Doomsday minus 519 Earth days.
“Welcome back, Marco Polo! We’ve been expecting you.”
Dedrick and Takamura had been studying the display at the tactical console on the bridge. Hearing no sign of distress in the female voice that had just greeted them, they exchanged speculative looks. It had been more than two intervals since the time stamp on the last message from the Hub. A lot could have happened during that time. In fact, if the report filed by Zulu’s commander was to be believed, a lot had.
Takamura signaled to Brandt to take Daisy Hub off speakers. “Your opinion, Mister Dedrick?”
He gestured at the screen. “Other than that small debris field we detected, everything outside the station looks perfectly normal, Captain.”
“Could that be the wreckage of Odysseus’s ship?” Takamura inquired tautly.
“No, sir. Tsieng recorded everything he could about the Mitradean shuttle while it was on our landing deck, and according to our databank, the space flotsam we just passed isn’t made of the same materials as the craft Odysseus was flying.”
Takamura breathed a sigh of relief. The SIS report had described a disastrous first contact, resulting in the death of the alien. He’d been fearful that it might have been their carapaced friend.
“Sirs?” Brandt broke in. “Daisy Hub Control has cleared us to dock and assigned us a portal.”
“Do they still require us to take all weapons offline for final approach?” Dedrick asked.
“Yes, sir. And, Captain? The station manager is requesting a private meeting with you at your earliest convenience. He says it’s of utmost importance.”
“Interesting,” Takamura remarked. “Has he specified a venue for this meeting, Mister Brandt?”
“No, sir.”
“Then we’ll have it in my office aboard ship, at his earliest convenience once we’ve docked. Send the reply, Ensign.”
“Aye, sir.”
“What are you thinking, Captain?” asked Dedrick.
Takamura paused briefly before replying. “I am entertaining several possibilities, Commander, none of them reassuring. Clearly, there has been an incident of some kind. If the events summarized by Vice-Admiral Nelligan transpired in the way she described, we’re at war with an alien race. If not, we may still be facing consequences arising from the death of an alien in Earth space. And if Odysseus was in any way involved and the Great Council finds out how we freed the Mitradeans, there could very shortly be more than one alien race trying to wipe us out.”
“Townsend seems anxious to speak with you about it.”
“And that does not bode well either. I don’t think it’s wise for us to be letting our guard down, not until we are in possession of all the facts in this case.”
A minute later, Brandt announced, “A message from Daisy Hub, Captain. Station Manager Townsend accepts your invitation. He’ll join you in your office immediately after the Marco Polo docks.”
—— «» ——
Takamura had ordered a Security detail to escort Townsend directly to the door of his office adjoining the bridge. As it slid aside, the captain got to his feet and bowed from the shoulders, then gestured to his visitor to take a seat. There was some gray visible in the station manager’s hair, Takamura noted. It hadn’t been there the last time they’d met.
“Welcome aboard, Mr. Townsend. We received your message and came as soon as we could. In the meanwhile, I hope Odysseus hasn’t given you too much trouble.”
Townsend fell silent.
Takamura hesitated, dreading the moment when his earlier suspicions would be confirmed. “Is he still on the station, at least?”
“No. He stole our shuttle and hightailed it back to alien space.”
“Why would he return to alien space in an Earth-made shuttle?”
“It’s not Earth-made. It was built by a Corvou.”
Takamura’s eyebrows rose briefly in surprise. That detail had not been part of the report to Space Installation Security. Evidently, he was now speaking with the right person to fill in the gaps.
“Corvou? I know that name. We heard about the Corvou from an alien who served aboard the Marco Polo a couple of standard years ago.”
Townsend’s eyes narrowed. “Really,” he murmured, then added, “Captain, what I’m about to tell you is not common knowledge yet, but it soon will be. Can I rely on your discretion until then?”
“Of course. Considering how many of my secrets you’re keeping right now, the least I can do is return the favor.”
“I’m sure you noticed the debris floating just beyond Helena’s gravity reach.”
“Indeed,” Takamura replied. “We wondered about that.”
“It’s what’s left of a Corvou ship. Unlike you, we had no advance information about this particular alien race. As a result, a first contact situation went sideways on us.”
Takamura could sympathize. The Marco Polo’s first contact with Nandrians was still painfully fresh in his memory. “And how did the alien ship come to be destroyed?”
“The kill shot came from a Nandrian vessel that happened to be in the vicinity. The Corvou pilot had just declared war on Humanity, and the Nandrians were trying to prevent it from informing the rest of the hive back on its home world. Unfortunately, they failed. I realize it’s a lot to process, but time is short, and—”
“War on Humanity,” Takamura echoed numbly. So the report was accurate. From the moment he’d read it, he’d been hoping it would turn out to be a hoax. “All of Humanity?”
“I’m afraid so, Captain. The Corvou are mobilizing. In approximately forty-five intervals, a huge alien armada will be invading Earth space with the express intention of wiping our species out of existence. They’ll destroy not only our home world, but also every space installation and colony they can find. According to our sources, the Corvou have done this before.
“We want to draw the line here, at Daisy Hub, but there are too many other ways for them to enter Earth space. There are at least thirty Gates connecting us with alien star systems and the Fleet doesn’t have enough firepower to guard them all. That’s why we need your help, to ensure that the first battle is fought as far away from Earth as possible, at coordinates of our own choosing. When O’Malley was aboard your ship earlier, he noticed references in your logs to a group of aliens with a technology that could seal up Gates. The Kularian brotherhood, he called them.”
Takamura stiffened in his chair. Guardedly, he replied, “He’s correct. The brotherhood do have that technology. However, I’m afraid they’ve gone into seclusion and are currently unreachable.”
“By ordinary Humans, perhaps,” said Townsend, matching the captain’s posture. “But I understand there is someone aboard the Marco Polo who can communicate with them telepathically. Or am I misinformed?”
Takamura paused before replying. He’d hoped the connection with Noris could be put in the past. Evidently, it was not to be.
“You’re not misinformed, Mr. Townsend. That passenger is still aboard. However, she is just sixteen years old, and the telepathic bonding was severed intervals ago at the behest of her guardian. Commander Dedrick is extremely protective of his young cousin, and vehemently opposed to anything that will put Lania back in contact with the brotherhood.”
The station manager’s expression softened for a moment, then hardened again. “Even if you make it an order?” he demanded. Then, apparently reconsidering his tone, he added, “Look, I understand how Dedrick feels. Believe me, I do. Family is precious. But there aren’t strong enough words to describe the disaster that’s about to be visited upon us. Anything that can possibly tip the scales—”
“I’m not disagreeing with you, Mr. Townsend, just warning you that he may need to be persuaded to give his consent. As for making it an order…? Commander Dedrick has already notified Fleet Control of his intention to resign his commission. I suspect that a command from a superior will not carry the same weight as it once did. Not where Lania is concerned, at least.”
“The brotherhood and their technology can give us a way to limit the battlefield and buy Earth some additional time to evacuate the population. No one is asking Lania to risk her life. All she has to do is transmit a request for help and relay the response back to us.”
Takamura nodded thoughtfully.
“Will you ask Commander Dedrick to let Lania reach out to the brotherhood on our behalf?”
“No. You will.” Takamura swung his chair around and pressed a button on his deskcomm. “Mr. Brandt, please find Commander Dedrick and Miss Dedrick and have them report to my office right away.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Townsend’s face had acquired a dubious expression. “Is it advisable to have Lania in on this meeting, Captain?”
“Not only advisable, but necessary,” Takamura told him. “Her strength of will is impressive. It may be the only thing that sways Commander Dedrick in your favor.”
The deskcomm buzzed.
“Captain, the commander is on his way,” came Brandt’s voice, “but Lania’s in Med Services. As soon as you’re available, Dr. Deneuve would like to speak with you about her.”
Takamura glanced at his visitor before asking, “Is the commander coming from Med Services, Mister Brandt?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Very good, then.” To Townsend, he said, “Before he arrives, there is something you need to know, but it does not leave this room. Lania is no ordinary teenager.”
“I gathered as much when I found out she was telepathic.”
“She’s more than that. We’re only beginning to learn how much more. So far, we know that her emotional intuitiveness is off the scale. And apparently, she is also an engineering prodigy able to detect latent energy in both Terran- and alien-sourced materials. Add to that the hormone-fueled ups and downs of adolescence and perhaps you can begin to understand why Commander Dedrick is so determined to protect her.
“The Relocation Authority has classified her as alien based on genetic testing, but we’ve taken care not to reveal to any of Earth’s governing bodies what Lania is actually capable of.”
“Well, let me assure you once again, Captain, that your secrets — and Lania’s — will always be safe on Daisy Hub.”
Just then, the office door slid aside to admit Watch Commander Gael Dedrick. Takamura was pleased to see Townsend get to his feet to shake hands. A respectful gesture was a good first step in any negotiation. The station manager was tall, but Lania’s guardian was taller, with dark hair and eyes, and a spine currently rigid enough to serve as a ruler. He was worried about Lania, Takamura guessed, and wishing they could speak privately about her.
“Commander, I don’t believe you’ve met Drew Townsend, the man responsible for saving all of our careers.”
Frowning, Dedrick took a second, careful look at the visitor’s face. “The friend who’s not a friend of the Relocation Authority,” he said, finally extending his hand in welcome but not appearing any happier about it.
“We can talk freely,” Takamura assured him as the commander settled onto the second guest chair. “How is Lania?”
The frown deepened. “Not well, sir. She began complaining of stomach pains right after we docked. Doctor Deneuve is conducting tests to try to determine the cause, but she says they’ll probably come up negative.”
“How so?”
“She believes they’re psychogenic, like Doctor Minegar’s headaches when she was aboard.”
“Of course. The curse that comes along with the gifts. Mr. Townsend, when do you estimate your information will become widely known?”
“Not until the High Council has had a chance to consider it and come up with a plan. I doubt that they’ll waste any time arguing about it, given the gravity of the situation.”
“The gravity of what situation?” Dedrick wanted to know.
Briefly, Townsend and Takamura filled him in.
“The future of our race could depend on being able to control where the first battle takes place. That is why Mr. Townsend requested this meeting. He needs to make contact with the Kularian brotherhood.”
“With Noris?” Dedrick’s voice rose in disbelief. “You want Lania to let that brain rapist into her head again?”
“Only to relay a cry for help on behalf of the entire Human race,” Townsend pointed out, “and receive the response.”
Watching Dedrick’s face, Takamura could just imagine what was going through his mind. Stoicism and outrage were flashing back and forth across the commander’s features. It was probably for the best that he was planning to leave the Fleet and take Lania with him to uncharted space. They could both benefit from putting distance between themselves and Earth’s all-too-predictable government.
Takamura’s deskcomm buzzed.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, Captain,” said Brandt’s voice, “but Doctor Deneuve wanted you to know that Lania is on her way to your office with an urgent message for you. It’s from Noris, and she insists that it’s a matter of life and death.”
Outrage won — Dedrick muttered a quiet but heartfelt curse.
“Life and death? There’s a lot of that going around today,” Takamura observed mildly. “Very well, Mister Brandt. When she arrives, don’t try to stop her.”
—— «» ——
Lania Dedrick was not at all what Townsend had expected. The girl who stepped through the door of Takamura’s office was almost as tall as Drew and almost as dark as Commander Dedrick, with a look of determination on her face that mirrored the one her guardian now wore.
“Where is Doctor Deneuve?” Takamura inquired.
“She’s on her way,” said Lania, only a hint of strain in her voice betraying her discomfort. “Noris told me to hurry, because Earth doesn’t have much time. The enemy they’re facing is overwhelming and implacable.”
She stumbled a little over the final word, prompting Dedrick to mutter, “He’s doing it again.”
“Commander?” said Takamura.
“Putting thoughts into her mind that don’t belong there. Making her say things she doesn’t understand,” Dedrick snapped.
Warning them of a threat that they already knew existed, Townsend added silently. Aloud, he asked, “Is that the entire message, Lania?”
She started and turned, seeming to notice him for the first time. “You’re from the space station,” she declared. They’d never met, but her brows were knitting as though she felt she ought to recognize him.
“I’m Mr. Townsend, the station manager,” he told her, then repeated, “Was there more to Noris’s message?”
“Yes. He wants me to tell Humanity that the brotherhood has already begun to help, and that there will be assistance from other worlds as well, when the time comes.”
“There’s something specific we need him to do. Can you relay the request for us?”
She glanced briefly at her guardian, then replied, “I can’t. He told me not to think to him again because it’s not the safest way to communicate anymore. He said that if I tried, he wouldn’t answer.”
Townsend’s frustration was almost palpable. “Wonderful! How do we know that the aliens are doing what we need them to do? How do they know they won’t be making things worse for us?”
“Unfortunately, you don’t know,” said Takamura. “Not yet, anyway. One thing we learned from our brief association with the Kularian brotherhood is that they don’t take instructions, from anyone. They examine the situation and do what they feel is necessary, and they don’t care whether you agree with them or not.”
“And if we happen to disagree with their plans?”
The captain gave him a sympathetic smile. “They finesse you into changing your mind.”
And wasn’t that just what he needed, Drew thought darkly. A second race of helpful aliens who didn’t take no for an answer.
“Captain, I apologize for the interruption.” A short blond woman had just burst into Takamura’s office, emanating nervous energy. “Lania left Med Services while I was shutting down the diagnostic assembly. I turned around and she was gone.”
“I’m glad you’re here, Doctor,” he replied evenly. “I don’t think you’ve met Mr. Townsend, the station manager of Daisy Hub. We’ve just been discussing the Kularian brotherhood.”
She inhaled sharply. “Merde!” she spat. “Don’t tell me they’re back.”
“Not in body,” Takamura assured her. “Not yet, anyway.”
“Could Noris be the cause of her stomach pains?” Dedrick cut in.
“No, Commander,” Deneuve told him. “These cramps are a brand new symptom, and contact with Noris is not a new experience for her. I can only guess at this point, but the likeliest cause of her discomfort is a kind of emotion that she’s never sensed before.”
“It’s something on the station,” said Lania. “It isn’t anger, not like the anger that Odysseus brought with him onto the ship. It’s more like fear. Very strong, like the terror of someone who is about to die.”
“There are forty-seven someones on Daisy Hub right now who expect to be facing death in about a year’s time,” Townsend pointed out.
She shook her head. “If it was a little fear from a lot of people, I would be feeling an itch inside. This is a sharp, stabbing pain. The emotion is coming from a single source. Someone on your station is paralyzed by fear right now.”
Townsend cast inquiring looks at the other adults in the room. “How reliable is this?” he demanded.
“Completely,” Deneuve assured him.
“You’re telling me that this girl is able to sense an emotion through layers of reinforced metal alloy?”
“She is growing into the strongest empath I have ever encountered,” declared the doctor, “overtaking even Ixbeth Minegar, who belongs to a race of empaths. If Lania tells you someone on your station is in fear for their life, you can believe her.”
And if one of his people were that afraid, Townsend doubted very much that they would admit it. Everyone aboard the Hub had been putting up a brave front for so long that it had become second nature to them, giving a whole new meaning to the phrase “confidence game”.
“If you let me onto the station, I can show you where the fear is coming from,” Lania told him.
“Are you sure you want to do this, chérie? It will be painful,” Deneuve warned her.
The girl’s expression changed, making her appear to age before Townsend’s eyes. “It’s already painful,” she pointed out, her voice handling each word with care. “And calming the fear is the best way to make it stop.”
“Mr. Townsend, this is ultimately your decision,” said Takamura. “Lania’s condition can be easily remedied by putting her on a shuttle and sending her out of range, but that still leaves you with a problem. Whoever is broadcasting a fear this intense must be in immediate need of assistance.”
“Agreed,” Drew replied grimly. “Let’s all board the Hub right now. I’ll give you a personal tour.”
—— «» ——
The full tour turned out to be unnecessary. Lania was able to zero in on the source of the emotion almost immediately, sensing it with growing strength as the tube car descended through Decks A and B.
“It’s on the landing deck?” Townsend said. “There’s no one on the landing deck right now, just the Mitradean shuttle that Odysseus left behind when he stole ours.”
Nonetheless, Lania was adamant. “That’s where the fear is coming from,” she repeated. Glancing around for confirmation, Drew saw utter conviction on her face, and nothing to bely it on the other three. All right, he decided, he would humor her. She could wander around the deck and see for herself how empty it was.
Leaving the tube car, Lania made directly for the corner where the Nandrian field generator sprawled. Together with its emitter, the alien device occupied nearly a quarter of the deck. Doc Ktumba had once described the emitter as an obsidian crystal with acromegaly. The generator beside it looked just as dark and shiny, but was in the shape of a cube.
“It’s here,” Lania announced to the group. For the first time since Townsend had met her, the girl’s voice sounded unsteady. In fact, he could swear a note of dismay had crept into it.
“What is? Where?” he asked.
“The fear. Inside the machine.” She was pointing at the generator.
“That’s impossible,” he said. “Machines don’t have emotions.”
“They can if the operating system is an AI,” Dedrick told him. “Lania once built an AI in the form of a computer and bonded emotionally with it. It’s very protective of her and won’t work for anyone else.”
“I gather this is alien technology,” Takamura remarked. “Could its makers have given it artificial intelligence and neglected to inform you of the fact?”
Townsend thought furiously. Was it possible? No, he realized, it wasn’t. Any AI the Nandrians installed would share their values and characteristics. Right and wrong, honor and dishonor, those it would understand. But, cowardice? The very idea was absurd.
“Even if there were an AI in there, which I doubt,” he replied, “it would be incapable of fearing for its life.”
“Not its own life,” Lania broke in excitedly, as though the machine had just revealed this to her. “It fears for yours. It has been warning you, but you haven’t heard it.” She wheeled and impaled him with suddenly old, impossibly dark eyes. “I can’t calm this fear, Mr. Townsend. It’s real. If you can’t stop it, every Human on this station is going to die.”
Her expression crumpling, she took an unsteady step backward. Deneuve and Dedrick reacted immediately and caught her before she could fall. As they lowered her gently to sit on the deck, Deneuve urged her, “Stay with us, chérie. Stay awake.”
Once again, a woman’s expectant gaze fastened on Townsend’s face. “She has done her part. She identified the source. Now it’s up to you,” Deneuve told him. “This girl has a neural network that qualifies her as an alien life form, and I am classified as highly intuitive and can tell you with certainty that what she is sensing right now is genuinely terrifying. So, regardless of what else you may believe, you have to believe this: something very dangerous is happening inside this device.”
Townsend paused, recalling what Takamura had told him earlier about Lania — she could sense the energy residing inside alien materials. Perhaps that was what she was detecting — not an emotion, but rather an energy buildup.
A dangerously high and possibly still rising energy buildup. An explosion about to happen.
A shiver trickled down his spine.
“Lania, did you sense anything like this the last time the Marco Polo docked here?” he asked her.
Wordlessly, she shook her head.
So it was a new development. Something about the field generator had changed recently. Something that ought to be triggering an alarm. And it wasn’t. As he pressed the button on his wristcomm, Townsend became aware of his jaw muscles working.
“AdComm,” said Ruby’s cheerful voice. “What can I do for you, Chief?”
“This is an emergency,” he told her, “and it’s not a drill. The field generator may be getting ready to blow up. Warn Gouryas and Singh. They’re to shut it down right away and isolate it from the rest of the station’s systems. Then they’ll need to undo any modifications they’ve made to it since the Marco Polo’s last visit.”
“On it, Chief!” After a moment of silence, she came back on the comm to ask, “Should we be evacuating the Hub?”
Drew debated with himself. Evacuation was a code red measure that he’d prayed never to have to implement, mainly because leaving the station in escape pods put the Hub’s crew at the mercy of the Rangers, and the truce between Zulu and Daisy Hub was still too fragile to test.
There had evidently been incidents in the past, for a previous station manager had recorded a strongly worded recommendation that there be no evacuation drills, ever. Before the pods were launched, there needed to be a real and immediate emergency.
Was this that kind of emergency?
“Not yet,” Townsend decided. “Let’s see what Gouryas and Singh are able to do.”
As he closed the channel, the sensation of eyes boring into the side of his head made Drew turn to meet Takamura’s disapproving stare. Before either of them could say anything, however, Deneuve announced, “Captain, her pain is worsening. I’m taking her back aboard the Marco Polo.”
“Permission to escort them to Med Services, sir?” Dedrick added.
“Permission granted,” said Takamura. “Keep me apprised of her condition.”
“Aye, sir.”
When Takamura and Townsend were alone together on the landing deck, the captain remarked quietly, “I may be overstepping my bounds by saying this, but—”
“You would have sent them to the escape pods,” Townsend stated flatly.
“At the very least. Alternatively, I might have asked a passing star cruiser to take them all aboard. The answer would not have been no.”
“Thank you, Captain. If my engineers are unsuccessful, it may well come to that. And if it does, I’m afraid we’ll be staying aboard your ship for a very long time. You see, Daisy Hub is an orbiting gulag, making us exiles with nowhere else to call home.”
“And yet you are willing to lay down your lives to protect Earth,” Takamura said wonderingly.
Drew frowned in response. Willing? That would imply that they’d had a choice in the matter. Nonetheless…
“Not Earth,” he corrected him. “We’re doing all we can to protect Humanity from annihilation. There’s a difference.”
Just then, a tube car opened on the far side of the deck, and Spiro Gouryas and Devanan Singh hurtled out of it, headed toward the generator. Seemingly oblivious to everything else, they busied themselves opening panels and pulling out wires. They stood for several moments, staring intently at something on the top of the machine. Then Gouryas reached into a pouch at his waist, took out a device Townsend didn’t recognize, and held it over each of the exposed parts of the generator in turn. Evidently satisfied with what he was seeing, he straightened his back, drew and expelled a deep breath, and relaxed his shoulders.
Only then did the two engineers appear to notice that they were being observed. Matching portraits of consternation, they hurried over to where Townsend and Takamura stood.
“How did you know?” Singh demanded.
Meanwhile, Gouryas was moaning, “Beale ripped all the wires out of the control panel before either of us could stop her. It will take us days to put it back together.”
“Never mind that,” Singh scolded him. “I’d like to know why none of the alarms went off when my readings indicate that we were clearly headed for a meltdown.”
“So there are alarms?” said Townsend.
“Yes,” Singh replied, “an entire network of them, according to the manual. They should have been screaming at us.”
“Maybe they were, but in a manner that only an alien could have perceived,” Takamura suggested.
“That can’t be right,” said Gouryas. “The Nandrians knew when they installed the device that they were retrofitting a Human station. If they’d researched our technology and knew enough to make the generator work with our original equipment, then they should also have realized they needed to adapt the alarm system.”
“Should have doesn’t mean they did,” Townsend pointed out. “So, as long as the immediate danger is past, I’m giving you both a priority assignment: before we can even think about reactivating the field generator, you’ll have to design a warning system for it. Give it a voice that can be heard by Humans in every part of the station. One that cannot possibly be ignored.”
“So, loud and obnoxious?” Gouryas ventured, the corners of his mouth curving upward.
Townsend corrected him firmly, “Effective. Something that will convey urgency without interfering with our ability to think and communicate in an emergency.”
“All right,” said Singh.
Gouryas just looked disappointed.