The Terran Representative (9 page)

I’m sorry. I have to expend a lot of energy to reach out to you in this way. There are many smaller pieces that if they fall out of place will send everything crashing down.

“How much farther?”

Take the third left and you’ll be there. I have to leave for now, but I’ll know when you’re at the shuttles.

“Okay,” I whispered. I kept my head on a swivel as I continued down the hallway. I froze because I thought I heard a door open, but it might have been the air recyclers kicking into action. When I started moving again the hallway seemed to stretch out ahead of me like it was a reflection in a funhouse mirror. I started to feel a little woozy. My suit felt stuffy and confining, but I continued forward.

The third left came up much too slow. I knew realistically it hadn’t as the intersections seemed to be evenly spaced. It was my mind slowing everything down, stretching it out. Every knock, every ping, every creak magnified. The subtle flicker of a light or change in air pressure tickled at my lizard brain, warning me of danger.

When I turned the corner and saw the shuttle doors I breathed a sigh of relief to see no one standing there. Time caught back up and the world seemed to come back into focus. The knot in my stomach released and exhaled in relief.

Without my intervention the doors swung open on near silent rollers. The knot tightened, and I inhaled sharply: three Vantagax stood with their backs to me on the other side of the threshold.

“Shit,” I whispered then flinched and jumped to the side. I pressed myself as hard as I could against the wall wishing myself to be invisible. The guards didn’t move.

Quickly! Past them. My strength is waning.

The Hive in my head felt reassuring, and I pushed myself off the wall. I slipped around the three. They looked just like the previous guards: blank stare straight ahead, ramrod straight, and moving about as much as a statue. Sweat still covered my brow and my heart still pounded. I was glad that I didn’t have any heart issues.

Behind the canisters.

I ducked behind a pallet. The door slid shut, and the guards resumed moving. It was like they had been on pause then unpaused, resuming life without a hitch. The three turned and nodded to each other then separated and continued on to whatever duties they were performing.

I’m struggling to keep everyone away from the other four.

“Just keep them in their room,” I whispered. My hiding spot seemed to be out of the way of prying eyes. All of the crew members seemed to be going about their normal routines but keeping a wide berth from where I crouched. I wasn’t sure if it was The Hive’s influence, or they just didn’t need to come over here at this time.

I am, but it’s getting dangerously close to taking too long for you and your escorts to get to the holding cell. Braxa is to be called when you’ve arrived to begin your proper interrogation. She’s already sent out some runners trying to find out where you are.

I swore under my breath. If Braxa wasn’t so single minded and fixated on me this would have gone a lot easier. However, if she wasn’t so obsessed I probably wouldn’t have been in this mess to begin with.

“What do I do?” I said.

Get as near to the shuttle bay doors as you can. When they open them up you’re going to jump out.

“What?” I said. I hoped The Hive could pick up on the anger conveyed in my voice. If they couldn’t I was sure they’d pick up on it in my overall thoughts. “Why don’t you just beam me over to your ship?”

You don’t have a beacon.

I swore under my breath at forgetting that little fact.

Besides, even if I could Braxa’s ship would pick up on it. I don’t want to be spotted. Getting shot at is not part of this operation. Now move towards the shuttle bay doors. I’ll try to help you, but it’s going to be mostly up to you now.

Muttering to myself I began slinking along the wall. Shadows concealed most of my movements but every so often I’d freeze. A Vantagax crew member would start to head towards my spot but every time they got within a couple of feet they’d stop, spin on their heel and continue in a different direction. The first time I thought it was coincidence, but when it happened a couple more times with the exact same motions I knew it was The Hive. I wondered if they’d let me buy them a beer when this was all over.

I crouched behind what looked like some kind of large chest bolted to the floor. It had a flip-top locked and secured. Between it and the shuttle bay doors was empty space.

“I can’t get any closer,” I whispered, peeking over the top of the box.

Check to make sure your suit is locked down. You’re going out into the vacuum.

I ran through the diagnostics. “I just came in from the vacuum,” I said. “How many damn times do I have to be sucked into space?”

The atmosphere is going to be vented, and the doors will be opened before a shuttle takes off. Any crew members not in suits will be moved from the space.

“Like jumping out of a moving car,” I said. “Just make sure to hit the ground rolling.”

An image of an empty escape pod firing from Braxa’s ship entered my mind. The pod flung away from the ship before being shot and turned into nothing but slag. The shuttle bay doors opened and I ran out, pushing myself away from the ship. A shuttle then left the bay and examined the small debris cloud while I was brought in from space onto a different ship.

Do you understand the plan?

I nodded. A small vibration rumbled through the floor of the ship: the escape pod. The klaxons sounded and the warning lights flashed as I felt the now familiar tug of atmosphere being pulled out of the room. Crew members streamed from the shuttle bay as a gangway pulled away from one of the shuttles. With the atmosphere gone the shuttle bay doors opened in spine rumbling silence. The blaring klaxons stopped but the warning lights continued.

There was no one on the shuttle bay floor. I was alone with my thoughts at the moment as I wasn’t tuned into the Vantagax radio channel. The doors finished sliding open as I took a quick glance back at the shuttle. It didn’t have any windows, and as far as I could tell there was no activity on board. Hopefully they were going through a pre-flight checklist. Whenever I’d been on the Confederacy shuttles they’d been ready to go as soon as we got on. I didn’t know what went into the pre-flight work.

I turned from the shuttle, trying to push it out of my mind. If they were going to see me they were going to see me. I tried to control my breathing. My hands opened and closed into fists. I leaned forward in a half-hearted attempt at a runner’s stance.

Go! Hurry!

I took off at a sprint. My suit’s motors whined and whirred as I moved. The edge came closer and closer. I pumped my arms as fast as I could. I willed my feet to dig into the metal as much as they could for maximum traction. The stars and the blackness loomed into view and like a missile I launched myself into the vacuum.

I tried not to think about leaping from a ship going who knows how fast and attempting to land on another. I didn’t even know where The Hive was. I assumed they were close, and I assumed I wouldn’t have to wait very long, but as this point I started to regret not asking them.

My suit’s cameras focused on Braxa’s shuttle. The grainy feed enhanced and displayed the small ship. The shuttle ran out to the debris field of the escape pod circled a few times and headed back into Braxa’s ship. The shuttle bay doors closed and then the ship was gone. One second it was there. The next it disappeared. I gasped, never having seen anything enter FTL.

I continued with my arms as my sides, feet out behind me. My destination was unknown, but it felt right to stay in my current position. Something about it screamed special agent. I suppose I’d watched one too many movies as a kid.

A proximity alarm went off in my suit. The cameras panned and fixated on something being destroyed. A brief flash of light tore through it, and the object burst into a multitude of little pieces.

Don’t be alarmed. That was me. Braxa left some traps behind.

I let out a sigh of relief. “You’re still around.”

Yes.
Another proximity warning went off.
I’m going to bring my ship around.
An image of me gliding through open cargo doors scanned through my mind.

“Fine,” I sighed. My suit pinned The Hive’s ship as ahead of me and highlighted it on my HUD. I flipped myself around so that my feet would enter first.

Braxa left behind some sensors. It appears that while she is anxious to find Kaur she is still covering her bases regarding you.

The ship grew larger in my screen, and I realized that the image was zoomed. I walked the image out and saw how small The Hive’s vessel was. My suit told me it was about half the length of the
Omanix
and had about half the crew. With the height and size of each of The Hive’s members I guessed it was going to be a tight fit onboard.

“Is there room for me?” I was worried I’d have to crawl on my hands and knees or be hunched over the entire time.

The Hive sent an image of me sitting against a wall. The ceilings were fairly tall. Cargo storage crates were stacked around the room. A bed hung from one of the walls. A member of The Hive came through a door with a tray of food that it handed to me.

“So I’m going to have to stay in the cargo hold?” I said.

Yes. Sorry. I specifically designed the ship for myself. If other beings are going to be on board regularly I tend to use retrofitted ships that will accommodate them.

I sighed and watched the ship grow closer. Hopefully there would be some kind of entertainment on board. Who knows how long I would be stuck on it. Who knows where we were going. I became aware of the fact at that moment I wasn’t sure why The Hive had helped me escape. As far as I knew The Hive weren’t involved in the Confederacy and Vantagax war.

“Why are you doing this?” I said. I knew The Hive would understand what I meant.

An image of Mars appeared. A small shuttle took off from the planet’s surface. A large skyscraper appeared in orbit and shot the shuttle. Its wreckage spiraled back down through the thin atmosphere towards the surface. Another ship, one that looked almost identical to the one I now found myself heading towards, attempted to break orbit but was destroyed itself a few minutes later.

“Braxa,” I said.

Correct. I stayed behind to collect more data after the Omanix had left. Braxa has been nipping at your heels almost the entire time.

The Hive’s ship loomed close. Its cargo doors were open like a gaping maw. I saw small figures scurrying around inside the cargo area. They were moving crates and containers out of the way. Flood lights flashed on and illuminated the inside. My visor darkened in response to myself being illuminated.

Don’t move. Just continue as you are.
I saw myself land in a large net with members of The Hive untangling me as the doors closed.

It happened just as The Hive showed me.

“Thank you,” I said to the nearest member. Its antennae wiggled around, but it didn’t respond. I shrugged and looked around.

Members of The Hive scurried around the room. They were punching away at things on screens set in the walls or checking harnesses on the cargo crates or a multitude of other, individual tasks. I stared in wonder at how one mind could control what happened here and on who knows how many other places around the galaxy. The only way I could rationalize it was that each member was like an organ. I didn’t have to tell my heart to beat or my lungs to take in air. I also didn’t ask them pilot a starship.

“Are we going back to The Confederacy?” I said.

The member I thanked had gone off on its own, entering something into a hand terminal as it stood near the cargo doors. Another walked up and stood in front of me. “No,” it said. “We’re going after Braxa.”

I almost choked in surprise. After all I’d just been through getting away from Braxa, and The Hive was taking me right back. “Why?”

“I, and by proxy The Confederacy, need to see if the heavy particle theory is correct in predicting the appearance of the Terran colonial fleet,” said the member. “Braxa being there is an unfortunate happenstance, and while I am pleased we were able to save you from her grasp, we have fallen far behind her.”

I sighed. It shouldn’t have surprised me we’d continue after Kaur. It seemed like every space faring species or group had the single minded goal of finding the Terran colonists.

“Okay,” I said to no one in particular because the member I had been speaking with had gone off somewhere, “I’m on board.”

The Hive wasn’t a very good travel companion. I sat in the cargo hold for a few days without holding a substantial conversation. It seemed like everything ran on autopilot while we traveled. The members that I saw moved like their feet were encased in lead. Their heads hung low, and their antennae barely moved.

I found some kind of single player card game buried in my suit’s programs. There was a tutorial that explained how to play by simple visual mechanics. It helped alleviate the boredom of either pacing around the cargo hold or trying to strike up a conversation with The Hive, but after near nonstop playing it too grew tiresome. The cargo hold started to feel like it was a prison.

On the third day of travel the member that brought me my dinner had what could best be described as a bounce in its step. It moved with purpose, bee-lining to me when it came through the door. It handed off the food pouches without fumbling, antennae moving in a fervent manner.

“We’ve dropped out of FTL,” said the member as I ate. “We picked up Braxa’s ship but no Kaur.”

I nodded and slurped my food. It didn’t taste like anything and had the consistency of a well mashed banana. The Hive told me it was a simple nutritious paste it kept on board ships in case a species needed sustenance.

“What about the heavy particles?” I said.

“Their volume has increased,” said the member. “We’re confident that Kaur is going to be coming through.”

I felt a tingle travel up my spine like someone ran an ice cube up my back. It made me shimmy in discomfort. After all of this effort in order to find the colonists and we were one step away from the goal. The whole situation though seemed like the dog that chased cars; what would it do once it finally caught one?

“What’s Braxa doing?” I said.

“Sitting there,” said the member. “She’s broadcasting a looping message towards the source of the particles. Would you like to see it?”

The Hive didn’t wait for my response. It already knew that I did before I could vocalize it.

A small video popped up in the corner of my HUD. I enlarged it to see Braxa from the waist up in freeze-frame. She stood alone in front of a bulkhead that could have been almost anywhere on the ship. Her uniform looked ceremonial with large epaulets and medals hanging from her chest. It was definitely not the one I’d seen her in before. I started the video.

“Terran Colonists,” said Braxa. Her voice was even keeled and as calm as I’d ever heard her. “I am General Braxa of the Vantagax Republic. You have entered into disputed territory. The Republic wishes you no harm, but we shall know your intentions.

“If you have sided with The Confederacy you have declared war on the Vantagax Republic. If you refuse to side with the Vantagax Republic you have declared war on the Vantagax Republic. If you decide to join us,” said Braxa as she held her arms out wide, “the Vantagax Republic welcomes you with open arms. I await your answer.”

The video looped and began again. I stopped it and closed the window.

“So you’re at war with the Vantagax Republic, eh?” I said.

The member nodded. “This ship is unable to stand against Braxa’s current ship. We will stay silent and out of the way.”

A new video feed appeared in my HUD. I opened it and saw Braxa’s ship. A fortuitous angle had a moon behind the ship, the moon’s planet behind that and the system’s star glowing behind all of them. Nothing appeared to be happening.

“How come Braxa’s not picking us up?” I said.

“I am proficient in cyber warfare,” said The Hive member. “There is remnant programming from our earlier encounter that hides my ship from Braxa’s sensors. It isn’t foolproof. If they looked hard enough they’d see a dead spot in their sensors, but I’m counting on them not looking.”

The member’s antennae were going crazy. The little creature wobbled and fell to one knee. Before I could help it stood up but held its head.

“I think,” it said, noticeable hesitation in its speech, “I think something is coming through. My connections are being interfered with.”

I tried to concentrate on the video feed and The Hive member at once. “Are you going to be okay?” I said. Being adrift in a ship I couldn’t control with a brain dead crew didn’t seem like a very appealing situation.

The member nodded and said, “I’m feeling the tapping on my shoulder again.” It turned and had to steady itself by using a nearby cargo container. “I have duties to attend to.” The member stumbled and dragged its feet as it walked, keeping one hand along a vertical surface at all times before it left the cargo bay.

My heart pounded in my chest. The beating in my ears drowned out any other noises. I forced myself to breathe. The muscles in my neck and back tightened and ached. My hands were balled into fists. My toes curled and gripped the inside of my suit. Time continued to move at a snail’s pace. The seconds dragged on stretching into minutes. I focused on the video feed trying to will Kaur to come through.

A crackle of lighting erupted past Braxa’s ship, emanating from an area of empty space.

I peered closer. My eyes narrowed into a squint. I couldn’t zoom in on the feed, so I had to be content with what I had, but I had definitely seen something.

Another crackle.

This one was larger. It spider webbed out from a central point. The feed zoomed in, so The Hive must have seen it. Braxa’s ship didn’t move.

The crackling started to radiate out. Its tendrils reached in different directions. Some jumped out and hit Braxa’s ship, arcing along the surface. They didn’t move from high point to high point; they moved as a living entity exploring an object.

The central point of the crackling began to expand. A single dot started to blot out the stars. The crackling pulled it open. The darkness of the point was the complete absence of light. It seemed to suck up any illumination that went near it. The world around its edges lost any color and turned shades of grey before being snuffed out. It filled me with a primal fear that I had never experienced before, but I couldn’t turn away. Something in the back of my brain told me to run. It told me to turn and not look back. Get the hell out of there and never return. This was a most certain death.

I fought back the urge and stared in rapt attention as a ship began to emerge bit by bit from the darkness, but it didn’t come from darkness like something coming out of the shadows. There wasn’t a gradient where one started to see the object, and it became easier to see as it issued into the light. When the ship came out it came from the flat blackness like a curtain parted just enough to see it come from backstage.

The ship looked like nothing I’d ever seen before. It had lumps that looked like growths protruding off the sides. In some places there was the obvious structure of a Terran ship, but in others it had angles and degrees I didn’t think were possible. Pieces of it waved together like seaweed in the ocean’s currents. Some pieces darted out independent of anything else, curling its end, grabbing. After it had fully emerged it dwarfed Braxa’s ship. In all of the pictures that I’d seen there were no colony ships that large.

Smaller ships shot out from the black portal behind the flagship and zoomed in long, lazy arcs as if they were recently freed dogs let out in the yard. One was snagged by the flagship and pulled in. It was slapped onto the side and disappeared into the structure. Clouds of small, shuttles zipped back and forth. Pinpoints of light showed where they ran into each other and their reactor material ignited.

The Hive zoomed in on a few of the smaller ships. They didn’t have the growths or the protuberances to the degree of the largest ship, but their shapes were still off in a way. Sections jutted out or inward in ways that should have made them structurally unsound. I didn’t know how they were maneuvering.

The ships are alive.

“What?” I said. “How do you know?”

They’re biological ships. They’re probing, looking for susceptible minds. Combine that with whatever is still on the other side, and it’s taking all of my willpower to hold them at bay.

“How are they alive?” I said.

The Hive didn’t say anything for several beats.

I don’t know.

I stopped focusing on the video feed of the ships. Something was tickling at the edge of my consciousness. It felt like my inner voice trying to get my attention. It poked at me and prodded. Something had to be said if only I’d listen. There were important things I needed to give my full attention to. The ships could wait. Braxa could wait. I needed to confront the situation right now.

Come back!

I focused on The Hive’s voice. It was a life line in the thought storm. I let out my breath and gulped. It had been so easy to give in and listen. The thoughts seemed like my own even when I knew they weren’t. They’d been so insistent and urgent that they needed to be attended to. I knew what was going on and had almost fallen down the rabbit hole. It must have so easy for Kaur to get in over her head.

“Thank you,” I said and focused back on the video feed.

Find something to concentrate on that isn’t your own thoughts. At first it’s like a bad song; they’ll be stuck in there. You won’t be able to get them out. Easy to slip away.

More ships had come through the portal. The larger ones hovered around the flagship. The smaller ones continued to roam around. The shuttles circled and buzzed around Braxa’s ship. None of them had ventured out to where we sat watching.

The looping video feed of Braxa’s demands ended. Another feed popped up. It was Braxa dressed in the same uniform. She stood at some kind of console with another crew member sitting to her left. He punched at something in front of him that was just off camera. His gaze darted from his work to the camera and back again in rapid succession.

Braxa cleared her throat. She puffed out her chest and ruffled her feathers. With a quick shake they sat back down again before she spoke. “Terran Colonists, you have entered into disputed territory. I am General Braxa. As acting representative of the Vantagax Republic I demand to know your intentions.”

Nothing seemed to happen. Braxa stood still and straight. I could tell her mood soured from the look on her face; it was the same one I’d seen firsthand before. Her beak clacked just enough to be heard on the feed. She opened to speak when the lights on her ship went out.

Shouting and confusion reigned over the feed. The commotion overwhelmed the microphones at times, creating a high pitched whistle of interference. Someone had found emergency flashlights and was shining them around. The cones of light played quick snippets out of the dark of terrified faces and crew members running to and fro.

The feed went down.

Braxa’s ship has lost power.

“How?” I said.

I don’t know. They’ve sent out a distress call. I’m sending all information I have to the Confederacy.

A new feed appeared on my HUD. It expanded to full screen and popped to life. I squinted, trying to make out what it showed. It looked like fog or smoke rolled across the screen. A yellow light flashed once every few seconds just off camera. The sound of something dripping onto metal echoed around the video room.

The view shifted and blurred as the camera was turned. My inner ear went haywire, and I felt sick to my stomach as I watched the feed. The tapping at my brain had begun again when the feed went live. I tried to focus on what I watched to block it out but at the same time I noticed a deep, constant hum resonating through my body. It wasn’t part of The Hive’s ship. The video feed seemed to emanate it.

The camera stopped moving and focused on a figure from the waist up. I gasped then snapped my mouth shut hard enough that my teeth clicked. It was a human.

Its body was gaunt: all skin and bones. When it moved I could see tendons pulling and dancing under the pale hide. Symbols were etched into its face and down its neck. They bled and wept yellow-brown, chunky fluid. Its head was shaved with bits of scalp peeling off like old wallpaper. Ears were bloody stumps. Eyelids forced their way over cloudy, yellowing, dripping eyes every time it blinked. Its mouth looked soldered shut: lips melted together into an angry, infected mass of flesh and pus. What had once been clothes were now tatters that looked fused to scarred flesh.

“I am Admiral Kaur,” it said. Her voice, wet and phlegmy, came over the feed, but how she spoke I didn’t know. “We have come to pay our debts.”

Kaur’s appearance made me nauseous. How someone could survive in that state and be functional confounded me. I imagined the smell she gave off, and it sent another wave of nausea through me. It took looking away from the feed plus all of my willpower to not vomit.

“We have come through the Veil to free our benefactor’s kin,” said Kaur. Her eyes didn’t look at the camera, yet I could feel her gaze boring into me. It burned in my chest and seared into my thoughts. “If you stand against us your reward will be endless suffering for the pleasure of our benefactor. If you stand with us,” Kaur said, her cheeks crinkling into what I guessed could have been a smile, “your reward will be the pleasure of endless suffering for our benefactor.”

Kaur’s feed closed, and the external feed from The Hive’s ship popped up again. Kaur’s shuttles began to land on Braxa’s ship. Some impacted into the sides. They came in hard and fast without trying to pull up for a landing. Tracer fire arced from Braxa’s ship, but most shots missed their targets, speeding out into endless space. The occasional shuttle was hit but the larger ships looked unaffected by the fire.