Across the Stars: Book Three of Seeds of a Fallen Empire

  “Why do you care so much about Erik’s happiness?”

  “Because!” Ho-ling’s voice approached a shout. “If it weren’t for you or Nathalie, I would have gone after Erik myself a long time ago,” she blurted suddenly.

  “Ho-ling—”

  “I knew I shouldn’t have told you.” Ho-ling sighed. “Look, it’s not your fault how you feel, but I can’t help the way I feel, either. Anyway, it doesn’t matter,” she said, exhaling loudly. “He’d never care about me, even if he didn’t love you. And anyway, I’m just about over him, now.”

  “You aren’t.”

  “Maybe not, but I’ve got a date.”

  “Don’t tell me—Lieutenant Davidson from the fourth bridge crew?!”

  “You must be psychic.” Ho-ling forced a laugh.

  “It doesn’t take much to figure out. He’s been asking around about you.”

  “Well, anyway, he asked me to meet me for dinner in the hydrogarden after his shift, and I finally said yes. I thought I didn’t really care, but my stomach’s been in knots since he left.”

  “You’ll get over it.” Erin said. “You always do.”

  “I thought so, too,” Ho-ling agreed. “But tell that to my stomach, would you? Erin—”

  “Yes?”

  “Will you take a little bit of friendly advice?”

  “What kind?” Erin asked, suspicious.

  “I know you don’t like talking about things you can’t solve, but this is something I think you know you have to do.”

  “Okay then, what is your advice?”

  “I think you should talk to Erik, or at least tell him how you feel. Sometimes a good confrontation clears the mind, you know.” Ho-ling said. “Though I can’t say I don’t wish you’d change your mind, for his sake. Either way, make a decision. Stop putting things off and give us all a break. Tell him he has no chance, and let him go or give him a chance!”

  “Ho-ling, I can’t love Erik, when I already care about someone else. It’s just not possible.”

  “Someone else?” Ho-ling said, intrigued.

  “You might as well know, I suppose.” Erin shrugged. “I’m still in love with Scott.”

  “Not—Dimitriev?” Ho-ling responded, stepping back in shock. “Nathalie said something about that a while back, but I didn’t think she was serious. Honestly, Erin, I never would have guessed. You two don’t even talk to each other. And he’s a cold fish, totally. Hard and cold. Not right for you, my friend.”

  “I know.”

  “Oh, Erin...”

  “You don’t think it will work out the way I want it to, do you?”

  “Honestly, no,” Ho-ling admitted. “But then I’m not him. Who knows how he feels.”

  Erin’s face darkened. “You’re probably right and I haven’t got a hope he cares about me at all, but—don’t you ever feel that certain things were meant to be?”

  “Do I believe in destiny?” Ho-ling didn’t laugh. She stopped to consider this, her brows knitting together. “Sometimes I don’t know, but I’m inclined not to.”

  “Oh.”

  “Random things happen. Chaos reigns. Entropy increases. You’ve just got to look at the statistics and figure out what’s going on and what’s in the offing.”

  “You may be right.” Erin conceded.

  “Erin, does he really mean so much to you?”

  “Yes.”

  “But how? Why, for the love of God?”

  Erin sighed.

  “How can you love someone and never say a word? Dimitriev’s just not worth it!”

  “You’re wrong, Ho-ling!” Erin cried, rising to anger. “Because he’s worth everything to me!”

  “Whoah—I’m not your enemy.”

  “I love every least thing about him.”

  “God Erin, you’re not being yourself.” Ho-ling stared. Since when did Erin ever feel anything, or so vocally!?

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re being so dramatic. Really, it’s unlike you. But—I’m sorry.” Ho-ling tried to be tactful. “I honestly didn’t know. I didn’t mean to say anything against Major Dimitriev, but you know I don’t want to see you with someone who can’t appreciate you. And you know he doesn’t ever seem to care anything particular about you. Honestly, I’ll never understand you!”

  “I don’t understand myself, either.”

  “Well, why haven’t you done something?”

  “I have. I told him everything.”

  “You told him?!” Ho-ling repeated.

  “I made a fool of myself. I confessed that I loved him. And he wants nothing to do with me.”

  “So then you gave up.”

  “And what else could I do?” Erin’s voice was strangely calm.

  “Nothing, I guess. But how can you be so cold around him, if you still care? I can’t imagine he’d ever suspect you still do.”

  “Well, Ho-ling,” Erin paused, sitting down, “I heard once that if you really love something, you have to let it go. If it comes back to you, then you can accept it with all of your heart. But if it flies away, it was never yours to begin with.”

  “Oh, Erin. It’s hard, isn’t it? Putting on a brave face all the time, when you really want to cry. Nothing ever turns out as you expect or want it to, does it?”

  “But there’s no time for personal tears, as Zhdanov used to say.” Erin said stonily.

  “Someday you will, though, Erin. You’ll cry. We can fool ourselves a long time that we’re too tough to cry, but there comes a time when each of us has to. It’s one thing that makes us human. Remember, animals can’t shed tears. There’s a reason human beings can.”

  “Well, I need time to think, now…” Erin said. Ho-ling nodded, and started to work on the room.

  A few minutes later, as they were tidying the room, an alert tone sounded, followed speedily by Colonel Kansier’s rich baritone.

  “All fighter squadron members and off-duty bridge crews report to Great Bay. Alien cruisers are attempting to breach electromagnetic shield near main engine thrusters with concentrated force. Dispatch all fighters to defend the area. Alien vessel detected at a distance of twenty-five thousand kilometers. We are firing anti-thrusters to decelerate for confrontation. Eleven minutes, sixteen seconds to stationary. Repeat, all fighters report to Great Bay for deployment.”

  * * * * *

  “Ah shit, my nerves are wracked already!” Scott gave a quick shake of his head.

  Dimitriev’s plane taxied slowly down the runway behind the last of the Maroon team’s fighters. Someone had suggested that he should remain behind with the other high-ranking officers, but the order had been given for everyone in the off-duty bridge crews to retaliate, and he wasn’t about to sit this one out. The fewer the number, the less likely it might be that the other fighters would make back inside safely, and the aliens already had an advantage in the superiority of their small cruisers and fighter planes.

  “That’s better,” he thought.

  Of course, the Discovery had to decelerate for battle, or else the slower Earth fighters necessarily deployed for its defense would have been left behind forever out in the vastness of space. It was a good thing that the alien designers of the Discovery had created such strong defensive shields and shifting hull plating, for the ship was an open target in the long moments it took to safely decelerate for battle. The only problem was that the Earthlings had no idea how long the shields would last, and if the Charon alien’s superior fighters would one day be capable of destroying the entire ship. There was nothing to do but stop and deploy the fighters to hold them off.

  Nothing to do but wait and see….

  Ancient naval strategy did not work in space; gone were the days when great battleships might make evasive maneuvers while their smaller ships fought off the enemy’s ships or tried suicidal runs against the larger enemy battleship. In space, there was the hunter and its prey; the chase never ended, but for these brief skirmishes when the prey was obliged to make use of its def
enses to secure an escape. Though both the Discovery and the Charon aliens’ mothership had strong shields and defenses, the aliens were using a beam to disrupt the Discovery’s shields, and each cruiser had to be picked off, one at a time, with fighters, as the crew hadn’t yet figured out how to operate the Discovery’s alien gun turrets and weapons systems.

  Moments later Scott’s plane arced around the Discovery, heading towards the bow where the aliens had launched their attack.

  Hundreds of Discovery fighters had engaged the thousand-strong, lightening fast alien planes near the engine port, all of space a dangerous web of blue and white laser beams. The dark metal debris of destroyed ships littering the area glittered in the pale light as it danced in and out of the remaining planes, caught in the weak gravitational field surrounding the Discovery.

  Short minutes of combat stretched on, and more Earth planes arrived. Though the Discovery squadrons began to outnumber the aliens, Scott still felt as though the enemy had the upper hand. After all, their planes were capable of disrupting an electromagnetic field; who knew what other tricks the aliens had been saving.

  Only one alien cruiser had thus far been dispatched. They were still attempting to breach the shields of the Discovery.

  Scott’s monitor signaled him when the blue and white squadron appeared. Heading over towards them, he wove back through the deadly net of energy beams and took out two enemy ships that had paused to concentrate fire upon a singular point in the electromagnetic field. The Blue squadron pairs began to fan out to surround the aliens and block their retreat. Scott waited until he spotted one of the fighters showing exceptional maneuverability.

  He checked his gauges; ah, it was Erin. Gradually, he worked his way closer to her fighter and helped her cut a line through the alien planes, defending her rear as she pushed forward into the thickest region of ships and laserfire. In a matter of seconds, she swiftly dealt death to the dozen or so fighters closest to the Discovery that had been trying to rupture the field, her laser beams perfectly aimed through the cockpits in order to be absorbed by the electromagnetic field, instead of caroming off the hull of the alien ships into space. Scott had observed a few of the Earth fighters who had destroyed themselves in miscalculating the backfire of laserfire off the highly reflective hull of the enemy fighters and small cruisers.

  Watch out, he thought.

  Then, without warning, the enemy shot through the ranks of the Earth fighters and into space towards the alien mothership, breaking off together as if one mind directed them. The speed of their retreat was too great for pursuit, and shortly, the Earth teams received an order to return to the Great Bay. Word arrived that the aliens were maintaining their distance. Scott watched his monitor as he formed up in the line back to the air lock; of the twelve hundred or so Earth planes that had been dispatched, one thousand and seventy three returned.

  Thank God, the aliens had retreated! Scott though in relief.

  Most of the squadron members were gathered at the side of the Stargazer when Scott stepped down from his plane’s landing ladder. The teams were watching the two small cargo carriers that were being readied to quickly collect the precious metal debris floating around the Discovery and bring it in for recycling. A moment later they were sent out, even though the last of the squadron had not yet returned.

  Scott headed around the area reserved for incoming planes and joined the teams waiting to help unload the debris. The rest of the primary bridge crew were discussing what Zhdanov intended to do with the metal fragments, and if they could be used to recreate more fighters if necessary in the future. As Scott approached, Captain Kolesar hailed him and began a conversation, conjecturing reasons for the sudden attack.

  “I wonder why they call off their own attacks when it doesn’t even look as though they’re losing the battle.” Said Kolesar. “They really are a strange bunch.”

  “I can’t agree with you more, but we’re lucky they retreated.” Agreed Dimitriev.

  Captain Kolesar had been too uncomfortable to speak to the younger officers, feeling himself out of place amongst their chatter, and had been scanning the room for any sign of an upper-class officer. Though Major Dimitriev was closer to the younger officers in age, Kolesar saw Dmitriev as a superior officer, and never really thought about his age.

  “I give us a year at most.” Said Kolesar.

  Dimitriev looked appauled. “This ship is tougher than it looks. We just have to keep away from them, not let them get too close.”

  “Well, at least we know that they are following us now and not attacking the Earth.”

  “I’ll agree with that.”

  A few minutes later, the cargo ship carriers returned, followed by the last ten fighters that had remained behind to protect the unarmed transport vessels. An announcement came over the intercom that the Discovery had begun to accelerate, and Kolesar excused himself and headed over to the unloading area to offer his directive assistance. Several minutes later, Scott turned his attention to the primary bridge crew and conducted a mental checklist, finding only a few missing faces among them.

  Ah, Shit! Suddenly he felt as though someone had kicked him in the stomach. His eyes bleared for a moment, and he found he had lost his train of thought. Around him, a few people had fallen to their knees, some were rubbing their heads as though they had been struck, and others wore the blank stares of confusion. Scott took a deep breath, but found he could hardly catch his breath.

  Then, as he looked around, he saw Erin Mathieson staring at him, wide-eyed, when the announcement came over the intercom.

  “Attention, crew. Discovery has just executed another jump through a wormhole gate. Please don’t be alarmed. All systems have returned to normal. Any crew experiencing unaccountable symptoms report to medical unit.” Zhdanov’s Ukrainian accent was unmistakable; Kansier was probably on his way to oversee the technicians assigned for recycling of on-board materials.

  Scott made a mental note to remind the Captain that the man needed to take some more off-duty hours and get some sleep. Dimitriev knew for a fact he had been awake at least the last twenty-four hours during all of the four bridge crew shifts.

  * * * * *

  “Any sign of our friends?” Zhdanov asked Lieutenant Amina Johnson, one of the fourth bridge crew radar operators.

  “No, sir.”

  “Estimated distance traveled?” Knightwood directed at the crew in general on the bridge, sending hands flying over consoles as each member of the crew attempted to calculate their present position along the known constellations and galaxies once charted from the Earth.

  “We have too much radio wave interference to get an accurate measurement. And we’re registering infrared activity off the meter—”

  “Sir, I think you’d better take a look at this,” one of the gravitational scanning operators spoke in a forcibly controlled, even tone.

  “What in the—” Cheung began, but broke off.

  Without being asked, the same operator had activated the device to retract the forward viewport hull plate that had been lowered during the previous battle.

  “Call Kansier,” Knightwood finally managed. “Oh my God, it’s a planet!”

  In the image before them, a planet rotated slowly on its axis: a haze of white eddies scudded across blue seas, and then through a break in the vapors, the features of a greenish-grey landscape appeared in the pale light of a rising white star.

  Vulgare amici nomen, sed rara est fides. Nothing is more common than the name of friend, nothing more rare than true friendship.

  —Socrates

  Chapter Six

  “What’s going on?” Ho-ling shouted. She, Erin, and several of the former Blue Stripes Sky Hawks and their friends were on their way back to their quarters when they passed an observation viewport. They had taken an elevation device outside the Great Bay in order to pass through the more scenic upper levels of the Discovery where several of the hydrogardens, observations ports, and relaxation lounges had been construc
ted.

  “It looks like a planet we’ve come to!” Someone said out loud.

  Several other crew members already stood frozen before the sight in the left side of the viewport. No report had been relayed from the bridge, and yet here they were unexpectedly in orbit around a planet of greenish-grey continents separated by channels of blue ocean. The team rushed to the window, watching as the view slowly rotated, divesting greater oceans and more drifting continents.

  Finally, Kansier’s voice confirmed that this was not a space sickness-induced hallucination.

  “Attention all crew members. We seem to have escaped our alien pursuers for the time being. Our navigators are still unable to confirm our present position, but our measurements indicate that we have passed into an elliptical galaxy. As many of you may have already discovered, we have been brought into orbit around what appears to be an inhabitable planet. We are now conducting atmospheric tests to determine if it is safe to dispatch a recon team. Primary bridge crew report in twenty minutes. That is all,” Kansier’s voice cut off.

  “How long will we have to put up with these kinds of sudden changes and occurrences before we get used to it?” James Mixsell sighed.

  “Hey, Erin, Kusao,” Karrin Chan called across the others, “let us know what you find out about the planet when you get back from the bridge.” Erin met her gaze and nodded.

  “We’ll meet those of you who can make it during the second shift tomorrow,” Kusao suggested.

  Erin stared out at the planet below, her eyes narrowing. As she focused on the large island continent that had just appeared, it seemed to draw closer to her. She perceived rivers flowing down the range of mountains that had captured her interest and the faintest texture of the vegetation that made the planet green.

  “Tired, Erin?” Ho-ling asked, looking concerned. “Don’t tell me you didn’t sleep during the second shift.”

  “No, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me—you’ve got other things to do, like getting ready to meet lieutenant Davidson for dinner, and you’ve only got twenty minutes.”

  “You’re right,” Ho-ling agreed. “Come on, everyone, keep moving,” she shouted, and the team moved away from the viewport towards an interior corridor.