Nine Imperial Days Later

“Crewmate Gwenn, you have a second?”

Lauryna sighed internally. It wasn’t that she didn’t have a second. She just didn’t want to spend it with him.

It wasn’t that he was bad. In her brief time on the Sandava, he’d been very pleasant. Hospitable. Federation hospitality, she thought, ruefully.

No, Commander Los seemed quite nice. But he was a Federationer.

Lauryna smiled, though, and said, “Of course, sir, what is it?”

Los shook his head. “Come with me. Best shared over a drink, I’ve found.”

“Sir?”

“I’ve had this conversation a few hundred times since I’ve been in the fleet. Doesn’t matter if they’re four rungs down the ladder, but…well, I do imagine my accent’s setting your teeth on edge already. So will you come to the lounge with me and really let it get annoying?”

Lauryna had stopped walking with the first officer for a second – just a second – and sighed as he turned. “I’m sorry, sir. I…it’s my problem, not yours. I’ll deal with it.”

Arna Los smiled. “Crewmate Gwenn, did I say that it was your problem? Dear, this ain’t my first veeball match. I know exactly why you’re worried about serving with a Federationer. Can’t say as I blame you, really – but I wanted to talk it over a bit, because….”

Los’s smile ran away. “Nah. I really…if you wanna worry about it, you go ahead. Hopefully I can show….”

“Commander,” Lauryna said, “I could use a drink. And I get the feeling you could too. Hells, we’ve barely had time to talk, what with getting everyone moved in and getting out of dry dock. Let’s grab one. If you’re willing to put up with my Orion accent, I’ll put up with your Federationer one.”

“Orioner? I woulda pegged you for Tannhauseran.”

“Grew up in Foidgamf, it’s right across the strait from Tannhauser Gate. Probably as much Tannhauseran as Orioner. You?”

Arna sighed. “Walak.”

“No kidding.”

“No kidding,” Los said. “Let’s grab a drink.”

* * *

Lauryna and Arna talked for a good hour before they got around to the topic at hand.

Lauryna found that Commander Los had a good sense of humor, and a quick wit. And they had something in common – he’d served with Ammera Tam on the Malanda Tenal, when he was fresh out of the Academy and she was the ops officer.

“She was tough but fair,” he said. “Not saying she didn’t ride me hard. She did. But the right way – pushed me when I needed a push. I liked her a lot. Not saying we were buddies or nothing, she was Ops, I was a rookie, but she was a damn fine officer. Terrible news about her. You must’ve known her pretty well.”

“Yeah,” Lauryna said, quietly. “I did. She was a very good friend.”

“Sorry,” Arna said. “If it’s hard talking about it….”

“Nah,” Lauryna said. “I mean, it is…but it’s just as hard not talking about it. I’m alive because of her. 34 of us are.”

“Ammera Tam would’ve liked that, I think,” Arna said. “Would’ve been glad her death counted for something. Not saying she wouldn’t rather be alive…but…well, you know.”

“I do,” Lauryna said, downing her drink. She stared down a long minute, before she sighed, and said, “So, was Ammera as bigoted as I am toward you?”

Arna laughed. “More. You know what the Federationers think of Hoplites. She was on her guard from the start. But I was used to it by then. You know how many Federationers are in the Academy. Be less surprising if I was a Tusolan, or a human.”

“You don’t seem to have the Federation attitude toward Hoplites,” Lauryna said.

Arna shook his head. “I’m not magical,” he said. “I grew up believing Hoplites should be given menial tasks, and that Avartle are nothing but furry pests, and Dunnermac should stay in the ocean, and Ler’ll rip your face off soon as look at ya. Grew up thinking Archavians were a bunch of stuck-up snooty prissy no-accounts. No offense.”

“None taken. We can be – well, the Aementi can be. The rest of us are usually fine.”

Arna chuckled. “Even the Aementi are okay, really. Naw, I grew up a stone bigot, and I won’t lie, there are still times I find my thoughts wandering down that way. Not on purpose, mind you. More outta habit. See a Ler and I tense up just for a quarter-second before I remember that it’s stupid to be that way. See a Jotunn and find myself thinking…well, let’s just say the color blue shows up in the thought process. Not proud of it, but way I figure it, at least I know when I’m being a bigoted felgercarber. That gives me a chance to try to fix it before I open my mouth and act a fool.”

Lauryna nodded, slightly. “It sounds like something Izzy said, about race relations on Earth,” she said, before catching herself. Too late, alas.

“Izzy? Who’s that? And how’s she know about Earth?” Arna asked.

Lauryna groaned. “Izzy is a friend of mine. She’s…she’s a human from Earth.”

Arna’s eyes widened. “A human from Earth? What’s she doing out here?”

“Very long story. And commander….”

Arna gave Lauryna a slight smile. “Don’t worry,” he said. “You call her your friend, I assume she’s smart as anyone. That professor at Tannhauser, Freeman – he’s smarter than me, near as I can figure. Probably lots of humans smarter than me, and if that’s the case…well, funny thing about being a recovering bigot is that you start to recognize it wherever it shows up. Way we treat humans in the Empire…well, it’s a lot like the way the Federation would treat the whole gorram Empire if it was up to most of us.”

Lauryna sighed in relief. “I appreciate that, Commander Los.”

“So will I get a chance to meet her?”

“She’s in stasis. Has a disease similar to malymono.”

“Maly…wait, this is the human who was on the Gyfjon, isn’t it? The one who was exploring Ibanez.”

Lauryna blinked. “Yeah. That’s…her name is Izzy Ibanez. It’s named for her.”

Los rubbed his eyes. “Shazbot, yeah, from what I’ve heard she was a real pistol. Damn near a member of the crew. Even dating the….”

Arna trailed off, as it all clicked. “Oh, gorram. Dating the linguist there. Crewmate, I am truly sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Lauryna said.

“As okay as talking about Ammera Tam?”

Lauryna laughed bitterly. “Almost. So commander, how’d a nice Federationer like you end up tolerant and respectful?”

“Got the frak out of there,” Arna said. “Hopped on a ship as a pilot, ended up running into a Ler at a bar on Zokal. My crewmates all wanted me to fight him, but hells, it was my fault, and the Ler – Ler just apologized. Captain fired me, said he didn’t want a gorram Ler-lover on the ship, and I shouldn’t let one of them run into me and get away with it, blah blah blah. I ended up staying on Zokal, studying for the academy exam, and meeting as many non-Titans as I could. And the more I got to know, the more I realized they were just people. Oh, they’ve got their ways, but hells, so do we, right? By the time I went back to Senedj XXII, I was a cadet recruit and I was amazed at how insular the Federation was. Couldn’t stay there. I go back, visit my family now and again, and I love them…but they ask me things like who cleans Ler-shaka off the decks, and I have to tell them no, they use restrooms like the rest of us…and it’s just….”

Arna shrugged. “It’s just lousy. My parents are both smart. Run a textile business. They’re loaded. Still want me to come home, bring Sulia with me and live there, and we’d live more comfortably than we do. But…I don’t want Tez to grow up the way I did. I don’t want her to grow up judging people by where they’re from or what species they are.”

“Or what province they’re from,” Lauryna said. “And I’m sorry, commander…I do believe that’s a danger no matter where you grow up. My apologies.”

“Forgotten already, crewmate,” Arna said, with a smile. “Forgotten already.”

* * *

Two years later

“Ma’am…I don’t…I’ve never seen this configuration before.”

Lauryna leaned forward in the captain’s chair, trying to see if they were looking at a Drazari ship. It was certainly possible; they were in the Drazar Limit Star 2 system, right on the border. But Lauryna couldn’t fault the tactical officer for being confused; the ship itself was unlike anything she’d ever seen. Indeed, it was hard to say for sure it was even a ship; it looked more like a H’Klatu Ocean Dweller than anything else.

“Mr. Leolerp, life signs?” Lauryna asked the science officer.

“I…ma’am, I don’t know,” he said. “It’s…the readings are bizarre. The system is trying to tell me that the ship itself is mostly carbon…but I’m getting readings of a hydrogen sulfide-nitrogen-sulfur atmosphere under tremendous pressure…no oxygen at all.”

“Ma’am!” Akrrtn, the comms officer, said. “A signal from the ship! On an amplitude modified wave!”

Laurna looked back. AM was extraordinarily primitive. Nobody would use it to communicate, unless….

“This is a novel species,” Lauryna said. “They don’t know us. They’re keeping the comms simple and easy to understand. On vox.”

The comms officer brought the audio up. There were a series of tones – one, then four, then nine. Then the tones were replaced by the sound of a boot being pulled out of mud, repeatedly.

“They’re talking,” Lauryna said.

“Translation computer has no record of this!”

“It wouldn’t. Condition Green,” Lauryna said, hitting a button on her chair. “Captain and First Officer to the bridge. Ms. Akrrtn, I believe we may be talking to the K’Gapti.”

That brought silence to the bridge. The K’Gapti were almost a myth. The Drazari had spoken of them as dangerous, and worse, confusing. Whether that was the Drazari being the Drazari, Lauryna didn’t know – but the information fit.

Captain Roror, fortunately, was almost about to come on anyhow; she walked out of the lift presently. “Relinquishing command, ma’am,” Lauryna said.

“Thank you, Crewmate. Sitrep.”

Lauryna explained the situation – fortunately, Arna showed up not long after. Soon enough, they were facing the possibility that they could be about to engage in first contact with a species that was potentially dangerous.

“Options?” Roror said.

“They appear weakened,” Arna said. “Their warp field is fluctuating. Not saying we should, but we could ignore them. That’s the safest route.”

“The safest route, but not the noble one,” Roror said. “Any ideas on how to communicate?”

“We know they know of the Drazari. We could try Drazari, see if they know it,” Lauryna said.

“Let’s try it. Crewmate Gwenn, this is your area of expertise; standard greeting.”

“Aye, ma’am. Ms. Akrrtn, open a channel, same mode and frequency as we just received. Unidentified ship,” Lauryna said, shifting into fluent Drazari, “This is the Empire Worlds Ship Sandava. We are talking Drazari as you may not know of our language. We mean you no harm.”

There was a long pause, before the channel opened again. “Yet you speak with the words of the liars.”

Lauryna bit her lip; this was no time for laughter. But she did reply, “I do, but only because I do not know yours. I have dealt with the Drazari, like you have. I would use other words if I could.”

There was another pause. “You use these words for a utilitarian purpose, then? Only to speak to us?”

“Yes, I do. If we knew your language, we would use those words. If you knew ours, you could use ours.”

“Efficient,” came the response. “Very efficient. There will be time for us to learn each other’s words, but not today. We are damaged, and we expect we will die before we get home. We cannot greet you, not yet. We are not authorized to.”

“They say they aren’t authorized to make contact, and that their ship is damaged,” Lauryna relayed.

“Ask them how we can help,” Roror said.

“We would assist you,” Lauryna said. “Why are you damaged? Can we aid you?”

“We are low on resonating crystals for our drive. And we cannot trade for them. We are not authorized to greet you.”

“Are these crystals made of Unbihexium?”

“Yes.”

“Captain, they need standard UBH crystals for their warp drive.”

“That would strand you, all right. Tell them we are happy to give them some as a gift, in the spirit of friendship.”

Lauryna paused. “Captain…I’m not sure they’ll understand that. I don’t trust the Drazari, but they have always said the K’Gapti are difficult to understand. May I try to communicate it in a way they will understand?”

“As I said,” Roror added with a grin, “Your area of expertise.”

Lauryna cleared her throat. “We would give you these crystals,” she said. “We would not have you die here if you could live.”

“We cannot trade for them or greet you.”

“We need no trade, and we need no greeting. We wish you to be able to return home.”

“Why?”

“So that you may tell those in your home that we gave you these crystals, and asked nothing for them.”

There was a long pause.

“To what purpose?”

“No other.”

“You would have us believe you desire nothing more than that?”

“We are not perfect. But we have just met. We would help you. It is the best we can be for you.”

“Intriguing. You are an intriguing people. Tell us: your smaller cousins. The ones who look like you. You have met them.”

“You know about the humans?”

“We know much more than you realize.”

Lauryna nodded. “We have.”

“Are they of your people?”

Lauryna swallowed hard. “Not yet. But many of us are working that they might be.”

“Intriguing. You are not ready. Not yet. But perhaps, in time, you will be. We question if the liars will be.”

There was a brief pause.

“If you are like the liars, you will not be able to live in our ship, and we will not be able to live in yours. Jettison the crystals, we will recover them. We will leave you something in return.”

* * *

Two hours later, the K’Gapti ship was heading back toward its homeworld, and the crew of the Sandava was looking at a small container the K’Gapti had left behind. Mr. Leolerp had it inside a sealed chamber, and was pulling pieces out slowly using robotic manipulators. The first was quite a shock – an image of a creature unlike any they’d ever seen, with multiple eyestalks and tentacles, and wings…maybe.

“Not a handsome race,” Leolerp said, continuing to go through the items.

“They would probably say the same of us,” Captain Roror said.

Leolerp paused when he reached one, a simple device with one button. He pressed it, and a voice spoke in Drazari.

“Next time, perhaps, you can use our words. I. Shh. Am. Shktk. K’Gapti. Cghulhu. Shktk’shh Cgulhu. Alive. Wnafh. I am alive. Shktk’shh wnafh. We….”

“It’s a primer,” Lauryna said, with a grin, as it continued to play. “A primer in the K’Gapti language. So that next time, we don’t have to use Drazari.”

“They don’t seem to like the Drazari very much,” Leolerp said.

“Well, join the club,” Lauryna said.

* * *

One year, eight months later

“Reporting as ordered, ma’am.”

“Lauryna, have a seat,” Aega Roror said with a sigh.

“I’m…hoping that I haven’t screwed anything up, ma’am,” Lauryna said; she knew her captain well, and Roror was not pleased.

“No, no, nothing you’ve done. You’ve been as good an ops officer as I’ve had, Crewmate Gwenn. That’s why I’m upset. Unfortunately, you’ve been reassigned.”

Lauryna ventured a half-smile. “Promoted to Navarchos Imperii, finally?”

Aega laughed. “Not yet. It’s really a lateral move – you’ll be ops officer on your new ship. They need an experienced one, and Grand Navarchos Zyn personally asked for you. Since he’s about two years away from being Imperii himself…well, not much I could say, though I said as much as I could.”

“I appreciate that, captain. I’m going to miss the Sandava,” Lauryna said. That wasn’t exactly true; she’d miss a few people from the Sandava. Roror was a good captain, and Arna was a good friend, but it wasn’t the Gyfjon, or the Tez. It was a good ship, but it had never felt quite like home.

“We’re going to miss you, Lauryna. But the good news for you is that at least you’ll be familiar with the ship. Bane Dagope has been promoted to exec on the Azaeya, and her ship is in need of an experienced ops officer.”

“Bane Dagope – she was on….”

“That’s right, Lauryna. I imagine you’ll be happy to go home.”

“Like I said, ma’am, I’ll miss the Sandava. But if I have to go to another ship,” she said, with a grin, “I’m glad that it’s the Gyfjon.”

* * *

One month later

“Permission to come aboard,” Lauryna said, saluting the deck officer.

“Granted, crewmate. Welcome to the Gyfjon, ma’am.”

Lauryna looked around the shuttlebay, and nodded. “Good to be back, Mr….”

“Saurim, ma’am, Jona Saurim. If you’ll come this way…captain on deck!”

“As you were. Sorry, Crewmate, running late,” Aertimus Bass said with a grin. “Couldn’t very well not greet my new second officer.”

Lauryna laughed. “Captain, you didn’t have to come all the way down. It hasn’t been that long. I could find my way to the bridge.”

“I have no doubt of that.” Aerti reached out his hand and shook Lauryna’s wrist. “Mr. Saurim, I’ve got the Ops Officer, dismissed.”

“Aye, sir,” Saurim said, turning back to his work. Lauryna followed her once-and-current captain.

“So, how was the trip?” Aerti asked, as he led Lauryna down a corridor.

“Well, you know, hitching rides is never as fun as it sounds. I will say, have you been on the Jidde? It is impressive.”

“Been on the Azaeya, and they are,” Aerti said. “They say that’s what will take the place of the Kuklopes-class, you know.”

“Nothing will take the place of the Gyfjon, sir.”

“Damn right,” Aerti said.

“How’s Eyrn?”

“Well…there’s a reason that I asked for an experienced ops officer. You think you can swing exec for a bit when I go on paternity leave in four months?”

Lauryna broke into a wide smile. “Congratulations, sir! I’ll do my best. How’s Poly taking it?”

“So far she’s excited,” Aerti said with a chuckle. “But she doesn’t realize she’ll have an actual little sister around yet. That may change things a bit.” He sobered as they reached the lift. “How’s Izzy?”

Lauryna shook her head. “Same as always, sir.”

“I figured. Assume you have her on you?”

Lauryna nodded, and reached into her pack, retrieving the frozen woman. Aerti studied her carefully.

“One of the greatest regrets of my command, Crewmate.”

“Nothing for you to regret,” Lauryna said. “She was thrilled. She was a member of the crew. And like any of us…she was taking a risk.”

Aerti nodded. “That said, you don’t lose an officer – not to injury or death – without wishing you’d done something different.”

Lauryna sighed. “Aye, sir. Even if there was nothing else to be done.”

Aerti nodded, and pressed the lift call. “Aega Roror was not happy to lose you, you know.”

“She said as much,” Lauryna chuckled. “Though the fact that she got Mija Haedta helped a bit.”

“Hated to lose her, but she’ll be an outstanding security chief for the Sandava.” The lift stopped, and the two of them boarded.

“Aye, sir, in the week we both were there, she was already looking ready to run the place. She’s going to end up as ops officer somewhere along the line, at least.”

“No question,” Aerti said, punching a button.

Lauryna’s brow furrowed. “Not going to the bridge, sir?”

“No, Lauryna – Lemm has the ship, and we’ve got some time. And there’s something more important we need to do first.”

Lauryna looked at the display, then down at Izzy. “We’re heading for sick bay.”

“Correct,” Aerti said. “Dr. Geen wanted to check on his patient.”

Lauryna gave just a flicker of a frown. Seven long years it had been, and there was no end in sight. Every day, she thought Izzy had been right not to want to be frozen. It had been so very, very long.

She got off the lift, and let the captain lead the way. Lauryna followed close behind, fear gnawing at her. What if he said it couldn’t be cured? What would she do? And…and….

…and what would she do if he said nothing at all? What if he studied her, shook his head….

How long could she bear up under this?

And how unfair was it that she even thought those words?

But as much as she feared going to see Dr. Geen, she knew that he was Izzy’s best hope. And whatever the cost to her…Izzy had to come first. And so she followed Capt. Bass off the lift to sickbay, a walk she’d made too many times, too many times indeed.