Chloë (16 page)

Chloë
stared nervously as she watched Raymond and two of the proud Shukurae warriors
delicately operate the controls of the light cruiser.  The artificial
gravity was off in the ship and was likewise off on the landing zone. 
While it made things easier for takeoff, the low gravity only exasperated the
unease she felt.  She tried not to giggle at poor Heather, she was sitting
in the corner and looked positively ill.  Chloë had endured the
unpleasantness of shifting gravity domains several times, and while this one
was the most extreme, at least she knew what to expect.  Heather, who had
never before been in a starship until a week ago, was much worse for the wear.

“Just
pretend this is one of those amusement park rides, there on the borderlands,”
Chloë offered to Heather as she looked for her own distraction.

“Those
are mostly positive g-forces and they don’t last very long,” began Heather as
she slinked towards a couch to lie on.  “This seems to be lasting
forever.”

“It’ll
be over soon,” fired Raymond over his shoulder.  “I’m showing green across
the board,” he announced to the other Shukurae.  “All systems are level
and we have four sigmas balance on our emergency systems.”

“How
much buffer is built into the emergency systems?” asked Watzkel over his
shoulder.

“This
is a Kulpgurie manufactured ship so three more on top of that.”

Watzkel
laughed, “More likely to get struck by lightning than have an engine
failure…  Okay, Raymond, you have the controls.  We lift off on your
mark.”

Raymond
nodded to the two helping at the controls and the ship gently lifted off the
ground and started its slow, but smooth ascent from the moon’s surface.

“Nice
and smooth,” grinned Chloë appreciatively.  “They’ll be able to turn the artificial
gravity up here in just a few minutes, Heather.  Just hold on a little
longer.”

Heather
whimpered and just stared at the ceiling, “I shouldn’t have eaten such a large
breakfast…”

Chloë
carefully walked over to Heather and sat on the couch next to her.  “Just
a little bit longer.”  Chloë watched the impromptu crew at work. 
Raymond was the only Taik, all the rest were Shukurae field soldiers and yet
they all worked together well and handled the controls of the ship remarkably
well.  Raymond had expressed some concern as he had never done a take-off
in such a large ship, but his fears bore no fruit: he was performing
marvelously.  Others in the unit had far more experience on large ships,
but there was a certain practicality to having Raymond at the controls: they
were at least sized for him; the Shukurae’s fingers were quite large for the
buttons and controls at hand.  Chloë smiled at the level of trust
displayed between the Shukurae and Raymond.  A week ago neither she nor
Raymond would have ever even conceived of working alongside the Shukurae, but
here they were, working together, and doing so quite efficiently.

Color
returned to Heather’s ears and nose as the gravity slowly increased to 0.95 of
normal.  Not quite spot on for the Highlands, but close enough. 
Heather shuddered as she sat upright, “Okay, that’s over.  Nothing else
weird today, right?”

“We
have a jumpgate in about twelve hours.  Outside of that it should be a
smooth ride,” offered Raymond.

 Chloë
beeped Heather lightly on the nose, “When we ran through all those gate houses
that time it was
I
who got ill, not you.  How was this so much
worse?”

“I
have no idea… I’m just glad it is over.  Twelve hours of boredom he
said.  I can live with that.  Raymond, want to go back and play in
the cargo hold?”

“By
all means, Lady Heather, just give us about thirty minutes.”

“Back
in the cargo hold?  What are you two going to do there?”

“Same
thing we did last night?” grinned Heather.

“And
that was?” teased Chloë.

“Fencing,”
replied Raymond over his shoulder.  “You are more than welcome to join us,
Lady Chloë.”

Chloë
grinned broadly but the grin fell as her brain churned.  “Um, does he know
about me and Live Steel?” whispered Chloë.

Heather
tersely shook her head, “Nope.  Let’s keep it that way.”

Chloë
nodded in agreement; Raymond was being wonderful, but…

“Ma’am,
we have an anomalous signal on our forward scanners,” barked one of the
Shukurae.

“Is
it a ship?” gritted Watzkel.

“Negative,
too small.  But it is synthetic… Front forward arc… Between its size and
relative movement makes it hard to get a fix on it.”

“Assume
it is in one of the Lagrangian Points and recalculate the track,” offered
Raymond.

“Good
call!  We have a positive track now; it appears to be a relay satellite of
some type.”

“Kulpgurie
export market reconnaissance satellite,” blurted Raymond with
recognition.  “It is almost guaranteed to have a fix on us by
now.”   

“Then
it knows our exit vector,” grumbled Watzkel.

“The
vector is a given, there are only two jumpgates within a week’s travel of
here,” can the reply from one of the Shukurae at the controls.  “But it
now knows we’ve left, so the
timing
is now well assured.”

“Does
this tin can have anything that can destroy it!” growled Watzkel.  “If so,
fry it!”  She sighed to herself, “Why couldn’t we have ended up with a
ship with its own gate-driver…”

The
Shukurae’s eyes at the control lit up in a childish grin as he unleashed a
particle beam cannon at the voyeur.  “Thirty seconds to impact.”

“Do
we change our course?”

“We
change nothing until we have a clean sweep!” growled Watzkel.

“Come
on,” suggested Chloë to Heather.  “Let’s go find something to do.”

“Or
eat,” grinned Heather.

“Eat? 
Five minutes ago you were about ready to cough up your hind claws!” laughed
Chloë.

Chloë
squeaked as she fell out of bed.  She would have laughed at Heather’s
panicked and contorted form on the top bunk if it wasn’t for the obviousness of
the situation: something had just hit the ship!  Suddenly the overhead
light snapped on and she recoiled from the light.  Overhead, Heather
sneezed at the light and then finally gave up and dropped to the floor on all
fours, landing all but on top of Chloë.

“Get
up and get dressed, ladies,” barked Raymond.  “We’ve got company!”

“Wait!”
fired Chloë, but it was too late, he was already gone.

“Can’t
we at least get to a nice solid planet before all the insanity starts?” groused
Heather as she made for her clothes.

Chloë
and Heather both did a double take as they felt the artificial gravity on the
ship shift and reduce itself briefly before returning to normal.  “Um,
that doesn’t bode well,” offered Chloë.

“Silly
me, I thought flying off the top bunk didn’t bode well…”

“Well,
from my end, you actually looked kinda funny hanging half out of bed,” laughed Chloë
as she quickly got dressed.  It wasn’t much of a laugh, but it was all she
could muster at the time.

Heather
graced Chloë with one of her signature raspberries before finishing
dressing.  “Oh well, things were getting boring anyway…”

There
was a quick rap at the door and Chloë called out, “Come in!”

Raymond
re-entered with a serious look on his face.  “Good, dressed.  Come
quickly, we have problems.”

“He
said ‘
problems
’, plural…” noted Heather as she stuck out her
tongue.  Wit aside, she followed Raymond and Chloë made quick pursuit.

The
ship shuddered again and alarms could now be heard in the distance. 
Raymond paid them no mind as he shepherded the girls to the rear of the ship to
one of the escape pods.

Chloë’s
eyes went round at the sight of the escape pods, “Is the ship breaking up?”

“No,”
replied Raymond evenly.  “Not yet,” he muttered under his breath.  He
helped the two girls into the pod and directed them to the restraints before
closing himself in with them.  The lights in the pod sprang to life and
danced.  Raymond typed away before cuing a microphone on the panel,
“LC!  I have both ladies in the pod and we are sealed tight.  We
eject on your mark!”

The
distorted but unmistakable voice of Watzkel replied, “Understood. 
Separation in less than 30.  We will rendezvous in 36 hours, stay off the
regular comms for at least 18.”

“Understood. 
Have blackbook for comms; will follow protocol.”

“Keep
the sun at your back, brave palace cat…  Stand by for separation!”

Chloë
was too scared for questions and reflexively found herself snuggling up to
Raymond in spite of herself.  The restraints didn’t yield much, but she
was grateful when Raymond noticed and smiled back at both of them.

“Hold
on…”

Chloë
didn’t know if it was safe to scream, they were in an escape pod after
all,   quite well isolated from the rest of the ship, but scream she
did.  Suddenly an eerie blue engulfed the electronics and all her fur
stood on end of its own accord.  A split second later there was the
uncomfortable lurch as the pod separated and its thrusters briefly fired. 
Moments later they were weightless.  Chloë would have felt sorry for
Heather, but she was too busy screaming herself.  Chloë finally just gave
up, teared up, and doubled forward.

It
seemed like forever and then there it was, the soft but firm touch of Raymond
petting her head.  “It’s okay ladies, we are clear.  Things are calm
now, we separated just as planned.  You can unbuckle if you like, we have
an hour and a half before reentry.”

Chloë
unbuckled, but only just enough to scoot closer to Raymond.  She smiled
fondly at Heather who had all but crawled entirely into Raymond’s lap. 
Heather was scared, and sick, and she wasn’t afraid to admit it.  But they
all seemed calmer there in his arms.  Chloë had teased Heather about her
affections for Raymond, but they did seem warranted: he was a nice man and was
showing the better of himself every day.

“Were
we being shot at?” finally came Heather’s voice, muffled by Raymond’s chest.

“Charged
particle beams. Low kinetic energy, high electrical charge though.  They
were trying to shut down the ship’s power without cracking us open.”

Chloë’s
mind raced, “They were trying to take us alive at least…”

“There
is a sizable reward for you, Lady Chloë, and certain death should anything bad
happen to you.” Raymond paused before continuing, “Um, I don’t know if it will
make you feel better or not, Heather, but you are now in demand, too.”

“I
just want to go home…”

Raymond
gently kissed Heather on the top of the head,   “We’re working on
that…”

“What
just happened?  Why did we separate from the Shukurae?”  asked Chloë.

“We
decided to do a round about approach to the jump gate, but still feared the
ship was being tracked so we swung by a planet with a small colony as a way
point.  Either we were being tracked, or someone second guessed us because
we soon found a welcoming committee.  They spotted us and they started
firing at range.  The
good
thing is that ion beams like that make
the ship glow on scanners and would easily mask something small, like an escape
pod, from being seen.”

“So,
we snuck away while the Shukurae go toe-to-claw with the attackers?” 
managed Heather, still unwilling to change her perch.

“Yes,
but only just barely,” continued Raymond as he carefully stroked Heather’s
hair.  “They are going to eject here in a bit and try to have the cruiser
ram one of theirs.  But because of the time difference in the ejection of
the pods, we will land very far apart.”

Chloë
just sighed, there wasn’t really a whole lot to do.  They had an hour and
a half, and she was all out of questions.  Not that she wasn’t curious
about a million things, just none of them seemed to make it all the way up to
her throat.  She tried to sleep, the pod was relatively cozy, and there
was good company, but the uncertainty of the situation made real sleep
difficult.  But sleep she finally did, in spite of it all, and the sleep
felt good.

“Good
morning, Lady Chloë,” called Raymond through the front of the escape pod.

Chloë
looked around, the other two were outside and she was still half buckled into
the pod.  “I
slept
through reentry?” laughed Chloë.

Raymond
grinned, “Both of you did.  Come on, we need to try and get some distance
under our feet.”

Chloë
grinned as she exited the pod and noticed Heather’s antics: she was sitting on
the ground on all fours and was extending her claws and retracting them slowly
into the soft soil underfoot.  Heather looked bright eyed and giddy. 
Chloë smiled, she hadn’t seen Heather that happy in days.  “Lost on a
backwater planet seems to suit you Heather,” laughed Chloë.

Heather
just turned and grinned, “But there is real ground beneath us!  Real soil
and plants!”  She fired off a raspberry, “Who cares if we are lost, at least
it is a real planet for a change!”

“We
aren’t lost,” smirked Raymond, “and if things go well we should be able to
relink with Watzkel’s unit in a day and a half or two.  This planet has
already been flagged by the Shukurae’s emergency beacon, so help is already
alerted and on the way.  We just need to be careful, use our time and
resources wisely and we should have no problems.”

“Wisely?”
grinned Chloë.

“I
heard that!” barked Heather.

“But
I hadn’t said anything,” laughed Chloë.

“But
I could hear you
think
it,” grinned Heather.

“Alright
ladies,” grinned Raymond as he shouldered a backpack.  “Let’s all be nice
and get moving.”

Heather
frowned, “I can carry a pack!”

“No,
ma’am.  I have the pack.  I want your undivided attention focusing on
the local wildlife,” lectured Raymond.  “While this isn’t the same flora
and fauna you grew up with, I’m sure many aspects are the same none-the-less,
and I’d rather not get surprised by anything… especially things with teeth…”

Heather
beamed, “I have teeth…”

Chloë
laughed and rolled her eyes, it was good to see Heather back to her old
self.  

The
sun started to bear down on Chloë; oh! she had become spoiled by the cool
mountain air of the Highlands!  She laughed to herself, maybe she should
change into her nightgown, it was cooler!  She had wandered two days
through the Highlands in her nightgown wishing for something warmer and now
here she was wishing for something cooler… It was silly, of course, they had
been going in and out of shade all morning, this was just one more meadow and
then the gracious trees would provide comfort again.  She smiled to
herself as she watched Heather, bouncy, alive, alert and positively radiant!

Raymond
groused to no one in particular, “If Heather breaks into song, I’m going to throw
up.”

“Problems?”
grinned Heather as she draped another garland of gorgeous flowers over
Raymond’s ears.  “If you’d bend over, I could put these around your neck
proper!”

Raymond
rolled his eyes, “Oughtn’t you be watching for wildlife?”

Heather
grinned as she strolled ahead, “I have been.  I was the one that spotted
that ursine like thing an hour ago, as well as the larger herbivores.”

Raymond
just softly growled while Chloë laughed, “She does have wonderfully sharp
eyes!  You have a problem with all her pretty little flowers?”

Raymond
rolled his eyes, “It’s just not… dignified.”

“Think
of it as camouflage. Or as a way to cover up your scent so you can more easily
sneak up on game animals.”

“Finding
the game animals will be easy… just follow the laughter,” murmured
Raymond.  “I’m sure one of these flowers is going to give me a rash…”

“Aw! 
Is the brave palace guard allergic to sunshine and roses?” teased Heather.

“We
have no idea what these plants are… it’s only statistical that
one
of
them will cause an allergic reaction or something…”

“The
blue flowers are Carl’s Lilies, the purple are called Violet Meadow March,”
replied Chloë absentmindedly.

“You
mean they look like…” began Raymond.

“No. 
They are.  All the plant life we’ve seen is consistent with the old
Jacob’s System. This planet was seeded intentionally.  I thought that was
obvious,” replied Chloë.

Raymond
stared back at Chloë with amazement, “Um, no.  It wasn’t obvious.”

“Maybe
they should add ‘gardening’ to the curriculum back at the Academy!” teased
Heather as she glowed at Chloë’s careful observation.

“Heck,
I’d just be happy with a more accurate version of sociology,” grinned
Raymond.  “Okay, assume this place was seeded from one of the Jacob’s
terraforming projects of centuries ago.  Is the animal life consistent?”

Chloë
grinned and shrugged, “Hey, I’m just a princess; we learn about flowers and
things.”

Raymond
laughed, “Fair enough.  Exotic wild animals
ought
to have been my
coursework!”  He cocked his head as he looked at Heather,  “That
does
mean, if you find little flowers whose petals alternate from blue to red, don’t
pick them: they stink and their sap is sticky.  Will stay in your fur for
days.  Guess how I know?”

 “I’ll
be nice,” grinned Heather as her ears perked up.  “Um, hoof beats. 
Regular and heading this way.”

 “Crap,
we’ve been spotted.  Girls hit the treeline and hide,” barked a suddenly
worried Raymond.  He grimaced as he took off the leis and handed them to
Heather.

“Shouldn’t
we all hide?” asked Chloë both confused and worried.

“No,”
replied Heather as she tugged on Chloë’s arm, leading her quickly to the edge
of the woods.  “Whoever it was spotted
something.
They need to find
something
.  If they find nothing, then they’ll just look harder.”

“I
don’t like poor Raymond being bait.”

“Yeah,
but it’s his
job
,” grinned Heather as they collected themselves behind a
large tree.  “Remember,
I’m
not allowed to have any fun!”

Chloë
grinned at Heather, “Oh yes you do: if something goes wrong, you get to rescue
him.”

“I
have no idea what you are talking about.” Heather fired back.

Chloë
and Heather lay perfectly still and both strained their ears as they peered
around the tree.  The hoof beats were louder now, and slower. 
Someone was definitely riding an animal: the control was too perfect and all
the herbivores they’d met so far were afraid of them! 

“What
is
that?
” asked Heather as the pair watched an antlerless herbivore with
passenger ride up.  The rider was a Taik, that was obvious enough, but the
animal was quite unusual.

“A
horse, human home world originally.  They are quite robust and adaptable,”
chimed Chloë carefully under her breath.  “Makes me curious if this is a
mixed colony.”

“Yeah,
Raymond didn’t elaborate much as we rushed to the escape pods…”

“We
could have asked more as we walked these last few hours…”

“But
I was having so much fun playing in the flowers,” grinned Heather.  “He
has a rifle!  The rider is armed!”

Chloë
strained as she peered at the form quickly closing on Raymond.  “Um, I
assume Raymond knows that by now… can you tell what type?”

Heather
shook her head, “Looks like a generic CKEW… it’s still holstered in the…
horse’s
harness.”

“A
what?”

Heather
grinned, “I’ve been around my dad too much: Chemical Kinetic Energy Weapon.”

Chloë
sighed and shook her head, “I’m only slightly more informed.  Never needed
to know any of that before.”

“It
looks like Raymond is able to talk with the rider.  Can you make any of
that out?  It sounds kinda like Gamehra.”

“Yep!”
grinned Chloë.  “It is a common trade tongue used quite widely. 
That’s a relief.”

They
both watched with some shock as Raymond turned and waved them over.

“I
hope your
boyfriend
knows what he is doing,” grumbled Chloë nervously as
she stood.

A
raspberry… who would have thought one of those would come from Heather? “Um,
he’s
your
bodyguard.”