(Year 3610, Month 8, Day 31, Hour 19 Minute 22)
We emerged from the wormhole at the coordinates given by Clive’s pathfinder. We immediately received a beacon transmitted from Crosspoint 49/Center-of-Minds-Meeting, apparently a space station in stationary orbit around a planet named Sealeesh. An hour later, we were in visual range.
It was big. It was very big, maybe five times the size of Eirelantra. And…I really can’t describe it. I’d never seen a structure quite like it. Preliminary analysis revealed that the hull wasn’t metallic. It was a substance I’d never seen before, sharing the properties of both plastics and ceramics, and there were no join marks anywhere. Somehow, it had been constructed as a single object. I couldn’t imagine how to print something like that, so it had to be cast or molded in a foundry.
From a distance, it looked like a giant sphere, like a planetoid. But as we drew nearer, we could see that it was actually made up of a great number of multiple spheres, packed together in a dense array. Some of the spheres had declivities, and some of the declivities held ships. Docking bays, then.
There were lots of ships, but I only recognized one design: Floatfish. There wasn’t one ship of CenGov manufacture, not one that I recalled being used in the IndWorlds. Of course, there are so many IndWorlds that there could have been something unfamiliar to me, but I didn’t think so. None of the designs looked particularly suitable for occupants that were human.
“Holy shit,”* I muttered. We really were in uncharted space, in more ways than one.
Cara came up behind me, hands on hips, lips twisted in a satisfied smirk. “Sure beats hell out of Tasea,” she said. “Then again, that isn’t difficult.”
“I was there once, on a contraband run before the Matriarchy took over. It was one of the most depressing places I’d ever seen.”
“It was getting to the point that it wasn’t bad at all, before CenGov invaded. Ungrateful bastards couldn’t see how His Sublime Holiness the Archon was extending the hand of blessing towards them. Especially since they had been breaking treaties and trade agreements and basically provoking their own destruction. His Holiness forgave them in his infinite compassion.”
I was glad she was looking over my shoulder and not at my face because I started to grin. I was sure she was picturing the high and mighty Ailann Tiarnan, Archon of Skarsia, the man who healed the degenerative disease that ruined her childhood. But I was picturing Donovan Chase, flopped against a pile of crates in the hold, smacked out of his mind, a little trail of drool at the corner of his mouth. I hope the Archonists are wrong – I’d hate to miss out on heaven because I can’t bring myself to take “God” seriously.
Then I pictured myself at the heavenly gates saying, “I stuck my tongue in God’s mouth once. That must count for something.” I couldn’t help it. I started laughing.
I could feel Cara stiffen behind me. “Apostate,” she muttered.
“So what now?” I said quickly. The details of the mission were not shared with me – which wasn’t uncommon for the kinds of missions I ran. I fully expected Cara to tell me to drop off the K’ntasari and then cool my heels for a few days – or weeks.
“We wait until we’re contacted,” said Othello. “We should get some rest now – we’ll be attending the parlay at around 9 GalStandard hours.”
“Do you know how long you’ll be staying?” It would be a good time for me and my crew to perform some maintenance. If we were here for more than a few days, I might take a look at those wormhole emitters. Clive said the ship was in decent shape, but I had a good ear. There was something a little off-pitch about the whine, which meant that we could be losing efficiency on the antimatter reactions.
“We have no idea,” Juliet responded. “It could be weeks, even months. We don’t know if the other members of the Combine experience time in the same way we do. The Cu’enashti don’t.”
I looked up abruptly from the diagnostic panels. I always tried to hang loose, but that was a bit looser than I cared for. Also, it brought home the fact that we were dealing with aliens. Well, it’s not like I’ve never seen an alien before. I guess I dated one – except at the time, I thought he was human. He wasn’t much good in bed, either. Completely disinterested. This didn’t bode well. If we were going to be here for months, I’d have to make a play for Melvin. Maybe the K’ntasari are different.
“You should really get some rest,” Othello said again, shooting a glance towards Cara. “You’ll have plenty of time to do maintenance later.”
Hmmm. In other words, they wanted me to leave the bridge so they could have a conversation. Well, I know when to take a hint. I can be discreet.
It was a smaller ship than my old one, and so I’d only brought two crew members, Xris and Ireeeni. The ship could’ve used three, but I had to convert the third crewman’s quarters into a passenger suite to hold Juliet and Cara. “Come on, Xris,” I said. “We’ll get a good start on the diagnostics in the morning.”
As I left, I detected some slight movement, a glance or shrug exchanged between Melvin and Othello. They were up to something, those K’ntasari. I haven’t survived this long taking all the shit jobs without having some instinct for danger.
I was right. Things did not go at all like I had planned.
*The original has “Farts of the Archon,” which could’ve been translated literally, but would have induced undue hilarity in the 21st Century reader during a very serious scene – trans.