Merkiaari Wars: 03 - Operation Oracle Read online

  At the end of that cycle, Shima felt satisfied that she had done something to help her situation at last. She was still blind, still walking the ship’s corridors on Chailen’s arm and in the dark, but the light she had seen in her head gave her great hope for the future. Surely the Humans were right and she would see again.

  Hymas set a time two cycles hence for another visit to sickbay. Shima would have preferred sooner, but could do nothing about it. She had to wait. The time passed slowly, but it did eventually pass and a viper she hadn’t previously met came to fetch her.

  Shima was curled up in the corner of her cabin, trying to sleep, but she spent so much of her time doing that, she wasn’t even a little sleepy. She considered meditating, but again she did that a lot and couldn’t rouse the enthusiasm. A sound like a bell chiming interrupted her thoughts, and she remembered the Human word to say when that happened.

  “Enter,” Shima said clearly.

  The hatch slid aside and a Human male entered her cabin. The harmonies told her she had not met this one before. He was a viper, all Humans aboard the ship were of course, and his aura was like a banked fire. There was power in him, a deep and strong well of power held in check. Shima sensed he would be strong willed but the banked fire in her head suggested he could erupt into a violent conflagration at need. He was the quintessential warrior.

  It was a puzzle how different he seemed to the other Humans she had met. Then again, she hadn’t met that many; they were all very different to her people in the harmonies. They burned brightly, vivid colours moving with violent frenetic motions. Shan were all pastels and gentle motion. Shima could only assume it was the intimate connection with the harmonies that caused the difference. Shan lived in harmony, or strove to do so. Humans had no connection with the harmonies and did not know what they lacked. It was very sad.

  “Good morning, Shima. May you live in harmony. I’m Sergeant Stone. Call me Stone, I prefer it.”

  Shima pushed herself up to stand on two legs to greet him properly. She bowed to him. “A pleasure to meet you. May you live in harmony. Have you come to escort me to Healer Hymas?”

  “Marian will be there, but you’re mine today.”

  “Yours?” Shima said uncertainly. “How so?”

  “I’ll explain on the way,” Stone said. “May I take your arm?”

  Shima flicked her ears and held her right arm out. Stone took her arm and wrapped it over his. He held his arm up rigidly allowing her to hold on tightly or not as she chose. She liked that. She would never tell her sib, but Chailen grabbed her arm and led her around like a youngling when she did this. Stone walked at her pace, letting Shima control things. When they reached the elevator needed to change decks on Human ships, Stone told her to stop and used the controls to call the car for her.

  “Handy things, elevators,” Shima said thinking about the ramps her people used at home. “I’ve had trouble with the spiral ways back home.”

  “Hmmm, you would. Humans sometimes suffer from vertigo too.” Stone said. “My people use stairs and elevators everywhere; ladders as well, especially in ships for emergencies if the elevators lose power. You never want to be stuck in a box in the middle of a battle.”

  Shima shuddered. “I should think not!”

  Stone chuckled. The elevator doors slid aside and they stepped into the car.

  “Deck Two,” Stone barked. “We’re not going to sickbay.

  Shima flicked her ears. Sickbay was on three. “Where then?”

  “Rec room... that’s recreation room. Marion told me she needed a scanning unit to fit a Shan. That was easy enough. I borrowed Kazim and Chailen to help me design one and test them for fit. They work like a charm, but the really interesting part was when she told me how much you liked the vision test.”

  “It was marvellous!” Shima enthused. “I hadn’t seen light for the longest time. I was very excited.”

  “So she said. I... wait, we’re here.” Stone led the way out of the elevator and along the corridor. “Yes, Marion said you were pleased. She asked me to arrange something for you.”

  “Oh?”

  “I don’t know if you’re aware but we use simulations to train and teach our people. Not just for war, mind you. We use the tech in the Alliance for all sorts of things. We even use a form of it for entertainment. Shan tell stories, right?”

  “The sagas, teaching stories about our past,” Shima agreed.

  “Well we tell stories too, and we make them into shows to watch. They’re not all for teaching; some are just fun to watch. This is a ship of war, Shima, so we don’t have many aboard, but when you get to Snakeholme you could watch a different show every day for years and not see them all. Turn left here.”

  Shima did so and a door opened to let her enter. The harmonies revealed Kazim and Varya waiting with Healer Hymas. She couldn’t tell the full dimensions, but the room felt big. Everyone greeted her, and she returned the greetings. Kazim seemed excited.

  “You’re going to like this,” Kazim said.

  “If it works,” Hymas temporised. “Please don’t get her hopes up, Kazim.”

  “Hey!” Stone said. “When I make something, it works. Aren’t I the one who built a neural interface on Luna out of scrap? It will work.”

  “I hope so,” Varya said. “It was very interesting to watch. I want to see what Shima thinks of it.”

  “Bring her over here, Ken,” Hymas said and Stone led Shima over to join her. “Sit here, Shima.”

  Shima lowered herself onto a cushion placed on the deck and settled herself comfortably. Kazim and Varya joined her close by to watch proceedings. Hymas was kind enough to explain as she worked.

  “You remember the other day when I said you might like the results of the testing?”

  “Yes but you didn’t explain.”

  “That’s because I needed to be sure Ken could make it all work. I have a couple of new scanning units made to fit your people now, so you can keep this one after we make sure it works. We used one of our helmets for the chassis. You remember what they look like?”

  Shima remembered them well. Viper helmets, like the marine helmets she had seen used in battle, fully enclosed the head with a visored section that could polarise depending upon lighting conditions. She would not have been blinded if she’d had one; the visor would have changed to protect her eyes, but her people did not use armour of any kind. That would probably change soon due to association with Human warriors. Marine helmets were a drab green in colour, but could be programmed to blend better, and the visors were silvered by default because the inside surface was used for various displays like comm, sensors, and targeting. Viper helmets were black to match their uniforms and armour, and they also had comm to use with non-viper forces, but vipers had internal displays for sensors and targeting among other things. Their visors were black by default, but could be set to other colours and conditions the same way a marine helmet could.

  “I remember,” Shima said when she realised Hymas was waiting for an answer. “You put your medical scanner into one?”

  “Basically yes,” Stone said. “The hardest part was reshaping the helmet. Programming the nannies to do the work took a bit of time. I broke down a few spare scanners for parts. It worked out fine. I’m sure it won’t win any prizes, and I won’t bother with patents, but it will work.”

  Hymas chuckled. “Now your people are joining the Alliance, Shima, a lot of companies will be scrambling to make new products to sell to your people. Even medical equipment, I should think.”

  “Agreed,” Shima said. “Kazim and I spoke of this. Our people must be careful.”

  “Yes,” Stone said a little grimly. “There are good and bad people everywhere. I’ve no doubt there are companies that would bleed your economy dry if they could get away with it.”

  James had expressed his concern over that, and if she had heard right, Captain Colgan and James had both spoken with the elders about it before the war. They were forewarned. James seemed to fe
el that all of her people were kind and good, and would never do any wrong. After Shima stopped laughing, she had reassured James that her people were not innocent younglings, and that there were plenty who would give any Human scoundrels a run for their money.

  “If it’s as good as Kazim says, maybe you should sell it to my people,” Shima said. “Before someone else does.”

  “I don’t need the money,” Stone said. “I could give the specs to Kazim and he could take it with him when he goes home. A gift to you and your people, Kazim.”

  “I am honoured!” Kazim said. “My people will have nanotech soon. We could make them and other things for ourselves then. You are generous.”

  “It’s nothing,” Stone said. “There are ways to do the same thing without a helmet, but we can’t do it here.”

  “Well,” Shima said. “It might be nothing or might be something. Can I try it to see for myself?”

  “Sorry,” Hymas muttered. “Didn’t mean to talk over your head that way. Of course you can try it. We made it for you.”

  Shima sat still while Hymas put the helmet on her. It did indeed fit much better than the first one, and it even had room for her ears. She could only imagine what it must look like. Did it have holes in it for her ears or bulges? She couldn’t tell. She ran her hands over it. Bulges, but subtle bulges and the visor was down. There was a long bundle of optical fibres coming out of the back connected to a computer of some kind. The old one didn’t have anything like that, and she wondered why this did.

  “It’s so you can use it in your cabin if you want to,” Stone explained. “The rec room has screens on the walls for watching shows and playing games. Your helmet can connect wirelessly to all of that here just as the medical scanners do in sickbay, but your cabin doesn’t have the interfaces you would need.”

  Shima considered that and because her ears were hidden, she nodded in the Human manner. “What can I do with it?”

  “Well let’s see,” Stone said. “Here we go.”

  Shima gasped as the wonderful light appeared in her mind, but it quickly became so much more. At first there was a blue light filling her vision, but then she realised it wasn’t a blue light. Clouds drifted by. It was a sky! Shima heard the others talking about it, and realised they saw the sky as well.

  “You see it too, Kazim?”

  “Yes, on the big screens. We saw it before you came. Watch.”

  Shima was watching. The scene moved as if she had looked down. It made her just a little dizzy, but the sensation soon faded. A yellow sun was in the sky, and now she could feel the warmth. How did they do that? More sensations came to her. A breeze ruffled her fur, but that was impossible!

  “Did you feel that?” Shima gasped. “A breath of wind and now I smell... something.”

  “That’s great, Shima,” Stone said sounding pleased. “I hoped you would.”

  “We can only see and hear what you can, Shima,” Varya said. “We would need your helmet for anything else.”

  “He’s right,” Stone agreed. “What you’re watching can be played on screens like the ones in here, or uploaded into our simulators. The simulators are far more capable machines, but your helmet uses similar principles, Shima.”

  “And the differences?”

  “In a simulator your body is connected to the matrix as well as your mind. The helmet lets you see, hear, taste, smell, and feel the data, but you can’t actually interact with it. If you use one of our simulators, you become part of the story. You would be able to walk, run, pick things up and do pretty much anything you can do in real life. In our training sims you get shot and it hurts. Everything feels real. Even eating.”

  “I would like to try that,” Shima said.

  “This ship isn’t equipped with simulators,” Hymas said. “It’s just a troop transport, but perhaps we could arrange a session or two on Snakeholme if you’re still interested by then.”

  Shima was more than happy with the helmet; it was so much more than she’d had before, but the sims did sound interesting. She watched the show as the view changed. There were mountains and deserts, oceans and forests all under that yellow sun.

  “Is this your homeworld?”

  “Not mine, no,” Stone said, “but it is Earth. I wasn’t born there. I have other clips of Alliance worlds like this for you to watch, and there are proper entertainment shows if you get bored with them, but they’re meant for Humans. I’m not sure they’ll make sense to you.”

  “They don’t have to make sense,” Shima said. “That I can see at all is a miracle, Stone. I owe you and Healer Hymas so much for this. I’ll not forget.”

  “It’s nothing really, finding and editing the data together wasn’t too hard—” Stone began.

  “It’s not nothing to me,” Shima interrupted. “It’s everything! To be able to see again, even if only this way gives me hope.”

  “I’m glad you like it.”

  Shima watched entranced as world after world was displayed for her. Varya and Kazim became bored long before Shima was ready to stop. They left to find a meal leaving Shima alone. Hymas went back to sickbay and Stone to wherever his duties called him, but Shima stayed in the rec room basking under alien suns in her head.

  * * *

  Part II

  8 ~ Snakeholme

  Early morning, Petruso Base, Snakeholme.

  General George Burgton, CO 501st Infantry Regiment stood at attention on the parade ground squinting into the sun. At his side was his exec, Colonel Dan Flowers. Clustered a few steps to the right and a half dozen back stood his senior officers, and way behind them and centred on Burgton stood the entire 501st regiment, all at attention for this ceremony. The solid block of the recently constructed 2nd Battalion looked splendid, its six hundred plus viper units all wearing their Sunday best—the regiment’s Class A or dress uniform. All of them newly recruited, enhanced, and elevated from Colonel Stanbridge’s now denuded training battalion. Every man and woman stood ramrod straight in precise columns and rows, squinting into the sun and emotionless. They weren’t, they couldn’t be emotionless. No one could be after seeing the broken but still proud remnants of 1st Battalion making planet fall.

  1st Battalion stood at attention to the side of the parade ground in front of the Tech Centre. Their columns and rows intentionally left ragged, the gaps in the formation left open for wounded and dead comrades who were yet to land. They were a pitiful sight. They wore their battle dress blacks; their armour well used and scarred, but repaired back into service like the men and woman who wore it. They had the look in their eyes now that all veteran vipers achieved. The look that said they had seen hell and survived it. 1st Battalion had lost two-thirds of its number in battle against the Merkiaari, and most of them were true dead. Less than a hundred units were sleeping the little death of hibernation waiting to land still snug in their cryo units.

  On the far side of the parade ground, Colonel Stanbridge had hastily ordered stands erected for Snakeholme’s civilian delegation to sit when Grafton arrived back in system. Every city had sent a delegation to show respect, and Burgton appreciated it. They had never failed him, but it had been many decades since the regiment had last sallied forth in numbers requiring any kind of ceremony upon its return. This generation of civs certainly had never seen it before, but they had stepped up like their grandparents before them to show support.

  One last small group stood alone, and Burgton was beginning to regret that state of affairs. The Shan had landed with him and 1st Batt, but having no official positions, they were now a lonely island standing off to his left. Apart. Abandoned. They looked confused and unsure what to do. Burgton made a snap decision and activated his comm.

  “Gina, take charge of our guests. Make them part of your formation until after the ceremony. Shima and Varya deserve it. They fought with you.”

  “Thank you, sir. I was starting to feel wrong about them standing there,” Gina replied, sounding embarrassed.

  That pleased him. She was go
ing to make a very fine officer. “I feel the same way. Next time, speak up.”

  “Sir!” Gina replied accepting the order. “Fuentez out.”

  “Burgton clear.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Gina gather up the Shan and lead them back to her command. The few extra bodies did little to fill the holes in her formation. Alpha Company was barely there at all. Kazim as always was using his camera, and Burgton made a note to speak with him about that. He wanted to support Kazim in the furtherance of Kajetan’s aims, but there was still security to consider.

  He could put limits on Kazim’s movements, but he instinctively felt that was the wrong move. He didn’t want to come across as hiding things, even though he intended to do just that. First and foremost, Snakeholme’s location was to be kept secret. That was non-negotiable, the rest of what he filmed here they could debate and edit before Kazim left for home, but he wanted that clear from the start. Nothing that could help ships find this system must leave the planet.

  There were other things he didn’t want even the Alliance to know about his operations here, and it was certain that anything Kazim showed his people would filter back to the Alliance eventually. Humans were in Shan space now and forever in one capacity or another, so he had to be careful what he revealed. Burgton didn’t think, for example, that revealing the extent of his little navy would be a good idea. He had, technically at least, stolen all those ships. Even though they were headed for the breakers at the time, and he had rescued them, he doubted the Council would see them as legitimate salvage the way he did.