That system and sub-section of space got very busy for a few weeks after that.
Unlike the valiant captain of the Ige Ibas, who’d had the forethought to delete his ship’s systems and prevent the slavers from learning all about us, the slavers on the wounded mothership left us a small mountain of data and information to mine for details about them and their people.
Once we had established that the ship’s orbit was degrading and that the ship was therefore helpless, three of the ships which had responded to the Omia’s call for help who were atmosphere-capable had risked getting close enough to grapple the mothership, drag it out of the gravity well and park it in space.
Then we rolled up our sleeves and tried to figure out how to rouse the one hundred and forty-four sleeping prisoners. The best medical experts, with Fiori amongst them, decided that the prisoners had to be taken back to a full medical facility before trying to wake them. The shuttles were detached from the mothership, loaded into freight bays and jumped away.
The patients on the Lythion were also transferred to a medical transport and taken to the clinic on New Phoenicia. Fiori went with them.
Scientists, historians, anthropologists and a dozen different interest groups swarmed over the mothership. We learned that none of the slavers had survived, but not because of the fire. Lyssa’s volley had blown out the weak corridor side of the shuttle bay, and the ship had suffered explosive decompression. We found slavers without helmets and others with no suits at all. The few who happened to be wearing their full suits we figured were on duty when the explosion happened. But their suits were designed to use ambient atmosphere when it was available, and even though they had switched to suit-air only, they didn’t have enough air in the suits to last for long. They were the only slavers to die of asphyxiation.
The bodies were shipped to the Laxman Institute, for Arnold Laxman had offered to autopsy them to see what we could learn about their physiology that might help us with the unconscious former prisoners, and also learn what was different about them that let the cryogenic shells work on them, but not on us.
There were a thousand questions we all wanted answered yesterday.
After a month in the quadrant, I’d had enough. I called everyone together for dinner, and asked Jai and Marlow in particular to be there, for the pair of them were in the very thick of all the discussions about humankind’s history and what our future might be, holding their own among all the planetary governors, mayors, prime ministers and more who had headed out to see for themselves the first sort-of-alien ship we’d ever come across.
Even Kristiania was elbow deep in the political discussions, for if there was a spokesman for Darius Star city at all, she was it. She was also the president of the Shipping Guild, who had a very strong interest in making sure none of their registered ships disappeared.
Dalton was coopted by Jai and Marlow to work as their chief of staff, which was mostly a matter of diplomatically telling people they could not have “just ten minutes” with either of them. I understood why Jai had tapped Dalton for that, when I found out. He would have pissed off dignitaries within an hour. I would have lost my own temper long before the first hour was done.
The area of space over the gas giant was as busy as Triga ever got, and Triga was still considered the physical center of the known worlds. Jai asked the captain of one of the bigger ships, a former Ranger carrier, to act as local traffic control and assign emerging areas, jumping lanes and hand out clearances, before someone arrived blind and emerged where another ship was already parked.
It was as busy and chatty and populated as home…and I wasn’t even home.
So I set up the dinner and everyone turned up. I had Lyssa build the boardroom into a luxury restaurant with a star dome that showed local space, with its intriguing ribbon of stars from the next arm of the galaxy over from ours. I even put on a dress, although it itched under my arms.
It was a very good night, with a minimum of friction considering the strong personalities sitting around the big round table with its candles and white tablecloth. When I pointed that out to Jai, he shrugged, but he also smiled. “Sometimes, we can put up with each other because we are all friends.”
True.
I got to my feet, and thanked everyone for coming, then got down to brass knuckles. “Three days ago, Lyssa was asked to register her parking space and identify herself. There’s too many ships in this system and too many experts. Certainly, I’m not needed. So I’ve decided to head back to Melenia. I’ve got bills to pay and debts to clear.”
No one around the table looked surprised.
Sauli scratched under his chin. “If you don’t mind dropping me off on Darius, Danny, I’ll come with you. I have to make sure they’re still building ships according to the blueprints I left behind. Then I’ll bring the Omia back, so Kristiana can stay on top of things here.”
I glanced at Kristiana. She gave a tiny movement of her shoulders. “We are making history, here,” she said. “Or perhaps we’re merely uncovering history we didn’t know was out here. It’s…interesting.”
I glanced at Jai and Marlow. “I don’t want to kick the two of you out, but…”
Marlow grinned. “We can find a couple of bunks to use until the Omia returns. Sauli has better brandy, anyway.”
Sauli laughed. “He just likes beating me at chess.”
I looked at Lyth.
His smile was warm. “If you don’t mind, Danny, I’d like a lift back to Wynchester. Arnold is a lousy administrator and I’ve never heard him sound so giddy as he has lately, with all the implications behind the neo-humans that he’s been learning.”
“I think we have to stop calling them that,” Jai said.
Everyone looked at him.
Jai lifted his chin, to indicate the view beyond the dome, and the thick river of stars running across the sky. “These people are only new to us. We know very little about them, so far, except that we think they come from the other arm, but I think it’s safe to assume that their culture and their worlds are just as old as ours, so calling them new people is incorrect.”
“Have a better name for them, professor?” Dalton asked, his tone dry. He’d spent a lot of time in Jai’s company lately, and Jai was very good at pontificating when he had everyone’s attention. The problem was, most of what he said was profoundly interesting, so it was hard to just switch off and not listen to him when he was in full flow. Only, Dalton preferred action and doing things to thinking about things and discussions, so I could understand the dry tone.
“That arm is the Orion arm,” Jai said. He looked around the table.
Yoan stared at the tabletop. “Orion…ics?”
Everyone winced.
“Orionids?” Juliyana said. Calpurnia, who sat beside her, had said very little all night, even though she had responded to my invitation with pleased surprise.
Everyone groaned at Juliyana’s suggestion, too.
“What about just calling them Orions, for now?” I suggested.
“It will do for now,” Jai replied.
“And to get back to the point,” Lyth said with a patient tone, “I think we’ve learned all we can from the mothership. We’ve scraped it down to the molecular level for anything interesting and we’ve got rooms full of data to analyze. I want to return to the Institute and go on from there. So yes, thank you, Danny, I will go back with you.”
I couldn’t help but move my gaze to Juliyana, and realized that everyone else had looked at her, too, except for Calpurnia, who looked down at the contents of whatever it was she was drinking.
Juliyana flushed a deep red. She cleared her throat. “I’m heading back home, too,” she said. “The Penthos is already there, so Cal can take her out when we get back.”
Calpurnia raised her chin and looked at Juliyana, her mouth open. “Me?”
Juliyana nodded.
Lyth, I noticed, was now staring at the tabletop, his face held in a rigid neutral expression. He was too nice a man to look pleased where Calpurnia might see it. And yeah, I was happy for him, so I fought to not look too pleased, too.
Calpurnia drank the rest of her glass, a smile in place.
Sauli tapped Yoan’s shoulder. “Going or staying?”
Yoan looked surprised. He glanced at me.
“You’re welcome to stay aboard, if you’d like, Yoan.”
He ran his hand through his hair—a ghostly replica of the way Sauli did when he felt awkward. “Can I think about it?”
“Of course. You have ten hours.”
“Oh.” He grimaced. “Okay. I’ll have to talk it out with some people.”
I turned to look at the last person at the table to state their immediate future intentions. Dalton looked relaxed and comfortable. I suspected the news that, after a few major organ replacements, Mace was out of danger and recovering swiftly had a lot to do with that. His gaze met mine. “I’ve got a job to do here,” he said softly. His gaze shifted to Jai and Marlow and back to me. “I thought it was make-work, until I started doing it. But these two need a nanny like no two generals I’ve ever met. So….” He didn’t finish it. He didn’t have to. And his gaze would not let mine go.
So I was back to waiting again.