Date Point 2 Years 1 Month After Vancouver
Aboard the Endless Sequence
The human male had dealt with the Celzi viciously, and Grznk had had every expectation that he and Rklkrk would be dealt with equal viciousness. They had worked, however, in the hope that they were wrong and that the human male knew something of keeping his promises.
Grznk was surprised when, after the human female had awoken, the male had actually handed over the datapad containing the details of their cure and allowed them the freedom to use the facilities aboard the Endless Sequence to ensure they were healthy. The human male also showed them to the prisoners, a Gaoian male and a Rauwryhr female who were being kept in a heavy security prison that smelled like a bucket of excrement had just stepped out of a shower.
Even then he did not trust the human male, and he had promised himself that he wouldn’t fall for any of the lies the human may tell him, even if he had fulfilled his end of the agreement so far. The human male held such a position of dominance over them it was difficult to see why he would ever simply release them.
Grznk had at least been relieved to discover that neither he nor Rklkrk, nor the two prisoners, had contracted any diseases outside of those provided for on the datapad. A biosample from the human female hadn’t returned any unknown samples, either, although the human male had not been as cooperative with the request for a blood sample.
“I’m not the one who’s been infecting everyone,” the human male had said when Grnzk had asked for the sample. “And if you’ve got enough time to look at my blood, shouldn’t you be using it to work up a fucking vaccine?”
“The vaccines are already being created,” Grnzk had told him. It was true, too, but it only required one person to do the work and in this case it had been Rklkrk. “Your prisoners will be cured before symptoms begin to manifest.”
“Good,” the human male said, “because I’ve seen what the infection could do to them and I wouldn’t wish that shit on anybody. That brings me to a good question, though…”
“A question?” Grnzk asked, and prepared to provide some basic explanation or analogy to explain away whatever the savage might ask.
“Are any of the infections airborne?” the human male asked. “Because if they are, I’ll need to vent all the fucking air again and I’d like to avoid that if possible. Jen is already going to be pissed that I’ve had to blast everywhere she’s been with space-bleach.”
Grznk swallowed hard. He hadn’t considered the possibility that any of these horribly dangerous pathogens might be airborne. He had only considered that they may have contracted them through contact with contaminated objects. He couldn’t lie about something like this either, not even if it might later thwart the human male. If he did that, and an airborne infection eventually spread from here, all the deaths would be on him. He had investigated the samples enough to understand that if that were to occur the number of dead would be uncountable.
“I will find out for you,” he said. “As soon as possible.”
“Good,” the human male replied, seeming to be satisfied. “Once this is fully under control, I’ll get you back to your people as soon as possible.”
“As you say,” Grznk said, still not really believing him. After all, if it were Grznk who held power over the human he was certain that he would never simply give that power up. Not without being forced to do so.
At the human male’s departure he finally sighed with simultaneous relief and worry. Grznk was not a soldier, he had no hope of rescue if the human male was not good to his word and he certainly had no reasonable prospects of escape – the Hunter vessels had told him that much, even if he hadn’t personally been witness to the crippling of a Dominion cruiser and the destruction of a Celzi one – there was nothing he could do. Nothing but wait and see.
“You’re looking better,” Adrian said Jen as she woke up all groggy from drugs. In truth she looked completely the same as she had before the procedure, which was the intention of course, but having seen her with her head cut open and brains peeking out tended to put a different perspective on the matter.
“I’ve got a killer headache,” she said, rubbing the side of her head gingerly. “You stayed though!”
“I only had to step out for a moment,” he told her. “I’m afraid there’s going to be some cleaning up to do.”
She groaned. “What did you do this time? It better not be more buckets of shite! I’ll be ragein’ if it’s anything like that!”
“I can definitely promise that there are no buckets of shite,” he said, internally cringing at her eventual reaction when she saw the flight deck covered in barbecued-to-death alien marines. The whole place reeked of burnt flesh – not a particularly pleasant smell – and the internal fluids of the corpses had begun to leak from the husks and stain the deck. It was probably going to be the worst job in history to clean up, and he didn’t want to be the only one to suffer through it. “I’ll give you a hand, though.”
She smiled at that, the drugs still partly in effect, and put her hand on his arm. “Ach, you’re a sweetie sometimes.”
He smiled tightly at that; it’d been long years since anyone had seen fit to call him anything like ‘sweet’, and while it was good to hear it, especially from a pretty girl in a hospital gown, it didn’t feel like it fit. Men who were ‘sweet’ didn’t lay waste to enemy soldiers without reservation, they didn’t take joy in the death of hundreds, and they didn’t break men for revenge. It had been long years since he’d been a man that word could describe, and when Jen did so it made him feel uncomfortable and undeserving.
“Doctor says you’ll be out of here in a day or so,” he said, turning the conversation back to her.
“I know!” she exclaimed brightly. “I could understand him when he said it! This thing’s a clinker… er, that means great!”
He grinned at her genuinely that time. “Interestingly it doesn’t seem to translate words like that when you speak the same language, or maybe it’s just your mad slang?”
Jen pretended to be decently affronted at that. “Excuse me? Says the Australian with the words that don’t make any sense at all! ‘Clinker’ is a perfectly acceptable word when you compare it to the sort of naff stuff that comes out of you!”
They smiled at each other, and Adrian felt his ears burning. “Well,” he said, turning to go. “I’ll check in again with you later. I have to keep an eye on the doctors here.”
She looked disappointed, although she smiled and nodded her understanding. “Of course, wouldn’t pay to let them try to escape. Not before they’ve got everyone nice and cured, anyway.”
He turned away from her at that, cursing himself internally for being such a chicken-shit. How can a man do the things he’d done and fall apart when confronted by a pretty girl?
One thing was certain though: it was becoming far more difficult to treat Jen just as someone who’d needed saving, or a bother he put up with because she had nowhere else to go. He’d started to actually give a damn about her.
+++++
Zhadersil Brig
“We’re healthy again,” Chir reported to Adrian as he entered the brig. “Can we come out yet?”
“It is uncomfortable in here,” Trycrur agreed. “And if we’re in here we can’t help with things like a Celzi cruiser attacking the Zhadersil!”
“We did not return so you could stick us in a cage, Adrian,” Chir continued.
Adrian sighed in frustration. “You’ll get out as soon as I can let you out. The doctors will be going as soon as they’re done, so you’ll have to sit tight until then.”
“We have been doing the tight sitting,” Chir replied sharply. “We are tired of it. What is taking so long, and how can you so freely come and go?”
“I have Jen keeping an eye on them,” Adrian replied. “I gave her a bit of metal pipe to hit them with if they tried anything funny.”
“They’re aboard the Endless Sequence?” Trycrur asked. “What if they engage the FTL and escape?”
“I’ve made it clear to them that the FTL is booby-trapped,” Adrian told her. “I told them what happened to the last Corti who tried to fucking double-cross me. They didn’t seem to be particularly interested in a repeat of that.”
“You booby-trapped the FTL on the Hunter ship?” Chir asked in surprise. It was a simple idea, and would absolutely have resulted in the death of any occupants on a vessel dropping unexpectedly from FTL, along with the destruction of the vessel itself. “Very clever.”
“It was the reactor in that case,” Adrian admitted, “but the effect was the same. Bekmer thought he was a lot fucking smarter than he actually was, and his fucking pride almost fucking killed us both. It has made any more FTL travel a long term project, though.”
“That could be a problem,” Trycrur said. “That Celzi cruiser will soon be missed. Others will come looking, and in greater numbers.”
Adrian nodded knowingly. “I’d thought of that possibility.”
“And?” Trycrur asked expectantly.
“I haven’t got any kind of solution,” he admitted. “I was hoping you two might be able to give me some ideas?”
Chir ran his hands through the thick fur on his neck in frustration. “You? With no ideas?! The end of time must be nigh!”
“No need for that, mate,” Adrian said. “I did what I could in a bad situation. We’re alive right now, and that means we can plan.”
“We have (days), Adrian,” Trycrur said gently. “Maybe (weeks). Maybe.”
“She’s saying we should leave while we have the chance,” Chir added. “We don’t have the time to get this old hulk working again, and I doubt you can fight a real army. Not with so little time to prepare, maybe not ever.”
“I got her working once before,” Adrian said. “I can do it again.”
“There’s just no way to get the power to the FTL,” Trycrur told him, not for the first time. “Last time you found a workaround, but I can’t see you doing that again without tearing open another major section of hull, or replacing all the conduits that were damaged in the existing breach.”
“(Weeks) of work,” Chir said, “even if all of us were working on it.”
“I know how long it takes,” Adrian told them angrily, “I’ve done it before!”
“You can’t do it without a wide distribution of those conduits,” Trycrur continued. “That’s the problem with minor conduits, they aren’t meant to channel power back the other way into the big ones.”
Adrian paused, and Chir recognised an idea coming upon the human. It always seemed as though a glow-light had been lit behind his eyes, and he would break into a grin.
Adrian broke into a grin. “You’re saying that if I can get power directly to the big conduits, we might be able to get it working?”
Trycrur sighed audibly. “Yes, Adrian, but those are all around the main reactor. That’s why they are where they are.”
“So can we replace the reactor?” Adrian asked. “Bypass it? Can we fill the rooms around it with little reactors and plug those fuckers into the big conduits?”
Chir shared a glance with Trycrur. The idea was possible, but difficult to execute. “Those kinds of components aren’t normally found outside of an orbital shipyard,” Chir said. “But they would have a range of sizes, everything from troop transports to cruisers to fighters are refitted in such places.”
“Then we have a plan,” Adrian decided. “Now tell me where the nearest shipyard is.”
Two Days Later
Grznk could hardly believe what the human male had told him. Not only where they actually being released, but he was going to release them in a system with an orbital factory. Such places were hives of military industry, and there would be no issue with him or Rklkrk finding their way back to their old vessel, or being reassigned to another.
“I am glad to see that you will honour agreements after all,” Grznk had told the human as they prepared to disembark, “although I admit I am not fond of your intended delivery system.”
“I’m not going to walk you onto a base and hand you over directly,” the human male had said. “I’m sure you’ll cope with spending a few hours in a Hunter pod.”
The human female, and Grznk was beginning to suspect they weren’t actually married at all, had stepped away from her endless cleaning duty to see them off as well. Grznk did not dislike this one as she had never showed any willingness to kill him, and had a softer personality in all. “As long as there’s really none of my germs in the air, I’ll thank you both for your help, Doctors.”
“There’s no airborne pathogens,” Grznk replied coldly, he did not appreciate having his competence or intelligence questioned by a savage race. “I would never allow such diseases to run freely through our populations!”
“The Directorate would punish him severely if they were ever affected,” the human male said, baring his teeth. Grznk was surprised he could accurately judge the probable decision by the Directorate should any Earth pathogens reach a Corti population. They would not be kind to the doctor who allowed it to happen.
“You are correct,” Grznk replied. “I had no choice in the matter. Your ship is entirely clear of your pathogens.”
“Well then,” the human female said, baring her teeth as well. “If I ever need a doctor…”
“You can find somebody else!” Grznk replied sharply, and the human male barked out his harsh laughter.
+++++
Shopping Trolley, Zhadersil Flight Deck
“Will they be alright in there?” Jen asked as they stowed the Corti in the Hunter holding chamber. The chamber hadn’t looked very nice, and although Adrian had most recently been using it to store the food he’d obtained on Affrag it still had an oppressive feeling of what had come before that. She almost wondered whether Adrian couldn’t sense it, but she knew enough of his history to know that he wasn’t the sort of man to be creeped out by an empty room.
“They’ll be fine,” he said to her, “and we don’t have any choice. If Chir and Trix are going to join us on our trip to the orbital factory, we’re going to need to keep them safe from any recrimination when they return to their normal lives. That means we don’t let the Corti see them.”
“So only we play the parts of outlaw pirates,” she asked. “They’re missing out.”
“Serious business, Jen,” he chided her. “And as far as they’re concerned, we are pirates. We’re going to be stealing starship reactors from a space factory; there’s no other word for it.”
She quickly apologised. “I’m just trying to make the best of this whole thing,” she said. “I don’t know if we’ll be coming back from something like this. I might die. You might die. We all might die.”
“We won’t die,” he replied quickly. “You can’t go in thinking you’ll die, Jen. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
“You can’t tell me you’ve never thought you were going to die,” she said. “You’ve been in the Middle East, haven’t you? And more recently you fought two whole starships!”
He cocked his head as though he felt embarrassed. “Well, those starships were run by idiots. I’d never have managed to do what I did if they had even half a brain.”
“But the Middle East?” she pressed, maybe pressing too much but she found she was wanting to know more, that she had to know about him. “I’ve seen the news, if you were working over there you must have been in serious danger all of the time?”
“It wasn’t quite that bad,” he said quietly. “There were some times, though. I’ve made my peace a few times, but if I thought it was going to be more dangerous at this factory than it is here, I wouldn’t be taking you along.”
“I’m a Belfast girl, Adrian Saunders,” she replied seriously. “I’ve been ascared for my life before. And I’m not useless like you seem to think, I have five older brothers who taught me to fight. I once punched a girl in the nose, laid her out for three full days.”
“Well,” he said with a smile. “Sorry for underestimating your brawling skills.”
“Apology accepted,” she replied, suddenly aware at how close he was to her. The proximity was making her whole body tingle with heat, a sensation that was making it difficult to think. This robbery might mean death, she knew. Therefore she should kiss him! Or he should kiss her! Somebody should kiss somebody else!
He pulled back after a few moments, so neither happened. All she got was a sense of frustration at the mixed signals, although as she’d normally been spectacularly crap with men she was forced to wonder if maybe it was just her. Really she only had experience with Mark from Accounts, a relationship that lasted about three months before he’d come out as gay, and Jacko the Printer Guy, a relationship that had lasted about five minutes in a broom cupboard at the office Christmas party. That second one made for some difficult phone calls whenever the office Fuji-Xerox broke down.
“So you’ve told me plan A,” she said, trying to get back to talking about something that didn’t send her heart racing. “What about plan B? I talked to Chir and Trix about your previous Plan Bs and it seems they’re all just you killing everything.”
“Yeah well,” Adrian said, clearly discomforted by her plainly critical judgment of his backup plan. “Plan B hasn’t really changed.”
“If it’s alright,” she said, “I do have some ideas for Plan B myself.”