Warpath (53 page)

“I was wondering,
since this is one that can expand into a queen size, if you wanted to
pull this wall out?” Ayan asked sheepishly, pointing to the wall
with his small table against it.

He stared at the wall
blankly for a moment. That would get rid of his tiny hygiene alcove
along with its vibro-shower, a slender cupboard beside it, and it
would open his quarters up to the next, a space that was identical to
his. The conversion would take only a few hours, but he would be
occupying two of the best rooms in the ship beside the bridge.

“If you think it’s
too soon, you can just use the bed here as a wide single,” Ayan
said. “I just thought we could share resources this way, but if you
need your privacy, I’ll understand.”

He looked to Ayan, who
was staring at him expectantly and realized that she had been
assigned the quarters next door. “Yes, I mean, we’d both feel
like we had more space, and the fixtures that they take out with the
wall could be used somewhere else,” he said, sticking to the
practical side of things. “We’re not breaking the fraternization
regulation either, we’re from different departments.”

“How romantic,”
Ayan said, her enthusiasm wilting.

“I’m just thinking
about how the rest of the crew would take it, I have to follow the
same regulations.” He took her hands, she turned her head away from
him. “I just didn’t expect us to share quarters so soon,” he
said. Jake could see her fighting a grin and losing. “I’m excited
to see that we are though,” he said, lowering his voice. She was
drawing the awkward moment out to watch him squirm, so he set himself
to turn that around. “We’re going to have to have to improve the
sound proofing and anchor the bed frame to the deck really well
though. Oh, and we’ll need to install localized gravity controls,
maybe a few reinforced strap loops in the ceiling-”

Ayan laughed and
blushed, boggling at him. “What were you watching while you were
stuck in recovery?”

“I’m kidding,”
Jake said, “serves you right for putting me on the spot. Of course
I’ll share quarters. You just surprised me.”

She breathed a sigh of
relief, blushing nonetheless. “I don’t want to rush things
either, but I feel like we lost time, and it was my fault.”

“Don’t think about
that,” Jake said. “You’re here, we can take time together when
we can, and on the other side of that door there are much bigger
problems. A ship like this, a cause like ours will eat every scrap of
energy we have and stay hungry for more. Sharing quarters might be
the only way we can steal time, even if it’s only a few minutes
before we pass out.”

“I’ll take that,”
Ayan said. “And we’ll still take it slow, get to know each other
again.”

“That’s what I
want,” Jake said. “But it’s going to be a couple days at least
before maintenance can put our rooms together. I’ll put everything
on this wall on the list of available components for the build
they’re working on near the hangars, but those alert quarters for
our other fighter squadrons won’t get worked on for a bit.”

“That’s all right,
we’ll set up your bed for now, I’ll do mine later,” Ayan said,
picking up the slender bed frame and pulling the rods apart. Jake
took one end and held it out over the cheap mattress that was there.
The thin, membrane mattress expanded as Ayan drew her rod to the head
of the bed and anchored it against the bulkhead. Jake anchored his
end inside the sleeping alcove and let Ayan stretch the rod
width-wise, to match the modest sized mattress beneath. “I’ll
signal maintenance to remove this mattress,” Jake said, poking the
old one that seemed to fight him the night before. “I’m going to
sleep so much better tonight, thank you.”

“You’re welcome,”
Ayan said. “Pass me the blanket.”

Jake pulled a dense
sheet from inside the case. He thought the soft crimson material was
the lining of the container, forgetting that the Triton’s quarters
also made use of variable material bed covers. His memories aboard
that ship were surprisingly faint, but his recollections of the
amenities aboard that ship were just sharp enough to remind him of
what he could expect. Fully adjustable beds, blankets, pillows that
could be pulled apart to make several cushions or one big one of any
shape were faint, but still fond. Having that technology aboard his
ship would help morale immensely, not to mention that it was all
self-cleaning, heating, and the blanket doubled as a survival bubble
in emergencies. “I’m going to forget where I am when I lay down
tonight.”

“I think that’s the
point,” Ayan said. “Wait until you see my adult-sized swaddle
blanket, a going away present from Lacey.”

“I don’t think that
would suit my image as the tough and combat ready Captain,” Jake
said. “Maybe if I get quarters at Haven Shore some day-“ A beep
on the intercom in his quarters interrupted Jake. “Go ahead,” he
answered.

“We have picked up a
distress call through the wormhole,” Liara said. “It is from a
Freeground Fleet ship, within actionable range.”

“To combat stations,
red alert,” Jake said, passing through the hatch and walking
straight to his command seat. Minh-Chu was already on his way out.
“Good hunting,” Jake said.

“Thank you, this
looks good, Jake,” Minh-Chu said on his way off the bridge.

Ayan took a place at
the engineering station. “I’ll make sure our new shields are
ready to go and run them from here.”

“What does the
Admiral want to do?” Jake asked.

“Our orders are to
begin charging our emitters so we can open the next wormhole,”
Liara said. “I have the Admiral on now.”

“Put him through.”

A hologram of Oz
sitting on the edge of his command seat appeared in front of Jake.
He’d never seen so much suppressed excitement. “Jake, it’s the
Huntress, one of the new Sunspire class ships. It’s Captain Lawson,
I know her from the last time I served with Freeground, and she was a
Lieutenant then. We can be there in nine minutes if you can create a
wormhole to their coordinates as soon as we emerge from this one. Do
you think you can get the new shields running in time?”

“Yes,” Ayan said.
“I’d test them now, but that would destabilize the wormhole.
They’ll work though.”

“What are we up
against, Admiral?” Jake asked.

“Four destroyers and
a battleship with advanced interdiction technology. The Huntress has
managed to take out two of the destroyers so far, but won’t be able
to hold out without support. We’re forwarding all the information
we have to your tactical system.”

“Will we get there in
time?”

“We’re going to
try.”

“We’ll be ready,”
Jake said.

“How do you feel,
Alice?” asked a friendly voice she didn’t recognize. “I’m
Ando Five, Doctor Anderson thought it would be more appropriate if I
were here when you woke up, since I am a female model with medical
training.”

Alice opened her eyes
and sat up. She was in the bedroom of her own appartment in Haven
Shore. She was still in her dark vacsuit, but that was where the
similarities ended. “I was afraid I’d get these from Ayan, they
are going to be inconvenient,” she said, looking at her chest.
“Wow, my voice is so different.”

“You have physically
progressed through the most difficult parts of puberty thanks to the
transformation. To quote Doctor Anderson, ‘you dodged a bullet.’
By my estimation, you’ve flowered into a lovely young woman, if you
don’t mind me using the expression, and are fairly well
proportioned. You could have alterations done like any human, but
they’re not recommended.”

Alice took a better
look at herself and couldn’t help but feel gleeful. The boyish body
was gone, and she could remember what her first body was like
clearly, a memory she had difficulty recalling before. What she had
become was better than the grown woman she remembered the first time
she transferred her consciousness into a human body. She felt like
she was made of rounded corners and circles instead of lines and
boxes, but in no way weaker than that first form. “This is so
weird,” she said, closing her eyes for a moment. Her memories were
much clearer, her mind felt free again, able to recall the people
she’d known since she became a human being.

“Are you all right?”
the Ando asked.

“Just doing a head
check, things seem great,” she replied. Her mood darkened slightly
at the memory of people she’d lost and left behind. It wasn’t a
small number, and she’d have to find out if some of them made it
through the trials of the past two years.

“That brings me to
the next point of your current status. Your brain is in the optimum
state to develop new skills and adopt good habits that could last the
rest of your life. The framework left it in excellent condition, and
at an optimal stage.”

“But, is the
framework gone?” Alice asked, finding the sound of her own voice
strange, still youthful, but the tone had a much more musical quality
to it.

“All but this tiny,
inactive sliver of the framework was eliminated. I extracted it when
the procedure was finished, then healed the wound with regeneration
gel,” she said, holding up a small jar with a silver sliver inside.
“Would you like it as a souvenir?”

“The Governor can
have that,” she said. “So, who am I related to now? Did it turn
out the way he expected?”

“Yes and no,” Ando
Five said. “You are the daughter of Jacob Valent, and Ayan
Anderson, but with a distinct leaning towards Ayan. Genetic traits
from a normal combination of the two – as if they had you like any
child – are all present, and there is no presence of influences
from other lineages. A full body scan reveals that there are no
defects, which is slightly unnatural, but in a good way. Your ideal
image of yourself did change between the time your framework data was
copied by Doctor Messana and when your transformation was initiated
today. I’m afraid the difference in body shape and facial
structures could be more surprising than he anticipated. Take a
look.” The android projected a mirror image of Alice that was so
different that it startled her.

She had a mane of
ringlets that ranged from deep red to bright, flaming hues. Her face
was heart shaped, with big blue-green eyes, full cheeks and lips.

“Red hair! So red! I
look a lot like Ayan too, but younger. I definitely don’t look like
her daughter, more like her kid sister, but not a kid, definitely not
a kid.” She turned the hologram so she could look at herself
side-on. “Okay, I’m not as big as I thought on top, I can deal
with this. Everything matches, but I’ve never been cute like this,”
she smiled and blushed at herself. “I’m cute and curvy, like
really old poster girls before people got into the skeletal thin
craze. It’s so weird. I don’t know if I like it.”

“Judging by your
reaction – smiling, blushing, and other signs of excitement - I
think it’s likely you do like what you see,” the Ando said.

“Okay,” Alice
looked the image of herself up and down again, looking the image of
the young woman there in the eye. The full smile on that person’s
face was a mirror image of the one on her face, but it still seemed
to beckon her on into a new phase of her life. A life led by an adult
woman who had an infectious grin, and a face so much like Ayan’s, a
woman she had come to admire. To look like her, but still unique, an
adult, it was more than she could have asked for. “I’m a grown
woman again,” she said aloud, keeping the rest of her thought to
herself.
And I’m pretty,
she
thought to herself.
How could I
think I deserved to be so pretty, even subconsciously?

“By my estimation,
which is medically sound, you are equivalently between seventeen and
eighteen years of age. A scan of your body reveals that you are in
perfect shape for a young woman your age, and at your stage of
puberty.”

“Would you stop
saying the p-word?” Alice said, watching herself blush a deeper
shade of red. She couldn’t help but giggle. The sound was so
foreign, almost child like. “Why do I sound like this?”

“Your vocal chords
are on the small side for a female with your physical maturity thanks
to a trick of genetics. You will probably always sound youthful
unless you make an effort to lower your intonation, which is a skill
they can teach you at the Fleet Academy.”

“Wow, it’s strange,
but I feel lighter somehow, like a weight has been taken off,”
Alice said. “A really heavy one.”

“That does not make
sense, you are actually a few grams heavier, despite the difference
in height. I suspect you gained some mass thanks to moving things
along towards becoming a woman.”

“Nice, found your way
around saying the p-word,” Alice said.

“Do you feel ready to
stand?” Ando Five asked.

Alice swung her legs
down over the edge of her bed and got to her feet. She held Ando
Five’s hand for stability, but once she took a few steps, she felt
fine. “I’m shorter? Tell me I’m not shorter.”

“You are three
centimetres shorter, but I predict you will slowly gain seven more
centimetres over the next three years.”

“I grew sideways
instead,” she said, patting her hip. She hopped and landed on her
heels hard. “Okay, ow,” Alice said, crossing her arms over her
chest. “Going to make sure my vacsuits keep those strapped in
properly.”

“Can I come in?”
Doctor Anderson said from the opening door.

“Oh yeah, you have
explaining to do,” Alice said.

He came through the
door, and she gave him a running hug. “Just kidding, but seriously,
this isn’t what was advertised.”

“I was a little
concerned that there would be differences,” he said, practically
beaming at her. “I did a last minute scan of what your ideal mental
image of yourself was, according to the framework, and this was close
enough to what you saw in that copy to go ahead. I pressed on because
your subconscious mental image was constantly changing. For all I
knew, you could have ended up with the DNA of your best friend,
combined with that of a teacher. I didn’t think you’d mind.”