Earth Song: Twilight Serenade (14 page)

The mystery had led her to these files for information. And there was simply a formidable amount of information. Most of the tribes had each brought with them extensive computer files. Scientific, history, art, even family records and pictures. The task was formidable, especially when you consider that she didn’t fully realize what she was looking for. Only that it was probably there.

So Lilith worked at it for a few hours. To her, it was a form of meditation. She just hoped it was meditation that eventually lead to answers.

Chapter 16

February 17th, 535 AE

Dervish Star System, Galactic Frontier

It took nearly an entire day for an Ibeen to move in with the Fiisk shielding it, then another as each took their turn loading at the station. The Fiisk would then escort it back out through the maelstrom of Dervish. The transports had formidable shields, but because they were so gargantuan those shields would be absorbing radiation from all angles. Just one glancing blow from a solar prominence would spell their doom. The slow approach allowed the CI on the Fiisk to predict the solar activity and plot a course around the worst of it. While it took longer it made more sense than to risk one of their few transports.

The Beezer masters of the Ibeen, while loving deep space, were far from impressed with Dervish. Their reaction was closer to horror.

Pakata, master of Ibeen Alpha, had exclaimed in shock when he’d beheld the swirling stars for the first time. “It would be insane to go down there,” he’d complained when they’d pointed out the energy station with its massive filigreed antennae which gathered the precious plasma. Stars were made of plasma, but not every kind was ideal to fill EPCs and run starships. And creating it from average solar energy was time consuming.

Once the first Ibeen successfully made the descent and was docked at the station, the other ship’s masters acquiesced without argument to the plan. Minu considered it one of the few times the huge beings’ herd mentalities had worked in her personal favor.

After the first Ibeen was docked, Lilith took up station with her Kaatan less than a kilometer away. Still inside the station’s incredibly powerful shields while maintaining enough distance to allow her to respond should she need to. Minu had wondered how the station maintained those shields.

“It is easy,” Lilith explained. “The station takes up a position so the solar prominence are of the suitable type of plasma. The shields themselves then absorb that plasma, as of course the unshielded collection arms you see extending out. The energy impacting the shields is stored, just as in normal shields, but in this case that energy happens to be useful power of the right spectrum, so it is simply put into storage. And of course, as you saw, there are many thousands of EPCs stored within.”

Minu had marveled at the bays, the spherical interiors lined with untold EPCs. An almost inconceivable amount of power waiting for eons to power a war that was long over.

The deal with the Squeen completed for the time, Minu had retreated with Aaron and Mindy to her quarters to rest and bond with their new baby. Lilith had checked in twice to be sure everything was okay. Her mother had assured her they were fine and the MI agreed. It told her that a period of quiet bonding was likely common with their species.

For herself Lilith was left feeling both exhilarated, and strangely conflicted. When aboard Minu usually spent a lot of time with her in the CIC, or the ship’s small galley, or even in Minu’s own quarters. They talked a lot about whatever caught her mother’s fancy. At first years ago it was strange and confusing for Lilith. Eventually she realized she liked the often pointless banter. The computer records from her adopted home called it ‘girl talk’. Whatever it was, now with Mindy finally here, Lilith was feeling… jealous!

It was a shock for her, floating in the CIC overseeing the swarms of bots effecting repairs on her ship, to realize she was jealous of a newborn baby! She was confused enough to spend some of her time looking through older human records.

Among other benefits of salvaging the ghost fleet had been renewing her supply of bot raw material. The blue crystalline material could be recycled even if a bot was crushed. But like the one Minu had lost while salvaging, some was always lost. Her reserve had been getting low. Now she had a surplus, as did the Fiisk and each of the Ibeen.

A few hours later as the repairs progressed she understood herself a little better. Psychologists called it ‘sibling rivalry’. It manifested more with young children of closer age, but wasn’t unheard of in older, adult children when a mother has a child later in life.

Due to the modifications on her brain at birth by the ship’s MI, Lilith was much closer to her mother’s age than was biologically possible. When she’d been released as the master of the Kaatan, getting to know her parents had been difficult. Sometimes their interactions were hit or miss. Her memories go back almost to her birth from the ship’s artificial womb. To her, in most ways, the ship with its gentle artificial human voice was her parent.

Then as she got to know Minu and Aaron, she quickly realized that wasn’t true. The ship gave birth to her, educated her, cared for her, all at hyper accelerated speed, but it wasn’t a living being. It wasn’t human. It didn’t actually care about her beyond the field expedient means it used to create her, and thereby fulfill its needs.

Because of a project she was working on for her mother, all if this was of vital importance. Both how the hyper-aging process effected a child, and its relationship with actual parents and humans in general.

Minu and Aaron loved her, and she’d come to understand what that meant and love them back. Love, now that was another thing she only barely understood. She did know why they called it a feeling, because you couldn’t see it or touch it. But other feelings were more tangible to her. Always had been. Rage, anger, and frustration among them. Specific situations created those feelings in her, and she’d learned mostly to control them, even channel them to her advantage. She knew she got those from her mother as well, along with the red hair and green eyes.

Love though, wasn’t an emotion that could be called up or created instantly from a situation. You didn’t love in reaction to an event, at least not immediately as she understood it. Love was like a plant that took time to grow and flower. Yet despite that, it was the most powerful of all emotions. Especially for her as the MI had not educated her on it at all. The People, it seemed, did not experience that emotion.

And there, floating in the void with most of her computer enhanced brain moving swarms of crystalline bots through the bowels of an ancient starship, she finally understood. As she thought about her mother, her father, and now her baby sister, tears began to fill her eyes. And she truly understood love.

“Come in,” Minu said. The door slid aside and Lilith floated in, the gravity around her precisely neutralized to allow her to swim down the halls without touching. Her mother reclined on the bed, Mindy half asleep, half nursing while Minu read from a tablet. Aaron had one wall of the quarters configured to be a display and was working with gravitic drive designs. “Hi Lilith!” Minu said, her smile warm and genuine. “Come to see how your sister is doing?”

“While I am glad to see her, I actually came to see you and father.”

“Oh?” Aaron asked, turning away from the wall and putting a stylus down. “What’s on your mind?”

“I’ve come to understand something. It took me quite a while, and I am sorry it took so long.”

“What’s that?” Minu asked.

“I love you, both of you, and want to know if you love me back.”

Minu and Aaron were completely gobsmacked. A touch of panic showed on Lilith’s face, afraid she’d once again misjudged an emotional situation. But then Minu gently placed Mindy in the small crib the ship had fabricated next to their bed, and quickly came over and grabbed her daughter in a powerful embrace. The computer sensed her entering the CI’s gravity zone and canceled the neutralization, so that Lilith practically collapsed into her mother’s arms.

“Oh baby,” she said and stroked her daughter’s hair. “We’ve always loved you!”

Aaron was there and put his muscled arms around both of them. “Always,” he agreed, “and forever.”

“I have only really just come to understand this love,” Lilith admitted, “it snuck up on me like a stealth frigate. I just didn’t know what it was I was feeling.”

“What helped you understand?”

“My baby sister,” Lilith said and gestured to the swaddled baby gently snoring and making sucking motions with her mouth. “Oh, and I am jealous of her.”

Minu snorted a laugh and hugged her all the harder. “You’re a sister now, that’s only natural.”

“You won’t love me less because there is a new sibling?”

“There is an infinite amount of love in our hearts,” Minu told her and kissed the girl on her forehead. Aaron nodded. “You will understand that in time.”

“And what of Mindy? Will she share my love for you?”

“Instantly and completely,” Aaron said.

“And if you have more siblings?” Lilith persisted.

Minu smiled and shook her head. “For a girl that flies through the galaxy like a bird, you are having a hard time understanding infinite.

“Mother, the Squeen task force has arrived.”

Minu rolled out of bed, checking Mindy in her crib to be sure she was still asleep, and walked naked over to the intercom. You could just talk into the air on the ship but it made more sense to use the more common intercom this time, to avoid waking both Aaron and her daughter.

“I’ll be down in about ten minutes,” she whispered to her older daughter and clicked the device off. She’d only been asleep for three hours. Judging by her experience over the last couple days, Mindy would sleep for a couple more hours before needing to nurse again. Minu walked into the corner of the room and touched a spot on the wall. Silently, wall sections to either side slid out and formed an enclosure. A spigot appeared just above her head and water the perfect temperature began to spray. She sighed as it ran over her body. Taking soap from another enclosure that appeared, she started washing up.

Minu was careful with her breasts. They were quite a bit larger (which she’d seen Aaron admiring) and were tender, especially the nipples which Mindy had been using heavily. Luckily with the medical AI’s treatment, her lower parts were in quite a bit better shape than she’d expected them to be in. She still wasn’t interested in her husband in a way she knew he would be after being apart for so long, but her thoughts were drifting in that direction.

The water cut off and directional air blowers dried her body in only moments. As the walls retreated another panel slid open and she removed the cleaned and pressed Chosen uniform. She stepped into the legs, slid it over her hips, got both arms in, and pulled up the zipper only to get stuck at her chest. And there she stood, zipper to her now slightly flabby tummy, unable to clear her boobs. “You’re kidding, right?”

“I’m enjoying it,” Aaron said from the bed. He lay there on his side, a huge shit-eating grin on his face at her much larger bosoms stuck outside the nearly closed jumpsuit.

“I bet you are,” she chuckled and he grinned even bigger. “But if you ever want to get to play with these again you better come give me a hand!” Mindy moaned and rolled over making Minu snarl quietly.

Aaron hopped out of bed, naked as she’d been, and came over to her. Minu let her breath out in a low hiss. Yeah, feelings were returning, she thought as she took his powerfully muscled form in. The beard nicely complemented his hairy chest, and the way his thick penis swung from side to side as he walked… yummy.

“Let me help you with those,” he said. It was an interesting couple minutes of him stuffing and her zipping. The newer high-tech Chosen uniform was more than simple fabric including special defensive weave that could stop a beamcaster round and keep her alive in space for several minutes. It didn’t stretch very well.

“Okay, she said, looking down at more chest than she ever thought she’d see, “tell Lilith to have the computer make me a couple new uniforms?”

“Sure,” he smiled as he examined the results. There was a fire of desire in his eyes and he was no longer just ‘hanging there’ after the service he’d helped her with. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.

“I’ll be interested in that soon,” she said and nodded towards his excited state.

“That’s good to hear.” Mindy moaned again and Aaron moved to put a hand on her, gently patting his daughter’s side. She made mewing sounds and settled down. “Go deal with the buck toothed beggars,” he said. Minu nodded and went out the door.

Minu floated into the CIC, her grace somewhat returned as she no longer carried an extra eight kilos of liquid and baby in her midsection. Lilith hovered in a globe of holographic displays as she continued repairs on her beloved ship. As Minu floated in and slowed, Lilith looked up, spotted her new figure, and did a nearly classical double take.

“Don’t ask,” Minu grumbled. She’d long been jealous of Cherise’ chest, in a girl-girl sort of way. Now that she had at least as much as her friend, she wasn’t sure she liked it. Lilith shrugged and went back to work.

With many hours of practice, Minu called up from the computer a work station in the zero gravity sphere then quickly configured it. Using the new codes provided by the Squeen, she established communications.

“Squeen task force, this is First among the Chosen Groves.”

“We acknowledge you,” replied a chittering Squeen, its language rendered by Minu’s translator. A moment later a visual link was established. “I am Sly Mover, commanding this transport taskforce.”

Minu tried hard not to laugh, succeeding mostly. She wished Pip was still around so he could find out what was up with the translators and Squeen names. Sly Mover?!