to allow their citizens to live on the surface openly instead of under domes. As to the other surplus minerals, they plan to sell them to all the other planets, guaranteeing that they’d recoup their mining operation expenses, and perhaps fund their future terraforming plans.

The government was burning through money like it was firewood in the winter, as was all the companies and operations involved, but as fast as they spent it, the bulk of the money was circulated back to into the system’s economy – after all, most of the corporations and companies involved had their own bills to pay. It was a classic example of a closed economic system. In the short term, this situation of demand-feeding-supply-feeding-demand would be good, but eventually, most economic experts say that this would lead to eventual economic burnout.

Jennifer Priestly would actually say that this was one of the reasons that they needed to be part of the Galactic Federation. At the very least, Earth finds a new market to sell its products, and new ways to spend its incredible, newfound wealth. Otherwise, the system’s economy will implode. Some of the older economists would say, for some people to be rich, there had to be people who were poor, but this view was very twenty-first century. Present-day academics would say that there must be more than one economy. As a famous quote from seventeenth-century Earth poet John Donne goes, “no man is an island.” And this was apparently true for Silverman’s Island Earth as well. The Galactic Federation could actually be Earth’s economic savior.

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The ships weren’t as big a problem for Silverman as it was trying to ride herd on this coalition army of his. National pride and national interests were causing him headaches. In actuality, the original, individual national armed forces that were subsumed into the larger United Earth Defense Force (or EarthForce) need not change, and their missions need not be altered. Peacekeeping was peacekeeping, after all, and admin was admin. But the creation of the combined space force changed things.

The “discovery” of the Galactic Federation, the discovery of Phase-Wave and the development of real FTL travel had changed the race’s perspective. National concerns seemed smaller now and less urgent, especially when almost all humans were well-fed, well educated and doing well, and there was a whole galaxy out there now, plus the discovery of a new bogeyman in the form of the Tirosians and the Detterex.

Now, most nations wanted a piece of the interstellar pie, especially the smaller countries. Everyone was busting his doors down to get a chance at one of the new FTLs. So the strategy was to “assign” one FTL to a country. But there were about two hundred nations in the UN, and Silverman only had one hundred FTLs planned altogether, so the virtual competition for the ships was fierce. In order to manage this, BuPers had updated their crew evaluation tests and protocols, and prospective crews were put through the wringer. Those that pass through BuPers and BuMed’s very comprehensive battery of tests were then matriculated into the new navy’s month-long Flight School Programme, and immediately assigned an FTL afterwards.

Priority was, however, given to the crews of already-existing “national” crews. The unmatched esprit de corps of such crews were invaluable, especially those that had battle experience. The French-crewed Hermes and the African-crewed Constellation were examples of this. There was talk of dispersing these crews to the new ones, though, but the cohesiveness of these crews was valuable to Silverman so he vetoed that.

The Seeker crew was an anomaly in that, though it had a largely North American complement, its crew was more international than the others, and had the most experience of all the “veteran” crews. Furthermore, the new replacement ensigns and yeomen they took on at their last port of call on Triton were handpicked by O’Connell, and were a mixed bag of nationalities. This made the Seeker crew even more diverse than any in the present navy.

None of the existing non-FTL ships were being upgraded since an upgrade would mostly require gutting them. It would be too long and too complicated, so it was better to just assign the crews a new FTL. The large, flat basin near New Copernicus was designated as the navy’s bone yard, and more than a dozen of the older non-FTLs were already parked there. A motley collection of the old ships was still in operation, though, and would remain so until they could be replaced by new FTLs.

Seeker was yet another anomaly in that it was currently the only refitted pre-FTL ship. Dr. Running-Stream had determined that J-Class cruisers were one of a handful of ship designs that could be upgraded in a short amount of time so she had lobbied for the Seeker to be made part of Task Force 41/18. Pressured to beef up the task force at the time, Silverman agreed.

There were more ships in the pipeline, of course, and Earth planners could foresee the boom times for ship construction to continue on into the foreseeable future because of this. But, for now, they were at the limits of their production capacity.

In the meantime, most of the “decrepit” Seeker-era cruisers that were assigned to Earth and the moon were mobilized, and were on their ponderous way to a rendezvous beyond Lunar orbit.

That was a little bit too close to Earth for Mia’s taste - She and her friends from CETI and the new Alien Threat Assessment Command would have preferred that the rendezvous happen earlier and much farther away from Earth, so UN Secretary-General Alexandra Romarkin decided to talk with Silverman and find out if that’s possible.

“Did Captain Steele ask you to speak with me?” the Admiral said when she approached him with Mia’s concerns.

“Do you think Mia would bypass your authority, Admiral? Of course not. I found out about this on my own.”

“Madam Secretary-General,” Silverman said, “I need not tell you that I have the highest opinion of Dr. Steele, and would trust him implicitly, but I have my own opinion of the situation.”

“You mean ‘her,’“ Romarkin said with a small smile.

“Blast it, I keep forgetting. Yes, you’re quite right - I meant ‘her.’“

“But you aren’t agreeing with her this time?”

“The criticality of the situation, Madam Secretary-General, is not enough that I would be willing to jeopardize fleet assets, and, more importantly, the lives of men and women under my command. However, as a compromise, I have asked the PRC engineers, and had the individual ship commanders currently conducting shakedown flights, to assess the performance of the new ships, and look into the possibility of early deployment. I am also going over evaluation and test scores of the ships, as well as their crews’ scores and readiness to ship out on a real mission, and I think I may be able to have five FTLs available to Captain Steele in, say, seven to eight days. In the meantime, a squadron of our Legacy ships will be ready to rendezvous with the aliens as soon as they get to the vicinity of Luna.”

“Legacy?”

“That’s what we’re starting to call all the old pre-FTL and pre-gravitic ships.”

“Well, That’s a lot better than calling them ‘blimps,’ at least,” she said, referring to the current navy slang for them - a derogatory one that referred to the old construction style of most of the old ships, a necessary design “style” because of the large tankages they needed to store their liquid-chemical fuels.

Speaking of which,” she continued, “what about the Seeker - do you consider Seeker a Legacy Ship? Even after her refit?”

“Well... I suppose so, but it’s a J-class ship and it used high-compression chemical tanks. So it’s certainly not a ‘blimp.’”

“Hmmm,” Romarkin thought. That’s one piece of scuttlebutt she won’t be passing on to Mia and her crew.

She understood Silverman’s position about not sending any of the new ships yet, and she agreed with it. She therefore delayed issuing any official instructions. Officially, though, if asked, she planned to say she had no opinion about the situation since it was not her area - that it was the Admiral’s decision to make.

“Very well, Admiral,” Romarkin said. “Thank you. Please keep me posted on further developments.” She signed off and called Mia back.

Though she didn’t have any good news, that didn’t stop her from asking Mia for help in getting to know the new neighbors.

So Romarkin first asked to be briefed on the just-concluded engagement and, through Phase-Wave, Mia, Commander O’Connell, Captains Dupont, Okonkwo and their execs did a thorough job. Mia also talked about the “grilling” they had at the hands of the alien Prince and his staff onboard the Talon. At that point, Mia asked Nick, late of CETI, and Jerry Bhavnani’s former superstar code-breaker, to join the briefing.

“Well, Ma’am,” Nick began as he sat down, “I wouldn’t call it a grilling, per se.”

“Yeah?” O’Connell said. “Then what would you call it, Lieutenant?”

Nick shrugged.

“Well, whatever,” Romarkin said. “Tell me what happened during this ‘grilling.’“

During the “grilling”, it became apparent that the aliens were curious about Earth technology the most, but Mia and the others were careful not to give away anything that could be considered strategic or top secret. They agreed to the meeting because they were confident that they could cope, especially since they got expert coaching from the rest of the crew via their hidden Phase-Wave earpieces.

They gave some of the rudimentary concepts about the means of propulsion of the Seeker, Hermes and Constellation, and the aliens concluded that Earther technology was essentially the same as theirs (it was mostly true, after all, so Mia and the others did not disabuse them of this impression).

Asked about the light that the three ships emitted just before they became ship-maneuverable, Mia explained that the light was an effect of their engines’ field generators when they rapidly reduced their rate of output. Again, strictly speaking, that was true - when adjustments are made to the fields they generate, Elyran-style engines sometimes emit a Cherenkov-like light effect. (When charged particles move through an electrically polarizable medium faster than light normally would, a glow would be emitted. Humans called it Cherenkov Radiation, after the scientist who discovered it in the nineteen-fifties. Elyrans, of course, called it something else.) Elyrans and humans knew that in this situation, the effect happens in inefficient antigrav field generation in regions of space saturated with plasma or gas particles, such as on or near planetary surfaces or near nebulae and similar phenomena. The Elyrans exchanged amused, barely-hidden smirks at what they assumed to be inefficient, badly designed generators.

Once again, Mia didn’t disabuse them of that assumption. She didn’t tell them, of course, that a Cherenkov-lookalike effect was also generated by their newly-invented inertia converters, which was part of the light they saw when Seeker, Hermes and Constellation “braked.” And besides, there wasn’t enough gas around the ships for the Cherenkov light effect.

She didn’t lie. She was able to get away with it because she just didn’t really answer their question. The aliens apparently knew nothing of this kind of “braking” technology, although its principles could be extrapolated from the gravitation manipulation that made faster-than-light travel possible. She and Marta Running-Stream had a bet about that, and since Marta said she couldn’t believe the aliens wouldn’t know anything about it, Mia won.

Anyway, Mia kept the aliens ignorant of the humans’ inertia converters and preserved their tactical advantage by not giving them any more information, although the Earth-designed inertia converters would only work above a certain inertial mass. Below that, ship thrusters and engines would have to do the braking in the conventional manner, i.e. where Newtonian physics were in effect.

The Elyrans also asked the humans about their fighters, and Mia explained that the Vipers and her own ship’s Shrikes used miniature versions of their FTL. The aliens were shocked to hear this. They said Federation science could only miniaturize their stardrive systems only up to a certain point, which would, at best, make such systems fit ships half the size of Seeker, and they knew no way to make them smaller than that and fit something like Seeker’s Shrikes. Besides, FTL engines would not have any effect at velocities below light speed. Mia, Nick and O’Connell didn’t say anything more and let the aliens think whatever they wanted.

“I think you shouldn’t have given that information, Mia,” Romarkin said later.

“Actually, Madam Secretary-General,” Mia explained, “it was deliberate. Just from seeing our fighters, they would eventually conclude that we use a version of our stardrive generators on them. This way, we give them the impression we aren’t hiding things and are actually volunteering information, though in fact we ARE hiding things.”

Mia explained to the Secretary-General that what she didn’t tell the Elyrans was that Earth science had the same limitation in reducing the size of their stardrives as well, and that FTL engines do not work below light speed. The thing was, knowing this, Earth used its ability to miniaturize their technology allowed them to make the engines for ships like Mia’s fighters that generate field effects that, at best, would only be good for accelerations up to about a fiftieth the speed of light. Which was still mind-boggling - Shrikes can manage accelerations of half a mile an hour per hour to 13 million miles an hour per hour. That was ridiculous, of course: the human body would not be able to cope at those rates of acceleration, so there was a limiter that prevented them from accelerating no more than 12 Gs – the maximum Gs that a human body can tolerate. Federation fighters and shuttles, on the other hand, could only manage a maximum of about 4 Gs using their hydrogen-oxygen rocket engines.

At such lower-power dimensions, lasers and reflectors made of high-precision glass and crystalline mirrors were sufficient to control the engines’ smaller and weaker fields. There was therefore no need for the large electromagnetic shield generators required to contain more powerful fields. The extremely precise miniaturized control systems was what allowed them to replace the gigantically-massive field generators of FTL engines with precisely controlled mirrors and lasers. It was doubtful if the Federation could mass-produce such systems.

The complexity and gigantic size of FTL generators were the reason faster-than-light Federation, Empire and Earth starships couldn’t be made any smaller. And because of this Earther design innovation, a generator from one of Mia’s “Mark 2” Shrike fighters would only be the size of a small twentieth-century combustion motor in what they used to call a “subcompact car.” These engines were more akin to Seeker’s shipboard gravity plates than to starship engines. In fact the inspiration for Marta’s first prototype fighter engine was artificial gravity plates. As it was, the Shrikes didn’t “fold” normal space, as FTL ships did, but rather traveled IN normal space as all vehicles that traveled below the speed of light did.

Earth’s ability in miniaturizing their technology has made all of this possible. Another key difference in their ships’ technology that Mia didn’t share was that their FTL engines worked at both above light speed and below. Dr. Marta Running-stream, the brilliant head of Earth’s PRC, would explain in her secret files that the Federation would only see several centuries later, that the problem of the Federation and the Empire was that their scientists didn’t make the counter-intuitive leap that Earth scientists did: Instead of trying to make the FTL “folding effect” or “relativity-isolating effect” work in both relativistic space and normal space, the Earthers didn’t try to. Instead, at sublight, they would switch the function of the engines from generating a gravity field bubble to the equivalent of massive gravity plates radiating plain-Jane, run-of-the-mill anti-gravity from the rear of the cruiser. The Federation scientists could have easily duplicated this except that their thinking was too conventional and the idea never even occurred to them. Using an Earther idiom, they didn’t know how to think “outside the box.”

There was one other thing about the Earther sublight propulsion: like the tiny Shrike engines, these massively large generators would create Cherenkov-like light. But at these massive levels, they were able to tweak the light that leaked out so that the they would imitate ion thrust, at least visually. And it was enough of a camouflage to hide the nature of their engines from the aliens.

Decades later, Marta would explain to the UN Security Council that the finesse of control that Earth’s electronics allowed them made all of this possible. It was like comparing someone who’s trying to blow up a balloon to someone who’s trying to whistle: Federation FTL engines could only blow up balloons with their less-precise controls and less-while the Earthers could control theirs with a level of finesse that they could actually whistle. Though reluctant to, Marta recommended that the Security Council do everything it could to hide this fundamental difference of Earth systems to the aliens, and thereby maintain the tactical advantage that Earth had.

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Continuing on, Mia explained to Silverman and the Secretary-General that, by hiding these things, the impression they were able to give the aliens about Earth Tech during the “grilling” was that it was mostly a mix of current, outdated and advanced technologies, and this would quell any feelings of doubt and suspicion the aliens had about the information they were being given. That’s because such anachronisms would make the information feel real. Romarkin didn’t completely agree with that logic but, as she tried the idea on for size, she realized Bill, or rather, Mia, was right again. She was glad that when Bill changed into Mia, the change didn’t dull his sharp mind. Or, rather her sharp mind... So confusing...

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Nick added that the impression they tried to create could be exploited in many ways, all to the humans’ advantage, and cause the aliens to underestimate Earth people.

Other things were discussed during the “grilling” - Mia took that opportunity to ask the Elyrans about the status of the remaining Federation ships, and what the “Earthers” could do to help. What they were told confirmed their telemetry. O’Connell, in turn, told them about the handful of surviving Arachnians they rescued. Ren asked about the First Ambassador, and when O’Connell told him he was among the survivors, Ren cried in relief. The Princess Tasha hugged him, turned and expressed to Mia their family’s gratitude.

Mia nodded, feeling a little proud of her crew. She explained, however, that she was unsure if they could help the Arachnians further medically, and she didn’t know if their equipment and spares could be of any use to them, but she would be ready to help nevertheless. The Princess offered to help as well.

That was, of course, a while ago, and since then, the Arachnian ship was abandoned and the humans had settled the Arachnians on the Seeker. Since then they seemed to be thriving in Earth atmosphere. Belatedly, one of the Arachnians had some sort of seizure. Mia was told that it was due to exposure to radiation onboard their old ship, but she still had the aliens quarantined in biologically-neutral isolation rooms, on the off-chance that the Arachnians’ exposure to Earth atmosphere might have caused it. True, it was probably a futile safeguard (they had already been “exposed” to human airborne biologicals via the ship’s atmosphere), but it might help.

The First Ambassador told Mia not to worry, and had shown her a little belt-like device that all the Arachnians wore.

She was assured that it was a passive technology, and she shouldn’t worry. He explained that it was their version of a lifesigns detector, and it would have warned them if the conditions onboard Seeker were inimical to them in any way, whether it be environmental or biological, like radiation, gravity, temperature, bacteria, viruses, spores, or something else altogether. The Ambassador was confident that they were in no danger, but acceded to Mia’s restrictions just to be polite and cooperative.

Mia asked if they could spare one of the belts. She was given sixteen, and she passed them on to her science team to analyze. Later on, the humans would be told that all the races in the Federation and in the Empire used such devices constantly. The belts had little tubes running around it. Each of the tubes in the belts carried a simple life form that looked like a chubby little white insect grub or larva, what the Elyrans and Detterex called a yochu, about the size of a small human thumb, and, depending on its reaction to the atmosphere and other environmental conditions it was exposed to, one would know if he or she was in danger. These artificially grown worms didn’t excrete anything, and were engineered to survive on their own for a period of about seven Earth months. Beyond that time, the worms would die naturally, and an Arachnian would need to get “fresh” replacement cartridges for her belt. The same life form was now used by all of the known races, but bred and “customized” to suit each individual species. The breeding of these life forms and the manufacture of the belt devices themselves were a thriving industry within the Federation and the Empire.

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After the briefing, the Secretary-General said that she wanted to talk to the aliens. And, since their ships were traveling at the same constant velocities well below the speed of light, and were in close proximity with each other, they could remain in radio contact.

Via radio, Elyran technicians were able to help Mia’s people understand the coding of virtually all Federation and Empire commercial transmissions (previous to that, the Humans could only decipher Elyran radio and government transmission frequencies since these used direct-analog coding), and after the Elyrans showed them how, Humans could now properly decipher almost all the Federation TV transmissions they had patiently been intercepting and recording since, as well as many Empire transmissions, from the previous year. Mia sent the coding information back to CETI right away.

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A few years later, after the Humans got the hang of the aliens’ radio frequencies and coding, BBC Solar and the other major media outlets in the system would start airing deciphered, reformatted and redubbed (or subtitled) Federation - mostly Elyran - shows (all with permission, of course, courtesy of the Royal Elyran Communications Institute). Not surprisingly, what became the most popular shows were what Humans would have called alien “action movies” and “soap operas.” The gender role reversal, and the existence of “bridges,” gave an interesting twist to what would have been very familiar themes and plots and, even though Elyran programs had a “medieval” kind of atmosphere (given the knight-errant kind of ethic, and swords, armor, kingdoms, castles and so forth), many humans became avid fans. Critics thought they were over-wrought, and over-acted, but the fans didn’t care. Besides, most humans thought Elyran females were gorgeous, and Elyran males cute.

By that time, many humans became obsessed about the pseudo-telepathic/empathic phenomenon of Elyran “bridges,” and many wondered if they would be able to experience such things. They would be disappointed later when it would become known that virtually all humans were unaffected by the phenomenon. However, there was one bigger secret to this effect that would never be directly disclosed to the general Human population.

On a more mundane point, the growth in popularity of Elyran entertainment would affect Human entertainment as well, and programs with Arthurian themes, knights, kings and queens would become extremely popular. And, in truth, the gender role reversal wasn’t too strange as modern Human society had gotten over archaic gender-associated social mores a long time ago. Well, more-or-less.

The bigger thing, however, was that the understanding that Humans had of Federation society - Elyran society in particular - became all the better. Earth’s ability to integrate into the galactic community became virtually assured.

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An hour later, after Seeker’s video systems were properly adjusted, the Secretary-General was able to converse in real-time with the Elyran Prince and Princess, the First Ambassador of Arachnia and his surviving staff, and High Admiral Dax of Dixx Prime’s Planetary Defense Squadron, who was leading this Federation contingent. Transmissions to and from Earth were transmitted via Phase-Wave and then relayed to the Federation ships via radio courtesy of the Seeker. It was the farthest and longest two-way radio teleconference in history.

The Federation envoys were very pleased to be talking directly with the leader of the Earthers, and Romarkin was pleased as well. The aliens thought it was an incredible stroke of luck that the Earthers were fluent in Elyran, or had tools that made them virtually fluent - misunderstandings were kept at a very minimum. (The aliens didn’t inquire too closely about how the Earthers became fluent, since they seemed unwilling to discuss it.)

Pleasantries and other things that people talk about when they want to get to know each other took up a leisurely hour or so. It was a cordial talk, each being very careful not to offend. In later years, Romarkin would comment that it was easy to be friends with the aliens. All it took was a laugh and a smile. The problem, of course, was to understand what constituted a smile to an Arachnian or a Dixx...

As they talked, a new complication had arisen. It seemed Admiral Dax was harboring stowaways...

As they chatted, one and one-half eights of new faces (an Earther would have said one dozen instead of “one and one-half eights”, but there was no single Elyran word that was an equivalent to the Human word “dozen”) walked into camera range on Dax’s screen: A pair of mated Dixx priests (judging by their accouterments), two Arachnians, two large Dravidians and five little Erocii servitors. Aside from the Elyrans, the newcomers represented four of the ten most powerful Federation races.

The twelfth alien, though, was of a species that Mia didn’t recognize. She recognized the others from clues she heard or read based on the intercepts, but she was clueless with this one. It appeared human or Elyran for the most part, except that it was taller than an Elyran - about as tall as an average Human female, and had four arms - one pair below the more normally-positioned pair, and the expected Elyran three-fingers-and-thumb per hand.

The four-armed humanoid looked like a tenth-century mandarin priest - he was dressed in a flowing silk (or silk-like) robe in white and gold, and a silken box hat sat on his head. He had a slim build and a wizened, faintly oriental face, long silvery hair, bushy eyebrows and a long mustache-beard combination. All four of his hands were thin and spindly - appropriate for a human of his apparent age, each with three long fingers and a thumb, topped with nails that were probably colored with some kind of silver nail polish.

The deference of his retinue indicated to the humans the high regard, which they held him in. Romarkin caught Mia’s eye, her question faintly evident. Mia shrugged, not knowing who or what the new alien was.

Admiral Dax introduced this new group. “Friends from the Earth, it is honor to introduce you to the Keeper of the Heritage and his retinue. The Keeper of the Heritage is to be addressed as ‘Your Excellency’ or ‘noble born.’“

The Admiral’s words intrigued Mia. Who, or what, was this “Keeper of the Heritage?” She desperately wanted to check in with Walter and his staff but for the moment she decided to play it by ear.

She bowed towards the screen with Dax and the new aliens, as an Elyran would bow towards someone of royalty or high nobility. “Greetings, noble born,” she said in formal tones. “We are pleased to meet you. I am Captain Amelia Steele. May I introduce she who leads us, Madame Alexandra Romarkin, Secretary-General of the New United Nations of Earth.”

Taking her cue from Mia, Romarkin bowed as well.

“Your Excellency,” she said.

The four-armed alien remained quiet and studied Mia and the other humans. His gaze lingered on Romarkin’s face, and lingered even longer on Mia’s. With his white-tipped cane, Mia couldn’t help and think he should be wearing a top hat instead of something that looks like a mandarin box-hat.

After a while he nodded to one of the Dravidians, turned and walked out of the range of the screen. Except for that one Dravidian, he and his “retinue” left the room.

The big bear-like Dravidian that remained turned to Mia and the Secretary-General and bowed in what was unmistakably a courtly manner.

“Greetings, excellencies,” the Dravidian said. “Please forgive my master - it is his time of prayer and reflection. He does not mean to be impolite. He has commanded me to ask that he be allowed to talk with you in person as soon as it is convenient. He has much to discuss with you.” Again, he bowed courteously. “If you will excuse me, I need to go and join my comrades.” He then turned and walked out of the screen.

After a moment, Romarkin spoke.

“Who the heck was that,” she asked, puzzled. What she actually said was more... colorful. Fortunately, her translator’s program was equipped to translate even rude colloquialisms into more polite Elyran equivalents..

Dax found it hard to answer Romarkin. “That was, ummm, our most important religious leader. And his retinue. He speaks for most citizens of the Federation in matters of spirituality and other holy things.”

Mia was puzzled. “I didn’t know that the races of the Federation had the same religion?”

“No, we do not,” Dax said. “But most of our, how shall I say it, our written religious... legends...”

“Scripture?” Mia offered.

Dax nodded. “Yes, scripture. Most of our scriptures have common, or at least similar, ...legends. In fact there is such a commonality, such an uncanny parallelism that many theologians claim this to be proof of a common root or ancestry or origin, of our cultures, histories and beliefs. The Keepers of the Heritage have become the caretakers of many of our different races’ holy relics, and they are the ones that help us interpret scripture. For those of us who believe, he is the most important person in the Federation.”

“How did he come to be the Keeper, and a stowaway on your ship?”

Dax shrugged. “Most would not gainsay His Excellency in any of his wishes. And it is rare that His Excellency would leave Chaisteal An Linn Arsaidh, his home, and deign to travel with any of us mere mortals. He said he wanted to come, so he did.”

Mia and the Secretary-General looked at each other, not understanding any of it. Mia was disappointed - the Admiral didn’t answer her question completely, so she surreptitiously sent Pedro, her designated CETI specialist over in Triton, a short text message by Phase-Wave phone, asking him to look for the phrase “Keeper of the Heritage” in his Elyran intercepts, and to send her all the material he could find on it.

However, Dax noticed Mia’s reaction. “As to how he was selected to be Keeper,” Dax continued, “prior to his ascendancy, he was apprentice of the Keeper of the Heritage then. When the old Keeper passed away, he assumed her mantle.”

“Well,” Mia thought, “that literally gives an answer to my question, but that wasn’t what I wanted to know...” She decided not to pursue this line of questioning since the Dixx didn’t seem too forthcoming on the topic. “How long has he been the Keeper?” Mia asked instead.

“Not too long,” Dax said. “A little over twenty-four thousand, four hundred twenty Elyran years.”

Romarkin, listening to the translated speech, was goggle-eyed. Mia had to do some computations in her head, translating the base-eight number into decimal, but even without translating the number, the humans were shocked, to say the least.

The humans stared at the Dixx Admiral. She shrugged.

“By tradition, Keepers are treated as if immortal,” she explained. “But they are the same as all living creatures - they grow old and eventually pass away. Otherwise, why would Keepers have apprentices?”

Through the magic of Phase-Wave, Mia and Romarkin looked at each other.

- - - - -

(bookmark 8)

Later photographic analysis showed that the similarity of the new humanoid to the Earthers was actually superficial. The high organo-metallic content made the hair more similar to thin wire. The skin reflected a subtle patterned sheen that indicated that the alien probably had scales. Folds in his sleeves showed that his arms actually had two elbows each, like the jointed limbs of, say, Arachnians. His eyes were actually compound eyes, and the thick nails on his fingers were most probably something similar to claws. Still, the total image he presented was like that of an old, four-armed human or Elyran.

But there were more pressing matters at the moment, so the humans dropped the topic of the Keeper altogether and the discussion continued, and it slowly turned to more immediately-serious matters.

The recent military encounter was discussed at length, and the Federation representatives were all in agreement that it constituted a declaration of war against the Federation. Prior to embarking on the expedition, the Ambassador, Tasha and Dax were empowered by their governments to confirm a declaration of war in behalf of their governments, but they need to announce it at Colossus first and present it to the Federation’s leaders in the hopes of committing the rest of the Federation make a similar declaration. If ever they do so, the First Ambassador said that word will get back to most of the major Federation planets and mobilize their combined forces in about five Earth years. It was unfortunate that their expedition was not completely defeated, joked the Arachnian, so they could avoid all the trouble of mobilizing for war.

Romarkin was taken aback - she didn’t realize the timelines involved. She looked at Mia’s projected image, and Mia nodded. Mia would later explain that, without Earth’s Phase-Wave technology, the aliens needed to use their ships to courier messages from star system to star system, and, without Earth’s more efficient FTL engines and inertia converters, their ships would take more than three times longer than the time it would take Earth’s new cruisers to do the same. It was probably because most humans take Phase-Wave for granted nowadays that Romarkin didn’t make the intuitive connection.

- - - - -

(bookmark 9)

Admiral Dax held up a peremptory hand (or was it a wing or a claw) - they needed to get the particulars straight first, and see if it was even possible to conclude a presumptive act of war even happened. Per the logs of all the Federation ships, it was the Dixx who fired first, and this was worrisome for the Admiral. It might be said that, technically, it was the Federation, which declared war.

But human telemetry records showed that the Tiros ships had deliberately blocked the path of the Federation cruisers, knowing that this would force the Federation ships to stop and engage them in battle. Furthermore, the humans had intercepted and recorded most of the Tiros and Detterex ship-to-ship transmissions, the most damning of these recordings was the one taken from the Defiant, the Detterex flagship: “Prepare to launch attack according to plan as soon as able,” the voice of their comm officer said before the arrival of the Federation ships. The transmission ended with the phrase, “by order of Princess Arvan.”

Secretary-General Romarkin knew most of the important details of the Seeker, Constellation’s and Hermes’ records of the battle. She and Admiral Silverman had no choice but to recognize and approve the actions of their three cruisers. Either that or arrest their crews as genocidal mutineers. So it was in Romarkin’s interest to help the Federation. She agreed to share the humans’ records, and to send an envoy with them back to Colossus as well, to swear to the veracity of the recordings.

The rest of the human population was another matter - this action that Romarkin suggested needed to be sent out to the public - the human public - and eventually get a consensus, perhaps through a referendum. After her talk with the aliens, Romarkin met with her people to talk about this. Her chief of staff suggested holding a press conference, and to release to the public the video and audio recordings from the battle. Romarkin agreed and asked him to contact BBC Solar. “And while you’re at it,” Romarkin said, “contact Sahsha Delyer as well. She’s at Triton, I believe, with Dr. Bidwell. I want her to be the one to control the content.

“Also, coordinate with the Fleet Admiral’s office and contact Mia’s number one, Commander O’Connell. Get as much footage of the battle as you need.” She had also called Silverman and asked him to send a moment-to-moment timeline of the events of the battle, basing it from the reports of the intercept fleet as well as the telemetry of the fighters involved in the battle. Romarkin needed it for her briefings, and for public dissemination.

She called Mia back and told her everything they talked about.

“What do you think, Mia?” she said.

Mia shrugged. “Getting Sahsha involved was a good idea...”

“But?”

“But I think there’s more to be done. For example, you need to convene a general assembly, or at the very least a meeting of the security council - get support for what we’re doing.”

“Done. That’s happening tomorrow. Marc will take care of it.”

Mia grinned at that. “Okay. Next, assuming this is passed, and passed unanimously, we need to tell our alien friends the criticality of the timing. With Phase-Wave and our faster ships, we can substantially reduce the time it’ll take to report to Colossus.”

“All right. I’ll leave that to you.”

“Then we will need to contact Admiral Silverman and get cracking on getting ships ready, assigning ships, et cetera...”

“Done. What else?”

Mia grinned again. “You think you’re pretty smart, huh?”

Romarkin laughed. “Whatever do you mean, my dear?”

- - - - -

(bookmark 10)

The next day, talks proceeded with the aliens, but without Romarkin. Mia explained that the Secretary-General had a lot to do at the moment, and she would be the one managing things for now, which Mia found hard to do given a new problem that had arisen.

As a discussion on the matter of the Empire threat started, Mia received a call from her Chief Engineer. She excused herself to answer her CC.

It seems, after their last use of the inertia converters, data indicated that their converters would likely fail if ever they flew for a more extended duration than they have been, or at higher velocities, as there would be more energy to convert. It seems, unlike the purpose-built projectors of the new Type One and Type Two cruisers, Seeker’s new projectors were not rated to cope with the higher energies that their “Frankenstein engine” could now produce (the term was coined by Mia’s CETI expert on board, Nick, who was a 20th Century “movie buff”). It wasn’t something anticipated, and only after a period of sustained use would they have found this out. But the fix was easy - just put in more converters.

The thing was, they didn’t have any more. To manage any possible overload, the chief suggested putting a brace of emitters made from sixteen spare gun turret parts in the cargo bay just in front of, and below the bridge section, just in case. They’d sit in the area where the old vertical retro thrusters were before.

Mia asked why not run the converters longer if they needed to, but the chief engineer said Seeker’s not a purpose-built FTL ship - her superstructure would have imploded or the storage coils would have melted and exploded long before the converters siphoned off enough potential energy.

Though that meant dumping a lot of stuff overboard to clear enough space below deck for the new emitters, Mia reluctantly agreed. But she was told that the stuff they had to dump were Seeker’s old stuff - the old tankages and pipe sub-assemblies of the old thrusters that weren’t needed anymore. She wondered why they kept all that junk, but the chief explained that they didn’t know if Mia’s “upgrades” would take, and they might need them again. Seems some people still weren’t completely sold on Seeker’s changes.

Mia sighed. She decided not to get offended and cleared the chief to start her new project.

“Just another day in the life of Seeker’s captain,” she sighed again. She walked back to the conference.

- - - - -

(bookmark 11)

In a lull in the talks, Mia brought up the latest thing Romarkin wanted to be discussed regarding the Empire threat, and the critical timing issue connected to it.

“The Secretary-General,” Mia began, “feels that our people need to be informed of everything that has been discussed so far, as soon as possible, inform them of our plans and get their approval. And then we can be in a better position to help you raise the alarm.”

“When would we arrive on Earth?” Dax asked.

“A month from now. Maybe less. It depends on the maximum thrust of your engines, and the balance of acceleration and deceleration.”

“That is true,” Admiral Dax said heavily. “I wish there was a way to get word to Earth more quickly.”

“I understand that, sir,” Mia said. “But whatever time we can get is time that we can use to do what is needed. But, Admiral, they already know back home.”

The alien Admiral’s image on the screen smiled and nodded to Mia. “Well spoken, Captain,” she said. “You think like a Dixx. You are right, of course. I suppose we can transmit our data and start sending some reports. But not communicating face to face would not be very efficient.”

“I think you misunderstood, sir. Secretary-General Romarkin is currently on Earth and, even as we speak, she is meeting with our leaders. Our officials already know the details.”

This was greeted with silence.

“Then who was the Earther that we have been meeting with?” the Dixx Admiral asked, perplexed.

“That was the Secretary-General, sir.”

She and her staff looked at each other in confusion.

“What...”

“We have been communicating with her via a direct link from my ship to UN headquarters on Earth.” Inside, Mia was smiling at the consternation that she was causing, but outwardly, she played it cool and polite.

The Elyrans and Dixx, and the Arachnians in their bio-isolation rooms onboard Seeker, erupted in loud exclamations and general confused discussions. Mia and Nick looked at each other, smiling faintly. Mia gave Nick a wink.

“Quiet!” Ren, the Elyran Prince and the expedition’s chief scientist finally shouted. It cut through the confused melee, and as soon as the noise died down enough, he turned to Mia.

“Captain Steele,” the Elyran said, “are you saying you are able to send real-time transmissions anywhere? Even over interplanetary distances?”

Mia nodded. “Yes, Your Highness, provided that the other party is similarly equipped with the proper devices.”

The Prince exchanged significant looks with his staff.

“What sort of devices would those be, Captain?”

“I am sorry, Your Highness, I am not allowed to divulge any information about that.”

The scientist look nonplussed.

“For the moment,” Mia added.

That failed to mollify the alien Prince, but Mia couldn’t help that so she just continued on with the meeting.

Mia said that they had done some turnover figures and, with their direct route to Earth, and by increasing their acceleration or rather slacking off on their deceleration, they could arrive a couple of weeks ahead of the approximate arrival of the Empire ships.

Talon’s pilot said that they would overshoot Earth if they did, but O’Connell said no, and she showed their calculations - more precise because of more detailed, exact information and better equipment. The aliens reviewed and crosschecked the figures and the pilot grudgingly agreed. The various ship crews would therefore be conferring with each other later, and synchronizing flight plans.

Nick was thinking of suggesting that the Federation representatives transfer over to Seeker since the Earth ships could be back home in less than a day (given their newly-available FTL capacities), but Mia said that wasn’t necessary since most of what needed to be done could be done via Phase-Wave telepresence. Nick shrugged.

An hour or so later, warnings were heard throughout all of the ships and everyone felt a slight change in their ships’ gravities as their crews executed their new flight plans, based on the humans’ calculations.

Nick and his colleagues from the Alien Threat Assessment Command largely took over the discussions the following day, with much of their discussion being relayed back to CETI, the UN Security Council, the Fleet Admiral’s Office, and a lot of the protocol-related offices and departments of the UN. Agreements were made and an itinerary of sorts for the visiting alien dignitaries was drawn up, assuming an arrival in a few weeks’ time. To the humans, that was quite a while to wait, therefore much of what they originally intended to do dirt-side was to be accomplished onboard now.

Discussions commenced in earnest, and Admiral Dax suggested a three-pronged approach, which both groups readily accepted:

One - an exchange of technology would be undertaken while en route to Earth, where the technical and science staff of the alien expedition would meet, via telepresence with leading representatives from the humans’ scientific and industrial communities and institutes. Through Admiral Silverman, Secretary-General Romarkin appointed Mia as the one to select the human representatives to these real-time teleconferences, and everyone in industry and all the major scientific institutes agreed with this appointment, which made Mia more popular than any video star of the time. Various individuals and interest groups clamored for a Phase-Wave audience with her, hoping to be part of this group. In the end, after Mia briefed everyone on the necessary restrictions, she selected ten individuals, three of which were from CETI. Talks commenced the following day.

Two - a cultural exchange would be attempted, and many academics throughout human society clamored to be included in this discussion. Again, Mia was the one appointed to select the human representatives, and she loaded the committee with CETI people - five of the ten representatives were handpicked from Mia’s former CETI staff, to be headed by Professor Jennifer Priestly. Talks on this commenced two days later.

Three - representatives from the governments on both sides would discuss matters of government, policy and détente. Romarkin took this upon herself. Chief among the activities for this part were accreditation of various Federation governments as sovereign states, establishment of embassies, and the creation of treaties for economic and commercial cooperation, and mutual defense. The aliens were surprised to find that the humans were as prepared as they were - even as the Federation representatives proffered drafts of treaties they had painstakingly crafted after months of wrangling with their politicians, and consulting eights and eights of legal experts, the humans also had their own versions to proffer. This effectively tabled their discussions for a while as both groups took time out to study each other’s documents.

Before they ended for the day, though, Romarkin did have a surprise - she announced that, through a UN appropriations act, seven smallish islands that were part of a small archipelago called the Isles of Scilly on the southwest part of England (secretly bought by the world government from the Duchy of Cornwall and passed on to Mia to be her new duchy), for use of the Galactic Federation as a site for their embassies and other facilities that they may need to construct in order to insure a continuous presence on Earth (such as a hospital, food preparation facilities, housing, et cetera), provided, of course, that the aliens would agree to regular inspections for weapons, and the building of filtering and disposal systems for substances inimical to indigenous Earth life forms.

It never would have been discussed at all if the Earth scientists did not say that there would be minimal danger from extraterrestrial contaminants. Still, they said this wouldn’t be allowed without further tests.

The aliens were aghast. But it wasn’t the proviso regarding testing and inspection-on-demand that surprised them. It was because they couldn’t get over how generous the Humans were being.

Ren asked about the sizes of the islands. When they were told that the islands being leased to them had a surface area of over seven square kilometers altogether (they explained what a kilometer was, of course), not to mention several square kilometers of ocean surrounding it, they were in further disbelief. And that the lease was to be for one hundred Earth years.

Usable and habitable locations were at a premium among Federation-registered planets and territories. The generosity of the Secretary-General was unbelievable. The Federation representatives excitedly pored through all the material they were given about the seven islands. Initially, they were disappointed to find that the islands were affected by nuclear fallout in a global war many Earth years ago, but they were happy to hear that all traces of radioactivity and other damage was removed, and that the islands were, in fact, the home of over a thousand individuals now. The names of the islands were St. Martin’s, St. Agnes, White Island, Bryher, Gwael, Gugh, and Tresco. St. Mary’s was the largest of the Isles of Scilly, but that wasn’t being given up by the duchy – only the other islands. Still, the other islands put together had a surface area that was larger than St. Mary’s. Still, it was judged that having separate islands may be good for some species, so it was accepted that the seven major islands, excluding the largest, would be used for the Federation embassies.

Ren wondered how the Earthers were able to recover the radiation-contaminated land in such a short time when Federation and Empire protocols required areas that have been contaminated by radiation to remain fallow for hundreds, sometimes thousands of years until such radioactive areas would naturally recover on their own. He resolved to ask later how they were able to accomplish that.

They expressed concern about the humans they would displace, but Romarkin said that most humans were very excited about their arrival, and wanted to help in any way they could. The residents were mostly glad to accommodate them, even if they had to relocate. But they were government employees in any case. Even so, the government gladly offered generous compensations, provided them with new and better homes on the mainland in Cornwall, and even to transplant some of the families’ houses for those who didn’t want to stay on.

Ren then expressed concern about whether they could afford the appropriate guild payments. There was a little bit of confusion as the humans tried to understand the problem. It turned out that the Prince was just concerned about the expected rent and taxes (or the equivalent) that would be levied on them.

The humans were ready with an answer to that, and they said that, as rent, for each Earth year, they would charge the Federation ten tons each of pure Lanthanum, Cerium, Neodymium, Europium, Erbium and other minerals, in easy-to-manage ingots (or other equally easy-to-manage form). After a long discussion on what these minerals were, and what a ton is exactly, the Federation scientists said that most Federation planets don’t normally produce or use these admittedly-exotic minerals in any meaningful quantities, but the amounts demanded were more than manageable for the Elyrans, Dixx and Arachnians (especially the Arachnians) though transporting them back to Earth would be problematic. Again, the Earthers were ready with a response, saying they’d pick the minerals up themselves, if necessary.

Ren asked what these would be used for and Mia explained that these “rare earth” minerals were needed for the production of their electronics, optics and other related systems. Dax’s chief technician confirmed that these were indeed used in the fabrication of some of the Federation’s more exotic experimental computer systems as well, though their current computer systems and electronic equipment are made mostly from other materials.

Mia asked what sort of raw materials they used in creating their regular computer systems, and it turns out they used more common minerals like tungsten, carbon, thorium, copper, barium and strontium. Ren explained that the main component, or module, of their electronics was typically composed of electrodes and a heating filament surrounded by a metal plate and then sealed inside an air-tight tube made of glass or other material that is a poor electrical conductor. They preferred glass since it was strong, cheap, easily produced, and allowed them to easily see inside the tube.

Mia and her scientists looked at each other. “My God,” Mia thought. “Vacuum tubes? Seriously?”

She thought of it and, seriously speaking, there were many advantages that a vacuum tube gave: it was useful for high-powered applications, little feedback, a resistance to EMP, burn-through and overload, and the materials needed were cheaper and more plentiful.

Mia stopped paying attention. Her mind was still stuck. She couldn’t believe it. Vacuum tubes. They’re outdated four hundred year-old technology! She was itching to have a look at one of their computers.

Mia could imagine their electronics still working with vacuum tubes if they didn’t discover solid-state electronics, but since they had, despite the higher cost of production, vacuum tubes were quickly replaced. It intrigued her. Vacuum tube technology definitely needs to be revisited. But the discussion was still going. Mia turned her attention back to the others.

“Madame Secretary,” Ren continued, oblivious, “I think we can easily meet your price. But we will need to inspect the islands first, of course.”

Romarkin, not picking up on the consternation spreading among her scientists as well, nodded. “Of course,” she smiled.

Ren also made some comments about wanting to see some of Earth’s fabrication plants where these minerals were used, and Romarkin said that she can arrange that but she’d have to check schedules first.

Ren and the others then went back to looking at the pictures of the Isles of Scilly, and he and the others resumed their excited discussions. They spoke so rapidly, and there were so many of them, that the humans’ translator devices could hardly keep up.

- - - - -

(bookmark 12)

The following day, in coordination with the other ships, Seeker’s techs set up three comm. channels - channel “A” would be the frequency dedicated to the technology exchange, channel “B” was for the cultural exchange, and channel “C” would be for government. And with the ships’ speed and relative distance between each other, radio transmission was not a problem. And as the humans slowly got themselves organized, formal discussions began.

The staff of the Keeper of the Heritage somehow found out about it, and requested to be provided viewing facilities for the three channels. The Earthers didn’t know the import of this, so they just shrugged. And besides, what could they do about it, anyway?

Channel “C” -

Part of the humans’ plan was for the UN Security Council to ratify a proposal to send envoys to Colossus, to apply for membership to the Federation, and to offer assistance in any interdiction action on the Federation’s vanguard planets nearest to Earth that were in immediate danger, with an agreement that the arrangement would be reciprocal. The Secretary-General, with the assistance of Ambassador Bidwell and other representatives from the Outer Planets, was confident that this would pass - not easily, but pass nevertheless.

And although the Federation ambassadors were anxious that Earth ally itself with the Federation against the Empire as soon as possible, this was all that Romarkin was willing to discuss.

The aliens conceded that this was all they could reasonably expect. Nevertheless, on the assumption that Romarkin would be successful, they planned accordingly.

Admiral Dax, however, said a contingency plan should still be prepared. Nick informed the aliens that the Neptune delegation had offered to sponsor one of the Federation representatives to speak before an ad hoc general assembly of the UN. If their plans go awry, the Neptune representatives could then try to make their case for them, and perhaps convince the Human Race to ratify this hoped-for alliance.

Channel “B” -

Before then however, the Earthers planned to give the visitors a gala reception when they arrive, on a scale the likes of which humans had not done since before the war. Earth’s nominal leading authority on alien culture, Professor Jennifer Priestly, a brilliant academician from CETI, with a forceful and masterful personality at odds with her blonde come-hither, runway-model looks, worked closely with Nick and the Elyran Prince, checking if the things they had planned were acceptable, and for those that weren’t, to find out what was.

Princess Tasha never really grew to like the professor. Mia and all the others had correctly assumed that the Princess was actually jealous since the Prince seemed to have developed a small crush on Jennifer. But despite her brusque nature, Mia knew that Jenn was at least a kind and understanding soul, and Mia trusted her to manage this sticky situation correctly and with kindness.

In their talks, Jennifer and her new “team” voiced their concerns to Ren about pathogens and other biologicals that may be inimical to the aliens, and vice versa. This could be a serious roadblock to any sort of cultural exchange they were trying to do.

Even back in the twentieth century, humans had already thought of this possibility, and theories like back-contamination were things that were taken seriously. But through their years of limited exploration, such fears were never conclusively proven. Recently, however, with the beginnings of extra-solar exploration and the confirmation of the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life, such theories had been brought out of mothballs and again reconsidered. One of the things that the aliens did for Earth was to make these theories more believable. However...

Federation and Empire races had been co-mingling for hundreds of thousands of generations now, and the biological ecosystems of the various races had adjusted to each other. True, there were many outbreaks of unprecedented virulence in the past brought on by the co-mingling of similar but incompatible ecosystems, but with the invention of the Arachnian lifesigns detector, steps were taken early, and they had become a rarity over time. The Arachnians onboard Seeker had been continuously sending out readings from such detectors to the other Federation ships, courtesy of Seeker’s comm people, and if Seeker’s environment was a normal Earther environment, then no Federation citizen should fear setting foot on Earth, or any Earther in visiting any Federation world for that matter. Ren asked what Earth’s equivalent was to their detector and Jennifer said they didn’t have any. She didn’t explain that all humans are inoculated periodically with organic nanobots that were programmed to eradicate any known biological or viral infection or parasitic infestation in the body, plus, in recent years, Earth medical science had been pursuing the concepts of universal antiviruses and antibiotics, and in time, Earth scientists were confident these will become available. But for the moment, they weren’t sure Terran medicine could cope with alien bugs.

“That is worrisome,” Ren said.

He explained the rudimentary functions of their detectors and said that the Earthers should replicate them - he knew the Arachnians had already given sixteen of them to Mia. To help, Ren transmitted to Jennifer all the information they currently had on the belts, including, fabrication, breeding the yochus, and their application. He explained further that, based on the readings the Arachnians had been sending them from their detectors, they and the Earthers had no reason to fear anything in terms of any environmental factors. Surely something or other will be found, there always was. But Ren was confident that they will find a way around it, whatever it will be, his confidence borne of more than a million years of Federation history coping with alien bugs and things.

Jennifer had enough scientific background to understand the meaning of this - a universal detector. It had many potential applications, and the potential ability to completely open up the universe to humans.

She hurriedly excused herself from the meeting, switched her screen to Mia, and asked her about these detectors. Mia showed her, via Phase-Wave video, the belt devices that the First Ambassador gave her. Jennifer then talked with the Secretary-General and asked her to find a way to have the devices be brought to Earth right away. This was absolutely vital, she said, and explained why.

The thing was, they were above ship-maneuverable speeds, and transferring from ship to ship was impossible.

The Secretary-General was advised to order their speed to be reduced. But Mia thought a bit and came up with a notion that she discussed with her chief engineer. After a while, a complicated procedure was initiated where one of the other Earth ships, in this case the Hermes, would inch closer and closer to the Seeker until their drive fields merged at their interface point. This allowed one of Hermes’ two-man Eagle fighters to trans-ship to Seeker and take on a package made up of a bio-isolation case containing ten Arachnian “lifesigns detector” belts, including the two that the Seeker’s science people had already started to take apart.

If the maneuvers were as precise as expected, the whole operation should be safe, but since it was the first time this was even thought of much less attempted, this could conceivably destroy both ships. But Jenn was able to convince Romarkin and Silverman that it was worth the risk. Needless to say, everyone breathed a sigh of relief when the operation was over. The aliens were unaware of all of this happening, of course.

With the package aboard, Hermes then pulled away and went into high velocity, pulling ahead of the Earth-Federation flotilla, and would eventually arrive on Earth less than a day later - weeks ahead of schedule (at those velocities, the inertia converters would work).

Channel “B” -

Jenn went back to the meeting several hours later, with Mia “in tow.” Being left alone for such a long time with Earthers he didn’t know miffed Ren, but he tried to hide it. Mia noticed the Prince’s agitation, however (so far she was still the best one in reading Elyran facial expressions), so she explained what they just did and why. Ren listened, once again at a loss for words. No one among the known races had even thought of doing such a thing before, perhaps because they considered it too dangerous an operation. And here come the Earthers...

Ren called Dax, the Princess and Reena, Talon’s pilot, to tune in to Channel “B”, and he asked Mia to repeat what she just said. Mia explained again.

“The reason you were unable to detect our actions, and the acceleration of Hermes,” Mia added, “was because, as you know, most detection systems are not reliable in short range when ships are above what we call “ship-maneuverable” speeds, or when they are accelerating. We were also unable to inform you right away because we were, ummm, a little busy at that moment. I am sure you can detect her on your long-range scans now that she has a somewhat reasonable lead on us.” Reena momentarily left the screen, presumably to do just that.

Ren nodded impatiently. “Yes, yes, yes. I understand that, but you say your cruiser will be on Earth in less than one of your days?”

“Yes.”

“How is that possible?”

Mia shrugged helplessly.

“Why do you not...”

“My engineers believe our ships are a little faster than yours in sublight, Your Highness. It’s that simple.”

After another one of those breaks that had been coming on more and more frequently, Ren and the others asked more questions. Channel “B” suddenly got crowded when the others switched frequencies, so Mia suggested that they take this particular discussion over to Channel “A” and not disrupt the meeting.

Ren clearly wanted to pursue this but decided on a little forbearance. He stopped the stream of questioning and bid everyone to return to their own discussions and allow those on Channel “A” to pursue this topic. He continued on with his own meeting with the Earther professor. And, as their discussions progressed, the fascinating facts that Ren learned about the Earthers’ traditions, customs and history soon took his mind away from the matter of Hermes’ departure and possible early arrival on Earth.

Channel “A” -

The Federation representatives on Channel “A” were all on tenterhooks, and waited impatiently for Mia to come online.

“Hello, everyone,” Mia said as she again rejoined the technical discussion on “A.”

“Forgive me, Captain,” Dax said abruptly. “But you must explain what you and your battleship, Hermes is it?”

“Yes...”

“... Hermes, yes - what you and the crew of Hermes just did.”

Mia turned to Nick, and Nick explained the concept of merging FTL fields, and how it was done. “It’s all about making sure that the fields are tuned and synchronized,” he said, and explained the basic theory. As it was during most of the meeting, the attendees again brought out notepads and their equivalents, and took notes.

A little Arachnian scientist raised an armored limb in a gesture that the humans have come to understand. It was somewhat akin to a schoolboy raising his hand to get the teacher’s attention.

“Yes, sir?” Nick said, acknowledging the Arachnian.

“May I ask, Earth Lieutenant,” the Arachnian that everyone referred to as the “First Engineer” said in flawlessly accented, if stilted, Elyran, courtesy of his Elyran translator, stood up. “Earth Captain Amelia Catherine Steele has said that the Earther warship Hermes will be arriving on Earth planet in less than one Earth day. Is that correct?”

“Yes.” Clearly, pronouns were not much used with Arachnians.

“Earth Lieutenant, I would like to ask how Earther warship Hermes will be able to accomplish this?”

“I do not understand the question, sir.” Nick shrugged helplessly. “She’ll just fly there?”

The aliens all had puzzled looks.

“Let me explain, everyone,” Mia interrupted. “Hermes is not doing anything unusual. She is just on-course to Earth with a less decelerated flight plan. It is well within her operational parameters. As far as we can tell, Seeker, Hermes and Constellation are able to decelerate more efficiently than your ships, making them about eleven times faster.” She turned to her fellow humans. “That’s nine times, in decimal.”

“Sounds about right,” O’Connell said.

Dax looked disbelievingly at Mia and O’Connell.

“How is that possible?” Dax asked. “You described to us theory behind your ship’s drive, and it is basically the same as ours.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Then how is it that your ships are able to fly that fast?”

“You mean, decelerate better.”

“There is no difference. You know what I mean.”

Mia shrugged. “What can I say, Admiral. We aren’t using new technology. Maybe our equipment is just more efficient?”

The aliens weren’t willing to accept what the Earthers were saying, and continued to ask the same question over and over. Before they could pursue it further, Mia deftly changed the topic, and the discussion finally continued on. Mia knew, of course, that this topic would be brought up again. She hoped her team would be prepared to manage it by that time.

Shepherd Moon, Chapter 13: Face-to-Face

Going To Bed -

It was a long day for Mia. After more than two days of discussions, everyone decided to adjourn, and continue later. Mia mused that the ability for cramming and pulling all-nighters were the specialty of the young, and she ruefully admitted to herself that she may have lost the talent.

Earlier on, Mia gave instructions to O’Connell to change around the duty shifts on the bridge, and was not surprised that O’Connell had taken care of it already. With that settled, for a change, Mia planned to stay in her cabin tonight and to catch up on some sleep. She had been going for more than two days straight now, having to manage all three teleconferences with just short naps and breaks from time to time. It had taken its toll on her.

And it will be more of the same tomorrow.

She closed her cabin door and breathed a sigh of relief. Alone, finally. At least for a little while. She sat on her bunk and pulled off her boots. Her boots didn’t feel too different from her old ones, although they had higher heels – maybe a couple of inches higher, but she was used to them by now. They were also a lot narrower than her old boots, but they suited her remodeled feet well.

She took out the hairpins that kept her hair up and out of the way, and the blonde locks cascaded down her back. She scratched her head vigorously and felt relief as she allowed her scalp to breathe. She took off the rest of her uniform as well, making sure to take out all the pins and other devices before dumping it in the laundry chute. It left her clad in underwear and thigh-high stockings, and she felt relief in finally getting out of her uniform. She didn’t used to feel that way - she used to feel comfortable enough to be in the same clothes for days on end. She wondered if this was a female thing.

Well, whatever. But it sure felt good to be rid of the sweaty clothes. She also decided to take off her bra, which felt warm, sweaty and a little itchy, and used a little terrycloth towel to wipe the underside of her breasts, which felt the most sweaty and itchy. She supposed that it was because she was still new to female clothing. She dropped her bra and the little towel in the chute as well. Sitting by her desk, she picked up her comm-computer, programmed her on-line auto-assistant to wake her up six hours later, and dropped the little device on the cluttered desk.

As she stood to go to her clothes cabinet, she caught her reflection in the floor-length mirror tacked to the back of her cabin door. She was used to how she looked now, but noted again the major differences. She kept her long, strawberry-blonde locks (she still remembered when it used to be brown) well below her shoulders now, and it was now brighter, thicker and shinier than ever before. Her general lines were also longer and leaner now, more along the lines of someone like her friend, Jennifer Priestly, except, of course, Mia was so much taller than Jenn. Part of her “remodeling” was the reduction of muscle mass and the remodeling of many of her bones. She was now closer to the modern idea of female physical perfection than any woman she knew.

She leaned closer to the mirror and examined her face more closely. Her new face reflected the changes that were recommended by BuMed that she had okayed - a feminine heart-shaped face, a higher hairline than before, finer eyebrows, larger-looking eyes, smaller and narrower nose, more prominent cheekbones, smaller mouth and a less prominent chin.

The doctors were somehow able to keep close to her old look as well, so she was more-or-less still Bill, though a pretty, female version. At the very least, she looked like a close relative - a very good-looking close relative.

How everyone thought of themselves was usually connected to how they looked, even in this new, more liberal and emancipated age. But as she told her best friend Walter Thorpe thousands and thousands of times, looks shouldn’t count - it was who he was inside: his heart and mind are what make up the true person.

But looking at her new physical self now, Mia was starting to doubt her words. Because she felt lost. In her short life, she had always comported herself as the best man she could be, perhaps mostly to please her parents, and she had reaped recognition and rewards for it, and made friends and developed relationships as a man. The way she related to people then, and how they related to her - it was as a man. But having lived as a woman these last few weeks, to her dismay, she had found that there still are roles that society have pigeonholed as male roles, and others as female.

She had generally believed, like most humans of “post-apocalypse” Earth, that gender didn’t count anymore. And for the most part, it didn’t - opportunities and possibilities abounded in the twenty-third century and gender was largely not a factor - only skill, knowledge, ability, drive, and heart. Likewise with opportunities to advance professionally. And it was with this belief, and the belief that there wouldn’t be any major changes in her life, that made it easy for her to decide to transition to being female. But she did not count on the relationships, the personal connections that she’d made in her life as a man would change. Oh, she was realist enough to know that a few adjustments had to be made. But it turned out that she had underestimated things.

Her relationship with her friends from CETI, for example - Jerry, Phil and the others: there were changes, some subtle, some major, and some both. Sure they relied on her advise on professional matters as always, but she wasn’t a buddy and close confidante anymore. The two would never again include her in late night barhopping. Never again would Jerry talk to her about his relationship with Anushka, his wife. Never again would Phil ask for dating advice. Never again would Marc wax lyrical about the inscrutable female mind as he weathers another bout of arguments with his wife. Never again would Jennifer make a pass at her.

How could things remain the same with her looking the way she did now? Among all her friends, only her relationship with Sahsha and Allie had not changed, or at least not a lot.

And she’d lost Miriam...

Never again would women find it chivalrous for her to help them with doors. Never again would she ever feel comfortable swearing, or maybe she just needed a new vocabulary for that, she laughed. Never again would Admiral Silverman confide in her about his hopes and aspirations for the military, or for her; never again would he invite her over to Sunday dinner with his wife and daughter. Or maybe he still would. Time will tell.

And her new relationships... She had always prized having good relationships with her staff, and had always found it easy to do that. But, with her new crew, even though she did her best, especially with O’Connell, it was like she was getting the cues wrong. She suspected that she was still behaving like a man with them when they were all expecting something else. She should try behaving like a girl, but she didn’t know how.

Her mother and father were geniuses that valued being able to get along with people as important as intelligence or skill, because they believed that it was the only way for society to progress. So she grew up to be the Bill Steele that everyone knew - intelligent, capable, reliable and affable - she tried be the best man she could be. That, and because she had a seemingly innate need to do the right thing. But now...

Now she was a woman. How does she do that now? What does she know about being a woman? Oh, how she would dearly have loved to get her parents’ advice right about now...

Most men would never have considered becoming female, especially if the only reason to do so was because of an abstraction - an intellectualization. But she was William Steele, someone whose life was built on intellectualizations, and trying to do the right thing. Of course she’d change genders.

It seemed to be the correct decision at the time, but now that she had, and that she had lived as a woman for a while now - she felt... lost. For the first time in her life.

The rules she had always followed as a man, all that she had done, from the time of her birth, all gone. Miriam Bidwell, too - gone. Everything.

She tried to change her train of thought, and thought of what had gone on today, of everything that had happened. She also thought of all the people that had died, and she felt shame because she realized that she was grateful almost all the deaths were those of aliens and not humans. She felt guilty that she felt that way. Was it a kind of bigotry to feel that way?

Years ago, during the satellite wars, she, or rather he, had struggled with similar thoughts when he fought for the side of the Allies, that he did not feel as bad if it was the enemy who died. But he was able to sublimate any guilt he felt with the belief that what he was doing was a necessary thing, that it was his role to fulfill. He had contented himself with a resolution not to kill except as a last resort, and, by and large, when he needed to, he was able to rationalize his actions this way - he rationalized that he was a patriot and not a murderer.

After the wars, though, he had tried to atone, and as a result, in recent years, he became one of the leading advocates for peace.

So, no, she reasoned - much of her current... malaise couldn’t be coming from this. But where? Eventually, she realized that it was coming from worry about the future. Not just hers or her family’s or her friends’, but of everyone’s. And that, what if what she was doing was wrong? What would that mean for them?

She had to laugh - she sounded so egotistical - that she thought everything was all on her shoulders. Her parents would not approve, she chuckled in a sad kind of way, but she knew it was mostly true. No one else could do what she needed to do. But could she even do it? She didn’t even really know who she was anymore.

She again looked at herself in the mirror. She was beautiful. Almost perfect, although just a touch too tall for her taste. The doctors were geniuses. She brought her hand up and touched her left breast, and then the other. They felt natural, like she had been born with them. They even felt good. But she wasn’t a girl. In her innermost core, she was William Steele, not Amelia. Or was she?

She touched her long hair. It felt softer. She moved the thick mass so that the ends of it lied on her upper chest. She had always liked how Miriam looked when she had her hair in this position, though Miriam had significantly longer hair. Maybe she could grow her hair as long as Miriam’s.

“Mia is pretty,” she thought. She didn’t know that she was thinking of “Mia” as if she were a different person.

She traced her new, incredibly feminine curves. Her skin was so smooth, sensitive and soft. It didn’t used to be.

She looked down. Navy-issue underwear, she thought, and laughed a little. She placed her palm on the front and between her legs, and was amazed, as always, that it was flat, except for a small mound with a cleft. She quickly stooped, pulled down the white panties and threw them into the laundry chute. Nothing wrong with her aim.

She looked at the entire her - nude save for her stockings, and incredibly beautiful. “The doctors did good work,” she thought again.

She reached up to wipe the wetness from her face. As she did, she looked up. “Why was this beautiful girl in the mirror crying,” she thought. “Can I help her?”

She reached out to the mirror with her other hand. “Don’t cry, pretty girl,” she thought. “Don’t cry.” But all she could touch was the mirror.

After a while, she turned away. She went to the head and grabbed some toilet paper, wiped her face and blew her nose. She went to bed, curled up into a ball on her side, and continued to cry silently. Eventually, she fell asleep.

- - - - -

(bookmark 13)

The soft but insistent chimes of her comm-computer (most call them “CC’s” nowadays) woke her up. She didn’t feel all that rested, but at least she didn’t feel as tired as she did yesterday. And it was 6AM already, her CC declared.

With a sigh, she sat up. She shook the cobwebs left over from last night’s panic attack and squared her shoulders - her sense of duty again overriding any personal concerns. She was starting to get worried, though - this was the eighth “panic attack” this month. “Maybe I’ll give Dr. Puerrot a call when I’m Earthside next and have the time,” she told herself sarcastically, since it was unlikely she ever would anytime soon.

She looked down and noticed that she had fallen asleep above the sheets last night. And naked. First time she did that. Things were getting worse... She thought of that visit to Puerrot more seriously, and got up.

She stretched, switched off her CC’s alarm, took off the stockings and went to the little shower-bathroom alcove for her morning routine. After a while, she stepped out, finished drying her hair with a blow dryer, and then hung up her towel to dry. She went to her cabinet and picked out a fresh service uniform. As she started getting ready, she switched her intercom to survey mode and watched some live video of the main sections and departments of the ship - something she did regularly to check how the ship was doing.

As she was getting ready to fix her hair into the updo she usually wore, she noticed the styles that the female crew used for their hair, and it gave her the idea to change hers, and maybe break herself out of her current funk. She especially liked the hairstyle that the pretty medical officer currently on duty in sickbay was wearing: the girl basically kept her blonde hair loose with just a couple of barrettes at her temples, and it swung saucily as she went about her routine. Though it was well within regulations, she still managed to look very pretty, in a clean-cut kind of way. Mia thought it looked somewhat like the style that the Elyran Princess wore.

Mia decided to experiment a bit and copy her style. She combed her hair straight down, fluffed it up with her fingers and then parted it on the side. She then took out a couple of red barrettes that were in her suitcase - something left over from the hair and makeup kit the nurses gave her while she was in Bethesda.

She tucked the hair behind her ears and then clipped the barrettes by her temples. She looked at her reflection and decided that it was cute. She shook her head a little bit and the barrettes didn’t come undone, and they kept the hair from her face as intended. She smiled and decided to wear her hair that way for the rest of the day.

She finished getting dressed and decided, at the last moment, to swap the pants with the uniform skirt instead. She also decided to wear the higher-heeled boots. Sahsha would have said it was a “dressier” outfit than her usual ensemble, but regulations allowed this, especially since there were dignitaries on board, and they’ve been secured from General Quarters for a while now.

As a finishing touch, she spritzed herself lightly with some perfume, also a leftover from her time in Bethesda, picked up her CC and left her cabin.

The crew saluted her as she made her way forward, and she acknowledged them with crisp but friendly nods.

As she stepped onto the bridge, one of the on-duty officers exclaimed, “Captain on the bridge!”

“As you were,” she said automatically. “Everything all right, Commander?” she said to Kajima as he came over to report.

Kajima nodded. “Aye, sir. Nothing to report. All’s well.”

“Very good, Commander. Thank you for taking my duty on the bridge these past few days. I had to run the... meetings with the aliens...”

“Aye, sir, but no need to explain.”

“All right then,” she smiled. “I’ll be going down to the mess for some breakfast in case you need me.”

“Aye, sir.”

After she had left the bridge, one of the officers in battle ops said quietly, “did the Captain change her hairstyle?”

Another quietly replied. “She’s very pretty this morning. Especially with the skirt and the high-heeled boots.”

Kajima growled. “I suggest that we keep our discussions to a minimum, people, and pay attention to our work. That’s our captain, you’re talking about. Show some respect!”

“Aye, sir. Sorry...” the one who spoke first apologized. The other one nodded a little sheepishly.

After a few moments of nervous silence, Kajima regretted his words. It was only natural for the crew to comment on their CO’s looks, and they were respectful enough. So he relented.

“I especially like the barrettes,” he said. And after a beat, everyone laughed lightly, and broke the gathering tension.

At the moment, their subject of discussion was making her way to the officers’ mess, but she detoured first to the enlisted personnel’s mess. It was a routine of hers that most have come to know. Like Kajima, she took the crew’s well-being seriously, and she believed being visible to the crew would foster esprit-des-corps better than any order she can give.

Mia always marveled at how many of the crew ate breakfast so early in the morning. Shift change was at 0900, and it was only 0700. Still, the mess hall was full. Knowing that officers were normally not admitted in, she politely asked permission from the duty crewman by the door. By custom, he pressed a buzzer and waited for a moment. An answering buzzer sounded and he saluted and passed his captain through. Mia smiled her thanks as she walked in.

Mia gave a nod to the petty officers sitting by a table near the coffee urns.

“Coffee, Captain?” one of the petty officers asked, and stood to pour her a cup even before she could respond.

“Thank you, Petty Officer,” Mia said, and accepted the proffered cup. She got several sugars and dropped them into the cup, as well as pouring in a generous amount of cream. It was her way of managing the strong and heavy brew that seemed to be the trademark of the Seeker.

She took her time with the coffee and asked after the crew - at least those she could talk with. Many asked about the aliens, and she told them all she could, which was not a lot since most of the discussions were confidential.

She worked her way from the front of the mess hall to the back, saying a friendly hello to those who greeted her, and left her by-then empty cup with one of the ratings.

She then proceeded to the engine section and visited with the Chief Engineer. She was pleased to find that all the modifications had been holding up well, and that Seeker was just ticking over as she nursemaided the alien ships through Earth territory. She then went to life systems, sickbay, and then to hangar deck, checking over everything. Most everyone knew this morning routine of hers well, and everyone tried to act busy and to keep everything shipshape when she would make her “informal” visits. O’Connell was known to do the same thing from time to time, but Mia did it almost regularly before she would take the con in the morning (she wasn’t able to do this for the past few days, however).

After her last “visit” of the morning, she made her way to the officer’s mess and sat down at her customary place. The stewards were all set, and served her breakfast as soon as she settled in. As usual, the chief cook anticipated her order. She nodded hello to the officers who were there just finishing their own breakfast.

As they were all leaving, O’Connell, came over.

“May I join you, sir?” she asked.

“Of course, Beth,” Mia said pleasantly, and gestured at the seat to her right. She tried to make it a point to call her immediate staff by name when not on duty. A steward came, laid out a place for her and took her order.

“Thank you, sir.” O’Connell said. “I hope you had a good rest... Commander Stevens was worried,” she said, referring to the short discussion she had with the ship’s doctor. “He knew that you hadn’t had any sleep for about three days now.”

“Yes, he called me last night. Now, how do you suppose the good doctor found out about my lack of sleep?”

“I told him.” O’Connell said, deadpan.

After a bit, both of them chuckled. They became quiet as the mess boy brought 0’Connel her food.

“Thank you for the concern, Beth,” Mia said as soon as they were left alone, “but I am fine. But you should take care of yourself, too - I know you haven’t been getting enough sleep as well.”

“Yes, the doctor called me about it last night, too. He said you told him.”

Mia laughed at that. “Well, the ship can’t afford you being tired and performing below par.”

“Touché,” O’Connell smiled.

After a few bites, O’Connell cleared her throat. “Ummm, Captain - the Arachnians have a request.”

“Yes?”

“They’re saying they want to have access to... ‘Earther visual entertainment’...”

“Huh?”

“They want to watch TV...”

“‘TV,’ huh?” Mia smiled at O’Connell’s dated choice of words. How... fancy of her. “How’d they find out about TV?”

O’Connell shrugged. “Maybe from one of the crew? There were several ratings in their quarters yesterday, installing additional video screens for the conferences. Maybe one of them?”

Mia sighed. “Can’t be helped, I guess. They’re bound to find out about us eventually. Okay, run it by the CETI people, and ask them which channels are all right to feed into their quarters.”

O’Connell nodded. “Aye, sir.”

“I’m terribly sorry about sticking you and Kajima with the con for the past couple of days,” Mia said. “The conferences...”

“No need to explain, sir. Seems to me, there’s been lots of progress made.”

Mia gestured at the stewards, and they left Mia and O’Connell alone. Sometimes officers wanted to discuss confidential matters. They were used to it.

“I think so, too,” Mia responded to O’Connell, continuing their conversation. “But there are lots of things remaining to be done. What I’m really worried about, though, are the Empire ships. What’s the latest from Solar Tracking?”

“They are still en route to Earth. Tracking says they are approximately nineteen days behind us and from a landing on Earth, although no one is really keeping close track of them, so that might not be true anymore - that figure can move up or down. Their flight path is pretty obvious though so no one’s done any kind of constant tracking, and Phase-Wave can pick them out whenever we want.”

“And what about us?”

“We’re still a ways off, but we’ll reach Earth at least ten days ahead of the enemy. By the way, Hermes arrived in Earth orbit a while ago.”

“We’re cutting it close...”

“Well, if we didn’t need to escort the alien ships, we could be back home in less than a day, or we can actually intercept the Empire ships long before they reach Earth. I wanted to ask about that, actually, Captain. Anyway, I wouldn’t say that’s cutting it close...”

“You’re right, Beth - although we’re not really needed to prepare for the arrival of the Empire aliens on Earth - the Admiral has that in hand, I’m sure. And he knows we have to capture them, not eliminate them. Still...”

Mia buttered a slice of toast and O’Connell cut some ham and chewed on it with some eggs. And as they continued their leisurely breakfast, they discussed business.

“I don’t understand what they’re trying to do,” O’Connell said. “They know we can see them. Even without Phase-Wave.”

“A suicide mission, perhaps. They need to wipe out the Elyrans before they can send word back to the Federation. This can be the prelude to war, and if they can prevent word from the Elyrans getting back home, it can buy them maybe six to ten years.”

“I know their ships are slower, Captain, but ten years? It can’t take that long to get to Colossus.”

“Getting there is one thing. Getting word back to their home planets is another. And getting their military organized is yet another thing altogether. Think back to the time of ocean-going sailing vessels, before radio, and how they sent messages to each other. That’s what we’re looking at.”

“But they know we know. And after the transmission from last year, they know we can send word back to Federation HQ.”

“They knew that before coming here. I can only suppose that, knowing that the Federation has sent envoys, sending their own ships was the only thing left to them, and besides, we aren’t part of the Federation.” She gestured with her fork and changed the topic.

“Brief me on what Admiral Silverman is doing to prepare,” Mia said.

“Well, Captain,” O’Connell said, and sipped some coffee. “The Admiral has cut down the shakedown times and accelerated the commissioning of the new ships. The latest PRC bulletin says that there will be five Type Ones and twelve Type Twos that will be ready almost by the time we’re home. HQ has also dispatched about fourteen of the Legacy Ships -”

“Legacy Ships?”

“That’s what everyone is calling the existing fleet... the pre-PRC ships. Like Seeker.”

“Beth, Seeker’s so much more than a... ‘Legacy’ ship. She’s a Type One now - the most advanced Type One at the moment. And her crew is skilled, disciplined - I for one think we’re the best in the fleet. When all of this is over, Beth, better try and keep her.”

“As if that’s even possible...”

Mia paused at that. “Do you think I want to keep her? Beth, you’re her real captain. I’m just borrowing her temporarily. I’m going to leave eventually.”

Mia leaned over and gave O’Connell a friendly peck on the cheek. “Seeker is your command.”

O’Connell looked at her. She was a bit shocked, but she tried not to show it. She couldn’t stop from blushing, though. She was glad they were alone and no one saw the Captain do that.

“You were saying about the Legacy ships?” Mia continued on, smiling a bit but unconcerned.

“Ummm... yes, sir... As I was saying... The, ummm, Admiral has gotten all available Lunar, Earth and near-Earth Legacy ships, fourteen in all, en route to lunar orbit, with instructions to rendezvous with us, and to provide escort. The newer ships will remain on standby as they become available, in reserve in case we need them. Together, the Legacy and FTL ships will set up a blockade to deal with the Empire cruisers beyond Lunar orbit.”

“All right. In the meantime, as we make our slow way back home, we accomplish what we can.”

“Which are?”

“Treaties, negotiations, information exchange - everything we would do if the aliens were dirtside.”

“Surely we can do more? I realize that those are all important things, but can’t we do more? Why can’t we intercept the Empire aliens now?”

“Well, there has been no formal declaration of hostilities between our peoples. We wouldn’t want to be the proximate cause of a war. And we need to capture them alive.”

O’Connell grumbled. “Politics...”

“Yes, Commander - politics. But necessary politics. Tell me, Beth, were you there during the Satellite Wars?”

“I didn’t have a chance, sir. I was still doing my last year in New Annapolis when the rebellion was finally put down.”

“I was there, Beth. And I’ve seen enough to know what can happen. And it was because of politics that it was ended, and why the rest of the system remained untouched by that... madness.

“Politics, Beth, can be a good thing, if done right by the right people, for the right reasons. And we are here to make sure that happens.”

Mia swallowed a last bite, drained her coffee cup and daintily wiped her mouth.

“Well, I’m stuffed,” Mia said, and stood up. She waved O’Connell to remain seated. “Back to the grindstone. You know where I’ll be, Commander. Let me know if you need me.”

“Aye, sir...”

Mia nodded at the few others who just came in the mess, and made her way out. O’Connell watched her leave, remembering the friendly kiss. “The captain really does have her own way about her,” she thought.

Short-Circuited Treaty -

Mia resumed the talks again, and proceeded with new topics of discussion. She told everyone that Secretary-General Romarkin was available again, and she insisted on taking over the discussions on Channel “C,” this time “accompanied” by Sahsha Delyer and Doctor Bidwell from Neptune.

On channel “C,” the Secretary-General came on, proffering a copy of the proposed Elyran treaty, with modifications made by the Humans.

“Let me start off by saying that your proposal was quite logical and acceptable to my colleagues,” she said, “except for some provisos which we had discussed a little bit before.”

“Please enlighten us, Excellency,” Admiral Dax said.

In the screens of the Federation envoys, they saw Romarkin gesture at someone off-camera and in a second their individual printers started clacking away. Romarkin had apparently transmitted copies of the modified treaty to them, in Elyran.

“Let us start easy, then,” Romarkin said. “If you were to go to the fourteenth provision, excuse me, I mean the, ummm, the sixteenth provision.” Romarkin did the little exercise to convert the number to Elyran with a small calculator.

The delegates turned to the appropriate page.

“You are referring to the section on commerce and trade between Federation and Earther... I mean ‘Terran’ planets...”

“Yes. On the main points, my people agree. However, we disagree about accepting each other’s currency, and establishing a currency exchange rate.”

The aliens looked at each other.

“Explain, please.”

“My economists believe that it is premature to initiate commerce agreements and permanent trade laws, and that any transaction between us should be limited to barter-and-trade for now. For products, resources and services - no currency transactions. Still, aside from a list of proscribed items, bartering for, or with any goods or products should be allowed if the transacting parties should want to.”

“But as relations normalize,” Dax responded, “barter-and-trade will become cumbersome. Eventually, traders and businesspeople will find it unwieldy to do trading and bartering. It will slow down transactions unreasonably, not to mention the need to transport products unnecessarily, and those doing business will eventually want to transact using currency, and everything that implies.”

“I understand that, Admiral. But my people are of the opinion that we should deal with those problems when they become apparent.”

Dax was not too convinced, but her attention was caught by Romarkin’s next comment.

“To be very frank, Admiral, we are worried about the possibilities of counterfeit currency and other... related concerns.”

Dax tried not to react to that, but, at the moment, many Federation markets were suffused with counterfeit currency, not to mention being rife with unfair trading practices and virtual monopolies. Dax’s people, the Dixx, were one of the hardest hit by illegal trade, restrictive regulations, counterfeit money and monopolies, since many of their colonies were not as self sufficient as others. Dax was actually a little glad that the Earthers were thinking this way. But she had to wonder how they knew...

It would have surprised the alien to know that Romarkin was actually fully aware of the Federation’s problems in this area. She was actually given regular briefings on Federation economy. Romarkin and her people were convinced to slow down the commerce aspect of any sort of alliance.

“We will study your recommendations,” Dax said, “and make recommendations of our own if we believe any are needed.”

Romarkin nodded, relieved that any questions about how they got their information was put aside for the moment. “All right. Thank you, Admiral. Well, let us move on?”

There were other issues relating to commerce and trade that were discussed, such as the establishment of trading routes, access to local markets and other similar things, but these were easily managed as both sides had experience in negotiating on these matters.

As the talk progressed, more important aspects of the treaty were eventually discussed, such as security and defense.

As Romarkin said in previous discussions, the Humans were only prepared to agree to help protect Federation citizens and interests within Human-controlled territories, and would gladly do so, with the expectation that the Federation government would do the same for the Humans.

Dax readily committed the Federation to these provisions - the Federation would have protected anyone in any case. But Dax tried to “improve” this by again proposing an actual alliance. Romarkin countered that Earth could not commit to that at the moment, saying that her government can only discuss this possibility only if the rest of the Federation planets were directly represented in the negotiations. Such a stance could have been interpreted as a sort of rejection or even as an insult. It was a testament to Romarkin’s negotiating skills that none of the Federation people present took it negatively.

Dax lamented the impossibility of communicating this to Colossus right away, but Romarkin said that Earth was prepared to send a ship to escort Dax and her expedition back, with people prepared to present the proposal directly to all the Federation.

Romarkin also said they might be able to send word to Colossus and the majority of the Federation home planets before then, similar to the way that they sent their first message.

All conversations stopped at that moment, and everyone looked at Romarkin.

“We did not think of that,” Dax said. “Come to think of it, why is it that you did not communicate with us that way again after the first time?”

Romarkin, Mia and everyone in the planning team thought that this would come up, so she was prepared with a pre-agreed response. She took a deep breath.

“Admiral,” Romarkin said, “Terran and Elyran long distance communications technologies are not compatible. Two-way communication is not possible.”

“Then how was your first message transmitted, then?”

“The first message was accomplished by using an experimental system that could only transmit once. Further, that transmitter was destroyed after the transmission. And I am sure most of your radio network was affected as well. Our scientists have concluded that will happen every time. That approach is not a viable one, and was abandoned.”

“That is an understatement. More than half of the Federation’s planetary systems were shut down for a time.”

“But the same was true for the Tirosians!” one of the other Dixx blurted out. Dax glared at her and made a peremptory gesture. The Dixx assistant looked down sheepishly.

Romarkin filed that little piece of information away.

“In any case,” Romarkin continued, “through further experimentation, we have determined that, using that technology, if the transmission is on a specific radio frequency, focused at a specific target in space, and it does not exceed...” she typed something in her CC, “two Elyran minutes, the receiving end will be all right.”

“What of your transmitter?”

“There’s no stopping it - it’ll go kerflooey, as usual.”

“I’m sorry? ‘Kerflooey?’“

The Earthers laughed.

Romarkin snickered and continued. “I suppose that word hasn’t been included in the translation databases yet. I meant that our transmitter will be destroyed just like the first one.”

“Then how...”

“Then we just have to have enough transmitters on hand, that’s all. And that we keep any transmission under two minutes.”

The aliens took a moment to digest that.

“Our plan,” Romarkin continued, “is to transmit our intention to the Federation worlds and then escort your fleet back to Colossus, where we hope to request an audience with the Federation Assembly, to sue for membership.”

After a short silence, the Federation representatives broke into applause.

Star Station -

As discussions continued, Dax wasn’t able to concentrate. She was still thinking of what the Earth leader said, but she decided to control any outward expression - a difficult proposition for a Dixx - and to hide her excitement. The goal of the expedition was to establish an alliance, but since this was not possible given Earth’s stance, what they got was the next best thing. After the last eight Earth hours, Dax now considered the expedition a success. And, as an Earther might say, everything else that they accomplished from this point forward would be gravy.

As for the other meetings, the other Federation representatives would also be making similar progress during the course of the day.

- - - - -

(bookmark 14)

Tasha had insisted on taking over discussions on the cultural exchange in Channel “B” from Ren. Ren was taken aback by Tasha’s firm, almost belligerent insistence on this, saying that his scientific acumen was needed more in the channel “A” discussions. He had some misgivings, but over the years he had learned not to contradict Tasha when she was in this kind of a mood, so he left one of his assistants with Tasha, left the room to transfer over to Channel “A.” Besides, he thought, he’d get to spend more time with the fascinating and astonishingly attractive Earther captain that was responsible for saving their expedition and their lives.

Ren moved to the conference room where the discussion on technology exchange was happening, and sat quietly to get caught up. He was delighted that Captain Steele interrupted her talk to greet him by name. He grinned like a little boy, but belatedly realized that the Talon crew could also see him, so he settled down as the alien captain continued her discussion on Earth’s fleet, and the status of human industry and technology.

Captain Steele prefaced her discussion with the statement that they wouldn’t disclose everything, and everyone nodded at that. State secrets and all that. Still, in her three-hour talk, the aliens thought they learned a lot.

For example, Elyran scientists assumed that the Earther population was in the area of forty billion (in Earther base-ten) when in fact the population was a little less than to two billion. Subsequently, the aliens learned that the Earthers only colonized their system’s inner planets and the moons of their three outermost gas-giant planets and not the planets themselves. Of course! Ren felt like hitting his head against the wall - stupidly, he had relied on projections made by a computer program, which assumed population numbers based on planet surface area, and which did not account for the fact that, as in most planetary systems, the outermost planets would be gas giants - virtually uncolonizable. He resolved to have words with whoever wrote that program, and was chagrined to realize that it was he who wrote it.

He also concluded that, using his best estimates, in the area of food production, the land the Earthers used was less than one eighth the equivalent area of what typical Elyran farms would need to produce food of the same type and amount. They were also amazed to hear that all of the off-Earth colonies grew, raised, manufactured or synthesized their food, air and water on their own, and were virtually self-sustaining even without help from the mother world.

Ren wondered at that. He could only conclude that their kinds of livestock and produce were very different from what he’s known, or Earther physiology was radically different from what he was expecting, or Earth-type environments were radically different from what he has known, or their food production and synthesis technology was extremely efficient by unheard-of levels, even if he included aeroponics, hydroponics, aquaculture and maricuture techniques. Ren asked, and the Captain promised to tour them through some of their planet-side food production facilities at the earliest possible convenience.

He also learned that the entire Earth system was fully networked for communication, using their almost-magical instantaneous communication technology. In fact, almost everyone carried either what they called a cellphone or a CC, powered by the same technology. To say all the Earthers were hooked up to their network was the literal truth. He burned to know how their technology worked, but he bided his time. If the Earthers won’t tell them, he’d somehow find another way. To have such technology would change their lives.

He listened with quiet amusement when the First Ambassador of the Arachnians spoke of Earther “television” programs, and how entertaining they were. Even in that, their technology enables them. Ren thought of this “TV” for a bit. He told himself that he must ask later if this could also be extended to the Talon.

- - - - -

(bookmark 15)

The Captain explained that the current network was based on fairly new technology. Previous to that, they used a system based on the transmission of electromagnetic radiation, of wavelengths below visible light, which they called radio waves. Ren checked the details, and he noted that this was what Empire and Federation communications were currently based on. But, considering interstellar distances, radio communication was not up to it. Federation citizens were painfully aware of this since they had to use couriers or automated ships to get messages across the void. Even if just across interplanetary distances, the several hours time lag was inconvenient, to say the least. The Federation and the Empire had to make do since there were no other options.

Humans also had to make do in this same way as well, until the creation of their Seren stations.

“Seren” was the Irish word for “star,” and it was the name it’s inventor, the noted physicist Doctor Ava McCarthy, gave the new system.

There used to be five Seren stations in the Solar System - one in orbit around Venus, another on Phobos near Mars, and three others in orbit around Neptune, Jupiter and Earth.

A Seren station was a kind of wormhole generator that allowed electromagnetic waves to go through before the wormhole closed. Though the wormhole remained open mere nanoseconds, the collapse was predictable, without any unusual effects when it does, and it could be re-opened at will.

Seren transmitters worked in pairs - one on each end of the wormhole tunnel. Since the tunnel remained open in infinitesimally short segments of time, the transmitters had to be synchronized very precisely, especially the wormhole collapse, so the transmission and reception of light pulses or electromagnetic waves could be coordinated properly and then reassembled correctly at the other end.

The transmitters were able to provide near-instantaneous communication between six of the seven major planetary settlements: Earth, the moon, Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Neptune, with Saturn the only other major one remaining unconnected.

The stations required a lot of power to operate. Fully half of the entire system’s aggregate power output was used to run them. But even so, the humans thought the cost well worth it: It was a major boon to solidifying the major human settlements into a system-wide community.

But with Steele’s discovery of Phase-Wave, the Seren stations were retired, freeing up trillions of joules of energy that could then be used for other things. Captain Steele, however, didn’t talk about Phase-Wave even though Ren and his associates pressed her on it.

Captain Steele distracted them from asking about it further by saying she had gotten permission to offer Seren technology to the Federation. She told them that Earth scientists were in the middle of translating the material to Elyran, using equivalent Elyran scientific and technical terms and concepts. She said the material should be ready in a week or so. In his mind, Ren thought getting this technology might actually make this a profitable expedition.

After a short break to allow the aliens to talk this through and to allow their excitement to die down, discussions resumed and they segued into matters of defense.

The Federation envoys were flabbergasted to learn that the humans had more than one hundred thirty capital ships (the exact number was carefully hidden) - almost twice the size of the entire fleet of Elyran starships, which happened to be the largest fleet in the Federation. But Ren took comfort in the fact that the combined ships of the Federation outnumbered the Earth ships by a factor of sixteen-to-one. Still - one hundred-thirty... (Mia neglected to tell them, of course, that nearly two-thirds of these ships were not yet ready and were, in fact, still undergoing construction or shakedown, and the ones now available were outdated thirty to fifty-year-old non-FTL ships.)

All throughout Mia’s talk, the aliens interrupted often, but Mia was patient, and answered all that she could except those touching on their ships’ motive power, speed, armament, complement of on-board ships or range. That truncated the discussion and the Captain decided to break early for lunch.

When they reconvened, It was the aliens’ turn. Ren offered to be the one to brief the Earthers about the Federation. Like Mia, he began his talk by saying he would also not disclose everything because of security reasons. Everyone nodded at that, and settled down.

Like Mia, for those pieces of information that he couldn’t disclose, he tried to be vague or non-specific, or to actually say that he couldn’t tell. Ren covered most of the same areas that Mia had discussed and tried to be as thorough as possible (or as un-thorough as the case may be), but his talk was longer than Mia’s as he covered some material concerning the other member races of the Federation. Occasionally, the Earthers would jot down something he said, but they were curiously quiet the rest of the time. He had the impression that the Earthers knew already, even during those times when he broke down in a bit of frustration and disclosed something he wasn’t supposed to.

In fact, one of the Earthers even corrected him when he mentioned an erroneous number for the standard range for Detterex Defiant-class cruisers. There were also several telltale questions, such as when someone asked how the two thousand-plus Federation ships were deployed throughout Federation territory when the number of ships was supposed to be confidential. He was greatly surprised by this, and the implication was that Earthers knew more than they were saying. He hid his suspicions, however, and continued on.

Because there were minimal interruptions, Ren finished more quickly than he expected. At the end of his talk, and before adjourning for the day, Captain Steele transmitted to them several reference documents that had more specific information about the things that the Captain talked about, without the confidential items, of course.

He looked to the back of the room he was in. One of his assistants looked up from a terminal and a printer spitting out sheets and sheets of paper, nodded and made a gesture like a stack of books a couple of meters high. Ren smiled and turned back to the screen. He made a decision.

“The Federation thanks you, Captain Steele,” Ren said. “We were unprepared and cannot reciprocate. Our team will try and get together our own documentation, and have it ready in, at most, a few days. We would also like to invite you to a tour of our ship as soon as feasible.”

“Thank you, Highness,” the Captain said. “How about tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow? For the books?”

“Ummm, no. I was referring to the tour.”

“But...”

“We can perform the same maneuver that Hermes did, but we will need some information about your ship’s defense field generator. Afterwards, we can tour your ship.”

Ren looked at the Captain’s image on his screen. After a moment, he nodded and, snapped a finger at one of his assistants and whispered in his ear. The assistant scurried away.

“Please have your engineer call our pilot at her earliest convenience,” Ren said, “our pilot will give her whatever information is needed.”

The Captain nodded her thanks and subsequently ended the meeting for the day.

Being Catty -

On Channel “B,” Princess Tasha and Jennifer Priestly were wrapping up as well. It was obvious that the discussion didn’t go as well as it could have, as the Princess was less than cordial. Still, a lot was accomplished since everyone tried to be cooperative despite Tasha’s mood.

From the information gleaned by Jennifer’s team in this one session, a lot of CETI’s then-open questions about Elyran society were answered. They were starting to feel confident that they now had a good handle on what Elyrans were all about until Jennifer made her unintentional gaffe.

Jennifer gave a lot of credit for the day’s progress to the Elyran sociologist that accompanied the Princess. Ben seemed to know his stuff and was eager to expand his knowledge of the Earthers. He tried to smooth over the Princess’s catty behavior to keep the discussion from stalling out, for which everyone was grateful.

Making conversation after the meeting, Jennifer learned that this young sociologist, named Ben, was actually Prince Ren’s contemporary in the Elyran Institute of Science. He specialized in languages, and had met the Prince when he was retained by the Royal Family to help translate documents their spies brought back from the other side. From then on, he was part of the family’s staff.

Ben commented that some of the Earthers he met had names that curiously sounded familiar. Jenn said she felt the same thing about Elyran names. She told them that “Ben” was actually a very common name on Earth, and the little Elyran male seemed oddly proud of that.

“Ben is actually a nickname. It’s short for ‘Benjamin,’“ Jenn explained, “which meant ‘the favorite son’ in the olden days.”

Jenn was surprised when the Elyrans suddenly became quiet and the young scientist blushed, ducked his head and look shyly away.

Jenn’s eyebrows rose. Something was wrong. “Umm, I’m sorry. Did I say something wrong?”

No one answered.

“If I did, I apologize. My grasp of Elyran is clearly not perfect.”

“You didn’t say anything objectionable, Doctor,” Tasha said. “Not exactly. What you said was actually a kindness... of a sort.”

“What do you mean, Your Highness?”

“The name you mentioned? To us, it sounded like you said, ‘Ben, zhem ‘ain.’ It sounded like you said, ‘Ben, my love is yours forever.’“

Ben excused himself and left the room.

This was one of the few times Jenn was caught without anything to say - she was definitely caught off-guard. She looked at her team and they, after looking through the language databases in their CC’s, were shaking their heads.

“Your Highness, I’m...”

“Do not fret, Doctor. It is not surprising that you did not know. It is in the formal ancient tongue, not in common use anymore. In the current Elyran, the phrase translates to ‘Jem eem zheh t’aime,’ which is very different from what you said. The ancient form, however, is an expression of love reserved for one’s bonded mate, from one’s bridge. No one else may presume to say it.”

Jenn gulped. “Your Highness, I did not know. Please believe that I intended no insult. Please tell Ben...”

Tasha raised her hand. “Do not worry, Doctor. Ben knows, and does not blame you. But he is unmated. Please give him some time. He needs to compose himself. So let us continue tomorrow?”

“Of course, Your Highness.” The screen blacked out when the Princess abruptly switched off from their side.

She turned to her team. “What the hell happened!” she cried.

“I don’t know, Doctor,” one of the CETI scientists replied.

“What does any of these mean? Any ideas?”

He shrugged. “And what’s the implication of being unmated...”

“Stop it,” someone else said. “It’s useless to speculate.”

“This is bad,” Jenn said. “Better tell Mia.”

“Tell her what?”

“Well, everything!”

- - - - -

(bookmark 16)

Tasha went out into the passageway outside the little conference room they were using, and found Ben. She saw him huddling in a corner, crying. The people in the passageway were looking at him sympathetically, but didn’t know how to help.

Tasha grabbed a passing steward. “Find the Prince,” she said quietly. “Bring him here quickly. He is needed.”

Tasha approached the stricken little scientist. “Dear Ben,” she said, putting a gentle arm around his shoulder. She knew it was safe since she was already mated. “The alien scientist didn’t mean it. She didn’t know what she was saying or doing. She didn’t know...”

“I know that, Your Highness.” he said. “Normally, I wouldn’t have been...”

“Of course...”

“But she is a bridge, It is hard not to...”

She gave him a sisterly hug. “I understand. Everyone understands.”

“It’s like all the Earthers are bridges!” He started crying. “I want my mother.”

“I’m sorry, she isn’t here, dearest.”

“I know,” he sniffed. “But I really wish she was. I’d be happy to even just talk to her. The Earthers are so lucky, they can talk to anyone they like anytime they want.”

“Maybe they’ll teach us how to do that soon.”

Tasha felt a touch on her shoulder. Looking up, it was Ren.

“It’s my turn to help, my love,” Ren said. “Thank you for being here for Ben.”

Tasha stood and gave her husband a kiss, relinquishing her place. Ren kneeled and gave Ben a hug. He pulled the crying man up.

“Come on, dear,” he said. “Let’s go to my quarters. I’m sure we can both use a cup of Kraahng.”

She looked in fondness at her husband as he helped his friend to their cabin. If anyone could understand what Ben was going through, it was Tasha’s mate.

As royalty, it was important, politically, for men like Ren to remain unattached for the longest time possible, so as to give royal families the hope of possibly allying with theirs. This was explained to Ren when he entered puberty, and Ren understood the reasons why. But it became more difficult when they discovered he was a bridge. Bridges were the most attractive individuals among Elyrans, not just from a purely physical point of view, but also in most other aspects where sexual attractiveness was a factor. And as the more passive of the genders, male bridges still unmated after puberty were especially at risk from more powerful, inconsiderate female bridges.

Ren was taught how to cope and resist other bridges. So despite being so in demand, his training gave him the ability to remain unmated for as long as possible, and to select his own partner instead of others forcing themselves on him. In the end, it allowed him to discover true bonding with his eventual mate. For which Tasha was grateful.

Ben’s life was a bit similar - he was a scientist and had taken a vow of celibacy as part of his matriculation. Because of which, he only discovered he was a bridge relatively late in life when, in the course of his work, he had to associate more and more with the opposite sex, and, as a result, he never learned to manage his urges nor manage the advances women made on him.

Ren knew what the brilliant young man was going through and felt for him. He made him part of his royal staff, and during their off days he tried to help him by teaching him the concentration and focus techniques he learned, normally only taught to royalty. And with it, Ben had been able to cope most of the time. But as he got older, Ben found these techniques less and less effective. He knew that he will need to choose a mate soon. Sooner more than later. But his control was still good enough so he felt he didn’t need to worry about it for a while. The thing was, it didn’t occur to him that the Earthers would turn out to be a race of bridges (he knew that was impossible, but that was how it felt like). Ren could imagine what Ben was going through, and the kind of self-control he needed in order to cope. He must be going mad with frustration, Ren thought.

As Ren walked his friend to their quarters, he thought of his beloved. He knew his love for Tasha was true - the visceral biological urges were undeniable. He and Tasha would have succumbed as well to the attraction the Earthers couldn’t help but exude, but they were mated: the Earthers’ effect on them was as negligible as the effect other bridges would have to any mated pair. He thanked the gods for that, and that Tasha allowed him to come with her on the expedition.

He shrugged that all aside as he helped his best friend to their quarters. It would be a long night of counseling, meditation, and providing a shoulder to cry on.

- - - - -

(bookmark 17)

After a panicked call from Jenn’s assistant, Mia punched up Jenn’s personal number on her CC.

“Jennifer!” Mia exclaimed. “What’s the matter?”

A frantic Jennifer told her all the details. Mia was puzzled. “I don’t get it,” she said.

“I know. We’re missing something, Mia, and I don’t know what it is.”

“All we can do is to apologize again, and hope that they accept it.”

“I guess...”

“Try and leave it alone for now.”

“Okay... Mia? Can you pass your chair to your assistant tomorrow, and join me on Channel ‘B?’“

“That may not be possible but I’ll try. In the meantime, Jenn, get Jerry’s and Phil’s people together, and see if you can figure this out. And keep it confidential.”

“Right away.” And Jenn unceremoniously hung up.

Mia thoughtfully walked to the bridge, wondering what it was all about.

Shepherd Moon, Chapter 14: The Tour

Less-than-light speed -

Tasha decided to sleep in another cabin so that Ben could stay with Ren. Talon’s senior crew vied for the privilege of offering their cabins to her. They were about to draw lots but she decided to stay in Ben’s. As Tasha tried to sleep in the unfamiliar cabin, she couldn’t help but be curious about what it is that people did during counseling sessions like Ben was having with Ren - her prurient curiosity was piqued, and she had a hard time sleeping.

In the morning, everything seemed back to normal, but Ren pulled Tasha aside and asked if Ben could stay with him in their conference. She acceded to this, and decided to leave them to it and go to the technology discussion group instead.

Tasha walked into the room used for the Channel “A” discussions and tuned in to the meeting in progress.

Mia noticed her, and made a small bow in her image’s direction. Tasha smiled in a friendly way, nodded acknowledgement, and settled down to listen.

The discussion was presently about how to manage the complicated procedure to merge ship defense fields. Both groups realized that their field technologies were very similar, and were able to discuss the project without much trouble. As in previous discussions, it helped a lot that the Earthers were able to understand and translate. Ren and her other scientists had wondered how it was that the Earthers had become so fluent with Elyran, But far be it for them to question this gift.

As the discussion progressed, the Earthers discovered that the Talon’s drive was not exactly easy to tune while in use. They thought this a defect in their design and were surprised to find out that it was deliberate. Further discussion revealed that most Federation systems were designed in such a way that, in case of a control systems failure, the ship can “coast” for a while before requiring intervention because their drive parameters were locked and would take time to drift - a concession to their less than reliable computers. This had served the Federation well, but the trade-off was that ship fields and propulsion could not be adjusted easily while in flight. So Reena, their pilot, went over the few field elements that could be manipulated while under power, and pointed them out to the Earthers.

All this new information, plus the readings they had been gathering since the aliens’ arrival gave Marta’s PRC engineers enough clues that they were now confident they could reverse-engineer Talon’s engines if they wanted to. For the moment, however, O’Connell was only concerned about how to accomplish what Mia wanted.

“Are you sure you can keep these stable?” O’Connell said, indicating the figures currently on the screen.

“With ease, Commander. In fact, we can assist by...”

“Oh, no, no, no. Don’t touch them. We can manage. Right, Chief?” She turned to Seeker’s chief engineer.

“Yes, Commander.”

“Okay, then. The next issue is to connect the ships.”

“That’s too dangerous,” Mia said. “Instead, we can just use a couple of Mud Turtles to transfer over.” She pointed to a section of the Talon at the starboard rear section. “This is your shuttle bay?”

The pilot nodded (a gesture that Elyrans and Earthers shared, apparently).

“How many berths are available?”

“On the main deck, we have none, but we can move around the parked ships on the other decks, move some from the main deck there, and give you room.”

“Ah, all right then.” Mia pressed a button, connecting her to the bridge. “Commander Kajima,” she said.

“Aye, sir,” Kajima responded.

“I am flashing on your screen the layout of the Talon’s flight deck. We are intending to bring over two mud turtles. Talon’s crew can move around their ships and give us room on the main deck, where their main hatch is. How much space would you need on the main deck?” She indicated the picture.

“This is the airlock, sir?”

“Yes.”

“Can this spot be cleared?” He pointed to one of the slots near the airlock.

“Excuse me, warrior,” Talon’s deck mistress interrupted. “You will be requiring just one berth?”

“Yes, sir. This particular one.”

“Captain,” the deck mistress turned to Mia. “The ‘mud turtle’ spacecraft you are referring to are the same ones that landed on the Detterex ships? The box-like ships that have claws?”

“That’s correct.”

“It seems to me, one berth is not be sufficient for your two ‘mud turtles.’“

“Commander Kajima says he just needs one.”

The Elyran shrugged. “ All right - whatever you say. Yes, we can have that ready.”

O’Connell picked up her CC and contacted the bridge. “This is O’Connell. Have two turtles prepped and ready by thirteen hundred hours, as well as two squads of Marines. I will brief you on the crew makeup later. The captain will be going over to visit the Elyran flagship.”

“Visit, sir?” the bridge duty officer cut in. “The Elyran...?”

“Yes. In five hours. Just do it.”

“Aye, sir!”

- - - - -

(bookmark 18)

The landing party included Mia, of course - something O’Connell and the other command personnel were not happy about. This was against regs. But orders were orders. And because she was going, O’Connell couldn’t go as she would have to take command. Mia would be joined by Seeker’s second engineer, one of the doctors from medical, someone from battle ops familiar with Seeker’s cybernetics and control systems, and their second-best expert on aliens, Nick. The First Ambassador and three other Arachnians also asked to join the tour. And since the ship’s doctor had cleared them, there really was no reason to deny the request.

The balance was made up of members of Seeker’s Second Combined Marine/Infantry Squad - the ship’s toughest ground pounders. But they also made up the majority of Seeker’s honor and color guard. Which was not accidental. And O’Connell, without being asked, knew enough to select as many females from the squad as could be spared.

- - - - -

(bookmark 19)

On a monitor, Ren watched the Earth spaceship approach the Talon. He tried to search out the other ships but they were too far away to be visible other than as moving pinpricks in the sky.

It was a bit unnerving to see another ship this close, and coming even closer. Its movements were so smooth, however. It was like the ship was alive. Instead of blocky, rigid movements like a normal ship would make when maneuvering with thrusters, Seeker turned and maneuvered fluidly, like a shark slowly maneuvering in calm water. It was amazing. Ren heard the comment from Reena that they were probably using computer-controlled flywheels. Large ones. Elyrans also used flywheels on their ships, of course, but not in any scale that would allow their ships such graceful movements. Elyrans mostly used flywheels and gyros just to assist in stabilization and trim - not to actually turn or maneuver a ship.

What Ren took as a wing came near, and a few scant meters from Talon’s hull, a bright, electric-green light, like the glow from an aurora, bathed Talon’s side. Where the wing touched the glow, the glow disappeared. The wing was less than four arm-lengths away from Talon’s hull and it stayed there as if nailed down. The preciseness of the Earthers’ control was amazing.

“Showoffs!” Reena muttered, amazed at the precise, fluid movements of the Seeker.

Ren looked over her shoulder at Reena’s monitor. On it, he saw the outline of Talon’s field. Instead of a perfect oval enclosing the silhouette of the Talon, it was like the ovals of the two ships were attached. Their combined fields now looked like a figure-eight. As far as he knew, the geometry of the field was something that Elyran scientists and spacers thought impossible to sustain, but there it was.

“Amazing,” Reena said.

Ren looked back at the other monitor and saw two little round shapes slowly leave the Seeker, move slowly under Seeker’s wing, and on towards Talon. Clearly, their pilots were making sure they remained within the ship’s field.

When the two little ships had gone out of his view, the Seeker rolled, its wing rising and clearing Talon’s field in a moment. A momentary green glow spread around the wing’s leading edge and died after Seeker’s wing cleared the field, and in seconds Seeker had moved away. In a minute, she was just another light in the sky.

One of the communications people went to Ren and bowed.

“My Lord, the Earther shuttles have arrived.”

Ren nodded. “I suppose it’s time, then. Send a message to Her Royal Highness that I am on my way, and I shall meet her at the landing deck.”

“There is no need to rush, Your Highness - the deck is still being repressurized. There is still time.”

Ren nodded.

He and his ceremonial entourage went with him to the science deck to fetch Ben.

“My Lord,” Ben bowed.

“The Earthers are here, Ben. Are you sure you can do this?”

Ben nodded confidently. After their meditation session last night, he was calmer, and felt himself in control.

“I am, Your Highness. I will not embarrass our Family.”

He gave Ben a hug. “Good. Then let us go.”

Parade -

“Sir, the Elyrans have radioed in that the deck is under pressure again,” the pilot said. “Instruments read a steady fifteen pounds per square inch. Seventy-three percent nitrogen, twenty-five percent oxygen, one percent carbon dioxide, and trace amounts of hydrogen, ozone, methane, helium, neon, krypton, zenon, argon and carbon monoxide. Other gases too low to read out on my equipment. Plus a low level of water vapor. All detectable radiation types within normal ranges, and no red lights on the bio detectors.”

Seeker’s Second Engineer, Engineer Haskell, looked at the pilot in irritation. “What does that mean?” he asked plaintively.

“Ummm, sorry, sir. It means the atmosphere’s breathable and safe. Oh, and gravity is at a steady point-eight G.”

Mia nodded. “Seems about right.” She looked at the monitor tuned to the view outside the shuttle and saw the Elyrans arrayed in orderly rows, the Princess and Prince at their head, surrounded by banners raised by what looked like ceremonial guards. Given all the banners, swords and armor, it looked like a scene from some medieval reenactment.

She was right - they indeed needed some theatrics, and were glad they had planned ahead. Earlier, they decided they would exit out the shuttles via the ramps, so Mia had the other turtle park parallel to theirs so that they could do this while facing where they assumed the Elyran entourage would be coming from.

Mia had asked everyone to wear bulky Class Five battle armor, and if they didn’t put on the helmets and the crinkly reflective anti-laser ponchos, and if the top plates were spray-painted in chrome or something, they would look pretty close to medieval armor. Mia asked for this to be done but the ship’s Second Engineer and the people from Damage Control did her one better - they had done what amounted to powder-coating all the visible top surfaces of the suits with the quick-setting damage control powder sealant they used for the outside hull. It just took five minutes to set, and now their suits had a permanent, uniform, shiny, slightly chromed gunmetal look to them.

One other thing she asked for was for everyone to also wear the dress swords from their Dress Blues clipped to their armor’s belt.

Per the new regs of the new armed forces, all officers were required to wear a ceremonial sword with their formal “Dress Blues” uniforms, but they had been given the option of replacing these with equivalents to reflect their culture or traditions. Because of this, people preferred their own instead of the bad-looking, useless ceremonial swords the quartermaster issued. So dress blues were never issued with swords anymore.

Anyway, all that meant was that everyone had come onboard with their own dress swords or equivalents. Mia had seen a lot of variety with these substitutes over the past months - things like claymores, longswords, broadswords, even flails, katanas, krys, machetes and bolos, for example. She even saw a few axes and a mace once. And all of them a reflection of the traditions of the wearer.

The soldiers from the Second Marine/Infantry Squad didn’t have swords however, since they were all non-coms, but they said that was okay since they preferred their rifles anyway.

As a Neptunian transplanted from America, Mia didn’t really have any military traditions about swords, and therefore didn’t think to bring one on the trip. The quartermaster wanted to give her one of those tin dress swords, but she nixed that. So, for today, she asked the Second Engineer to find her something.

Chief Haskell couldn’t find anyone with any sort of a spare sword, so what he ended up giving the captain was a device he had cobbled together.

Originally, he was thinking of just grinding down a piece of steel into a sword shape, but he had a brainwave.

“What is it,” Mia asked. She looked her new “sword” over.

“It’s a modified portable cutting torch from the Engineering Deck spares,” Chief Haskell said.

These “choppers” (as they were called) were high-powered portable laser utility cutters that could cut through any kind of material - once ubiquitous and indispensable tools onboard ships older than the Seeker, it was used by engineers, artificers and damage control officers onboard the old DSRs. They were practically obsolete now, and only a few could be found, having been replaced by smaller, less bulky, less powerful but more efficient versions.

A chopper was essentially a twin laser emitter, but it had a limiter that stuck out from the handle and between the emitters like a long, slender Crystalline capital letter “T” but with a really tiny horizontal crosspiece. Its two laser beams would be emitted from near the handle, on either side of the T’s bar, and would be stopped by the crosspiece. Also, when the lasers hit the crosspiece, a visible light would be emitted, reflecting back along the beams and Crystalline limiter. This gave the effect of making the laser beams and the limiter visible, which aided in keeping the chopper safe for use (people would see the actual operational beams and be able to avoid them), as well as act as a kind of flashlight to aid the person when working in space or in dark places.

Chief Haskell shrugged sheepishly. “Sorry, Skipper - a chopper was the best I could do on short notice. But look: the handle and hand shield look pretty close to a sword grip and cross guard, you have to admit. And one of the artificers welded together a scabbard for it using some of the spare Crystalline plate we have, and I replaced the battery pack as well with a compact unit that fit inside the grip. Neat, huh?” He grinned. “My guys took all of thirty minutes to cobble it together.” He was obviously proud of his people.

Mia grinned as well. “Yes, indeed, Chief. Thank you.” She pulled it from the new scabbard. The limiter bar for the beam had been extended so that it was now as long as a standard dress sword, and a sharp pointed Crystalline piece was welded onto the end to make it look like the point of a sword. Mia touched the point and noted it had been sharpened and filed to a fine-edged point. She felt the limiter bar, too, and it had been filed down to a fine cutting edge as well, and was reinforced a whole hell of a lot. Even without the lasers, she reckoned the chopper’s limiter bar would function adequately as a regular sword.

She knew cutters and nodded in satisfaction as she slid it back into the transparent scabbard, clipping it and her pistol to her belt. In university, she did a little bit of fencing, along with the football. And though she had to get used to its heft and balance, she thought she could manage her new sword well enough. She wondered how well she’d do in a real sword fight. Probably very badly, she assumed.

“Guess I’m all set, Chief. Signal the people from the other shuttle to start.”

At Mia’s order, they all formed up and waited for their turn. In the meantime, they watched on the monitor as the loading ramp of the other shuttle opened up.

To the Elyrans, what they saw were a handful of large Earther warriors almost as large as Detterex rushing out of the right-side shuttle, smart and dangerous-looking in their metal armor, and taking up posts at either side of the open loading ramp. They definitely weren’t Detterex since they moved so much faster.

Four Arachnians then came out, escorted by eight other Earther warriors in the same kind of armor, and marched in a precise military cadence as they walked the Arachnians to the Prince and Princess. Their loud, precise footfalls echoed like the beat of drums in the vaulted landing deck. Two of the warriors at the lead carried banners - one was the triangular orange, black and white pennant of the Arachnian Republic, and the other was the New United Nations’ white seal on a rectangular field of sky-blue.

Upon reaching the Prince and Princess, the warriors crisply presented arms. The two with the flags did a right slam. Together, they stopped.

The Arachnians raggedly moved out of their places, bowed to the Earther soldiers and moved to the Prince and Princess. Ren exclaimed when he saw the First Ambassador, rushed forward and hugged the insect-like alien. The glyphs chiseled onto the chitin of the Ambassador’s top left shoulder would have identified him to others, but Ren and Tasha didn’t need them - they’d recognize the little alien anywhere.

The Arachnian didn’t return the gesture, of course, for fear of hurting Ren. Besides, he didn’t really know how - the closest thing to a hug that Arachnians did was the kind they did when in ritual combat, or when having sex. But despite his not returning the gesture, the agitated movement of his antennae showed the emotions he must be feeling.

Skin slid against chitin as Ren hugged his best friend. Ren’s tears flowed freely.

“You know, My Lord, Arachnians are not built to be hugged,” the First Ambassador joked, the voder translator around his neck accurately translating his Arachnian clicks and whistles. It wasn’t really translating. Rather, it was converting the ambassador’s speech to equivalent humanoid sounds. It was actually the ambassador speaking Elyran, or as close as he was physically able to.

He touched an antennae to Ren’s wet cheek. “Don’t cry, my dear friend,” the First Ambassador said. “I am fine.”

“We were all afraid you were dead.”

“Clearly, I am not. And it’s not as if we haven’t been chatting daily via radio.”

Ren giggled. “Oh, shut up.”

“In all our years of knowing each other, I find it surprising that you still believe you can make me shut up.”

Tasha looked on with fondness at the reunion of the two friends.

Ren let go, smiled, and looked fondly down at his friend. He reached out a finger and touched the feathery tip of one antenna - an interspecies gesture of friendship and affection as old as the time when the races of Arachnia Prime and Elyra first discovered each other and became friends.

The Arachnian proffered his antennae to Tasha, and she affectionately did the same.

Ren turned to the Earther warriors and bowed. “My gratitude to you and your people,” he said.

The lead Marine smiled slightly and bowed. The two Marines carrying the flags raised them, and the others went to right shoulder positions. They turned smartly and marched precisely back towards Mia’s shuttle, where they formed lines on either side of the still-closed ramp.

As soon as they were in place, the second shuttle’s ramp slowly lowered. Bright, blue-white light spilled out, and what Human music aficionados would know to be the Throne Room Theme from the classic twentieth century movie “Star Wars” started playing from the mud turtle’s PA. It was courtesy of Nick’s collection of vintage classic musical pieces. Any humans present might just have laughed at its ridiculousness, but thankfully there were only Elyrans. In fact, the Elyrans were actually entranced by all of this seeming pomp and pageantry.

In time with the music, four of the Marines marched, with the flags of the New UN, the United Earth Defense Force, the colors of the Seeker, and, per tradition, the home flag of Seeker’s Master - the green, white and blue flag of Neptune was the last to come out.

When the four cleared the ramp, two other Marines marched out, their rifles in right shoulder position. Nick, and then Mia’s cybernetics officer followed, and right behind them were the doctor and Seeker’s Second Engineer. And behind them, Mia. Four Marines then followed, rifles at right-shoulder too.

Together, Mia and her “entourage” walked down the ramp and went to the front of the arrayed royal party.

In precise military movements, Mia’s group arranged themselves in two rows in front of the Prince and Princess, and stopped. The pilot of their shuttle mercifully faded the volume of the music away until it was off.

“Present arms!” the lead Marine exclaimed in English, and the soldiers presented arms and the ones with flags raised them high. Mia and her officers crisply saluted. The synchronized crack of their movements sounded like a single gunshot inside the otherwise-silent deck.

After a few moments, from a barely detectable signal from Mia, the lead Marine then exclaimed, “platoon, at ease!”

Hardly a platoon, Mia thought amusedly, and everyone went to Parade Rest while the colors were dipped forward.

A wild thought sprang inside Mia’s head. She chuckled inside when she decided to surreptitiously turn on her “sword.” She kept the power to absolute minimum, of course, just so she could light it up, and an extremely faint, but noticeable, ruby light started to glow from inside her Crystalline scabbard. The onlooking Elyrans gasped when they saw this. Mia had the sense that it was like Humans going “aaahhh” in amazement.

Nick, the First Ambassador’s deputy and the lead Marine had collaborated to concoct this new routine before leaving Seeker, trying to combine Elyran styles of presenting as well as Earther color and honor guard moves, hoping that it would impress the aliens. They ended up with something akin to the normal presentation of colors but modified to suit Elyran sensibilities. With the reaction from the Elyrans, they knew they had succeeded, and eventually, it would become a standard parade routine as recognizable as a pass-and-review.

Mia broke ranks and stepped forward. She bowed deeply in front of the royal couple, straightened out, drew out her glowing, ruby “sword,” touched the bar of the limiter to her forehead (a move she copied from an old movie she saw as a boy) and brought it down to her side.

“Your Highness,” Mia formally said in Elyran, “we request permission to come aboard the royal flagship.”

Tasha was a little bit confused. “Haven’t they come aboard already?” she thought. It must be an Earther ceremonial thing.

“Permission is granted, Lord Captain,” she said in equally formal tones.

Mia touched her “sword” to her forehead again and sheathed it.

Smiling, the Princess reached out a hand in the gesture she observed Earthers do with each other when they meet, and shook Mia’s hand.

And everyone on the deck cheered and applauded.

Scientists, and shaking hands -

Before the tour began, the Earthers, as well as the Elyran receiving party, took time to change out of their armor. Mia remembered wearing dress blues before when she was a young man in the Navy. She remembered hating how uncomfortable it was. This time it was a little better, but not by much. At least the new outfit didn’t come with a hat anymore.

The new navy’s version was made up of a double-breasted navy-blue jacket with brass buttons, gold trim at the edges, a high, Napoleon-style collar trimmed in gold as well as decorated with gold miniatures of the UN crest, Napoleonic gold-tasseled epaulettes, gold braid at the cuffs denoting rank, and knee-high black armored boots that look like riding boots over skin-tight white pants that looked like leggings (the men’s were... boldly padded for, well, modesty, and for protection). It was finished off with a sidearm in a holster and, for officers, a dress sword in a scabbard (or its equivalent). A red sash went over the belt and around the waist. Navy regs required that miniatures of any decorations one had received during past service in the new navy as well as in other military forces should be worn on the upper left breast of the jacket (a compromise for the fact that the new navy was an amalgam of various armed forces), and a silver nameplate bearing name and command on the right breast. Mia was embarrassed that she had more miniatures than most.

As she stepped out of the lavatory of the small room they were assigned, Nick caught sight of her and wolf-whistled.

“Lookin’ good, Skipper,” Nick said, and waggled his eyebrows humorously. His chest was bare of any devices or medals except for his commissioned officer’s pin and a miniature of the Seeker.

“Shut up, Lieutenant, or I’ll put you in the brig,” she answered, smiling. “Let’s go.”

The Prince and Princess and their people had also changed out of their armor, and were wearing what to Mia looked like period costumes from 16th or 17th century France, except that the women were wearing what the men were wearing as well, except for the lower necklines and daring décolletage, longer tails, long skirts instead of pants, and high-heeled boots.

The tour began, with Reena, as ship’s mistress, having the privilege of performing the tour. It was as comprehensive as a three-hour tour could be, especially since the Earthers’ questions and the things they wanted to see were very specific. Reena thanked the goddesses for the presence of the Prince and his assistant, as it was they who gave most of the answers the aliens asked for. Never would she question the value of scientists in general, Prince Ren in particular, ever again.

The tour went rapidly from the bridge to the engine room, to the main power plant chamber, the medical center, one of the main living decks and then to the system support chambers that contained Talon’s recycling facilities, atmosphere regeneration plants and computer chambers. The weapons control chamber was off-limits, however. Even so, there was a lot to see. It was a long day.

When they were three-fourths through with the tour, Reena could see that the aliens were showing some signs of fatigue. She was sure she was feeling tired, too, and no doubt the Prince as well, but they were determined to see this through, if just for the sake of her crew: everyone wanted to have a personal look at the new “Warrior Race” and their “queen,” and she didn’t want to disappoint. The Princess had already retired earlier, however. Reena resented the perks of royalty.

All throughout the royal tour, many of the crew were on hand and eager to assist in showing the Earthers their ship. Along the way, of course, the crew were anxious to tell the Earther captain how grateful they were for their assistance in battle, and wanted an opportunity to “shake hands” with the Earthers. Also, those who dared reached out and touched the scabbard of her glowing sword.

Reena appreciated Captain Steele’s graciousness as she and her officers accepted these accolades, even though it undoubtedly became tiresome after a while.

When the tour group entered the medical deck, they were greeted by the medical staff and the non-bedridden patients standing and then bowing, in the gesture the Humans have come to know as something reserved for royalty. It was a bit different here in that most of the Elyrans on duty, approximately three-fourths, were males.

Everyone who could, stood and bowed, even the patients, including some of those that seemed to be heavily injured.

Mia knew the kinds of injuries anyone who was shipboard could sustain, and she recognized them in the Elyrans here. Many of them sustained injuries such as third- and fourth-degree burns, shattered bones, or large-scale wounds.

Despite that, almost all of them stood to bow, whether with the assistance of crutches or the support of the mostly-male medical staff.

From her strange-yet-familiar eyes, Reena could tell that the Earther captain was touched. She noted moisture leaking from the captain’s eyes. Though she knew it was a mistake to assume commonalities between species, Reena knew Mia was crying.

“We are honored,” the Captain said hoarsely as she struggled to contain her emotions. “But, please, be at ease. I apologize for disturbing you.”

“It is no trouble at all, My Lady,” the Elyran who seemed to be in charge answered for everyone. “We, and all my charges, are happy to meet you in person.”

“Captain,” Reena said, “I would like to introduce you to our chief medical scientist. Her name is Tarna.”

“Captain,” Tarna bowed. Mia, in turn, reached out and shook her hand in a two-handed handshake.

“I am so honored to meet you, Doctor.”

Tarna had heard of the Earther custom of shaking hands. But she didn’t expect to be doing it. She thought of shaking hands as a little... unhygienic. But, with that little bit of squeamishness aside, she found the gesture a very appropriate and welcome one, especially since it came from the Earther Warrior Queen herself. She also felt herself blushing. The gesture was quite intimate as well, and the tactile feel of the captain’s hand was quite... pleasant, despite the odd feel of the wider palm and extra finger.

She gasped. No doubt because of the handshake, she caught the fringes of Mia’s aura - it was kind and gentle, but with a strength and sensuality she could feel, though it was kept in check by the captain’s will. Never did she have such an experience before except for the few times she had occasion to interact with a bridge, and as a regular Elyran, she didn’t have occasion to do that often.

Mia asked after her patients, and she had to shake herself from her thoughts. She was pleased to report that, except for a few, everyone was well on their way to recovery. She whispered that there were a few that didn’t make it, and their bodies were now down in the hold.

Mia nodded. She knew enough that she knew Elyrans are not mourned publicly except during the appropriate time, so she knew not to refer to them again. She gravitated towards the bedridden ones in the back that Tarna said were the most hurt, and said hello, leaving the data gathering to Nick and her people.

“My Lady,” one of the pilots that was in bed said as she tried to get up.

Mia gently pushed the pilot back down by the shoulder.

“Please, my dear,” Mia said. “Be still.”

She pulled up a stool and sat beside the injured Elyran, asked her about inconsequential things and tried to get to know her a little. Eventually, Mia asked about her injury. Seems a piece of metal had cut into her, damaging several organs. Per Tarna, surgery has “repaired” her and she was as good as new, but she needed time to recover from the surgery.

“I am pleased to hear that,” Mia said

“I appreciate all that the medical people have done,” the warrior said, “but I am chafing to get back on duty.”

“I understand,” Mia nodded, “but we all need time to recover from injuries, if we are to be of service to our people. Don’t you agree?”

“I suppose so, Your Highness,” the injured pilot said reluctantly. Mia didn’t bother to correct her, and tell her she wasn’t royalty. “But...”

Mia laid a finger on the pilot’s lips. “Enough, my dear. Your new duty is to rest and get better. Isn’t that right, Tarna?”

Tarna smiled. “My Lady speaks the truth.”

Mia nodded. “So I am afraid you won’t be piloting ships and harassing the enemy for the moment, and will be harassing the nurses instead.”

Everyone within earshot laughed, and Mia kissed the warrior’s forehead in benediction. “Get well soon, my dear,” she whispered.

Mia went to the next bed, and to the next. There were eight of them in the small area, and Mia took about five minutes to get to know each of the patients. After a while, however, Nick cleared his throat and pointedly gestured at his watch.

Mia sighed and stood. “My friends, duty calls. We must leave now, but it was a pleasure spending time with you. I wish you a speedy recovery.”

She and her group followed Ren and Reena, and made their way out of the medical center. The Earthers shook hands and said goodbye to everyone. As they stepped out of the center, Tarna pushed her way through the throng towards them.

“My Lady!” she called.

Mia gestured for them to stop.

“Yes, Doctor?” Mia said.

“Your Highness,” she said, “I... there are no words...”

“It was of no consequence...”

“But, Highness, It is. My patients - I... your words... Your words have meant more to them than anything, and will put them at ease until they are ready to return to duty.”

“It really was of no consequence, Doctor...”

“I’m sorry to disagree, Highness, but it is not. To ease a warrior’s mind, to motivate her - that is important.”

“Then I’m pleased we were of service.” Mia bowed to her, and, at a subtle signal from her, Mia’s people also bowed.

Tarna was taken aback, but, unwilling to be on the wrong end of the civilities equation, she got her people to line up and bow as well.

“I like the Earther warrior queen,” she thought.

A formal dinner -

As expected, Mia’s hosts, in an effort to be gracious, offered refreshments after their tour. Mia was conducted to a small but well-appointed lounge. Her officers, plus a small group of Marines, followed.

Ren had sent word beforehand, saying that it was to be a formal affair, and that they would be recording for purposes of posterity, and for sharing with the rest of the Federation. The Terrans assumed as much and were prepared to act accordingly. Why else would they have worn their dress blues, after all?

Though a little smaller than they were used to, Mia and her officers found the furnishings comfortable enough though slightly cramped.

Normally, one would put aside sword and sidearm to be able to sit comfortably, but they were told that, per Elyran custom, one wore them throughout a formal meal. The First Ambassador explained to Mia that in ancient times, warriors were loathe to divest themselves of their weapons, otherwise they’d be vulnerable to assassination or attack. So Mia and her people kept their weapons on as they sat.

On a low table that looked like a coffee table except it was as long as a large conference desk, Ren served them deep dishes of what turned out to be some kind of dip with a color and consistency similar to cheese sauce, and bowls filled with round pieces of bread, each about the size of a large potato chip and in a rainbow assortment of colors - pastel yellow, pink, blue, dark green, dark and bright orange, navy blue, purple, brown, red, bright green, and a lot of others. He also laid out pre-cut slices of fruit and vegetables of different shapes and sizes, and thin slices of meat artfully arrayed like expensive plates of sushi. There were also miniature bowls of what looked like oatmeal, plus what looked like bowls of clear broth with a pile of cut yellow and red vegetables beside each of them. After he finished laying them all out, Ren picked, poured and sliced very small pieces of all the food, arranged them on a large plate, and then offered the plate to Mia.

They were briefed that this might happen, and they came prepared. Mia bowed to Ren, and then gestured to a Marine that had been patiently standing beside her.

The Marine, on Mia’s nod, got the plate, took out a small spectroscope analyzer out of a pocket, and ran its beam over the food. The device analyzed the chemical components of the food, as well as X-rayed them for metal and other foreign particles, any moving particles or dangerous organisms, bacteria, fungi or viruses. They would not have agreed to go through this ceremony except that they were provided a medical database as well as food samples by their Arachnian guests, and were fairly confident that any food served would be safe.

Having finished checking the food for poisons or other inimical compounds or any obvious parasites, the Marine gulped, knowing what was next. He took one of the tiny pieces of bread. Ren gestured at the dip and the soldier dipped it into the cheese-like sauce. He popped it into his mouth, grimaced and then chewed. But the texture and taste was actually good, like excellent French bread dipped in really tasty gravy.

“Oh!” he exclaimed. “That’s a bit of all right, that!” he said, forgetting to tone down his Irish accent. He noticed everyone was looking at him, smiling. “Ummm...”

He then took bites out of everything on the plate, and then saluted Mia. “Food passes inspection, sir!” he said crisply, but the food in his mouth and the plate in his hand ruined the effect.

Mia nodded, and laughed. “Good work, gunny.”

“Sir!” He saluted again.

Per the custom, it was the visitors’ turn this time to provide drinks, aperitifs, digestifs, sweets (or equivalents) and desserts. The parallels to human eating preferences were striking. Nick stood and went to a large, wheeled sealed cart that one of the Marines had brought from the shuttle. He rolled it to the side of the table and brought out thermos flasks of tea, coffee and orange juice plus a large coffee service. Nick also brought out several six-packs of beer, aluminum cans of soft drinks including classic Pepsi and Coke (and Pepsi-Coke, of course, invented when the two leading pre-war beverage companies merged), several magnums of the galley’s best wine (it was white wine only since red was always in short supply on the ship), and a few precious bottles of Earth-side champagne.

As a sort of pièce de résistance, Nick, smiling, brought out a cooler with a large tub of rocky road ice cream, and several New York-style cheesecakes. On a tray, Nick poured samples of each drink into small shot glasses they had borrowed from the officers’ mess, and small samples of the cake and ice cream onto small saucers.

An Elyran male came forward and did a ritual testing and tasting of the Earther’s offerings as well, with Nick on hand to assist. The Elyran dipped a little device that looked like a girl’s lipstick tube in all the glasses and into the ice cream and cake, and then he tasted everything. Eventually, he turned and bowed to the Princess.

With an expressed note of appreciation, the Elyrans accepted the Earthers’ offerings, and they started with the meal.

Part of the fun was watching each other tasting the other’s food and watching each others’ reaction. With the Elyrans, they all appreciated everything that the Earthers brought, except, perhaps the beer, and were over the moon with the soda, ice cream and cheesecake. It was the same thing with the Earthers, except for a few of the meat slices - though they didn’t taste too bad, the flavors and textures were a little iffy.

The four Arachnians joined them as well, and the representatives of three interstellar races had a pleasant time just getting to know each other. Though they had spent countless hours in virtual conference, it was another thing altogether to be speaking to each other in person.

One of the bigger things that a face-to-face meeting added to the experience was how each smelled to the other. To the humans and Elyrans, the Arachnians smelled especially nice, like sandalwood with an earthy trace of expensive leather. The Elyrans smelled a little musky to the humans, but not unpleasantly so - like fresh laundry left too long in the sun. As for the “Earthers,” the Elyrans couldn’t tell much: most of the Earthers wore artificial scents - a practice that only high-caste Elyran males did nowadays. But the perfumes and colognes they did wear were extremely... sensual. And all of them had the feel of bridges. As for the Arachnians - scents and smells did not mean much, except as olfactory cues to indicate substances inimical or beneficial to Arachnian health. Both races exuded neither.

Nick and Mia freely conversed with the aliens, and the other Earthers almost as freely, too, courtesy of their translators. The Elyrans and Arachnians were thankful for this, but Tasha resolved that they would learn to speak Earther as well as soon as possible. But it really did beg the question - how did the Earthers learn to speak Elyran in the first place? Did they share a common history? Were they a related species, like the Detterex, or a long-lost Elyran colony?

But Ren was reluctant to ask the question (though both knew it had to be asked eventually). The Princess decided to leave it to him to find a proper place and time to ask. It was so frustrating. So many questions - the three big questions being the language thing, the communications thing, and their ships... and maybe a fourth - why do they look so close to Elyrans!

Ren decided to bide his time.

“Tell me, Captain,” Ren said, changing his train of thought, “how long have you been in command of Seeker?”

“Not long, Your Highness,” Mia said. “A year ago, I was, in fact, pursuing my vocation as a scientist when the Secretary-General asked me to serve. It was only then that I became Seeker’s captain.”

“You were a scientist?” Reena said incredulously. “Are all Earthers... as multi-disciplined?”

Mia laughed. “Ah, I suppose I am an anomaly. I was in my country’s navy years ago, but I resigned my commission when I had enough of... well, I had enough, and decided to go back to science.”

Reena understood what Mia had implied she had gone through. Many of Reena’s comrades had retired early as well, having seen enough of death and violence. She supposed she would, eventually, retire as well. But she was lucky to be the mistress of the royal flagship - it was rare for them to be in actual hand-to-hand combat.

“But I was called to serve again,” Mia continued. “So I returned to military life, and here I am.” She speared a little piece of meat with one of the little skewer-like forks they provided. It had the taste and texture of fresh salmon sushi. Mia ate it with relish. If only they had brought soy sauce and wasabi as well...

The discussion went back and forth, with little personal vignettes exchanged, as everyone sipped on the Earther beverages. Just like a cocktail party on Earth, except that everyone was sitting down.

Nick had explained that he was not mated to the Captain, and the Elyrans were surprised to find that not being married was less of an issue on Earth than on Elyra, After coming of age, most Elyrans are bonded to partners in monogamous relationships analogous to Earth marriages, and they were scandalized to find that divorce was possible for Earthers. For Elyrans, pair bonding, or marriage, was a lifetime thing.

As for the Arachnians, though they understood the concepts, they themselves did not practice pair bonding or marriage, since for them sex was strictly a matter of momentary pleasure or for procreation. They did put a lot of importance to friendships, though, and to establishing a dynasty, to ideas of loyalty, and the commitment to oaths and promises. And to having a lot of offspring, and claiming affiliation to a large and powerful clan - these were extremely important to Arachnian society.

They switched to more mundane things, like what each race did for entertainment. Much was made of Earther “TV” and how many of its programs were similar to their Elyran counterparts. As for Arachnians, they preferred news and documentary programs. Mia found that intriguing. Nick thought that boring. They talked of hobbies, music, art and sports, and much was made of the differences of each race’s activities. The Arachnians were disappointed, however, that sexual activities were not discussed. But they were not too surprised. They knew that most beings closely associated sexuality to their sense of self, and inextricably linked it to how they viewed themselves and their relationships with each other, that it was mostly a private thing. It was not a surprise then that Elyrans and humans weren’t too open about it.

As for Arachnians, sex was strictly for momentary enjoyment or procreation. Their drive to procreate was more based on the need to establish dynasties - an intellectual abstraction instead of a visceral biological need or a biologically triggered feeling of attraction. In this way Arachnians (and Erocii, the only other species whose form closely resembled the tiny exoskeletal insectoids found on Earth and other worlds with oxygen-based ecosystems) differed from other species. This had, actually created consternation and debate amongst most Federation biologists when they were first discovered, as they tried to account for this anomaly and tried to find out how the species was able to maintain its population. In fact, sexuality was more like a spectator sport for Arachnians, with many Arachnian video programs dedicated to them, as well as hundreds of thousands of books and videos on these sexual athletes, and tutorials and how-to books for improving technique, et cetera. There were even many citizens who achieved fame for being accomplished sexual athletes.

But the First Ambassador and his associates did not make much of this reticence of the humans and Elyrans. Arachnians were known for their politeness.

During the meal, Admiral Dax called. The call was relayed to them, and she inquired on how the tour was going. The Prince answered for the group.

“We have just concluded the tour, actually, Admiral. We are having the ceremonial evening meal at the moment.”

“Oh, I apologize, Highness,” Dax said. “Did not mean to interrupt.”

Looking at the Admiral’s image, Ren smiled. Though he didn’t know the Admiral personally, he had worked enough times with Dixx that he could recognize the expression. Dax wanted to be there, too.

“I am sorry you could not join us, Admiral,” Ren replied to the tall alien. “Perhaps when we arrive on Earth, we can sit down together to a meal and finally meet face-to-face.”

“That is quite gracious of you. Thank you.”

The Admiral apologized again and switched off.

- - - - -

(bookmark 20)

At the conclusion of their formal meal, Ren leaned over to Ben and whispered in his ear. Ben stood and left the room, and came back carrying a large gilt box encrusted with what appeared to be red, green and blue stones. The room grew quiet.

Ben stood beside Mia and bowed. Mia, not being briefed on this, looked at Nick. Nick, also at a loss as to what this was, shrugged. Mia decided to play safe, stood and bowed as well.

Ben proffered the box and Mia accepted.

“My Lady,” Ben said in formal, if nervous-sounding tones, “Tasha Liarran-Kerr and Ren Tevann-Reshanii-Kerr, crown Princess and Prince of the Great Plains of Elyra, would offer you our royal family’s Torch of Freedom. The Torch is an ancient, sacred symbol that has survived thousands upon thousands of generations, up to the time of the Great Messiah, and has been passed from one Great House to another during times of strife. My Lord and lady have decreed that the Torch be awarded to you - a symbol of the debt that all Elyra owes you and your people, and a token of fealty that the line of Kerr and Reshanii swear to your species, clan and forbears, that, at your word, all Elyra, no matter what time or distance lie between now and eternity, shall come to your aid, to succor and save, to bring light to darkness, to defend honor and, if need be, to avenge, now and forever.”

To the First Ambassador, as well as to his fellow Arachnians, Ben’s words had struck a chord within him. All Elyrans gave value and importance to friendships and loyalty. His own clan and Ren’s have exchanged similar vows, and he now considered himself part of their clan. By extension, he felt pride and gratitude as well, that his extended family was executing this ceremony.

Mia accepted the box, but didn’t know what to do. There was an awkward pause.

“There is a catch in front of the box, My Lady,” Ben whispered. “Open it, bring the jeweled bar out and hold it over your head.”

Mia felt for the catch, and felt a small hook. She slipped the hook from its catch and opened the box. The top part swung on a hinge. Mia peered inside and saw a solid-gold bar nestled in a bed of some green velvet-like lining. It was covered with glyphs and symbols carved all over its surface, and had a teardrop-shaped multi-faceted ruby the size of a chicken egg mounted on one end, and an opalescent blue marble on the other. It indeed looked like a stylized torch, with the ruby in place of the fire.

Mia picked it out of the box, and, after a pause, proudly lifted it over her head as she would a real torch.

All the Elyrans and the four Arachnians applauded. Mia signed to her people. The humans stood and, as one, bowed. The applause doubled in volume.

- - - - -

(bookmark 21)

After a while, the applause slowly died down and everyone took their seats. Mia remained standing, wracking her brain to come up with an idea.

She reverently returned the small gilt bar inside the box and handed it to a nearby Marine. She then beckoned to Nick. “Get the document case,” she whispered.

Nick, picking up on her idea, went to one of the carts they brought. He reached for the pressurized cargo transport case inside. Cases like this were used to hold industrial liquids, tools and other odds and ends for transport, and were all over all human spacecraft - as ubiquitous as a cardboard box would be planetside. Nick had the quartermaster scrounge one up from somewhere, but his people were thorough enough to steam clean it and remove all the oil, gunk and grime that these cases usually had. But though clean, it was still beat up and ugly as hell. This particular type of case usually held bottles of lubricating oil or engine coolant, but Nick had repurposed it to hold the printed document that they promised the aliens - the one that documented all the information that they had so far given the aliens via the conferences they’d been conducting, with additional references and supplemental data. (The confidential data was left out, of course.)

The document inside was roughly five kilos - an unbound printed volume with about thirty thousand loose pages of text and diagrams, all in Elyran. The case served a dual purpose: because the document was vacuum-packed inside the case, it naturally compressed the pages to a pile eight inches high - ten percent its size. If put together in one unpressurized pile, it would make a stack that was about six and a half feet tall.

Nick handed Mia the case, as well as a little metal device that he dug out of his jacket pocket. It looked like a flattened cube roughly the size of Mia’s palm, with a large rectangular hole on one of the narrow sides.

Mia stood in front of the Prince and Princess and bowed, copying Ben’s actions move-per-move.

Ren and Tasha scrambled to their feet. To say that they were surprised was an understatement. This was unprecedented!

“My Lord and Lady,” Mia bowed again. “We are all humbled by the honor you have bestowed upon us. We will never be able to reciprocate your generosity. But as a token of our gratitude, please accept this humble gift to honor you and your people. It is a gift of knowledge that we wish to share with you, so that we, the children of Earth, can share with the children of Elyra, Arachnia and Dixx our hard-won bounty. It is but a paltry gift, a poor token, but one born of an earnest desire to show our gratitude and friendship.” Mia extended the case.

Tasha took the case and noted its pitted, dented and weathered surface. “Clearly, it’s something of ancient origin,” she thought. Though there were no jewels or other decoration, Tasha thought its spare look lent it an elegance that made it mysteriously beautiful.

She felt around for the lock or the catch and, before Mia could stop her, she discovered the recessed button on the lid and pressed it. Mia tried to hide her chagrin - she wasn’t able to tell them about vacuum-packed documents. “Oh, well,” Mia thought. “I just hope they aren’t too surprised.”

The popping of the cover broke the vacuum and the case made a hissing sound as air seeped in.

There was a gasp from the onlookers and, when the hissing faded away, Tasha flipped the cover open, She and Ren peered inside and saw the cover page of the document. They read the title, which was in Elyran:

Selected Technical and Historical References
and New United Nations Geo-political Analysis Reports
Submitted to the first expedition of the Galactic Federation to the Sol System,
Prepared by Terran Encounter Task Force 41/18
and the CETI Commission -
The New United Nations and
the United Earth Defense Force

Ren and Tasha looked at each other. They noticed a movement from the box and they looked back down. Incredibly, the pages of the document were coming out of the box. It was the paper expanding, as air got into and between the sheets, as it was designed to do.

When there were about five inches worth of pages sticking out, Ren exclaimed. “By the Goddess. Ben!”

Ben came and got the pages before they had a chance to fall. He brought them out, presumably to give to colleagues waiting outside.

Incredibly, more pages rose from the box, and Ben had to make multiple trips. Eventually, no more pages came out. “Thank the Goddess,” Ben commented in relief, and everyone laughed at that.

Smiling, Mia handed Ben something else - the flattened metal cube Nick gave her.

To the Elyrans, it looked like the jack from a standard Elyran i/o storage pack, but missing the large box-like storage pack that was attached to it. Ben wanted to ask why give a useless device but thought better of it, accepted the device and just bowed. He brought out the connector and the case that still had the last of the pages of the document inside.

“Your Highness,” Mia again addressed the Prince and Princess. “Thank you for your gracious accommodation and hospitality, the tour and the excellent meal. I apologize for being a poor guest but we must get back to our ship.”

“Nonsense, My Lady,” Tasha said. “It was our honor.”

Mia and her group did the ceremonial leave-taking, as required by Elyran custom, and then they, and the Arachnians, made their way back to the shuttles for the short ride back to Seeker.

Shepherd Moon, Chapter 15: Saturnfall

Comparing notes -

Half a dozen Elyrans, all male, met them at their shuttle. As they approached, the six bowed low. In their hands were several cardboard boxes.

They apologized. They explained that they only got their instructions a few minutes ago. In the boxes were about two-dozen of those i/o storage connectors, with four-by-four inch cubes attached to each of them. They explained that these were references and textbooks from their library, and hoped that their selections were useful.

Two of the Marines moved forward and got the boxes. Mia moved forward and bowed.

“Many thanks,” she said.

The last of the six moved to the front, bowed low and proffered a golden gilt box.

“What’s this?”

“It is Princess Tasha’s family scroll, My Lady.”

“Family scroll?”

“It is the Princess’s personal scroll that was given by her mother-in-law on the occasion of her bonding with Prince Ren - the Holy Book of the Ages, the last of the Ancient Scrolls. It is quite priceless.”

The six put their fists over their hearts and bowed low. They remained bowed until the Earthers were all in the shuttle.

“Hmmm,” Nick said.

- - - - -

(bookmark 22)

“T’Chahn, royal Earth shuttle,” the Talon’s communications officer called over the radio, “landing bay has been fully depressurized and main hatch is open. Please extend to Her Royal Highness, Captain Steele, the good wishes of the crew of the Talon, and our wishes for her safe journey back.”

“Ummm, roger, Talon,” the shuttle pilot responded. He didn’t know how to take that. “Ahhh, royal party is departing. Thank you for your hospitality.”

Mia was also surprised and confused by that as well, but she let it go.

The trip back to Seeker was quick - from leaving the dining room and walking back to the shuttles, waiting for the bay to be evacuated, waiting for the merging of their ships’ fields, flying back, and then landing in Seeker’s own bay, it took less than thirty minutes. While they waited, the Earthers and Arachnians had a pleasant half-hour of chitchat, and talked about the meal and meeting the Prince and Princess.

Some of the Marines and crew were a bit ill at ease talking with what looked like big orange-and-white spiders. It was something Arachnians and their kind were familiar with: Arachnophobia was not exclusive to Earthers, after all (although the aliens called it something else). Most inhabited oxygen planets had small insects, spiders or their equivalents, and most intelligent species had an aversion to them to some degree or other, due to the parasitical nature of these insects. Arachnians and Erocii were not spiders at all despite a spider-like appearance. But such niceties didn’t count for much, especially to those who had Arachnophobia. Arachnians and Erocii knew this and just learned to live with it, trying to educate where they can. And as Federation society evolved, most peoples had adjusted. The First Ambassador prayed that the Earthers would, too. It would be too bad if the Earthers didn’t as well, he thought, because he respected them. And, more importantly, he liked them.

“So how did you like your first face-to-face meeting with Ren and Tasha?” he asked the Earthers as they felt the shuttle lift off.

In the past, many have been taken aback by his overly familiar behavior with the Prince and Princess. Nick looked at him with a raised eyebrow - a visual cue that the ambassador was now familiar with.

He moved his upper arms in the gesture that denoted mild amusement. “Do not mind me, Lieutenant,” he said. “I am allowed a few liberties with the Prince and Princess. I am a family friend, and they tolerate my few impertinences.”

“They were shorter than I thought they’d be, sir,” one of the Marines said.

“Actually, the Princess is considered above average in height.”

“She is?”

The ambassador moved his arms in the gesture that was equivalent of a shrug.

“Have you been to many royal receptions, Ambassador,” Mia asked.

“I have been to many royal receptions, as well as other ceremonial and formal events. In my capacity as a representative of my government, attending such events is part of my regular schedule.”

Mia nodded. “I would have assumed so. How did this one compare?”

“The protocols were a little different,” he said. “Your Earther Marines have put a touch more drama to the proceedings, but it was mostly like the others. What made it different was the exchange of gifts during the meal.”

“I’m sorry about our gift.” Mia sighed. “It was a last-minute thing. The expanding pages must have been weird.” The Seeker people laughed.

“What is wrong?” the ambassador said. Even through the translator, his puzzlement could be clearly heard. He waved his upper limbs left to right - the gesture of inquiry.

Mia, giggling, waved it down. “Forget about it, Ambassador. You wouldn’t understand.”

“Well, whatever,” he made a sweeping gesture of dismissal. “But the Elyrans were very surprised and very appreciative of the gift.

“So, Captain,” he continued. “The Torch of Freedom. A great honor, and an unprecedented one. Only a handful of non-Elyrans have ever been accorded the honor.”

“I’m afraid I do not know Elyran history well enough to know the significance...”

So the Ambassador went professorial and explained the background of the icon.

- - - - -

(bookmark 23)

More than a thousand millennia ago, the Elyran legend went, the Queen Mother had gone to war, in defense of a people being oppressed by their brethren. These were slaves more than anything, considered so because of an accident of birth. The legends say the Queen Mother challenged this, and her outnumbered warriors did several nighttime raids and, under cover of stealth and darkness, freed more than a thousand of these oppressed, as well as several crèches of their children.

Her actions rallied the remaining slaves and, together with her warriors, they eventually rose up and defeated their oppressors. It was from these original twenty-four tribes that many of the present royal families came from.

In gratitude, the newly-free people, called the Talah Anthropoi in the old tongue, presented the Queen Mother and her allies “three eights and one” ornamental torches carved from gold, silver and precious stones - made in the image of wooden torches - the kind that they used when they freed the children during those dark, moonless nights. The “three eights,” or twenty-four, torches were given to each of the chieftains of the twenty-four warrior tribes that undertook the rescue. The twenty-fifth of course was given to the Queen Mother herself. The Talah said that the torches were symbols of their debt, and that whatever the reason, if ever the debt is claimed, they will come - a promise written in the blood of their children.

But the Talah had disappeared from history, and the debt was never claimed.

The various families kept the icons, and through the centuries, they had acquired the patina of legend. The icons themselves were lost over time. Nevertheless, the people descended from the original twenty-four tribes made facsimiles of the originals. One of these tribes, which became the royal family of Kerr, started the tradition of giving jeweled copies of their torch as a token of their gratitude to those who help them, and as a token of their pledge of loyalty. Subsequently, because of this, the Kerr Family acquired many allies over time and became one of the largest and most powerful royal families on the planet.

Seeing their success, the other twenty-three copied this practice, but more as a means to expand their influence, or to curry favor among their neighbors.

But that was ancient history. Nowadays, the torches were rarely awarded, and now only given out by the families to those truly deserving them.

- - - - -

(bookmark 24)

“There are many things in this universe that are wrong,” the First Ambassador said, apparently wrapping up his lecture. “It is important to celebrate those that are right. This ceremony is just one of those.”

“Well,” Mia said, embarrassed. “Well... Thank you. I guess.”

“Here is another one,” he said, and reached inside a pack that was belted around his thorax. “I would also like to give you something. Here.” He held out a small, jeweled medallion or coin that hung on what looked like a thin chain necklace. “May I?”

She couldn’t very well say no, so she stooped, a little bit confused, and let the little alien put the necklace around her neck.

After he snapped the clasp closed, Mia straightened. She lifted the little medallion and looked at the design on it. It looked like a tree, with little shards of diamonds or some other sparkly stones scattered through the branches.

“Does the design have some meaning?” she asked.

“It is my family’s... crest, for want of a word with a closer meaning. Usually, we have them inlaid permanently into our chitin once we reach adulthood,” he pointed to a similar one embedded into his carapace where a breast pocket would be in a shirt. “Yours has been modified to be more suitable for Elyranoids.”

“Elyranoids...” Mia thought, and smiled. She had not heard the word before - the word that the little translator she had been wearing that was set on assist mode chose seemed a little too onomatopoeic to be taken seriously, but it had the virtue of being clear in its meaning.

“The crest is not something that is given to non-Arachnians lightly, and when we get back, I will have to ask you to accompany me to Arachnia Prime so we can present you the medallion in the proper way.”

Mia smiled. “Okay. It’s a date then.”

“A ‘date?’”

Mia didn’t answer, and just reached out with a finger. The Arachnian responded automatically, and extended a feathery-tipped antenna.

The Human and the Elyran regarded each other, and if someone else would see the two mismatched sapients, they would somehow know that these two were friends.

- - - - -

(bookmark 25)

“Well,” Mia said, “thank you very much for this, Ambassador.” She gestured at her new medallion. “As well as for the history lesson. I see now how important the Torch is.”

“It is more than that, Captain,” the Ambassador continued. “This evening’s events were unprecedented. And the fact you reciprocated by giving a gift as well...”

“Isn’t giving a gift in return just the polite thing to do?”

“Indeed it is. But on Elyra, only a peer may presume to exchange gifts with royalty...”

Mia’s eyes grew large. “So that means they think...?”

The ambassador made circular motions with his four upper arms - the gesture for amusement.

“Indeed,” he said.

Mia shook her head and groaned.

- - - - -

(bookmark 26)

“So that’s how it went, Madame Secretary-General,” Mia said. She, Beth O’Connell and Nick were reporting to Romarkin, the Admiral, Marc and Jennifer about their visit to the alien ship. As CETI liaison Sahsha was also there, via Phase-Wave, to record.

Their technical report wasn’t ready yet - it was still to be compiled and would take time, but they felt this warranted an emergency call. So as soon as their shuttles landed, Nick made the call.

“This business about the torch...” Jennifer said.

“Yes, Ma’am,” Nick said. “The Ambassador’s impromptu lecture was helpful, but I guess we need more information.”

“Indeed. Still,” Jennifer turned to Marc, “seems we got a pretty big IOU From the Princess.” She grinned predatorily.

“And the other problem?” The Admiral asked.

“Well...”

“They think I’m royalty, sir,” Mia interjected.

No one spoke for a moment.

“Well,” Romarkin said, “that’s not necessarily a problem, is it?”

Silverman grinned. “So long as the chain of command is preserved, I have no problem with one of my officers being...”

“Princess Amelia...” O’Connell snickered. She sobered up when Mia gave her a look. “Sorry, sir!”

Mia then turned and gave Romarkin and Silverman an aggravated look.

“I don’t think we can do anything about it, Captain,” Silverman said.

“Guess you have to ride it out, Mia. I mean, Princess...” Everyone laughed.

“This will NOT be good for shipboard discipline,” Mia complained.

Jennifer giggled. “It’s your fault, after all, Mia.”

“But I didn’t know! How can anyone know?”

The Admiral made some patting-down gestures. “All right, settle down. Let’s just keep this story hush-hush for the moment,” Silverman said. “No one knows about this, even the Marines in the shuttle. So, let’s just not spread it around. Either it dies down, or your crew adjusts, Captain.”

He turned to Nick. “Lieutenant, get those books copied and transmitted to CETI immediately, and make sure your report gets to us no later than 0900 hours tomorrow.” He then turned to Jennifer. “Professor Priestly, I would appreciate it if you can translate those books immediately.”

“Of course, Admiral. But Nick can do it right now, actually.”

“Then get cracking on that right away, son. I guess that pretty much covers it, Madame Secretary-General. Anything to add?”

“I agree, Admiral - that’s pretty much it. Good work, everyone. Lets all get some rest. Talk to you all tomorrow.”

She logged off, and everyone followed. But before they were cut off completely, Sahsha called out, “bye, Princess!”

Mia groaned again.

- - - - -

(bookmark 27)

Mia, O’Connell, the Second Engineer, the doctor and some of the Marines that were with them worked through the night and finished up the report the Admiral wanted, while Nick oversaw CETI’s translation program. He was gratified that their analysis of Elyran computer systems were right on target, and he was able to read the books without problems, except that the i/o socket was a trifle loose in their fabricated adapter. A little bit of toilet paper wadded in the appropriate area fixed that right up, though.

The Elyran data files were coded in the format that Nick and the CETI people were familiar with, and his program had an easy time opening them. The data came encapsulated in three mediums - one for graphics, another for audio and video, and one for text. It was straightforward. Except for the physical media, he could have done it all on his CC. He had finished creating English-text versions in an hour. Interpolating and dubbing the spoken components took an extra two hours, and subtitling the text in the video and graphics components took an additional two. But Nick basically had nothing to do except make sure they were properly rendered.

So he remained in the discussion that Mia conducted via intercom, and only occasionally taking a peek at the computer as the program finished rendering the Elyran references into English.

To help Mia out, Nick had followed her advice and had Ms Delyer join them online as well. Her transcription and documentation skills went a long way in completing their report.

By nine AM the following day, they had completed a first draft of their report, as well as copies of complete translated versions of the books. He transmitted them to the Fleet Admiral and to Professor Priestly’s office. He left it to Sahsha to make copies for the Secretary-General.

After he had done that, he made excuses to his shipboard supervisor, and went to his bunk for some well-deserved shut-eye.

But he didn’t really get much sleep. Thirty minutes after falling asleep, he was shaken awake. Seems that the captain was paging him - it was some sort of emergency.

Disappearing act -

Nick came onto the bridge, still buttoning his tunic. The chronometer on the wall said ship time was 0945H. But no one could blame him for being late - he wasn’t supposed to be up yet.

The captain and Commander O’Connell were there already, looking disgustingly well rested (he wondered how they were able to do it). Beside them was the First Ambassador with his ever-present assistant, and on the main screen, in split-view, were the Prince and Princess, Admiral Dax, Fleet Admiral Silverman, the Secretary-General, and Walter Thorpe from Neptune.

“Sir,” Nick said and saluted the captain.

“Nick,” Mia said and acknowledged his salute. “Glad you’re here. Solar tracking has lost the Empire ships. But more than that, Walter and Admiral Dax have a bigger problem. Walter, Admiral Dax - can you show Nick what you just showed us?”

“Hey, Nick,” Walter said. “I think the Admiral should go first.”

“Lieutenant,” Admiral Dax said, “your captain has said you may be able to get to bottom of this.” Her image on the screen was replaced with that of a black rectangle with small dots of light overlaid by a grid.

“This is one of the frames from our radar navigation imaging system last night. What you see are stars as seen from where we currently are, looking toward your star, but using our radio navigation. However, since a few hours ago, all we have been getting is this.”

The star map was replaced by what looked like static from an old-style black-and-white TV set.

“What’s that?” Nick asked. “Cosmic rays? Background radiation in this part of space isn’t...”

“We thought so, too, Nick,” Walter said.

“Hey, Boss.”

“Hey, Nick. Long time no see. No, this isn’t just regular cosmic background radiation. After all, that’s more or less constant. This... phenomena just happened to appear in the last few hours. Plus, it’s also messing up Phase-Wave.”

“What? But that’s impossible! That’s clearly electromagnetic - radio stuff! It shouldn’t affect Phase-Wave.”

“We are very worried, Lieutenant,” the Prince said. “Our communications have been rendered inoperative. If not for the Earther ships’ laser relayed data, we would be lost. We have essentially been rendered deaf and blind.”

Nick pointed at the screen. “Well, no wonder. But Seeker and Constellation are okay? Phase-Wave is unaffected?”

“Yes, but not completely,” Walter said. “That’s why we called you. Take a look at this.” He flashed another picture.

It was a black-and-white picture of some stars again, but this time as seen from above the solar plane. It was a Phase-Wave extrapolated graph. He knew this was from above the plane because the orbits of the major planets were marked, and there were nine of them - they had included Pluto’s telltale eccentric orbit even though it wasn’t a planet. It was therefore easy to recognize. But...

“What’s that smudge?” He pointed to a gray blob in between two of the circles. “Why would a computer projection include a smudge?” Counting the marked rings, Nick found that the big perfectly circular blob was near the sixth ring. “That smudge is near Saturn’s orbit,” he thought to himself.

“That is exactly what we’re trying to figure out,” Walter responded. “And it’s moving towards Saturn fast, and decelerating.”

“Maybe it’s a natural phenomenon?”

Walter didn’t react to that. Instead, he magnified the picture. “A perfectly-circular blob half a million kilometers in diameter, and it’s only visible as a Phase-Wave blind spot that’s moving towards Saturn at a substantial speed? I don’t think that smudge, as you put it, is some natural phenomenon. And the Empire ships have disappeared. I bet you they’re hiding in that blind spot.”

Nick looked at the picture more closely. “What is it?” he murmured to himself.

“We were actually hoping that you’d be able to tell us,” Mia said.

Nick looked at the picture further. He tried to see if any situations described by the Phase-Wave intercepts CETI had gotten matched the present situation. Nick felt like he was back in Triton Center still breaking Elyran and Tiros cyphers. His knack for breaking codes and his knowledge of things Elyran made him CETI’s best breaker, and he guessed that was the reason Mia picked him for this mission. He looked at Mia’s expectant face and realized that he had a reputation to uphold...

“So, lemme get this straight,” he said, “this phenomenon has jammed all electromagnetic signals in the system? No radio, no radar? The only thing I can think of that could fit this is...” He turned to the Prince and Princess.

“Your Highness,” he said, “does the phrase ‘curtain of light’ mean anything to you?”

Ren and Tasha looked at each other. Clearly, they knew something about it but were unwilling to talk. Dax looked at both, and when the silence became too much to ignore, she all but exploded.

“Oh, please!” Dax exclaimed. “Tell us already! The Earthers already know!”

And everyone within earshot broke into laughter.

Ren nodded to Tasha.

“Well,” Tasha said, “our agents have been hearing about developments in the Empire. The Tirosians have been trying to replicate the Earther instantaneous communications technology, but have so far failed.”

“They have yet to discover the basic principle of your technology,” Ren said, “but in their experimentation, they discovered something else. They call it the ‘curtain of light’“.

“What is it?”

“We do not know exactly, but it has to do with electromagnetic radiation. They are developing it as a weapon to disable spacecraft.”

Lieutenant,” Silverman said, “what makes you think this is this ‘curtain of light?’ Seems to me...”

“Admiral,” Nick interrupted, “may I make a request? If you can have your people zoom in on the coordinates for the smudge with the Hubble optical scopes on Luna.”

Silverman sighed and gestured to someone off-screen. They made some adjustments on the apparent coordinates and compensate for the image delay, and the image was changed to a closer color view. On it could be seen some stars and nothing else. Of course, no blob or smudge could be seen. The radiograph they saw before was only a computer-generated graphic representation of what the Phase-Wave sensors were receiving, after all, whereas what they were looking at now was purely optical.

“Can you zoom in further,” Nick asked. The image shifted several times, zooming in until they could see a small speck precisely in the middle of the coordinates for that smudge. Being in the shadow comma of the planet, and being too far away from Saturn for any reflected light to matter, that speck shouldn’t have been visible.

Since it was optical, they knew the image wasn’t real-time. Still...

“Well, hello there,” Nick commented.

- - - - -

(bookmark 28)

Using the moon’s array of visible light telescopes, more properly known as the Hubble Optical Observatory, they studied the area further. To supplement this, Seeker and Constellation also focused their own optical scopes on the area.

To say “near” Saturn was relative. The strange blip was several hundred million kilometers away, moving towards the planet and rapidly decelerating. But just using visible light to track it, without the assistance of Phase-Wave or even radar, it was difficult, to say the least. And even if it were decelerating rapidly, it was still traveling at about several thousand kilometers a second.

By tracking the Phase-Wave interference, they were able to use that to grab some still pictures, and close-ups showed that the speck was actually the Empire ships. What’s more, they were in the precise center of the so-called smudge.

“It’s clear then,” Silverman said. “The Tirosians were using their new technology to hide. They were counting on the electromagnetic interference to cloak them.”

“But they did not count on your Phase-Wave to penetrate their cloak,” the First Ambassador said.

“Still,” Mia said, “Phase-Wave was only partially successful.” She gestured at the Phase-Wave blind spot, or “smudge,” on the screen.

“Regardless,” Romarkin interjected. “It was good enough to get us this far. Your Highness,” she turned to the Princess. “Any more information on this ‘curtain?’“

“Not much more than what I’ve said, I’m afraid, Excellency,” Tasha said. “We will transmit all that we have on it, of course, if...”

“Thank you, Your Highness. We will likewise transmit what we have, as soon as the radio interference clears.” She turned to Silverman. “Admiral, what’s your tactical assessment of the situation?”

Silverman turned to Nick. “Lieutenant?”

“Well,” Nick said, “let’s see...” He started ticking things off. “One - this new technology is largely unknown, which poses an unknown, un-assessed threat. It’s therefore necessary to get more information about it. Two - the proximate danger of the alien fleet has increased. This threat should be eliminated as soon as possible. And, three - the alien fleet is approaching Saturn. We need to warn Titan Colony.”

“Titan Colony?” Ren asked.

“It’s one of our largest off-Earth settlements,” Silverman responded. “It’s located on one of the moons of Saturn, the sixth planet from our sun.” He turned to Nick. “Very good, Lieutenant.”

“Standard military doctrine, sir,” Nick said. He turned to Mia and O’Connell. “Sir? Shouldn’t we raise Titan now?”

“Don’t worry, Nick,” O’Connell said. “We’ve been able to raise Titan Control. They’re, in fact, busy talking with Command. They’ve said they’re being appraised of the situation. The Admiral’s staff has already fully briefed them...”

“But they’re not within the blind spot?”

“No, Lieutenant. Not yet, at least.”

On-screen, they saw a uniformed lieutenant whisper something to Silverman. He whispered back and the officer nodded.

“What is it, Admiral,” Romarkin asked.

Silverman dismissed the officer. “Ma’am, something is wrong. About the Empire ships - instead of nine battle cruiser-class ships, four escort ships and a tanker, we’re only seeing six cruisers and two escorts. They’re missing six ships.”

“Where are they, then?”

“We are trying to find out.” Silverman turned to Mia. “Captain?”

“Sir.” Mia responded. “Navigation, set a course for Titan Colony, best speed. Communications, get me Captain Dupont.”

“Aye, sir. Captain Dupont is on-line.”

“Bonjour, Capitaine Dupont. Ceci est Amelia Steele.”

“Bonjour, Capitaine Steele. Oui. Nous avons suivi. La Constellation est a votre service.”

“Tres bon. Merci, Capitaine. Nous procederons a Titan Colony. Rester avec la flotte de la Federation et de continuer Terre avec la meilleure vitesse.”

“Reconnu, Capitaine. Bonne chance.”

“Bonne chance, Capitaine.”

With that, Captain Dupont signed off.

Ren and Tasha looked at each other.

“What was that?” Ren said.

“Oh, sorry, Your Highness. I was just giving instructions to Captain Dupont of Constellation to stay with the fleet. I’m afraid Seeker will have to leave.”

“Your Highness,” Admiral Silverman said, “given the new developments...”

“We heard, Admiral,” Tasha said, “No need to explain, we are in full agreement. Lady Amelia, may the goddess be with you.”

Mia chose to ignore the “Lady Amelia.” “Thank you, Your Highness.”

Admiral Dax nodded as well. “Quite so, Admiral.” She turned to Mia. “Your Highness, if only we were able to accompany you. Good luck, and do not let your wings get dry.”

Mia remembered that phrase, from the first ever Phase-Wave transmission. She bowed. “And you as well, Admiral. Good luck to us all.”

“Godspeed, Captain,” Silverman said. “We’ll take care of locating the missing ships. In the meantime, protect Titan. Keep in contact for as long as possible.”

“Aye, sir. We’ll maintain telemetry and open channels for as long as possible. Helm, execute course. Best speed to Titan.”

Battle at sea -

A few hours later...

“Captain, we are starting to lose communications with Earth.”

Mia nodded. “We must be entering the blind spot now.”

“Yes, sir. We can’t raise Talon, the Constellation or Earth, or anyone. And telemetry is sporadic to nonexistent. And...”

“Yes?”

“We’ve lost shields...”

It was a less than eight hours since they left the Elyran ships, and cruising at about thirty percent the speed of light, they were now just a few hundred million kilometers away from the Tirosian and Detterex cruisers.

Though there were no electromagnetic or Phase-Wave means of tracking them through that so-called smudge, Earth was able to track them via telescopes. Talon, Constellation and the other ships were far enough away from the source of the interference that Constellation’s Phase-Wave systems were still working. Even so, they could not track Seeker through the smudge as well, except through telescopes, too.

“Noted on that, Lieutenant. Give me ship-wide.”

“Aye, sir.”

“This is the captain,” Mia said, addressing the crew on the ship’s PA. “We are about to completely lose our Phase-Wave systems. That means we will be relying completely on dead reckoning and visual navigation.

“I am sure the enemy has also seen us approaching, and is presently tracking us. This was intended, I assure you. Nevertheless, it means that we have now re-engaged the enemy.”

She sighed in resignation. “I am sure you have all been briefed on the situation,” she continued, “and if ever there was a time that we needed everyone’s best, it’s now. We are Seeker, the best ship in the fleet. Let’s show everyone how good we really are.”

She turned to the pilot station.

“Helm, get ready to execute new course, and set for maximum speed. Let’s get her moving.”

“Aye, sir. New course has been programmed. Awaiting your command.”

“Execute!”

The pilot on duty grabbed the twin acceleration levers on the pilot control board and slowly pushed them forward. He kept his eye on the power indicators and accelerated as fast as he could without red-lining.

Throughout the ship, a kind of thrumming, almost subliminal, could be heard. It was more felt than heard, actually. Seeker’s hybrid engines were being pushed past what they had been before. In the months to come, the hum would be a normal thing - just another part of life onboard Seeker, but for now it was something new. Everyone looked up from whatever they were doing, knowing what it meant.

Pirate ship -

On the bridge, Mia looked at the main screen where the computer displayed where it thought they and the enemy were. It wasn’t completely based on dead reckoning - they did have their telescopes and optics.

“Lieutenant, project our course on screen.”

A curling line was overlaid on the display. It showed Seeker moving in a curving course away from the empire ships, and continuing on to the Saturn system.

“I don’t understand the reason for all of this,” the First Ambassador said.

“Oh! I didn’t see you, Ambassador.” Mia forgot her standing order to give the ambassador access to the bridge.

The Ambassador bowed and made an up-and-down gesture of apology. “I apologize for disturbing you. And your crew as well.”

“Oh, it’s all right.” Mia gestured at the screen. “You were asking about...”

“Yes.”

“Well, we needed to engage the enemy. But we are outnumbered, eight ships to one. Since the battle, we have been tracking them continuously, and they have undoubtedly been tracking us continuously as well. So they can see us approaching - we have no element of surprise.”

“Why were you able to surprise us before?”

“Space is vast, Ambassador. If you don’t know where to look, then it’s difficult to find a ship.” Unless you have Phase-Wave... But she didn’t say that aloud.

“I see. And you believe they have been tracking us since. So you think that they are unaffected by the electromagnetic interference?”

“No. Given that the interference is spectrum-wide, the Empire ships are as deaf and blind as Talon. We think. But regardless, they still have optics. They can track us that way, which is how we’re tracking them now as they head towards Saturn.”

“I see.”

“We’re actually counting on their being affected by the interference as well for this ruse to work. Having ‘seen’ them, we now retreat. Our course,” she gestured to the screen, “will move us away from them and towards the gas giant. Once behind the planet, we will then brake. To the Tirosians and Detterex we will have disappeared. They will make the conclusion that we have gone, maybe even back to Earth. Which is a reasonable assumption given the planet’s position, and since we would appear to be hiding behind it.

“We don’t know why the Empire ships are going to Saturn’s system. We can make some assumptions, but regardless, it’s our intention to protect Titan, and we will hold out until reinforcements arrive.”

The Ambassador nodded his head, a deliberate affectation he borrowed from the Earthers. “I agree, but you have an important mission. Wouldn’t it...”

“We are soldiers, Ambassador. It’s our duty to protect our citizens. That comes first. But don’t worry. Our comrades are protecting your fleet. And I assure you, Captain Dupont is an excellent captain.”

The Ambassador bowed. “I am humbled, My Lady. You are right, of course. And I did not mean to gainsay you. I apologize.”

Mia bowed in return. “Thank you, Excellency.”

“How may I assist?”

“You and I need to strategize.”

- - - - -

(bookmark 29)

Mia conducted a short impromptu “strategy meeting” with the Ambassador, the other Arachnians, Nick, O’Connell and some of the others. They came up with a rudimentary strategy. And though the Arachnians’ suggestions and insights into Detterex and Tirosian thinking were helpful in deciding on options, Mia thought they weren’t too out of line from what the humans were thinking. At least it gave her a measure of confidence that the aliens concurred with them. She nervously fingered her new medallion.

For the Ambassador, this “strategy meeting” was another chance to get to know these fascinating creatures. He was greatly intrigued by the Lady Amelia - such capability in such a young creature. It was too bad she wasn’t Arachnian. He could imagine the great wonders that she would have done for the family, of the great feats and achievements she would have made for Arachnia Prime.

He has only felt this way about aliens a few times before - one of them was when he met Princess Tasha and Prince Ren. That was partly the reason he felt an affinity for them. And here was another one. Princess Amelia wasn’t an Arachnian and could not truly be of the family, but that wouldn’t be any reason she could be one in most other ways.

Their discussion was interrupted.

“Bridge to the Captain,” the intercom called.

Mia broke off from her conversation and brought out her CC. It didn’t work so she went to the wall intercom.

“This is the Captain.”

“Sir, you wanted to be informed when we reached Saturn’s territorial boundary. ETA is ten minutes to the boundary.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant. I’ll be there shortly.” She went back to the others. “Well, friends, it’s show time.”

A few minutes later, Mia, O’Connell and the Ambassador walked onto the bridge. The officer of the deck reported to Mia. She acknowledged the Lieutenant and asked for the main screen to be activated.

In a second, they saw an image of the planet Saturn. They were approaching her at an angle so they could see its famous rings to their best advantage. The Ambassador made comments about the beauty of the planet and its rings.

“What’s our present velocity, Lieutenant?” Mia asked.

“About ninety thousand kilometers per second, sir. Point-two C.” That was fast enough for the inertial converters to work.

“Time to put on the breaks, then. Get me Engineering.”

“This is Engineering. Aye, Captain?”

“We’re about to test your new brakes, Chief. Any opinions?”

“Brakes?” the ambassador thought to himself, but he decided there was no time to pursue the question and decided to follow this up at another time.

“None at all, Captain,” Seeker’s chief engineer grinned as she responded to Mia. “I stand by my people’s work.”

“All right, Chief. Lieutenant, at your discretion.”

“Aye, sir. Making the curve around the planet... now. We’re out of Empire ships’ line of sight. Reversing thrust and firing all forward converters.”

None of them felt anything, but they all noted the disappearance of the thrumming.

“What’s our velocity now, Lieutenant?”

“We are now at about 1 kilometer a second, sir, and leveling off.”

“Engineering: how are we doing?”

“Very well, Captain - all excess inertial energy has been dissipated. Engine holding steady - power output still at five percent.”

“Excellent. Helm: set course for the Cassini Divide. We’ll park underneath the rings and use them to hide from the enemy. Avoid disturbing the rings.”

“Aren’t the rings too thin to hide under, sir?” the lieutenant asked.

“You’re forgetting - there are no EM or Phase-Wave detectors to help. They’re thick enough for our purposes at the moment.”

“Also, sir,” the lieutenant said, “you realize, of course, we won’t be able to use the inertia converters much given the speeds we’ll be moving at. The inertia converters are only going to work above a certain inertial mass. Below that…”

“Yes, Lieutenant,” Mia sighed exasperatedly. “I know. We’re gonna have to manage with conventional braking.” She gestured to Communications. “Get me Kajima via intercom... Commander: get your squadron launched. Best speed to Titan.”

Kajima was expecting the order and was standing by an intercom. “Are we ship-maneuverable now, Captain?”

“We’re at about 1 klick a second, Commander. Practically crawling.”

“Acknowledged, Captain,” Seeker’s CAG responded. In a while, the bridge crew could see two lines of Seeker’s Shrike fighters flying out and away.

“I count five eights of your fighters, Captain,” the Ambassador said, his Elyran translator winking.

“You are very observant, Excellency. Yes, all forty of Seeker’s fighters have been dispatched to Titan.”

“Will Seeker not be vulnerable in case of attack? Perhaps a few should have remained...”

“We still have our mud turtles and tow barges. We’ll handle that later if the need arises.”

Soon, they had reduced speed further (they were now down to three hundred meters a second), and were upon what they called the “Cassini Divide,” which was one of the many breaks in Saturn’s rings. On the screen, they saw it coming up. In seconds, Seeker breezed through the gap, flying sideways so as not to disturb the rings, and came through to the other side. The gap was more than 4,500 kilometers wide but Mia wanted to reduce even residual magnetic effects.

“Level out and maintain station keeping,” Mia ordered, and the ship changed its angle of direction slightly, as well as slowly rotated about ninety degrees. After Seeker deliberately drifted underneath the B-Ring, settled down and had gone to a virtual stop, they looked at the screen again. The rings were like an incandescent roof over Seeker, the bottom side of the planet illuminating the rings above them spectacularly.

“Even in my wildest imaginings I never thought I would be privileged to see something liked this,” the Ambassador said. Even through the artificial sound of his translator, his emotions were very obvious.

Mia chuckled inside. “Me, too, Ambassador. But as they say, one’s needs dictate one’s actions.”

“Nevertheless, Your Highness, my gratitude for this moment.”

Mia smiled. “It is our pleasure, Ambassador.” Instinctively, she leaned down and held out a finger, and the Ambassador let her touch the feathery tip of his left antenna.

“O’Connell to the Captain,” the bridge intercom interrupted.

Mia thumbed a switch on her armrest. “Yes, Commander.”

“I am in the tower observation blister, as ordered. Captain, you have to come up and see this!”

Mia smiled. She could just imagine what O’Connell was seeing, of feeling like she was floating just underneath a vast cloud of snowflakes, with light coming from the planet. “Maybe later, Beth. Okay, turn on your visor’s monitor so we can see, and you can start calling it out.”

“Aye, sir.” A moment later, the bridge’s screen was replaced by O’Connell’s magnificent view of the ring, but closer this time.

“All right,” O’Connell said, and picked a break in the ring. “Okay. Move the ship laterally, fifty feet to starboard. Another fifty feet, another... stop! Ten feet to port. All right, now start to move up perpendicularly. Slowly... slowly...”

Seeker’s pilot closely watched his gauges, and made sure his movements were finely tuned. The ship moved upwards at a minuscule half a foot every fifteen seconds.

With O’Connell’s exact directions, the pilot’s precise control, and Seeker’s finely tuned inertial flywheels, it was like the Seeker was rising out of some ocean, like some ancient submarine. On the screen, they could see themselves rising out of the flat bed of snowflakes through a narrow but seemingly convenient break. The pilot’s precise movements prevented the B-Ring from being disturbed despite his keeping it above the ship, but keeping the bridge superstructure clear while he maneuvered it through the crack.

“Stop!” O’Connell suddenly exclaimed. “Drop the ship five feet. More... more... okay, stop. Hold relative position here.” Now, it was like the Saturnian roof was just a few feet over their heads.

“What is it, Commander?”

“We had to go down - the rear fins were breaking the rings. They’d spot us right away. I’m sorry, Captain, I guess this is the best that we can do.”

“Understood, Commander, but this is not good enough. We need to see from the other side of the rings...”

“Sorry, sir.”

“It’s not your fault. Besides, our hull’s residual magnetic field is already disturbing the rings. Okay, stand by while we think of something.”

“Standing by.”

“In the meantime - helm, pull away far enough that we don’t disturb anything.”

The ship retreated downwards an additional fifty feet or so.

“Now hide us completely under the ring.”

Seeker moved laterally until they were away from the Divide, and again completely covered by the ring.

Mia sighed. “All right. We’re hidden again. Any ideas, people?”

The silence was thick, but no one was responding.

A rustling, the kind that’s made by two Arachnian forelegs being rubbed together, was loud in the silence. Mia knew that sound by now - it was the Arachnian equivalent of a Human clearing her throat or an Elyran whistling.

“Yes, Ambassador?”

“That amazing view... it reminded me of a... ‘movie’ I saw on your ‘television.’“

Mia had to smile at the incongruity of that statement. But over the days, she had come to know the Ambassador, and thought of him as an astute and brilliant man... being... that brought a unique perspective to things, and rarely spoke frivolously.

“Yes?”

“The movie I was watching was called a ‘pirate movie.’ It was about crews of ocean-going sailing ships battling each other for reasons I cannot understand. Nevertheless, it was an exhilarating piece of entertainment that gave us hints of your recent history.”

“I wouldn’t call six hundred years ago as recent. But what is your point, Ambassador?”

“Well, what we saw reminded me of these oceangoing ships. They used a kind of observation post at the very top of their ships. They called this a ‘crow’s nest,’ I believe.”

Mia’s eyes grew large. “You can’t be serious!”

The Ambassador moved his upper limbs in a good approximation of a human shrug. “It’s just a suggestion, Captain.”

Mia sighed. “Well, unless anyone’s thought up something else?” This was greeted with further silence. “Okay. A crow’s nest, then.”

- - - - -

(bookmark 30)

Engineer Haskell, Seeker’s Second Engineer, was inspecting the new converters. It was based on his design, and he was gratified that they handled the load well. They never even reached a percent of full capacity. The fact that they were originally parts from Seeker-era gimbaled energy cannon made them weapons-grade, and therefore excellent energy emitters, as good as any he had seen from the drawing boards of the Propulsion Research Commission, maybe even better. Based on the last readings from the engines, he was now sure his new emitters could handle anything Seeker could dish out.

“Captain to Engineer Haskell,” Mia called via the PA.

Haskell brought out his CC. It didn’t work, of course. He went to the intercom on the bulkhead. “Yes, Captain?”

“Chief, meet me in the observation blister in ten minutes.”

Engineering blister, Haskell thought. Is that still even functional? “Aye, sir. What’s it about?”

“You’re going to help me set up a crow’s nest.”

“A what, sir?”

- - - - -

(bookmark 31)

“Will someone explain whatinheck’s a... crow’s nest?” Haskell asked again.

Mia waved his question away impatiently. “Never mind that. If I’m correct, aside from the Chief Engineer, you are the one with the best knowledge of Seeker, right?”

“I suppose so, Captain. Aside from the commander.” He gestured to O’Connell.

“Excellent. Commander, how far do you think the back fins stuck out earlier?”

“Not much, sir,” O’Connell responded. “Maybe ten, fifteen feet.”

“All right. Chief Haskell, is there any way to raise the blister a further twenty to twenty-five feet?”

“Sorry, sir. This is the highest it can be raised. It was originally designed as a mooring mast for the beanstalks. If it was raised further, there would not be enough structural strength for that.”

“Dammit.”

“You know, Captain, I might be able to help more if you explain what you need.”

“What we need is a way to look out over the ring.”

“Well, then...”

“But we need to keep Seeker on the other side...”

Haskell thought that over. “Oh! A crow’s nest! I get it! Like the old sailing ships!” He blushed when he noticed everyone looking at him. “Ummm... Okay, I get it. Now, let’s see...” He grew quiet again.

“Well? Don’t keep us hanging!”

“Well, the blister also carries an EM mast. It was only occasionally used, even prior to Phase-Wave. Normally, it’s kept retracted, even when the blister was fully raised.”

“But, Chief,” O’Connell said, “wouldn’t that aerial be a little too flimsy for what we intend?”

“Not the bottom part, Commander. The bottom twenty feet of the mast is about half a meter wide. That part’s pretty sturdy.”

“What do you think we can use for an observation platform?”

“Let’s see... Hey! How about a packing crate? I think we have a few that aren’t doing anything. In fact, I think they were about to be ejected with the rest of the refuse.”

“How big are they?”

“They’re packing crates about three by three by three meters in size. Very sturdy, actually, impact-resistant and rated for about a thousand cubic kilograms of pressure.”

“All right, then. Use one and start jury-rigging it as an observation platform.”

“It won’t be enclosed, Captain.”

“That’s all right, Chief. get to it. Chop-chop, Haskell.”

“Aye.” Haskell grinned, turned and went down the blister’s hatch.

Mia turned to O’Connell. “Okay, Commander, what else do we need? Whoever’s going to be in that crate, she’s going to be in open space.”

“Well, then she’ll need to be properly attired. Class fives have their own air supplies and regenerators, and are good for protecting against debris.”

“Okay. Class five armor seems appropriate.”

“And some kind of protection against EM fields and static electricity.”

“All right. Get to it, Commander.”

“Aye, sir. ‘Chop chop?’“

Mia chuckled. “By all means, Commander. Chop chop.”

- - - - -

(bookmark 32)

The new “crow’s nest” was ready shortly. Originally, Mia wanted to be the one, but O’Connell and, in fact, most of the officers, were adamant (although respectfully so) that someone else be the observer. So, to comply with regulations, O’Connell would have the responsibility.

Haskell grinned. “Now, if we can only convince the Commander to wear an eye patch and bring a parrot along,” he thought to himself, laughing.

They had established communications with Titan via line-of-sight laser comms. Everything else didn’t work. On the bridge, they had Titan’s Governor Kushenko and Commander Kajima on screen.

“Apologies for this less than efficient means of communication, Captain. And I am pleased to meet the First Ambassador.”

The Ambassador bowed in a reasonable approximation of the Elyran version.

“No need to apologize, Governor,” Mia said. “But I would also like to apologize. The cavalry will take some time in coming. I’m afraid we are it for now.”

“Commander Kajima has explained this. But Titan isn’t completely defenseless, Captain. We have taken all of our projectile weapons out of mothballs. We also have our own capital ships. We have three K-class ships which we are now outfitting with rocket launchers and as much ordnance as their cargo holds can contain.”

“K-class?” the Ambassador asked.

“Those are smaller, unarmed civilian versions of the Seeker,” Mia explained. “They are mainly used as cargo carriers, and are chemically propelled instead of using FTL-type engines.”

She turned back to Kushenko. “Governor? Why projectile weapons and rockets?”

“I will let the commander explain.”

Kajima stepped forward. “Captain, I’m afraid...”

Mia cut him off. “Commander. How are our pilots?”

Kajima smiled. “They are fine, Captain. Everyone is just going over to the main commissary to enjoy Titan’s excellent hospitality and have some breakfast. In the meantime, the Titans are doing some adjustments to our ships.”

“I envy you. I haven’t had Titan coffee in the longest time.”

Smiling, Kajima brought up a coffee cup and made a show of slurping.

Mia harrumphed, chuckled and gestured. “All right. Report, Commander.”

“Sir, we have discovered that the EM suppressing field...”

“You mean the EM interference field.”

“Yes, sir, but I think it’s more appropriate to call it a suppressing field.”

“Why?”

“When we were near enough to Titan, we tried all means of communications, but it turned out only line-of-site visual communications were working. Nothing unexpected. The people here were briefed by Earth before they lost communications, though only partially. So they were expecting us.

“Anyway, having landed, we tested out all of our Shrike systems, per protocol, but we noticed that all our energy weapons weren’t working.”

Mia and the Ambassador looked at each other. “we never thought to do a test...”

“Our weapons’ output seem to be suppressed - we can only assume its the alien field. The yardmaster has been testing all EM wavebands as well, and they have identified some things.”

Mia listened closely. “Continue, Commander.”

“All radio communication frequencies are not available. All Phase-Wave channels configured into our equipment are likewise dead as a doornail. All coherent-energy weapons aren’t working, or rather they break down completely within a meter or so from their emission source. EM energy within the visual spectrum, however, are unaffected, as well as FTL and gravity fields. Energy traveling in a physical circuit or wire, or is continuously renewed via a power source, seem to be fine, too. Computer, power and life systems are therefore safe. And, Captain, look at this.”

Kajima flashed a picture of what looked like fragments of a missile floating in space.

“What’s that?”

“That was a missile with a nuclear fission warhead.”

“A what?”

“yes, sir. It was triggered by a mechanical switch on a timer an hour ago...”

“But...”

“Yes, sir. The suppression field works on nuclear weapons as well.”

Mia thought that over.

“Oh, and deflectors are off as well,” he added.

“How about structural integrity fields?”

“Well, those work via direct-conduction, so they work. That means, so long as Seeker doesn’t get hit by really massive debris, or too much radiation, the SIF will be enough and you’ll be fine, sir.”

“Continue, Lieutenant,” Mia said.

“Aye, sir. Anyway, based on all of this, Titan Sector Command ordered all of the colony’s coherent-energy weaponry to be temporarily replaced by chemical, rocket or projectile-based armament. He has also had the energy weapons temporarily removed from our Shrikes to make room for some rail guns salvaged from the eighty-year-old equipment of the original Saturn expeditions.

“Who authorized...”

“The Commodore is, after all, the ranking officer here at the moment.”

Mia nodded at this resignedly.

“I suppose he has enough rail gun ammunition in stock?”

“Well, they’re just metallic slugs. They probably just machine-shopped them just for us.”

Mia nodded. “All right. Well, now that you’ve gotten the lay of the land, any ideas on strategy?”

“The Commodore has... appropriated my squadron, sir. He has integrated us into his command, at least for the duration of the emergency.”

“The Commodore apologizes, Captain,” the Governor said. “There was no way to contact you. I have signaled him and he’s on his way down. He’ll be here in a moment.”

“Governor?” someone called from off-screen.

“Ahhh, Commodore. Captain Steele, I’d like to introduce you to Commodore Oshiro,”

“Good morning, Captain,”

Mia stood at attention. “Good morning, sir.”

“Stand easy, Captain. Firstly, I apologize for commandeering your squadron. There was no way to get word to you.”

“Not at all, sir. As it happens, I agree with you. May I introduce to you the First Ambassador of the Arachnian People’s Government. Ambassador, this is Commodore Oshiro, the commander for the Saturn Sector of the United Earth Defense Force.”

Nick translated. The Ambassador executed an Elyran bow. “I am pleased to meet you, Commodore.”

Everyone could see that Oshiro was a little ill-at-ease, but Mia glossed over that politely. “I apologize for the interruption, sir. You were saying?”

The Commodore shook his head. “Ahhh, yes. Well, aside from getting ourselves properly armed, we don’t have much intel to plan with. Naturally, we’ve lost communications with all our stations. And Titan is currently at the wrong angle to get any proper observations.”

“We’re trying to rectify that, sir. Commander O’Connell?”

“Aye, sir. I’m about to step out of the blister now.”

“Plug into the intercom, Beth. Kajima says unwired comms will not work.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Good luck.”

“Thank you, sir.”

She depressurized the observation blister, and as soon as it was safe, she opened the blister’s hood. Keeping a good grip on an external handhold, she stepped out into open space. The armor, not to mention the EM cloak, the probe and the projectile rifle she had to carry, made her movements a little cumbersome.

O’Connell doubted the utility of the cloak. It was made out of thin copper wire, woven into a kind of mesh cloth. It was based on how a Faraday Cage works, but in order to make it work, she’d have to be completely covered by it, which was not exactly do-able.

She told Haskell this earlier, and said she wanted to ditch it, but the Chief insisted - he was strictly following orders. So she took the EM shield with her, but tied it around her neck instead so it would be out of her way. She started climbing up the mast, but had to pause for a second.

It was like she had an enormous chandelier above her. The sight of it took her breath away.

However, the static electricity generated by the Seeker’s proximity to the rings caused small random lightning bolts to strike the ship’s hull from the rings above. This galvanized her to start climbing up the mast again.

She eventually got to the jury-rigged gondola and climbed in.

“Captain, I’m in place. I’m switching on my helmet camera now.”

She pressed a button on her sleeve and the camera in her helmet winked on.

“O’Connell to helm. Are you ready?”

“We’re ready, Commander.”

“All right. Just like before. Let’s get matched up with the break we were making for earlier. Start moving the ship laterally. Move us starboard at a rate of ten meters per minute.” She looked up and saw the break in the ring.

“Okay, keep going... keep going... Stop!”

She checked the crosshairs on her helmet, and they were dead-on. “Okay, that’s fine. Now, start bringing us up at a slower rate. Okay. Good... good...”

Mia and the others saw the image that O’Connell was transmitting. And they saw the rings coming close. “Stop!” they heard O’Connell say. “Move half a meter to port. Okay. Now, resume moving upward. Steady... steady...”

On the screen, they could see them moving up again. The rings were coming closer and closer, and in moments, they cleared the divide and were through.

“Good Lord!” Mia said.

“Stop,” O’Connell said as soon as the observation gondola was clear of the rings. “Are you seeing this, Captain?”

“We are, Beth. An incredible sight!”

The view was now from above the rings, and it was like they were skimming over a sea of crystals, snow, rocks and dust. The occasional electric discharges illuminated them from below.

“Keep your lightning arrestor in front of you, Commander,” Haskell said. “If a lightning bolt hits you, you’re dead.”

O’Connell agreed. “You’re right, Chief.” She brought out the two-meter-long telescoping rod and pointed it ahead of her - a lightning rod.

“Okay, what now?”

“Maintain station-keeping here,” Mia said. “Look around, Commander. See if you can spot the Empire ships. We’ll try and help.”

“Aye, sir.” O’Connell scanned the sky. Down in the bridge, Mia used the images being transmitted to spot the enemy ships as well.

“Stop, Commander! We found them. Look to the upper-right edge of the planet. They’re just emerging.”

O’Connell looked at the appropriate part of the sky. “I see them. Question now is, can they see us.”

“Well, if they can, then everything we did has been wasted. Commodore Oshiro, we are sending you telemetry. The data transmission via laser comm will be a little slow...”

“Getting it now, Captain... Ah, here it is.”

“They’re on continuous deceleration and heading for the rings, sir, on a direct line to Titan.”

“We’re seeing it here, Captain. And they’re not being shy about it, either.”

“They believe you’re defenseless.”

“Well, not exactly defenseless. They don’t know you’re hanging around.”

“What’s the plan, sir?”

“Well, we can’t afford to allow an attack on Titan itself. All the settlements are well away from the methane lakes - thank goodness for the low temperatures and lack of free oxygen. Combustion is unlikely. But even so, ice fractures can damage our buildings.”

“I’m from Neptune, sir. I understand.”

“There are over thirty million people in the Saturn system, and eighty percent of that is on Titan.”

“Noted on that, sir. What are your intentions?”

“My intention is to create a perimeter with some of your Shrike fighters and other ships, and prevent any close approach. Meanwhile, our cruisers will lure away as many of the enemy ships as possible. Seeker will do its best to lure away the enemy as well, and defend the system from any stragglers. Hopefully, we will be able to hold out until Earth comes.”

“Pardon me for saying so, Commodore, but that... sounds pretty thin.”

Oshiro wasn’t offended. He sighed. “I know, Captain. But we have very little to work with.”

“Well, you can count on us, sir. We’ll transmit telemetry as long as we have direct line-of-sight laser comms. Commander Kajima.”

“Sir.”

“Titan is counting on us and our people. Do us proud.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Governor, Commodore, Good luck. Seeker signing off.” The image was replaced by O’Connell’s view of the rings.

“Commander,” Mia said, “how are you doing?”

“Well enough, sir,” O’Connell said. “I had a close call with a lightning strike a while ago.”

“But you’re fine?”

“I’m fine, sir. Thanks to Chief Haskell’s lightning rod.”

“Well, you be careful, Beth. How are our friends?”

The view swung upward again.

“They’re a lot closer, and since I can visually follow them, they’re probably below ship-maneuverable now.”

Mia ordered a close-up of the ships, and puffs from the jets of chemical rockets could be seen.

“They’ve just launched their fighters,” someone on the bridge said unnecessarily.

“How close will they pass?”

“If the enemy is going to attack Titan,” the Ambassador said, “and does not care about not disturbing the rings, or worried about reprisals, they should make a direct line to the colony. That means they’ll be passing close.”

Everyone looked at the little alien.

“I cannot be sure but their apparent position and direction of flight indicates this. And if I am correct, they will be passing near our current position in a short while.”

Mia looked at him incredulously.

The Ambassador moved his upper limbs in circles, the gesture for laughter. “I am an Arachnian and therefore excellent at spatial geometry. Also I am, after all, a certified astrogator, Captain.”

Mia laughed as well. “Lieutenant, check what the Ambassador just said. Give me a precise heading.”

“Aye.”

Loop-the-Loop -

They had figured out that the aliens would be smashing into Ring B a few hundred thousand kilometers away. These new developments necessitated changes in their plan. Per the Commodore’s new orders via laser comm, Mia started giving instructions to move the ship to the closest part of their break in the ring to the enemy’s estimated splashthrough point.

“We’ll be moving the ship again, Beth. Hold on.”

“You know, Captain, I think a camera here would have been better. I am not doing much good just standing out here.”

“Well, true, but we didn’t know cameras would work.”

“But now that do we do?”

“Did you bring a portable camera with you, Commander?”

“Ummm, no sir...”

“Then you’re stuck there for a while. Sorry.”

O’Connell didn’t speak, although they heard her grumble a little bit. Later on, though, O’Connell would say that what they heard was probably just interference, most probably induced by the static. Nobody believed her, of course.

They moved the ship closer to where the enemy was making for and, with O’Connell’s direction, they were able to stay in the Cassini Divide and avoided disturbing the rings.

“Give me ship-wide, Lieutenant. To the crew of Seeker: what may be our moment of truth is coming. Within this half-hour, the enemy will be passing above our port bow. Yes, we have neither Phase-Wave nor radar, but Commander O’Connell is outside and her relays will be guiding us. When the enemy arrives, we will commence an attack. We will, of course, do our best to defeat the enemy, but in the event we cannot, we will do our best to split them up and allow reinforcements from Titan to get closer.

“Commodore Oshiro, however, will make sure to hide his forces until we make our first move. This is so that the enemy will not change their trajectory, and therefore allow us the opportunity to attack.

“All right. Time to prepare. All hands: general quarters. Everyone is required to be armed and in their pressure suits. All damage control teams in Class Five armor. All pressure doors to be dogged down and sealed. All pulse and energy cannon to be deactivated. All rail gun crews are to use manual range and targeting. All rocket and missile launchers will be set to manual targeting. Hop to it, people.”

Only then did the duty officer sound general quarters, and everyone started moving.

The bridge crew took turns to change into their pressure suits. The didn’t wear the helmets as it would impede their activities. Besides, there were helmets available in most locations on the ship in case of depressurization.

Current military pressure suits were basically airtight suits tightly woven out of a very strong special fiber, and woven specific to the individual’s measurements and dimensions. The thin, flexible, skin-tight three-layered construction allowed the wearer to survive space and vacuum without the balloon effect of older designs and essentially allowed the wearer’s own skin and sweat glands to regulate her temperature, with only a minor assist from a device in the helmet mount that was around the suit’s shoulders, that forced chilled air through the porous innermost layer. It had the effect of making the suit feel totally comfortable and flexible without changing the blue unitard-like look and feel.

There were still, of course, many of the less efficient, older-design, universal fit-anyone kind in the lockers, but these were only used in emergencies, and by those without their own suits.

Someone brought Mia’s. She excused herself for a few minutes to change, and came back wearing it.

Many stopped what they were doing as they watched Mia walk back in wearing her skin-tight pressure suit. Her hair had come undone so she just wiped it back from her forehead. The glowing reddish-white interface patches on the back of her suit’s gloves made glowing tracks. Like other pressure suits, there was another patch on the upper-left part of her suit’s chest and a large one on her back, but her undone hair obscured that a bit. These redundant connectors were how the suits connect with their armor and other exo-suits, but, when not in use, they were little more than cute accents for her sexy outfit.

She was completely unaware of how she looked, but as she buckled her belt and holstered her sidearm, she finally noticed the attention. Mia looked at them and raised her eyebrow.

“You people pay attention to your work,” she said, blushing.

Everyone suddenly got busy.

Mia sighed and handed her folded uniform to a passing ensign. She sat down on the command chair for a moment, put her high-heeled uniform boots back on, and stood. She preferred the boots to walking around in just the suit - the foot part felt a bit like walking in one’s socks. She gestured to Nick and the Ambassador. “You two find seats and get strapped down.”

Nick nodded and sat in one of the observation chairs and buckled up. The Ambassador found it a little difficult but was able to straddle one of the seats and just buckled the seatbelt across his thorax. Nick wanted to ask if Mia would be sitting down and buckling up, too, but thought it better not to. Clearly she had no idea how she looked walking around in her skin-tight pressure suit.

“Get me the landing bay.” Mia said to the comms officer.

“Aye, sir.”

“This is the Captain to the Deck Duty Officer.”

“Landing bay, aye, sir.”

“Get me the Electronic Detection Wing Commander.”

After a few moments, someone came online.

“Aye, sir. Mission Commander Lassiter here.”

“Lieutenant Lassiter, this is the Captain. I have a mission for the Turtles. But I am not sure your pilots will like it.”

“No problem, sir. What is it?”

“This is not an EW, transport or surveillance mission, I’m afraid. More like something for Kajima and his jet-jocks.”

“The Turtles are up to it, sir.”

“Okay, then...”

- - - - -

(bookmark 33)

“Commander O’Connell,” Mia called, “the enemy is just a few minutes away now. I changed my mind. I think it’s time for you to come back in...”

“I’m changing my mind, too. I’m staying here, Captain.”

“Beth...”

“Captain,” O’Connell interrupted, “I’m sure you can use more relays, right?”

“Beth, you know the electrostatic...”

“I’m staying here.”

“Beth, I’m not kidding.”

“Skipper. You need someone here. And it’s too late to get someone else. Please don’t order me down.”

“You know, you’re a very stubborn officer, Commander.”

“I see you’ve talked to my dad,” she smiled.

Mia chuckled. “All right, all right. Get back to work.”

O’Connell laughed. “Aye-aye.”

“Captain,” the lieutenant at the helm said, “the enemy ships are about a minute away now.”

“It’s time,” she mumbled. “Send a laser flash to the Turtles. Tell them to start.”

“Aye.”

“Beth, turn around, please, and check the aft part of the gap.”

The view on the screen swiveled one hundred-eighty degrees as O’Connell complied. They saw nine Mud Turtles come out of the gap. They moved upwards at a slow fifty KPH, the glow of their FTL drives momentarily illuminating the rings in electric blue.

“Any signs they notice the Turtles, Beth?”

The view moved again. Now they were looking upwards, toward the incoming ships.

“No reaction, Captain. I don’t think they’ve seen neither them, nor us for the moment. But that won’t last.”

“It doesn’t need to.”

“Apologies, Captain,” the First Ambassador interrupted in Elyran. “Is the Defiant one of the ships?”

“Beth?”

“No, sir.”

Mia shook her head at the Arachnian.

“Ahhh. Thank you, Captain. Remember what we talked about.”

“Absolutely, Ambassador.”

On-screen, they saw the cruisers. They were becoming larger as they grew nearer. There were brief flashes on the surface of the two nearest ones - missiles being fired at the Turtles.

“They’ve seen the Turtles, sir.”

Someone reduced the magnification, and they were able to get the Turtles in the picture as well, just in time to see the lead turtle fire anti-missile defenses.

In Mia’s mind, they needed that. They had baited the enemy to fire first again, thereby giving them the excuse to fire back.

As the Turtles easily avoided the explosion of the first Empire missile, they fired their own. After which, with their inertia converters, the Turtles made a sharp ninety-degree turn, an impossible move if not for the converters. Then again, depending on their rated power, the Earth-designed inertia converters would only work above a certain inertial mass. Below that, the ship’s thrusters and engines would have to do the braking the hard, more conventional way.

But it was a test – they had to find out if the converters worked in the field, and apparently they did.

The enemy’s remaining missiles didn’t follow. Electromagnetic systems didn’t work through the interference so, as expected, there was no radar-controlled tracking. As for the Turtles’ missiles, that wasn’t a problem as they were just flying straight at the lead cruiser’s bow.

The lead cruiser, a Tirosian ship, started to fire enormous retros and ponderously changed direction, moving up and away to avoid the missiles. In a few seconds, it was clear the rockets would miss the cruiser.

But as the missiles missed it, two other missiles came up, from another Turtle that had hung back as planned, flying at ten times the speed of the first ones. The tenth turtle’s missiles, aimed lower down the cruiser’s ventral structure, struck it amidships.

They weren’t nuclear or even anti-ship - the explosions they caused shouldn’t have made much damage, but they must have hit something critical. Large gouts of flame spat out of the ship’s underside, fed by chemical fuel and leaking oxygen, and the red glow - the visual aftereffects of their FTL field - faded away. Something critical was damaged. Game over for that cruiser.

Many of the enemy’s fighters, flying around their ships like pilot fish, wheeled around. As soon as their momentum was countered, they started pursuing the Turtles. The ploy was an obvious tactic but it was typical for the Detterex pilots to fall for it, and no one could order them to stop through the suppression field.

The Turtles, for their part, continued their retreat. They did not fire any new rockets or missiles since they only had a limited number and were conserving them. Their orders were to lure any enemy ships and then double back at high speed. That would “thin out the herd,” hopefully long enough to make a difference. That’s the only thing they could do at the moment - without anything but missiles, they wouldn’t have a chance against fighters, even against the Detterex and Tirosian rocket blimps.

But Mia wasn’t really worried about them. Lassiter was a competent man, and she knew his FTL-powered mud turtles could outrun anything the Empire ships could send after them if they needed to, so she concentrated on the cruisers.

“All right,” Mia said, “it’s our turn. Weapons - fire tubes four, eight, nine and thirteen.”

Four very slight thumps could be heard as the missiles were fired. Those particular missile tubes were selected and programmed so that their missiles would go through the gap in the rings and then straight on to the enemy ships.

Though they could not be targeted specifically, Mia was pretty sure at least some of them would hit something, and she was right. One of the four missiles hit something while the rest flew away harmlessly or were shot down.

They saw the ship that was hit - a Detterex cruiser. Though the missiles were non-nuclear too, they still packed a lot of punch, each of Seeker’s anti-ship missiles having the explosive energy equivalent to five kilotons of TNT. A big chunk of the port side of the cruiser was blown away, and sent it into a slow, uncontrolled spin.

It seemed the enemy had learned from before. The other six ships stopped, or rather increased their deceleration enough to go into a standstill, and avoided hitting the damaged ones but in far enough proximity to each other not to hit anything else.

“So that’s two down and six to go,” Mia thought. “Time to get out of here,” she said aloud. “Beth,” Mia called, “we’re moving the Seeker away - they’ve probably figured out where we are. But chances are, they don’t know it’s us. I’d like to keep it that way for as long as possible. Hold on tight.”

“I’m all set, Skipper.”

Mia nodded. “Helm, Z minus one hundred meters.”

O’Connell had the sensation of sinking into water, like in an ocean in the middle of a lightning storm. That reminded her to raise her lightning arrestor again. In moments, however, she was out of the rings.

“Heading, sir?” Seeker’s pilot asked Mia.

“Ahead a thousand KPH, Lieutenant,” Mia said. “Slow and steady. Just keep us underneath the rings and out of their sight.”

“Aye.”

“Sporadic laser comm signal from Titan, sir,” Comms said. “Yamato, Musashi and Shinano are en route, and will be here in ninety seconds with our Shrike squadron. Governor Kushenko also says, ‘congratulations.’“

“Yamato...?”

“I’ve been told those are the new designations for Titan’s three refitted K-Class cargo ships, sir. They’re calling them the Yamato Squadron.”

“Ahhh. Fancy...”

Their visuals showed them the three K-class cruisers racing towards the spot where Seeker was before. They looked similar to Seeker. After all, K-class DCC ships were made from the same basic design as the J-class DSR Seeker, except that the K-class was thirty percent smaller but with forty percent more cargo capacity. Despite being “blimps,” they were not substantially larger than newer, more modern non-chemical ships. They looked like midget Seekers, except they didn’t sport Seeker’s FTL enhancements. Instead of Seeker’s blue FTL glow, the three spouted yellow-white chemical flame as they flew headlong into the rings on their main rockets.

Unlike the Seeker, these three ships didn’t care about being noticed. They pierced the rings like arrowheads going through a stretched piece of cloth, static lightning accompanying their violent collision with the rings, and close behind the three were twenty of Commander Kajima’s Shrike fighters, flying through the holes the ships conveniently made. Deflector shields would have been useful, but they were not available. But with the old-style design of the ships - designs that came from hundreds of years of non-deflector ship design, where Earth had learned how to make the hulls of their ships durable enough to resist debris and meteor strikes, they could weather this small chore of flying through Saturn’s rings (but the Yamato ships and the fighters will definitely need a paint job afterwards).

“Dammit,” Mia exclaimed while watching the three Titan ships fly past, “we gotta see what’s going on. Bring us back up there, Lieutenant.”

“Aye, sir.”

With the absence of more specific orders, the pilot again made for the same gap as before. He knew now what to do, and didn’t need O’Connell’s directions. In moments, he was able to poke Seeker’s comm mast out of it.

Obviously, O’Connell was ready, and as soon as her gondola cleared the orbiting rocks, dust and snowflakes, she faced her visor towards the direction of the battle.

Comms was ready, too, and zoomed the picture in immediately.

They saw the three K-class ships fire their missiles, but they were all ineffective against the enemy’s anti-missile defenses. After that useless volley, the three separated but kept the enemy in between them.

They opened fire with their rail guns. Everywhere that the rail guns hit, blossoms of fire erupted. But the rail guns were too few and were not too articulated and therefore not too accurate. Mia guessed they were jury-rigged from old orbital cargo launchers (she didn’t even know that there were any orbital launchers left). As a result, the cruisers had to fire at the enemy broadsides, and though they were more maneuverable than the empire ships, they were hampered by the fact that they had to maneuver the entire ship just to fire at the enemy.

The enemy realized this shortcoming the moment the Musashi had to change its position and show it’s side to them before it started firing its rail guns and missiles. The enemy started to execute maneuvers that made it difficult for the three to get a bead on them while at the same time they showered the Earthers with missiles.

The three Titan ships were hard put not to hit each other while defending themselves, but, so far, no enemy missiles got through their rail gunfire. These, however, kept the Earthers too busy protecting themselves to fire at the enemy. The Shrikes tried to make up for this tactical difficulty and shifted their attack from harassing the enemy fighters to firing on the enemy cruisers. They found it difficult to do this, too, however, since enemy fighters were always there, forcing them to shift targets constantly, and to run interference for their cruisers. And since there was no computer-controlled Phase-Wave assist, Kajima’s jockeys were hard put to stay clear of the Earther cruisers’ line of fire.

After realizing the Earthers’ ploy, the tubular Empire fighters that chased the Turtles had come back, but they were clearly wary of tangling with Seeker’s fighters again and mostly gave them a wide clearance. That didn’t stop Kajima’s pilots from harassing them, however. The thing was, since the Shrike fighters didn’t have energy weapons to use now, a substantial chunk of the their advantage was lost. It was as close to a level playing field the Detterex have had so far.

- - - - -

(bookmark 34)

As Mia looked, the two ships damaged by the Earthers, though dead in space, still continued forward propelled by their momentum. They hit Saturn’s rings like whales splashing into the ocean, or, perhaps better, like ocean-going ships sinking into the sea. Once through, Seeker became visible to them, and one of them fired a brace of missiles towards Seeker. They weren’t as dead as Mia thought, after all.

But as soon as Seeker’s crew saw this, she fired her own rail guns and exploded them before they got in range. After that, nothing more. These two were definitely out of the fight now.

On the other side of the rings, a small group of sixteen Detterex fighters broke away and started making for their location. Clearly, Seeker had been spotted and Mia had them sink back again and gather more distance, hoping to lure more of the enemy away.

It seemed to work since one of the enemy cruisers started to pursue. A blocky Detterex escort cruiser splashed down on Saturn’s rings like some enormous sperm whale breaching, and as soon as it cleared the rock, dust and snowflakes, and emerged on the other side, it fired its chemical rocket drives and started making for Seeker. Lacking Seeker’s more efficient FTL drive and inertial flywheels, she was stuck with chemical. Still, her rockets were very powerful, and they rapidly accelerated the little cruiser towards Seeker.

Seeker, keeping the rings above their heads, raced away in a straight line, quite slow but just fast enough to stay ahead of the Detterex escort ship and no more, luring them further and further away.

Realizing that they couldn’t close in, the enemy fired several missiles.

“Captain, the enemy has fired. Distance closing rapidly.”

“Get ready to fire anti-missiles...”

“Captain, I don’t think that’s a good idea. They’re awfully close and we’re not sure of the yield...”

“Can we avoid them? Change direction?”

“There are missiles headed for our rear, ventral, port and starboard sections. It would be difficult to maneuver.”

“Options?

“We can pull away, sir - escape.”

“Not the point of our mission, Lieutenant.”

“Captain,” O’Connell interrupted from the observation platform, “they didn’t target the area above us. Probably afraid of premature detonation if they graze the rings or get hit by static discharge...”

Mia’s eyes grew wide.

“Of course! Why didn’t I think of that? Beth, you’re a genius. Helm, what’s our current velocity?”

“One thousand kilometers per hour, sir.”

“On my order, prepare to reduce velocity to three hundred KPH and increase forward angle of attack by twenty degrees. Tell me when you’re set. Beth, are you following?”

“Aye, Skipper.”

“Be ready, Beth. You’re gonna be dodging rocks and other crap. You know that?”

“Do what you have to, Captain. I’m set. You know, this is going to be one for the history books. You should have told Chief Haskell to put seatbelts in this thing.”

Mia laughed. “Helm! Are you ready?”

“Controls are set, Captain. Awaiting your order.”

“Execute!”

Seeker pitched upwards and breached the ring, the angle of the ship’s direction of thrust compared to its direction of movement, or what spacers erroneously called the “angle of attack,” remaining at twenty degrees. The term was erroneous, of course, since it was a term used in fluid dynamics instead of in the vacuum of space. But spacers continued to use the term - a legacy from the third world war, when most spacer pilots were also aircraft pilots.

The gravity plates that generated the artificial gravity on Earth ships, was like that of all the ships of the time, so they weren’t completely stable if a ship has constantly changing directions of flight. As a result, the crew felt the change in direction in a major way. “Hold on!” Mia called, and the crew braced themselves against the climbing effect of the ship’s movement and the gravity system’s attempt to cope.

Rocks and interstellar snowflakes hit its hull. Since the deflectors were off, it sounded like a thunderstorm inside the ship. Residual heat, and the heat induced by impacts and static charge were enough to change the snow that touched the hull to gaseous form, so Seeker trailed streams of white smoke made luminous by sunlight and Saturn-light. Lightning arced from the ship to the rings and it was like Seeker was emerging from a thundercloud trailing streamers of smoke.

Several small items fell to the deck but no one made a move to pick them up, not that anyone could. Mia imagined she was in an old-style aircraft making a steep climb through a very bad thunderstorm. She was standing the whole time and was out of her command chair, so she could only hold on to the back of her chair for dear life.

“Woohoo!” O’Connell exclaimed from her observation gondola. Despite the graveness of the situation, many laughed along with her. It was exhilarating, to say the least, over and above what was happening.

“Ride ‘em, cowboy!” O’Connell whooped as she dodged rocks and used her sidearm to blast those too large to dodge. She could feel the mast vibrate with impacts but it held.

Mia heard her and chuckled, recognizing the phrase from old movies. She doubted anyone else on board would have recognized it, except for Nick perhaps. She imagined O’Connell wearing a ten-gallon hat and spinning a lariat over her head as she held on while the Seeker did its loop.

At the apex of Seeker’s loop, they could momentarily see the enemy ships and the three mini-Seekers at a distance, upside down, courtesy of O’Connell’s visor and the ship’s forward scopes. The ship cameras were badly blurred from the snowflakes and sub-zero gas, but it was unmistakable that a Detterex cruiser had broken away and was now flying just above the rings, directly below the others. It was probably going to follow the other one.

As for the three Earth ships, they seemed to be having a bad time. “Hold on, guys,” they heard O’Connell mumble. “We’re coming for you.”

“Yes,” Mia thought to herself. “Hold on.”

Seeker finished transcribing its loop, leaving a luminescent trail in the sky, and splashed back into the ring.

“Reduce our forward velocity further to one hundred KPH,” Mia said immediately after the thunderstorm stopped. “Beth, let us know when we’re parallel to them.”

“Aye, sir,” O’Connell said. “Steady... steady... now, Captain!”

“Helm - set a course parallel to the enemy, and close in to fifty kilometers from their hull.”

“Aye.”

To everyone onboard, they felt as if the tilt of the ship went even farther up, but after a few seconds, the pilot reduced the angle of attack, and the gravity systems stabilized. Their pilot made a few more adjustments and they found themselves traveling in the same course and direction as the enemy, the rings above them once again. Seeker’s FTL surged slightly and they caught up to the other ship in five seconds flat. Seeker’s inertia converters blipped for a small fraction of a second and let out a barely-noticed flash of light, reducing their speed instantly (their inertial mass was high enough at that moment for their converters to work).

After they reduced their speed, without automatic ranging aids, the pilot had some trouble and had to jockey the ship manually to maintain a fifty-kilometer distance between them.

Mia knew it was a game of seconds now - who gets to fire first. “Weapons, fire all forward tubes straight ahead.”

They heard missiles fire and saw them on the blurred camera flying towards the enemy.

“Again,” Mia said after a few seconds, and another brace of missiles was fired. “Again,” she repeated, and yet another brace of missiles was launched.

“Helm, reverse course. Straight back, one thousand KPH.”

Their flywheels spun and Seeker pirouetted exactly ninety degrees. Her FTL glowed a little stronger and she ran away from the Detterex ship at a thousand kilometers per hour squared.

“Beth, take a look and tell me what you see.”

O’Connell swiveled around and used a gloved hand to wipe her visor. She turned on the helmet’s de-fogger. On the screen in the bridge, they could now see a clear picture of the enemy ship underneath the planet’s rings courtesy of O’Connell’s visor, and it became smaller as they sped away.

“Our first volley is nearing the enemy,” O’Connell said, “and... their anti-missile defenses took out all of them.” On the screen, they could see their missiles explode well away from the enemy ship.

Another set of explosions punctuated the sky. “There’s our next set of missiles... none got through again. But...”

The third set was apparently more successful: there were two explosions, and they knew they hit their mark.

“Got ‘em!” O’Connell exclaimed.

Mia sighed. “All right. Helm,” she said, “get us back to our cruisers. Quickly.”

“Ummm, I’ll do my best, sir.”

“No fancy moves, Lieutenant. Just get us there as fast as you can.”

“Aye, sir.”

The pilot furiously started typing on a console and swung the ship around ninety degrees again. After figuring out what to do, he started a timer and then turned back to his control levers. “I hate flying manual,” he muttered. “Here we go.”

He kept an eye on the timer and when it reached “10,” he banked the ship thirty degrees up, right into the rings. When the timer reached “15,” he straightened it out again. Seeker flew level until the timer hit “60.” When it did, he tilted the ship down slightly, just a few degrees, and when it hit “65,” he reduced the angle of attack back to zero. Seeker started climbing up into the rings more shallowly.

“Here we go again,” O’Connell said, and held her lightning rod out.

Lightning bolts started to hit Seeker again because of the static buildup, and the thunderstorm resumed as rocks hit the hull.

- - - - -

(bookmark 35)

Onboard the Detterex battle cruiser, its pilot maintained station keeping at the point in the rings where the Earther fighters came out. She was constantly making adjustments and constantly had to fire the ship’s maneuvering rockets to remain there. The Tirosian flagship had signaled them to investigate, and since they had not had word to the contrary since, her Princess had ordered them to stay put. It was too bad the Defiant wasn’t around - the pilot badly wanted to signal Princess Arvan and perhaps get new orders. But Defiant had left the main group a while back, plus no transmissions could get through the Curtain. She was itching to follow their other cruiser down into the rings, but her Princess was new to command and did not think to give the order.

A few moments ago, they had seen an Earther ship emerge from the rings like a leviathan of legend leaping out of the homeworld’s oceans, and then splashing back in. The pilot had not seen or heard of any ship make such a maneuver. She didn’t know why it had done so. Perhaps it had to do with their other ship.

As for the three little Earther ships, they continued harassing the rest their small fleet.

These three Earther ships were about the size of their escort cruiser, but otherwise, they looked like smaller versions of that Earther ship that first intercepted them. Perhaps this was the basic design for most of their ships. The pilot was amazed at the continuing stream of projectiles that the little ships fired. Their supply seemed inexhaustible and the power of the projectiles... As she watched them, she couldn’t help but think of that larger devil ship, and she hoped that the ship they were currently chasing wasn’t it. It couldn’t be, of course. They had lost track of it when it had sped away, and it was undoubtedly on the way to Earth now.

As they hovered over the rings, yellow-white lightning bolts started arcing from its surface some distance away. The Prince, their chief scientist, said that it was probably static energy from a ship moving through the ring debris - the Earther ship that had fired on them. The Princess ordered missiles fired at the spot.

The pilot could have told the Princess that wouldn’t work, but it wasn’t her place to say. As expected, it was totally ineffective - the missiles exploded against the rocks. They had to wait for the enemy ship to emerge, and the Princess ordered them to stop firing.

They continued hovering and watched on the screen the spouting fountain of electricity coming closer, but becoming less and less violent - an indication that the ship was about to come out of the rings, so the Prince said. The Princess ordered the pilot to move them towards the enemy. “Finally,” she thought, and got their ship moving.

As they were watching, in approximately the middle of the static electricity field, they saw bolts of lightning emanating from one spot. It was unusual because it was blue. “Let me see that!” the Princess said.

The image focused on that spot. It was like an antenna rising from the mist, and as they watched the antenna continue to rise, blue lightning came out of its bottom. They also saw a kind of spear or spar emerge, in line with the direction of the movement of the ship underneath. Blue bolts started coming off it, too.

“Zoom in on that!” the Princess commanded.

In the picture, they saw the spear. It cut a line in the ring in front of the antenna as it lifted out of the vapor. In moments, they saw a figure rising out of the mist holding out the spear. It was an Earther warrior.

“Why would...” the pilot started to say but, like everyone else, she was caught by the image of the alien on the screen. She was in Earther armor, like what they saw them wearing before - the magical kind that repelled lasers and was resistant to explosives. Wisps of vapor streamed from the Earther’s helmet and shoulders. She held her spear, or maybe sword, in front of her, like one of the Ro’an-mounted armored knights of old charging the enemy, but instead of a Ro’an, she was riding an interstellar spaceship.

Blue lightning sprang from her sword and discharged into the space around her. She had a gold cape tied around the neck of her helmet and it waved in the slight “breeze” created by the gas sublimated from the snow and ice that had been heated by the static bolts of electricity. Her helmet’s light created a cone in front of her through the thin mist, much like a searchlight through fog.

The pilot was captivated - it was like she was seeing a storybook figure come to life.

Someone behind her, she wasn’t sure who, mumbled a passage from the Ancient Scrolls, or what the Elyrans called the Holy Book of the Ages. They were all thinking it, she was sure. And even though the voice was indistinct, she recognized what that warrior was quoting - all Detterex and Elyrans would have.

“‘A great warrior race,’“ the warrior mumbled, “‘made in thy image, will come from over the horizon, to herald the coming of war, and do battle against thine enemies. Kingdoms will be cast asunder. Fire and destruction will rain from the heavens...’“

The pilot shivered. “The warrior race of legend,” she thought, recalling the passage from her theology classes. “What if the Earthers were that race?” She looked at the screen again. In her mind, she finished the quote. “‘Woe to those who stand against the light,’“ she recalled the ancient words, “‘for they will be cast in eternal darkness. And from their ashes they will let emerge a new age, renewing the eternal cycle, and these Warriors will protect thee from those who would harm thee, until the coming of the Great Ones.’“

Like the Elyrans, the Detterex assumed that if this legendary race should come, they would be coming to their aid, and that the new age would be theirs. But she had a different thought now... what if they were coming for them instead?

On the screen, the Earther warrior continued to rise from the rings. In moments, they finally saw the figure fully emerge. She was in a kind of perch mounted to a tower, and once her little box was out of the rings, the ship beneath her rose rapidly, faster than before. Missiles fired from the ship’s bow.

Their Princess ordered them to fire as well. But it was too late - though they were able to fire off one missile, three of the Earthers’ missiles hit her ventral sections. She felt the ship shudder and its artificial gravity waver. And they just had enough time to see their one missile miss before they completely lost power.

- - - - -

(bookmark 36)

“You were right, sir,” the comms officer told Mia. “Their power systems are amidships in the lower decks. All indications are they don’t have power anymore.”

“Indications?”

“No lights.”

“No lights? That’s it?”

“Sorry, sir. Best we can do - no sensors or anything.”

Mia sighed. “All right. Keep an eye on it, Lieutenant. Helm, increase speed to two thousand KPH. Raise angle of attack fifteen degrees. Execute.”

Seeker started climbing again, and as soon as Mia judged they were at the correct angle, she stopped their climb.

“Bring angle of attack to zero, and intercept: X plus fifty meters. Execute.”

Seeker moved sideways, aligning itself to rendezvous with the ships overhead.

“Another fifty meters. Execute.”

Seeker moved sideways again. Looking at the screen, they found that they were making for the portside ships. Though Mia was doing her maneuvering by the seat of her pants, it was still impressive. The pilot decided to throw away his misgivings and just follow his captain’s directions explicitly. Flying manually was actually fun, he thought, provided that someone else was doing the computing.

“Comms,” Mia said, “are we in the right angle and range for laser?”

“Yes, sir, but I’m not sure if they’ll receive...”

“Try anyway. Send the following message via laser comms to our people: Seeker to Yamato, Musashi and... what’s the third one?”

“Shinano, sir.”

“... thanks. Seeker to Yamato, Musashi and Shinano. Be advised that...” Mia snuck a look at the astrogator’s panel. “Seeker will be passing east southeast ecliptic your position. We shall be assisting. Engage the enemy ships individually. Fighters will provide cover. Seeker to Shrike fighter wing. Split up and provide cover for each of the Titan ships. Anyone who receives this message will relay it to the nearest ships. Acknowledge.”

“Targeting them and transmitting now, sir. But I won’t be sure if...”

“Just do your best, Lieutenant. Keep repeating it until they acknowledge. Beth! How are you doing out there?”

“Doing okay, sir,” Beth replied. “That was fun, flying through the rings. Let’s do it again!”

Mia laughed. “I’ll see what I can do. Keep an eye out.” She nodded at comms. “Connect me to the gunnery crews.”

After a moment, she got the high sign.

“Captain to rail gun crews, be advised we are about to engage the enemy’s main body. Your standing orders are to prevent any missiles from approaching. I am declaring a fifteen-kilometer perimeter around the ship. Fire only when missiles break that perimeter. I realize that fifteen kilometers is very close, But we have no range finders online. This way you have a chance of hitting the enemy missiles yet give Seeker enough of a blast margin. Remember your training. Forget range and drift. Aim is more important at the moment. Set your guns at their highest recycle settings, and use a strafing motion when firing.

“Missile crews, conserve armament but fire when able. The target is the ventral section of the ships. Prioritize aim over everything. Given our missiles’ yield, your minimum arming distance is thirty kilometers.”

“Sir, we have received partial replies via laser comms. Yamato and some of the Shrikes have acknowledged your orders.”

On screen, they could see their three Titan cruisers move further apart, and the Shrike fighters divvying up, seven to a ship. And though there were only seven fighters to shadow each Earth cruiser, the reluctance of the Detterex fighters to engage the Shrikes would make them hang back.

The three cruisers had adopted a new offensive tactic. Given their insufficient firepower, each of the cruisers started spinning around their axes, thereby allowing their rail guns to cover more of the sky, shoot down incoming missiles and give them a chance to fire their own - their launchers firing a pair the moment their tubes were facing their target ship. The Shrikes also did their best to keep the enemy’s fighters off their backs long enough to give their missile crews a chance to fire.

As for Seeker, she flew straight for the unprotected southeast section of the imaginary cube that the Earth ships were flying in. Seeker violently flew close, and then violently sheared away, firing half a dozen of its missiles before it did.

Some missiles’ blasts did impact two of the alien ships but they didn’t hit the all-important underside. Seeker’s violent maneuvers did, however, bring it close to a formation of Tiros fighters sitting on the sidelines, as usual. Instead of trying to evade, Seeker plowed through them. Its structural integrity field was maxxed and the fighters exploded on her hull, or were blown out of the sky by its gun crews. Seeker was like a giant flyswatter going through a swarm of bloated bees full of hydrogen. As it flew away, very few of the fighters were left, and though there were breaches on Seeker’s hull, none were too bad that Seeker’s DC teams couldn’t handle them.

Since the Yamato cruisers now had targets to concentrate on, each of them was able to hit their target ships multiple times using their spinning tactic. None of them were able to hit the enemy’s vulnerable spots, however.

So, even though the Empire ships outnumbered the Earthers, given the Earthers’ superior tactics and maneuverability, they were outmatched.

As Seeker got further and further away, Mia noticed that they were unable to lure any of the enemy cruisers. Mia had the ship execute another ninety-degree turn, blipped her inertia converters and went back to the fight at a slow one hundred KPH.

As they flew back, something exploded above Seeker’s upper port bow. They frantically searched the sky around them looking for the enemy. O’Connell finally found the source. Seeker’s Mud Turtle Squadron had returned. One of the turtles fired two missiles, in courses set to make them collide and explode far enough from Seeker to cause no damage, but close enough to get her attention.

Later, Lieutenant Lassiter would explain to Mia that, because of the lack of any navigational assists, he felt he and his pilots had only one way to get back - reverse course and backtrack. But he was afraid the Detterex were laying in wait for them, and all they had as armament were missiles.

But using basic flight tactics, he decided to maintain course, increase their velocity and whip back around the planet and bring them to their starting point that way, but from the opposite direction.

Obviously, it worked.

“Welcome back, Lieutenant,” Mia said over laser comms. “Commander O’Connell said you were good.”

“Just doin’ my job, Skipper,” Lassiter said in false modesty.

“All right, get behind us and follow Seeker in. Your squadron’s job is one thing, and one thing only - fire your missiles at the enemy cruisers and keep doing so until you run out. We’ll break ground for you. Use us as cover. Laser’s going to be pretty unreliable since we’ll be maneuvering a lot, so assume we won’t be communicating until this is all over. Got it?”

“Got it, Captain. Turtles acknowledging.”

“Okay. Helm! Bring velocity back up to one thousand KPH. Execute.”

“Here we go again,” the pilot mumbled, and in minutes, they were back in the fray.

Mia decided to use Seeker’s speed and ability to change direction to full use. Similar to Its loop-the-loop maneuver earlier, Mia had its bow face the enemy, and then changed its angle of attack to forty-five degrees. The Seeker therefore circumnavigated the ships over and over and over in a constantly shifting orbit, and used her guns to shoot down any missiles it could. Her turtles occasionally peeked out from underneath her and sniped with their missiles. Though it was tough on their crews, Seeker and the turtles continued the new strategy. The enemy was so confused and shocked by Seeker’s FTL-and-flywheel powered maneuvers that they could not coordinate their actions.

With the pressure off, the three K-class cruisers were able to target the enemy. But the enemy changed their formation such that their ships’ vulnerable ventral sides were facing inside of the large imaginary globe that Seeker was inscribing with its incredibly tight and fast maneuvers. The end result was that the Earth missiles could only hit the enemy’s heavily-armored and defended upper decks. Hence, it was a standoff - one that wouldn’t last, surely, but unless something changed, the standoff might last for hours.

And the Detterex fighters continued to harass the cruisers even though their Tirosian partners had abandoned them and returned to their mother ships. Still, despite reduced numbers, the Detterex continued to fight ferociously and valiantly.

“We have to break this stalemate,” Mia said. “Comms! Get me Kajima and Lassiter.”

“Captain, I don’t...”

“I know, Lieutenant. Do your best.”

Mia busied herself with checking on her damage control teams. The DC teams were having a hard time working in the steep gravity but Mia kept Seeker’s flight constant and steady. So, because it was constant, her people were able to manage, and Seeker’s hull breaches, fires and other damage were slowly being fixed, and, thankfully, no other new damage was being inflicted.

Mia then checked in with O’Connell, and found that her Number One had a bad case of motion sickness and had lied down at the observation platform and strapped herself down using her arrestor rod’s cable. Mia resolved to get a pair of DC specialists up there to rescue her ASAP.

In a little while, Comms was able to connect with Kajima and Lassiter.

“Commander, Lieutenant, I have an assignment for you. I need a couple of turtles to go through that mess - “ she gestured at the enemy ships, “and fire on them and get them in their hindquarters, and I need some Shrikes to give them cover. Can you do it?”

“Aye, sir,” Kajima said. “Leave it to us.”

“Okay, then,” Mia said. “I’m going to sign off now. Commence your mission when feasible.”

“Aye.”

Mia made a cutting gesture and Comms cut the tenuous laser comm link. Seeker continued its looping maneuver, and continued to wear the enemy down while they waited for Kajima to make his move.

In about ten minutes, half a dozen Shrikes approached Seeker. Two Turtles then broke away from Seeker and, together with the Shrikes, they made their way to the enemy ships. With the Shrikes surrounding the Turtles, they went in, threading their way through the enemy ships.

Since they mostly saw the undersides, there were very few missile launchers, and the enemy only managed to fire a few missiles their way. The Shrikes also had an easy time dispatching enemy fighters so the Turtles had an easy time as well picking targets.

They fired their entire complement of missiles in one go, and with empty missile racks, the little ships and their escorts hightailed it out of there before the missiles detonated.

As they came out of the imaginary globe, the missiles started detonating. When they did, Seeker cut her “angle of attack” back down to zero and they flew straight away from the enemy.

The three smaller Titan cruisers were a little slower to react as they didn’t know what was happening, but as they saw the explosions and Seeker streaking away, they started moving away from the enemy as well, just in case. They trailed Detterex fighters in their wakes.

The two Tiros cruisers seemed to have been critically hit, and stopped firing any new missiles. The other two cruisers and the escort fired thrusters and started to move away from each other to prevent collisions.

Suddenly, Seeker’s Phase-Wave and EM systems kicked in. Apparently, the EM suppression field had been switched off. The conclusion was that either one, or both of the Tiros cruisers generated the field, and with the critical damage they had sustained, whatever machinery generated them had been knocked out.

“Captain!” Seeker’s comms officer called, “Phase-Wave and all systems are back! Deflectors are back!”

“All right! Contact all our Shrikes and Turtles. Have them execute the same maneuver as Kajima and Lassiter. Go!”

The Lieutenant turned to his panel and started getting busy.

Mia finally thumbed her comm panel, tuning in to the general Phase-Wave comm frequency.

“Seeker to Yamato, Musashi and Shinano,” she said over the general “freak.” “Be advised, we are returning to re-engage the enemy.”

“Yamato to Seeker,” Mia heard someone respond. “Message acknowledged. We are likewise turning back.”

A more powerful signal overrode them, however.

“This is Commodore Oshiro to Earth fleet. Belay that. Repeat, belay that. We have marked the enemy ships and have launched a missile attack. Stay clear of the enemy. Repeat, stay clear.”

“This is Seeker,” Mia responded. “Commodore, we need the Tiros cruisers intact! Repeat, we need them intact. Request that you fire only on the Detterex ships. Acknowledge.”

“Acknowledged, Captain Steele. We are now reprogramming our missiles accordingly.”

“Thank you, Commodore. Standing by.” Mia gestured at her comms officer. “Tell our fighters and turtles to belay my previous instructions. Tell them to return to Seeker.”

“Aye, Captain.”

“I think you can unbuckle now, everyone,” she said. “I don’t think we will be doing any more weird maneuvers. Also,” she said, smiling, “has someone fetched Commander O’Connell? I imagine she’s had enough.”

With sighs of relief, everyone started to unbuckle. Nick helped the First Ambassador down from his perch.

They saw Seeker’s little fleet wheel around and come back, and waited for Titan’s missile wave to make an appearance. Now that their Phase-Wave systems were back online, they had an easy time tracking them. They also started getting calls from Earth and other places. Mia found that she was greatly relieved at being back in contact with Earth.

She asked Nick to update EDF headquarters and CETI, send them all un-transmitted sitreps, as well as a copy of all the recording logs since they lost communication. She then turned to the First Ambassador and asked him to likewise update the Federation ships.

The First Ambassador saluted with his upper right limb, and his voder said, “aye-aye, Captain.”

Shepherd Moon, Chapter 16: Lunar Lunacy

Mopping up -

It was a bit anticlimactic. As the massive cloud of missiles from Titan approached, the enemy finally detected them with their newly available radar. They fired their missiles but, as soon as they did, someone over at Titan sent a remote command and the missiles made random changes in their direction. And though the anti-missiles caught a handful, the rest were able to get through. Right behind them followed an adaptation of bomber aircraft of an earlier time - Eagle fighters stripped of all extraneous material with large missile warheads strapped to their bellies.

The “bombers” easily broke through the enemy ships’ newly reactivated deflector shields, dodged their weapons and dropped their deadly cargo right on top of their hulls.

After a few seconds, their warheads detonated. One cruiser exploded while the other two were almost broken in half.

- - - - -

(bookmark 37)

When there was no more observable activity in the cruisers, Seeker and her three smaller sister ships started moving in. It had now become a recovery and rescue mission. There were several straggler Detterex fighters, however, but twenty Shrikes from Titan zoomed in to take care of them. It took time because Seeker’s remaining fighters and mud turtles had to be refueled and re-armed. The Shrikes’ jury-rigged rail guns had to be taken out and they needed to be re-armed with their regular weaponry.

The three smaller Titan cruisers started making for the disabled enemy ships on the other side of the rings while Seeker and her turtles started moving to the ones on their side. Seeker’s Shrikes eventually finished off the remaining enemy fighters - clearly their pilots had lost their will to continue the fight and most of them just surrendered. Seeker was able to capture the fighters intact and their pilots unhurt, and passed them on to Titan’s recovery forces.

Hours into the operation, however, they received word from the Commodore. Seeker was ordered to abandon her mop-up operation and to leave the enemy to the incoming troop carriers and tow barges from Titan.

It was like another wave, but this time it was military cargo transports.

“I’m sorry, Captain,” Saturn Sector’s Commodore Oshiro said over Phase-Wave, “but the Admiral wants you elsewhere.”

“Aye, sir,” Mia said flatly.

“I completely understand, Captain,” Governor Kushenko said, noting Mia’s tone. “Everyone knows of Seeker’s important mission. Leave it to us to clean up. Yeshche. Spasiba. God speed, Captain. And it was a pleasure to have met the First Ambassador. Please tell him that he has a standing invitation.”

The First Ambassador stood on his hind limbs so as to be seen on the monitor.

“It was also a pleasure to have met you, Governor,” he said, Mia acting as his translator. “Thank you. Perhaps we will meet again under better circumstances. Until then.” The Ambassador bowed.

The Governor tried to hide his uneasiness, and tried to be gracious. He bowed as well.

“Captain,” Commodore Oshiro said. “Saturn Command thanks you as well. Subete no go kyoryoku itadaki arigatogozaimasu. Taitanha eien ni kansha surudeshou.”

“Domo arigato, Commodore,” Mia responded and switched off.

“That sounded like yet another language,” the Ambassador said. “What did the Commodore say?”

Mia shrugged. “Oh, it was nothing, Ambassador. He just expressed his thanks.”

“How many languages do Earthers speak anyway?”

Mia laughed. “That’s a hard question to ask. After all, how do you differentiate a language from, say, a dialect. But to answer your question, I would estimate there are about... 15,530 Earth languages.”

“Or seven thousand in Earther decimal.”

Mia laughed. “You’re getting good at that.”

“Thank you,” he said, and moved his arms in circles, the gesture that Mia now knew denoted something similar to laughter.

Mia gave orders to finish the transfer of all of their captured personnel and material over to Titan’s forces, and as soon as they were done, they made preparations to depart.

“Well, it’s time to go and meet up with the others,” Mia told the First Ambassador. The Ambassador nodded, and Mia asked to be connected to Engineering.

“Chief,” she said. “How are we doing?”

“Quite fine, Captain,” the Chief Engineer said. “All DC teams have reported in and there wasn’t any damage that we couldn’t manage. We’re in good shape, sir. We can depart anytime.”

“Great news, Chief. How about the engines?”

“All speeds available at the captain’s discretion.”

“Excellent. Thank you, Chief.”

She turned to her bridge crew. “Helm, set course to rendezvous with Constellation,” she said to her helm officer. “Best speed.”

“Aye, sir. By the way, sir, Hermes has already rendezvoused with her as well.”

“That’s good. You have the con, Lieutenant, and secure from General Quarters. We’re going to check on Commander O’Connell.”

“Aye.”

- - - - -

(bookmark 38)

Mia and the First Ambassador took a Marine escort with them and went to the medical bay to check on O’Connell. They found her sedated and in bed, looking a bit banged up. Mia asked the doctor about her condition.

“It isn’t serious,” the doctor said, “but she does have a mild concussion, some contusions, a broken rib and broken arm, and she’s also suffered from extended kinetosis... motion sickness. We’ve given her some painkillers and a strong sedative to help her sleep. We’re running a mild EM analgesic field so she can sleep despite the concussion. She’ll stay in sickbay tonight for observation, but she’ll be okay by tomorrow.”

Mia looked through her chart and saw the same things as well. She was an MD, too, after all.

“No radiation,” the doctor continued, “and no burns. But I’m afraid she’ll have to be on light duty for at least a week,” the doctor continued, “and she has to have regeneration treatments for her rib and arm at least once a day.”

“I concur, Doctor. Thank you.”

Mia looked down at her exec. O’Connell looked tired and awfully pale but she had a gentle smile on her face. A bit of drool started trailing down her chin. Mia chuckled. She reached for a tissue and wiped her lips and cheek.

“Mmmph,” O’Connell mumbled, waking up. Her eyes fluttered open.

“Hey, Skipper,” she said sleepily. “I take it we made it?”

“Yes, we did, Beth,” Mia said gently, and sat down beside her bed. “All because of you.”

“Nahhh. I was just followin’ orders.”

“Yes, you were. Yes, you were, and you did it well.”

“Thanks, Skipper.” She yawned bone-crackingly. “I’m real tired...”

“That’s all right, Beth. Rest. That’s an order, my dear.” Mia smiled gently.

“Aye, sir...” And she innocently fell asleep again.

That she had a mild concussion, and a broken rib and arm despite her armor indicated how bad it was. And how long did she have motion sickness? Did she vomit in her helmet? “She should have told me,” Mia thought. But they needed her up there, and even if she did tell her, Mia knew she wouldn’t have been able to do anything.

She took O’Connell’s hand in hers. It felt a little dry, but warm. Dehydration, maybe. She could imagine the kind of hell Beth had to endure, but she had let everyone think she was having the time of her life.

As she looked at O’Connell’s face, she felt a feathery touch on the back of her neck. It was the Ambassador’s antennae.

“You seem sad, My Lady,” the Ambassador said. “Is Commander O’Connell not well?”

Mia cleared her throat. “Oh, yes. She’s recovering well. It’s just...” Mia voice trailed into silence.

The Ambassador reached out and put the three fingers of his armored upper left limb gently on her hand.

“My Lady,” he said, “she did what was necessary. As did you. Who else could have done what you and she did? It was the right thing to do.”

Mia shrugged - a gesture that the Arachnian knew by now.

“Who’s to say what’s right and what’s wrong?” Mia said. “I’m sure if you ask the Detterex...”

“The Princess also had to face such doubt several years ago,” the ambassador said, referring to his Elyran friend. “She had come back from a campaign at the edge of Federation territory, where she and her warriors had taken their turn in enforcing a defense perimeter against supposed pirates, but were really rebel Tiros invaders. Their relief was overdue and they were running low on supplies when the enemy decided to commence a final push.

“Whatever might be said of that day, what the Princess and her people were able to achieve was almost like a miracle. Most of her fighter craft were grounded by then as most of them had spent their fuel, and her people were outnumbered by the thousands. Even so, they lured the enemy planetside, engaged them in a ground action, and held them until reinforcements arrived. With an incredible piece of luck, some of her people boarded and took over one of the smaller ships and used it to defeat the others. It was a coup for Elyra as they were able to capture three Tiros and Detterex squadrons including capital ships and fighters mostly intact. But the Princess had to use her warriors ruthlessly. She lost two thirds of her people, and many of those that returned home were badly hurt.

“In the end, Tasha reconciled herself with the fact that she was able to stop the enemy from gaining a foothold on the planet and halt their encroachment into Elyran and Federation territory. She had an objective that she knew needed to be done, that she knew to be right. Also, the three-eights, I mean ‘twenty-four,’ cruisers that she helped capture now accounts for almost one third of the current Elyran fleet, and have since been deployed to good use. And the loved ones of her fallen warriors now proudly claim her as their ‘Chu-ahn Tru’ - their valiant defender.”

Mia sorrowfully looked down, but the Arachnian lifted her head gently with a light touch under her chin.

“True, many of the enemy have perished today, but it was necessary. And no Earthers, Elyrans, Dixx or Arachnians have been hurt further. And what is more important, you, Commander O’Connell and the crew of the Seeker have saved the people of Titan.” He shrugged. “Who knows, My Lady, perhaps the people of Titan might call you their ‘Chu-ahn Tru’ as well.”

Mia looked at the alien and smiled sadly. She couldn’t help herself and reached over to hug him.

“You should stop, My Lady,” he said. “Ren will be jealous.”

Mia laughed. “Oh, all right,” she said, and let him go. “I think I’ll go to my quarters and get a fresh set of clothes.”

Mia ushered the Ambassador out of the Med Bay.

“That is a good idea, My Lady,” the Arachnian said, and moved his limbs in circles.

“I don’t understand,” she said quizzically. “What’s so funny?”

“Well,” he said, still “laughing,” “I do not know for sure, but your crew is having a hard time staring at you yet trying to appear not to.” He gestured at her skin-tight pressure suit. “If Elyran and Earther aesthetics are even remotely similar, I can understand why.”

Mia blushed. She asked the Marine to escort the Ambassador back to their quarters, took her leave and hurried to hers. She had completely forgotten to change.

After being on her feet for more than a day, she was dead tired. As soon as she got to her quarters, she flopped down and groaned in relief.

After a few minutes, she turned over and sighed. She reached for her CC.

“Captain to bridge. Status report, please.”

“Aye, sir. DC teams report ninety percent of ship’s damage repaired. Repairs should be completed within eight to twelve hours. All Shrikes and Mud Turtles recovered and are now undergoing maintenance. Engineering reports all systems are nominal.”

“Aha. So, no change since I was there thirty minutes ago, then,” she said drily.

“Ahhh, yes, sir,” the deck duty officer said sheepishly. Mia recognized the voice as one of the ship’s new ensign recruits from Triton. She sighed and decided to let the young man off the hook.

“What is our course and speed?” she asked.

“We are on course to rendezvous with Hermes, Constellation and the Federation fleet, at point seven light speed.” He sounded slightly amazed. It’s probably the fastest any Terran ship has flown other than for Hermes and Earthship II. Mia couldn’t blame the young man from being excited. “ETA is oh-nine hundred tomorrow.”

“Thank you, ensign. Continue sending regular updates to HQ.”

“Aye, sir.”

She switched off and dropped her CC on her desk. Sitting up, she pulled off her boots and walked over to her mirror. She also took off her belt with her sidearm and hung it in her locker.

She inspected herself in the mirror. She had to admit that she looked good. The pressure suit was tight all over, and she had to say she was a knockout. She blushed, realizing she had inadvertently been displaying herself to everyone. She didn’t know if that was a mistake, and if it would affect her relationship with the crew. At least she didn’t think it did today - she felt the crew functioned exemplary today, better than any time before, in fact. But, still, she couldn’t help but worry.

She struck several poses in the mirror, giggling, imagining the kind of effect she had on the crew. Smiling, she shook her head. Better minimize this kind of thing. Not good for discipline.

But deep inside, it didn’t really bother her. She was proud of her crew, and felt the word “her” as appropriate now. She hoped that her crew was okay with her performance as well. Though she was seen as a physically attractive woman (and was objectified a little bit for that), people still treated her professionally, and with respect and consideration. In fact, everyone followed her orders with more alacrity, and seemed eager to do so.

She unzipped her pressure suit, dropped it in the laundry chute, took off her button earrings, watch and new Arachnian medallion, and dropped them in a little jewelry box on her desk (she had her people analyze the medallion and chain and, it turned out to be a normal little medallion and chain, with simple raw shards of quartz embedded into the embossed picture of some tree. The only difference was that the alloy the chain and coin were made of was something they don’t see often. But that was nothing – many of the metals that they use were alloys that humans hadn’t created before).

She went to her cabinet and got a towel and toiletries. She luxuriated in a hot shower and washed the tiredness and tension out of her. She wanted to stay in the shower longer but guilt finally chased her out when she realized she was using more than her allotted share of hot water.

Before sleeping, she decided to wear something nice to bed for a change. She found the three negligees that the people at the hospital gave her. Picking the powder blue one, she put it on over her panties and nothing else.

She marveled at the feel of it, the lightness and the sheer luxuriousness of it. With a sigh, she slipped between the sheets, and fell asleep almost instantly - the best sleep she’d had since she boarded Seeker.

Back to the same routine -

It was a joyous reunion. The congratulations of the Prince and Princess were more than effusive, as were those from Admiral Dax, but Mia was anxious to get back to normal and insisted on continuing where they left off right away, and to start catching up on things.

Thinking of how helpful the First Ambassador was in giving them insights on the enemy, Mia had suggested a change. The First Ambassador and his people had guided the Earth forces to a winning strategy of splitting up the enemy cruisers. The fact the Detterex lead ship was not with them implied to the Ambassador that the Detterex forces would be less than cooperative with their Tirosian partners, and would be less coordinated in their tactics. And this was proven to be correct. Furthermore, the Arachnians and Earthers seemed to be cooperating more closely than they expected to be. Mia smiled and expressed her thanks to the First Ambassador. The Arachnian stood and performed a credible imitation of a curtsey - something he undoubtedly saw on TV, and all the Earthers laughed. The Elyrans and Dixx smiled, clearly not understanding it but could sense the friendly humor of the moment.

From their success, Mia therefore concluded there was great value to knowing more about their friends as well as their enemies, not just their facts and figures but who they were as people, and what they were about. Channel ‘B’ was therefore changed to a tutorial class for Federation, Earth and Empire history and culture. Ren and his assistant, Ben, readily welcomed the chance to lecture, and offered to manage it. He suggested to get the assistance of one of Admiral Dax’s people as well as the assistance of one of the Arachnians, to perhaps give their own perspective on things.

Dr. Priestly thought that a good idea and innocently suggested that, if there were qualified individuals available, maybe some of the Dravidians and Erocii from the staff of the Keeper of the Heritage should be invited to lecture as well.

Dax was taken aback by the suggestion. How could she even presume to ask His Excellency, but before she could find a way to politely deny her request, a message had come from the Keeper’s staff accepting the suggestion. They completely forgot about the fact that the Keeper was also tuned in to the meetings.

The Admiral acceded to this, and promised to arrange things.

But for this first day, they spent it by briefing everyone on the current status of the Empire ships and prisoners.

- - - - -

(bookmark 39)

Transmitting from Earth, true to his word, Admiral Silverman reported that his people had continued to search for the five missing Empire ships. They were able to spot two of the five, but the last three continued to elude them. Silverman instructed Mia to send a ship to the two they found, since hers were the closest. Mia ordered Constellation to check them out - she thought that the mission would be a welcome break for her crew.

As for Hermes, it was successful in delivering the Arachnian life signs detector belts, and Earth scientists had started their analysis of them. They had a great start because of all the information they were provided beforehand, and they had high hopes that it will help open up the galaxy for the Earthers.

Commodore Oshiro had sent a report that over three hundred of the enemy had been captured, and Silverman said all of them were going to be interred in refitted cargo barges that were being fixed and then towed into Saturn orbit. Their debriefing would start as soon as CETI sends representatives. Jennifer Priestly said that her CETI breakers will be working with the ATAC people, and she would send them over as quickly as possible.

Admiral Silverman asked if the Federation would like to make claims on the recovered Empire ships. Admiral Dax said, per Federation rules, they will not make any claims as they are Earth’s property now. However, Dax drily said that they only ask to share in any discovery they make, say, for example, in information on the so-called “curtain of light.”

Silverman laughed with the Admiral, and said he’ll see what he can do. They understood each other perfectly. Clearly, the two were cut from the same cloth.

In the meantime, Silverman had his people transmit the logs of some of the ships they had captured courtesy of Commodore Oshiro. Dax and Ren set their systems to record, and Mia promised the First Ambassador copies as well.

The Secretary-General then took over and talked about developments on Earth.

It seemed that, in the twelve hours since Seeker got back in contact with Earth, and word of what happened in Saturn System started to spread, the population had become even more obsessed with the aliens. The proposed referendum was a hot topic now, and the Secretary-General said this pressure had accelerated their timetable. Her people now believed that the referendum might have to be moved to next week.

Views on the aliens seemed to have polarized. The majority of the population was excited to now be acknowledged members of a larger galactic community, and were intrigued by the aliens. Information regarding the aliens was gobbled up as quickly as they came out in the popular media. The Prince and Princess have become very popular, for example, and fans avidly shared around pictures of them.

But a significant minority also blamed the government for dragging them into a war. The official line of the government was that they couldn’t avoid it in any case, and it was better this way so they could pick sides and maybe get some help, if at all possible. Still, a few didn’t believe that, and insisted that they could still remain neutral.

The Secretary-General was confident, however, that they will get the required fifty percent-plus vote necessary to pass the referendum. The ambassador asked what kind of system they used, and Mia tried to explain their federated government’s electoral college system.

As she was explaining, Admiral Dax interrupted and asked what were the items to be voted on.

The Secretary-General didn’t mind being interrupted, and explained that her people had boiled it down to four items: one - to approve sending representatives to Colossus and provide all the information they had about the events in Earth System since the arrival of the Elyrans, Dixx and Arachnians; two - to submit an application for membership to the Federation; three - to approve an alliance with the Federation or, if membership was not forthcoming, to limit it to an alliance with the Elyran, Dixx and Arachnian nations; and four - to declare war on the Detterex and Tiros Star Empires.

Dax nodded sagely. “Difficult matters, indeed,” she said. “I agree completely that it needs to be decided on by all your people. I suppose all I can do is to offer encouragement. Please let us know how we can to assist you.”

“You are most gracious, Admiral,” she said. “Thank you. Perhaps we can talk more about it tomorrow.”

“I am at your service, Excellency.”

Dax would have preferred to continue, but the Secretary-General insisted that they adjourn for the day, in time for the Earthers’ mid-day meal, and to allow everyone to review the Tiros and Detterex logs.

“Oh, well,” Dax thought. “There’s still tomorrow.”

- - - - -

(bookmark 40)

Secretary-General Romarkin got everyone in the briefing to stay on a pretext, and waited for the Dixx and Elyrans to switch off, and for the Arachnians to leave the room. When she was sure only the humans were left, she sighed.

“All right, everyone. Thank you for staying. I have some news. Jennifer?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Professor Priestly replied. “The people from the PRC have a theory about that so-called ‘curtain of light.’ They’re waiting on Commodore Oshiro’s people to confirm it when they go though the Tirosian hulks. If they confirm it, then that means we know what the Tirosians did.”

“That’s good,” Commander O’Connell said. She was a little subdued, probably still a little off from the medications, and probably a little embarrassed by the cast on her arm. She was still supposed to be off the duty roster, but she insisted on joining the briefing.

“But, Ma’am, why didn’t you bring this up earlier? I’m sure Admiral Dax and...”

Mia raised her hand to stop her. “I think the Secretary-General is trying to say something else, Beth.”

Romarkin sighed. “Commander, we aren’t even sure we want to share the information with the aliens at this time.”

“Ma’am?”

“Commander, we aren’t sure we want to lose a tactical advantage.”

“But they’re our friends, Ma’am. We’re even trying to make an alliance with their governments.”

“That’s right. In fact, since the beginning, we have been sharing everything we can with them to see us through this time when we need to prove ourselves deserving to be part of their federation. We’ve only held off sharing things that give us strategic advantages. Now we find ourselves in the unenviable position to be the ones judging, and see if they deserve to have our new information. Sounds arrogant, yes. And some may even question that view. But let’s put that aside for the moment.”

While she was speaking, Jennifer Priestly excused herself and switched off for a minute.

The Secretary-General didn’t let that distract her and continued. “We are now about to acquire new knowledge that will give us yet another advantage. And the government has not seen anything to change our current policy. In fact, the events at Pluto Orbit and Saturn have given us more cause to insure that Earth System protect any advantage it has. Admiral?”

Silverman turned to O’Connell as well. “You are a military officer, Commander. I am sure you understand the need to maintain numerical, technological, and tactical superiority, as well as not to surrender the initiative. Am I correct?”

“You are correct sir,” O’Connell said. “I understand. I apologize for the question.”

Silverman nodded. “Not at all, Commander.” Silverman then addressed everyone. “That brings us to another topic.”

He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts. “The men and women of Task Force 41/18 have proven themselves supremely capable, and a credit to the entire race. We are proud of all of you.” Everyone was pleased but puzzled at this apparent non sequitur.

“I don’t say this frivolously,” Silverman continued. “I say it only to show that the Admiralty has the highest confidence in you all, and have no reservations in your following orders. As your commander, I know that I do not need to explain myself, but I am doing so now because we want not just your obedience but your active cooperation as well, and we want you to share your ideas on how to manage the situation we find ourselves in.

“Officially then, you are all under orders not to discuss this with any unauthorized personnel outside of this group, and to directly contact your captains if you have concerns or ideas. As for the civilians, you are all officially notified that the Official Secrets Act has been invoked, and shall be in effect until further notice.

“Captains Steele, Okonkwo and Dupont, you are under direct orders to enforce this order, and to forward all information pertinent to the matter of the Empire’s EM suppression field technology directly to my office. Are we clear?”

All the military personnel on the circuit said, “aye” almost simultaneously, and everyone laughed at that (politely, of course - they were talking to the Admiral of the Fleet, after all). It helped break the tension.

“Ummm, Admiral,” Professor Priestly interrupted, having come back. “I’m afraid I have some news that changes everything...”

There was a silence.

“Is it good news or bad news, Jenn,” Romarkin said.

“I don’t know, ma’am.” She switched to a different audio channel, obviously to tell Romarkin.

Romarkin nodded as she listened.

“Well, enlighten us, Doctor,” Silverman said, after they switched back.

“Yes, Admiral. Doctor Thorpe just called me from Triton Center, about an intercept they got from Elyra. It seems the Elyran scientists have finally cracked the EM suppression field...”

The silence was overwhelming.

“You mean...”

“Yes, Admiral. To be sure, they are just refining their theory on the field suppression effect, but they are well on their way.”

“That changes things...”

“Yes.”

“Madame Secretary-General,” Silverman said formally, “do you have any orders?”

“Admiral, let us stay the course for now, until we have more information.”

Silverman nodded. “All right, then. All orders stand. But before you are dismissed, I have four more items.”

Orders -

“First,” the Admiral said, “it has been decided that Task Force 41/18 shall be a permanent fleet, to be designated as Earth’s Fifth Fleet, and shall be assigned to first contact missions, and our vanguard fleet to push the boundaries of Terran influence and become ambassadors for the race.”

“What?” O’Connell said in the silence.

Silverman chuckled at this response, ignored it and continued. “Second, DSR Seeker, Hermes and Constellation, as well as four additional Type One FTL cruisers, shall be permanently assigned to this new fleet. Pursuant to this, Hermes and Constellation shall be upgraded accordingly, in order to fulfill their new and important roles. Captains Okonwo and Dupont.”

“Sir!”

“Orders shall be sent to you through channels within the day. Congratulations.”

Everyone applauded.

“Third... where is Commander O’Connell?”

“Sir!” O’Connell responded.

“Third, Commander Elizabeth O’Connell is hereby formally reinstated as Captain, and is permanently assigned as master of DSR Seeker.”

This was greeted with a loud and enthusiastic response from those present that were part of Seeker’s crew. In O’Connell’s head, she felt gratified by this - an open acknowledgement from her superiors and her peers. She looked at Mia sitting beside her, clapping as enthusiastically as everyone.

She realized that Mia truly had no designs to supplant her. This realization had slowly been coming for a while now, actually, simply because she noted how Mia worked with her and the crew. Plus, Mia had consistently said her assignment onboard was temporary. Besides, over the months, O’Connell had come to believe that Mia was the right person for the job, and may actually be the rightful captain. Seeing her in action, first in “Pluto orbit,” and then in Saturn, just confirmed it. Mia belonged here, maybe even more than her. Mia would be leaving the service eventually, but it won’t be because of her.

“Sir, I respectfully decline.”

Silverman was surprised, to say the least.

“Can you explain the reason for your decision, Commander?”

“Sir. I wish to remain at my post, and remain as Captain Steele’s exec.”

“Well...” Silverman chuckled, “before you do, perhaps you should wait for me to finish, first?”

“Ummm, sir?”

He waved her down and continued.

“Fourth, Captain Amelia Catherine Steele, in recognition of her command capabilities, unparalleled skills, intelligence, and unwavering dedication to the cause of the Human Race, is promoted to Rear Admiral, and is assigned to the command of the Fifth Fleet. Congratulations, Admiral.”

Mia’s jaw dropped. She stood up, not believing what she heard, while everyone in the room, and those hooked to the circuit, applauded long and enthusiastically.

“Well, what do you say?”

“I... thank you, Admiral.”

“Ummm... Admiral,” O’Connell said. “I respectfully retract what I said, sir, and gratefully accept the reinstatement.”

Silverman laughed out loud. “Are you sure this time, Commander?”

- - - - -

(bookmark 41)

Mia had propped up her CC on top of the desk in her quarters. She had Romarkin, Silverman and Jennifer Priestly on her personal phone via Phase-Wave.

“You can’t do this to me, Ben,” she said to Silverman’s image on her CC. “You knew that I took the job with the understanding that it was only temporary.”

“Temporary?” Silverman responded. “You changed sex, for God’s sake, Bill... I mean Mia. Doesn’t sound temporary to me.”

“It was necessary! There was no choice!”

“And it is our estimation,” Romarkin said, “that we have no choice now.”

“Jenn! Help me out here.”

Jennifer shook her head, refusing to take sides.

“Mia,” Romarkin continued, “tell me who else can do the things you do? Give me a name and, I promise you, you’ll be back to being a civilian so fast, it’ll make your head spin.”

“Allie...”

“Mia, I’m serious. Give me a name.”

Mia sighed.

“I thought so. So, in the meantime, Admiral, suck it up and soldier.”

“Smile, Bill,” Silverman smiled. “It’ll be all right.”

“Ben, just you wait...”

“If you’re thinking of ratting me out to Allison or Tara, they already know. And they actually like the promotion. Tara is actually asking when you can come by the house.”

“Who’re Allison and Tara?” Jennifer asked.

“That’s the Admiral’s wife and daughter,” Mia said.

She decided to change tactics. “Allie, how will the public take the fact that your most-recently promoted officer handling first contact is a woman who used to be a man?”

“It’s actually common knowledge now. The news on the net is that you decided on changing genders because it was necessary to your work, that the Elyrans would find it easier to relate to a woman, and since no one else could do it, you decided to undergo sex reassignment for the sake of the people. Everyone finds that selfless and brave.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“You clearly haven’t been following current events.”

Mia groaned in exasperation. “I can’t believe it. Don’t they think I’m some sort of pervert, or...”

Romarkin shook her head. “Other people have changed their sex, Mia. It’s not exactly unique. Besides, no one cares about people’s sexual orientation anymore. It’s not the Twenty-First Century. Sure, there are still people out there who get off on doing things society thinks are perversions, but with the demystification of gender dysphoria, its stigma has been erased. That’s one less perversion available for people to obsess about. We’re beyond such prejudices, Mia. You know that.”

Mia nodded impatiently. “Even so, that must have been some kind of PR campaign you guys did.”

“It wasn’t a campaign! Some people in the know just gave interviews when the media approached them. The public already knew who Doctor William Steele was, so they were naturally curious about the new Captain Amelia Catherine Steele.”

“And who, pray tell, gave these interviews?”

“Well, that would be Captain, excuse me, I mean Admiral Steele’s commander, of course - Admiral of the Fleet Benjamin Silverman, and the person that took full chairmanship of the CETI council when Dr. Steele resigned - his good friend, Professor Jennifer Priestly.”

“Of course...”

“But, you know,” Jennifer said, “I think your acceptance by the people is the least of your problems.”

“What do you mean?”

“Someone here in CETI got ahold of some pictures and were showing them around to the people here. They’re from Seeker’s log. And somehow they’ve leaked out into the net.” Jennifer pressed a key on her CC and sent some of the pictures over.

“How did they get them anyway?” Mia asked. “Video logs are confidential navy... what the...?”

Jennifer had sent four, all of them cropped from Seeker’s bridge video log, and she had them on the screen. They were all pictures of her on Seeker’s bridge during the Titan encounter. She was in her skin-tight blue pressure suit and knee-high boots.

One was of her with her fists on her hips, looking exasperatedly at someone off-picture and looking very cute at the same time. Another was her standing by her command chair holding down a button on the armrest, with an intense look of concentration on her face. Another was of her in action, pointing at the main view-screen off-picture and giving orders while trying to keep her balance by holding on to the back of her chair, her hair flying over her shoulder. There were other people in that one, and they were strapped to their chairs and trying to hold on against the movement of the ship as well. The framing of the picture was even artfully set at a fifteen-degree angle. It was almost like a frame from some old “action movie.”

The last one was a blown-up picture of her from the waist up, smiling at someone off-picture and looking radiant. She had her head canted a bit and was using her left hand to fluff out her blonde hair.

Jennifer giggled. “You’re a babe, Mia!”

“Who the hell took...”

Jennifer raised her hand. “I’m already tracking down whoever did it, and as soon as I find out who, be assured I will deal with him, her, or whoever.”

“But the damage is done!”

“I’ll say,” Jennifer giggled again. “You’re the new It Girl, Mia!”

“I’m thinking of calling Recruitment and get them to use those pictures,” Silverman laughed.

Mia sighed, and bonelessly sank into her chair. “I’ll get you guys...” she mumbled, and everyone laughed.

“Okay,” Mia said. “If I’m doing this, I want something in return.”

“Yes?” Silverman asked.

“I want carte blanche on how to put together my fleet.”

“Absolutely, Mia,” Romarkin said. “How you want your ships outfitted, which new ships you want, your crew complement. Everything - it’s up to you.”

Mia couldn’t find any other excuses to turn down the position, other than her not wanting it in the first place. She groaned again and gently hit her forehead on the desk over and over. Everyone laughed again.

“Oh, Mia,” Romarkin continued, “since we’re talking, I think I need to let you know that I talked to my friend Peg, and...”

“Peg? Arrrgh!”

“Wait.” Jennifer interrupted. “Who’s Peg?”

“Peg. The queen...” Mia mumbled into the desk.

“What!” Jennifer said. “The Queen of England? Her Royal Highness, Margaret the Second?”

“Peg’s one of my best friends, Jenn,” Romarkin said.

“You’re kidding... And you call her ‘Peg?’“

Romarkin shrugged, smiling. “Anyway, I told Her Royalness,” she giggled, “about Mia’s little snafu during the dinner onboard the Talon, and...”

“Oh, no...” Mia groaned.

“Well, she understood the situation completely, so she got her secretary to churn out a Letters Patent, and per law and custom, had it quietly published in the London, Edinburgh and Belfast Gazettes. And, with her sponsorship, in closed session, the Parliament also unanimously approved your nomination as a British citizen. So, once you sign your citizenship papers, I’m sure you will get a letter from Her Highness in a day or so, for your Knighthood. I’m expecting an invitation to the knighting, of course.” Romarkin’s grin was ear to ear. “By the way, Ben said that you are under orders to accept the citizenship and the knighthood. Isn’t that right, Ben?”

“That’s right, Ma’am,” Silverman said, chuckling.

“Wait, wait!” Jennifer said. “Knighthood?”

“Yes, Jenn. Meet the soon-to-be Lady Amelia of Saint Mary, St. Martin and St. Agnes, Admiral of the Fifth Fleet of Earth.”

“Oooh!”

“Shut up, Jenn,” Mia said.

Romarkin looked worried. She was thinking that they may have overdone it. “So... Mia? Are we okay?”

Mia smiled tiredly. “Yeah, yeah. Now, go away... with respect, Ma’am.”

Romarkin felt relief. Everyone laughed again and signed off.

Mia sat at her desk, thinking. She couldn’t believe how much her friends had been picking on her. But then, this was always the way she and her friends bantered with each other. Why did she think it would it be different now? It’s like they were still seeing Bill and not Mia, or maybe they were just accepting Mia as Bill. She was touched, and she started to tear up. It might not last or she may be reading too much into it, but for now, it was like the way it was before the change.

She also knew that everything that Romarkin and Silverman did was necessary, so she wasn’t really as angry as she was behaving. Besides, she was fairly sure they saw through it and knew she was at least half joking.

“All in all, I know what my friends are doing, and I guess they’re right,” she thought. “I just wish...” And then she thought again... “My friends...” That phrase echoed in her mind. They joked with her just like in the old days, like nothing has changed, and she was grateful. She chuckled that she thought of a few short months back as the “old days.”

There was one other thing that she did notice - she didn’t react to their jokes like before. She was more flirty and less... direct in her jibes. In fact, she wasn’t being as strong in her comebacks as before, and seemed to be more passive and self-deprecating... But she wasn’t doing it deliberately. It was all instinctual and automatic. Was it just in her head or was it just part of being female? Anyway, regardless, it was like they didn’t care that she reacted differently.

Someone buzzed her door. She checked who it was with her CC. It was O’Connell.

“Come in,” she called, hastily wiped her eyes and sat up.

O’Connell came in. “Good afternoon, sir.”

Mia motioned her in. “Good afternoon, Beth. What are you still doing up? You should be resting in your quarters. Well, anyway, what can I do for you?”

“I, ummm, just wanted to know how you want me to manage things, sir. Now that, ummm...”

“Now that you are back in charge?” Mia chuckled.

“Ah, yes, sir.” O’Connell smiled, and giggled as well. She was relieved that her boss was at ease with things.

“Well, unless you disagree,” Mia said, answering her question, “my thought is to keep all of the Admiral’s announcements under the radar. That way, there won’t be any disruptions in our daily routines.”

“I think it’s too late for that, sir,” she said, and explained.

Apparently, after the briefing, Silverman had sent the orders out to all three ships as a General Dispatch, and in the clear. He had also sent out a Fleet communiqué with all the details. He also contacted Admiral Dax, Princess Tasha and the First Ambassador, informing them of the new developments. They had immediately sent their congratulations to the three captains as well as to the new admiral. Mia noted that she still had not received hers. O’Connell explained she had not forwarded it yet since Mia was in a meeting and did not want to interrupt. But O’Connell had made hardcopies and had brought them over with her.

Mia read the messages. She was particularly touched by the message from the First Ambassador. She sighed.

“All right, Beth,” she said. “I guess we can’t keep this quiet. You take over full command of the ship immediately. But you will also be Fleet Exec for the duration. That may mean some kind of brevet promotion, but we can think about that later. All captains in the fleet will report to you, and you will report to me. Now, give me a sitrep on all new developments.”

O’Connell nodded, secretly proud of again being selected as Mia’s exec instead of Okonkwo or Dupont - both more senior than her.

“Seeker’s damage is almost one hundred percent repaired, sir,” O’Connell reported. “The Chief expects completion within the hour. All Shrikes and Mud Turtles are again fully operational and re-armed, and all pilots are available. Constellation is approaching the two ships they’re supposed to be investigating. We are expecting a report shortly. Everything else is shipshape. Hermes reports all well. The Arachnians seem to be happy and report all well, and the Elyrans and Dixx report all well, too.”

Mia nodded. “Good. I’ll expect a report as soon as the Chief says we are back to one hundred percent. Also ask her to look into equipping our squadrons with rail guns without compromising their current armament. What’s the spacecraft complement of Hermes and Constellation?”

“Each has twenty-five type one Eagles and twenty Cobra multi-role transports versus our maximum forty Shrikes and fifteen Mud Turtles. They were originally designed for patrol and ground action, after all, so they have more carriers than normal.

“All right. Inform Okonkwo and Dupont what we are doing with our ships, and tell them to do the same with theirs. Make sure that all of our engineers are working with each other. Also, select one of our Turtles and outfit it with complete radio communication facilities as well as EM-based navigation.”

“To replace its Phase-Wave systems, sir?”

“No - in addition to them.”

“The extra equipment will take up some space, sir...”

“That’s all right, Beth. We won’t be using that as a carrier. Since I know none of you will let me near a Shrike ever again, I’m going to need alterative transport. Still - make that Mud Turtle the last priority in your list.”

“We’re making a captain’s gig, sir?

“Beth! It’s going to be the admiral’s barge!”

O’Connell grinned. “Of course, sir. The Admiral’s Barge - apologies.”

“Oh, and get Haskell to look into providing the crew with alternate sidearms that are projectile-based.”

“You’re worried about another EM suppression field situation?”

“Imagine it being deployed when we find ourselves in hand-to-hand scenarios. We need to be able to level the playing field when the aliens deploy the one single item in their arsenal that can negate our technical advantages.”

“Aye, sir. Anything else?”

“I’d like to see the bridge duty roster when you’re done with it.”

“Ummm, okay, sir.”

Mia sensed some reluctance from her. She reached out and held her hand. “Beth, we’ve been working hand-in-hand for months now, and if you still don’t feel comfortable about speaking your mind, this will definitely not work. When we are with the crew, I understand. But when it’s just us, I expect it to be like it always was. So, what’s your concern?”

O’Connell sighed. “Nothing major, sir. I was just thinking that... it might not look appropriate if our admiral stood regular duty shifts... sir.”

Mia smiled. Is that all? She thought about it. “Well, you’re absolutely right. But you better get used to me looking over your shoulder all the time.”

“That’s all right, sir,” O’Connell said, smiling. “Admiral’s privilege.”

“Okay. Anything else?”

“Ah, one final thing. Really minor.”

“Yes?”

“Our Supply Officer will be passing by within the hour. Sorry, sir, but Admiral Silverman’s orders. He knew that if I didn’t remind you, chances are...”

“Why is he passing by?”

“He’s passing by to alter your uniforms, sir. You know? Admiral’s stripes? Stars?”

Mia laughed.

“He also has suggestions for ship’s patches, rocker tabs, UIMs, shoulder sleeve insignias, wing badges and such.”

“You’re not serious.”

O’Connell laughed. “Oh, yes, sir. You can’t imagine how excited everyone is about the new fleet, and our new mission. They’re very proud to be on the Fleet’s flag carrier.”

Mia laughed again. “All right. In that case, get him up here as soon as he’s free.”

O’Connell nodded. As she stood up to leave, she paused.

“Sir… I don’t know if it’s my place to ask…”

Mia sighed.

“Beth,” she said, “we have gone through too much for either of us not to trust each other. Speak your mind, my dear.”

“I just wanted to ask… if… if you’re okay. The crew is worried. They say that you seem… sad somehow.”

Mia smiled at her in a melancholy sort of way. “Thank you for your concern, Beth. But I’ll manage. I guess it takes time to get used to… things.”

“I can’t say I know what you’re going through, but I can imagine how difficult it must be. It’ll get better, I guess. Being female isn’t too difficult. In fact it can be great. Most of the time. It can even be fun.”

Mia looked at her and giggled. “And what is your idea of ‘fun,’ Beth?”

O’Connell shrugged. “I guess you have to find out for yourself.”

Mia shrugged. “It’s not that. I guess I’m feeling alone.”

“It’s the cost of command.”

“Yes. But it’s not that. I feel lonely. I feel lost…” She shook her head. “But this isn’t your concern. I’m your commander, after all.”

O’Connell turned serious, as well. “Sir… Mia… you’re my commander. But I think you’re my friend, too. And friends are there for friends. If you need to talk about things, I’m here. And don’t worry that you will lose my respect. You’ll never lose it. You are a good commander. And your crew will follow you through the sun and back. But, I wouldn’t want my commander to doubt herself for something as small as her being a former boy. Your crew doesn’t care. I don’t care. But if you need to talk things through…”

Mia stood and reached out for her hand. “Oh, Beth. Thank you. And I think of you as my friend, too.”

Impulsively, O’Connell gave her a hug. “I’ll be there for you. Just let me know.”

After a while, though, the hug started to feel awkward.

“Ummm, Boss… I just want to let you know. I don’t, you know, swing that way…” But then, she heard Mia’s giggles, and then she let go.

“You’re a stinker, you know that?” O’Connell, said, giggling herself.

“Yes, I am,” Mia agreed, still giggling.

O’Connell mock-frowned. “You’re hilarious, you know that?”

Mia smiled and shooed her away. “Go away, Beth. Take care of the ship.”

“Aye, Boss,” she said, saluted casually and stepped out of Mia’s office.

The Fifth Fleet -

Mia had called a meeting of the command crews of all three ships. O’Connell was there with her new Number One (which was again Commander Kajima), Captain Okonkwo and his exec, and Captain Dupont and his Number Two, which was his chief engineer (at the moment, his exec was unavailable - she was supervising the inspection team of the alien ships they were investigating).

They spent an hour or so discussing Admiral Silverman’s orders, and how to manage the new fleet. Mia was relieved that Captains Okonkwo and Dupont, by far the most senior of the eight, were not resentful of Mia being promoted. In fact, they went on and on about the videos from the captured enemy logs, showing Seeker coming out of Saturn’s rings, or making the loop, or her Mud Turtles and Shrikes delivering the blow that shut down the EM suppression field.

- - - - -

(bookmark 42)

It was announced that Fifth Fleet’s command staff will be holding a fleet-wide briefing at eighteen-thirty hours, after the final dinner call. Admiral Silverman’s office was, of course hooked up, as were the Federation ships and the Arachnian quarters via video. Everyone was anticipating the meeting.

Promptly at eighteen-thirty hours, Mia stood in front of a video camera in her new uniform. Everyone checked out her new Admiral’s Stripes, and murmurs spread through the crowd when they saw the new miniature on her uniform. It was too small to see the details, but they still tried to nevertheless.

Mia cleared her throat and began the briefing.

“To the men and women of Earth’s new Fifth Fleet, good evening. I stand here before you now as your commander. Currently, the fleet is made up of the newly re-designated DSC Hermes under Captain Okonkwo, with hull number sixty, DSC Constellation under Capitaine Dupont, hull number seventy-four, and the first of the new Class J-One deep spacecraft, DSC Seeker. With that reclassification comes a re-christening. We are all excited to know what Seeker’s new name will be, and the Admiral assured me this will happen soon.

“Captain Elizabeth O’Connell is again the master of Seeker, and Commander Kajima shall again be doing double-duty as both her exec and Seeker’s Air Group Commander.

“Our fleet’s new mission is First Contact. We shall be visiting our new Federation friends and be Earth’s ambassadors to the Federation. We shall also be the vanguard of Earth defense, interceding during military engagements, and also be the frontline of EarthForce. We shall also be picking up where Earthship II left off, and help discover new planets and new peoples, and go where no human has gone before.

“Our three interstellar cruisers will soon be joined by four more, which will rendezvous with us at New Copernicus, the PRC’s naval yards on Luna Colony.

“For the moment, we continue with our mission of defending Admiral Dax’s ambassadorial fleet as they make their way to Earth and, depending on the results of the upcoming referendum, we may be escorting them back home.”

Mia took a deep breath. “As you know, we have just had our first encounter with the Empire’s newest weapon, and though they had the advantage of holding the initiative and attacking first, we still emerged triumphant.

“But it underlines yet another concern. We need more information on our enemy. Our comrades on Titan are working on it. They are studying the salvaged Empire ships, and our own Capitaine Dupont and DSC Constellation are even now investigating the ships they abandoned in the space between Saturn and Neptune.

“We have much to do, still, and I am excited to push on with our mission, as I hope you all are.” All three crews applauded. “Vive la flotte!” some of the crew from the Constellation cheered.

“All right, then!” Mia said. “As this is an informal briefing, I am opening the floor to any questions you might have for myself, Captains Dupont, O’Connell and Okonkwo. Approach your deck officer and he will get it to us.”

The first question came in from Constellation, relayed by Dupont’s First Officer.

“Bonjour, Amiral,” she said. “Ce est le Commandant Devereaux de Constellation. One of our crew would like to know if there will be any shifts in the command structure.”

“Bonjour, Commander Devereaux. Thank your crewman for the question. The answer is, no there will not be any change in command structure. Captains Dupont and Okonkwo shall be in command of their ships and crew as always, while Captain O’Connell shall again be in command of Seeker. The captain shall also be Fleet Executive, and will be overseeing fleet activities. I shall be in command of the fleet and shall be reporting directly to Fleet Admiral Benjamin Silverman.”

Commander Kajima then came on. “Ummm, sir, there is a question from our Arachnian guests. They would like to know why we have been designated as the Fifth Fleet, as well as why our ships have new designations.”

Mia smiled. This sounded like a question from the Ambassador. “Thank you, Commander. We have been designated as a fleet because we have been made into a permanent group with a standing, permanent mission. We are called the Fifth Fleet since there already are four others in the newly reorganized EarthForce.

“The First Fleet is the primary group whose area of responsibility is the Earth System. The Second Fleet is the system’s Planetary Guard, in charge of police action and rescue. The Third Fleet is the territory fleet, in charge of patrolling the boundaries of Earth System in what we call the Oort Cloud, and beyond. The Fourth Fleet is our outbound missions command, which will handle all missions outside of the system. That therefore makes us the Fifth Fleet.

“As to ship designations, DSC refers to interstellar spacecraft and DSR refers to interplanetary or in-system spacecraft. Because of the change in our mission parameters, we shall now be operating extra-solar as well. They have therefore redesignated Constellation, Hermes and Seeker as DSC ships.

“And before the Ambassador asks about types and numbers, Commander, tell him that’s classified information.” They could hear the guffaws of some Elyrans and Dixx in the background. She smiled.

There was a wide assortment of questions that came up. Some were intelligent questions, such as those about their new mission. Others were less so, such as what “cheese omelet” was in French. It was a question that came from the Arachnians. It seems the Arachnians enormously enjoyed the cheese omelet onboard Seeker. They were told proudly by Seeker’s chief cook that the cheese they used was authentic Reblochon cheese from France, hence the question. Far from being offended, Captain Dupont chuckled and said “omelette du fromage” in his very best French accent.

Some were very curious questions, like the question from that ensign aboard Constellation. The young officer wanted to know how O’Connell felt while floating above Saturn’s rings, and O’Connell talked about her awe at the amazing colors and lights, and the cotton-like surface of the rings one moment, and then her near panic as the Admiral sent the ship careening back inside the ring the next. Her audience laughed and hung on her every word.

One of the more interesting questions was the one about the miniatures Mia, the three captains and their first officers wore. The camera zoomed in on the one Captain Okonkwo was wearing, and it looked like a stylized metal replica of a knight from Earth’s history books, with space armor, a cape flapping in the wind, and a sword stretched out. The only thing lacking was a horse. Okonkwo said that it was actually based on a video they saw from some of the captured Detterex ship’s logs. They used an image from that video as the model for the Fifth Fleet’s new campaign miniature. They flashed the picture he was referring to, and it turned out to be of Commander Elizabeth O’Connell in her armor, as she stood in Seeker’s “crow’s nest” while she gave directions to Seeker’s crew and helped them navigate through Saturn’s rings. When it was first suggested, Mia instantly approved the idea over Beth’s protests.

The response was predictable. After several “ooohs” and “aaahs” and “wows,” there was a mad dash by everyone to grab their CCs and access the logs the captain mentioned from ship’s memory. (They couldn’t, of course, since the files were still confidential.)

The questions continued for quite a while until Mia decided to adjourn an hour later.

After the briefing, the supply officers of all three ships were inundated with requests for Fifth Fleet miniatures, as well as fleet patches, shoulder sleeve insignias, wing badges, rocker tabs, UIMs and such. Unprepared for the requests, they would tell everyone that their orders would be ready for pickup the following morning, and they and their crews would spend the night stitching patches and printing up 3-D metal pins for everybody. It was all automated, after all. There were just too many requests.

After the briefing, Mia took a quiet, leisurely turn around the ship, and conducted an informal night inspection of all of the Chief Engineer’s repairs as well as casually visited with the crew that was on duty. By that time, though, the crewmen from the first and second shifts were in their bunks quietly dozing. Mia decided to peek into one of the wardrooms.

Sensing something, the girl in the first bunk woke up. When she saw it was Mia, she jumped down. “Admiral on deck!”

“Shhh!” Mia shushed the girl. “At ease, crewman!”

Nevertheless, it was too late. Everyone was already awake. They had all gotten up and stood at attention by their bunks.

“I said at ease, everyone! And back to bed! Otherwise, you’re all going to stand double duty tomorrow!”

Almost as quickly, everyone was back in their bunks in a flash.

“Well... that was fast...”

They burst out laughing.

“I’m sorry to bother you. Good work yesterday.”

Before Mia could leave, the crewman who first woke up called out.

“Ummm, Admiral?” she said.

Mia turned back. “Yes, crewman?”

“I just wanted to say thank you for giving the ship back to the Captain.”

Mia nodded. “It wasn’t up to me, you know.”

“I’m sorry, sir,” the crewman said nervously, worried that she had overstepped. It could mean her stripe. “We all think you’re a great skipper. I didn’t mean...”

“Stand easy, my dear,” Mia said. “You’re okay.

“What I meant to say was my posting as your captain has always been temporary. It has been a privilege to have been your captain, but Seeker’s real skipper is Captain O’Connell. But Command had determined I was needed for this emergency. It was important to the Earth, to everyone. I had to be the one to take care of it.”

She giggled a little. “As you see, besides being indispensable, I am also very humble.” Everyone laughed.

Mia sighed. “With your good work, as well as everyone’s, a crisis was averted. The people of Titan are safe once again. But the emergency continues, and may continue for a while. A more permanent solution was needed. And that’s the reason for the Fleet.

“One good thing that has happened, though, was that your captain has been put back in Seeker’s command seat. The bad thing however, is that you are still stuck with me.”

Everyone laughed again, and the tension and seriousness finally lifted.

The crewman sat up and started asking about the picture of O’Connell that they saw earlier, so Mia explained why she was there outside the hull in open space, what the “crow’s nest” was, what Saturn’s rings were made of, and what was the implication of going through them with just a structural integrity field and no deflectors. She also described how it was like navigating with just eyes and telescopes, and managing to fight the enemy without any tracking aids and without most of their weaponry.

Mia was glad nothing happened to them, otherwise they would have been stuck there, making the Seeker Saturn’s fifty-fourth named satellite, at least for a little while, that is. She brought up the terms “shepherd satellite” and “shepherd moon,” and asked for volunteers to explain the terms. She was glad that many raised their hands.

No one got back to sleep right away that night and listened instead to Mia’s descriptions of their Saturn encounter, some stories that she knew of the aliens, stuff about their home planets, their language, and anything else the crew could think to ask.

Many of them knew a lot already, and Mia remembered these people from the classes she used to conduct. She apologized that particular practice had lapsed, but everyone had gotten busy. She said she’ll see if the classes can resume again, and let them know as soon as they were.

After more than an hour, she decided to declare lights out and bid them all good night. She closed the wardroom door but, before walking away, she put her ear against it.

She could hear the crew chatting animatedly, and though she couldn’t really make out what they were talking about, she was pleased regardless. She went back to her quarters with a spring in her step.

Complications -

Most of the things onboard Seeker seemed to be the same as before. There were a few changes though, most notably that Mia wasn’t standing watches anymore, but it made little difference as she was still there a lot of the time. Mia was careful though not to give command instructions, and coursed any through the watch command duty officer.

She also commandeered Seeker’s smallest conference room, which happened to be on the deck below her quarters, and just two cabins over. She had it converted to her new office and had Chief Haskell install command communications facilities. Haskell had also taken the initiative to cut through the two adjacent cabins, and cut through Mia’s own cabin so she’d have direct access to her new office. (The occupants of the now-smaller cabins were moved to more spacious refitted cabins, the contents of the refitted cabins moved to the now-smaller unusable ones.)

As soon as her new office was ready, she moved in, much to the relief of the entire bridge crew, and conducted most of her work from there. The First Ambassador was a frequent visitor, and Nick practically lived there - he found the communications facilities extremely convenient when working.

There were now guards posted at the door of her quarters and office, not really for security, but to control access to her. As a sign of the times, many senior officers preferred having personal security. Mia did not like to have any but she at least acknowledged the need for a few, if just to give her office that much-needed touch of ceremony. But Silverman and Romarkin did insist she at least find an assistant.

Since there was no way around it, she chose Nick since she had him around almost all the time anyway.

Nick accepted the position of Mia’s Aide-de-Camp eagerly - he said it wasn’t too big a change from his current work anyway, and besides, he wasn’t too used to military life, and this would probably be a little better, and closer to what he was used to before being drafted. Mia joked that he probably just liked the gold-and-blue braided aiguillette that he’d get to wear.

Once all of that was set, Mia started developing a routine, and she spent the remaining weeks they still had before arriving on Earth in her office, finishing up some more details before they got near Earth.

Her first meetings in her new office were spent working with Commander Devereaux, Commodore Oshiro and Marta Running-Stream’s people, as they got a handle on the EM Suppression Field technology. It was mostly Phase-Wave videocons but her new office’s comm facilities were great.

In her latest meeting, she found out Commander Devereaux’s people had quickly finished their investigation of the abandoned escort ship and carrier, boosted them into a slow course towards Titan, and had started making their way back to Seeker.

Devereaux’s people had found many key components of the cruiser’s FTL systems were taken out, mostly the large electromagnetic generators of the engines. This rendered her engines inoperable so they abandoned it, along with the empty fuel carrier.

As for Titan’s engineers, they found these subsystems retrofitted into the drive of one of the Tiros hulks, and Marta’s people confirmed that their interaction caused the field effect. Marta’s people also concluded that there would be some kind of Cherenkov-like effect, similar to a badly tuned FTL field or maybe like their inertia converters. This may be why they called it the “Curtain of Light,” but they wouldn’t know until they made their own prototype.

Oshiro’s people also found out from the captured Empire personnel that the slap-dash nature of the retrofit was problematic for its Tirosian crew. Microwave radiation burns caused by poorly assembled microwave shields affected a lot of their engineers. One of them died while they were interred because of untreated and unreported burns.

Microwave burns are similar to electrical burns - but they run deeper into tissues than normal thermal or chemical burns. They were simple to treat, actually, but with what they were dealing with at the time, not many of the affected Tirosians were able to get their burns treated even while they suffered more burns. Many died during their journey to Saturn, and a few more died while interred, mostly from infections, fluid loss or nerve damage.

The captured Tirosians readily gave up their secrets and their ships, and Marta’s people were able to quickly replicate the effect on a small scale. They were now in the process of building their own safer and far more compact versions. Marta herself was, in fact, unavailable for the meeting since she was concentrating on creating their own prototype EM suppression generator.

As for how to protect against its effects, they were not successful. For now, there were no known ways of protecting against the EM suppression field.

Mia left it to the PRC people to find out how to combat the field effects. What she needed to work on now were weaponry that worked inside the field.

During the Titan encounter, the things that they were able to use were rail guns, rockets and missiles, so she thought using rail guns would be a good idea.

As an older ship, Seeker still had rail guns - a total of eight individual rail guns in fact, each capable of firing projectiles at up to several thousand meters per second, giving each about half a joule of energy, or over a kiloton of TNT. Their destructive energy was basically from the projectiles’ kinetic energy, but that could be increased if explosive projectiles were used.

Hermes and Constellation, like all Type Ones and Type Twos used more modern weaponry, but they did have at least one rail gun that fired through ten tubes, capable of firing projectiles at velocities that gave each about half the kinetic energy of Seeker’s. The rail guns were used to supplement their energy weapons and missiles - after all, FTL ships had enough power to generate the millions of amps needed, and the guns themselves were small enough and easily manufactured.

The ease by which rail guns could be manufactured made the humans wonder why the aliens didn’t use them, which was confirmed by the alien hulks.

As for Earth fighters, they couldn’t have rail guns - the energy required was just too much for the little spacecraft to produce. It was lucky Titan had several small, mothballed eighty-year-old rail launchers that had independent power, so they were able to equip some of the Shrikes. But Okonkwo complained where would they be able to find enough of the outdated mechanisms to outfit all their planes?

As for individual hand weapons, that was easier. Many handguns that used bullets propelled by exploding or expanding gases were still in wide use. There were none on board any of the ships, however, but it would be an easy matter to fabricate similar weapons.

The last item on their daily agenda was the problem of communicating without using radio or Phase-Wave. Except for light and laser communication, the crew of the Seeker found no other ways that worked. So they decided to look further into laser comms.

Other than that, everything else that they tackled were mostly administrative, and they breezed through those quickly: Mia hurried those along to keep her staff meetings down to a few hours only, so she could attend to the conferences that were still continuing - the so-called Channels “A,” “B” and “C” meetings.

Before the meeting broke up, though, O’Connell brought up the matter of the “admiral’s barge” as their last housekeeping item.

The term “admiral’s barge” was taken from the old 20th-century maritime term for the flag officer’s personal boat that he’d use to get ashore, or move from ship to ship. It would have been a “captain’s gig,” but since it was for Mia, and since the Seeker was the flag carrier of the fleet, naturally, they’d have an “admiral’s barge.”

And that’s what she called the Mud Turtle that Mia had asked to be refitted for her use when she needs to get around. Since the fifth fleet would be travelling between systems most of the time, it wasn’t unreasonable that they’d need a ship’s boat dedicated for officers to move around, hence the “admiral’s barge.”

O’Connell flashed a picture on their screens.

The Barge was a Mud Turtle, like O’Connell said, but it was re-done so that it now sported a radome on it’s roof, round glassite ports at the corners for laser comms, extra ports on the sides that she explained were mini-rail gun tubes, and a couple of round, stubby wings. They weren’t wings, actually, but the housing for maneuvering flywheels.

The ship also had a new paint job. It now sported a darker gray color than the normal gunmetal gray of Seeker’s shuttles and Shrike fighters, and had a narrow red trim running around its hull. The red trim wasn’t just for aesthetic purposes – it actually hid the piping for a spruced-up, reinforced Structural Integrity Field, or SIF.

On its port and starboard hulls near the bow, it sported two admiral’s sunbursts, and beside the painted sunbursts the words “01, Galileo – DSC Seeker.” The hull towards the stern had miniatures of the UN Flag, and the rear boarding hatch had the words “EDF FIFTH FLEET – DSC 05 SEEKER, FLAG.”

“We have never had captain’s gigs and admiral’s barges on any Terran ship. The only one that has something like that is Earthship II. So my people had to do some research. These are authentic colors and livery for a barge.

“Anyway, the Galileo is ready to go. And the reason I’m showing her to you is that you might want to look her over – the modifications may be useful, and you might want to retrofit your ships in the same way.”

“The Galileo,” Dupont mused. “Where did you get the name, Capitaine O’Connell?”

“It was suggested by the Admiral’s Aide-de-Camp. He says it’s from an old twentieth century television show.”

“I like it.”

Mia grinned. “Thank you, sir.”

- - - - -

(bookmark 43)

Though the tech briefings on Channel “A” continued, the pace of the briefings had significantly slowed down. There was still a lot to learn from each other, but most everyone had suggested to end the briefings after a few days. The whiz-bang nature of the talks had petered out, and the researchers wanted to work on other things. So the briefings were discontinued.

To substitute for the briefings, the people from CETI transmitted to the aliens several translated encyclopedias. They explained these were actually just books that everyone could buy. They just translated them. Together with the documents Mia gave before, they suspected the aliens will take at least several months getting through the books.

What the CETI people didn’t tell them, of course, was that these were the original references made by the researchers responsible for the original transmission sent to the Federation. Those researchers had combed through the material beforehand, of course, removing any sections or references that Mia (when she was still Bill) wanted to keep secret: like things about Phase-Wave, spacecraft numbers and details, weaponry, population distribution, et cetera. The CETI people had been working on these since the original transmission was sent, and by now, they were so sanitized that they held no strategic value for the aliens whatsoever. They never did transmit them, and Jenn thought this was the opportune time to send them now.

The Elyrans and Dixx accepted them gratefully, and reciprocated by transmitting their own version of an encyclopedia as well. These were so much better than the first books they gave, and Jenn and her staff were glad to receive them. What’s more, they were also given Dixx as well as Elyran technical references on various subjects, allowing Jenn and her people to cross check/cross-reference them with each other.

To reciprocate, Sahsha sent some other stuff - she sent copies of some fashion and entertainment magazines.

There were a few magazines still publishing regular printed issues and Sahsha thought it might help the aliens understand them better if they could get copies. Jennifer approved it so they did quick scans and translations and sent them off.

Ren and many of his friends in Talon were quite excited about the magazines, and they pored over the pictures and articles, amazed at the Earthers’ ideas on fashion and entertainment. It seems an interest in celebrity gossip was something common to both races.

To Ben and his friends, Earther fashions seemed quite suggestive and risqué, and sometimes they found them scandalous. But they were professionals and made allowances. There was no accounting for taste, especially for aliens. But one thing they agreed on: they learned a new Earther word, and that word was “sexy.” Earther fashions were sexy.

They wanted to reciprocate, and Ben, the Prince’s closest friend on board, went though the entire science staff and scanned copies of their “magazine” collections.

Most publications on Elyra were still print-only so Ben had to scan them first, but that wasn’t a problem, and he was able to transmit them in short order.

Sahsha was excited to receive the magazines, and could hardly wait. And when she received them, she was over the moon, and started poring over them as soon as the computer spit them out. She took half a day, and she was like a little girl looking through an old-fashioned fairy tale pop-up book. To Sahsha, Elyran styles looked very similar to seventeenth century French court fashion, and in her mind, she imagined herself dressing like Cinderella or something, walking the halls of the castles of Elyra Prime.

She even went through the trouble of tuning in to the conferences and thanking Ben personally.

Mia, as did most that were there, listened in on their conversation, and she couldn’t help but smile. It was like listening to two giggly adolescents excited by the idea of a shopping trip to a mall on Earth (She wondered if Elyra had malls). She could easily imagine these two becoming best friends. Maybe she can bring them on a shopping trip to the New Mall of America in Minnesota or the New Mall of Asia in Manila. Goodness knows she owed Sahsha at least one shopping trip from when she was still Bill.

She whispered to Nick, to make a note of asking the Secretary-General to make Sahsha a permanent member of the contact team, and to replace her translator device with a smaller, more portable version. Her rapport with Ben could be very useful, and they definitely needed someone who was a good documentor.

- - - - -

(bookmark 44)

On Channel “B,” the newly reformatted channel “B” briefings had now morphed into what amounted to a social science and history class. Prince Ren, his assistant Ben, their staff, and Professor Priestly now jointly managed it. Their efforts were supplemented by Jaxx, a Dixx scientist from Admiral Dax’s staff, Cale, the Dravidian from the Keeper’s staff that they first met during their encounter with the Keeper of the Heritage, plus two silent Erocii, also from the Keeper’s staff, that seemed to be there to assist Cale.

The attendees were usually the science staff of Fifth Fleet, Earther and Federation alike (Dax and Reena assumed they were part of the Fifth Fleet, and Mia went along), plus a large contingent from CETI and many from the Terran universities.

Cale did a masterful job, and his portion was by far the most visually interesting. His presentation was thorough, and the graphics and illustrations his Erocii assistants put up gave everyone a lot of information, which covered Dravidian and Erocii history and culture, as well as a Dravidian’s take on the various major races in the Federation (the portions on the Dravidians and Erocii were particularly detailed, of course).

For the First Ambassador’s people, the Arachnians, did it together - four of them did the lecture in what an Earther would have said was a combination lecture and pantomime. The information was not as rich in reference material since everyone knew the Arachnians lost everything, but they did their best, with the able assistance of Nick as friendly translator/go-between, and all of the resources of Seeker at their disposal. It was surprisingly entertaining yet informative. The Arachnians were puzzled by what they were told was a “standing ovation” until the First Ambassador explained. So, under the First Ambassador’s direction, they did a respectable version of a curtain call bow.

It was, in fact, very entertaining, and Jennifer was happy they did it that way. Any xenophobic feelings that people may have had were surely washed away by the humorous drama-sketches that they performed, with Nick as their straight man.

As for the Elyrans, during Ren’s lecture, he included a blackboard and pointer in his lecture, although he didn’t use the traditional Earth-style green board and white chalk. What he used looked like a yellowish papyrus or some kind of woven straw mat tacked to a board, and what looked like charcoal sticks. He behaved like the absent-minded professor that Earther schoolchildren would instantly recognize. His part, Jennifer thought, was the most popular, especially among Earther females. He and his assistant Ben were extremely cute, after all.

Not to be outdone, during her part, Jennifer did the whole schoolteacher shtick as well. She couldn’t find a blackboard or chalkboard so she used a standard Crystalline display board and several UV markers. She finished it off with the stereotype teacher look - a long ruler in her hand, eyeglasses on a chain, long-sleeved white blouse, pencil skirt, tights and black pumps. Jennifer made sure, though, to keep the top buttons of her blouse unbuttoned. She also picked her favorite patent-leather high heels and one of her shortest short skirts. She wanted to play up to her Elyran audience, too, after all. The Earthers laughed when Jennifer did the stereotype stern schoolteacher look, but she was sure she had as big an effect with the Elyran males as Ren did with the Earther men.

Mia took a little time to explain to the non-Earthers the cultural references for Jennifer’s outfit, and they seemed to understand. Ren explained that they had a similar male archetype in modern Elyran culture.

“Young Miss Amelia!” Jennifer mock-exclaimed, and slapped her ruler in her hand several times. “What do you think you’re doing? Stop chatting with your classmates! Back in your seat!”

“Yes, ma’am,” Mia said contritely, playing along. She scurried back to her seat, and everyone laughed.

Needless to say, Jennifer’s lecture was the most popular among the Elyrans.

- - - - -

(bookmark 45)

Upon Jennifer’s recommendation, Secretary-General Romarkin had shared recordings of the raw, un-edited recordings to all the legitimate news agencies with an audio translation channel and a subtitle channel built in. There was, however, a thirty-minute delay before they sent it off so that CETI had time to cut out any security-sensitive material. The breaks caused by the deleted spots were quite irritating, actually, so most of the networks took the raw feed and edited them, adding appropriate commentary and commentators, music and other things to give them more glamour and pizazz. They also re-transmitted them at more convenient viewing hours, and in more palatable, re-cut and rearranged fifteen-minute chunks. This also gave them a chance to sneak in their commercials in between. Ren and the others watched the edited versions of their “history classes” and were bowled over by the quality of the shows. Ben giggled and said he was a “video star” now.

The “classes” became the most popular transmissions on the Solar Network at the time. The entire human population was very curious about the aliens, and any material about them was gobbled up. But, more than that, these transmissions were the most popular ones since people had a chance to see the aliens live. They were especially popular among the younger viewers - they thought the Elyrans very attractive, especially Ren with the girls, and their accents were thought of as very cute.

Some of Jennifer Priestly’s people were worried about xenophobia, and they thought broadcasting the classes was a risk, but they were relieved when there were very few signs of this, as Jenn predicted there would be. She attributed the people’s acceptance to the Seeker staff’s friendly, casual and cordial relationship with the aliens, especially Mia, which was so obvious in the class. If a beautiful, intelligent, glamorous person like Mia could be close friends with what superficially looked like a large orange-and-white spider, they couldn’t be all bad. There were even rumors that Mia and the First Ambassador had actually become close friends. Plus, the Elyrans were cute, the Erocii were like large, colorful ladybugs, Cale the Dravidian looked like a big, cheerful bear and the Dixx looked like tall, regal birds with bright feathers.

Jennifer was actually a little worried about the reverse. Xenophilia wasn’t really something she prepared for, but there were lots of signs, especially for the Elyrans. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, some may even say it’s a good thing. But any good sociologist (and Jenn was the best) knew that this could be as bad as a xenophobic wave. Images of the cults and fanatics of Earth’s past were in her mind, and those were not good.

But that’s probably not going to happen. “Guess we’ll see,” Jenn thought.

- - - - -

(bookmark 46)

As for Channel “C,” the closed-door meetings were ably managed by Secretary-General Romarkin (when she was available, which was seldom), Sahsha Delyer, and Admiral Dax herself.

The discussions were fairly well along already, so the meetings usually lasted only for an hour or so nowadays. That was because the work they did lately was mostly to review and refine the wording of the treaties and other documents they had been working on. The documents were all mostly done, and they just needed to be finessed and approved. Their days were now spent mostly going over suggestions and modifications requested by various interest groups or certain Earth politicos.

The advantage the humans had over the aliens was that when a decision had to be made, the humans authorized to make decisions were available to them, and therefore the decisions were fairly easily done. As for the Federation envoys, they were only empowered to approve certain things, and they were already at their limit. They had to disapprove most of the new changes, pending comment by their people back home.

They were also working on another document, something they were calling the proposed “Terran-Federation Treaty,” or what Marc Bidwell called their “wish list.” It was their working draft of the treaty they would propose in case Terran membership to the Federation would be approved, patterned after the existing treaties currently enforced in the Galactic Federation, and predicated on best-case scenarios and the things the Earthers wanted: favorable trade positions, for example, right-of-way in trade routes, trade priorities, equitable mutual defense agreements, fair settlement rights and so many others. They had been heavily modifying this document using input from the First Ambassador, the Prince and Princess and Admiral Dax, about what they felt the other races in the Federation would or would not agree to. It was fortunate that the Arachnians were advising them - it was a common view in the Federation that Arachnians got the worst treatment from most. Not that there was anything remotely like overt oppression or discrimination among the races, but it was indisputable that the Arachnians had come out of most trade negotiations or arbitrations on the losing side. Things were improving for the Arachnians, however, as they were starting to become adept at how to deal with individualists instead of “team players,” as Earthers would say. Romarkin and her people were reaping the benefits of all of their hard-earned lessons. The resulting document was one they felt would find easy approval by the Federation yet stack the cards in favor of the Earthers, and to a significant extent, the Elyrans, Arachnians and Dixx.

During the frequent lulls in the discussion, when one or the other person needed to concentrate on reading a newly edited section, the others would chat about the Isles of Scilly. The aliens were excited to see their new home on Earth, and were bowled over to find out that they were part of a duchy of the Lady Amelia, which she was “allowing” them to use. And when she was free, they would usually ask Mia to dial in and talk about them.

Mia dreaded it when the Elyrans, Arachnians and Dixx wanted to talk about the islands, but she did her best to be a credit to the Secretary-General, and to help forward her scheme: she had dutifully researched the Isles of Scilly, which she was informed was her duchy now. How could she take this seriously, she thought. And with a name like Scilly... It didn’t really matter that the islands were supposedly hers - since they were mostly deserted, especially after the Third World War. There really was no real difference to anyone whether they were Mia’s or not.

There were still, however, several hundred hardy individuals who made the islands their home while they managed them for the British government and performed patrol, erosion prevention, agricultural recovery and weather monitoring work, as well as managing the next-to-nonexistent tourist facilities.

These hardy civil servants were surprised to find out just a few days ago that the isles they’ve been living and working in was actually a duchy of Mia’s. They were not too suspicious, though, and did not question this - many records were lost in the war so reconstructing records and returning property held in trust by the government to their rightful owners happened from time to time. They weren’t as surprised as Mia was, of course, but she didn’t contradict the British government.

The people living in and working on the islands were all given options to accept new government positions on the mainland or to be part of the soon-to-be embassy compound. Most jumped at the chance to stay, of course.

Admiral Silverman also had his people deploy personnel from the SEABEES – the Navy Engineering Corps - to the islands, and started doing what was necessary to prepare them for occupancy, and to train the would-be embassy staff. They dutifully sent reports to Mia, and she dutifully committed them to memory.

In meetings, Mia would tell the aliens that government personnel posted there to manage them mostly occupied the islands. None were native to the islands since they were abandoned during the war, but all of their new residents were very fond of the place.

The global government has started preparing the islands, she said, clearing land and putting up temporary structures for their new guests.

She explained that the weather was mostly mild throughout the year, except when there were storms or in winter of course, and the Elyrans seemed excited as they listened to her.

Ren was curious about how Mia became their duchess, so Mia went into the song and dance that she had worked out with Romarkin’s people.

“Well, Your Highness, I am not completely sure, actually,” she said. “Many records were lost in the war, and families lost touch with each other. All I know is that the islands have been passed on to me because an ancestor on my mother’s side was a duke, and I inherited the title and property. Truth be told, I haven’t been to the islands in a while,” (“try never,” she thought) “but I know how beautiful they are, and I am sure that you will enjoy your stay.”

She then showed them pictures of the islands, most particularly St. Mary’s, which she claimed was her ancestral home (she actually got the pictures from the Cornwall Tourist Board), and talked about the features of St. Mary’s and the other islands, taking most of her material from the tourist brochures she was given.

To Ren and Tasha, her explanations were all proof positive of Mia’s credentials, and they treated her from then on as a royal peer. Taking the lead from them, the rest of the Elyrans, Dixx and Arachnians all referred to her as “Lady Amelia” from then on, or “Lord Captain.”

Mia sighed. With everything that was happening, she now had to endure this as well. And she knew her people will start doing the same. She sighed again. Complications... Life really was full of complications...

Innovations -

Over the coming days, Mia’s people would make headway in developing EM suppression-proof equipment, and they did their best to push innovation to the edge.

The teams did the easiest things first. In order to provide their people with communications, even if comparatively short-range, they retooled the helmets and armored headpieces of all their people and, using off-the-shelf components, put sixteen laser emitters and detectors in a silvered ring around their tops. The idea was, when the laser system was engaged, it would fire invisible, harmless message-encoded laser beams in a global pattern (they confirmed with the PRC people that the frequency of light they used was not affected by the EM suppression field). When a beam hits a detector on another helmet, that other helmet will focus on the beam and re-transmit the message as well as transmit its wearer’s own message beams. In this way, the wearers would create their own real-time laser-based communication relay network. The user can even switch “channels,” and listen to specific people since everyone had their own encoding, or listen to everyone at the same time.

They also replicated the same concept onboard the three ships, their fighters and their shuttles, and if they receive any of the encoded messages from the suits or the other ships, they’d act as repeaters as well.

One of the big things with laser communication was that the parties needed to be precisely lined up and targeted. Not with this new system. The two main limitations with their system however was that their communications could easily be intercepted and they had to have a minimum number of people to create a network and relay messages. But this was thought a small trade-off to not having any communications at all.

The next thing that they tackled was the individual sidearms for the crew.

When Mia asked what they had come up with, she was presented with two tubes - one of them six inches long and the other about a foot and a half long.

They were based on an idea someone from Hermes had. Essentially, they were blowguns powered by super-pressured gas cartridges, allowing precisely machined metallic slugs to be propelled at around two hundred meters per second. In the prototype, there was gas enough in each cartridge to fire up to two dozen rounds, and it was a simple matter to swap out a cartridge for a fresh one, with a protective valve that allowed it to operate in vacuum.

The tubes were to be mounted to their existing weapons, and would be fired by the same trigger. They also intended to mount a low-powered laser sight so all they need do was to shine the laser’s red dot on their target and fire, and they’d hit it every time (the frequency tuned to a filter of the soldier’s helmet, so she would be the only one to see her gun’s laser dot). It was an old-fashioned twenty-first century innovation, but one that had the virtue of working long-distance yet remain impervious to the EM effect.

Mia wondered that, if lasers worked, why not make laser ray guns (Nick snickered at the term). The Hermes’ chief engineer explained that any beam with sufficient power to be used as an offensive weapon would just break down.

The more difficult item was the last one they tackled - equipping their small ships with rail guns.

The first thing Beth’s people did was to break down one of the twenty antique rail launchers that the people from Titan installed in the Shrikes. The gun itself was easy to fabricate but their problem, as before, was the power supply. They couldn’t figure out how the old launchers were able to store the necessary power to make them work. They seemed to be made from regular components, but no one could figure out the trick. That is until they cracked open one of the enormous, ancient battery cells.

Each cell had a wire made of some alloy that wasn’t used much anymore due to their brittleness in vacuum. They were wound around and through an armature made from a powdery substance compacted into a cylinder in a kind of crisscross pattern no one recognized.

Through experimentation, they found the cell was actually a capacitor, able to hold an enormous charge but only for a short period, and could only discharge it all in one go, and if not discharged in, at most, a minute, it was liable to explode. Used as a battery, it was a failure. That was probably why the technology wasn’t used anymore and why there were no references about it available.

But for a device requiring a gigantic jolt of power, it came ready-to-order, provided, of course, one could generate the minimum power it required at the start. The battery that they cracked open for example, could only hold charges two hundred thousand amps up, but no less.

Another catch was it would take a second or so for it to charge enough to fire a round, even with a Shrike’s or an Eagle’s semi-FTL engine. The rail gun’s rate of fire would therefore be around thirty to forty rounds per minute, at best.

Mia’s people were able to scrounge up enough of the compounds they needed to make batteries for just a few of their ships, but at least now they knew how to do it. When they were docked, they were sure they will be able to requisition enough raw material.

- - - - -

(bookmark 47)

Mia also had other meetings to help her decide on the rest of her fleet. She originally thought of requisitioning four more Class J cruisers and convert them to Class J-Ones just like Seeker, but apparently, there were no others. The last one was actually in the middle of being dismantled and recycled for its metal. Seeker was, unfortunately, the last of her kind.

Mia called up Marta Running-Stream for advice, but Marta said the other legacy ship types were too much trouble to convert, so she advised Mia to just select from the Type Ones.

That reminded her about Hermes and Constellation. She checked on their required upgrades, but Marta said it was a fairly straightforward upgrade. Type Ones didn’t differ much from Type Twos - they were basically the same design, except that Type Ones had the larger FTL engines meant for light-year velocities, and were outfitted with fewer Eagle Fighters and less Cobra shuttles. In fact, she said they already had the Type One engines for Mia’s ships ready, and were just waiting for them to arrive. Once they did, Marta’s people could swap the engines out in a few days.

As for the new crew makeup, Mia wanted to get as many social scientists and CETI specialists as she can get, but that might not be possible. Still, though Phil didn’t want to give up any of his staff, Mia felt she might be able to sweet-talk Jenn into giving up some of hers.

- - - - -

(bookmark 48)

Mia also spent a lot of time tuned in to Channel “B” and was fascinated by the material being discussed. It was a good idea that the briefings were reformatted. As for Channel “C,” after a few days, they had officially declared their work completed. They were only waiting for the Earthers’ referendum to ratify the treaty now. To cap their work, Mia turned over a prototype Terran-Elyran translator to the First Ambassador - one of many that the Earthers plan to use for the duration of the stay of their visitors on Earth. It was intended that the Arachnians test it out prior to their arrival.

The First Ambassador eagerly accepted the “duty” to test-drive the prototype, and Ren just had to giggle at his excitement.

On Channel “B,” the lectures went well. The last one to lecture was Jennifer. She took two whole days to lecture about the Earthers, and there were a lot of questions during and afterwards.

The lectures that the Elyrans gave also provided the Earthers with a lot of info, as did those of the Dixx, the Dravidian and the Arachnians. For example, they found that with the Elyrans, as with the Detterex, tradition and honor were important drivers for their lives. As for the Dixx, obedience to authority, and how well they are able to do so gave them their sense of fulfillment. For Dravidians, personal success was important, as was following rules. The highest honor was achieved by attaining the highest personal success yet still follow the rules. As for the Arachnians and Erocii, to be part of a clan or family gave them their fulfillment, but the Erocii found the need to establish their own dynasties instead of just being part of one an equally important drive. As for the Tirosians, it was a common view in the Federation that they were cunning and ruthless, willing to do anything to get their way, but only committed to engage an enemy if they had the advantage.

The aliens didn’t see it, but the new information gave Earth strategists insights on how to manage them. Jenn said that the advantage of the human psyche, at least in this particular situation, was its multi-facetedness. Compared to the Federation races, Humans were unusually neurotic. But that was because Humans were a lot less single-minded, which allowed them to second-guess the aliens, even to the extent of anticipating their actions.

Jenn thought, given a few thousand millennia, Humans would probably be the same as the Federation - set in their ways and less willing to consider new methods of doing things. But as of this moment, the “Earthers” were the provincials that didn’t know table manners but were also the ones that weren’t mired yet in Federation cultural narrow-mindedness, allowing them to explore ideas and concepts that would not have even occurred to the aliens. Time will tell if Jenn was right.

For now, everyone was feeling good about the progress they were making, but the pessimist in Mia thought it couldn’t last. Unfortunately, she was correct.

Several days before planetfall, a full fifteen days before the earliest expected arrival of the Empire ships, they received a message. It seems radio signals all across the board had disappeared.

Hiding in plain sight -

“Admiral Steele,” Silverman said. “How are your Federation charges?”

“They’re fine, sir,” Mia responded. “As soon as we heard about the EM effects, we established a laser comm line to them immediately. All five of their ships are all right.”

“Good.”

“Has the EM field’s Phase-Wave boundary been identified, sir?”

“Here you go,” Silverman said. His people sent over an extrapolated Phase-Wave graph of the system and it replaced the video on the main screen. It was the Solar System as seen from above the plane of the ecliptic, with the eight planets’ orbits marked.

“There it is, Admiral,” Beth said, pointing to another round smudge. It was well past Mars’ orbit.

“the field’s trailing us,” Mia said. “Needless to say, the enemy’s inside the field, of course. They probably spotted the Federation ships a while back and matched course. It’s only a matter of time before the field’s leading edge overtakes us as it has the Federation ships.”

“Show the stats for the Admiral,” Silverman instructed and the picture changed. A new graph was displayed showing their eight cruisers in relation to Earth, the moon and the EM suppression field. Two scales underneath each showed distance to Earth and their ETA. Mia looked at the changing velocities but also at the time-over-distance figures.

“Admiral,” Beth pointed out. “The field will be intercepting us in... Just under three days.”

“Captain O’Connell is correct,” Admiral,” Silverman said. “Assuming the aliens are in the middle of that field, and speeds are constant - two point seventy-three days, give or take. But they’re speeding up. Or rather slacking off deceleration.”

“They’re traveling too fast, Beth,” Mia said worriedly. “They want to catch us before we make it to Earth. But at those velocities...”

“They must know they’re not gonna be able to decelerate in time before hitting Earth or shooting beyond her...” Beth murmured. “Skipper, it’s a suicide mission.”

“Admiral,” Mia said to Silverman, “These ships are going to wipe away the Federation ships at all costs. They have no intention of escaping. Seems they’ve decided that the priority is to prevent word from getting back to the Federation.”

“That’s what my people here tell me, too. It’s time to change Fifth Fleet’s course, Admiral.”

“Sir,” Beth said, and pulled Mia aside to whisper into her ear. Mia whispered back. No one was disturbing them as they whispered to each other.

“Mia?” Silverman said. He was getting a little impatient.

“Admiral,” Mia said. “If I may ask, what is the status of the Legacy ships?”

“Sir,” one of Silverman’s staff answered, “ten of the fourteen are near Lunar Orbit now. The last four will be arriving some time later tonight.”

Mia nodded at that. “Sir, with your permission, Beth and I have an idea...”

“Go ahead.”

“I suggest that we set course for Luna Colony, and get the enemy to follow us into an orbit around the moon, to give Lunar Control a crack at them with their colony defenses.”

“How will you guarantee that they follow you, and not continue on to Earth?”

“I would have all available cruisers establish a picket line across their path in between the Moon and the enemy, but leave a path open for us to power through and into a course to the moon, which, of course, would also be open to the enemy. I would have the picket line established as early as possible, let the enemy see it early and let them come to the conclusion we want. I’ll want to get Lunar Patrol launched to keep the enemy bottled up and orbiting as long as possible until they’re slow enough that Lunar Defense can start tracking them manually and shoot them down.”

“Lots of possible holes in that net, Mia.”

“Aye, sir. As I see it, the Fifth Fleet has four main objectives here: protect the mother planet, protect civilians in Luna Colony, protect the Federation envoys, and disable and capture the enemy. In that order.

“Of course, we can run the safe play, sir, and lure away the enemy, or fire on them now, but we might not achieve all four objectives. I believe, sir, that our plan can achieve all four objectives with sufficient precautions in place.”

Silverman looked away to his left. Mia knew he only did that when he was trying to accept an idea he doesn’t believe in, but in the end he did.

“All right, Mia,” he said. “We’ll do it your way.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Better do it quick before we lose Phase-Wave. The EM suppression field will overtake you soon.”

“Aye.”

“My people will brief all ships per your plan, and put them under your temporary command.”

“I appreciate your trust in us, sir.”

Silverman nodded and switched off.

“Beth, please get Captains Okonkwo and Dupont, and explain to them the plan. I’m going to my office to brief the Federation people.” She stepped off the bridge.

“Aye, sir. Lieutenant, get Admiral Dax and Lady Tasha on laser comms, and pipe the line to the Admiral’s office.”

- - - - -

(bookmark 49)

In about sixteen hours, all the “legacy” cruisers were in place, and were maintaining station keeping along an imaginary wall fifty thousand square kilometers wide. It was a pretty thin wall since there were only fourteen ships, but this number was increasing every hour as more of the new FTL ships arrived fresh from their shakedown missions, and the ships rearranged themselves as needed.

As for Luna Colony, their people had been able to compute a course for the Federation ships and Mia’s three cruisers. Lunar Defense had trundled out all of their crewed mobile launch platforms, mostly missile batteries on tracks, and put them along and to the sides of where they expect the ships to pass over. They selected concealed locations well away from populated areas, and their missile crews all stood by at the ready.

The massed launchers were impressive. The moon’s defensive weaponry was the most extensive in the system since it was Earth’s defensive shield, and the massed mobile launchers represented forty percent of all of the moon’s launchers. Their confidence in being able to shoot down the enemy was a hundred percent. That is if Mia could get them to fly over the launchers as they expected them to.

- - - - -

(bookmark 50)

The blockade ships would occasionally fire maneuvering thrusters in what looked like efforts to maintain station-keeping, but were actually done more to provide beacons to make it easier for the enemy to visually home in on them and map out their positions.

And if the enemy were to analyze the spread of the ships, their pilots would easily spot a “break” in the wall, and the trajectory of the Fifth Fleet would clearly show that they were making for that break.

The three Empire ships decreased their rate of deceleration further, trying to catch up to Mia before they reached the Earth blockade, and continued to gain on the Fifth Fleet. Mia played it cool and didn’t react to this move even when the EM suppression field’s boundary finally overtook them. It was as if Mia didn’t know the enemy was there, hiding in plain sight. But when they were already too close to each other that it couldn’t be denied they could see each other, Mia’s eight ships decreased deceleration as well. The distance separating the two groups of spacecraft started to increase again. Mia’s three ships maneuvered so they were between the Empire and Federation cruisers.

Like fish following bait, the Empire cruisers decreased deceleration more, which “forced” Mia to decrease likewise. In a short while, both groups were zooming through the “hole” in the defensive wall, definitely above ship-maneuverable. At that speed, the blockade ships couldn’t do anything but let them through, but once they had passed, the blockade ships started trailing them as well.

General Quarters had echoed through the three ships a while ago, and following Mia’s standing order, everyone had changed into their pressure suits. Mia’s cheeks were a constant red from too much blushing, recalling her pictures from before. It was too late to rescind her order now though, so she just sighed and tried to act normally.

She stood beside the captain’s chair while Beth stood on the other side, neither willing to sit, knowing the symbolism of the command chair.

“Helm, status, please,” Beth said, taking a page out of Mia’s command stylebook. She had seen how the crew responded to Mia, so she’d been trying to sound more like her, saying “please” a little more, trying for consensus when she can, and to exploit every “teachable moment” - a term she learned from Mia.

“Aye, sir,” the lieutenant manning the helm responded. “The five Federation ships are above ten percent of ship-maneuverable while our three ships are remaining in pace with them. The three enemy ships are fifteen thousand kilometers and closing at a rate of seven hundred meters per minute squared. They will be in firing range in about twenty minutes.”

“Why have we fallen to the rear of the Federation ships?”

The lieutenant gulped thinking he was in deep trouble. “Ummm, I’m sorry, sir. The Federation cruisers didn’t have too precise a control of their velocities. They had up to a two-meters-per-second variation. The Hermes and Constellation pilots and I decided to let them take point and we would match up with them instead of them matching us. It’s safer. I’m sorry I didn’t clear it with you first...”

Beth nodded. “Not at all, Lieutenant. I would have made the same decision, and it’s within your area of responsibility. Good work. And be sure to thank your co-pilots.”

The lieutenant grinned delightedly. “Aye, sir.”

“What’s the ETA to the Moon?” Mia asked.

The pilot checked his screen. “We will be reaching the moon in nineteen minutes or so, Admiral.”

“One minute margin. That’s pretty tight. Captain?”

“Lieutenant,” Beth said to the pilot, “any way to increase the margin?”

“I’m afraid not, sir. If we speed up, we’ll rear-end the Federation ships. What if we pull away to the side?”

“If we do, then the Empire ships might not stay on course,” Mia said.

“We can launch our fighters, sir,” the lieutenant said.

“Not at the moment,” Beth said. “Most of them are being retrofitted with rail guns and Haskell’s laser halo.”

“We can fire some missiles along our track...”

“We would like to capture the Defiant, if at all possible, Lieutenant. That move would be reserved for a final resort.”

“I guess we have to live with a minute’s margin, son,” Mia said to the pilot.

“Can we talk to the Federation ships?” Beth asked.

“I’m sorry, sir...” the Lieutenant responded.

“How about Hermes or Constellation?”

The Lieutenant shrugged nervously.

“Dammit...”

“Patience is a virtue, Beth,” Mia said.

“Nuts...”

- - - - -

(bookmark 51)

Seventeen minutes later...

“Good evening, Captain O’Connell,” the First Ambassador said from the bridge’s main door. “Permission to enter?” The Ambassador had taken to wearing his new English-Elyran translator everywhere.

O’Connell was about to deny permission, and tell him it was General Quarters, but Mia said, sotto voce, “he’s been useful last time, Beth. He may be again.”

“Good evening, Ambassador,” Beth said. “Welcome. I hate to be tedious, but we’re at General Quarters...”

“I know the term, Captain. I will stay out of the way.”

Mia went to the Arachnian. “Come with me, Ambassador. Let’s see if we can find seats.”

Beth nodded her thanks and gratefully sat in the captain’s chair.

“All right, it’s time. Comm. Send a message to the Federation ships via laser. Remind them we are commencing in thirty seconds. Keep on trying until you get acknowledgement.”

“Aye.”

“Helm. Prepare to change course the moment the Federation ships change trajectory.”

“Aye, Captain.”

The entire bridge crew grew silent as they waited.

“One minute to course change,” Helm said.

“Forty-five seconds...”

“Thirty seconds...”

“Ten seconds. Here we go...”

They saw the three Federation ships fire retros and start dipping down towards the moon, and Helm started to change their trajectory as well.

“Captain!” the lieutenant manning Coms called, “the lead Empire ship fired!”

“What? Tactical on screen!”

A graphical representation of all eleven ships was thrown up, as well as the missile that was just fired.

“Okay. Projection: time signature times twenty.”

The image was fast-forwarded and they saw all the ships moving downwards. The trajectory change for the Empire ships were, however, so much sharper. A few seconds forward, the missile detonated. A ring representing the blast radius was also displayed, and it didn’t hit anything. And with the velocity of the ships, they quickly left the blast area behind.

“Whew... That was much ado about nothing.”

“Captain, if I may...”

“Please, Ambassador.”

“The spouse of the Detterex Princess Arvan is Lord Norga. Though he has married into royalty, he himself is not of royalty. But at the same time, it is said that he holds much influence over the Princess. And it is almost a certainty he is onboard the Defiant, and that he is with the Princess now.”

“Very interesting, Ambassador. But what’s your point?”

“Norga has had little formal schooling. He knows little of military strategies, much less of spacecraft tactics and weapon technology. Many within the Elyran military think his battle techniques and strategies un-nuanced, rudimentary and unsophisticated, and he has historically used unwarranted disproportionate force at every military engagement he has been part of. It is style of his that has led to his many victories in the name of his Princess.

“I don’t understand...”

“I think what the Ambassador is saying,” Mia said, “is that the missile that the enemy fired is probably not a plain, regular missile, but is a lot more.”

“You mean...?”

“He thinks the missile is nuclear.”

“Oh, my god...”

Mia bent over and had a quick conversation with the little Arachnian, Mia talking in fluent Elyran and the Ambassador in native Arachnian.

Mia then pulled out her CC and did some computations.

“Captain,” Mia said, “the Ambassador says that, if the missile is a standard Detterex nuclear missile, it would have up to three independent warheads, each one having the equivalent power of about three kilotons of TNT. I would guess they would be set to detonate together.”

Beth thought that over a bit. “Adjust tactical with the new information from the Admiral. Assume three warheads.”

The screen blanked out and then the graphic was repeated, this time the blast ring was so much larger. The three Earth ships were not able to outrun it and the ring overlapped them, though the five Federation ships were able to escape.

“Well...” Beth said ironically, “that’ll put a damper on the rest of our day...”

“Captain,” Mia said, “the Federation ships will clear the blast. Won’t even touch them.”

Beth understood that Mia was trying to tell her something, but was trying to without appearing that she was for the sake of not dictating to her, and for her to save face. Beth appreciated it, but was a little frustrated that even though they were minutes from obliteration, Mia wasn’t telling her what was needed... and then it crystalized in her mind. Maybe she finally understood what Mia was about.

But at the moment...

“Mia said the Federation ships will clear the blast,” Beth thought. “What the hell is she getting at...” Aha!

“Helm! Get us as close to the Federation ships as you can. I don’t mind that we end up kissing their asses. Get us close! Comms! Laser a message to the Constellation and Hermes. Tell them to follow our lead. Keep on trying until they acknowledge.”

“Sir,” Helm said. “I have no sensors. I can’t tell if we’re going to run into...”

“Acknowledged, Lieutenant. Weapons! Get the forward rail guns to fire at the trailing Federation ship. Three-second intervals until I say otherwise.”

“Sir?”
“Use point-zero-five percent power. Make sure that the projectiles will just bounce off their hull plates. Execute!”

“Aye.”

In moments, projectiles started pinging against the hull of Admiral Dax’s ship, one every three seconds, and each traveling at a puny one third of a meter per second, relative. They would hardly have penetrated the hull of a cargo transport much less a capital ship’s. But what they did was that they gave Seeker’s pilot an indication where the boundary was by looking for the small glowing sparks the projectiles made.

In the past days, Seeker, and to a lesser extent, Constellation and Hermes, have been frequently flown manually by their helm officers - a practically unheard-of thing nowadays. In car driving terms, its like most ships almost always run under cruise control. But recently, Seeker has had to perform the most difficult maneuvers in decades, and had to do it under manual control. Seeker’s pilot was, in fact starting to get a reputation as a hotshot star jockey.

His manual piloting skills were being tested again. Without any navigation aids save bouncing rail gun projectiles, Seeker was now tailgating the large Dixx flagship. It was doubtful that the Federation people knew they were there. Without radar or radio, and when the laser comm feed from Seeker, Constellation and Hermes were cut, they became blind as bats.

Seeker surged and receded in time with the fluctuations of speed of the Dixx cruiser. Beth heard her pilot curse at the aliens’ unstable engines.

“Stay with it, kid,” she said to her pilot. “You’re doing good. Keep it up.”

“Captain,” Comms said. “Intermittent contact with Constellation and Hermes. They’re asking what we’re doing.”

“Captain O’Connell,” Mia said. “May I respond?”

Beth nodded.

Mia turned to the Comm officer’s display as two pixelated images were put on it split-screen style.

“Captain Okonkwo, Captain Dupont.” The two static-filled images nodded. “I apologize. Captain O’Connell is quite busy at the moment. Anyway, I am sure you have figured it out. We believe that missile on our tails is nuclear.”

The two nodded.

“We cannot afford to fire at the missile nor at the enemy. And we cannot split up and risk the enemy running. We are therefore getting as close to the Federation ships as we can. Constellation and Hermes are therefore going to fly parallel to Seeker in a picket line formation. Hopefully, we will be able to stay ahead of the blast wave. Do you understand?”

The two captains acknowledged and, on the navigation screen, they saw Constellation move slightly above and to the right of Seeker while Hermes maintained its position on Seekers left side.

Mia nodded to Beth, and Beth turned to the pilot’s console. On it was a tactical graphic of all the ships plus the missile. The three Earth ships were right behind the Dixx ships. It looked like they were chafing at the end of a line.

“Come on, you bug-eyed monsters...” Beth muttered. “Move your asses.”

The Ambassador leaned over to Mia.

“Excuse me, My Lady,” he whispered via the translator. “Bug-eyes monsters?”

Mia laughed. “Oh, don’t be offended, Excellency. Beth didn’t mean to be insulting. The term is a cultural historical reference from more than a hundred years ago, when Earthers hadn’t seen an extraterrestrial yet. They imagined aliens to look like caricatures of humans, with large craniums and large, bulbous eyes, like the compound eyes of terrestrial insects. Hence the term. Today, the term is a humorous one. Beth used it in, well, in affection, I suppose...”

The Ambassador windmilled his arms again, laughing in that unique Arachnian way. “Now, what made you think I was offended, My Lady?”

“Oh, I don’t know...” Mia laughed.

In the back of her mind, Beth was a little irritated with how Mia and the First Ambassador were being so casual about things, but she thought it through.

“Comms,” Beth said, “time to projected detonation?”

“Umm, three minutes, Captain.”

“Ahhh. That’s why,” she thought. Nothing else to be done but wait. So it’s time to diffuse the tension, even if just for a little while. Beth took a calming breath.

“Comms,” Beth said in a deliberate and calm, confident voice, “please call out the time, in thirty second intervals.”

“Aye.”

“Get me Engineering.”

“Engineering here.”

“Chief, we are expecting a nuclear detonation in a short while. How are we with our structural integrity fields?”

“Power cells are spooling up as we speak, Skipper. Field conduction is nearing one hundred percent strength.”

“Good. Thank you. Please alert and post all DC teams to their assigned damage control areas.”

“Aye.”

“Comms - PA, please.”

“Public address ready, sir.”

Beth flicked a switch on her chair. “This is the Captain. In less than three minutes, we are expecting a nuclear detonation. We believe that we have done all that we can to avoid Seeker being caught in that explosion. But even so, I want everyone wearing their helmets and pressure suits with anti-radiation fields activated.”

“T minus two minutes,” Comms interjected.

Beth took a breath and continued. “Dear old Seeker has been through a lot these past months, and I am sure the Admiral will agree with me that she has performed exemplary. And that is largely because of all of you. The Admiral told me once that Seeker’s crew is the best in the fleet. I happen to agree. And if we do not get through this, I just wanted to let you all know that it has been a privilege serving with you.

“But I believe we will get through this, and it all depends on you once again. Everyone stay sharp, stay at your posts and we’ll get through this.” And she clicked off the PA.

“T minus one minute,” Comms said.

“Lieutenant.”

“Sir?” the helm officer said.

“Kid, you’ve done great so far. Congratulations.”

“I appreciate that. Thank you, sir.”

Beth patted him on the shoulder.

“T minus thirty seconds.”

“Here we go.” Beth sat down and buckled herself in. “Lieutenant, start counting it down.”

“T minus twenty seconds... nineteen... eighteen...”

Mia and Beth silently looked at each other. Mia gave her a gentle smile and a wink. It reassured her.

“Fifteen... fourteen... thirteen...”

“Darn,” Mia said, “I think I forgot my coffee mug on my desk.”

Everyone paused at that non sequitur. Why would the Admiral think of her mug at a time like this?

Beth chuckled. A few laughed with her, but most did not dare do so, especially when a superior officer was involved. But it did lighten the mood. Which was no doubt the Admiral’s intention. She smiled. At least she was starting to understand her a little bit more.

“Seven... six... five...”

“This is it,” Mia mumbled.

“Three... two... one... zero!”

They saw the missile on screen. Its on-board chemical engine cut off, but nothing else happened.

“What...”

They continued to watch the image. Without forward acceleration, the missile rapidly fell away from them.

“T plus ten seconds... eleven... twelve...”

“This is Engineering.”

“This is the Captain. What is it, Chief?” But Beth knew why she called. Actually, she had the same question in mind.

“Ummm, shouldn’t there have been a big ka-boom by now?”

“Comms, what’s the count now?”

“Ummm, T plus one minute, Captain. One minute five... ten... fifteen...”

“Dammit,” Mia exclaimed. “Didn’t the Titan people do a test on nuclear missiles? And they found that the missile payloads became inert...”

“I remember that as well,” the Ambassador said, “but since the Detterex ship launched a nuclear missile, I thought they found a way around that...”

“Me, too,” Mia said. “But apparently they’re totally ignorant about it.”

“Well, that’s too bad,” Beth said.

“Excuse me, Captain?” Mia said.

“All of this preparation, and all for nothing.”

“Ha-ha, very funny, Captain,” Mia smiled.

“Chief, tell your people it was a false alarm.”

“Aye, sir. The DC crews will be relieved.”

“Let’s not assume we’re out of the woods, yet, Chief. Keep them at their posts. Helm, pull back from the Dixx ship. Are we on course?”

“Aye, Captain. Fifth Fleet and Federation cruisers are two minutes from Lunar orbit. The Enemy ships are behind and below us. They’ve slackened acceleration more to compensate for their course change...T minus one minute thirty now.”

“Relative Speed.”

“We are now roughly ten percent the speed of light. About thirty thousand kilometers per second. By the time we are in lunar orbit, we’ll be down to four thousand kilometers per second.”

“Sound collision alarm.”

Lights flashed and klaxons swept the ship, and everyone steeled themselves.

“Screen to forward view.”

On the front screen, they could see the lunar surface coming up, and in moments they were on top of it. They saw the lunar rocks and sand rushing very closely below them, but too fast for them to see any details. It felt like they were just a few meters away from the surface and Beth felt a thrill rush through her insides.

“Screen to aft view!”

The screen switched to a view facing towards the rear, and they saw the enemy on their tails, the lunar surface sliding fast beneath them. The bridge crew was just holding their breath, waiting for them to fire something, but before they did, explosions hit the enemies’ undersides, and large gouts of flame spewed out.

Even with the combination of their forward momentum, the rearward deceleration force and the moon’s gravity, the explosions at its belly wouldn’t have affected their flight, but the explosions did cause the cruiser’s bow to tip upwards and its rear grazed to the lunar surface. This made the cruiser flop forward and slam into the moon’s surface like a fish being slapped down on a chopping block. The megatons of kinetic energy that liberated caused an explosion that could be seen all the way to Earth. Only its structural integrity field kept it together.

The other two cruisers behind her suffered similar fates, and big clouds of moon dust were thrown up marking their impact zones. Tanks ruptured and many spots on the ships belatedly erupted in flames as volatile chemicals mixed with escaping oxygen.

The pilot whooped. “That’s it! The lunar launchers got them dead on!”

“Pilot, fire inertia converters and maintain station-keeping above the enemy. Comms, get some cameras on the cruisers.” Their inertial mass was high enough then for the converters to work, and in the blink of an eye, they were practically at a standstill.

In a moment, the screen displayed a shot of the crashed cruisers. They looked largely intact, but they could see jets of gas leaking from various points on their hull as well as fires being fed by the leaking gases. The little readout on the side showed that they had crash-landed inside a crater inside of the Mare Orientale – the “Eastern Sea.”

“Comms, has radio and Phase-Wave come back?”

“No, Captain.”

“Okay. That means their EM device is still live. I would have thought their systems would have been completely crushed and their crew smashed into jelly. Have Commander Kajima launch all Shrikes and Turtles as soon as our Marines are onboard the Turtles. Weapons, do not fire on the enemy, but maintain anti-missile defenses. Admiral, any additional orders? Admiral?” Beth looked towards the captain’s jump chair, and then at the chairs at the rear of the bridge.

“Where’s the Admiral,” Beth asked the Ambassador.

The little Arachnian shrugged his two upper shoulders helplessly - a good imitation of the Earther gesture.

“Dammit,” Beth mumbled.

Beached in the Middle of the Sea -

As Mia ran to the flight deck, she finished donning her Class Five armor over her pressure suit, snapped her newly-modified helmet on but kept the faceplate up.

She then snapped on her holster belt over the armor, which had her dress sword and newly-modified sidearm.

Running up to the ramp of the modified Mud turtle, she waved Marines in.

“Come on!” she called.

As soon as the Turtle was packed, she had the ramp closed, tapped the pilot on the shoulder, and he moved their shuttle into line with the other turtles going to the airlocks.

- - - - -

(bookmark 52)

Mia’s shuttle was the last to launch, and as soon as it cleared Seeker, they made straight for the crashed cruisers. The enemy had landed inside a relatively young crater inside the Mare Orientale - maybe only a hundred thousand years old - one not too full of sand and dust, not enough that the ships would sink much.

Clearly the enemy ships had all suffered massive damage. But, unbelievably, they were all still in the fight. Large waves of missiles and projectiles came up from the beached cruisers, and the Shrikes and Turtles couldn’t get near. They knew the enemy would eventually run out but, for the moment, it was an impasse.

“This is the Admiral to all Turtles,” Mia called out via their new laser comms, “make for the crater rim two kilometers to the right of the lead cruiser. All Marines to disembark on the far side of the crater rim and make their way to the nearest cruiser on foot. The mission is to capture the ship intact. All squad leaders will take command of their own squads but will coordinate their movements with the Captain onboard Seeker. All Shrike pilots will provide air cover and relay all observations to Seeker’s Comms. That’s all, I guess. All right people, execute!”

- - - - -

(bookmark 53)

The Constellation and the Hermes saw Seeker’s maneuvers. They fired their converters as well. When they got closer, Beth briefed them via laser comms, and they started to prepare to deploy their Eagle fighters and Cobra shuttles to the Tiros ships.

As for the Elyran and Dixx cruisers, they were still travelling too fast so they had to use their drives to maintain an orbit. The five ships circled the moon every second or so.

On the surface, Mia jogged towards the crashed Detterex ship and watched the lunar dust as they were kicked up by her boots, her high-tech sword giving her surroundings a ruby kind of glow. Though the dust was as dry and fine as talcum powder, she couldn’t help feel that the dust was more like wet sand in the way that they didn’t hang in the air for long when they were puffed up by her boots. No air on the moon after all, but knowing why didn’t help her get rid of the odd feeling.

She looked up and saw the looming cruiser. It felt big, the biggest she’d seen, even though she knew Seeker was near that size. It’s one thing to see a spacecraft on some screen, and another to actually see it in the flesh. She looked to her left and then to her right, and saw the Marines running with her. They did look formidable. The armor made them look big and powerful, and their confident, purposeful movements made them impressive, if not outright scary.

She knew the basics - run when in exposed ground, and run for the nearest cover. In this way, the Earthers made rapid progress towards the ship as they ran from one basaltic boulder to another, and felt relatively safe. If this were Mars, there’d be lots more rocks, but the moon didn’t have as many, so their sprints were long, perhaps a minute at a time. This tactic didn’t really hide their movements much, but it did give them a chance to rest in between runs behind the convenient rock or boulder.

The Detterex manning the missile batteries were at a disadvantage since the traverse of their weapons were very limited, given that many were at ground level and the ground clutter didn’t give them any clear shots, and the ones higher up just didn’t have the correct angles. So they quit firing at the running Earthers after a few tries.

Mia hit the last rock she was making for with a powerful thud. The weak gravity made their movements more powerful than normal, naturally, but she was in armor so she wasn’t concerned about sharp, pointy rocks. She was just fifty meters away from the cruiser’s hull and was starting to feel nervous. Looking to her left, she saw a Marine also fetch up against another rock. The guy unholstered his sidearm, so Mia did, too. She didn’t think she needed to yet, but she had decided to take her cue from the professionals.

She moved from behind the rock and saw big Detterex warriors in armor lumbering towards her. There were so many of them! Mia had to wonder where the Detterex Princess Arvan was getting all of them, and then she realized - they probably weren’t warriors. Probably just regular ship crew.

A large Detterex came at her swinging a large broadsword. Mia ducked and grabbed the hilt of hers. She swung it up, intending to block the Detterex’s follow-through swing, but the laser just cut through the enemy’s sword blade.

She then fired six rounds from her sidearm, and the slugs just punched through the alien’s chest without trouble and out the back. A spray of blood-red mist and ice came out from the soldier’s back. As she fell, Mia saw her face through the helmet, and saw the alien’s shocked and hopeless expression frozen in death.

True, she had been responsible for shooting down several Detterex and Tiros fighters, and several of their cruisers, but Mia hadn’t seen the face of the enemy in death. Seeing the face of the soldier during the moment of her death rocked Mia to her core.

But she couldn’t stop. Another one was coming at her. Mia fired at the soldier and dodged. The soldier fell headlong into the lunar dust and didn’t move anymore. Mia tried firing at the others but her gun’s nitrogen cartridge was out and she couldn’t spare any time to replace it.

Another Detterex soldier swung at her. Instinctively, Mia swung her sword in the standard parry she used in fencing, but her sword was far from just another epee, so the enemy’s sword was cut in two just like the first one. Despite this, Mia still executed a riposte as per standard fencing, and ran the soldier through. She kicked away the soldier and saw more coming in. She made a calculated move and spun around, sword outstretched. All the soldiers around her were caught - one of them in the belly, another on the bicep. These cuts were deep - the first one lost all her air almost immediately while the other one’s arm was almost cut off. The others didn’t have it as bad, but bad enough that their suits started leaking air. The cuts were too large for their self-sealing functions to cope, but they fought on. One of them was able to bring down her sword on Mia’s shoulder, but since the cutting edge didn’t hit her squarely, it just bounced off the armor.

Mia didn’t have time to be surprised at that. She dropped her gun, reached out with that hand and pulled the soldier forward and to her left, using the Detterex’s momentum to make her fall.

The soldier to her right didn’t have a sword but a long piece of pipe, and she hit Mia on her right shoulder. With her armor, Mia didn’t even feel it but she was pushed back strong enough that she slipped on the loose lunar dust and sand and fell on her back.

The remaining two soldiers came at her prone body with their swords. Using an upward pinwheeling movement of her arm, Mia used the non-cutting flat side of her sword to sweep away the soldiers’ weapons. She didn’t have enough arm strength to smash them away completely but just enough to push them far enough away that their sword strokes missed her.

She switched her grip and swung her arm upward, forward and then down. She caught them on their lower arms and cut their sword hands off.

Inadvertently, she had let go of her sword when the two bodies smashed down on her. Her left arm was pinned down by the bodies so she pushed them off her using her right hand. As she was doing so, the last attacker hit her on her upper right arm with the pipe again. In the back of her mind, she was wondering why this one kept smashing her uselessly with the pipe. Didn’t she realize that she was wearing armor?

She reached out, grabbed the pipe, and pulled it out of her enemy’s hands. The palms of her armor suit were rubberized and textured, giving her an enhanced kind of grip and she was able to do this easily.

Using the pipe to balance herself, Mia got up and swung the pipe down the soldier’s helmet. The soldier rocked backwards but wasn’t hurt. She tried to close in on Mia, but Mia swung at the soldier’s helmet again. Mia swung at the same spot again and again until the enemy’s helmet started to crack.

Mia was relentless, and swung and swung at the helmet. The cracks grew and grew until the glass exploded outward.

Mia stood there, eyes closed and breathing hard.

“Enough,” she whispered, almost crying. “Please, enough now... I can’t anymore...”

After a moment, she lifted her head and looked around. Enemy bodies were piled around her. She saw her sword hilt and pulled out her sword from under the bodies. The dead-man switch had turned the laser emitters off so she switched it back on before climbing over the bodies. Though she didn’t intend to, she got a better vantage point as she stood on top of the bodies.

From there, she could see her people had dispatched most of the enemy. It seemed her people had relied mostly on their sidearms, but a few were caught like her - not having enough time to replace their cartridges, and had to fight it out with their swords or equivalents. Though all she could see standing were her crew, she’d have to check later and see if any of her people didn’t make it.

Mia looked up at the crashed Detterex cruiser and ran her eyes along the lower deck near the ground. She found four airlock doors where the enemy all came out of, and knew that they were prepared to repel her people from the other side of these doors. She looked some more and found a part of the hull where two plates had buckled. The hull had split, with a crack large enough to drive a small landcar through.

Mia switched on her new laser comms, but it wasn’t working. She assumed that it was damaged during her short... tussle with the nine Detterex soldiers. So she switched her sword to the highest illumination level and raised it above her head. When she caught the eye of some of the people, she motioned to the breach in the hull with her other arm. Eventually her people started moving to her, and then to the hull breach.

When most of her people were there, she looked for her shuttle’s squad leader. She pulled him towards her until their faceplates touch.

“Sergeant,” Mia said, her voice traveling to the sergeant via the vibration of her helmet.

“Aye, sir.”

“I’m gonna use your laser comms. Switch it on.”

“Aye, sir. Comms switched on.”

“Ladies and gentlemen of the Seeker. This is the Admiral. We shall be boarding the cruiser through this hull breach. Our mission is to locate the EM suppression equipment and disable it, and to hold our ground until reinforcements arrive to help us capture the ship intact. Everyone is to take their instructions from their squad leaders. Squad leaders, get your squads organized and get them in there. Is everyone clear?”

Various “ayes” and “yes sirs” came back.

“All right then, Execute!”

Mia then moved away and gave her squad leader a thumbs-up, and mouthed, “thank you.” The sergeant nodded and started organizing his squad.

Mia couldn’t help much since she didn’t have any communications so she stepped away and allowed her people to get on with it. Instead, she went in search of her gun and found it near “her” boulder. She shook the dust out as best she could and replaced the cartridge.

As she walked back, she saw each of her six-man squads make their way to the hull breach, and at a signal from their leaders, each group rushed through.

Mia watched as a dozen people came over. One of them touched helmets with her.

“Sir,” the young Marine said, “All of us have non-working comms as well, so, to keep us out from underfoot, my sergeant has assigned us to secure the breach outside. We’d be honored if you’d stand with us.”

Mia knew it was their way of protecting her. No senior fleet officer should be in the frontline but she was already there and it was too late for anyone to change things. So this was, she supposed, their compromise. She had pushed the regs as far as she could already, so she agreed to this.

“Thank you, Corporal,” she responded. “The honor is mine.”

The corporal stepped away and saluted. She then gestured and half of them took places around or near the hull breach. She then gestured for Mia and the remaining people to spread around and take positions near large rock formations. Mia gestured at the bodies of the enemy, and the corporal nodded. The seven of them spread out and moved all the bodies that they could find out onto a large, flat area free of boulders. They did it with respect and as little violence as possible - Mia insisted - but they had trouble laying them flat since they had already frozen into their final positions. It was just as well that they didn’t have comms.

Mia tried to be emotionless but didn’t quite succeed. Death was death regardless of what species it was, and she felt remorse. She saw some of her people shaking their heads, and she knew it was them trying to get rid of tears. She had to do it a few times herself.

They weren’t completely sure of the crew size of a Detterex cruiser, but she estimated over three hundred bodies. Mia thought this might actually make up most of their crew.

She was thankful, though, that none of them were her people. Clearly, their sidearms and armor gave them the advantage.

When the ground was free of bodies, they went back to their positions, hunkered down and waited.

From time to time, Mia or someone else would pop up and survey the area, but nothing was happening. The silent tableau stayed like that for about thirty more minutes, with Shrikes, Eagles, Turtles and Cobras circling overhead unable to get closer, until one of the airlock doors popped open.

Incredibly, several Detterex came out of this door but without suits. Of course, they didn’t last long in open space, their dying bodies sprawling on the sand. Later on the Earthers would find that these people were actually trying to escape being blown up by a grenade.

A few moments later, the other doors opened and more came out. Some were in armored space suits, but most were just in regular pressure suits. But all of them were armed with something. Some had the broadswords that the Detterex seemed to prefer, but most just had odds and ends in their hands, like pipes, pieces of furniture or things like tools and even cooking implements.

Mia saw her people start aiming and saw little red dots sprouting on the chests of the enemies. Center mass was the easiest shot, especially from a distance. And she saw these Detterex go down one at a time from shots in their torsos.

It was a virtual massacre.

Mia decided to join, loathe though she was to kill more people, but she didn’t shirk her responsibility or her involvement. However, she decided to start firing at the Detterex that were just emerging from one of the airlocks. In a few moments, she had choked off that airlock with dead Detterex. She moved on to another airlock and did the same. Pretty soon, three airlocks were clogged, and no more aliens could come out of them, which was her way of minimizing the casualty count. In the first airlock where the Detterex that weren’t wearing pressure suits came from, no one else came out.

As for those that were already outside, Mia’s people made short work of them, and the tableau became still again. They hunkered down as they waited for reinforcements.

- - - - -

(bookmark 54)

In the end, it became a long, drawn-out battle, more a battle of attrition than anything, one in which the Empire people were destined to lose.

When the Hermes and Constellation landing parties touched down and broke into their assigned cruisers, their assault crews were so much larger than the Seeker’s, so they were expecting to have an easier time. What they didn’t expect was that the Tirosians wouldn’t put up any resistance at all.

When the Hermes and Constellation crews broke up into their assigned ships, the missiles stopped firing, and when the Earthers started going through the airlock doors, all they saw were dead or dying Tirosians with slit throats. The Hermes crews saw some still-alive Tirosians running from cabin to cabin, and they ran after them.

The Marines peeked into the cabins that the running Tirosians had just visited moments ago, and saw Tirosians inside with very deep, dark red, almost black, blood spurting out of freshly-slit necks. Some of the medics rushed in, took off their helmets and gauntlets, and tried to save them, but Tirosian physiology was not familiar, the blood loss was too much and the wounds too large. The rest of the Marines went after the running Tirosians, but the ship’s layout was too unfamiliar, the ever-present moisture everywhere made the deck slippery, and the light levels were too low. They just couldn’t catch up. Eventually, they did catch up with them, but it was too late - they found most of them on the bridge, dying by their own hands.

Both crews did a cabin-by-cabin inspection, looking for booby traps or enemies that were still alive, but no one was left. The few jury-rigged devices they found were hastily cobbled together so they were crude and easily disabled. In the end, they had captured both ships intact and without any resistance. But the EM field equipment was not onboard either of them.

As for Seeker’s crews, they had a harder time since they had to battle for every inch. However, it seemed they were the only ones with sidearms functional in the field, and they were able to hold their ground easily. Furthermore, there were enough of them scattered in the ship yet within line-of-sight that their laser comm networked. These two technology advantages, plus their training, gave them more than enough of an edge.

They also made judicious use of their hand grenades and were able to clear large sections at a time. The Detterex tried using grenades and other explosives as well, but the Marines were all wearing armor, and Detterex munitions didn’t seem to be as powerful or precise as the Earthers’, and their throwing skills were... less than perfect.

Eventually Seeker’s boarding crews were able to consolidate their positions and held on until reinforcements arrived.

When Constellation’s Marines arrived, they brought Mia with them. Mia got a cable from one of the Constellation’s Marines, and plugged her suit into one of Constellation’s Marines’ comm aux port.

Mia started giving instructions and a couple of squads of the Constellation’s Marines took positions at the rear of the Seeker’s tech squad. Two of Seeker’s other squads took point and, with directions from Mia, they crept forward to the ship’s engine room.

Once they got to the engine area, they saw about six Detterex entrenched by the main bulkhead door armed with swords. Mia patted the Marine in front of her on the shoulder. He nodded and expertly lobbed a grenade near that door. When it exploded, all six Detterex slumped dead and the Earthers rushed through, one squad at a time.

Mia followed her Marine escorts inside and found herself hustled behind a large load-bearing support column. She peeked around the column and saw about twenty-four Detterex soldiers deployed in good tactical positions around one of the large electromagnetic generators. A handful of them had bulky, jury-rigged projectile-launching devices attached to large tanks of gas, probably nitrogen, and fired things that looked like round bottles full of sulfuric acid, and sometimes really heavy, rough metal balls the size of chicken eggs.

The Earthers took cover and the aliens fired their weapons. The velocities were relatively high but Mia’s people were able to dodge the projectiles. Round metal balls and glass bottles flew across the large room and smashed against the bulkheads. Acrid liquid started to hiss and bubble.

The few soldiers who had their faceplates up slammed them down.

“Fire on those things!” Mia ordered, and the ones in front started on them.

Their projectiles just bounced off the devices themselves, so they fired on their tanks. They were rewarded with the sound of hissing gas. All six of the devices were rendered useless very quickly.

“Fire on those bottles!”

They shifted focus and fired on the enemy’s piles of “ammunition,” smashing all the bottles. Pretty soon, the room started filling with acid fumes.

With a loud rebel yell, the Detterex soldiers rose and rushed the Earthers, but Mia’s people were able to pick them off easily and soon there were no more enemies rushing them.

With Marines around her, Mia approached the control panel of the gigantic generator. Her suit’s radiation detector started warbling. She clicked her tongue switch and saw in her heads-up display that there was a lot of microwave radiation emanating from the generator.

Irritatedly, Mia slapped the alarm cutoff near her armor’s upper chest, and concentrated on deciphering the panel. She wasn’t sure but she made the decision to hit the large red button in the middle. After all, what else could a big red button be for?

She hit it with the heel of her armored hand and was rewarded with the high-pitched whine of the large generator getting lower and lower, and eventually disappearing. She clicked her tongue switch and saw the microwave emissions had disappeared.

She finally clicked on her Phase-Wave comms and switched to the general freak.

“This is the Admiral! Come in, Seeker!”

“Aye, sir! This is the Seeker!”

Mia breathed a sigh of relief.

“Glad to hear you, Seeker. Am pleased to report that the EM Suppression Field has been deactivated, and we have captured the generator intact.” She smiled when she heard her crew applaud in the background.

“Aye, sir.”

“Admiral!” Beth exclaimed.

Mia chuckled. “I know, I know. I’m on my way out. Keep your bra on, Beth. I’m going back now.”

“Make sure that you do,” Beth growled. “... Sir...”

- - - - -

(bookmark 55)

When Mia and the Seeker crew had managed to deactivate the EM suppression engine, it was like the switch to an old-fashioned radio was flipped back on, and the Phase-Wave bandwidths lit up with millions of calls and messages. And none too soon - the entire system was in turmoil: everyone was becoming desperate by then, and further absence of communication with the mother world and the largest colony might not have been good for the system.

The field had covered the entire Earth and the moon, and with the mother planet and the largest colony rendered silent, the cohesion that constant available communication gave the Earth System had almost broken down. It was not unreasonable to say that had the communication blackout had not ended when it did, Human civilization would have started to break down. Were it not for the advance notice that Earth Government had sent out earlier, commerce and other vital industries might not have remained intact.

But Earth was back on the air again, much to the relief of everyone - it was quite a scary period. Because of this momentary loss of Phase-Wave, there was talk already about reviving wired communications and other comms systems largely abandoned since Phase-Wave. They were also talking about reviving the Seren stations as well, just in case they lose Phase-Wave again. If they proved to be suppression-proof, of course.

Escape Artist -

When Lunar Defense had taken over all activities to secure the three ships and their captured Detterex soldiers, Beth’s staff finally had time to sort through the communiqués and other material that had piled up when the Phase-Wave comms went back up. When they had more-or-less caught up with everything, they found one specific item that they thought the Captain needed to know about right away.

Once Beth was briefed, she thought Mia needed to know about it, too. At that moment, a call from the Fleet Admiral came through. She knew why the Admiral was calling.

Before she acknowledged the call, she went to Comms.

“Lieutenant, please ask Admiral Steele if I can meet her at her office, and please pipe Fleet Admiral Silverman’s call there as soon as I get there. Give me five minutes.”

“Aye, sir.”

She transferred command and hurried down to Deck Four.

Reaching Mia’s office door, Beth nodded at the two Marine guards.

“Good morning, Captain,” the more senior Marine said as she saluted. “The Admiral is expecting you.” She opened the door and ushered her through.

Beth nodded at that and stepped in.

“Hey, Nick,” she said, nodding to Nick, who was sitting at the guest chair in front of Mia’s desk.

Nick stood and saluted. “Good morning, Captain.”

“Hi, Beth.” Mia said. She waved them both to sit down.

“You know,” Mia said, “I know why you’re here.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised, sir,” Beth replied.

“I only belatedly realized that the Detterex cruiser was the Defiant. And I was curious why we couldn’t find Princess Arvan anywhere on the Cruiser. I suppose you’re going to tell me that an unidentified spacecraft was detected leaving the system at high speed while we were chasing down the three cruisers.”

Beth nodded. “Exactly so, sir.”

“Would you be surprised if I were to tell you that there is a large, vacant section in the Defiant’s lower decks that had almost enough room to fit a K-class cargo ship?”

“I would not, sir.”

“Ma’am,” Nick said, “umm, I’m sorry. Admiral Silverman is on the line...”

“Not a surprise, Nick,” Mia smiled.

Shepherd Moon, Chapter 17: Homecoming

Earthfall -

The three Elyran and two Dixx cruisers continuously went around the moon on constant deceleration, continuing to bleed off their velocity.

As for Seeker, Hermes and Constellation, they, as well as several other ships, were parked in orbit just above the three crashed cruisers, with the Legacy ships doing occasional re-orbits to maintain position. They patiently waited for their Federation friends to bleed off enough velocity so that they could join them.

Mia had deliberately selected different ship - a couple more Type Twos and a dozen different kinds of Legacy ships. The purpose was to impress the Federation envoys and show that Earth’s fleet was made up of many different ship types.

When the Dixx and Elyran ships were slow enough, they started to maneuver so that they copied the Earth Ships’ orbits, and came to relative rest near the Earthers.

From the Federation ships’ vantage point, they could see several tractors and crawlers moving around the beached ships below. Earth scientists and engineers were making the most of the opportunity, and were studying everything that they could get their hands on. Marta Running-Stream herself had even come over to do some hands-on. For Tasha, Ren and Dax, they weren’t too impressed - they’d already seen Detterex and Tiros ships before. They were more impressed by the orbiting Earther ships.

As soon as they were ready, the five Federation ships and seventeen Earther ships changed their delta-v’s and accelerated for Earth.

This close to Earth, none of the aliens activated their FTL systems and used more conventional propulsion. Earth was about four hundred thousand kilometers away so they knew they would take several hours to get to the planet. As soon as they were on their way, Kennedy Spaceport started relocating all air and spacecraft on its landing tarmacs and put into action long-laid plans for the arrival of extraterrestrial VIPs.

For the Fifth Fleet crews, they knew there was going to be a ceremony, but more than anything, the Secretary-General would be there. Seeker’s crew, without exception, would have to be in dress blues, and be prepared for an inspection, which the First Ambassador had warned was something the Princess may ask for. Everyone was pressed into service and, in a few hours, the Seeker was as clean and organized as it has never been before. Beth quipped to the Chief that they should have inspections by extraterrestrials more often.

Seeker’s sister ships were safe, however, much to the Beth’s annoyance. As soon as the Federation ships land, Constellation and Hermes were to make for New Copernicus for their upgrades, so, except for a couple of Cobra shuttles, their captains and a small party, their crews were exempted.

A few hours before planetfall however, Mia had unexpectedly called for an emergency meeting.

It was old hat by now. Everyone knew their routines and logged on to the Channel “A” frequency.

All of Seeker’s people were in formal uniform, and Mia nodded in satisfaction. They all wore the double-breasted navy-blue jacket with the two rows of brass buttons and the gold trim at the edges, Napoleon-style gold-trimmed high collar and Napoleonic gold-tasseled epaulettes went well the skin-tight white legging-like pants and the shiny, black riding-style knee-high boots.

As before, Mia had her high-tech sword (the light turned on, of course), her modified sidearm and holster clipped to her jacket’s belt, and over the belt was tied a red sash. On her jacket’s lower sleeves were more gold stripes than before, and on her jacket’s left breast were the miniatures of her decorations. On the right was a silver nameplate, and the old Seeker miniature had been replaced with the new Fifth Fleet miniature.

She looked at Nick by her side.

“Suits you,” she smirked, referring to the gold-and-blue braided aiguillette that was strung on top of his jacket’s left shoulder and then under his arm.

Nick couldn’t respond in kind so he just grumbled. At least that wasn’t subordination.

Mia noted the clothes that the Elyrans wore - the same type as the clothes that they wore during their meal on Talon. They looked like refugees from a Shakespeare play. However, there were a few who wore ceremonial armor instead. Mia noted this, and she motioned for Nick. She whispered something in his ear. Nick nodded and rushed out to call Sahsha.

The Arachnians took their accustomed places. They were wearing their formal “attire” - bright colored torcs around their necks and what looked like vests over their thoraxes. Each vest was in one solid color - either red, green, blue, yellow, magenta or cyan. Based on the lecture that the Ambassador gave, the Earthers knew that the colors represented the major guilds in Arachnian industry and society: There were three major guilds - the Warriors in green vests, the Philosophers (what some may think of as priests) in blue and the Builders in red. There were three other guilds, the so-called “allied” guilds - the Scientists in magenta since their members were specialists from the Warriors and the Builders, the Doctors in yellow because they were from the Philosophers and the Builders, and the Engineers in cyan because they were from the Warriors and the Philosophers. The colors that they used to represent each made Humans think that the way Arachnian vision worked was similar to Humans. The fact that they used what humans called the three “primary” and three “secondary” colors indicated that Arachnian vision may be trichromatic as well, and sensitive to red, green and blue. Maybe the Arachnian eye wasn’t really a compound eye.

As for Admiral Dax, she and her people were wearing what looked like a kind of flowing cream-colored robe that left their arms bare from the shoulders down. They had only ever seen the Admiral in what were like long-sleeved high-collared shirts, and it was a revelation to find her arms covered in what appeared to be thick, large and luxurious white feathers. It made Mia wonder and think back to the words of the first-ever recorded Federation message.

Mia stood and bowed to everyone in the formal Elyran manner.

“Well,” she said, “doesn’t everyone look wonderful.” And laughter drowned out everything. Mia smiled. “Good afternoon, friends. We are finally here. So much sacrifice. Nothing more need be said about that, except that it is up to us to see that their sacrifice was not in vain.”

There was a short period of appreciative silence.

Mia clapped her hands. “Anyway. Let us push on. In a short while, we will be landing in Kennedy Spaceport, and from there, we will take a short ride to the United Nations, where a few of us will be given a chance to speak before the UN Assembly. Everything is moving forward as planned.

“However, I would like to report a new development.”

The Earthers and Elyrans groaned, and if the Dixx and the Arachnians knew how to, they would have groaned as well.

“Yes. Again. Something has happened again. But this time, it’s not as bad as before.”

She gestured at the screen behind her, which had switched on with a video running on it.

“What you see is the crashed Detterex flagship, the Defiant. We had moved all Detterex survivors but even if she hadn’t, she cannot fly again - she had sustained too much damage in its crash.

“Yes indeed, she did contain the ‘Curtain of Light’ generator, and we were able to capture it intact and switched it off. But, checking through all the crew and survivors, and checking the entire ship itself, we were unable to find Lord Norga and Princess Arvan. What we did find inside the ship was this...”

On the screen was a picture of a large empty hold as seen from a height. Based on the tiny size of the Earther standing in the middle of the empty space, it was indeed a very large, empty space.

“Furthermore, there was this...”

A new video was displayed, this time, a grainy long-distance video taken off Seeker’s on-board cameras. In it was a picture of Defiant flying through space as it was gaining on Seeker. After a moment, some kind of movement was seen happening underneath it. It was just for a moment so it was easy to miss it. The video was run back and was put in slow motion. The movement turned out to be a small ship the size of the Yamato being ejected from underneath the bigger ship.

“And here is the final piece...”

On the screen was a tactical display. The aliens wouldn’t have understood the English labels and symbols, but the image itself was self-explanatory: it was a spacecraft leaving the Sol system at high hyperspace speed.

“Unfortunately, this ship was found after the EM field was switched off, and was already flying at speed before anyone noticed it. This spacecraft is now already too far away for anyone to be able to do anything.”

“Lady Amelia,” the Princess said, “are you saying that the Detterex Princess has been able to escape?”

“That’s correct, Your Highness,” Mia responded. “It is our conclusion that, while the remaining three Empire ships were pursuing us, she launched her escape craft under the cloak of the EM suppression field. Analysis of its trajectory indicates that it is on its way to Detterex, where Princess Arvan will undoubtedly raise the alarm.”

“What are the turnover times, My Lady,” Ren asked.

Mia shrugged. “I apologize, Your Highness. We don’t have precise numbers yet, but we believe Princess Arvan should be arriving in Detterex in approximately twelve Earth months.”

“Well...”

Mia nodded. “I know, Your Highness, and you are right. Our problem is clear-cut, but there is still time. For the moment, though, there is nothing to be done. Let us therefore concentrate on something happier: our homecoming.”

Ren nodded. “Well spoken, My Lady. You are quite correct.”

- - - - -

(bookmark 56)

The twenty-two ships, made up of three Elyran Cruisers, two massive Dixx cruisers, Earth’s DSC Seeker, four Type Twos which included Hermes and Constellation, and a dozen Legacy ships - three Orions, a Daedelus, four super-massive, eight-year-old Dreadnoughts, a pair of re-engineered Enterprise-class fusion cruisers and a pair of Jovian-class corvettes.

The Legacy ships were easily the same size as the Elyrans’ ships, except for the four deuterium-fueled Dreadnoughts. which were even larger than the Dixx ships. It was all part of Mia’s plan - to impress, even intimidate, the aliens with the sheer number and types of ships they had at their disposal.

As they neared the Karman Line, the Federation and Legacy ships switched to atmosphere-friendly propulsion. Seeker and the Type Twos didn’t need to.

Seeker led them in at the appropriate speeds. It had been a long time since Seeker had entered atmosphere but her largely-unchanged lines kept her aerodynamic. Beth made the decision of turning off her deflectors and just relying on her structural integrity field.

Beth knew all eyes in the world, indeed in the system, were focused on them so she put on a show. With appropriate clearance, why the hell shouldn’t we put on a show, she thought.

Seeker broke formation and burst forward, leaving the other ships for a moment. This gave her some room to showboat.

When she neared the surface, she reduced her speed to barely fifty kilometers an hour and flew around the island of Manhattan. She then flew unusually low and slow, and buzzed the head of the Statue of Liberty as closely as her pilot dared. When she was clear, Beth checked if there were any air or water traffic ahead. Seeker then switched on her long-unused retros. They weren’t needed, but with the air turbulence and heat generated, Seeker threw up a big spume of water. She dipped and then pulled up sharply, creating a spray of water and steam. It was like she was climbing up on a pillar of fire and clouds, like the Saturn moon-rockets of old.

From there, she switched off her retros and climbed back up to formation. She left a slowly dissipating steam cloud, but before it was completely gone, a rainbow shined in the New York sun.

- - - - -

(bookmark 57)

All air traffic had been cleared above New York, so the twenty-two ships didn’t have any trouble going to Kennedy and landing on the prepared landing fields.

All five Federation ships landed first on the marked field, and once they were secured, Seeker and her sister Type-Two ships then landed. When the Earth ships were secured, the four giant Dreadnoughts started their descent.

Never before had Kennedy had so many spaceships there at the same time, and it barely had room to accommodate all twenty-two. But the Flight Manager was able to manage. Though he was told he couldn’t give instructions to the five alien ships, he was ruthless with the seven Earth cruisers. He was sure he wasn’t making friends, but either that or he’d have to turn away some of them. He gave instructions to how they parked and the power settings they were allowed to use. He used lot of... creative language and he thanked the stars he was on an open frequency so they didn’t give too much backtalk. He had some trouble with the Dreadnoughts, however, especially since they land on their tails and needed a relatively flat landing tarmac. The Dixx and Elyran cruisers hadn’t bunched up much, so the landing space left was at a premium. Seeker, the Type Twos and the Orions and Enterprise-class ships had anti-gravs so he pushed them together and as close to the aliens as possible. The Daedalus and three of the Dreadnoughts had just enough flat ground to land, and touched down safely under a large cloud of smoke and dust. As for the fourth Dreadnought, the spaceport only had one last piece of empty space, but it wasn’t finished yet. Bulldozers, graders and tractors were still in evidence. But there was no choice. At least it was flat already, though still rough.

After the equipment had been moved, the pilot maneuvered the last Dreadnought precisely over the semi-finished landing pad, and had her come down slowly. He knew that she’d use up a significant portion of her fuel but it did provide a great show.

The giant ship came down on a column of fire and smoke and as it got nearer and nearer, the roar of her rockets became louder and louder. Sound suppression fields kicked on, much to the relief of the spaceport staff.

About fifty meters from the ground, the ship stopped its descent, and, incredibly, it hovered. Great clouds of smoke and dust grew. And as it stayed balanced on its tail of fire, it slowly transcribed a circle, creating a large area of blasted and burned flat ground.

- - - - -

(bookmark 58)

On the Talon, Tasha and Ren had been watching video feeds from an Earther satellite, and feeds from Earth news outlets, relayed to them via the Earthers’ New York Weather Station. Ren wondered why a Weather Station, but he suspected it was because their weather sensing systems were the only large radio-based systems they had.

They watched on “TV” as Seeker showboated for everyone. In the back of her mind, Tasha thought of how expert Seeker’s pilot and crew were, and how wonderful the ship looked. The cloud of steam that enveloped her before shooting back up into the sky was so beautiful. And the rainbow that remained was wonderful.

But for her, the most amazing was what this gigantic ship was doing now.

“What is it doing!” Ren exclaimed.

“It’s burning the ground,” Reena said. “It’s flattening it.”

“But why?”

“So it can land,” Tasha said. “that’s brilliant.”

And after a last circuit, the huge spacecraft slowly settled down onto the ground.

“Your Highness,” one of her people said.

“Yes, warrior?”

“We are getting a message.”

- - - - -

(bookmark 59)

After the last Dreadnought had landed, the Flight Manager breathed a sigh of relief. He reached for his CC again and tuned it to the Flight Control frequency. He was told the Federation crews wouldn’t have Phase-Wave nor would they understand English, but he was assured that Seeker will translate and relay his message for him.

“T’Chahn, honored visitors from the Galactic Federation, and members of the United Earth Defense Force. In behalf of the Secretary General and the people of Sol System, welcome to Earth, and to the John F. Kennedy International Spaceport.

“May we invite representatives of your respective parties to disembark. A reception committee shall be on hand to meet you at your ships and bring you to our United Nations.”

- - - - -

(bookmark 60)

Tasha reached out for Ren’s hand.

“It’s been more than two years, my love,” Tasha said, “but we’re finally here.”

“The price has been high, Tasha...”

“We all knew the risks...”

Ren went to her, and laid a finger on her lips.

“Hush, My Lady. I’m sorry to have brought it up. I know you would have been ready to die in their...”

Tasha hugged him tightly to her to quiet him.

“Your Highness,” one of their people came up. “A message from the Earthers. Your ‘ride’ will be outside in seventeen minutes.” She face made a little moue of displeasure.

“They do have an odd turn of phrase, don’t they, Warrior?” she laughed.

- - - - -

(bookmark 61)

Mia and Beth, with Nick following, led Seeker’s contingent down her seldom-used ventral ramp. As they stepped down, Beth snuck a look at the ship’s hull and felt dismay at her somewhat dented and scratched hull. Mia hip-bumped her.

“The boss is looking, Beth,” Mia said sotto voce. An official delegation from the UN was approaching, and in the lead was the Secretary-General.

Beth snapped her head forward, and continued marching.

“Don’t worry, we’ll get her looking pretty again before we take her out.”

“Thanks, Boss.”

They stopped and formed in parade formation, and waited for inspection.

“Here she comes,” Mia said as the Secretary-General approached them.

“Look who’s with her,” Beth whispered. “Oh, no...”

Mia groaned.

Walking beside the Secretary-General was Queen Margaret the Second - Queen of All England and the Commonwealth. Behind the Secretary-General, acting like her adjutant, was Admiral Silverman, and by his side, acting as the Queen’s adjutant was Prince Stephen, Lord of the Realm, Knight of the Royal Order of the Seraphim, Commander Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Sword, and who also happened to be the husband of the Queen.

No other VIPs followed who were of the same level of importance to the system as these four. The real VIPs couldn’t make it since everything was all hurried, and few could make it to New York on such short notice in time for these arrival ceremonies. Instead, various ambassadors and other lower-ranked government officials substituted for them.

As the Queen approached, Mia struggled to remember the protocol for greeting her. Beth noticed her agitation.

“What’s wrong?” Beth asked.

“I can’t remember what to do,” Mia said in an uncharacteristically panicked voice, referring to the accepted protocols for greeting royalty. It had only changed a little bit over the years, of course, even after the war, but Mia couldn’t remember any of it.

Beth giggled and whispered to Mia the procedures.

“When the Queen comes to you and you’re a subject, which you are now, you bow or curtsey. Since you’re in uniform, you bow. The phrase you use is ‘Your Majesty’ or ‘Your Royal Highness.’ If she has her hand out, accept it with a light touch and then let go.”

Mia nodded. “Thanks, Beth,” she said. “You’re a lifesaver. Wups, watch it. Here she comes!”

The queen stepped close, Romarkin beside her.

“It is wonderful to see you again, Lady Amelia,” she said in that voice that was so well known to almost all Terrans. “I have heard you have had a very... eventful trip?” She held out her hand, grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland.

Mia bowed and shook her hand lightly, as protocol required. It was all she could do to return her Queen’s grin. As it was, all she could manage was a small, nervous smile. “My Queen... That’s amazing,” she thought.

“It was a pleasant enough trip, Your Majesty. Thank you for asking.”

“I trust you will tell me all about it later?”

Mia bowed. “At your convenience, Your Majesty.”

The queen nodded at that, and walked down the front row of Mia’s assembled crew, apparently starting her inspection. Mia was pleased that her crew was behaving appropriately, saluting in the required manner when she stopped. Some bowed, and a few of her female crew who were in the uniform skirt actually curtseyed. This reminded her that some of her people were British subjects. She reminded herself to check out who were British later. Her new, embarrassing title might make it more awkward to deal with these particular people. It was best to be prepared.

When Romarkin and Silverman passed in from of him, they both grinned widely. Silverman actually winked. Prince Stephen, obviously in on it as well, waggled his brows. Mia seethed with both embarrassment as well as frustration at not being able to tell them off.

They trailed behind the queen, and when the queen was done, she and her “entourage” went back down the ramp and back into their limousine. It was a sign of the times that they didn’t have any bodyguards with them. In previous decades, VIPs like them would be surrounded by bodyguards.

As soon as the big black car started moving away, Mia nodded to O’Connell and she got them moving to a waiting bus.

As they were getting on the bus, a uniformed Royal Guard came up and bowed.

“My Lady,” he said, “Her Royal Highness has brought a vehicle for you, Captain O’Connell and your staff.” He gestured at a humungous, shiny black stretch limousine.

“Thank you,” Mia said. “Staff,” she thought. She turned to Nick.

“Nicky,” she said, “get us four Marines and find Commander Kajima. We’re going to the UN.”

“Marines, sir?”

“Yes. Make sure they are in class fives, and with their sidearms.”

“Aye.” He pulled out his CC and started making calls. It was difficult to round up the necessary Marines since those off duty had already departed, but he was able to get four soldiers and Kajima.

“Sir,” Kajima saluted. “Sorry, we just got the Lieutenant’s call. Reporting as ordered.”

The four Marines with Kajima were female, and were even taller than Mia. From their accouterments, she saw that they were from the Second Marine/Infantry Squad. “Guess Nick figured out what I wanted,” she thought.

“Thanks, Commander,” Mia said and turned to the lead Marine. “We’re going to the UN. I’m afraid we need to put on another show. If you know what I mean.”

The Marine nodded. “I thought as much,” she grinned. “You can count on us, Skipper.”

“Thank you, Sergeant,” Mia said.

The four Marines went to the front part of the limo and occupied the front two cabins and Mia, Nick, O’Connell and Kajima sat in the rear-most cabin. And as soon as they got settled in, the long vehicle started moving.

- - - - -

(bookmark 62)

As the long procession of cars slowly made its way through New York, the First Ambassador looked through his limousine’s windows and saw the crush of Earthers that lined the boulevard they were travelling on.

“A parade,” he thought. Many races had the same kind of thing, the Arachnians, too, though they varied widely in detail. Still, he felt this very familiar, and was delighted. It bode well for their future plans.

“They are so many,” one of his colleagues marveled. They were the third car in the procession, the Princess and Prince’s car in the lead followed by the Admiral’s, followed by theirs.

“What are they doing?” another asked.

“They’re waving around miniature flags, and screaming and waving at us.”

“I can see that!” he said. “Stop being literal. I mean, why are they doing that? Are they angry?”

The First Ambassador sighed, or did their equivalent of a sigh.

“They’re cheering us,” he said.

“They are?”

“Yes. Obviously.” He then suddenly leaned forward and, using his Elyran-to-Earther translator, talked to their car’s driver.

He then leaned back.

One of the others tapped him on his upper left arm’s shoulder.

“What did you tell the driver,” he asked the First Ambassador.

“I asked him to open our cabin roof.”

“What?”

At that moment, their roof started folding towards the back of the car like an accordion, and the glass windows started sliding down and disappearing into the doors.

Being out in the open, they could now hear the crowd. It was very visceral how the cheering of the Earthers felt. “Yes,” he thought, “this was how a parade’s supposed to be.”

The First Ambassador stood on his hind limbs, surprising his fellow Arachnians, and waved his two upper right limbs at the Earthers, doing his best to emulate the people he saw on “TV.”

It must have worked because the cheering of the crowd doubled. The First Ambassador bowed in the Elyran manner, and, judging by the response, he did right.

- - - - -

(bookmark 63)

“What happened?” Ren asked Tasha. “Why are they cheering like that?” He looked through the windows of their limousine but didn’t see anything. He craned his neck and looked back through their rear window and saw, in the rearmost car, the First Ambassador standing up on his back limbs in his now-roofless limousine and waving to the spectators.

“That showoff,” he said, grinning. “That damned lovable showoff. Tasha!”

Tasha turned and looked through the window. She laughed.

What’s more, they saw the roof of the car in between them fold open as well, and Admiral Dax, in her snowy-white formal uniform, stood as well. The loose sleeves of her robe fell away as she waved. Her slim arms were uncovered, showing the very fine, snowy white feathers almost like fur in their extravagant thickness and fineness covering them. On her face was a simple, uncomplicated smile as she acknowledged the cheering of the Earthers. She looked towards their car and gestured for them to come out as well.

“Come on!” Dax mouthed, and waved for them to come out. “Come on!” she repeated.

Ren and Tasha looked at each other. They giggled.

Tasha shrugged. “Why not,” she said, and tapped on the partition between them and the driver compartment, explaining they wanted out, too. Either the driver knew Elyran, or he had a translator, because he understood her straight away.

In a moment, their cabin also opened and the both of them stood.

The air was a little cool but the sunlight was warm and wonderful, and the atmosphere was just moist enough to feel pleasant. Their noses were assailed by scents and smells that were mostly familiar but wonderfully exotic as well.

The already-raucous crowd even went wilder. Tasha laughed and waved. Ren put his arm around her and gave her a hug, and waved to the crowd as well.

“Never in a million years would I have imagined we’d be here, and in a parade,” Ren said into her ear, laughing.

Tasha pulled him close. “I as well, my love,” she answered, and kissed him happily. “I as well.”

As they kissed, the people went even wilder, if that was even possible.

The crowd surged forward. Hands reached out to her and Ren, and they touched hands with the Earther citizens.

Young and old, male and female, it felt like all the kinds of Earthers they’d ever seen was there, and they pressed forward wanting to meet the two of them.

The caravan had to slow down, and even more people took that opportunity to get closer. Some of the braver ones actually snuck forward and shook their hands or gave them kisses on the cheek.

Ren couldn’t stop himself and, though he didn’t kiss them back (Tasha was watching, after all), he shook hands with them or hugged them back instead.

Ren looked back at the other two cars and it appeared that he and Tasha had the larger group of “fans” (he had learned the word from the Earther Sahsha). Still, other Earthers also crowded around the others. He was surprised to note that it was mostly children that congregated around the Arachnian limo. The First Ambassador was probably having the time of his life meeting the Earther children.

In a few minutes, however, a group of uniformed Earthers came over blowing whistles and politely, but firmly, held the throng back, allowing the vehicles to continue on their way to the UN.

- - - - -

(bookmark 64)

When they reached the building, security people approached their car and opened the doors. They stood at attention and saluted in the Earther manner as the extraterrestrials stepped down from their cars. Several of the Elyran bodyguards who were in the rear compartment of their limo got out and surrounded the Princess and Prince.

Ren spotted the Secretary-General and the queen, and they went over and climbed up the stage they were standing on. The cheering crowds tried to surround the stage but were held back by Earthers in the same uniforms as before. “Police,” Ren surmised.

He actually wondered why they allowed these people to get so close. Didn’t they worry about security? But then, he didn’t understand the dynamics of the situation so he just decided to trust them and his small, handpicked Elyran security contingent to keep him and Tasha safe.

He and Tasha bowed to the queen and the Secretary-General deeply as Elyran royalty would with peers, and followed that with handshakes in the Earther manner. They noticed the little Earther female they met before via Phase-Wave, Ren’s little friend Sahsha, and waved to her.

Soon Admiral Dax, the First Ambassador and their parties joined them. Prince Stephen talked with them via a translator unobtrusively pinned underneath his collar, and sorted out their large group onstage. In a while, Ren’s and Tasha’s, the Admiral’s and the First Ambassador’s people were escorted down to seats at the rear of the stage. That left the Queen, the Secretary-General, Admiral Dax, the First Ambassador, and Ren and Tasha.

The aliens and the Earth dignitaries found seats at the left side of the stage, and after they had settled down, the Secretary-General stepped up to the podium. As soon as the gathered spectators had quieted down, she began her short prepared speech.

- - - - -

(End of Part Four)

Kudos

Comments

yea!!

thanks

SQUEEEE!

OMG! I look away for a few months and BAM! You finished the story! I've so been looking forward to this and I almost missed it! XD

*running off to read*

Lovin This!!!

Fun read!!
Thanks
a

alissa

Trouble

I hope nothing mars the occasion and Amelia gets further embarrassed.

hugs :)
Michelle SidheElf Amaianna

Really Good Continuation

Very enjoyable -- certainly well put together and a good read.

Liked the way you tied in the torch; now we know why Ren, Tasha and company were so impressed when the original message from the Solar System showed the Statue of Liberty. (I wonder if there'll be a follow-up next time, now that they're in New York.

Eric

(I wasn't expecting an 80,000-word "part", far longer than the first three parts combined. I'll have to save the rest for later.)

You can't keep a good woman down

Even if she started as a man.

Bullies ran for it

Beth is one cool woman, riding that mast so Seeker could have a view of their surroundings. And the Empire never expected to get their heads handed to them. Twice.

By running, the Princess and her husband proved they're nothing but bullies, who haven't the courage to stay and fight when they know they're losing.

Mia sure wasn't expecting to be given the rank of Admiral or command of fifth fleet. But it didn't take much by those above her to see how qualified she was for the promotion.

The problem both the Federation and the Empire face is not being able to think on their feet during a battle. Each follow prescribed tactics so their moves can be predicted. Because Earthers do think on their feet during a battle, their tactics can't be predicted, making it more difficult to defend.

Whoa to the Empire should Earth decide to take the battle to them. There won't be any year long journey for the Earth fleet, or tankers to replinish rockets. With the advanced tech Earth has the Empire will be hard pressed to save itself.

Best they holevup in their corned of the universe and let the dragon sleep.

Others have feelings too.

Shepherd Moon, Part 4

Comments

yea!!

SQUEEEE!

Lovin This!!!

Trouble

Really Good Continuation

You can't keep a good woman down

Bullies ran for it

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