Embarkment 2577 Read online

  He flashed a smile. “Just tools. Want to come with me?”

  I most certainly did. This black hole was worthy of investigation. Especially if it was on the verge of breaking free and eating me.

  I played cool through the corridor, putting up a face of, “I’m on my way to do something important.” When we reached the lift and it was empty, I dropped the act and tucked my hands around Adam’s arm. “Is this dangerous?”

  “No. If it was dangerous I wouldn’t bring you. I just thought you wanted to see it.”

  *****

  My friend Jia’Lyn, second in command and head of Engineering, met us right outside the door. She was the first alien I met who didn’t freak me out, even though she was tall, blue, beautiful, and sported silvery snakes for hair. The first time I saw her, I thought she must be the mythical Medusa.

  “I don’t know what’s going on in there, but it seems to be okay now. Weird.”

  I shifted my weight from foot to foot and tried to peek around Adam as the door slid open. I expected a glittering transparent bubble with a tiny dot in the center. In my imagination, the containment field would look like a giant soap bubble, shimmering with mystery and hinted colours. The device on the other side of the door wasn’t anything like that.

  A large metal sphere stood in the middle of the room. It was surrounded by pylons, and there were tubes and wires everywhere. I couldn’t hold back a sigh of disappointment. “Oh. You don’t get to see it.”

  Jia’Lyn watched a computer screen, but her snakes peeked over towards me. “You’re not missing anything. It’s darkness, surrounded by whirling plasma.”

  “How…” I trailed off and made a dismissive gesture. They could explain how that metal construction worked and how the black hole generated enough energy to propel the enormous ship until I fell over dead from old age. I still wouldn’t get it.

  Adam held up the Toyota Avensis that wasn’t anything like a Toyota. Green numbers flew over a black screen. It resembled a miniature version of an Earth computer from 1973. “Nothing out of the ordinary.”

  Jia’Lyn nodded and lifted her radio. “Bridge, power up.”

  Was this really such a good idea? I imagined I could feel the sphere suck me closer. Were we moving? We must be, but I couldn’t feel it.

  The Captain’s voice sounded on the radio. “Are you ready to try warp?”

  Adam looked up from his readings and gave a slight shrug.

  “Sure, but be ready to drop out.”

  This time I could swear I felt the ship accelerate. That wasn’t right; I was sure we stopped and started all the time without my noticing. Or, was it just because I’d never been to this floor before? Maybe the acceleration was more perceptible closer to the gravitational well.

  Jia’Lyn muttered a curse from her own world, “Ka’hmay gon.”

  Adam said, “Shut the engines down.”

  I didn’t get it. Nothing changed as far as I could see. My boyfriend made a slight grimace. “It’s more than an adjustment problem. There’s a break somewhere in this coil, and it overloads.”

  The explanation was clearly for me; Jia’Lyn would already know. “Can you fix it?”

  “No. We don’t carry a spare, and it’s too dangerous to do it here anyway.”

  Captain Blake stepped in. How did he make it all the way down to us so quickly? “Anything?”

  “We might have to go to dock and have this entire thing replaced.”

  Blake’s forehead turned into an obscene amount of wrinkles. “We need to fulfill this mission. You both know how important it is. Can we do it?”

  How curious. It wasn’t like him to put a job before the safety of the crew. I made a mental note to ask Adam what the mission might be.

  “We can take some smaller coils from one of the shuttles and rig a backup system. Let’s post a technician down here, and restrict speed to standard by six, to be on the safe side.”

  Blake nodded. “Make it so.”

  He sounded exactly like Captain Picard from Star Trek back in my time. I bit the comment down just before it slipped over my lips.

  Adam put a hand on my shoulder. “C’mon Alex, time to go scrounge for some parts. We have to convert the engine on one of the shuttles too.”

  We? As in me a part of an engineering effort? What a joke.

  *****

  Just as I guessed my contribution was quite significant. I held Adam’s shirt and handed him the wrong tools.

  “No sweetie. It’s right over there. It looks like a pumpkin.”

  It was my third attempt at finding the silly thing. It must be hiding on purpose. “Why did you bring me along?”

  “Why not. I’m getting extra time with my girl.”

  Good point. I wasn’t in anyone’s way, and I might learn something. At least now I knew the Electroseamer had a long handle and a head like a tiny pumpkin.

  “What are you doing to this shuttle, anyway?”

  “We’re converting it to function under conditions of extreme gravity.”

  I put the Electroseamer down. “Why? In case we have to flee from the ship?”

  He peeked over at me with an expression of pure surprise. “No. We’re on our way to a large planet and I have to take a shuttle down there. I would prefer to both land and take off.”

  “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  This discussion was going nowhere… Probably my fault. I should have phrased the question better. “Why do you have to go down to a very large planet?”

  “Because it’s very large.”

  I smacked him over the arm. “Stop teasing me.”

  “Well, if anyone from this ship were to go there, the person would weigh four times more than here. I can compensate for that.”

  It wasn’t exactly what I meant; I wondered what he’d be doing there. The concept still fascinated me. “Has any human ever been there?”

  “Yes. We have an ambassador there. He needed to have some internal organs… strengthened before he left.”

  Interesting choice of words. “What does it look like?”

  Adam looked amused. “I’ll tell you when I’ve been there.”

  Fair enough. “Why are you taking a shuttle, anyway? Don’t we have transporter-thingies?”

  Ha laughed. “Yes, we do have transporter-thingies.” The word sounded funny in his mouth. “I’m bringing equipment.”

  Chapter Two

  Adam left for the planet and I moped. He might not be back for days. What would I do? I hated to be alone, and I wasn’t skilled at waiting.

  I paced around the room and grumbled, “Don’t be greedy. He’s special and you need to share him with the world.”

  Luckily, I didn’t have too much time to fret. The radio chimed and Anya’s melodic voice filled the room. “Hey Alex, are you busy? I could use some help.”

  The ship’s psychiatrist was a good friend, and anything would be better than just sitting around all alone. “Okay.”

  “Great. Meet me in the banquet hall on the promenade.”

  Anya waited for me outside the lift. She was a surprisingly solid hologram who looked exactly like a 21st century rock star. When she saw me, she bounced and clapped her hands. “Oh goodie, this will be so much fun. We have two days to prepare an event everyone will remember.”

  She made no sense to me, but I was used to it. “For whom?”

  “Visitors from the planet, of course. We need to find some corridors with really high ceilings. Fluid foods… Soups. Do you know any good soups?”

  “Wait… what?”

  “They’re trees, Alex. At least sort of.”

  Trees? Had something gone wrong in her programming?

  “They look like trees, but they can move around, think, and build things. They have incredible technology.”

  She hooked her arm in mine and tugged me along through the corridor, still talking. “There has been talk about their joining the Confederacy for years…”

  Two days later, I was certain th
e restaurant business wasn’t for me. We had almost everything figured out, and planning was fun. Making it happen, not so much. I stood balancing a number of bowls and almost dropped them all when Anya nodded to the gigantic doorway behind me. “Look who’s back.”

  I put the porcelain down, miraculously without breaking anything, and flung myself into Adam’s arms. “I missed you so much!”

  Not counting the days I was dead, this was the longest we had ever been apart. He usually worked nights on the bridge, so I was used to sleeping alone, but the mornings and evenings without him were long.

  “I missed you too.”

  Anya called out. “You two go home. I got this.”

  I felt bad for abandoning her, but he had been gone for so long. “Are you sure?”

  Adam murmured, “She’s sure. I need to talk to you.”

  He ushered me towards the door. My conscience claimed I should stay and continue working even though I was pretty bad at it, but my willpower was low.

  When we reached the lift, I peeked up at him. Something wasn’t right. He had little wrinkles around his eyes, and squinted. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was tired, but that wasn’t possible. Could he be low on energy?

  “I wonder if could build you an antigravity suit.”

  “Huh?” What was he talking about?

  “The planet is beautiful. You’d like it. It has big purple forests and green oceans.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Of course.”

  I lifted an eyebrow and he gave a slight shrug. “But… maybe diplomacy should be left to the diplomats.”

  “Are the trees difficult?”

  “No, they’re really not. They’re great.”

  If it wasn’t the trees, then who?

  We walked in silence to my rooms, where Adam sank down on the sofa and pulled me onto his lap. “Can you stay?”

  He rested his head against mine. “At least until tomorrow.”

  Good. If he wanted to tell me he found love with a gorgeous young willow, he probably wouldn’t hold me, or plan to stay the night.

  “What did you want to talk about?”

  “Remember I told you about the ambassador?”

  I nodded. The man was of no interest to me.

  “He’s coming aboard tomorrow, with the visitors from the planet. He doesn’t like you.”

  That made me sit up straight. “What? Why? I never did anything to him, I don’t even know who he is.”

  “I know. I know. I still need you to be careful around him.”

  “But…”

  Adam brushed a lock of my hair away from my face. “He has been working on this planet’s entry to the Confederacy for a long time. Years. They never trusted him, and they haven’t trusted any of us.”

  “Maybe he’s incompetent. That’s not my fault.”

  “Maybe he is. Anyway, they’ve always had problems with the Logg. They heard about you and they want to meet you. For the first time they want to join forces with us, it’s because of you. I think he hates you.”

  This was the dumbest thing I’d heard for a long time. And what difference did it make if the man liked me or not? I played with Adam’s hair, and when he smiled, I chanted, “Bed, bed, bed, bed, bed…”

  I woke in Adam’s arms the next morning. An unexpected treat; I could barely remember the last time it happened. I snuggled my head down even more comfortably on his shoulder. Maybe we could stay in bed at least until lunchtime. That would be great.

  He touched my cheek and ruined the illusion. “You have a big day today. Want me to get you some breakfast?”

  “No. I want you to stay right here all day.”

  “I’m flattered. But this is your first official assignment, so you should probably go.”

  Objecting wouldn’t do me any good, but I still tried. “Do we have to?”

  His answer left no room for further debate. “Yes. We took the risk of travelling all the way here with a broken ship so you could meet these people. You’re going.”

  Wow, no pressure. This would be a long day…

  I pretended as if his words didn’t make me nervous at all. After discarding most of my food and changing outfits five times, it was probably clear anyway. Adam seized my hands as I was about to pull the last shirt off. “You look fine. Stop worrying.”

  “How can I stop worrying? You said everyone’s counting on me and the ambassador hates me.”

  “You’ll do fine.”

  I didn’t share his confidence, but I nodded anyway. It was hard to be too worried next to the embodiment of tranquility. I held his hand in the lift and through the corridors, hoping his composure would rub off on me.

  All the video in the world couldn’t do the guests justice. It took all my constraint not to stare when the tall, slender birches spoke and walked towards me. They bowed, bending their stiff bodies with surprising agility.

  “Alexandra, princess of freedom.” Their voices sounded like the wind. I didn’t know what to say, so I bowed too.

  A soft whoosh like a summer breeze sounded through the room. Adam whispered, “I think they’re fascinated with your hair.”

  “My hair? You can touch it, if you want.”

  Long and slender fingers ran through it. It tickled, and I giggled.

  Behind the birches a man stepped off the transporter pad. He was shorter than Adam, but taller than me. Living on the high gravity planet made him extremely muscular, and he looked like he could crack a coconut open with his bare hands.

  One of the trees whispered, “This is Ambassador Enoch.” The other filled in, “Ambassador Enoch, meet Princess Alexandra.”

  “I’m not a princess.”

  Adam smirked. This wasn’t a nickname I would lose easily.

  Enoch had a round face crowned with a mop of black hair. On another day I might have found him handsome, but with pure hatred flaring from his eyes, not so much. Adam’s warning made sense; I should stay away from this man.

  Adam said, “This way, please.” I followed him down the corridor with trees flanking me and holding my hands.

  Anya and I put a lot of planning into finding corridors and rooms tall enough to accommodate the guests. It was only a short stroll from the transporters to the nearest conference room, and I left them there in the care of Enoch and Adam.

  *****

  During the past couple of days Anya and I researched our guest’s eating habits. They mostly dipped their branchy fingers in an energy solution, but we still found several interesting courses from different regions of the large planet.

  Enlisting all the chefs from the promenade, we planned a buffet that mixed foods from their planet, Earth, and most of the other species residing on the Bell. By the time people streamed into the great hall, everything was ready.

  Anya flashed her billion dollar smile and whispered, “Isn’t this exciting?”

  It was. We were breaking new ground, and I was part of it.

  Adam entered with the trees. They stared in fascination when he walked up to me and kissed my cheek. Anya whispered, “They’ve never seen anything like it.”

  I tucked my hands around Adam’s arm and we walked around the room. He murmured, “You’ve done a great job here.”

  “Meh, it’s mostly Anya.”

  “Funny, she says it’s mostly you.”

  Most people on the Bell were, for practical reasons, pretty much like us, but some were very different. Seeing everyone interact fascinated me.

  Jia’Lyn played a song from her home world on an instrument that worked with light. All her snakes wagged with the rhythm. The tree people sang, and it sounded like wooden flutes on the wind. I couldn’t pronounce their names, but they didn’t seem to mind.

  Later in the evening, Anya scurried over to me and grabbed my hands. “C’mon Alex, let’s dance.”

  At first, everyone stared, but then Blake and Ima fell in. It didn’t take long until the floor was filled with people dancing. Quite a feat given all the different si
zes, shapes, and cultures. Anything works if everyone tries hard enough. Let me tell you, being on a spaceship, teaching a being that looks like a tree to waltz is quite an experience.

  Eventually, I ended up with the Captain, who spun me right into Adam’s waiting arms. He smiled and held me tight, and his strong arms around my waist sent an expectant tingle through my body.

  “Are you having a good time, Sweetheart?

  “Oh yes, and it just got better.” I sounded a little out of breath. Maybe it was time to take a break… “Can we get out of here? Just for a few minutes?”

  “Sure.”

  We snuck out of the ballroom and I whispered, “I’m visiting a ball at the castle, and I’m stealing the handsome prince.”

  He lifted an eyebrow. “You are my princess, but I’m certainly not a prince. Let’s go to the arboretum.”

  Good idea. The gigantic indoor garden was soothing and fascinating. It also fit the theme of the day. Adam picked a flower and put it behind my ear.

  “I always expect someone to show up and yell at you when you do that.”

  He laughed softly. “Maybe one day they will, but if something was rare they’d keep it out of the common area.”

  I wrapped my arms around his neck and gazed into his eyes. A part of me understood he wasn’t human, but emotionally I’d never be able to comprehend it.

  “I’m proud of you. You’ve done a great job.”

  His words made me want to blush, so I kissed him, hoping he wouldn’t see. His arms around me were pure heaven, yet released their grip much too quickly.

  Not until Adam pulled back did I hear the soft ruffle of leaves behind me. A voice sounding like a summer wind mused, “I hope I am not disturbing you. You two are so… intriguing… to me. Biology and machinery, so affectionate.”

  Adam smiled. “It’s because of her. She’s wonderful.”

  What to say? Nothing but the truth would do. “You are intriguing to me too.”

  The tree chuckled, making all its leaves dance.

  Chapter Three

  I didn’t think it possible to be both exhausted and exhilarated at the same time, but when Adam walked me home that evening I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open, and so excited I wanted to bounce. “It was a success, wasn’t it? Today was really a success.”