The Lost Aria (Earth Song Book 3) Read online

  “We are called human,” Minu explained, but didn't elaborate.

  “I have never seen a hominid species, before. There haven't been any in many, many years.”

  “Do you know why not?” Bjorn asked her.

  She cocked her head at him and blinked her eye stalks in an almost human expression. “I do not! Isn't that fascinating?”

  Minu decided to let curiosity run the room. “Sally, are there any female T'Chillen soldiers or commanders?”

  “No, of course not! What a ludicrous suggestion. Females are smaller and weaker than males.”

  “As is the case with humans, but that does not make us less versatile, less powerful, and obviously in your case less intelligent.”

  “You are female?”

  Minu looked down at her breasts and suppressed the urge to say 'duh!' before remembering that the alien had never seen a hominid, how would she know to tell one sex from another? “Yes, I am.”

  “Me too,” Cherise volunteered.

  Sally looked between the two women, and then Aaron and the other men. “Who is in command?”

  “I am,” Minu told the obviously amazed T'Chillen female, “though more often males command, it isn't always the norm.”

  “There are other species where females are dominant,” Var'at told her.

  “This I understand. What amazes me is your male and female work together? As equals?”

  “They do,” Ted told her, “some are more equal than others.” The humans all laughed and Var'at hung his mouth open in amusement.

  An instrument on the control board chimed and Sally turned her eye stalks to examine it. “We are approaching the work site you designated.”

  Minu and the others all looked up at the sweeping view port full of stars. They could see the systems primary, a dim light to the left bottom of the window. Sally pointed with a limb and they saw their destination, a glittering collection of lights linked with gossamer strands. A minute later and it was obvious to them all. “Starships,” Bjorn gasped, Ted whistled through his teeth.

  Minu watched the sparkling array grow closer with mixed feelings. Could what she wanted, what Pip needed, actually be here? From a very young age she'd always yearned for stories of space ships the most, and they were the ones her father brought home the least. Often they were descriptions of huge decaying hulks, falling apart like tissue paper in water. Some parts of the huge vessels were not made of true matter, and if not maintained over time, they simple began to disintegrate. Once or twice he'd been aboard smaller ships, always finding them completely empty. As they got closer she could see that it was a gigantic space dock holding hundreds of ships. Her father never described anything like this, not in stories to her, and not in his logs. He'd found small ships docked to space stations above worlds, or floating in space above those worlds; never a shipyard.

  “They're not very big,” Aaron noted. He had out a pair of issue goggles and was enhancing the distant shapes. “They look like balls pieced with needles or wedges sometimes. Some have more than one ball. A few are big collections of balls. Not at all what I would expect for a starship.”

  “Who needs aerodynamics in space?” Bjorn stated plainly. He had a tablet out and was making some notes to himself.

  “Where do you dock?” Minu asked Sally as the details Aaron described began to be visible to the naked eye.

  “There,” she said and pointed. The viewport/display flashed a section of the yard, near the center, a dodecahedron shaped structure with tubes heading off eleven of its twelve sides. That last side was facing them, and contained dozens of openings. As they raced closer Minu could see they were docking bays, each hundreds of meters across.

  “What does this ship we fly in look like?” Aaron wondered aloud. Sally touched controls and a three dimensional hologram of their ride floated in the center of the room. A round ball pierced by a pointed lance, the dull end surrounded by propulsion drives, the other where they stood. The image was detailed and even showed the doors on the dull end where they'd come aboard. It must have docked by backing in. The bulk of the ball shape, according to Sally, was cargo space.

  “Almost a miniature of the bigger ones,” Ted pointed out.

  “What have you found in this site?” Minu asked Sally.

  “We have never gotten out of the central station,” she said, beginning to manipulate the controls as they got closer. “There is a vast long promenade where all the docking bays are accessible. Only two exits leading from the promenade are visible, and they are locked. None of my sisters have been able to unlock those doors.”

  “Have you tried docking with any of the starships?”

  “Yes, before I came here to work, they tried. The bigger ships have docking bays, but they do not respond to the shuttles. They will not open as we approach, and there are no external controls.”

  “It's an entire fleet,” Ted marveled. Minu tried and lost count at a hundred. They were mostly the bigger versions of what they flew, just a ball pierced by a lance. However there were quite a few multiple balls on longer spears, clusters of balls around a single spear, multiple spears piercing a single ball, and a pair of huge conglomerations of balls with but a single spear poking out the front and the back. The design reminded her of art class in school. Draw the ball, shade it for accent, now a pencil!

  The tubes ran from the central station, occasionally branching, occasionally ending in a starship. The pattern seemed almost completely random, and yet the structure taken as a whole somehow made sense. It was an awe inspiring sight that struck them speechless in its sheer dimensions as they approached; a giant snowflake in space, many kilometers across. When the central station was still kilometers away, it was no longer possible to take in the entire shipyard. Even Ted was reduced to just whistling through his teeth over and over, shaking his head.

  “I wonder who it belonged to.” Minu gave words to what many were thinking.

  “They left it millions of years ago,” Sally told her. “It is T'Chillen now.”

  Good luck with that, Minu thought, considering the snakes couldn't even get the doors open. No wonder they were swarming over this place like ants on a dead howler. No one in the Concordia used spaceships any more. If one of the higher order species could get its claws in starships it would fundamentally tip the balance of power in the galaxy. If that species should be a hostile one such as the T'Chillen...Minu didn't want to consider what that would mean. And she'd just shot up a few hundred snakes a few minutes ago. Swell.

  “Do you want to land and see the promenade? It is amazing.”

  Minu told her to go ahead and land then moved slightly back to confer with her people. “Don't ask me how, but I'm pretty sure I can get that door open she was talking about.”

  “I'm asking you how,” Ted said, the exasperation in his voice evident to all now.

  “I'll do my best to explain, but not now. Let’s just get through these next few hours and then I'll have time to think; surviving is more important now.” She could tell by the way Ted's jaw muscles worked that he was unhappy, but yet again he deferred to her decision. How much longer could she put him off about the Weavers?

  Their shuttle began to slow as it approached the massive dodecahedron central structure. The one pentagon shaped side loomed a kilometer or more to either side as they approached. Minu counted twenty or more ovoid docking bays, all with closed clamshell doors. Sally seemed to pick one at random and as they approached it split into four toothed parts and retracted steadily into the unremarkable gray station wall. Once they'd passed the wall and moved inside, rings of bright lighting came on displaying an interior of catwalks and scaffolding that was already changing configuration to match their shuttle.

  “End of the road,” Aaron said and tilted a head towards Sally. “What about her?”

  “If we leave her she'll bring them right to us,” Var'at told them.

  “Maybe,” Minu said and shrugged her head. “Sally, we're going to explore this structure. Do you w
ant to go with us?”

  “I serve the nest.” They all looked at her expectantly as she finished some input on the controls before turning eyestalks rearward. She looked from one to another of her passengers, settling on Minu. “I am a simple female, but not stupid. Loyal to the T'Chillen, I am. You must kill me.”

  “We aren't going to kill you,” Ted said, holding up a hand to calm the snake.

  “It is the only logical choice. As soon as you leave I will depart and inform Command where you are. It will only take me a second to turn the radio back on.” She pointed to the panel control that Aaron had so carefully disabled, supposedly without her noticing. “My life in service to my nest is the reason I live. When the leaders decide, it will be time for me to die. You are interesting beings, I am glad to have met you.”

  “This is crazy,” Aaron said and gestured helplessly at the amiable snake who was so matter of fact about her death, “is life so cheap in the galaxy?”

  “There must be another solution,” Bjorn agreed. “Maybe we can disable the shuttle?”

  “We don't have time,” Minu said, and sighed. The T'Chillen's eye stalks bent slightly in what might have been a smile for her species, then she bowed forwards, looking down.

  Minu's left hand was drawing an Enforcer when Ted cried out “No! You cannot do this.”

  “Ted, this is a command decision,” said Minu as she raised the gun.

  “Yes, I know you are in command, but there is a bigger reason why you cannot simply murder this being!”

  “And what is that?” the sights were lined up, squarely between the eyestalks.

  “Because it's not the human thing to do.”

  Minu paused, about two kilos of pull on the trigger. She knew a fraction more and it would go off, blowing most of Sally's head all over the pristine window.

  “God damn it Ted, we just killed dozens back there. You weren't all moral then!”

  “We were fighting for our lives, trying to escape.”

  “We're still trying to escape.”

  “We already have,” Aaron offered.

  Ted nodded in thanks to Aaron and continued. “You offered friendship and safety to the Rasa, at great personal sacrifice, and they'd been our enemies for months. Var'at had fought you personally. Minu, she doesn't have to die. You know that.”

  The barrel was no longer steady on its target. She knew Sally was listening to them moralize her own death, but she never looked, or shook in fear, or gave the slightest indication she was interested in what they were even saying. A chocolate colored hand gently reached out and wrapped around Minu’s hand and the gun grip, and ever so slowly helped her lower the gun.

  “What makes her life so important that it is worth risking mine, or all of yours?” asked Minu. “Because she is an innocent,” Var'at said.

  Minu let Cherise pull her arm down. The other girl carefully removed the gun, then slid it into her holster for her. Minu turned her head and looked at her dearest friend, tears rolling down her cheeks. In that expression she saw everything she needed to see. Cherise agreed with her, killing the snake was the logical thing to do. But her heart disagreed. A little chill ran down Minu's spine. There had been little conflict inside her for that first moment. The decision to kill Sally was a pretty easy one. It wasn't until several voices of reason spoke up, that she began to question her own mind.

  They all turned and quietly departed. Minu was last, Cherise waiting for her just outside the cockpit. Minu wondered if she was worried her friend would change her mind? She didn't think that was the case. Now with the cockpit empty, Sally looked up for the first time and glanced around the space before settling on Minu. She cocked her head curiously. Minu just gave her a little smile. “Best of luck, Sally.”

  “And to you,” the T'Chillen replied.

  Chapter 11

  January 14th, 522 AE

  Firebase Enigma, Galactic Frontier

  Docked securely in the bay, they returned to the rear cargo area where they'd left the fighter. There wasn't any conversation or banter, only a quiet, somber tone. Minu strode straight over to the controls by the rear doors and examined the icons that popped up as she approached. “Open” was a clearly visible command, but only if she didn't really think about it. Huh? She tapped the icon and the entire shuttle quivered. With a pop and a hiss, the cargo area roof broke in two and pivoted up and away. Crisp, clean air swirled in with just a hint of frost. The huge expanse of the bay was revealed to them and how the supports had repositioned to cradle the shuttle dead center.

  The whine of approaching gravitic impellers announced the arrival of a bot. About the size and shape of a Frisbee, it floated over the group and spoke in a loud clear voice that to Minu at least sounded a bit like a chimpanzee trying to speak German. Their translators took a long moment to chew it over before rendering its opinion.

  “Welcome to transfer station four, do you require unload?”

  “Yes,” Minu said and pointed to the fighter.

  “Understood, complying. Your vehicle will be in antechamber Victor Three off the promenade.” And with that it just hovered there, maybe waiting for further requests. Outside huge cargo arms moved towards them.

  “Everyone aboard!” Minu yelled and they scrambled to board before the arms arrived. Var'at's soldiers were the last inside as the arms thunked against the hull and they felt the fighter being borne aloft.

  “I've never seen that design of bot,” Bjorn commented. He quickly moved to the front of the fighter and craned his head in the windshield to get another look.

  “I don't think anyone has seen anything here,” Ted told his old friend, “this is like the land that time forgot.”

  The arms lifted the fighter high up and then slid them into a wide opening in the wall. Hoverfields inside took control of their craft and gently slid them into the center of the bay, roughly twice the width and length of the fighter. As they settled to the floor, the doors closed behind them. Minu was the first down the ramp to examine their new surroundings. A smaller door than the one they'd been delivered through was just in front of the fighter. Minu went over right away to where she saw the locking mechanism, but she only took a couple steps before the doorway withdrew into the floor. “We seem to be welcome,” she told them. Ted and Bjorn looked interested, even if Ted was still resentful at not being let in on her secrets. Cherise and Aaron were maneuvering Pip's suspension pod down the ramp while Var'at and his surviving team spread out, turreted eyes scanning all directions.

  “Be careful,” Bjorn said and nodded towards the waiting exit.

  “Always,” she said and walked through.

  A ramp of almost transparent moliplas led from the doorway, angling down slightly towards a huge avenue of the same material running from left to right; the Grand Promenade. From all the dozens of docking bays, identical ramps led from below and above, all to the promenade which itself was set against the back wall of this immense chamber. Looking over her shoulder, Minu realized that only the walls of the docking bays and storage antechambers where her fighter now waited were opaque, the rest of the wall was translucent and afforded them a vista of the space dock that took her breath away. She immediately knew why Sally had spoken so fondly of the view. “The codex is all that matters,” she said to herself. She was so far off the map that Minu was running entirely on instinct; the starships were just a tantalizing sideshow.

  “Looks okay,” she told them. With only six Rasa soldiers left and her right arm injured, Minu made a hard decision. “Everyone goes, leave the fighter.”

  “You think it's safe?” Aaron asked.

  “No,” she said matter-of-factly, “but I don't see a choice. If we can find the codex, we might find another shuttle. There might even be a Portal here somewhere.”

  “I just want a chance to see inside one of those starships,” Bjorn rubbed his hands together expectantly.

  “Not a priority,” she warned him. He looked horrified and she shook her head, taking some of the wind o
ut of his sails.

  As a group they moved down the insubstantial seeming ramp to the promenade. It measured at least two hundred meters across and ran the length of the cavernous space. The air had the same crisp, slightly cool feeling that greeted them in the docking bay. No sign of dust or disuse was anywhere to be seen. Once they reached the main level of the promenade, they could see stall after stall in a multitude of shapes and sizes lining the back of the long level.

  “Shops,” Ted guessed. There was no sign of any displays or left over goods, it was as if the structure was built but no one ever moved in; a floating ghost town in deep space. Minu imagined it full of the entire host of Concordia species, all moving through to parts unknown. The booths would be crowded with merchants selling goods from the far reaches of the galaxy. It was a little peak at what the Empire might have once looked like a million years ago. But nothing moved, no sounds were heard, and there was no life here. It was a place populated only by memories.

  “There she goes,” Aaron spoke up. They all turned to look out of the huge clear wall of the promenade where the bulbous shuttle was backing out. As they watched, it gracefully spun around and began to accelerate back towards the Portal Station. Despite her misgivings, Minu sent a silent thanks to Sally as the shuttle zoomed away.

  “It was the right thing to do,” Ted reminded her.

  “Yeah, but was it the smart thing?”

  The team moved down the promenade to the right. Minu picked that direction because they'd come in more to the left and decided it just made sense. After they'd walked about two hundred meters there was a break in the stalls to accommodate a ten meter wide clamshell door, a type they'd seen several times since arriving in the star system Minu named Enigma. As she got within a few meters, a panel opened on the left side, rotating outwards. It had a small display and a circle of holographic icons appeared in the air. Before she even got any closer, Minu knew their meaning. “It's getting easier,” she mumbled as she approached the lock.