Bellona Colony, Eridani
9 years 4 months after Eridani Landing
Councillor Daniels looked at Ben incredulously. “Are you insane?” he asked.
“My wife thinks so,” Ben replied, grinning at the various Councillors in the room.
Megan rolled her eyes, but said nothing.
“You want to give them access to our most advanced military secrets,” Daniels continued, ignoring the interruption. “Our weapons technology, our FTL technology, everything?”
“Not right away, no. But eventually. They want to help.”
Councillor Daniels sputtered furiously for a moment until General Cantor cut in.
“What kind of returns would we be looking at in terms of efficiency?”
“From what I can tell, we’d be able to cut the remaining time to finish the Russia from eight months down to around three, and the China from another ten months after that down to four. That’s assuming we don’t get some sort of synergistic groove going.”
“That’s an impressive difference in speed. What tests did you do to see how quickly they would be able to help with construction?”
“Night, and another Tanuin calling herself Maree, wanted to look at how one of the ground transports worked. It took them two days to disassemble it and then put it back together. After they figured it out the first time, they could do it in about an hour.”
“How long would it take a team of human engineers?” asked General Yan.
“About four or five hours if we worked as diligently as the Squeaks, uh, I mean the Tanuin do. They get in the zone of a task and then just about chew your head off if you interrupt them. Although that was mostly Night. He’s warming up to humans, but I don’t think he really likes us yet.”
“Do you feel that this animosity is shared by any of the others you’ve interacted with?” asked Daniels, leaning forward in his seat.
Ben considered for a moment. “No more than certain members of our own species might distrust them. Any aggression I’ve run into has been limited to perhaps a little rudeness or impatience, nothing out of the ordinary, relatively speaking. Still, even Night was tolerant of a human child when one grabbed at her in a tunnel. Scared the kid half to death, but didn’t actually hurt him.”
“Speaking of kids, have they told you anything more about how they reproduce?” asked Cantor.
Megan sniggered from her seat next to Ben. “Alpha is remarkably tight lipped about it, but we got it out of Maree. The Tanuin mating happens in cycles. They do the nasty and females lay eggs. Both the males and females watch over them. You can’t separate the eggs, since the single consciousness bonding the multiple bodies starts to form within each full clutch. In about three months, the eggs hatch and the Tanuin rear their young as a collective.”
“Three months!” Daniels exclaimed as he turned to look at the others on the council. “If we give them permission to breed, they could overrun us in a matter of months!”
“Daniels,” Hollows warned tersely.
“No!” Daniels continued. “Everyone has been so focused on attempting to integrate with these aliens and prove that we harbor no ill intent, despite the genocide we suffered at first contact. What if they harbor ill intent? Are we going to completely ignore that possibility?!”
Megan sighed. “Councillor, the gestation period for the eggs is three months. After that it takes a Tanuin close to a decade to reach sexual maturity. We’re not going to be overrun any time soon, not to mention the fact that like any human parent they are protective of their children, and choose when to reproduce. They aren’t a bunch of tribbles ready to swarm at the first opportunity. According to Alpha, now that they have ample food and shelter some Tanuin are considering laying eggs, but at the moment they are still wary of us. Like I said, they can’t move the eggs once laid; they need stability and peace before reproducing is really on the table at all.”
Daniels looked at her for a moment, then let out a breath. “Alright then.”
“Back on subject though, do the Tanuin have a concept of secrecy?” asked Cantor.
“Sir?” asked Ben.
“If we were, for example, to give Alpha security clearance for certain documents, would he understand what we mean when we say only he can view and/or discuss them? I understand they are individuals, but the Squeaks seem to share much more between themselves than a human would.”
“He would, yes, along with any other Tanuin. It was something they had to learn about when they encountered the aliens who attacked us. They freely shared their technology with them at first, but quickly learned it was a bad idea. My recommendation would be that we trust them,” Ben paused a moment, thinking. “Although we might need to have some Squeaks who do not publicly have clearance try and test Alpha and others with some inconsequential things at least. He understands the need to keep a secret, but I’m not sure Alpha in particular would be any good at keeping them.”
Yan bit his lip and tapped at his Link. “So in theory yes, practice you’re a little iffy.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I would be fine with those Tanuin who wish to help with the construction being given access to all systems, save the antimatter FTL drive and the weapons systems,” Yan stated. “If you allow the Tanuin to assist on all other parts of the ship and have your human engineers focus on those restricted systems, would your estimates for completion be affected?”
“By a few weeks or so, but it would still be a significant improvement over not having them.”
“I suggest we put it to a vote then,” said Yan.
“I agree so long as those limitations are put in place,” said Cantor.
Hollows simply nodded in assent, passing the vote; Daniels frowned but remained silent.
“Alright then, we’re going to get started.” Megan got to her feet, the light flashing on the exposed metal of the artificial muscle in her legs, and left the room with a quiet mechanical hum.
Stepping out of the chamber, Megan pulled out her Link and quickly dialed. Teaching Alpha that the beeping of a machine was something he needed to respond to had taken a little while, but after several days he seemed to have gotten the basics of it down. The Tanuin apparently didn’t need communication devices for anything but ship to ship communication, their internal hypersonic communications being something they all relayed amongst each other. A perfect implementation of mesh networking methodologies if ever there was one.
“Hello!” said Alpha, sounding out the word with care. Megan rolled her eyes. Getting him to answer first had been even more difficult. He had taken her suggestion to always say hello after activating his link quite literally.
“We’ve been given permission to let you and your engineers in to help on the China and the Russia, but for now the council is limiting you to help with the superstructure and secondary systems.”
“Understandable. May we get to work?” asked Alpha.
Megan slowly turned to look at Ben who was innocently starting at the ceiling.
“So you going to tell me where you were last night now?” asked Megan.
“I knew they would be eager to get to work. Did you really want to be in a shuttle with all of them hyper and itching to get to work? I took them up last night and left them in the service crawl ways. They like being near the heating elements.”
Megan groaned, “You can start examining everything, but don’t actually start working on anything until we get up there.”
“Understood!” The muffled squeaks of a Tanuin quickly followed, and then the sound of a hatch being undone followed by what was clearly a human woman screaming in surprise.
Ben winced, “He left his communicator on again.”
Megan closed the connection. “Ben, besides the reactor and the kitchens on the Fort, what’s the next hottest location?”
Ben thought about it for a moment, “The showers probably, why?”
He didn’t even try to dodge the Link that sailed directly into his face.
Diana, Jikse
“Ready?” asked [Orin].
“What happens if I say no?” Diana hissed.
“Then at the very least, we end up using some more of that miracle medicine of yours,” said [Hal] as he raised his own pistol.
Diana thumbed the safety off of the plasma weapon she had acquired. It required more upkeep than her rifle, and it was prone to mechanical and power failures at the slightest provocation. She had been told it was because her weapon was cheap and second hand. Diana was fairly sure it was because the plasma weapons were needlessly complex, but with her limited supply of bullets, her human pistol was relegated to being a backup in case the plasma weapon failed.
If everything went according to plan, she wouldn’t even need a weapon to begin with. But then she doubted everything would go according to plan.
“Alright, on three.” Diana squared her shoulders and readied to move.
“On three? Whatever happened to on five?” asked [Hal].
[Orin], apparently fed up with the delays, simply thumped her friend in the back sending him stumbling forwards into the bar.
Both women waited a moment listening for the sound of plasma weapons, but the only sound was a body being flung against the far wall of the building accompanied by a solid grunt.
Diana smiled. “Told you it was empty.”
[Orin] rolled her eyes and looked at Diana’s ears almost warily. “You’ve got something that has to be close to class C hearing.”
Diana smiled. Even compared to a normal human, her hearing and eyesight were acute. Not that she would tell [Orin] that.
She and [Hal] ran one of the many fronts for the less than legal organizations in the city during the day. At night they performed odd jobs, a practice that Diana had taken to helping them with to earn her keep.
It had been nearly a month since the Canada broke orbit and she had been abandoned on the planet. Becoming an active participant in the organized crime of an alien culture was probably not what the Council had in mind when they sent the Canada out on her mission, but it was getting her somewhere. Diana had managed to gather several times more intelligence and specifications for different technologies than what had been gathered during all of the earlier scouting forays. She even had information pertaining to some of the more dangerous technologies of the Empire; the kind of technologies that would be impossible to obtain by any legal means.
Stepping into the bar after [Hal], Diana looked around. Aside from a single overturned table and a man in the corner nursing a particularly nasty looking bruise on his face, the bar was completely empty. The man had his hands up and didn’t look as if he was interested in any more fighting.
“Where is it?” asked [Hal].
“I don’t know,” growled the man.
“Wrong answer!”
“He’s not going to know where it is,” [Orin] said as she stepped into the establishment.
“Look, if I knew what the fuck you were looking for, I’d tell you! I don’t get paid enough to risk my life for this shit!”
[Hal] kept his gun on the man but nodded in agreement. “Then you wouldn’t mind just sitting there for a little while, would you?”
“Nope.”
“Good. Dena?”
Ignoring the mispronunciation of her name, Diana looked around the bar. It seems like smugglers’ bars were the same across the galaxy. Just like any bar her Mother had operated back home; completely legal on first glance, but loaded with illegal activity and materials just under the surface.
It took her a moment to reach back into her memory on the specifics though. Ben and Megan had attempted to impress upon her that not everything her mother had taught her was exactly legal.
“I’m betting it’s under the scanner.” Diana pointed at the comm scanner where a patron might pay for a drink.
“Under the scanner? I thought the point of hiding something was to hide it somewhere not obvious,” said [Hal].
“I’ll bet you twenty credits.”
[Hal] ground his teeth. “Fine.”
Going over to the scanner, Diana expertly slid her knife from the hidden flat pocket at the bottom of her vest, and gently slid the blade underneath the metal plate that was holding the scanner in place. Levering it up, Diana popped the cover off and peered into the hole.
“Damn it.”
“So am I twenty credits richer?”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” growled Diana. Reaching into the hole, she felt around inside the furniture. Slowly removing her hand, Diana held up the small data unit, smiling. “This what we’re looking for?”
[Orin] snatched the device out of her hand and held it up to her comm. For a moment everyone in the deserted bar held their breath.
“It is. Tell your boss He says hello!” she replied, directing the last statement at the man on the floor.
“He’s the one who hired you?” asked the man fear suddenly flooding into his face.
“Well, no, but he hired our boss,” said [Orin].
Diana’s ears perked up at this, it was the first mention of the hierarchy of command that [Orin] and [Hal] were following. She had been careful not to ask questions lest they become suspicious, but any information about how the illegal power of the city was structured would be immensely useful.
The man relaxed slightly.
“Alright.”
Reaching over to the bags of alcohol hanging behind the bar, [Hal] unhooked one and holstered his weapon, casually ambling out of the establishment. [Orin] quickly followed, data module still in hand.
Diana glanced over at the man. He considered her for a moment and she watched his hand twitch towards his gun. Diana was across the room in less than a second, suddenly in front of him, knife in hand.
“You lied,”
The man swallowed nervously. “What?”
“About knowing where the data was.”
The man’s face slowly paled. From this close, Diana could see the throbbing pulse in his neck quicken.
“You have it, the real thing, don’t you.” It was not a question. Leaning forward, Diana reached into the man’s vest pocket and extracted a second data module. She held it up and her Link quickly connected and scraped the data from the device. It seemed like the automated data retrieval programs that Arik had left behind were strong enough to pull the data from end-user modules like this, but the encryption used in the credit system was almost impossible to break. Still, even the raw encrypted data could be useful.
Smiling, Diana handed the module back to him. “Have a nice day.”
“What?” asked the man, confused.
Diana was already gone, following her new friends through the city.
Her mother had owned a Station. If Diana played her cards right, she saw no reason she wouldn’t be able to own a whole city, maybe even a planet. Still, just because these people were Class B didn’t make them easy targets, and as much as they attempted to avoid violence, they were not bloodless. ‘He’ especially was something that came up again and again. The many criminals and vaguely legal businesses of the city all knew of Him; every citizen on the planet feared Him; yet so far Diana had almost nothing on him.
He ran the city with an efficiency that would have made her mother envious, and although he was powerful he tolerated the activities of smaller organizations, so long as they paid their dues. Diana had seen what happen those to broke agreements with him.
What He left in his wake was more violent than anything she had observed in the other class B’s of the city. One wrong move and she would die, by His hand or some random lucky punk’s. That was without even considering what might happen if she was discovered to be a Class C.
The criminals and scum of the Empire viewed the sordid class C’s as something less than human, for lack of a better term; less than sentient. Depending on the stories they’d heard, class C’s were either brutes to be eradicated or merely diseased vermin waiting to be cleansed.
The Canada, Deep space
“We need provisions,” complained Derick as he picked at his ration.
“The Canada has enough provisions to continue her mission. Stopping specifically for food would be foolish.” Arik’s voice floated out of the speakers in the engineering section.
“Come on, they’re field rations! We could live on them for a year sure, but everyone’s going to be stark raving mad by the end of it!”
Derick shoved what was rest of the meal bar into his mouth and chucked the wrapper at a wall. The fresh food stores and hydroponics section had been destroyed in the battle with the Empire vessel. Most of the damage to the Canada had been repaired, but no plants were hardy enough to survive extended exposure to vacuum. It wasn’t a priority after all.
“How do you think I feel?” asked Arik.
“Nu-uh, you don’t get to play the repressed robot card. I’m the one complaining right now!”
“I’m still trying to sort out how to manage the heat dispersal systems if we end up in combat again! Running the fusion reactor, the weapons systems, and the Ace all at the same time – not to mention my combat sub-processors – overtaxed the systems!”
“I’m aware of that, Arik. I’m still finding burned out couplings along the entire heat dispersal system,” said Derick, annoyed; he had been trying to solve that problem as well – had been for an entire month.
The Canada had been designed to handle all of those systems operating simultaneously, and in dry-dock testing she had run hot but remained manageable. In combat, however, enemy weapon fire was another source of heat that had to be dispersed. The cooling systems had not been designed to handle it.
“I’m proposing the gas venting again; it would be effective in combat situations at least. Everyone suits up as normal for combat, but we keep the air and we dump as much of the heat as possible into the atmosphere up to the suits’ tolerance levels and then explosively decompress all compartments, evacuating the heat along with the air.”
Derick nodded. It was at least a stopgap measure, and one the Canada could certainly perform as a one-off in battle. What he didn’t know was what effects dumping all that heat into the ship’s atmosphere would have on the crew and equipment. They also wouldn’t be able to replenish the atmosphere in a manner that would be timely for a battle situation.
“It’s the best option we have at the moment. I’d like a better one, though.”
The hatch to the engineering section opened and Captain Stagg drifted into the compartment.
“Captain,” Derick greeted.
“I’m just doing rounds, anything to report here?” she asked.
“I want to eat something besides rations.”
The Captain slowly turned to look at him and didn’t say anything. Derick weathered the glare but felt it smart not to say anything else.
“We might have a solution to the heat dispersion issues during combat.”
“You sound hesitant,” Stagg said, looking between the two of them.
Arik answered first. “Instead of venting atmosphere before combat starts, we vent it during combat, after dumping as much heat into it as possible.”
“And this would allow us to utilize all of our weapons, including the Ace, while still adequately absorbing those energy weapon blasts?”
“No, but it would give us a buffer.”
“So after we vent atmosphere we would be overloaded, and something would fry?”
Derick snorted. “Not something. The second Ace. We melted the first one in combat already. The system is a power hog and it throws out almost as much heat as the reactor when powered up. The Ace will fry the second we overload our heat sinks.”
“Any progress salvaging the original?” asked Stagg.
Derick pushed off from the wall, drifting over to the side of engineering where Arik and the fusion reactor were housed. He carefully extracted the original ‘Ace in the hole’ device. He cautiously maneuvered it away from the wall. It was nearly as big as he was; weightless it might have been, but it was massive and would cause quite a bit of damage if it ran into something.
Turning it around, he showed the Captain the access panel.
She winced. “It looks better than last time, at least.”
“If it weren’t for the fact I’d sleep better with a backup as well, I’d say we trash it. Everything is fused, and some parts I don’t have spares for so I’m having to re-machine everything. It’s slow going. What’s my estimate Arik?”
“At your current rate of repair, perhaps another seven months, barring any additional failures are discovered which seems likely.”
“So, eventually,” Derick deadpanned. Grimacing, he put the device back against the wall where it magnetically locked back into place. It’s twin next to it looked almost identical but without the electrical scarring and burns up its side.
“Hopefully we can avoid any further combat. I want you to start preparing a series of drills for this new venting procedure, though. When you have them we’ll start drilling. How much of a buffer will it give us with all of the systems?”
“Ninety seconds.”
Stagg closed her eyes and looked as if she were about to swear. For several moments, everyone was silent.
“I want that time doubled.”
“That might not be possible.”
“Find a way to make it possible!” snapped the Captain. Turning, she launched herself off of the bulkhead and out of engineering.
Neither engineer nor pseudo-AI said anything. The Captain had been quick to irritate ever since the ill-fated mission on the alien world. Derick and Arik were holding onto the hope that the crew of the shuttle had survived the descent into the atmosphere and avoided the Empire, but Stagg was being more pragmatic… and perhaps realistic.
They were all likely dead.
The Imperial, Deep Space
“The Consul attempted to make contact again today, requesting justification for the two other ships you called in to patrol with us,” [Syn] reported as she scrolled though her data pad.
“I don’t have to explain anything to him, or to the Senate! My Father took half the fleet on patrol just as a show, back before the rebellions!”
“That was planned years in advance, the logistics all sorted out. Our dropping in and out of every system looking for the Human vessel is causing a bit more of an uproar.”
“They have FTL technology unlike our own, and they somehow disabled the shields of our finest ship. We must finish what was started and eliminate them before they become an even larger threat!” said [Vann], clearly annoyed.
[Syn] was silent for another moment. “I know this is the last thing you want to hear, but if you believe them to be as much of a threat as you say, why not inform the Consul? He shares your fears about this species, and giving him the information might even go a long way towards repairing the relationship between the two of you.”
[Vann] slowly turned to look at her. [Syn] held her ground and stared back at him.
“You think he wouldn’t use the information to his advantage somehow? Twist it to be used against me?”
[Syn] quickly shook her head. “I think he would if he had the chance, but as much as the two of you are at odds, neither of you want to see the Empire in chaos. I’m not suggesting you do it now, but if the Humans prove to be too much of an issue? Coming forward on your own terms instead of waiting for him to find out what has happened on his own will allow you to control the situation, rather than letting him start spinning freely until you return.”
[Vann] knew she was right. As tight as the security and information blackouts were, eventually there would be a leak from one of the three ships, it was just too many people to control. If he went forward to [Marcus], their combined influence might be able to stop the information from leaking to the public before the class C’s were eliminated.
“I’ll think about it. At the moment it’s a single anomaly, and should we be able to capture the ship, we’ll be able to destroy [Marcus] with the information that he’s been hiding; we would have proof that some class C’s have escaped extermination.”
“It would be helpful if we had more information on them. Will you give [Charles] a chance to try and get information out of them?” asked [Syn].
[Vann] nodded wearily. It was something he had been considering, but up to this point he was reluctant to let a man who had been held by the Humans for years back into the same room as his former captors.
Still, the normal methods of obtaining information hadn’t proven to be particularly effective as of yet. The Humans seemed to have some mysterious immunity to the usual drugs, and although they were less tolerant to pain they hadn’t done anything but curse at the interrogators.
[Vann] was startled by a voice from underneath a small table on the other side of the compartment. “I won’t be able to break them,” [Charles] said groggily from the floor. [Syn] and [Vann] had been under the impression that he would be out for far longer, given the number of bottles strewn about the floor around him. “The best you can hope for is something they consider inconsequential that we might find important. The only way that’s going to happen is if I get them talking,” said [Charles] as he slowly sat up.
“And you will be able to do that?” asked [Vann].
“Should be able to, yes,” said [Charles], in what [Vann] assumed was the Human’s language, considering it took the translator a moment to interpret it.
“Fine.”
Getting to his feet, [Charles] smiled. “Alright then.”
After checking a few, [Charles] eventually found a bottle that wasn’t yet completely empty, and strode out of the office.
[Vann] and [Syn] glanced at one another and followed after the man, sharing a mutual look of resignation. [Charles] had already walked down the short corridor with surprising speed and entered the lift. Stepping into the second lift only moments after him, [Vann] stepped out to see [Charles] was already trying to get past the guard to the brig.
“Let him through.”
On seeing [Vann], the guard immediately bowed and stepped out of the way as [Charles] lumbered forwards.
“Will you slow down!?” shouted [Vann].
[Charles] lurched around to look at him, “Do I get to talk to them or not?”
“You do, but not without me or at the very least [Sam] observing for now. You can’t claim to be anywhere close to stable.”
Charles laughed. “If I’m going to deal with Humans, I can’t be anywhere close to stable!”
Stumbling forwards, [Charles] slammed his fist into the outer airlock of the cell the Humans were in. The two looked up in surprise at the noise, but didn’t say anything. The walls of the cell were designed so that it looked as if the prisoners were enclosed within a clear enclosure, but from the inside the walls were opaque and relatively deadened to outside sounds. Prisoners who thought they had some semblance of privacy would occasionally forget their surroundings and discuss sensitive material with one another, but the Humans hadn’t yet made that mistake. They seemed to either talk brokenly in some language their translators lacked data for, or by a series of seemingly nonsensical allusions which could be easily translated but were impossible to understand without the references.
“[Charles]?” asked [Sam].
The woman had a chair up against the wall of the cell and was apparently watching and listening to the prisoners.
“I’m out of ideas. I’m hoping he’ll be able to get something out of them,” said [Vann] with an air of defeat.
[Sam] looked at her old Captain and then at the Emperor. “At this point I agree. They’ve received training to withstand information extraction techniques well outside of what we can use, legally.”
[Vann] put his hand to the console on the outer cell wall and the first door opened. [Charles] stumbled into it and the pod sealed.
Both Humans were now on their feet, at this point they knew they were under observation inside the cell and knew the routine. The first time a guard had entered while they were awake they had waited on either side of the entrance to attack him, but after being shocked into unconsciousness they decided not to try that again. Without the element of surprise, they stood up and waited while the door cycled.
The inner door opened and [Charles] stepped inside.
The two humans considered him for a moment and then glanced at one another, apparently not sure what to make of the disheveled, reeking alien in front of them.
“Is this some new form of interrogation? A drunk to brawl with?” asked the larger Human.
The female rolled her eyes. “I doubt it, although I’m surprised he’s standing. It smells like he hasn’t showered in days.”
Charles spoke to them in English, immediately drawing their attention, “You think this is bad? The Mars bunker was a hell of a lot worse in the end. Everyone then would have said I smell pretty in the end!”
The two Humans looked at him an odd mixture of curiosity and anger on their faces. “Mars?”
[Charles] nodded and sat, leaning against the wall.
“After your species jumped away, I was captured. Spent a few years in that giant bunker you guys had on that fucking planet. Still surprised that she didn’t kill me in the end.”
The smaller Human trembled with barely contained rage. “That’s what your people do. We don’t kill unless we have to.”
[Charles] slumped his shoulders further and looked at the floor. Reaching into his jacket, he drew out a small flask and drained the last drops from it. “I know. That point was drilled home quite thoroughly during my time in the bunker.”
The two humans looked at one another for a long moment.
“Start cycling the door and get ready to stun the whole room” said [Vann], pointing to the control panel by the cell.
[Sam] was already by it and raising the safety from the switch, holding her hand over the button that would send a powerful energy pulse through the entire cell.
“Why are you here? So far the only guys we’ve had the pleasure of talking with have been your lovely interrogators.”
“I’m well aware. For the record, I told them that would be pointless. I’m probably the only one who might be able to get information from you.”
The two humans looked amused at that.
“What makes you think that? You walk in here without a weapon and half drunk, why would we tell you anything?” growled the larger human.
“The General of the Martian base wanted to know something… he wanted to know if I could be Human.” [Charles] looked at his empty flask, despondent.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked the woman. “It means that if I’m backed into a wall with no other options, I’ll take the best of the worst. I learned from your General, just how durable Humans are and how to break them.”
[Charles] pulled his shirt to the side, exposing a gash across his collarbones. “It took me a while to learn, and this one of the few physical scars from that experience.” [Charles] let his shirt fall down and leaned his head back, tapping it.
“Most of them are in here.”