The Galactic Chronicles

Mars Born-2

THEY FOLLOWED PHELAN toward the flight deck. Jas was still getting used to how much he resembled his sister. Though the two were three years apart in age, it was as if they were male and female versions of the same person. Both looked a lot like their mother.

Phelan was as anatomically flawless as his sister, Sayen, no doubt due to the state-of-the-art genetic modding he’d received soon after his conception. The man’s physical proportions were exactly balanced, and his face was perfectly symmetrical. His blond hair was even cut to a similar cropped style as his sister’s. His personality, however, was quite different.

“Hope I wasn’t disturbing anything back there,” he said, throwing a grin over his shoulder. “But, you know, there’s more comfortable places for that kind of thing than a soggy canteen.”

“No worries,” Carl replied, “you weren’t disturbing anything.”

Jas winced at the somber tone of his remark.

Phelan seemed to pick up that he was skirting the edges of a touchy subject. “So,” he continued, “can I ask, was there a special reason you wanted to flood my crew’s dining area, Jas?”

“Sorry about that,” she replied and went on to explain about the makeshift punching bag and the accident.

“You went to all that trouble just to make yourself some training equipment?” Phelan asked.

“Yeah, I did. There’s nothing aboard. I like to stay in shape, and I wanted to pass the time. I hope that was okay. I’ll unroll the mat. It should dry out in a few hours.”

“Yeahhhh,” Phelan said, drawing out the word. “The mat’s no problem. I was only wondering why, if you wanted something to train with, you didn’t just use the ship’s printer.”

Jas nearly drew to a halt at her own stupidity. Of course Phelan had a printer on board. Every starship she’d worked on had carried a printer to create essential items or spare parts for repairs in an emergency. But because they were expensive to run, printers were locked away. Crew members were only allowed to use them with special permission. It hadn’t occurred to her to ask Phelan if he had a printer. “Krat. That was kind of dumb of me, wasn’t it?”

“Kinda.” Phelan gave a short laugh. “Just kidding. You couldn’t have been expected to know that, I guess. But for the record, you can use whatever the crew use aboard my ship. No need to ask. You’re friends of my sis, and what’s mine’s yours, okay? I should’ve made that clearer sooner.”

“Thanks, that’s generous of you,” Carl said. “How’s Sayen doing?”

Phelan had fallen into step beside them. The three walking abreast took up all the room in the narrow corridor. Space was at a premium aboard Phelan’s mining ship, the Bricoleur.

Sadness dimmed the man’s usually bright features. “Not so good. My parents’ deaths have hit her pretty hard. She was very close to them both, especially to our mother. Sayen hasn’t said so, but I think she’s so cut up because, when it came down to it, Mama chose our daddy over us. I think that hurts her almost more than the fact that they’re gone.”

Reminded of the scene of their escape from the Shadows on the burning rooftop, Jas shuddered. The noise and heat of the flames, the sight of Mr. Lee bravely firing at the host of aliens speeding toward them, and Mrs. Lee pushing Phelan into the shuttle, forcing them to flee and leave the couple to their fate: these were things she’d never forget.

Chapter TwoTHE FLIGHT DECK WAS the second largest room aboard the mining ship, aside from the equipment bay and the hold. Phelan sat in his captain’s seat, throwing a baseball from hand to hand, as he always did when he was thinking. The crew and guests ranged around the space, standing or sitting where a spare seat was available.

Jas wondered if Phelan had excelled at the ancient sport of baseball as he and Sayen had no doubt done at most things while they were growing up. He threw the ball at the ceiling and caught it on the rebound. At the place where the ball had hit was a smudge of dirt, evidence of the captain’s long habit. She wondered if the practice irritated his crew as much as it did her.

It was hard to tell. No one, apart from Phelan and the pilot was human. The whole company was there, from the lowliest miner to the second-in-command and engineer, Flahive. Everyone was looking bored after three days of inactivity. Everyone except Flahive. It was hard to tell how the engineer was feeling because he—if his species consisted of hes and shes—was encased head-to-toe in a pressure suit. Flahive came from a high-g planet, and if he didn’t remain inside the suit, his entire body would rapidly expand, eventually killing him.

Flahive’s suit gave an indication of his species’ tripoidal anatomy. He had three stumpy legs and got around by jumping along on the foremost two while the rear leg kept balance. Carl had said he reminded him of a ‛roo’. Flahive’s three upper limbs were equally spaced around his torso, about halfway between his legs and dome-like head. At the end of each upper limb was a highly flexible pad, and the alien could manipulate the one at the back just as easily as the two that were closer to his front, as he was demonstrating at that moment by working on the interface on the panel behind him. What his face looked like, Jas had no idea, for it was hidden behind a smoky panel.

The miners were all one species. Hairy and cylindrical, they stood about half Jas’ height. They didn’t appear to have any method of holding or touching anything, and Jas had never figured out how they worked the mining equipment. She supposed they had some kind of retractable appendages.

The ship’s navigator was an android similar to the servants of the Lees’ household. She acted and sounded human, but Jas had guessed what she was from her extremely deferential attitude and limited conversational ability. The android was also extremely attractive, and it had crossed Jas’ mind that navigation wasn’t the only reason Phelan had her on the crew list.

Sayen had propped herself on the edge of an instrument panel as they were waiting to begin the meeting. Her face was pale and her head low. Makey was peering over the pilot’s shoulder at levels she was adjusting on her screen. A young woman, the pilot was very reserved and quiet and had rarely contributed anything to the discussions they’d had on what to do next.

Thunk went Phelan’s baseball on the ceiling of the flight deck. On the rebound, it slapped into his palm. As he went to throw it again, Jas resisted the urge to snatch it in midair, run to the nearest airlock, throw it in, and press Purge.

They were waiting on Erielle, the crippled underworlder. It felt like an age ago since Jas had first met her, though it was only a few weeks.

The flight deck was crowded, and Jas wondered why Phelan had decided to hold the meeting there rather than the larger dining room. Maybe he was about to make a big decision, and he needed his spot on the ceiling.

The deck doors slid apart, and Erielle walked through. Jas sat up in surprise. The underworlder had been getting around on crutches since her legs had suffered severe laser burns, but she’d replaced them with a frame of slim metal rods that encased her from her waist to her ankles.

“Looking good,” Phelan said to the underworlder. “It worked then?”

“Yeah. Thanks for the suggestion, hun. I really appreciate it. Hey, everyone, what do you think of my new leg supports?” For the first time in weeks, Erielle smiled.

Sayen looked up, and her face brightened momentarily. “You look sneck. Did you print them?”

Erielle nodded. “Your brother suggested it. My legs are still kratted, and they always will be unless I get them fixed, but with these supports I can walk normally. I can even run. And I’m a little more comfortable.”

Makey went over to the underworlder and squatted down to inspect the metal scaffolding around her legs. “Wow. I bet these make you stronger than you were before.” He straightened up and turned to Phelan. “Can I have some too?”

A general laugh echoed around the flight deck. Phelan shrugged. “I don’t see why—”

“How about you concentrate on getting your body into shape first?” Jas interjected. At Makey’s crestfallen look, she added, “Supports are great for helping people with problems, but they don’t match the flexibility or responsiveness of natural legs. You wouldn’t want to be wearing leg augmentation in a fight. Am I right?” she asked Phelan.

“She’s got a point, kid,” Phelan replied. “Though if you were running away...” He paused at Jas’ frown and gave a chuckle.

Carl stood up to give Erielle his seat, and as the older woman sat down, Phelan cleared his throat. “Okay, we all know why we’re here. We’ve argued it out, we’ve thought about it, we’ve argued some more. We aren’t getting anywhere. Some of you think we should skedaddle back to the Outer Rim and carry on like nothing’s happened.” The miners fidgeted and mumbled. “Some of you want to return to Earth and start rooting out these Shadows wherever we can find them.”

“That’s right,” Erielle said forcefully.

“Though it isn’t clear how you’ll tell who’s a Shadow and who isn’t since this scanner you’ve told me about went up in flames,” Phelan said.

“We’ll figure out a way,” said Erielle. “People are dying down there.”

“And if we return to Earth we’ll likely die too,” Sayen said. “There has to be something more useful we can do. If we can just contact the Council...whoever received my parents’ message packet must have informed the rest of them. They must—”

“As I’ve said all along, the Transgalactic Council must receive a million messages a day from crazies all around the galaxy,” said Erielle. “Why would—”

“No.” Sayen rubbed her tired-looking eyes. “My parents had connections at the Council, and we sent them the evidence.”

“You think you sent them the evidence,” Erielle said.

“We sent them the evidence,” Sayen replied with an edge in her voice. “Not everyone in authority is out to get you, Erielle. If we can’t trust the Council to help us, who can we trust?”

Erielle opened her mouth to speak, but Flahive cut in. “Please, if you both don’t calm down I’ll have to ask for a minute’s silence and reflection.” The voice his comm unit generated was male, deep, and smooth. As always happened when the alien spoke, soft lights illuminated his face plate. Flahive had given the same warning at every discussion they’d had when things had gotten heated. Jas hadn’t yet figured out why, but Phelan never reacted or seemed to think there was anything out of the ordinary about it.

Thunk. The captain caught his ball and tossed it from one hand to the other. “Listen up, folks. I’m gonna lay it on the line for y’all. Here’s my problem. I have a duty to my sis and her friends, I have a duty to my crew, and I have a duty to the good citizens of Earth. Only thing is, all my duties aren’t lining up. I can’t help one of you without hurting the other. If I help Sayen, I’ll be taking my crew into danger. If I try to keep y’all safe by hiding out somewhere until this all blows over, I’m neglecting to help my fellow human beings, and that isn’t right.

“So, after listening to all your arguments, I’m gonna act like the captain of this ship that I am and make up all your minds for you. Or, leastways, I’m gonna make a decision and y’all can decide which way you’re gonna jump.

“I’m not comfortable sitting here in orbit above our infested home planet. If these Shadows’ reach stretches as far as you tell me, and as it sounds like they’re especially keen to find you, they might figure out who I have on board soon enough. The Bricoleur isn’t a combat ship. We won’t be winning any space battles. So we need to move, and soon. But where to go? The Council’s spread across the galaxy. We don’t know where my parents sent their message, so until we figure out who we should be talking to, we can’t go to the Council yet. It seems to me the logical thing to do is to sit tight while we try to find out what’s happening.”

“But if it isn’t safe to stay in orbit above Earth...” said Jas.

“I didn’t mean to stay right here, like a duck waiting to be shot. We only need to stay in the vicinity. Somewhere close by. Somewhere hopefully not infested with Shadows yet.”

“I get it,” Makey exclaimed. “We’re going to Mars, aren’t we?”

Chapter ThreePHELAN’S PLAN WAS TO cancel the contracts of anyone in the crew who wanted out and shuttle them to Earth or Mars as they desired. Everyone had been mulling about the problem for days, and it didn’t take them long to state their wishes. The pilot said she wanted to return to Earth and check on her family, and she hoped that would be okay now that Carl was there to fly the ship. Carl was happy to take over the position. He only asked that he could first make a quick trip to his family home to pick up his alien friend, Flux.

The miners were disgruntled about Phelan’s decision to halt his mining operations. They didn’t want to go to Earth or Mars, nor have their contracts canceled early. Phelan listened to their protests, throwing and catching his baseball the entire time.

Finally, he offered to pay early termination bonuses and to provide them with their tickets from Mars to their home planet. After putting their hairy heads together and talking in their strange, buzzing language, they reluctantly agreed. They filed out, muttering among themselves like a crowd of angry wasps. The pilot followed.

Flahive said he wanted to stay on, providing that Sayen and Erielle could sort out their differences. It turned out that the point was moot because, avoiding Sayen’s teary gaze, Erielle asked to be set down in the Shadow-infested state capital that had long been her home. At Erielle’s words Sayen said nothing, but stalked from the room, her head bowed and her lips set.

Erielle rested her chin on her hand and sighed. The older woman’s hair had grown out from the buzz cut she’d worn when Jas had first met her. The effect softened her hardened features a little, though the suffering and pain she’d endured ever since she’d been dragged into the battle with the Shadows was still evident in her face.

“I know what you’re all thinking,” the underworlder said. “If I go back to Earth, it’ll be a suicide mission. But they’re my people down there. All their lives they’ve been shunned and despised for not being modded, or for not conforming to the system. Ignored. Rejected. When the Shadows make their move, and it comes to a fight, who’s going to be looking out for them? No one. They might not be pretty, and they might not be smart, and most of them sure as hell aren’t trustworthy or responsible, but I spent all my life trying to help them. I’m not going to abandon them just because that’s the easy thing to do.”

“I can see why Sis likes you so much,” Phelan said. “You’re a brave woman.”

Erielle smiled grimly. “Not brave. Just resigned.”

“It’s going to be hard on Sayen,” said Jas.

“I know. I must seem like a callous b***h. Believe me, I don’t want to put her through any more pain so close to her parents dying. I don’t mean to hurt her. I know it might not look like it sometimes, but she means a lot to me. I’ll go talk to her.”

“I’m coming with you,” Makey said.

“You’re coming with me to talk to Sayen?”

“No, I’m returning to Earth too.”

“What?” exclaimed Jas. “No. No way.”

“Yes, I am. You can’t tell me what to do with my life. I’m not a kid anymore. I can do what I like.”

“You can’t go, Makey,” Jas said. “It’s insane. You’ll get killed.”

“It’s like Erielle says. People on Earth need our help. We can’t just forget about them.”

“We aren’t forgetting about them. We’re doing everything we can to help them. Sacrificing yourself isn’t going to help anyone.”

“I won’t be sacrificing myself. I’ll be with Erielle, and we’ll help keep each other safe. She always wanted me to join the underworlders, and she’s right. Everyone on Dawn was an underworlder. I owe it to my mam and sister to help them.”

He sighed. “It’s funny. All my life I dreamed of escaping my home planet and traveling the galaxy. And maybe I’ll do that one day. But I couldn’t look at myself in a mirror without shame if I ran away from the Shadows again like I did on Dawn. Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful that you helped me, Jas and Carl, but if I’m honest, a day hasn’t passed that I didn’t regret leaving. Everything I’ve done has been to try to make amends for what I did. It’s not enough. I have to go back to Earth and continue the fight against the Shadows there. I’m sorry, but it’s just the right thing for me to do.”

With a tiny metallic hiss from her leg supports, Erielle got up and went out. Makey went with her. Only Phelan, Carl, Jas, the android, and Flahive remained.

“I’ll program a jump to Mars,” the android said and turned her slim, shapely back to them as she bent over her screen.

“I’m hoping the Shadows haven’t arrived there yet,” Phelan said. “We need to restock on supplies, so we have to go planetside. What do you think, Jas? Is it likely to be safe? Have you been back recently?”

Jas rubbed her eyes, trying to get the image of Makey being dragged into a Shadow trap out of her mind. “I haven’t been back since I was twelve years old. I made it as far as orbit once, but that’s it.”

Phelan whistled. “Not been back since you were twelve years old, huh?” Thunk.

A muscle in Jas’ jaw twitched.

“I sense that you’re extremely worried about Makey, Jas, and very conflicted about returning to the place of your birth,” said Flahive. “Perhaps it might help you to go to Mars as a way of examining your feelings and achieving a resolution to them.”

“I’m sorry?” Jas said. “You sense I’m...what?”

“Flahive.” Phelan gave the engineer a little shake of his head.

“Ah, that was inappropriate of me,” Flahive said. “I apologize, Jas. I’m very sorry. I was just trying to help.”

A look of puzzlement passed between Carl and Jas. The engineer’s opaque face plate was enigmatic.

Phelan sighed. “I guess now that we’re all going to be shipmates for the duration, I should tell you about Flahive. Or do you want to tell them yourself?” he asked the engineer.

“I find it best if I do the explaining, Captain, if you don’t mind. It’s certainly not the first time, and I doubt it’ll be the last that I have to reassure other species about my ability.”

Why would they need reassurance? Jas wondered. She didn’t think she was going to like what the alien had to say.

“Firstly,” Flahive said, “I want to make it very clear that I cannot read human minds.”

Jas had been right. She didn’t like the sound of where Flahive seemed to be heading with his explanation.

He went on, “However, I do pick up on strong emotions. Not everyday, minor feelings of contentment, annoyance, dissatisfaction, that kind of thing. But joy, elation, despair, hatred, love, passion, fury, those I can sense. I sense a kind of echo of them. At times, the effect is quite uncomfortable.”

The alien’s objections when Sayen and Erielle had fought began to make sense. He was an empath.

“I know this can make some humans feel self-conscious or embarrassed, but I’ve never truly comprehended why. Strong emotions can be an opportunity to initiate much-needed change. They aren’t something to be avoided or hidden away. Sometimes emotions bring people together, or advance the individual to enlightenment of some kind. When I sense powerful feelings, I try to encourage an exploration of those feelings if I think it might help that person.”

Oh, brother.

“Okay, I think you’ve explained enough,” Phelan said. “Don’t worry,” he said to Jas and Carl. “You’ll get used to him being around. You won’t even think about it after a while. I don’t.” Thunk.

“I’ll get used to him knowing exactly how I feel?” Jas spluttered. “All the time? He’ll be picking up on our emotions all the time we’re aboard the ship? Or are you limited by distance?” she asked Flahive.

“My ability is limited by distance,” Flahive replied.

Jas made a mental note to stay as far away from the alien as she could.

“But it stretches as far as the confines of this ship.”

“Great,” Jas said.

Phelan gave a short laugh. “Calm down. It isn’t a big deal.”

“Yes, you should probably calm down,” Flahive repeated.

“Don’t tell me how I should feel,” exclaimed Jas. But Carl was laughing at her now.

“Besides,” continued Phelan. “We need Flahive. If something goes wrong with the engine, he’s the only one who can talk to it.”

Carl’s laughter died. “He can what?”

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