Earth Song: Twilight Serenade Read online

  Earth Song V:

  Twilight Serenade

  Mark Wandrey

  To the fans of the Earth Song series. Your words of encouragement are like

  water falling on the desert sands, I never get enough! I hope this book

  rewards your patience. Don't worry, there are many more books in this

  universe!

  To my test readers, valiant among the heroes.

  Alijah Ballard, Robert Boyer, Abby Smith. You have my eternal thanks.

  And of course, to my wife Joy and son Patrick, my love forever.

  Published by Henchman Press

  Edited by Leo Champion

  Cover by Jack Giesen

  Earth Song 5: Twilight Serenade copyright 2016 Mark Wandrey

  Cover image copyright 2016 Henchman Press

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

  ISBN-13: 978-1-941620-23-6

  Published in the United States of America.

  Prologue

  The Kaatan emerged from tactical jump a picosecond after it had disappeared a hundred lightyears earlier. The ship’s master had become far more adept at the operation than when she had first done it. In the early days she’d have the ship at a relative standstill. Now she did it traveling at almost 1,000 times the speed of light, the gateway appearing a scant few thousand kilometers in front of the needle shaped bow.

  Lilith shook off the aftereffects of the tactical jump, far less profound than they had been now she’d been through them hundreds of times. She floated in the center of the spherical CIC and took the measure of her ship. Everything was perfect.

  Next she scanned space around her, using stars and stellar phenomena to locate herself to within kilometers. She’d appeared right where she wanted, just a dozen light years from her home of Gamma Orionis. Bellatrix.

  “Everything go okay?” Kal’at asked over the ship’s intercom.

  “Confirmed,” she said, “we’re almost home.”

  “Great,” he hissed back. Lilith could see him in his quarters over the internal monitors. If the reptilian species could smile he’d have an ear to ear grin. “I cannot wait to be home again!”

  Lilith broke the connection. The part of her modified mind that handled ship operations finished reviewing her course and brought them back to cruising speed, just under 15,000 times the speed of light. They’d enter the star system in only six hours.

  With everything operating on more or less automatic, she turned her attention back to a few days ago. Back to a star system not too far away.

  “What to do,” she thought. Some truths were liberating. Some were dangerous. Some were just confusing. And some just didn’t make any damned sense at all.

  “This is certainly the latter,” she said. A screen to the side showed the planet in all its detail. Her scanners had gathered an incredible amount of data in the few seconds she’d been within closer scan range of the world. There was some small redshift distortion from the speed she’d been traveling at, but not enough to account for what she’d seen.

  Lilith went through the possibilities. First, she’d been in the wrong system. She examined her data and compared against the star charts from The People and her personal records. She was certain she’d been in the correct system. Furthermore there were no systems with population densities that high within almost 600 light years; 592 to be precise.

  Her scanners were wrong. Not a chance. Anomalous signal data was possible, yes, but picking up EM signatures of that intensity and misinterpreting them was not.

  She accessed her archive data from human records. Unfortunately they were incomplete. The humans had not made all their data available. However she did find a few old style digital images and made comparisons. Some were even within a few orders of magnitude of what she considered normal resolution. Enough detail to make some comparisons. They were… close.

  Lilith spent a few more minutes and decided it was close but not perfect. Oh, the land masses and other planetary features were a perfect match. A few other things were not. Artificial things.

  “I’m going to need more access to human records,” she decided. “This will take some time. And I don’t think it would be a good idea to let Mom know about it just yet. She won’t react well to this.”

  The ship continued through space towards home. Lilith spent the remaining time in deep contemplation.

  Part I

  Chapter 1

  Octember 24th, 534 AE

  Office of the First, Ft. Jovich, Peninsula Territory, Bellatrix

  The fort had seen to the training of thousands of rangers since it was first operational. Minu had almost designated it as the primary training center shortly after being named First just over a month ago. Then the deal with the Traaga had hit. “Seemed like a good idea at the time,” she mused from the balcony.

  The scene fifty meters below was like something Dante might have written about. The training floor was over 150 meters on a side, fully configurable for every training environment from vacuum to under water, could be divided into up to ten smaller room, and had one section fit with shields to allow for full power weapons drills. But it hadn't been built to train the semi-anthropoid Traaga.

  Everywhere below thousands of the four limbed creatures scurried, climbed, jumped, investigated everything they could lay any of their four hands on, and generally ignored the training attempts.

  “I do not understand what you were thinking,” Var'at hissed as he skittered up from a nearby lift. Minu glanced over at him and sighed. “The Traaga are one of the most unreliable species in the Concordia.

  “They want to learn to fight and ally themselves with us,” Minu explained. “And since they have a thousand beamcasters and really pissed of the Tanam, it's only fair to give training them a good shake.”

  Below there was a crashing sound and some equipment bench was tipped over followed by yelling from Chosen trainers and squeaks of surprise from the offenders. “And what if their fair shake then shakes the fort to pieces?”

  “Funny,” Minu grumbled and walked towards the lift. Curious, the Rasa leader followed.

  As the lift’s hoverfields lowered her rapidly towards the floor the cacophonous roar rose to be loud enough that she could no longer hear the lifts mechanism operate. “Oh good grief,” she moaned, “sounds like a life or death fight in a lobster bar.”

  The first humans who'd laid eyes on a Traaga described them as equal parts crab and starfish with a dash of chimpanzee and a splash of crazy. They were a rare partial vertebrate with a primitive skeletal structure under a dermal covering. Four limbs, each with three reversible joints and complicated grasping 'chimp-like' hands, were arranged around a central torso which road close to the ground. They were actually an arboreal species though and covered in a thin but nearly waterproof layer of feathers that resembled fur up close. Their head telescoped out of the center of the torso on top with a large pair of independently tracking eyes, long feelers, and sharp mouthparts made for eating plant matter. Minu suspected that with their brain and other vital organs in their heavily protected torso, the Traaga would be hard to kill.

  “I understand their brains are in their central body cavity,” Var'at spoke over the dull roar, echoing her thoughts. She nodded. “Maybe that explains why they have such a hard time using them?”

  Minu was having a hard time not agreeing with him as the hoverfield set her on the training level floor and she stepped out. She tried to march in a military manner and didn't come close. How could she with her belly sticking out twenty centimeters over her belt and her feet hurting. She couldn't help
thinking that carrying Lilith was a lot easier. Of course she'd only carried the girl for a few weeks before the Kaatan class starship had taken over.

  Minu came up behind Gregg and his command staff, all standing arrayed on either side of them with hands on hips watching the kloth and pony show. They'd obviously given up trying to take control back. He sensed someone behind him and glanced over his shoulders. When he saw her he jumped slightly. “First on the deck!” he barked.

  Crap, Minu moaned inwardly as his staff came to rigid attention.

  “At ease, Chosen,” she said as she came abreast of them. Gregg couldn't help but glance sideways at her swollen stomach then questioningly at her. “Three months, don't get excited.”

  “You sure there's only one in there?”

  She snorted and nodded her head. “Yes, the doc is quite sure.” She turned and looked at the riot of activity that should have been an organized training session. “So this is a cluster fuck.”

  “Full blown,” her commander of the rangers agreed. “Nothing is working. We try to organize them into squads and platoons and they just don't grasp the concept. Everything is a game or competition to them.”

  Minu nodded and thought. The Traaga were common sights where off-world contracts hired out construction work. Their arboreal nature, complete lack of any fear of heights, and radial body design made them incredible high steel workers. The thought brought back memories of watching the Traaga work together, and that gave her an idea.

  “Where's their commander, Bob?”

  A minute later the Traaga she called Bob came skittering down a vertical wall that had almost no visible handholds like he was walking on a sidewalk. He? Minu didn't even know if they had sexes or not. Bob was instantly recognizable by the intricate patterns of swirling pain along each corner of his thorax and down the legs. For the first time she noticed others now with some paint as well.

  “I respond,” he chirped through her translator.

  “You report as ordered,” she corrected him. The beings head bobbed in understanding. It wasn't like they could salute that well, it was a compromise. “Have you settled on a name yet? I'm tired of calling you Bob.”

  The Traaga looked from Gregg to her and nodded. Gregg gave a little cough and she wondered what was up, until the Traaga answered. “I wish to be known as Patrick.”

  She considered for a minute, looking quizzically from Gregg to Patrick and back. A few of the command staff snorted in amusement and she scrunched up her face trying to think of why the name was funny. Gregg grinned and started whispering a song. “Who lives in a pineapple—”

  Minu choked and snorted, shaking her head. “You asshole,” she sputtered and everyone started laughing. The Traaga commander observed the always mystifying humans curiously. “One of these days you're going to name some critter something and it's going to figure out what you mean and rip your head off.”

  Gregg finished chuckling and got a distant look in his eyes. “This one time Aaron started calling a Beezer McDonalds after that old burger store on earth—” he stopped when he saw Minu look away. “Shit Minu, I'm sorry.”

  “He's not dead,” she said quietly, “not in my mind anyway.” She put a hand on her swelling abdomen, or in my heart she added silently. She addressed the aliens leader. “Patrick, when you operate on a contract for another species, you always work in groups of four, correct?”

  “Yes, that is correct.”

  She turned to Gregg and cocked an eyebrow.

  “Squads of four?” he asked. Minu nodded. “Huh,” he said and looked out over the craziness.

  An hour later Minu walked back towards the lift, feeling more like she was waddling. In her wake a thousand Traaga were organized into groups of four. Four Traaga to a squad, four squads to a platoon, four platoons to a company, four companies and four companies to a battalion. Somewhat non-standard, but it was working. It seemed natural to them and while the commanders for the platoon and above leaders would take time to work out, progress was underway. There were groups of sixty-four Traaga moving in something that resembled a formation.

  Gregg glanced over from where he was talking with Var'at to see her heading towards her office. “I don't know how she does it,” he said to his friend, once enemy.

  “She understands people,” Var'at replied.

  “People?”

  The Rasa leader looked at the Traaga and shrugged. “I blame the translator, yet you understand my meaning.”

  “I wish she wasn't so alone.”

  “Doesn’t her daughter return tomorrow?”

  Gregg nodded and returned to his duties.

  Chapter 2

  Octember 25th, 534 AE

  Bellatrix

  Despite the Kaatan being her home, the place that she'd spent almost her entire life from conception onwards, Lilith smiled as she returned to the Bellatrix star system once again. Floating in the center of her CIC, all senses linked into the powerful warship, she swam through space as the ship dove toward the star lighting the planet which gave birth to her mother, Minu Groves.

  The ship slowed to only a few multiples of light speed as it passed the ringed world of Valhalla. Vulcan and Vega, the two other worlds besides Bellatrix itself, were elsewhere in the sprawling system at that time, only aware to her in mathematical equations and time indexes that danced in her cybernetically enhanced mind. Her quantum communications came alive a few moments later.

  “Is that you, Lilith?” hissed a Rasa voice.

  “Var'at, it is I,” she replied. “I am pleased the advanced detection network is up and working.”

  “We've been working for many weeks on Remus to assure its function. Since we'd modified the computer networks here to attempt the movement of Bellatrix anyway, it was not a stretch for the installation of the tachyon sensors without the human’s awareness.”

  Lilith nodded and made notes in one of the thousands of files she kept in secret places of the ship's databanks. “And replication of the batteries?”

  “Well underway,” the satisfied voice replied. “Tell Kal'at the designs were very adequate.”

  “I am here,” the Rasa scientist replied over the network, “and this would not have been possible without the Kaatan's computers, and Minu’s expertise.”

  “It was my pleasure.” Lilith closed her eyes in the CIC, vision not really being necessary to fly the ship anyway, and took a deep breath. Her analysis of that system’s flyby had gone no further. And now that she was home she had to tread carefully. Without a second thought she moved the images to deep memory and locked them away under a spot-written ninety bit script code. There would be time later.

  The detection array she and Kal'at had helped the Rasa build on Remus was undetectable to Lilith and all the instruments on the Kaatan, and that was just the way she'd wanted it to be. Her people were at a critical juncture of their lives within the massive Concordia. They were expanding in power and influence thanks to the rangers and the other Chosen, and the demands by the Tog had all but ceased as well leaving them to pursue whatever venture that humanity wished. But as they moved out, others within the Concordia were noticing.

  In the most recent years, they'd come into conflict with first the Rasa, eventually defeating them then allying with the former enemy. After the Rasa lost their home and most of their people in a war with the T'Chillen, they were allowed to call Bellatrix their new home.

  A few years later a brief but brutal war was fought with the Tanam on the Beezer leasehold. They'd intended to take out the Tog and eventually the humans as well, but Minu had defeated them on the Beezer world.

  Next came the mission to rescue Pip by finding a medical codex that would save him. It took Minu into their first encounter with the T'Chillen, and resulted in their getting the Kaatan, and Lilith being born on that mission. Unable to operate the ancient ship well, the medical intelligence of the ship had used the time distortion effects of faster than light travel to age Lilith in only days to be old enough to operate the s
hip. Her brain was a hybrid of natural human and computer implants.

  Then most recently, rangers were tricked into a mission on a world defended by the Mok-Tok. When the Mok-Tok were defeated, they released a virus designed to kill humanity in one fell swoop. The Nocturne virus failed in that, but did cripple thousands of young children whose brains were damaged beyond even the codex's ability to repair. They were housed all over the planet in coma care wards, forever dreaming and unable to wake.

  Now humans were well known in the Concordia, and hated by many of the powerful higher-order species. The location of Bellatrix was still a secret, and the early warning system was part of Lilith's plan to keep it so for as long as possible. They'd long been told that the Concordia didn't use starships any more. A huge lie, as it turned out. All the higher order species used starships, though some more than others. While humanity had only one ship, it was supremely vulnerable.

  With Bellatrix only a few million kilometers away, Lilith dropped her ship below light speed, no longer generating a tachyon shockwave ahead of its travel, the means with which the Remus detection grid had noted her entering the star system. She took a slow approach around Romulus, as agreed with Var'at and Kal'at to give them time to calibrate the array. She entered a perfect polar orbit over Bellatrix at exactly the time she'd planned. And just as planned, her mother checked in.

  “Are you home, dear?” her voice came over the local communications network. There was no need for the quantum communicator this close.

  “As planned, mom.”

  “I'll be up in a couple hours, just finishing some work at Fort Stuart in Jerusalem.”

  “No need, I'm coming down.”

  There was a slight pause as Minu looked surprised. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, it's been a while since I came down, and I wanted to meet the new First among the Chosen in person.”