The Pirates of Sufiro (Book 1) (Old Star New Earth) (28 page)

Clyde McClintlock sat alone in his office. All the lights were turned off. The monitors were lifeless. The colonel was exhausted from battle and tired of staring at the images of the Cluster. He had his head down on his desk, but he did not sleep. Instead, he was thinking.

Clyde remembered how excited he and his sister were when they got off the launch from Earth all those years ago. He remembered when his father assembled the prefabricated house on the empty plot of land the adults around him called New Des Moines. He remembered the hard work, but most of all, he remembered the joy of those times.

Now, Clyde sat alone. Major Ellwood had fallen at Camlan Pass. The image of her body lying on the ground covered in blood kept returning, haunting the colonel. He thought of bodies missing legs, arms and heads. Despite all of the training the Gaean Navy gave him, he could never have pictured sights so awful as the ones he saw three days before. Never before did he realize how much damage a hepler could do.

Back aboard the
Firebrandt
, Ellis staggered out of the launch. A crew of three rushed around the vehicle and began servicing it. An energy conduit was attached. The launch was cleaned. Rubin, who had piloted the launch, led Ellis forward. He was a mere commander and did not rate a steward. Rubin, as first lieutenant, worked on filling that role even though it wasn't required. He helped Ellis out of his jacket. The commander sat down at his foldout desk.

"May I bring you dinner, sir?" asked Rubin.
Ellis shook his head. He contemplated another cigar and thought better of it. He was drunk and getting dizzy from lack of sleep. Silently, he cursed himself for not stopping at two drinks. Absentmindedly, he began to remove his jump suit.

As Ellis crawled between the snug sheets, he felt an odd sensation. It was as though someone was in the bed with him. He thought, perhaps, the wall was somehow radiating heat. He felt the wall. The metal wall was ice cold. Still, as Ellis rolled over, he could not shake the feeling that he was not alone.

The commander had been a loner his entire life. He found the presence strangely comforting and began to think his feelings were a result of Manuel Raton's tequila. Images came vividly to mind. The images were like strong memories of things the commander had never seen. He "remembered" New Granadans being threatened with disciplinarians, as though he had been there. He felt the agony of being kicked and hit while he was down. The commander could imagine a hepler thrust in his back as he was being led to a carryhover, wondering if he would see his family again.

He shook his head violently. Since it made him dizzy, he knew he was awake. Yet he couldn't stop the "memories." Suddenly, he imagined himself on a battlefield with mighty mountains on either side. There was a thunderous roar as he was knocked off his feet. Screams of horror and utter terror filled his head. Vast, frightening emotions filled his soul.

Ellis looked up at the soft sound of the curtain around his bunk being pushed aside. "Are you okay, sir?" asked Rubin, a worried look on his face. "I heard you scream."

The commander blinked a few times. "Must have been a nightmare," he said.
"Aye aye, sir." Rubin quietly closed the curtain. Ellis heard his footsteps go aft.
* * * *

Clyde McClintlock screamed. Involuntarily, he dusted himself off. He sat in the darkness of his office, looking at blinking monitors. The colonel stared open-mouthed. He could have sworn he was back on the battlefield at Camlan Pass. Instead, he had fallen asleep at his desk.

Wildly conflicting thoughts ran through the colonel's mind. He missed the simple pastoral days of his youth. He remembered no gross immorality in the people of New Granada. Yet he remembered his father talking about the sinner, Firebrandt. The more he dug through the layers of memory, the more he found that he missed the simple life in New Granada. The laws of Tejo were supposed to define life for people, make it simpler. In reality, they had only served to complicate his life. Clyde also remembered hearing how much his father had hated leaving New Granada. Yet, he felt a burning hatred for what the New Granadans had done to his troops.

Now the Cluster orbited Sufiro. Everyone was in grave danger. The colonel felt absolutely powerless. He reached up and turned on a small lamp on his desk. "Computer, call Anne McClintlock," he said, his voice barely a whisper.

Once again, the commander felt as though someone were in bed with him. "That's why you came, wasn't it?" asked Ellis, softly. "You came because of the strong emotion generated by the conflict." The presence seemed to leave. Within moments, the commander felt overcome by the alcohol he had consumed. He fell asleep instantly.

The image of McClintlock's sister appeared on the holo pedestal next to his desk. She wrung her hands and looked at her brother. "Hi Clyde," she said, weakly. "You look awful."

He felt the bandage on his forehead. He knew he was still covered in scratches from the battle. "Hi Sis," he said, feeling a stupid grin form. "I just got scuffed up a bit, playing with the Grenades."

"Don't use that word," she said angrily. "We were both raised there. Those are our people over there." She raised her finger at her younger brother. "How could you have gone over there and attacked them?"

"Tejan interests were at stake." He said the words, but for the first time, it felt like nothing more than a justification.
"The only thing that was at stake was Rocky Hill's bank account!" She closed her eyes, trying to calm down.
"We're the ones that lost," he said, numbly. "Now, I've got the Cluster to deal with." He tried to discern where she was from the background. He didn't think it looked like her house. "Are you safe?"
"I'm in one of the shelters your goons rigged up. I don't honestly know if I'm safe or not." She shook her head and then tried her best to look him in the eye. "Clyde, I want you to think about what happened in New Granada. I want you to think about father and his love for that place."
"That's almost all I have been doing for the past several hours," he said. "I've been trying to rationalize what we did in New Granada. Right now, it doesn't seem right."
"I knew that all along," she scolded. Clyde put his head down on his arms again. "Clyde." He heard her voice, but didn't look up. "Clyde, if the Cluster ever leaves, promise me one thing."
"What's that?" He looked up.
"Make things right." He saw her reach over and sever the connection. Clyde turned out the desk lamp and returned his head to his arms to continue thinking.
* * * *

The tequila had done wonders for the commander. He slept nearly twelve hours. He woke, staring at the faintly illuminated ceiling. His mouth felt fuzzy, but his head was clear. His mind reeled with the images and emotions he felt the night before. He wondered if the Cluster or the tequila had formed them. He padded across the way to take a shower. Showers aboard star cruisers were an application of EQ technology. The dirt was shifted into the fourth dimension. Water was too precious aboard a space ship. Still, the ship's captain had privileges beyond those of mere crew. He washed his face in the warm water allowed him alone as captain and contemplated the beard. It seemed to be growing nicely. He wasn't sure if he liked it, but decided to let it grow a while longer.

He padded back to his bunk and dressed himself then walked back to the mess. Adkins smiled when she saw him. "You look much better, sir."

"Sleep can do wonders," Ellis muttered. He ordered breakfast.
Rubin walked into the mess. "Ah, you're awake, sir," he said. "Good news. The Tejans and the New Granadans are talking to each other."
Ellis nodded approval. "But are they making progress?" he asked as a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of coffee were laid before him.
"Some," said Rubin, sitting. "However, it doesn't sound like much in the way of any permanent accords."
Ellis sipped his coffee and looked reprovingly at his first lieutenant. "You're monitoring their communications?"
"Aye, sir," said Rubin, shrugging.
"Good man," said Ellis. He wasn't smiling. Rubin took the compliment in the spirit it was intended. He was beginning to learn that Ellis was a man whose compliments were to be taken at face value. At times he seemed cynical, but his emotions were genuine.
The commander finished his breakfast and walked forward with Rubin following behind. He saw the image of the Cluster on the holo viewer. Again, he was struck by the eerie, dreamlike qualities of the ship. Suddenly, he was struck by a feeling that he should not attempt to board. The commander moved forward and sat, as if in a trance. He shook his head. "Put up a schematic of the Cluster," he barked.
"We don't have much, sir," protested Weiss. "Just a crosssection with estimated measurements of the orbs."
"Put it up," said Ellis. The front screen was changed to a simple white-on-blue schematic of the ship. Ellis pulled out a cigar, lit it and contemplated the image. "What are you?" he said aloud. "I feel like a rat in a maze, running around, playing your game." He blew a ring of smoke. He smirked at the analogy. Adkins sat at the gunner's rig, ready to fire at the Cluster if it made a threatening move. "Adkins, what do rats in mazes think of their human captors? How do they perceive the maze?"
She looked around, perplexed. "Why would anyone put rats in a maze?"
Ellis smiled. "It's a historic reference. Experimental psychologists used to test theories on laboratory animals. Most of the animals were rats. A common test was to run a rat through a maze."
"But that would be cruel, sir," she said, indignant.
"Would it?" asked Ellis. "Do you know what a rat feels?" Again Ellis looked at the schematic. He sighed, wondering what a rat would think if it saw the schematic of its maze. Would it make sense? Would it inspire the same emotions as if the rat were, in fact, in the maze?
"Prepare my launch," ordered Ellis, suddenly.
"Aye aye, sir," said Weiss. He began sending the necessary commands through the ship.
"Destination, sir?" asked Rubin, turning around. "Firebrandt's homestead," said Ellis.
Half an hour later, Rubin shuttled Ellis to the planet in silence. The B-Com hoped his commander was okay. Ellis seemed strangely distracted. Rubin was also concerned about the commander's scream the previous night. It did not strike the B-Com as a simple night terror. In fact, he had never heard a yell of such terror in his life. He followed Ellis' directions to the homestead and carefully settled the launch to the ground.
Firebrandt met Ellis at the front door. Firebrandt looked worn. His long hair was loose about his shoulders. His shirt was rumpled. Ellis knew his grandfather would be working on the defense arrangements with Tejo. Because the ship had been monitoring communications, he knew that Governor Hill had approved sending materials to build planetary bombardment shelters. Ellis asked how it was going.
"The Tejans talk about giving us materials to help defend ourselves as though it's pay back for their enslavement of our people." Firebrandt led Ellis into the living room. Roberts sat, stoic in his hover chair.
Ellis stepped over to the large chair near one end of the room and fell into its soft cushions. He looked toward the corner of the room where the ceiling met two of the walls. He studied the juncture for some time. In the background of his thoughts, he heard Roberts and Firebrandt speaking to him. The captain stepped over to his grandson. "Are you okay?" he asked.
The commander looked up into his grandfather's strong, gray eyes and shook his head almost imperceptibly. "I'm not sure whether or not boarding the Cluster is something I should do." His voice was unusually weak.
"Because we're not sure we can get the defense arrangements made?" asked the captain. "Son, I thought Manuel got you straightened out on that point. Don't worry about us. It's your duty to find out all you can about the Cluster."
Ellis shook his head, listlessly. "You don't understand." The commander looked as though he was fighting his own emotions. "While I want you to be safe, that has nothing to do with the feelings that I've been getting."
Firebrandt's thick eyebrows came together. "Feelings?"
"It's as though all of my emotions have turned against the whole idea of my boarding the Cluster." Ellis rubbed his hands together. "Every time I look at the Cluster on the ship's holo, I feel as though I'm being manipulated. I know this may sound crazy, but I think they've been trying to contact me through my emotions."
Firebrandt sat down on the couch opposite his grandson. He heard Fire step into the room. She noticed the solemnity of the people in the room and moved quietly to the couch, next to her father.
Ellis looked down at his hands, then back up to his grandfather and mother. "Last night, I had an experience. I'm not sure whether to call it a dream or a vision or what." The commander sighed and told his family about the terrifying images that seemed played out for him the previous night. "It's as though they were trying to tell me the reason why they came here. It's almost like they communicate through emotional response."
"Combined with some form of visual imagery." Roberts was nodding as he moved silently forward in his hover chair.
"Are you sure they were trying to communicate with you?" asked Fire. The three men looked at her. "From what you described, is it possible they were simply sending
communications home? Maybe you just picked up on it."
The commander's face drooped. "I suppose..." He hit his knee with startling force. "No, it can't be. The presence, the feeling of warmth, it just felt too personal."
A worried look passed the captain's face. He stood and put his hand on the commander's shoulder. "There's something I have to ask. Are you sure they were trying to communicate at all?"
Ellis sat back, folding his arms, defiantly. "You're thinking that I've been working awfully hard the last couple of weeks. Possibly the strain has gotten a bit much for me and I'm imagining or dreaming all this. That's what you're thinking, aren't you?"
"I think it's a possibility we have to face." Firebrandt stepped to the fireplace. He studied a rack of pipes there for a few moments. He picked out the old battered one. Fire realized she had never seen him smoke any of the others. He opened a jar and filled the pipe with tobacco, then stood silent for some moments, holding the pipe. "If the Cluster did contact you and you personally, you have to find out why." Firebrandt lifted the pipe to his lips and lit it. "If they were warning you off, the danger of trying will be great. If you were imagining the contact, I recommend getting a couple of good nights' sleep before trying to go over there." Firebrandt held out the pipe and looked at it. "And cut back on the nicotine consumption."
Ellis stood, pacing the room. He reached for a cigar and decided against it. He put his hands on the back of the chair he had been sitting in. "It felt too real to ignore."
Fire stood and stepped over to her son. She put her arms around his shoulders. "Ultimately, you have to do what you think best." The three remained silent for some time.
The silence was shattered as Rubin burst into the room. "Come to the shuttle, quick! Something's happened!"
"Avast, there!" Ellis moved away from the chair. "What the hell kind of report is that. Stand to and report properly, BCom Rubin."
Rubin stood at attention. "Commander, sir. The
Firebrandt
reports the Cluster has left orbit. CPO Adkins requests permission to pursue."
Ellis looked toward Firebrandt. "May I use your teleholo, sir?" Firebrandt nodded. Rubin followed Ellis as he strode through the house. Ellis sat and called the ship. He saw Weiss, looking perplexed.
"What are you doing on this frequency?" asked the communicator.
"Has every damn one of you forgotten military protocol?" growled Ellis. With his peripheral vision, the commander noticed that Firebrandt, Roberts and Fire had gathered around. "Report!"
"The Cluster has moved out of orbit, sir. Velocity increasing. CPO Adkins requests..."
"Damn!" Ellis heard Adkins' voice in the background. She moved into view of the holo pickup. "I'm sorry, sir. We've lost the Cluster. It looks as though she's jumped."
"Back to wherever she came from..." Ellis sighed. AN END TO HOSTILITIES
John Mark Ellis looked back to the teleholo. "Thank you, Adkins. Mr. Rubin and I will return to the ship after we finish our business here."
"Very good, sir." Adkins stepped out of the teleholo's field of view. Weiss looked expectantly at the commander.
"Mr. Weiss, please check to see that interstellar communications have been restored," said Ellis, at last. Weiss nodded and touched his forehead, concentrating.
"I have contact with Titan, sir," said Weiss, excitedly.
"Inform them of the events of the past two days. Tell them I'll file a full report once we've wrapped up the Erdonium situation." Weiss acknowledged and turned off
communications with the surface. Ellis sat back with a blank look on his face. Feeling drained, he ran his fingers through auburn hair.
"How are you doing, sir?" asked Rubin. The young B-Com wore a worried frown.
Ellis felt around his uniform jacket for a cigar. He retrieved one and stared at it for a long moment. Finally, he bit off the end and put the cigar in his mouth and lit it. "Can they really be gone?" Ellis held the smoking cigar in his hand.
Fire looked at her son. "You almost sound like you lost a friend." Her voice was strained. She angrily brushed long, black hair behind her shoulder. "Remember these are the bastards who took your father from us."
"I know," said Ellis looking down at the smoldering cigar. He held out a hand to Rubin, who helped the commander to his feet. He stepped between Firebrandt and his mother and walked back to the living room and sat heavily on the couch. Firebrandt, Roberts, Fire and Rubin followed and found seats. Fire sat opposite her son.
"Mom," began Ellis, "you have to understand. I'm not convinced that the Cluster is actually evil. I think they're studying us. As I was trying to say earlier, they may even be trying to communicate with us." The commander saw the BCom's jaw drop.
"Communicate?" asked Rubin. "How? Why? We've received nothing from that ship in all the times we tried to contact it." Rubin looked to Firebrandt to see if he held the answer to the riddle.
Firebrandt winked at the young man. "Always remember, Mr. Rubin, a ship commander must be very careful to whom he reveals what information." The captain turned his attention back to Ellis. "By the same token, a commander must learn to trust his first officer."
Ellis nodded and told his second-in-command about the feelings he had. He told about the dreams and sensations he had been getting.
"I didn't think that scream the other night was a simple nightmare," whistled the B-Com. "I wonder why you're the only one who picked up those feelings?" Rubin's eyebrows came together.
"That, Mr. Rubin, is something I should very much like to find out." The commander rubbed the back of his neck using his free hand. He felt the strain of this first mission, but was glad to realize that Rubin didn't regard the contact as a result of that strain.
Firebrandt re-lit his pipe. "But who are they, what do they want? What is the Cluster?"
Ellis shrugged. "I don't know. My best guess is that the people of the Cluster are some kind of superior life form. To them, we're like a one-celled animal under the microscope."
"Or a rat in a maze, sir?" asked Rubin. Ellis nodded. He noticed his cigar was growing short. He returned it to his mouth, took a puff, then dumped the ash in the tray to his side.
"Yet they communicated with you," said Roberts. "They know you're intelligent."
Ellis' eyebrows came together as he considered that. "Actually, they communicated on a purely emotional level. It could be that they don't regard us as intelligent."
"Somehow, we have to convince them," said Fire. She stood and walked behind her son, rubbing the tension out of his shoulders. "If it is a misunderstanding, it's cost thousands of beings their lives. Not to mention the life of your father."
Ellis nodded sadly while putting out the cigar. He felt his eyes grow moist and a lump form in his throat. He remembered Rubin's presence and cleared his throat, keeping the tears from surfacing.
"Communication with the Cluster doesn't sound like a trivial task." Firebrandt shook his head.
Ellis scratched the stubble on his chin and leaned back on the couch as his mother moved back to her seat. The more he thought about the Cluster, the more he wondered whether or not they had communicated with him. Deep down in his soul, he knew they had. Now he just had to convince the Admiralty.
"I don't know about anyone else, but I'm hungry," complained Roberts. Everyone around the room nodded in agreement. The adrenaline rush that had been present for the past days while the Cluster had been in orbit was beginning to wear down. Everyone felt the need for refreshment.
Roberts cooked dinner and the four ate. The problem of the Cluster ship had gone almost as quickly as it came. Ellis sank into his chair at the dining table as he realized his original mission was still incomplete. Erdonium was not moving. As such, he still had to patch up relations between Tejo and New Granada. He brought the subject up while he picked at the food on his plate.
"I don't think there will be a better time to patch up relations," said Firebrandt, lifting a forkful of mashed tubers to his mouth.
Fire grinned wistfully at her son. "You dealt Tejo a serious blow. They respect you, now, I'm sure."
"I wouldn't be so sure," said Ellis. "Negotiating with a brick wall would be easier than getting through to Clyde McClintlock and Rocky Hill."
Firebrandt was lost in deep thought. He looked up after several moments. "I agree about Hill. He'd sell his own mother if he could get away with it. But, Clyde might surprise us. Especially if he has any of his father in him."
Roberts shook his head. "Clyde has been nothing but a puppet of the Hills since day one. What would ever change that?"