Extinction (18 page)

“Attention on deck.” An attempt at
loudness was made but whoever tried was just too tired to get much louder than
the conversations around the room. It was still heard by all and a much weaker
attempt was made by every bruised and broken body in the mess hall to come to
attention.

“Cut that shit out!” the general barked.
“Get your asses back in your seats and don’t stop drinking your beer. You all
deserve a rest.” He paused for what seemed like an eternity. His tone indicated
they were about to be told something. The something that they had all been
waiting for.

The general continued much softer this
time, “You’re all going to need it with the shit we’re about to get into.”

A holovid appeared at the front of the
mess hall with images of planets and a star system that no one recognized.   

“You have all been briefed by your
respective instructors as to what has happened within the Coalition during the
past five years and the pains we have gone through to keep it secret. And now
I’m going to tell you what you don’t know. What we are going to do about it.”

Vengeance’s Pride

“Sir, they have accessed a door panel”, the
operations officer said to his captain. “The door hasn’t been opened yet.” He
paused. “But if they’ve gotten that far, it stands to reason that they might be
able to eventually.”

The captain’s disgust grew within as he
pondered what to do. He had orders to just observe. But now this? They could
not be allowed to enter that base. If they were able to access information
stored within it, it could shift the balance of power. “Send emergency traffic
to Supreme Command and request immediate direction.” It didn’t seem to him that
his communications officer was acting fast enough. “NOW!” he barked with a boom
that all the other officers on the bridge felt deep inside their chests.

The captain sat back in his chair. What
else could he do? Nothing, he told himself, with more rage and hatred growing
for the slugs on the planet’s surface.

“Emily!”

“What?!”

“Hurry up! We’re going to be late
for your flight if we don’t leave in the next few minutes.”

“I’m coming, Mom”, Emily said as
she came down the stairwell and into the kitchen. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to
make one last check of everything before we left. It’s not like I’ll be able to
head to the corner store and get some toothpaste once we get to the dig site.”

“Don’t worry so much. You’re going
to be with a lot of people who have done this before and will help you out if
you forgot anything. Now let’s go, your dad is waiting in the car.”

Once they were in the car, Emily
allowed herself to relax a little. “I hope this trip isn’t for nothing. I’m
missing out on some summer activities that would look great on my college
application”, she said aloud, but not having meant to.

“Look,” her mother began, “we’ve been
through this before; you need to relax and stop worrying so much about college.
You’re sixteen and have two years of high school left—you should enjoy them.
You’ll be fine. You’re a great student. I’m sure you’ll have your pick of
colleges. When your dad and I were kids, most alien schools wouldn’t even think
about taking human students. You have a whole galaxy of colleges to apply to.”

“I know you keep saying that but
it doesn’t make me worry any less.”

“You get straight As, honey.”
This comment was from her father.

“Yes, Dad, but so does thirty
percent of my high school. And with a last name of O’Riley, I’m pretty far down
the list when you put all of the 4.0 averages alphabetically. I need something
extra, something to make me shine more than the other kids once we start
applying to college.” Emily made a small snort. “Some of my classmates actually
already have applied and received early admissions to their first choices.”

Emily’s father punched in a few
commands to the car’s dashboard and let the autopilot take over. He swiveled
his seat around to face the rear passenger compartment. “Honey, a long time ago
some
colleges did care about extra-curricular activities and how much
you filled out your resume on their applications, but that’s not so much the
case anymore. With so many different species applying to schools throughout the
galaxy, it’s pretty difficult for them to sort out those sorts of things
anymore. They really tend to rely more on the placement exams, psych exams, and
all of the other admissions testing they do. They look at the data in those
results more than the person or applications themselves.”

“Maybe, but you never know.
That’s why I decided to do this trip. It might make history and that would make
me look good.” Emily crossed her arms and tried to look as if she was sulking.

Her mother took over. “Oh
sweetie, I wish you had a different attitude about this. Aunt Janine wouldn’t
even be going on this dig if it weren’t for you.”

“What do you mean? Aunt Janine
loves these things. She’s always telling stories about how they are the
greatest adventures of her life.” Emily thought her mom was trying to throw in
a guilt trip to get her attitude to change.

“She did love them, once. She’s
been teaching for the last five years and really enjoying it. When they called
her to head up this dig, she initially refused. They told her to think about it
some more and that they would call her back in a couple of weeks. They really
wanted her to go.”

“Why wouldn’t she want to go?
This is right up her alley. They found the ruins of a completely unknown alien species.
It’s her chance to make history. Again. For like, the sixth time or something
ridiculous like that.” Emily was now sitting forward, obviously more engaged
than before.

“Janine has been comfortable for
the last five years. She has been sleeping in her own comfortable bed. Eating
warm food that wasn’t from a dehydrated pouch. She hasn’t had to pick alien
fleas from her hair.”

“Eww! Mom!”

“Exactly. And that’s why she
wasn’t going to go on this expedition. She’s been comfortable and she’s also
satisfied with her previous adventures. She’s even dating another professor, so
she’s happy with where she’s at.”

“Then why is she going?”

“Because of you.” Emily’s mom let
that sink in for a moment before she continued. “Look, we didn’t tell you any
of this stuff because we wanted you to want to go on this trip for yourself,
for fun, for adventure and not for other reasons. Janine called me a few weeks
ago, just our normal sister talk time, and she was telling me about what’s
going on with her and stuff. When she got to the part about the dig and how she
was going to turn it down, I mentioned that it was too bad because when you
were younger, Janine had always said that when you were old enough she was
going to take you on a dig. You used to get so excited about that.

“We talked for a little bit more
and she decided that she would take the job if you wanted to go with her. She
thinks it’s very important for you to get out as a young woman, see for
yourself what adventures you can have and open yourself up to more than what
your little corner of the galaxy has for you.”

“I didn’t know. I’m sorry, mom; I’ll
have a better attitude, I promise. I really do want to go. I’m actually pretty
excited.” Emily started to feel better as she allowed herself to slip her
self-applied grumpy shackles. “I was just a little down because Shelly called
me this morning to wish me luck and she let it slip that she got early
admission to her father’s alma mater. But she is one year ahead of me and she
deserves it. I’m letting it go, though, all of it. If Aunt Janine is doing this
for me then I’m all in, no more attitude.” Shackles gone.

The family reached the airport
and took the transorbital shuttle to the spaceport. Once they found Emily’s
flight, they said their tearful goodbyes and Emily boarded, feeling more
excited than ever, now that she allowed herself to.

Two days later, she was onboard
another transport, this time with her Aunt Janine and the rest of the
expedition’s crew. This transport was so much better and faster than the first.
It was a private craft and a fairly expensive one at that. Janine explained
that the expedition was being staffed by people from ten different universities
and had at least four wealthy private backers.

“Thank you so much for having me
along on this trip, Aunt Janine!”

“No problem, dear. I’ve always
waited for the day that you could join me on one of my adventures.”

“You should have your own kids.
You’d be a great mother.”

“I never had time, and I always
had you to pretend you were mine.” Janine smiled warmly at her niece.

“Mom said you have a new
boyfriend.” Emily smiled back. “Maybe you two could have kids?”

“Ha! You’re worse than your mom
is!” Janine playfully pushed Emily’s shoulder. “He has a son already, eight
years old. Great kid, we have a lot of fun together. He was very jealous that
he couldn’t go on this trip. I think I’ll be happy with them as my family. But
if Steve wants another kid, I don’t think I’d be opposed to it. I’m just not
going to be the one to push for it.”

“Well, they are both lucky to
have you. I know I am.” Emily finished eating her lunch while she and her aunt
caught up on everything going on in their lives.

~

Three weeks later, Emily had all
but forgotten about college as she immersed herself in her work. Aunt Janine
kept her close by either herself or one of the four other senior specialists. Emily
was learning so much from each of them and was thankful she was given a daily
assignment rather than having to decide for herself where she’d spend her time;
she didn’t think she’d be able to choose between her five mentors if she were
forced to.

Janine was a woman of many
talents but she focused her expertise in the area of predictive xenobiology.
She would be able to build a profile of a species based on what she found at
the dig site. She could determine, to a fairly high degree of accuracy, almost
anything you wanted to know about the physical and mental make-up of the
species that left the artifacts behind. Though on this mission, Janine was
sought out for her leadership qualities along with her vast experience in
handling many other similar finds. Doctor Hillstep, a human who taught at a
Nortes university, was filling Janine’s role as the predictive xenobiologist.

Janine had tried to stay away
from Doctor Hillstep because she didn’t want him to feel crowded or as if she were
going to take over any part of his work from him. So she was delighted when he
asked her and Emily to join him today with a new chamber that they had just
yesterday finished making safe for cataloging.

“Thank you again for letting me
tag along, Doctor.” Janine was holding on the guide rope with one hand as she
followed Hillstep and her niece through the corridor.

“My pleasure Doctor, er, uh,
Janine. I don’t think I’ll get used to that. The Nortes are extremely
traditional people and I’ve been with them for quite some time now.” Hillstep
looked back over his shoulder to give a slight smile.

“Yes, well, with all the doctors
around here, it would get confusing if we didn’t interject a little
individuality into things.” Janine had told all of her staff to call her by her
first name. She felt that it engendered a sense of openness that would make
them more comfortable to approach her with problems or needs.

“Aunt Janine,” Emily spoke up
from the middle of the group, “Lance let me help set up the decontamination
area down here yesterday. We also were able to get four stasis crates tucked
away in an alcove nearby in case we find anything we need to haul out of here.”

“Good girl. Everyone has told me
that you have been a great help, especially Lance.” Janine gave her niece a conspiratorial
smile and a wink.

“Aunt Janine! Stop it!” Emily
protested. “He’s almost twice my age and I’m only sixteen anyway. I don’t think
Mom or Dad would like the idea of you trying to set us up.”

“Oh, dear, stop being so dramatic.”
Janine enjoyed teasing Emily. “I’m not trying to set you up with anyone. I’m
just saying that Lance is pretty damn handsome. He sure doesn’t look
thirty-two, especially with his shirt off.”

Hillstep stopped and turned
towards the two women behind him. “Janine, Emily is right. She is much too
young for Lance.”

Janine was taken aback; she was
worried that Hillstep didn’t know her well enough to be a part of this kind of
teasing. She began to feel very embarrassed for her behavior. “Well Doctor, I’m
very sorry if…”

Hillstep hushed her with a finger
in the air. “And Janine, you are correct about Lance. He does look good with
his shirt off, and I’m only
five
years older than he is. If you’re going
to be a matchmaker for anyone…” He let the comment and its insinuation linger
in the air between them.