Children of the Old Star (31 page)

"Why did you have to kill him?” asked Ellis, his palms upward.

"It was the only way to guarantee your safety and the safety of the ship,” said G'Liat simply.

"You could have restrained him just as easily.” Ellis sat cross-legged next to the lifeless body of Clyde McClintlock and closed the evangelist's eyes. “Mine Enemy is growing old—I have at last Revenge—The Palate of the Hate departs—If any would...” The captain's voice choked before he could finish the last of Emily Dickinson's verse. He looked into the alien warrior's black eyes. “Damn you,” whispered the captain.

That night, Kirsten Smart arrived at Ellis’ cabin. Ellis lay on the bunk staring at the ceiling. Smart sat down at the table. “How do you feel?” she asked.

"Like hell,” he said. “How's Mahuk?"

"The med techs say he'll be okay. He was sliced pretty bad, but nothing major was cut.” Smart smiled warmly, trying to tell the captain that everything would be okay.

"Does he have a plan for getting us home?” asked Ellis.

"He does, but he won't be able to perform the repairs himself, now. His repair plans involve re-routing some of the power conduits on the hull. Someone will have to go outside the ship to do it.” She leaned forward. “But, there's not much of a hurry. I thought you'd want to try to contact the Cluster before we went back."

Ellis looked toward Smart. His eyes were red-rimmed. “G'Liat and Clyde were both my friends. Maybe that friendship was dubious, but I cared about both of them. In the end, each of them betrayed me. My heart's not much in this anymore."

Smart stood and walked over to the bunk. She took Ellis’ hand and held it tightly. “I won't betray you,” she said. “I think we should at least look around, while we're here."

Ellis looked at the ceiling. “I think we should get home.” The two were swallowed by an uncomfortable silence for several minutes. “If Mahuk is well enough to write down instructions on how to repair the engines, I can go out and do the fix."

"That can wait until tomorrow,” said Smart. She sat on the edge of the bunk and pulled off her boots. She swung her legs onto the bed and held the captain. “For now, let's sleep."

Ellis turned to look into Smart's eyes. “The military is supposed to desensitize you to death. Tonight, I just feel sick."

"That's the way it should be,” she said. There was no malice in her voice. She just held the captain tighter and buried her face in his shoulder. He could feel the material of his nightshirt grow damp as her tears began to flow.

The next morning, Simon Yermakov helped Ellis into a space suit. The captain and two mechanics planned to leave the ship and modify it so that it could get back to the Milky Way galaxy where it could be repaired. As Ellis inserted his hands into the white gauntlets, he wondered how G'Liat was doing. He thought he should go talk to the warrior. However, something compelled him to continue getting ready for the mission outside the ship.

Yermakov placed the helmet on the captain's head and smiled as he locked it into place. “Looks like everything's okay, Skipper. Hope you can fix this thing. Being out in this globular gives me the creeps."

"I hear you,” said Ellis. The captain motioned for the two mechanics to follow him into the air lock. As the inner door sealed itself behind them, Ellis brought up a list of modification instructions on his armband. He was reading the instructions as the outer door opened. Looking up, the captain's mouth fell open at the sight that greeted him.

Light flooded into the airlock from countless stars hanging against a backdrop of even more stars. Ellis was used to seeing clumps of stars hanging in a sea of black velvet, like the Milky Way streaming its way through a rare clear Nantucket night or constellations filling ship viewers. This, on the other hand, was completely different. The two mechanics were likewise taken aback by the sight. Ellis simply turned off the light on the helmet of his space suit and motioned for the two men to follow him out.

In the eerie light of all the stars, it was not hard to find the power conduits in Mahuk's instructions. The work of rerouting them was more difficult than Ellis had pictured. The conduits were not designed to be moved, so the captain and mechanics had to break numerous welds and remove quite a few bolts from the black Erdonium hull of the ship. By mid-morning, Ellis was sweating profusely inside his suit and longed for a shower.

By noon, the captain was starving and ordered the work crew inside the ship for lunch. Eating only emphasized the loss of McClintlock. The captain knew the warrior had been right and the evangelist had to be stopped. As Ellis took a bite of his sandwich, he wondered at the fact that McClintlock had seemed like nothing but a nuisance until he was gone. Taking a last sip of lemonade, the captain realized how much he missed the conversation, no matter how deluded, of a man who had shared the common experience of communicating with the Cluster.

After lunch, Ellis and the two mechanics returned to work. After about two hours, the conduits were welded securely into their new locations. The captain ordered the mechanics inside to run simulations and make sure the modifications would work. Ellis, on the other hand, felt compelled to stay outside the ship for a short time.

Holding onto the outside of the ship, Ellis stared into heart of the globular cluster and wondered momentarily where the Cluster had gone. As he wondered, he began to feel an emptiness and a sense that the last months had been wasted. Before he sunk into despair, though, he thought about Kirsten Smart and smiled. If nothing else, gaining her friendship had made this voyage worthwhile.

Just as Ellis started making his way back to the airlock he felt a presence. Looking over his shoulder, he gasped as a glimmer of silver appeared among the reddish stars. A metallic object moved toward the
Sanson
at incredible speed. It did not take long for the captain to realize that a Cluster was approaching. The Cluster stopped some distance from
Sanson
and Ellis wondered what it was up to. Alone, out on the hull of his ship, the captain felt naked and vulnerable. Another glimmer of silver appeared and Ellis inclined his head as a second Cluster approached. The captain was frozen in place when he saw a third glimmer. As had happened every time before, Ellis could not tear his attention away from the alien vessels. Someone yelled something into his helmet speakers. He thought it was Kirsten Smart yelling for him to get inside.

Captain John Mark Ellis pushed himself away from
Sanson's
hull toward the group of Clusters. As he floated in their direction, he saw a fourth glimmer.

PRODIGAL CHILDREN

Once again, John Mark Ellis found himself in a room surrounded by antiquities. This time, though, the room seemed more orderly than before. Ellis noticed that he was free of the constraints of his spacesuit. In fact, looking down, he noticed that he wore no clothing at all. Fortunately, the room was pleasantly warm.

Looking around, Ellis found a nineteenth century French armchair. He felt the hard wood of the armrests admiringly then sat down in the chair, making himself comfortable. As he looked around the room, he realized that much of what he saw was nautical. He saw old brass lanterns and compasses. A wooden ship's wheel hung on a wall. As he looked at the furniture, he realized it was not merely nautical; all of it represented styles he had seen in homes on Nantucket. Despite sitting nude in a room full of very familiar antiques far from the normal range of human travel, Ellis felt quite comfortable.

"Only human. The expression has a certain irony,” came a voice from behind the captain. The voice had a strangely resonant timbre. It only took Ellis a few seconds to realize that it sounded like a Titan accent. The captain turned to face the sound of the voice. The woman he had seen at 1E1919+0427 walked up behind him. She paused, examining the captain with iridescent green eyes. Moving around the chair, she sat down on a sofa, crossing thin, but as before, strangely nondescript legs.

A woman with blue eyes stepped from behind an oak armoire. Like the first woman, black hair flowed over strangely rigid breasts. Letting his eyes wander down her body, he saw that her soft-looking belly had no navel. “Only human does not seem so ironic to me."

"Imagination is power,” said the woman with green eyes. “See how this one interprets our communication. It can turn emotion into visual imagery. The appendages never did that."

"The appendages?” asked Ellis, his eyebrows raised.

"Imagination?” There was a hint of laugher from the blue-eyed woman. “He sees us all the same."

"We are sensual creatures,” retorted the green-eyed woman. “He interprets that sensuality in a most fascinating way; a way that is most useful and a way that I wish to explore further."

Ellis noticed a third woman standing in front of him. She had fiery red eyes and seemed to glare at the captain. Involuntarily, Ellis shrank from her gaze. “It understands details of our communication. It is dangerous."

The green-eyed woman turned to face Ellis. She uncrossed her legs and put her hands on her knees, evaluating the captain. Sensuality, but not sexuality, thought Ellis, reddening as he caught himself staring. Looking back at her face, he thought he caught a hint of a smirk. “We have searched for the appendages. Instead, we found humans, Rd'dyggians, Zahari, and others. Humans know the appendages and are close to them."

Ellis licked his lips. “What are you?"

A fourth voice sounded from behind the captain. “The intelligence is minimized without the appendages.” Turning around, Ellis saw a woman with vivid violet eyes.

The captain folded his hands in his lap. He began to realize that the four women were not speaking directly to him. He was simply hearing what they had to say.

"The humans show promise,” said the red-eyed woman. “Perhaps they would serve in place of the appendages."

Ellis held up a finger to speak, but was interrupted by the blue-eyed woman. “Too independent. So are all the others we have seen. Only the original appendages will do or we..."

The violet-eyed woman slunk around Ellis and sat down next to the green-eyed woman. She shook her finger. “The human hears and understands. More than just one human hears and understands, but the one among us hears exceptionally well."

Off in the corner of the room, Ellis caught a glimpse of something soft and furry. Standing, he moved over to retrieve the furry object. It had black button-eyes and a smile stitched onto its gray fur. The captain recognized one of the teddy bears he had owned in his youth. “The humans know the appendages,” said the green-eyed woman.

"What do we do about the humans that are here?” asked the red-eyed woman, sitting down on a stool.

"Nothing,” said the green-eyed woman. She folded her arms. “They are harmless to us."

"They will not be, next time,” said the blue-eyed woman.

"We will continue to study them,” said the violet-eyed woman.

Ellis gently laid the teddy bear down. “Study us?” he asked. “How do you propose to study us? We are intelligent life forms. We can talk; we can give you information. You don't have to destroy our ships."

"Your study is invasive, they will remember,” said the green-eyed woman.

"So are your searches,” countered the violet-eyed woman.

Ellis moved to the center of the group of women and stamped his bare foot on the hard wood floor. He was disappointed that he did not make a very loud noise. “Listen to me!” he shouted.

The green-eyed woman smiled wistfully and looked at Ellis. “We have been."

All four women stood in unison and moved off in separate directions.

Ellis suddenly felt like he was falling and flailed to grab at something before he realized that he was in his space suit floating away from the
Sanson
. He thought he caught a greenish glimmer off of a Cluster as it moved off. The captain chewed his lip for a moment before he activated his suit's thruster control and turned around to return to the
Sanson
.

As the inner door of the airlock opened, Mark Ellis found himself facing a relieved Simon Yermakov. The first mate stepped up to the captain and unlatched the helmet. “We thought we had lost you, Skipper,” said the mate once the helmet was off.

"You seem glad to have me back,” said the captain. “There have been points on this journey where I'm not sure that would have been true."

"It's always been true, Skipper,” said Yermakov. “Would I ever get promoted if I returned from a mission without my captain?"

Just then, the door at the other end of the room opened and Kirsten Smart stormed in. “What the hell happened out there, Mark? Did you lose your mind?"

Ellis inclined his head. “What do you mean?"

"Four of those Clusters just pull up to our ship and you float out among them. All five of you just sat there for about an hour. I'm surprised your oxygen supply didn't run out.” Smart shook her head. “Don't you ever try a stunt like that again,” she chided.

With Yermakov's help, Ellis continued to strip out of the space suit. “Trust me, all I want right now is to get back to familiar stars,” said the captain, sitting down to remove his boots. “Then I want a shower."

"Did you learn anything, at least?” asked Smart, her tone softening. “Were you able to tell them about our intelligence?"

Ellis looked at the floor. “The part that frightens me is that I think they've known about our intelligence from the moment they first attacked a human ship."

Smart sat down on the bench next to the captain. “So, your father was killed maliciously?"

The captain shook his head, slowly. “I don't believe so. It was more a mistake. That's what the Cluster tried to tell me at 1E1919+0427. They are looking for a part of themselves abandoned in the galaxy the last time they were there. They found us instead.” Ellis looked up into Smart's eyes. “However, they're curious about us. To them, we're somehow unique biological specimens. My father was killed in the name of science. The destruction of his ship was more a dissection, I think, than an attack."