Into the Black: Odyssey One (59 page)

“Aye Sir,” Roberts nodded, bringing the files up on the Captain’s displays. “Looks like they had some rough times down there.”

Weston winced as he noted the casualty report and nodded. “I can see that.”

“On the plus side, Brinks has a lot of good to say about the medical facilities made available to our people,” Roberts replied. “Apparently they’ve got a lot on the ball, when it comes to patching people up.”

“Nice to know,” Weston said thoughtfully. “I suppose, I should take Rame down with me, if he can break away from our own casualties.”

Roberts shifted uncomfortably, “about this visit, Sir…”

“I believe that the hostilities are dying down enough for a diplomatic visit, Commander,” Weston replied lightly, though his voice was cool.

Roberts hesitated, and nodded. “Aye Sir.”

“Besides, I think I want to speak with this Admiral Tanner,” Eric said thoughtfully. “Interesting man.”

“Yes Sir,” Roberts nodded. “You will be taking an escort?”

“Two Archangels.”

“I meant a personal guard, Captain,” Roberts said firmly. “I’ll assign some men to the job.”

Weston started to object, then let it go. If the Commander wasn’t going to give him a hard time about going down, he may as well reciprocate, “as you wish, Commander.”

*****

“Doctor Rame?”

Rame looked up from where he was checking the blood pressure and oxygen levels of a patient. “Yes Nurse?”

“You have a message from the Bridge, Sir.”

Rame nodded, setting down his tools, and checked the bank of near infra-red LED’s set over the patient. When he was satisfied that they were all operating at the proscribed pulse pattern, he walked over to his office.

“Rame here.”

“Doctor, the Captain wishes to enquire as to the status of your patients,” the Commander’s voice came over the comm.

“As well as they can be,” Rame replied curtly. “The ones who survived are out of danger, Commander.”

There was a brief pause before Roberts voice came back. “That’s good news, Doctor. The Captain also wishes to know if you would be free for a visit to the surface? He would like you to tour the local medical facilities, while he speaks with the Admiral.”

Rame almost told the Commander off then and there, but paused and glanced back out over his lab. The patients were out of danger, and he had two other doctors to handle emergencies, as long as the Captain wasn’t on board to drag them off into another crisis at any rate.

“I think I can make the time, Commander,” he said after a moment, deciding that one didn’t get the chance to tour alien medical facility very often. Even if they were human aliens.

“Excellent, Doctor. The Shuttle is being prepped now. You might want to pack.”

Rame stared at the comm as the channel went dead, then started cursing up a storm as he grabbed his ‘black bag’ and began throwing things into it.

*****

Later, on the flight deck, Captain Weston stepped off the lift into the zero gravity to see Doctor Rame walking awkwardly toward the shuttle from another lift. He easily kicked off the ground, ignoring the tacky resistance of his boots and glided along the ground out to the doctor’s position, before dropping his feet and landing with an abrupt stop.

Rame started and almost lost his footing, but recovered enough to glare at Weston a second later.

“Doctor,” Eric smiled.

“Captain.”

“Glad you could make it,” Eric told him as they walked to the ramp of the shuttle together. Four armored soldiers formed up the ranks behind them, as they started walking up ramp.

“Seemed like a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Rame smiled. “In fact, I believe that Doctor Palin is currently cursing his luck for missing it.”

“How is the good Doctor?”

Rame snorted at the idea of Palin being a ‘good’ anything, but he shrugged. “He’ll be fine. He and that boy were lucky. They’ll both pull through.”

“Excellent,” Weston said, checking his restraints as the rating came along and triple checked everyone.

“We’ll be taking off shortly, Captain,” he told Eric as he yanked Rame’s straps tight.

“Thank you, Crewman,” Eric nodded.

The Crewman nodded before he went back to his work while Eric and the Doctor continued talking. Around them, the shuttle slowly wound up, the whine penetrating the deck, as the pilot called for clearance. It was given shortly after and the shuttle pushed them back into their seats, as it roared off the deck and into the black.

*****

Admiral Rael Tanner stood out in the open as the rather large and impressive looking Orbiter slowed for a controlled burn and settled into an easy hover, over the landing area they had directed the pilot to.

Tanner had to admit, he was suddenly wondering if the area they had chosen was large enough.

His worries proved to be groundless a moment later, when the gleaming white ship settled in for a feather-light landing, its lights flashing in a pattern he didn’t know, as its reactors powered down.

Above the Orbiter, two sleek and lethal looking fighters hovered in what Rael was certain was meant to be every bit as menacing a display as it appeared. The nose of each fighter was actually pivoting the barrel of a rather large weapon, giving the craft an angry appearance, as it swept over the field.

His eyes were torn from the fighters as the Orbiter lowered a plank to the ground and two figures in armor that matched Ithan Chans’ marched down and took up positions on either side. Only then did he see his first unarmored human from the Odyssey, though Tanner supposed he hadn’t seen many armored ones, for that matter.

Two men stepped down next, one wearing a white uniform that matched the gleaming surface of the Orbiter, while the other wore a more utilitarian dark blue. Admiral Tanner was suddenly exceedingly conscious of his own uniform, which was the same as every other member of the Colonial Merchant Exploration Fleet.

He forced such thoughts back, throwing back his shoulders, to match the stance of the man in white and looked up at the taller man, when the two came to a stop.

“Captain Weston?”

Eric Weston looked down at the smaller man, he recognized as Admiral Tanner. He hadn’t realized just how small the man was over the screen and it was a surprise that he stood nearly two heads taller than the Admiral. He didn’t let it cross his face, however, and stopped with a click of his boots on the obsidian surface, throwing a textbook salute.

“Admiral,” he held the form for several seconds, then dropped the salute and nodded gravely. “I’m pleased to meet you, Sir.”

“No more than I,” Tanner said, smiling suddenly. “I… My world, we all owe you a debt. Anything you ask, I am certain we can work something out.”

“For the moment, Admiral, I’ll settle for some O2 to top off our supplies and a little help with repairs, if you can,” Weston replied. “In the long term…, well, I would appreciate if your people gave consideration to sending a representative with the Odyssey, when we return home.”

“As to repairs and O… too?” Tanner frowned, “I’m sure something can be worked out… Once I know what O too is.”

Eric smiled involuntarily, shaking his head as he tapped the link on his jaw. “These damn things mess up the oddest words. O2 is Oxygen. We lost some of our air, during the battle.”

“Ah. Air,” Tanner smiled. “That, I believe, we can provide in plenty. Next, as to a representative, I will have to pass that along to the Council, however, I believe that you may be assured that it will be given…, a most serious consideration.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Weston replied.

“Now, with the preliminaries finished,” Tanner motioned to a pair of immense doors attached to an even larger building, “shall we move this inside, as it were?”

“With Pleasure… Oh, Admiral,” Weston motioned to Rame. “This is Doctor Rame. He is interested in touring the medical facility where our soldiers were being treated?”

“Absolutely, Captain,” Tanner motioned with one hand and a young woman stepped up. “Show the Doctor to the military medical facilities, Ithan.”

“Of Course, Admiral,” she said with a smile. “Doctor, if you would follow me, I will secure transport.”

“Thank you, my dear,” Rame said with a smile.

She gave him a quizzical look, but they went off quickly. Tanner, though, turned to Weston with a puzzled look.

“My ‘dear’?” He asked, frowning.

Eric blinked, and one of the soldiers snorted with laughter behind him. He glanced in irritation over his shoulder, causing the soldier to stiffen immediately. He was going to berate the man, but remembered that the armor HUD had probably given him a text definition of the question.

“What is it, Soldier?” He growled.

“Sorry Sir, it’s just that the translation matrix is confusing deer and dear,” the soldier replied, then winced under his armor as he backpedalled. “I mean…”

“I know what you mean, Sir,” Weston remembered Palin’s similar conversation with Milla and sighed. So he turned back to the Admiral and shrugged with a smile, “another translation problem, apparently, Sir.”

“I see,” Tanner replied, after waiting for the computer to catch up to what Weston’s own, rather harsh, language was saying.

It was difficult enough, Rael noted, dealing with a translation that was far from perfect, but it was made even more difficult, by the fact that the translated words were overlain on top of the original language. He was just as happy that all the Colonies spoke the same language it simplified things greatly despite the occasional dialect issues that occurred.

“Well Captain,” he said finally. “If you’d follow me?”

Weston nodded gravely and the two of them stepped into the large building, their entourage walking or, in two cases, thumping, along behind them.

*****

“Incredible,” Rame whispered, watching as the immense city passed around him.

“Pardon, Sir?” The ‘Ithan’ asked from where she was sitting at the controls of the vehicle they were flying.

“It’s a very impressive City, Ah… Miss?”

“Rache,” she told him. “Ithan Rache.”

“Rache,” Rame repeated. “As I was saying, it’s a very impressive city.”

“Mons Systema is the capital city of three worlds,” she told him, a touch of what Rame recognized as home town pride filling her voice.

“Three?”

“That’s correct, Docteur,” she told him. “Political power is centered here for several star systems, in fact.”

“I suppose that’s why the aliens used so many ships,” Rame said dryly.

She grimaced in response and nodded to a building they were approaching. “Your wounded were brought here for treatment.”

Rame took the hint and shut up.

*****

“A drink, Captain?”

“Thank you, Admiral,” Eric nodded as the small man poured a lightly tinted liquid into a long thing glass.

The Admiral started to hand it across, paused and frowned, “it occurs to me that perhaps we should confirm that there are no poisons in our food or drink, which might affect you…”

“I don’t believe that would be a problem, Admiral,” Weston replied easily, accepting the drink by leaning forward. “Our doctor did extensive cellular examinations when we picked up Miss Chans. We are genetically identical, with the expected minor deviations one would find in any isolated section of the species.”

“I see,” Tanner replied, pouring a second glass for himself. “I must admit, that I find this quite interesting. There have long been legends, of course, concerning other human planets, but I believe that the last time such a thing was found was…, several thousand cycles ago, at least.”

“That’s some history you have there,” Weston said, impressed despite not knowing exactly what a cycle was. “How long have you had space travel?”

Tanner shrugged, taking a drink. “I would have to look up the exact number, but it is just marginally over fifteen thousand cycles.”

“Cycles?” Eric frowned, tapping his induction mic again, deciding that he’d better get that detail cleared up.

“Pardon, a cycle is the length of time this world takes to circle our sun,” Tanner replied.

Eric blinked, pausing with his drink just inches from his lips, “wow.”

“Pardon?” Tanner asked politely, smiling with a look of confusion on his face. “Surely your own worlds have been space faring for some time…”

“Actually, no,” Weston said slowly, weighing his words as he tried to decide what exactly to say. Finally he just decided to go with the truth, “Actually the Odyssey is our first interstellar vessel.”

Tanner set his own glass down, laying his hand against the table in surprise. “What was it you said, Captain? Wow?”

Eric chuckled, nodding. “Yes. That was what I said.”

“Wow.”

“That’s a lot of history you have, Admiral,” Eric said again after a moment. “My own nation, in its current state, actually only goes back about ten years. Until I can get a better comparison, call it ten cycles.”

“So young,” Tanner said, tilting his head slightly as he considered it. “It’s…, incredible to me, I must admit.”

“Makes two of us,” Eric Weston said, picking up his glass again and raising it to his host.

*****

Sean Bermont looked up in surprise when he recognized the familiar form of the Odyssey’s CMO approaching.

“Doctor?” He blinked, his arm itching slightly from where the local med techs had gone to work on him. “What are you doing down here?”

Rame looked over at the young man, taking a moment to place him. “Ah, Lieutenant. I came down with the Captain I wanted to tour the local medical facilities.”

Bermont smirked then flexed his arm, “They do good work, Doc. Patched me up good as new, ’cept for the itch.”

“Oh?” Rame came over, looking for the injury. “Where were you injured?”

“Shoulder,” Bermont informed him, then grinned. “But don’t bother looking. Nothing to see, they cleaned me up, real good.”

Rame examined the bare shoulder on the soldier, but couldn’t find any evidence of an injury other than, perhaps, a patch of pink skin. “Here?”

Bermont rubbed the skin where the doctor had pointed, “yeah. One of those damned buggy bastards cut right through my armor. They’ve got feet like spades or something.”