Spoiler alert: This is a new entry for the 7th book in the Reckless Faith series. The prologue can be found here:
https://devonai.wordpress.com/2022/12/15/reckless-faith-vii-prologue/
The medical bay on the Percheron was bright, clean, and well-appointed, offering the highest level of care possible outside of a full hospital. Faen Leodin needed none of it, except for a warm blanket, an IV line full of Ringer’s Lactate, and the sufficient supply of oxygenated air that was already present. It didn’t take her long to regain consciousness, and she was only mildly surprised to find herself faced with humanoids of a species she’d never encountered. At first unable to communicate with them, she was offered a translator earpiece and introduced to the ship’s doctor, a tall, stocky man with blonde hair by the name of Ogden, and Captain Dietrich, a svelte woman with brown hair streaked with gray. A third person, a man with short hair, darker skin than the others, and armed with a pistol, stood near the door and didn’t say anything.
They didn’t offer much information to her, other than to tell her the name of the ship, and didn’t ask a lot of questions, either, until three more people entered the room. There were two women of similar build and complexion, one with black hair falling around her ears, and the other with brown hair down to her shoulders. The third was a man, taller than the others save for Ogden, with short brown hair. They spoke quietly with Ogden and Dietrich, then turned to face her.
“Miss Leodin,” began Dietrich, “This is Commander John Scherer of our companion ship, the Reckless Faith, Arianna Ferro, and Evangeline Adeler. We’d like to talk to you about what happened here, and how you ended up in that escape pod.”
“You can call me Faen,” she replied. “I am, or I was, an engineering apprentice on the Valorous, a battleship of the New Rakhar Empire. We were attacked by strange aliens I’ve never seen or heard of before. They seemed to be out of phase with our reality, as they were glowing, translucent, and impervious to any of our weapons. They floated with seemingly little effort, at times passing right through bulkheads as they silently and methodically wiped out my entire crew. I survived long enough to realize that they couldn’t detect a person if we remained motionless, so I used that tactic to avoid them and made my way to the escape pod.”
“What did these aliens look like?”
“They’re hard to describe. Like a flat fish, with wide fins on the sides of their bodies, and a long tail that ended in a sharp point. There were also little appendages on the sides of their mouths, though they didn’t speak nor did they seem to be breathing. They floated upright, with the broad side of their bellies as the front, and their heads hunched over like a stubby reptile.”
The woman named Evangeline was visibly disturbed by this description, and glanced at her friends with concern. The man named John pulled out a PDA, and a moment later displayed an image to her.
“Did it look like this?” he asked.
A flash of fear washed over her, and she nodded. “Yes. I mean, not exactly, but quite a bit.”
John showed the others the image. “Stingrays. What kind of weapons did they have?”
“None that I could see. They attacked with a bolt of electricity that seemed to come from the center of their chests. It proved quite deadly.”
“Eva?”
“I’ve never heard of anything like that,” the woman said. “They sound a little bit like the Kira’To, though as I told you I never got a good look at one. Faen, are you familiar with the Kira’To?”
Faen shook her head. “No. There was one other thing, I encountered one of them on my way to the pods. It didn’t kill me; instead, I think it probed my mind. I don’t know if it was trying to learn something about me or what. Perhaps it let me live so that I could warn others, I don’t know.”
Arianna said, “Curious. If they knew you were the sole survivor, it may have been just that.”
“What do you know about the attack?” asked John.
Faen shrugged. “Nothing. I’m a Mongrel, a half-breed, shunned by both the Rakhar and the Kau’Rii. My role on the ship was nothing more than a highly-skilled servant. Though my fellow engineers were at least respectful of me, they never shared any information with me. It was like that the entire time I was assigned to the Valorous; all I can tell you is that we were in a battle several weeks ago, which was as far as I know a standard engagement with other near-peer adversaries.”
Arianna barked a laugh. “Near-peer. Okay.”
“That’s the term they used,” Faen said flatly. “Obviously, whoever we were fighting back then wasn’t stingrays or Kira’To or whatever you said. Conventional foes, if you prefer. Anyway, I don’t know where we were then, and I don’t know where we are now. I’ve never known the mission of the Valorous or where we might be, except once or twice when I overheard it.”
John said, “The second to last fight was at Eniph, or Epsilon Pegasi. We’re currently at Sadal Biham, or Theta Pegasi.”
“You might as well be speaking gibberish; I don’t know this part of the galaxy. But thank you for telling me.”
“How did you end up on the Valorous?”
Faen gestured toward an empty mug on the table by her bed. “Can I get another one of these drinks?”
“You liked it?” asked Ogden. “I’ll fetch you another one.”
The doctor exited into the corridor. John found a chair, turned it around, and sat down with his arms crossed over the back. “Go on.”
“Every aspect of my life, ever since I was ripped from my mother’s arms at the age of nine, has been dictated to me by the Rakhar. It was at that age that my lineage could no longer be denied; she had attempted to pass me off as a Kau’Rii, until I simply grew too large in size. I was compelled to take a genetic test, and the truth was known: my father was Rakhar. I know nothing about him, other than that my mother referred to him as a ‘mistake.’ I was placed in a school for children with learning disabilities, either from genetic abnormalities or injuries. There, I was at least treated with basic dignity, which allowed me to study subjects far beyond the rudimentary education that was offered. I wanted to escape that life, so I studied engineering and starship propulsion. Despite overall distain for what I was, when I became an adult, my aptitude earned me a job on the Valorous. That was five years ago.”
“Where are you from?”
“Sadachbia IV.”
“Christie, are you listening?”
“Yes,” said Christie’s voice. “That star name matches Gamma Aquarii, about 73 light-years from here.”
“Is that planet under Rakhar control?”
Faen said, “No, but the Rakhar comprise over half the population, and have entire enclaves left to their own governance.”
“I see. Faen, we have technology on our ship that could allow us to access your memories of the alien attack, if you’ll consent to it. It might prove useful to us to help figure out who or what they are, and why they attacked your fleet.”
“I suppose I won’t mind, if it’s harmless.”
“It is. Our ships are going to spend some more time here doing scans. After that, we can take you wherever you’d care to go within about five hundred light-years.”
Faen sighed. “The Valorous was the closest thing to a real home I’ve had in over twenty years. Where would I go? I have nothing, I know no one.”
“You can stick with us for a while,” said Eva. “You don’t have to decide right now.”
“There’s one more thing,” said John. “You should know that the fleet has been utterly neutralized. You may be the only survivor.”
Doctor Ogden came back to the medical bay with a fresh cup of the sweet and aromatic hot beverage that she liked. He placed it on her bedside table. She picked it up carefully and inhaled the steam.
“I didn’t want any of them to die,” Faen began, “but I won’t shed any tears, either. I only feel bad for their families. Do you have any idea what we were doing at this planet?”
“It was an invasion. Though I hate to say it, from our perspective, you were the bad guys.”
She sipped her drink. “Who do you represent?”
“We represent the interests of both our own planet, known as Terra, as well as any other world that may be oppressed or in danger, if we think we can make a difference.”
“Ironic, then, that the Rakhar always made themselves out to be a stabilizing force in the galaxy. I’m sure the residents of this planet would disagree.”
“You never know. Sometimes an invasion force can be greeted as liberators, if they’ve run off someone even worse. Sadal Biham, however, was already at peace, as far as we know.”
Faen shivered, and put the mug back on the table, lest she spill it. “Commander Scherer? Captain Dietrich?”
“Yes?” asked Dietrich.
“We should leave this solar system. Now. They’re out there, watching us. I can feel it.”
__________
John, Ari, and Evangeline arrived back on the bridge of the Faith. Ray and Dana were there, and greeted them, and Dana waited for John to summarize their visit to the Percheron. She had news of her own.
“We’ve received a message from the Fox,” she began. “Text only. They forwarded us a classified ad from the ‘net from Vastus. They’re looking for capable ships to dispose of radioactive waste from the Saffron Canyon facility. The Fox won’t be participating, they just thought we should know.”
“I hope they know what they’re doing,” said Eva. “Physical danger aside, there’s something very wrong about that place.”
“Unless you want to monitor the situation, there’s little we can do to help. The Percheron isn’t equipped to handle material like that, and the Faith could only carry a small amount in the engine room, due to the ad hoc lead shield that Christie installed. And that’s assuming we could find a safe way to put it there in the first place.”
“We’ve got bigger problems right now,” said John. “Christie and our new guest are down in the orb room now; hopefully we’ll be able to glean a few more useful details from Faen’s mind about what happened here. Where are Richter, Devonai, and Zukova?”
“The situation around the planet hasn’t changed, so they went down to the galley to resume their Canasta marathon.”
John stared at the dark fleet that floated ominously outside of the windows. “That’s fine for now. After Christie and Faen are done, I’d like to arrange a mission to the Valorous, to see if we can access their records and sensor logs. I’ll figure out who from the Percheron I want to come with us and run it by Dietrich. Then, we can head over to the colonized moon and see what’s going on there. Any progress on the satellite grid?”
Ray said, “None. It seems to be impenetrable. Dana and I have been doing visual scans, and were able to spot several aircraft or ships at high altitude, just below the satellites. Zee also took us around to take a look at the night side of the planet; all their cities are still lit up as one would expect. Our best guess is that the population is fine, but totally cut off.”
John saw a flash, and pointed at the planet. “Did you see that?”
“I did,” replied Dana.
She zoomed the HUD on the main screen to that location. A ship was there, below the satellites. As they watched, it fired a projectile at one of the satellites, which detonated seconds later, with no apparent effect.
“I guess that answers the question of whether or not the residents of Sadal Biham installed the grid,” said Ari. “They’re trapped.”
“I wonder if the aliens thought they were allied with the Rakhar fleet, or one and the same,” said Dana.
“That might explain the grid,” said John. “It could be a punishment for some sort of transgression against them.”
Christie entered the bridge, wearing an expression of exasperation.
“This is so fucking weird,” she said, and sat down.
“Success?”
“I’m not sure. Faen’s memories mostly back up everything she told us. There are two things that I can’t figure out. One, is the way she processed the image of the aliens. There’s isn’t a direct path from her optic nerve to the brain; the signal passed through the part of her brain that processes imagination and creative thought before an image was generated. It’s always been the foggiest part of mucking around inside someone’s head, distinguishing imagination from reality, and here it was that much more confusing. The best I can tell you is that the resultant images, which match what she told us, are a construct of her own mind. That’s not to say it was all in her head, quite to the contrary. The brief lightning bolts that killed her crewmates, and everything else that happened, were very much real. Strange at it is, I’ve seen this sort of thing before, with Evangeline.”
Eva went pale. “Me?”
“I never told you, and for that I owe you an apology, but I accessed your memories from when Aquila escaped the reactor on the Eagle. It was the same situation then; whatever you saw was processed by your imagination before creating a palpable image. I think these aliens are the Kira’To, and their strange way of interacting with our plane of existence causes our brains to try to interpret what they see the best they can. If I’m right, it’s different for everyone.”
Eva began to cry. “Your worst nightmare.”
“Somebody go get Richter,” said John. “What was the other thing, Christie?”
Ray stood up and exited the bridge to the central corridor.
“You remember that Faen said one of the aliens touched her? One of the most important parts of accessing someone’s mind that I figured out is how to sort memories chronologically. When the alien touched her, she re-experienced something like ninety percent of her life in that instant, refreshing the memories with perfect clarity. If the alien was able to record that information, then it would make for an effective interrogation, given enough time to sort it all out.”
“If they did that with anyone else, then they’d have a pretty good idea of what the Rakhar were doing here. Then they’d also know that Sadal Biham wasn’t allied with them.”
Ray returned with Richter. Eva leapt up and embraced him.
“I’m okay,” she said. “It’s just raw emotion.”
“I understand,” said Richter.
“Where is Faen now?” asked John.
Christie said, “She wanted more rest, so I gave her access to my quarters.”
“Okay. Based on what you’ve discovered, can we trust her?”
“Absolutely.”
Eva released Richter and turned to face the others. “I don’t think going to the Valorous is a good idea. We have no idea if these aliens are still on board or in the area. Our invisibility shields may be the only thing keeping us from being attacked right now. The Rakhar’s weaponry is powerful stuff, if we encounter these things ourselves, what makes you think we’d fare any better than they did? They could wipe out the boarding party, figure out how to circumvent our shields, and we’re dog meat.”
Ari said, “Sounds like another solo job for me, then.”
John nodded. “Eva is right. Sending Ari is a better option. However, there’s no guarantee they’ll be hostile toward us. Knowing the Rakhar, they breezed over diplomacy and provoked the battle. And if they are Kira’To, they’ll probably recognize Eva and open up a dialogue.”
“So what then,” began Ray, “drop our shields and see if they make contact?”
“I wouldn’t go that far, at least not right now. Let’s continue to gather information on the sly and see what we come up with.”
“Christie,” said Ari, “You mentioned Faen is an engineer. Were you able to find out the location of the nearest airlock to the bridge of the Valorous?”
“Yes,” she replied. “There’s one quite close on that deck, it shouldn’t take you too long to get there.”
“Okay. I could be ready to go in about fifteen minutes, if that’s the consensus.”
“I think it is,” said John. “Any objections?”
“You already know how I feel,” said Eva. “Still, we should be ready to bug out in an instant.”
“Oh, we’ll be gassed up with our feet on the pedal. I’ll call the Percheron and let them know the plan. Ari, good luck.”
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