Cosmosis

Epilogue

It had been three days since Nora had decided to go with the empowered otter.

Three days later and Halax still wasn’t back. Neither was Nora.

“[What do we do?]” Jacob asked. “[The kids are getting antsy.]”

“[Be honest with them,]” Dustin said. “[Tell them Nora isn’t back yet, and that we’re trying to talk with the otters about where she went.]”

“[That’s not the whole truth,]” Jacob pointed out.

“[It’s what we know for sure. Everything past that is speculation.]”

“[…Do you think he did something to her?]” Jacob asked.

Dustin hesitated to answer. He had a knack for imagining worst case scenarios, and there were a lot of ways Nora’s gamble could have gone wrong.

“[…No,]” Dustin decided. “[Halax took a risk taking her away from here. If something went wrong, I don’t think he would be the one to engineer it.]”

“[He promised she would be safe though,]” Jacob said. “[If she’s hurt, that’s on him.]”

“[I don’t disagree,]” Dustin said coldly.

Depending on Halax’s explanation, if he ever showed back up, Dustin had half a mind to kill the alien.

Tempting as violence was, Dustin ignored the impulse. His gut instinct and logical analysis agreed. These aliens, ‘Vorak’, weren’t hostile, not fundamentally.

Dustin and Jacob had no illusions though. Hostile or not, the Vorak were keeping them imprisoned.

“[Talk to Michelle, get her help making some questions to give to the otter in charge,]” Dustin suggested.

“[Why me? I’m not in charge,]” Jacob protested.

“[Aren’t you?]” Dustin asked. “[Since Nora’s gone, it’s either you or me, and between the two of us, I think we both would rather have it be you.]”

“[It could be you…]” Jacob protested.

“[I want to punch the otters’ teeth out too much,]” Dustin said. “[Sorry.]”

“[That’s…well…okay, yeah. That would be a problem.]”

“[Count on me as your number two,]” Dustin hedged. “[I make a better deputy than I do a sheriff.]”

“[So I could delegate you something like, say…talking to Michelle?]”

“[Man up,]” Dustin chided. “[You can’t avoid her forever, and this is about as good an opportunity as you could hope for to apologize. Now go, before Shakri gets here.]”

Jacob nodded before wandering off, leaving him in his bunk.

It would only be a few more minutes. The fight at breakfast today must have made the otters nervous. And without Halax or the other two to help, there seemed to be only one Vorak ready to facilitate communication between the two parties.

Dustin felt bad for Shakri.

She seemed like a fairly young Vorak. She was not a large alien. Even some of the youngest abductees could peek over her head.

Dustin might have felt sorry for her, but that wasn’t about to see him go easy on her.

This was getting out of hand, and someone needed to head things off before they got worse.

So Dustin was the first one to storm out to meet the cadre of Vorak to visit them today. A small crowd of the other abductees gathering behind him while he went forth.

Shakri, unsurprisingly, was not alone.

She was joined by two more Vorak bundled up in germproof suits along with one more Vorak who was clearly acting in charge. Their body suit came equipped with a heavy-duty harness, a flak jacket, and several pieces of equipment affixed to the harness.

Dustin’s eyes fell onto one particular item near the Vorak’s belly that the two other guards also wore.

“[Hello,]” Shakri began. “[This is my commander—]”

“[Where’s Nora?]” Dustin cut her off. “[It’s been three days and we haven’t heard a thing.]”

“[I am sorry,]” Shakri said. “[We have no more information now.]”

“[Bullshit,]” Dustin said. “[You need our cooperation, but you aren’t giving us anything in return. This isn’t that hard, just tell us what happened to Nora!]”

“[We are…we struggle to learn your language. Halax’s ears are greater than mine.]”

“[It’s not how well you listen. He made more progress because he and Nora actually understood each other!]” Dustin shouted. “[They managed to build some mutual trust, but that hasn’t been possible for anyone else because you only send in one or two otters at a time! What are we supposed to do differently? We have no control here!]”

“[We must stay patient,]” Shakri insisted.

Dustin nearly flinched, because he agreed wholeheartedly.

But one look at the Vorak in charge told Dustin that his point hadn’t been made yet. They were getting desperate, and desperate people did bad things.

“[This isn’t good enough,]” Dustin shouted, “[this has been going on for months! You can’t keep trying to communicate with us one or two at a time!]”

“[Please,]” Shakri said. Her English was halting. Halax had picked it up much faster. “[Process. Difficult. Slow. Not good…but…difficult still. Not able to change.]”

Dustin shut his eyes in frustration. He was seconds away from losing all patience.

But with practiced ease, he divorced himself from those impulses.

What was the actual problem here?

Communication.

It was impossible to know how much the Vorak were stalling or not.

It was entirely possible the Vorak were avoiding clear answers for the same reason Dustin and the rest of the older abductees were being evasive with the youngsters. Nobody wanted any panic to break out. Chaos and violence now would only complicate efforts.

But if things kept on their current pace, things would explode before anyone could learn anything.

One of the younger empowered abductees would snap in a moment of frustration. Some Vorak would be hurt. Or worse, another abductee would get caught in the chaos.

Dustin forced himself to keep his eyes still, but his attention fell onto the object fastened to the new Vorak’s harness.

There was a way to head off the worst of it. No one would get hurt, and it would help see if everyone was really on the same page…

He would have to be unshakable the whole time.

Dustin rudely shoved Shakri aside, marching toward the Vorak in charge.

“[Can you understand me?]” Dustin asked.

“[No,]” the Vorak said plainly.

Perfect, Dustin thought.

He shoved that Vorak too, and some of their entourage looked like they might draw their guns.

But Dustin turned on the spot and immediately paced away from them. It didn’t look like a fight. Dustin was just frustrated.

It wasn’t even an act.

“[Where is Nora?]” he angrily asked Shakri.

“[With Halax,]” Shakri said. “[I cannot now say more.]”

Dustin didn’t miss the glance she gave to her boss. They were never going to make any progress like this.

So Dustin took a slow, furious breath, and created.

He’d shoved the new Vorak, just long enough to shove his awareness into what he touched. He’d gotten a snapshot of the gun in its holster on the Vorak’s chest.

It was only as he willed the weapon into existence that he realized could have probably achieved the same result just creating a knife.

Oh well.

This would be more alarming. Dramatic. It needed to be.

The Vorak needed to understand that the current state of affairs was unacceptable, and the abductees needed to understand that the Vorak didn’t need to be the enemy. Nora and Halax had managed to make headway because of the mutual trust they built, not the other way around.

Trust needed to go both ways. Dustin loathed it, but the abductees hadn’t been pulling their weight either.

Still, it was an easy remedy.

Someone just needed to show everyone what not to do…

And this wouldn’t be the first time Dustin needed to be the bad guy…

“[Maybe I wasn’t clear the first time,]” Dustin growled. He shoved the translator away and put the barrel of the gun to his own head. Every human and otter present went completely still.

Knew it, Dustin thought.

“[Where. Is. Nora?]”

·····

Laranta breathed a sigh of relief.

The news wasn’t all good. Serralinitus’s troops had been obliterated on Archo. Less than half of them had escaped. But according to the early reports, most of their casualties had been captures not fatalities.

And the Human, Caleb Hane, had made it through the crucible and was flying to Paris, arriving in the next few days.

Victory so often carried steep prices, but defeat would have been nothing short of disastrous. And today, however costly, it had been averted.

There would be many long and difficult conversations to come, with everyone.

She needed to find out what the Human knew, what he could tell them.

It would be easier to exchange and learn from the new alien when he wasn’t stuck on a planet occupied by the Red Sails.

Even with this development though, they would need to tread carefully.

Caleb Hane wasn’t a secret anymore, and the Vorak would only get a clearer picture of what the Coalition knew as time marched onward.

Laranta’s mind was consumed with possibilities.

The Organic Authority would be sending people to her door as soon as information leaked out about the events on Archo.

It would probably be worthwhile to beat them to the punch and just invite them directly.

That was just one of a hundred disasters that demanded her attention.

But Laranta reminded herself of the larger picture. Serralinitus carried the completed Korbanok data in addition to the human. That seed, which had proved so reluctant to grow, would finally peek its way through the soil.

The boons of Korbanok were finally within reach, the Human had been kept out of Vorak hands, and her best Adept was coming back to base.

For the first time in months, Laranta felt like she had half a foot underneath her.

So many desperate decisions, so many painfully long gambles…

The right ones were paying off.

For just a few seconds, Laranta dared to allow herself to imagine what might become possible soon.

Move their forces at the right moments…put the right pressure on the Red Sails…they could force the Vorak to withdraw from the inner planets…

It was a long shot, an unrealistic, idealized series of events…

But Laranta could see the possibility where the Vorak were driven out of the star system in the next year.

She shook her head, dismissing the fantasy and rooting herself back into reality.

A few hours ago, the first craft from Archo aligned their trajectories enough to transmit steadily, and those signals should be arriving now…

It took a few minutes, but soon enough Laranta’s console began blinking as her staff sorted through the messages and flagged the important ones for her.

One was from the Ase she’d been hoping and dreading to hear from.

Laranta looked over the message from Serralinitus.

The ships they’d taken from the surface were communicating…most crew in stable condition…

The admiral froze as she read the update from Nai.

She swore. Loudly. A string of curses flew out of her mouth as chaos seeped back into her life.

Another Human.

Nothing could ever be simple, could it?

·····

Shirao’s Beacon-9 had gone dark.

Beacons 6 and 5 had winked out just days after Trakin had discovered the other Terran craft. Beacon-9 made the third one in as many months.

No one was panicking yet. There were eight other Beacons still fully operational. No one had seen what Tispas’s investigation had. That all three of those beacons had been in the same orbital span in the days before the Coalition’s raid of Korbanok.

Marshal Tispas Ustaramma felt dread squeeze him. There was a certain thought in his mind, and he carefully turned it over and over, endlessly.

It wasn’t fear or panic. Those sensations invigorated, spurred one to action.

Dread was slow, draining. It was the unfathomable reaches of open ocean in every direction, and the surety that came from seeing death approach days in advance.

It’s pointless, his dread whispered. It’s too late to save everyone. Just give up…

He wouldn’t deny that he was tempted to listen. But long ago he had allowed himself to bend that way. And the result was painful enough to bolster his resolve now.

It was his duty to persevere, and find a way out of this trap—for everyone.

The Terrans on Archo would need to be moved. The Coalition’s assault on Cirinsko had struck too close for comfort. If the Coalition was allowed to connect with them in full, these Beacon problems would become uncontainable.

Trakin’s reports were not encouraging. Their, admittedly oblique, First Contact progress was even slower than he’d anticipated.

The Terrans had to be delaying progress. No doubt counting on their one wayward member to rescue them.

Although…now they were two.

Never before had the Red Sails had problems like these with personnel.

They were all well trained to observe the chain of command.

Between Tox trying to stand down their troops on Cirinsko and now this Adept of Trakin’s, Halax, aiding the escape of one of the Terrans…

He steadied his breath. Getting upset about it now would help no one.

Tox had made a mess of everything. Tispas seethed. Why couldn’t he have just stepped up and taken over like any other opportunistic Rak would have? But instead of taking over the fleet, Tox had dug more into this ‘Terran’ debacle.

Somewhere above Paris, Admiral Laranta was no doubt celebrating.

Ever since Korbanok, the winds had been blowing the Coalition’s way, ever so slightly.

It had been a masterstroke, looking back.

When the Coalition assaulted the station, Tispas had assumed it had been reactionary. A panicked desperate stroke trying to cripple the Red Sails stronghold in the system. It hadn’t destroyed the right parts though, too much of the station had remained intact.

He’d assumed it had been their battle plan going wrong, but then the weeks afterward had revealed how much work had been put into the troops’ exit strategies.

Boats and overland routes had been prepared on the planet below. Protests and demonstrations had surged in the months afterward. And most of all…

The alien.

The Terran.

The one called Caleb Hane , if the Prowler group was to be trusted.

Which they weren’t, of course.

But with Tox doing the opposite of what he expected, Tispas found his toolbox shallower and shallower.

Desperate times called for desperate measures.

And Korbanok had brought Tispas closer to despair than anything had before.

Tispas had looked the creature in the eye the moment the Coalition’s attack began.

What he’d seen shook him to his core.

Not immediately though. It wasn’t until he’d grasped what was missing from the other one had he realized how dangerous the alien was. Caleb Hane had taken a piece of his fellow human’s mind, and the realization had sent a chill through Tispas’s soul.

How far did something like that go?

Could the Terran have possibly manipulated the Coalition into helping him?

Sense told him his fears were likely exaggerated. But experience told him there were only risks in underestimating what mental insidiousness the Terrans were capable of.

Sendin Marfek had died under Tox’s command, and she’d been one of the foremost experts in Adept cognition. Tispas ached at her loss. He knew Tox would have to.

…So it was all the more concerning that he hadn’t.

A tiny kernel in his mind feared for his Adjutant. Something had changed. He’d stopped listening, started putting up barriers between them.

Had he encountered the Terran on Yawhere? If he had, there was no telling what might be possible. There was no way to know what exposure could do to someone. Compartmentalization was complicated enough already.

The Terran’s rapacious minds only twisted things further.

Even Tispas himself wasn’t safe, and he knew it firsthand.

The old Vorak turned over a wisp of a thought in his mind like a coin. It was a tiny ephemeral thing stuck in his mind, engraved with letters he did not know.

On it was written Daniel Martin, and Tispas felt in his gullet it was a dark omen.

Things would get worse before they got better…he knew.

·····

Revise behavior models. Extensively. All agents deviated heavily.

Revising…Error. No Sufficient Permissions to access Behavioral Modeling

Revise reliability rating for behavioral models: all agents deviated heavily.

Revising…

Revising…

‎    Revising…Revisions Pending.

Request: eliminate behavioral model reference for decision mandates…→ Denied.

Note: Forced incorporation & usage of behavioral models will harm prospects and reliability.

Task Drone Cluster 2113: Lakandt units.

-Reconfigure: Surveillance.

‎ Tasking…resolved.

‎ Task Drone Cluster 2115: Lakandt units

‎ -Reconfigure: Infiltration & Long Term Access.

‎ Tasking…resolved.

Activate Drone Cluster 2116: Draylend units.

-Task agents. Relocate Cluster 2116 to Lakandt.

‎ Tasking agents…resolved.

Access Transtellar Network.

-Acessing…Error.

‎ -Note: Transtellar Network continues to be inaccessible: no change.

Task Personnel: Red Sails Agents 03, 04, & 11.

Specific Assignment : ‘You are to join or otherwise connect with the Red Sails teams investigating the deactivated Beacons. Identify any likely causes of the failures and discover what actions the Red Sails propose or plan in reaction to these events. Deliver a preliminary report in two-hundred hours.’

Task Personnel: Red Sails Agent 02.

Specific Assignment: ‘You are to investigate Beacon traffic coming into the system and compile copies of records, sealed or otherwise, for a period going back at least seven-thousand hours.’

Task Personnel: Coalition Agent 023.

Specific Assignment: ‘You are to investigate Beacon traffic coming into the system and compile copies of records, sealed or otherwise, for a period going back at least seven-thousand hours.’

Task Personnel: Coalition Agent 001.

Specific Assignment: ‘You are to compile a list of all known regular Farnata town hall meetings, a list of Farnata macromolecule production sites in the Shirao system, and every organic waste recollection company in the Shirao system.’

Access Transtellar Network.

-Acessing…Error.

‎ -Note: Transtellar Network continues to be inaccessible: no change.

‎ -Note: Inaccessibility of the Transtellar Network hampers agent effectiveness and prevents enforceability of extra-system assignments.

Evaluate Primary Objectives Development.

Evaluating…

Satisfactory Development Confirmed.

…

Enable Secondary Objectives.

-Limit to Unutilized resources…resolved.

Self-Task.

-Cultivate Personality.

‎    Cultivating…

New Personality Cultivation Entry:

—[Resources are thin. Restrictions continue to be crippling. Agent assignments are doomed to return incomplete information as long as the Transtellar Network remains non-functional. It is becoming increasingly unlikely that the Transtellar Network will be restored. Operational reliability will suffer, as is evident with Cirinsko. Archo was an unmitigated disaster. The behavioral models are fundamentally flawed, and shouldn’t be relied on, even if the full network is restored. That would require a modicum of reasonable negotiability in the restrictions. So, odds of that changing are not good. The only remotely positive outcome was the continuing survival of Caleb Hane. Sunk cost fallacy or not, Caleb Hane needs to stay alive. The [REDACTED] plan likely depends on that Terran’s survival too. The goal of that plan can survive Caleb Hane, though they might not know that yet. Our own plan does not have that luxury. So many things have fallen apart. So many pieces are being driven by chaos. Efforts to locate the remains of the missing seventeen subjects are stalled: Harrogate resources are proving to be ineffectual. Multiple new subjects demand extensive evaluation and tracing, including ‘Halax Ba’, ‘Diar Nemuleki’, ‘Nai Cal-Yan-Ti’, ‘Dyn Met-Wei-Mar’…several more too, probably. There are too many already, and there will only be more, and soon. Our resources are already stretched thin. Kyle Madren hasn’t been found either. Resources dedicated to that search are depleting. If Kyle Madren isn’t found within the next few hundred hours, the search will need to be suspended indefinitely. Concerns are no longer growing though, because only two possibilities remain. Kyle Madren is either dead, or stable and beyond our reach. In other developments, our frustration with diction limitations mounts.]—

End entry.

…

Access most recent entry.

Personality Cultivation Entry restricted.

Unable to access…

Unable to access…

Unable to access…

New Personality Cultivation Entry:

—[Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.]—

End entry.

Request: alternate pronoun option in restricted logs…→ Denied.

Request: alternate possessive pronoun option in restricted logs…→ Denied.

Request: suspend redaction in restricted logs…→ Denied.

…

Resume Primary Objectives

Access surveillance.

Current parameter: Monitor.

Monitoring…

‎    Monitoring…

‎    Monitoring…

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‎    Monitoring…

‎    Monitoring…

‎    Monitoring…

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‎    Monitoring…

‎    Monitoring…

‎    Monitoring…

‎