Lacuna: The Sands of Karathi (14 page)

Liao smiled, waving blindly at the redhead. “Mmm. It’s definitely a switch. I kind of like it, though. Thinking about making it ship policy.” With a groan, Liao opened her eyes and sat up. She blinked away the glare and looked at her engineer. “Well?”

“I gave the Toralii a full datastore from the ship’s multimedia library and from what I could pull from the crew files. One hundred fifty thousand songs, a terabyte of books, and about ten times that in movies—new and old. That should keep them occupied for a while. Apparently they’re going to start regular movie nights. At one movie a night, well, I doubt they’ll finish them all before they die of old age.”

Liao nodded. “Very good. And the modified jump drive?”

“That’s why I’m here. It’s actually not a modification of the jump drive,
per se
, it’s just a new component—a coprocessor. We can have it installed this afternoon and ready for a test by tomorrow morning. Qadan gave us detailed instructions and, in typical Toralii fashion, it almost seems too easy. Their philosophy is a good one—simple, simple, simple—but it’s kinda boring.” She clicked her tongue. “So we’re moving along well ahead of schedule.”

Liao felt an uncharacteristic stab of disappointment. They had budgeted two weeks to install the new jump drive and accordingly, she had decided to take some long overdue shore leave on the surface of Velsharn. To learn that her beach-hopping would be cut dramatically short was a shame.

She reached for her jacket, nodding. “That’s good news, but why did you need to interrupt my sunbathing to tell me this?”

Summer folded her hands in front of her. “Well, unfortunately, in order to make it work at all, we need a Telvan military access code. I spoke to Ben about it.
The Telvan are not big on security–we knew this already–but their access codes are very… broad in their application. For instance, with one of those we could shut down their whole facility, overload their reactors, or even power up their surface defense drones–like the ones that were protecting the wreck of the
Giralan
. So… yeah. We doubt these scientists will give us one just so we could use the jump drive. They’ve been helpful so far, but there are limits to their hospitality, I imagine.”

"Didn't they know that it required the code before they offered it to us?"

Summer shook her head. "Nope. They designed it, yeah, but then they pass the schematic to the military for approval. They added the requirement of the code and deleted the original schema for security reasons."

Liao thought it odd the Telvan would trade them a jump drive they suspected they couldn’t use, but there was no sense being angry about it. In all likelihood, Qadan had no idea the drive required a code, and she knew Summer would be in a much darker mood if there were no way around the limitations. “What are our options? I’m guessing you have a plan.”

Rowe nodded. “Yeah, a couple, but you ain’t gonna like either of them.”

The idea that the key to finding James would be unpalatable didn’t rest easy with her. She was already struggling to remain objective.

“Let me hear them, then I’ll decide if I hate it enough to beg the Telvan for one of their codes.”

"First idea, wait around for the Telvan to fabricate one from scratch. Qadan says it will take two months, though." Summer smiled. "And he's
really
sorry. He kept trying to give me this string of pearls and apologizing, but I got Saara to talk him out of it."

Liao suspected he wouldn't have known. She shook her head firmly. "Not going to happen, Summer. We need this thing now. What's option two?"

Summer nodded, taking a breath. “I thought you'd say that. Basically, Ben still has his access code from the
Giralan
. It’s old, and we’re not sure it’ll even work, but we can hook Ben’s datacore up to our jump drive computers and get him to do the heavy computational lifting for us.”

Liao pondered a moment, tilting her head to one side. “Okay, so? That sounds like a perfect solution. What’s the catch?”

“The catch is, if he has full access to our jump drive computers, he has full access to the entire ship’s systems.” Rowe paused a moment, glancing down at Liao. “So, Captain, it basically boils down to how much do you trust it–him, Ben, whatever? With your entire ship.”

Trust was a strange thing. Ben had proven himself to be a useful ally in their cause, and linking him more directly into their computer systems could prove to have any number of unexpected benefits. Liao’s mind played over the scenario; it would dramatically increase their computational power, and his knowledge and experience would be an amazing addition to their ship’s capabilities. Having a sentient mind reaching into their computer cluster would probably have all kinds of unforeseen effects, both good and bad, depending on how Ben conducted himself. Turning over full control of her vessel to Ben was a risk, but it seemed like it would be an acceptable gamble.

Humans were odd beasts. They avoided so much risk in their lives just so they could arrive safely at their deaths. Some people lived entirely in a bubble. They went to a safe private school, they got their education in a safe field with plenty of employment, they worked a safe government job and took a safe, boring wife as their partner and produced safe, boring children before their safe, boring death.

Liao had chosen a different life. She could have been a
wealthy businessman’s wife, or a socialite, or even a high paid escort.
But she had chosen a life in the military and had worked hard to get where she was, and she had taken plenty of risks; especially since she had assumed command of the
Beijing
. So far things had paid off, more or less, and she had become accustomed to the idea that sometimes you had to roll the dice. Sometimes you had to assess the options, analyze
the risks, and take the plunge on an unknown.

She nodded. “I think, sometimes, you have to take a gamble. Ben’s shown that he means us no harm. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with letting him crash on the
Beijing
’
s couch, at least for a little while. I’m confident that he’ll be a very powerful asset for us, especially when it comes to getting us those jump coordinates. The
Tehran
, well, I don’t need to tell you how important it is to our military operations that it’s returned and her crew rescued.”

And important to me as well
, Liao mused privately.

“Okay, Captain, if you’re sure that’s a good idea…”

Liao smiled. “I’m not. Not completely, but I
want
to trust him. I want Ben to see that we’re not like the Toralii who marooned him on that planet, that we’ll treat him like a member of our crew, with all that the privilege entails. I really think our best chance to survive in this great big galaxy is to build up our allies. We’ve made some here, and we made one with Ben. I want to keep up our winning streak.”

Summer nodded. “A’right, Captain, as you wish. I’ll begin to make the changes immediately.”

Liao reached out her hand, gently touching Summer’s foot. She looked up at her chief engineer with a pleasant, relaxed smile.

“How about you do it tomorrow?”

Chapter VII

“
Progress”

Operations

TFR Beijing

Near Velsharn Research Facility

Toralii Space

Velsharn was stunningly beautiful, and the day passed far too quickly. Liao wished she could stay there forever. Get a little cabin on the beach, stay with the Toralii, and have her child. She would teach it to speak Toralii, English, and Chinese. She could borrow one of the Telvan scientists’ short-range shuttles and take her child into space. She could teach him or her science, art, military protocol.
Raise the perfect little child, all on her own.

It was an attractive proposition.
Although it would be scandalous, nobody would stop her, nor say that she hadn’t served with distinction, or question her decision to retire. She imagined the Telvan of Velsharn would be her companions.
They would treat her and her child well. Saara would probably stay, too, and there would be others. Some from the ship, some from elsewhere—from Earth, maybe. They could make Velsharn a nice home. She knew Fleet Command would probably brand her a traitor, strip her of her rank,
and have her arrested, but she allowed herself the daydream for a time.

But her life would be incomplete without James. She knew that even if she could stay on Velsharn, she would spend the rest of her life casting her eyes to the stars, wishing fruitlessly that James could be with her and their child.

There was work to be done, and wishing and daydreaming
weren’t accomplishing
anything. Fate helped those who helped themselves.

So it was with a genuine, fond sadness that she bid Qadan farewell, then boarded the Broadsword that would take the last of her crew from the surface and return them to the
Beijing
.

As the heavy gunship lifted from the large clearing that served as the launch point for the small craft, Liao moved forward to the cockpit, watching the blue surface of the island slowly disappear from view. She felt a faint sense of longing, as though leaving behind her home forever, and she cast her thoughts back to the very first time she had left the Earth’s surface for her command aboard the
Beijing
. She was filled with nervousness, excitement, and anticipation.

But not longing. She didn’t miss Earth at all. Some things, yes; the street seller on the corner who sold the most delicious dumplings she had ever tasted, the neighbor with the extremely rare breed of cat she would occasionally feed and play with, Earth’s sun rising at the dawning of a new day.

It was difficult to articulate just how much the visit had affected her, but the few days she had spent on Velsharn had felt more like home than any other place she had ever been. She felt as though she had finally found a place where she belonged. Something called to her from Velsharn’s shores, and she could not place it, but it was a welcome, attractive thing that made her long to return.

The blue sky out the cockpit window slowly faded to the dark, inky black of space, and Liao pushed such thoughts away from her mind. She had a job to do.
They had secured access to the Telvan advanced jump drive that allowed them the faintest hope of recovering the crew of the
Tehran
. She could dwell no longer on the beautiful planet she had just left. James was counting on her.

Ten minutes later, the gunship docked on the
Beijing
, depositing the last of the crew aboard the ship. Well after the dozen or so people crammed into the small gunship had departed and the craft had been parked, Liao remained in her seat. Her body was back on the ship, but her heart was still on Velsharn’s beaches. She felt that if she waited long enough, the squat, heavy space fighter would lift off again and return her to the surface.

Eventually, though, she unclipped her seat belt and stepped onto the cramped hangar bay. As her boots hit the metal, her eyes met Kamal Iraj’s. Her First Officer nodded her way, falling into step with her as she drew close.

“Captain. I trust your stay on the surface was a pleasant one.”

Liao gave a polite smile, answering with a deliberate neutrality she hoped wouldn’t betray her desire to return. “It was very restful, but I’m glad to be back. What do you have for me, Commander?”

He handed her a clipboard. “Well, first things first. We’ve begun the process of integrating the upgrade that Qadan’s people provided, but we are short a number of parts that we need to link it into Ben’s systems. The Telvan don’t have them on hand, and we can’t fabricate them onboard the ship.
Everything seems to be working just fine, but we can’t perform any jumps or even test it. Summer’s a little pissed.”

Liao frowned, examining the brief report attached to the clipboard. “I thought the upgrade Qadan gave us was just a single extra component? He didn’t mention anything about all these other parts. I guess he just assumed we had them or could fabricate them. Can we implement a workaround?
Or is there some other way we can get the jump drive to function using what we have already?”

Kamal gave a low chuckle. “To paraphrase Miss Rowe,
no
. But we have a plan.”

Liao raised an eyebrow. “Another
plan. Am I going to like this one any more than Summer’s half-baked idea?”

“Well, Summer came up with this one, too. Ben gave us the specifics and worked on the details, so if you’re happy to ignore the source
of this course of action, I think you’ll be content. The idea is pretty simple; we jump back to Karathi and take the parts we need from the
Giralan
.”

Liao regarded him, absently tapping the clipboard on the palm of her hand. “Well, we have the jump coordinates, and the planet’s abandoned. It wouldn’t be a big effort. But the
Giralan
is ancient and in terrible shape. How do we know those bits even work?”

“According to Ben, the ship has the parts we need. The Toralii didn't take them because they're common and easily manufactured, and he didn't think we'd need them. They still work.
He said he spent so long on that planet he had the condition of every piece of the ship checked and rechecked. There’s enough there to add in the extra part, although it’ll take some time to clean off the rust and to integrate it with our gear.”

She frowned. “I’m not entirely happy with the idea of mixing half-century-old alien technology into my ship’s systems. It’s one thing to lift a component wholesale and metaphorically bolt it on the side.
It’s another thing entirely to start mixing and matching parts. He
won’t like it.”

The He
was the
Beijing
. The ship’s ‘gender’ was set at Liao’s insistence. Tradition dictated that ships were always female; this was, she presumed, because most captains were male and ‘married to the job.’
Because of this, Liao insisted the
Beijing
was male.

Kamal nodded. “Summer says she’s up for the challenge, but I don’t think that woman believes she has any limits.” He paused as they turned down a junction, heading towards Liao’s office near Operations. “It’s good to see her starting to get back to her old self, though.”