Méridien (The Silver Ships Book 3) (29 page)

“Ready to get down, Terese?” Alex asked.

Terese eyed the jubilant Swei Swee dancing around Alex’s legs. “Despite this embarrassing position, Admiral, if you don’t mind, I would like to stay a moment longer.” She heard Alex’s laugh and felt his deep bass rumble through her rear. Her fear drained away, and she began to giggle over her reaction and her “rescue” perch. she received from Alex and felt him pat her calf.

The Swei Swee paused in their celebration and opened a corridor to a small cave under the cliff. A Swei Swee female crawled from the cave, her pace painfully slow. From her high viewpoint, Terese spotted the long crack in the upper carapace, the edges moving slightly. A pain of sympathy shot through her heart, and she wiggled to be set down. As if by command, she felt her feet touch the ground, and she raced over to the damaged female.

Terese sent.

Alex replied.

For the next half-hour, Alex arranged transport. The
Outward Bound
techs, Lyle and Zeke, brought a grav-pallet down to the beach. The humans carefully lifted the female onto the pallet. Terese wanted to manage the carapace repair aboard ship, but she needed to run tests on the Swei Swee physiology first. Alex had the techs collect seawater samples, which Terese could use to create a solution to support the Swei Swee’s breath-ways. Alex attempted to communicate to the First that they needed some fresh fish, undamaged, but all that the young brought had been speared. It was the matrons who caught on, and Alex soon had a basket with seawater and several fresh and very alive fish.

It took Terese three days to complete the repair. She could have done it in two, but her work would have left a seam. When she finished, the repair was invisible.

Terese coaxed the Swei Swee female onto a grav-pallet for the transport back planetside and kept her there for her own safety while crew floated her down to the beach. The poor female had injured the carapace years ago and had adopted a strange manner of crawling to minimize the motion of the shell’s halves. She would need to relearn to walk properly.

When the Swei Swee female climbed off the pallet, she whistled her triumph and a celebration ensued. The days spent with the female aboard the
Rêveur
had taught Terese that despite their fierce and alien appearance, they were extremely gentle.

This time, Terese didn’t panic when the Swei Swee surrounded her, snapping and whistling. She surprised herself by laughing and whirling in a circle with her hands over her head, snapping her fingers to imitate their snapping claws. Her implant was in record mode, and she thought of sharing the moment later with Tomas and Amelia.
Life is wonderful again
, she thought, and the last vestiges of pain over the loss of seventy-years in stasis slipped away.

The
Money Maker
and
Freedom
made their way to Libre. Throughout the events unfolding on planet, Julien continued to broadcast to the flotilla and prepare his ongoing summaries for New Terra. He was extremely proud of what had been achieved. The vids were his way of honoring New Terra’s famous son and announcing his small part in the events.

Alex signaled Tomas and had him ready a shuttle bay for delivery of two dark travelers.

Tomas questioned.

Alex said.

In the silence that followed, Alex could imagine the implant burning in Tomas’s head, possibly connecting with Cordelia, who surely had received the plan to take on two dark travelers from Julien.

Tomas sent.

Alex sent back.

Alex had had a prolonged communication with the Swei Swee leader and his First to express his desire to take two dark travelers. Once they understood his request, Swei Swee headed for two of the ships, and Alex was forced to stop them and relay the concept of waiting till later … an idea easier to think than express.

When the remainder of the flotilla achieved orbit, Alex returned planetside aboard the
Outward Bound
. The Swei Swee greeted him and his people when they descended the gangway ramp. Terese’s habit of dancing with the Swei Swee when they gathered round snapping and whistling had been adopted. Alex and his people danced in circles, snapping their fingers and whistling. The Swei Swee loved it, making even more noise. In moments, the festivities were over, and the Swei Swee disappeared back to their work.

The flotilla’s Hive First came to greet Alex, as was his habit. Communication between the species was improving with the help of the SADEs. More than once, Alex and the First had amicably walked the path to the beach and watched the females building the hatchling dome and their homes, which were embedded in the cliff face. A startling discovery for Alex was that their dwellings were not the dark silver of their ships’ hulls. They were translucent structures of blues, greens, tans, and whites, and were a feast for human eyes, most noticeably at sunset or at the crossover of Libre’s twin moons, when they glowed from the light’s refraction.

Today, Alex pointed to the two dark travelers, which had been left untouched. The other ships were in various states of having their shells stripped.

The Hive First whistled his commands, and several males and females came scurrying. He joined them as they hurried to board the two dark travelers. The females immediately began sealing up the holes in the shells.

Alex and Étienne boarded the
Outward Bound
and lifted off to wait for the dark travelers, which were soon airborne. The dark travelers kept pace with Alex’s shuttle as they headed for the
Freedom
. Captain Edouard dropped velocity ten kilometers out from the
Freedom
and eased into a bay’s catch-lock.

It was Alex’s hope that the single-file, one-at-a-time entry method into a catch-lock and subsequently bay would be familiar to the Swei Swee, as it imitated the prison ship’s recovery method for the dark travelers. When the
Outward Bound
was floated into the bay on a grav-sled, Alex and Étienne disembarked at a run to await the arrival of the dark travelers. After a few tense moments, the catch-lock recycled and the first dark traveler entered the bay, ignoring the grav-sled and choosing its own place to land on the deck. Alex and Étienne shared a grin … The fighter had power and therefore maneuverability even in a bay without endangering anyone nearby.

For the first time, Alex noticed a slight flattening on the base of the fighter, which allowed it to maintain an upright position on the deck. The females were already opening the first shell when the second dark traveler entered the bay and landed beside the first fighter. Once the Swei Swee had exited their craft, Alex, with a few gestures and whistles, prompted the Swei Swee females to seal one of the shells, allowing his engineers to have a completed shell to study. When the females finished, Alex waved the males and females alike to follow him as he climbed the
Outward Bound
’s gangway ramp.

While the Swei Swee worked on the dark travelers, several hundred Librans had come through the bay’s airlock, which accommodated twenty people at a time. Boarding the
Outward Bound
, the Hive First paused and turned at the top of the gangway ramp to regard the Librans. As one, the hundreds of Libran well-wishers raised their hands over their heads and snapped their fingers. The Hive First returned their farewell, raising and snapping his claws, bobbing up and down, and whistling his excitement. He turned and joined his brethren aboard the shuttle, hunkering down in the aisles with them and joining their conversations, whistling and warbling their impressions of the Star Hunters’ ship to one another.

Alex was careful to point out to Edouard that the dark travelers probably had extremely smooth acceleration and deceleration, and asked the Captain to give their guests the smoothest flight possible. Within hours, they were landing back above the cliffs along the Clarion Seas.

After the Swei Swee had disembarked, Alex felt a moment of sadness. He wanted to continue to get to know this unique alien species. He had to be satisfied with one thing he had done to maintain contact with them. Alex had ordered Julien to reposition the FTL station that had survived the Nua’ll’s earlier incursion into the system. It was moved from its hiding place behind a moon of the outer planet to one over Libre, arriving only a day behind the flotilla.

Alex requested the Hive First call the Swei Swee First. With eight eyeballs trained on him, Alex presented a small device housed in a waterproof shed that Lyle and Zeke had anchored to the ground. Alex pointed to the device’s hand-sized button under the thin, but sturdy cover. He whistled, “Swei Swee shelter. Sing Star Hunters. Star Hunters plus Swei Swee.” Then Alex smashed the cover, striking the blue disk beneath it. A whistle emanated from the small structure, singing “Star Hunters” over and over for several moments. His instructions resulted in the usual dialog between the two Swei Swee males, then both turned to Alex and bobbed up and down, singing, “Affirmative.”

As his farewell gift to the Swei Swee, Alex had the leader call all the people to the cliff top. Several engineers and techs had assembled a mini-comm station that could transmit to and from the FTL station overhead, but rather than a simple comm speaker, it had a set of the best audio-duplicators Julien could design and Mickey could build.

Once the people were assembled, the Swei Swee First whistled his acknowledgement of the Star Hunter First’s offering. Many of the People bobbed in anticipation, but Alex used his hands to gesture for quiet. Their Hive First intuited the gesture and warbled softly to the People. The hundreds of assembled Swei Swee quieted and settled to the grass, tucking their walking legs under them.

When all was whisper quiet on the cliff top, Alex sent,

Mutter had chosen to serenade the people. This was to be the Star Hunters’ farewell, even though as the anointed Hive Singer, she could now entertain the People from afar whenever she wished. Her song was melodic and soothing.

As Mutter sang, Alex watched the Swei Swee settle into a dream-like state. Even their ever searching eyestalks pulled back into their carapaces. He signaled his people to quietly board the ship, which had been deliberately set back hundreds of meters from the cliff face. When the voice of the People’s Hive Singer faded away, ending her serenade, Alex ordered Captain Edouard to lift off and return to the
Rêveur
.