Ep.#3.6 - Evolution , page 10
To Aiden’s surprise, Cameron came down the ramp of the Leonid. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” Aiden asked as she approached.
“It was a last-minute decision,” Cameron admitted, “and I didn’t want to inhibit your command.”
“You worry too much,” Aiden chuckled. “I’m not that sensitive…trust me.”
“It wasn’t actually my idea,” Cameron admitted as she and Aiden headed back toward the hangar bay. “Robert pulled rank on me, insisting that I belonged here with all of you.” She looked at him as they walked. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“Are you kidding?” Aiden chucked. “I haven’t slept a wink since the last engagement.”
“Any leads on the Traverna’s whereabouts?” Cameron asked as they passed through the main airlock and into the Aurora’s main hangar bay.
“Abby figured out the Traverna executed a double jump.”
“You mean, like, two jumps, back-to-back?”
“Not exactly. Two jumps, the second jump only a fraction of a second after the first, so that it looked like a single jump.”
“A deception?” Cameron realized.
“One that worked,” Aiden admitted. “We were looking in the wrong area. Luckily, so were the bad guys.”
“Any idea who the bad guys are?” Cameron asked.
“None,” Aiden admitted. “They’re not Alliance forces, though, so that’s a plus. I’m guessing its a private security force hired by whoever built the medical SA pod the Traverna was smuggling.”
“And the identity of the occupant?”
“The Traverna’s captain wasn’t aware of the pod, and the engineer didn’t know much either. The crewman who arranged the whole thing was killed in the initial attack.”
“Well, now that we’ve got six more shuttles to help with the search, we have a much better chance of finding them,” Cameron commented. “I don’t suppose you’ve heard from them?”
“No such luck,” Aiden replied. “The Traverna’s subspace comms array was damaged in the initial attack, so once they jumped away…”
“If Nathan could contact us, he would have,” Cameron surmised. “Without any evidence of the Traverna’s destruction, we have to assume he’s gone dark, probably in order to shake pursuit.”
“He won’t get far,” Aiden opined. “The Traverna took quite a bit of damage. I’m surprised they were able to get underway at all, let alone pull off a double jump like that.”
“Yeah, Vlad has a habit of pulling off the impossible, just like Nathan.”
“A difficult duo to track,” Aiden opined.
“We just have to think like Nathan,” Cameron stated. “That’s why Robert insisted I take command.”
“He was right,” Aiden agreed. “No one knows Nathan better than you.”
* * *
“Just because I’m the biggest and strongest of us doesn’t mean none of you need to help,” Vladimir complained as he carried the still unconscious mystery woman from the crashed escape pod over to their makeshift campsite.
“Jesus, Vlad, she probably weighs all of forty kilos,” Jessica teased as she hauled survival supplies over.
“We’re going to have to pack all of this up to travel, you know,” Nathan warned. “If someone figures out our deception, we want to be as far away from this pod as possible.”
“What if our people figure it out?” Doctor Barra asked as she helped Vladimir lay the woman down on the ground.
“They’ll hail us,” Nathan stated, pointing at the comm-set hanging on his left ear.
“We need to find higher ground. Scope out the area before we decide which way to go.”
“Aren’t you forgetting about something?” Doctor Barra said, pointing to the woman she was examining.
“Can she walk?” Jessica asked.
“Not while she’s unconscious,” Kayci retorted with a hint of sarcasm.
“You’re going to have to wake her, Doc,” Nathan said.
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“Someone is going to great lengths to retrieve her,” Jessica stated. “We need to know who she is.”
“I can’t even figure out why she was in a medical SA pod,” Doctor Barra pointed out. “Let’s not forget she could still be infectious.”
“Not much we can do about that now,” Jessica stated.
“Jess and I will recon the immediate area,” Nathan said. “You and Kayci get us ready to move. Round up all the survival gear we can easily carry. I want to move out as soon as Jess and I return.”
“Got it,” Vladimir assured him.
“What about the woman?” Kayci asked. “Should I wake her?”
“Not until we get back,” Nathan instructed. He turned to Jessica. “Shall we?”
* * *
“Again?” Josh exclaimed as he and Josh completed yet another jump. “That’s three in a row. Ever since we followed your mom’s search recommendations, we’re finding search drones at every waypoint.”
“These ones are different,” Nikolas stated.
“They look the same to me,” Josh insisted.
“Ensign Sorenson is correct,” Josh’s AI said. “These are not the same type of drones we encountered at the previous two waypoints.”
“What’s different about them?” Josh wondered, studying the tactical screen in his Dragon fighter’s cockpit.
“They’re bigger, for one,” Nikolas told him.
“They have more advanced power and propulsion systems, as well as better sensors,” Josh’s AI added. “Also, they are armed.”
“Armed?” Josh said, not liking where the conversation was going.
“Missiles and plasma turrets,” his AI explained. “Not enough to destroy a Dragon fighter, but enough to make attacking them a poor option.”
“Who do they belong to?” Josh wondered.
“Their power signatures are very similar to the ones used by the ships the Scott encountered that identified themselves as Zhulati,” his AI stated.
“The Zhulati are looking for the Traverna?”
“It appears that way.”
“This is not good,” Nikolas decided.
“You got that right,” Josh said as he began shutting down systems. “Go dark until they leave, Remo. There’s still a chance they haven’t detected us, yet.”
“They’re just drones, Josh.”
“That came from a ship, which may be nearby,” Josh insisted. “And where there are drones, there are fighters.”
“If they find the Traverna before we do…”
“I had the same thought,” Josh agreed. “We’ll wait until they leave, then we’ll jump a light year ahead of them and continue searching.”
“And what if the Traverna is somewhere in that light year?”
“We’ll send a couple of our own drones to search that sector,” Josh decided. “At least that way, if the Zhulati show up, the only thing we’ll lose are a couple of drones instead of a Dragon fighter.”
“Never thought I’d see Josh Hayes run from a fight,” Nikolas stated.
“Our mission is to find our people,” Josh argued. “Besides, I have a feeling we’ll being seeing the Zhulati again, real soon.”
* * *
Nathan and Jessica stood at the summit, staring down at a collection of buildings along the river that snaked its way from one end of the valley to the other.
“What are the chances?” Jessica said as she pulled out her handheld visual scanner to zoom in on the buildings.
“Actually, better than you’d think,” Nathan replied.
“How do you figure?” Jessica wondered as she continued scanning the valley.
“Well, about ten percent of settlers seek out unsettled, or lightly settled worlds, and there aren’t as many hospitable worlds out there as people think.”
“I thought there were like a million of them?”
“Yes, but they’re spread all over the galaxy,” Nathan pointed out.
“Still, what are the odds that we’d crash near one of the few settlements on this rock?” Jessica challenged.
“Also, better than you’d think.”
Jessica looked at him as if he were crazy.
“Small settlements almost always start along the equator. More temperate climate, and less energy to get to and from orbit.”
She looked at him again.
“Sorry, it’s the pilot in me,” Nathan said.
“It’s the dork in you.”
“Like you didn’t already know that.”
“Regardless, the odds are long,” Jessica insisted.
“I’m getting the feeling I should just shut up and agree with you,” Nathan muttered.
“It only took you what, five hundred years to figure that out?”
“Funny.”
Jessica continued looking at the scanner screen as she aimed the device at the settlement below. “Houses, shops, light processing and manufacturing, and some cultivated plots. I’m picking up about a hundred or so people.”
“Weapons?”
“Mostly low power sidearms,” Jessica replied. “A few long-range rifles, probably for hunting. No perimeter shields, not even any sensors or comms gear. In fact, the only power signature I can find is a small fusion reactor in what appears to be the manufacturing plant.”
“The buildings don’t have power?” Nathan asked, surprised.
“No, they’re wired for power. They’re just not using it. At least not enough for me to detect.”
“This has got to be a new settlement,” Nathan decided.
“Based on their ag plots, I’d say a year, two at the most. Assuming they planted right away. They don’t always.”
“Now who’s a dork?”
“So I read the net,” Jessica defended. “I am an intelligence officer, you know.”
“An intelligence dork,” Nathan muttered. “Should we go down and say hi?”
Jessica thought for a moment, sighing. “A settlement is the second place they’d look.”
“The escape pod being the first?” Nathan assumed.
“A-firm,” Jessica replied, looking at the settlement again. “If they agree to let us join them, we might be able to blend in, assuming they come looking for us.”
“From what I’ve read, new settlements are not that open to uninvited guests,” Nathan commented.
“Well, if we are going to initiate contact, we should wait until morning.” Jessica looked up at the sky, noticing that the sun had already fallen below the ridge on the far side of the valley. “We should head back. We’re running out of light.”
* * *
“If they are Zhulati, then things just got more complicated,” Aiden commented as he, Cameron, and Laza studied the display on the Aurora’s sensor console.
“Why would the Zhulati be interested in the Traverna?” Laza wondered.
“We can only hope that they are,” Cameron said.
“You think they’re looking for us,” Aiden realized.
“I think we have to assume that.” Cameron thought for a moment. “Although, it could be both.”
“The girl?” Aiden said.
“It would answer a lot of questions,” Cameron agreed.
“And raises many more,” Laza added.
“Indeed, it does,” Cameron concurred, tapping her comm-set. “Kit, Cameron.”
“Go ahead,” Kit replied.
“Load your men up and rendezvous with each shuttle on their search patterns. I want one of you on each ship, ready for anything.”
“On our way,” Kit acknowledged.
“What do you think is going to happen?” Aiden questioned.
“Nothing good, I’m sure,” Cameron sighed. “No matter what happens, I have a feeling we’re going to need the Ghatazhak.”
* * *
After securing and stabilizing the crashed escape pod, Vladimir had removed all the survival cargo, as well as several components he thought might be of use. The result was a considerable stockpile of goods which would be difficult to carry, assuming they were still planning on being mobile rather than setting up camp.
“How is she doing?” Vladimir asked Kayci as he sat down nearby to take a break.
“She’s still out,” the doctor replied, seeming surprised.
“I take it you didn’t expect her to be?”
“Her last dose of semol was hours ago. Without the pod, she should have woken by now.”
Vladimir leaned toward the sleeping mystery woman, examining her face. “She looks peaceful enough.”
“Her scans are fine,” Kayci stated. “She just isn’t waking up.”
“Can you give her something to bring her out?” Vladimir wondered.
“Yes, but I’m not sure it’s safe. I mean, she’s not behaving at all the way she should, so I’m reluctant to give her anything at this point, especially considering her vitals are all normal, at the moment.”
“Well, I’m not carrying her all across this planet, that’s for certain.”
“I’ll probably give her a stimulant once the captain and the lieutenant commander return,” Kayci decided.
Vladimir glanced at the sky. “Shouldn’t be long. They wouldn’t stay out after dark.”
“How can you be sure?”
“I’ve known them both for a long time,” Vladimir explained.
“I keep forgetting about the history you all have together,” Kayci said as she settled back against the tree next to their unconscious patient. “When did you all first meet?”
“We were all assigned to the original Aurora for her maiden flight.”
“The infamous flight of the Aurora,” Kayci stated.
“Nathan and I were cabin-mates, actually.”
“What about Lieutenant Commander Nash?”
“Nathan already knew her, so to speak. I didn’t get to know her until a few weeks later, after we were tossed into the Pentaurus sector. Haven was the first away mission with her,” Vladimir recalled. “We were all in a hell of a firefight together.”
“Have you been in a lot of firefights?” Kayci asked.
“More than most engineers, I’d imagine.”
“You seemed quite calm in the face of imminent danger, back on the Traverna.”
“I was in the Russian infantry before joining the Earth Defense Force and becoming an engineer.”
“That explains it,” she replied with a sigh. “It never ceases to amaze me, how some people can remain calm when fighting for their very lives.”
“It’s the training,” Vladimir explained. “It kicks in and your actions become instinctive. You ignore the danger, and just deal with the situation as best you can.”
“Do you still train for such things?”
“Not as much as I should, considering the ship I’m serving on,” Vladimir chuckled.
“What about the captain and the lieutenant commander?”
“Nathan started training daily just after we time-shifted,” Vladimir told her. “Jess, on the other hand, trains every spare moment. It’s the Ghatazhak in her.”
“What? Jessica was a Ghatazhak?”
“She trained with them for five years. Lived and breathed it.”
“That explains how frightening she can be.”
“Oh, she was frightening long before that,” Vladimir chuckled. “If anything, the Ghatazhak made her less scary. More deadly, but more self-disciplined.”
“That makes sense,” Kayci agreed. “I don’t find the Ghatazhak at all frightening, which is surprising considering they are trained killers.”
“They’re not, really,” Vladimir defended. “I mean, yes, they are quite adept at taking life, but not in the same way as other soldiers of their ilk.”
“How so?”
“Most soldiers are just trained to kill the enemy any way they can,” Vladimir explained. “The Ghatazhak only kill when killing is necessary to achieve their objective.”
“Isn’t that what all soldiers do?”
“Yes, but with the Ghatazhak, it is different. The difference is subtle, I admit. But the more you witness them in action, the more you see it. They seem so detached from the horror that they inflict, and they get no joy from it.”
“Who would get joy from killing?”
“In combat, adrenaline takes over and puts you into an altered state. The Ghatazhak do not experience this. Their demeanor barely changes during combat. And if it does, it is because they choose to let the change happen. And even then, that change is completely under their control. They can control their emotional state the same way you and I can control our voices.”
“How is that even possible?” Kayci said, not really expecting a response.
“Training,” Vladimir replied confidently. “Hours and hours of it. Every day, all day, for decades and decades. If they are not on a mission, they are training. And I’m not just talking about combat and weapons training and such, but constant studying as well.”
“What kind of studying?”
“Ever since we got our AICC node connected to the Alliance net, they have been studying the last five hundred years of history that we missed.”
“Why?” Kayci wondered.
“Because behaviors of the past influence those in the present,” Vladimir stated. “At least that’s what Lieutenant Vasya told me when I asked him the same question.”
“He’s right,” a female voice stated.
Vladimir and Kayci both looked at the woman at the same time, but they were caught by surprise, especially Vladimir, who took the full force of her blow, knocking him unconscious.
Kayci froze, and in the next moment, the woman pulled Vladimir’s side arm, taking aim at the doctor as the weapon charged.
“Don’t move,” the woman stated, a cold, dispassionate look in her eyes.
