The Span of Empire: Chapter Thirty Five

    Caitlin turned as Ed stirred while Vaughan tapped controls and spoke into his mic. “Lleix?” he muttered.

    “Yeah, they’re the only ones who speak Khûrûsh,” Caitlin said quietly.

    “Oh, yeah,” Ed said. “I forgot about the prisoners.”

    Vaughan finished talking, and Caitlin looked at him. “Are Aille and Tura still on Lexington?”

    Vaughan tapped pads on his workstation. “No, Director. They appear to be back on Footloose.”

    Before Caitlin could respond to that, the door irised open and Pyr emerged. “Garhet will be here soon,” he said as soon as he stepped onto the deck. “He was asleep when the directive reached us.”

    Dannet waved at the cycling message on the main view screen. “What is that saying?”

    Pyr listened to three iterations of the message. “The message is three short statements,” he said after that. “‘We know you have Khûrûsh prisoners. We want to talk. Respond on a reciprocal bearing.”

    “Do we have any idea where they are?” Caitlin asked in a tone that was much calmer that she felt.

    Dannet waved to Terra-Captain Uldra.

    “No, Director. And there is no guarantee that we would locate them by following the signal path. There are too many ways to re-direct a signal.”

    “But,” Dannet added, “they cannot be very far away. They do know that we took prisoners from that Khûrûshil ship. Light speed signals of the event and any Khûrûshil communications about it will limit how far out they can be and still be able to contact us with a laser.”

    “We have no idea who they are, where they are, or how many of them there are.” Caitlin’s statement was not a question.

    “Correct, Director.” From Terra-Captain Uldra.

    Caitlin looked at Vaughan. “Send a request to Footloose advising Aille and Tura that something new has come up and requesting them to join us on the Lex. Send an order to Ban Chao. I want Colonel Tully, Lim, the Khûrûsh officer and the sergeant that captured him on this deck ten minutes ago.”

    “Yes, Director.”

    Vaughan started tapping pads as Caitlin turned away. After a moment, she looked back over her shoulder. “And have somebody locate Wrot and wake up Captain Miller. I want them up here as well.”

    Vaughan almost slammed his meal tray down on the table next to Caewithe’s. “Sorry,” he said, “but I’ve got to eat and run.”

    Caewithe’s mouth twisted. “I thought you were supposed to be going off shift. What about a swim and some fun?”

    “Sorry,” Vaughan mumbled through a mouthful of sandwich. “We just got a new contact, and Dannet wants me back on the command deck in ten.”

    “A new contact?” Caewithe sat up straight. “Does Caitlin know about this yet?”

    “Oh, yeah.” Crumbs shot out of Vaughan’s mouth as he tried to speak. He swallowed manfully. It almost hurt to watch the mouthful go down. “Yeah, she’s on the command deck, with Tamt and some of the bodyguards.”

    “Figures.” Caewithe grabbed her fork and started shoveling food in her mouth. “I’ll come with you,” she said. “If I can’t see you off-shift, I’ll have to settle for on.”

    The two inhaled their dinners, and stood to carry their trays to disposal. Before Vaughan could get his hands on his tray, Caewithe grabbed the front of his shirt and planted a hard kiss on his mouth. “Not that I’m complaining,” he said when they came up for air, “but what was that for.”

    “A promise to each other,” Caewithe said with a grin. “Next chance we get, we’re going swimming. I’ve got another new swimsuit.”

    Vaughan groaned as he gathered his tray. “You’re killing me, woman. Where do you find new swimsuits in the middle of alien space light years from any human store?”

    “I have my ways,” she said smugly, leading the way to the tray disposal chute.

    Tully grabbed his go-bag from the hands of his orderly, Corporal Swift, and turned back to Major Liang and First Sergeant Luff. “No, I don’t know what’s going on. I just got orders to get Lim, Boyes, Kamozh, and myself over to the Lex sometime yesterday.”

    “Something’s up,” Liang said.

    “Ya think?” Tully gave a short bark of a laugh. “Whatever it is has apparently got Caitlin really up in the air, or she wouldn’t have ordered it that way. So, being the sneaky, underhanded, pessimistic sort that I am, put the troops on first stage alert. I have no idea what’s going on, but let’s get prepped for it anyway. I want them ready for action at fifteen minutes notice.”

    “Got it, Colonel,” the XO said, buttressed by a firm nod from the first sergeant.

    “See to it,” Tully said, and headed out the compartment door. “Sergeant Boyes, where are you?” he said through his communications bud.

    “Just handed off to my assistant squad leader, Colonel,” came the reply. “Running for the shuttle bay now.”

    “Right. I’d better not beat you there.” Tully paused a beat, then said, “Command.”

    “Yes, Colonel Tully?” was the response from a command deck com tech.

    “Where are Lim and the Khûrûsh prisoner?”

    “Waiting at the shuttle bay, with guards.”

    “Right. Tully out.”

    A few minutes later, after going around three corners and down one deck, Tully arrived at the door to the shuttle bay. Lim and Kamozh were indeed waiting for him, as was Sergeant Boyes and two jinau serving as guards.

    “Lead the way, Lim.” Tully waved a hand in the direction of the waiting shuttle.

    The Lleix looked down at the Khûrûsh-an at her side, and said something in the language. He made a movement with his left middle hand, and they stepped off through the door.

    Tully looked at the two guards, both Jao. “We’ll take it from here, guys.”

    “Are you sure, Colonel?” one of them replied. “If that one goes Oppuk on you, he’s equipped with a lot of natural blades to make your life ‘interesting’, as you humans say.”

    “Positive,” Tully said. “Get back to your squads. Life in general may be about to get ‘interesting’ again.”

    The two guards both gave a brief rendition of obedience-to-orders, and headed back up the corridor.

    Tully shook his head. “‘Goes Oppuk’, huh? I haven’t heard that one before.” The meaning was obvious, though, and he started to grin.

    “Oh, yeah, Colonel,” Boyes said with a matching grin. “That’s been making the rounds for a while. Came out of Terra taif, of course. It’s got human written all over it.”

    Tully laughed. “Too right, Boyes, too right. Only a human would think of something like that.” He laughed again, then said, “Come on, Sergeant. Let’s go see what kind of trouble we can get into on the Lex.”

    Caitlin turned as the command deck door to the main lifts irised open again. The last time it had been Vaughan returning from grabbing a fast meal, accompanied by Caewithe Miller. That had saved Caitlin from having to summon her bodyguard captain, who was on her off-shift but would have wanted to be here for this.

    This time the door opened to admit Gabe Tully, Lim, a jinau that she assumed was Sergeant Boyes, and a Khûrûsh-an who could only be the captive officer Kamozh entered the command deck. Gabe started toward her, but her eyes were drawn to the sight of Kamozh seeing the main view screen. He froze, eyes narrowed and fixed on the recording. After watching a few loops of it, he raised up on his hind feet, turned to Lim and spoke loudly and rapidly, all four hands moving in the air. He stopped, waited a long moment, then something in a low tone as he dropped down to his mid-hands and settled his hindquarters on the deck.

    “So what did he say?” Caitlin asked. “He looked pretty excited.”

    “Rhan Kamozh says that the view screen is lying to you.”

    “Oooo-kay,” Caitlin responded. “How does he get that out of that little bit of picture and that message?”

    “First, the . . . person . . . in the recording is wearing the robes and crest of a clan that died out close to two hundred Terran years ago, with the markings of the clan-heir at that. Second, the person is female, and very very few of them are allowed off-planet farther than the orbit of Khûr-liyo.”

    Lim’s voice almost sounded dry at that point. Caitlyn thought for a moment that there was a disapproving note in her voice. Lim went on, and Caitlyn dropped that train of thought.

    “Third, the very fact that she is calling you is treason, for the Khûr-melkh Sheshahng–think of him as an emperor–decreed long generations ago that there was to be no contact between our people and the devils from the outer dark. It is treason, and an affront to re-heshyt,” here Lim used a Khûrûshil word that she didn’t bother to translate right then. “Such would be unthinkable to any right-living Khûrûsh-an. So therefore, he says, it is obvious that the view screen is lying to you.”

    The door had irised open in the middle of Lim’s translation. Yaut and Wrot had entered the command deck, followed by Aille and Pleniary-superior Tura. The four Jao had stood to listen to the rest of the translation.

    When Lim finished, she placed both hands on the staff she had entered with. Caitlin decided she would ask about that later. Kamozh folded his upper arms and leaned back a bit.

    Caitlin looked at where Fleet Commander Dannet had joined the group around Aille. Tura and Dannet both had flawless neutral angles that nonetheless were distinctive to each. Wrot and Yaut were displaying something on the order of simple-curiosity, although Yaut’s had a definite flavor of impatient from the tilt of his head.

    Aille, on the other hand, was displaying a posture that was so rare Caitlin had only seen it recorded, never in action: concession-to-oudh. Her mouth twisted. Aille was making it very clear without a single word that the decision to be made was hers alone.

    Caitlin didn’t look at Ed. She felt him stir just a bit, though, and turn to face her at a slight angle. He said nothing–he didn’t have to. She knew he would support her in anything she decided, as would Gabe Tully. She drew a great deal of comfort and strength from that, as she faced what might be the most important decision ever made by Jao or humans alike.

    She took a deep breath, and held it for just a moment. Caitlin could feel the eyes of everyone on the command deck resting on her–humans, Jao, Lleix, and Khûrûsh alike–waiting to see what she would do.

    “Fleet Commander Dannet,” she finally said, “Return a signal, please.”

    “As you direct, Director Kralik,” Dannet replied. “And the message?”

    Caitlin considered that for a moment, then gave another wry grin and said, “We hear you. What do you want?”

    Dannet’s angles flowed from neutral into obedience-to-instructions. But then, without a pause, they flowed into gratified-respect, which was more than Caitlin had ever thought she would ever receive from the fleet commander.

    As Dannet turned away to give orders and Pyr, Lim and Kamozh moved to a nearby workstation, Caitlin looked over at the rest of what she thought of as her command group. Tully was grinning the biggest grin she had ever seen on his face. Ed had moved to stand behind her. She couldn’t see his face, but she could feel the bedrock of his presence. Aille and the others, even Tura, all slipped into an echo of gratified-respect, which just for a moment caused her vision to blur.

    “Well done, Caitlin,” Aille said. “Well done.”