What had her life become?
Sure, Rachel didn’t live the most ordinary life in the galaxy. No one could call fighting criminal deathworlders in a lead lined cloak normal, but at least she knew what to expect. Now she had no idea what this crazy pirate would do next.
How did a relaxed stroll through a Union Battleship turn into having Uq’ot with Admiral Tharadun?
Rachel had been shocked by Astarte’s brazen request to have the admiral himself give them a tour. Everyone close enough to hear her was shocked and expected the pair of humans to be tossed out. But to everyone’s surprise the Admiral had just laughed and said, “why not?”
Admittedly, it was a good tour. Much better than the endless droning tone of their previous guide who was clearly just reciting a script.
The Admiral knew every nook and cranny of his ship and had plenty of interesting stories and trivia about the development of warship design. It was clear to Rachel that Tharadun not only knew his ship by heart, but also had a deep passion for the long and storied history of the Union navy. He even shared some trivia about Caraden’s own naval history, which had intrigued Astarte more than the Union trivia. When Tharadun mentioned how his people had modeled the large tower like command area on their ships after the great trees of his home world Astarte had mentioned Japan’s pagoda inspired conning towers.
After that the two of them began to vigorously exchange of naval trivia and funny anecdotes, and Rachel felt like a third wheel as the two passionately compared the histories of their home worlds. Rachel had heard on occasion that the Carkic had once engaged in an long intercontinental naval war, but it was always just background information for when people mentioned the high percentage of Carkic in the defense forces of the Union. Now she learned that the Carkic had done far more than wage a ‘naval war’, they had created naval doctrines and martial traditions that continued to influence the modern Union navy.
As Tharadun was quoting the pivotal Carkic military treatise ‘In pursuit of peace’ Astarte had remarked how similar it sounded to ‘The Art of War’. And the two then went into a small debate championing either book.
Rachel for her part thought it was interesting that the non-deathworlder Carkic had a book about pursuing peace while humans had the gall to write about the art of war. She didn’t know much about either book, but she thought it was pretty typical for the human book to be about waging war for fun while the Carkic book was about protecting peace through martial might.
Eventually after about an hour of wandering around, Tharadun invited them both into his office for a cup of Uq’ot. Which was how Rachel found herself seated on a chair so large it could have passed for a small couch. She wouldn’t have minded the chair so much, she was used to Union furniture being too large for her, if not for the fact that it was the only spare chair the Admiral had. Meaning that she and the pirate had to share the chair.
Both should have had plenty of space to maintain some distance during their unexpected audience with a Union Admiral, the chair was certainly large enough. But as soon a Rachel sat down next to one of the arms of the chair the Pirate had decided to sit right next to her, so close that their hips were touching!
Did this pirate know nothing about personal space, or the appropriate distance two people should maintain?
Maybe not. Rachel had heard from somewhere that most woman from Earth and Mars were much more physical with each other than Rachel was comfortable with. To them two women being so close was normal, so maybe Rachel was the awkward and strange one in Astarte’s mind for being so squeamish about it. she couldn’t possibly know the shameful thoughts going through Rachels mind at that moment.
The pirate took a sip of her Uq’ot and Rachel forced herself to focus on her own cup so her mind wouldn’t wander any further. She was never the biggest fan of the bitter drink, and the rumors of how addictive caffeine could be kept her away from developing a taste for it. but this cup was palatable.
Astarte had a different opinion. She let out a soft moan as she savored the flavor. “That is the finest cup of Uq’ot I have ever had.”
The Admiral nodded grinned “I have always found the beans of Cuata to be superior to all others.”
“Still has nothing on Coffee” the Pirate teased with a smirk.
“Bah, heresy. No self-respecting Carkic would ever think that.” The Admiral barked with an amused laugh.
“Not true. I knew a Carkic on Femeri who had grudgingly admitted to maybe, possibly, accepting coffee as an equal to Uq’ot.” She said, adding three different qualifiers to the statement.
The Admiral looked contemplative “really?”
The pirate smiled “Yes, I take it you haven’t had the chance to try a proper cup of java?”
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Not many Earth exports make it the core. Deathworld products can have poisonous or narcotic effects on people.”
Rachel nodded before she could think “I’ve seen plenty of Ceshix tea addicts to confirm that.”
They both gave her a contemplative look. Tharadun’s was tinged with slight surprise and interest. So far Rachel hadn’t said much, perfectly content to let Astarte entertain the Admiral. But now she got the feeling that Tharadun was reassessing her.
Astarte’s look seemed less shocked and more intrigued, like her multiple ventures in Ceshix tea dens would be an amusing story. And it would have been a fun story to tell her, unfortunately that would require Rachel to admit she worked for the ADCU. And that defeated the whole purpose of this meet up.
Still, she could imagine the laugh Astarte would make when she heard about Ceshix convinced they could see their various twisted gods.
Astarte turned back to Tharadun “Someone once told me that the products of a Deathworld have a certain quality that is hard to find anywhere else. He was a human living in the core-sector who spent a small fortune shipping in tea from Earth because he found the native versions lacking. And I’m inclined to agree with him.”
“Inclined to agree?” Tharadun mused. “Well there’s no harm in trying Terran coffee just to confirm the superiority of Oq’ot.”
Astarte nodded “let me know when your free, I might invite for a tour of my ship when the time comes.”
“Indeed, from all the praise you heep onto your ship I would almost believe it equal or greater than my own Iron Tree.”
She frowned, “About that name-?”
Tharadun barked a harsh laugh “Yes, it certainly loses some of its beauty when spoken in common, an unfortunate feature of the universal tongue. In my native language the name had subtle implications. An iron tree is one that stand above all other trees and does not bow no matter how the wind blows.”
Her mouth made an ‘ah’ motion without saying the word. “A fitting name given the recent battle damage. It must have been a brutal campaign.” She commented lightly. Though the too loose set to the pirates shoulders told Rachel that she was interested in the answer.
Tharadun’s face darkened “My recent campaign was a complete dud. All the damage you see was from a Kruhur sneak attack. Their force came out of nowhere at a time when our forces were unready for a battle. The Iron Trees main batteries were on shut down and the rest of my squadron were preforming various running repairs when the attack came.” All four of his fists clenched “I was foolish to assume we were untouchable in the Femeri system.”
Astarte’s eyes narrowed “It must have taken a large well equipped Kruhur fleet to tango with you. Did you ever figure out why they were there?”
“Tango?” he asked.
“A type of dance, takes a lot of skill.”
“Hm, I’ll never get tired of human word play” the Admiral mused. “No, we never learned their true purpose in that sector. But we did find something disturbing.”
“Disturbing?” Astarte asked.
“We found the Prophets Flame, or its wreckage at least.”
Rachel was stunned. That ship was a menace to every Union world and station. It the poster for the horrors hidden in the void of interstellar space. Once before she was born it had tried to attack Unity, and was only forced to retreat after dealing devastating losses on the local defense fleet.
Something had destroyed that ship?
There shouldn’t be anything in the Femeri system capable of destroying something that even the Union navy was incapable of destroying. Except, she did know of one threat from the Femeri system.
Rachel shifted her gaze to Astarte and tried to judge whether the pirate had that sort of power at her command. The guarded neutral look on Astarte’s face gave nothing away, and that disturbed her more than anything else.
“Any idea what could have done that?” the pirate asked.
“Maybe. During the Bedona conflict a task force encountered several unknown ships escorting supplies to the Bedona rebels. One of the newer Battle ships was tasked with destroying them, said battleship is now dead. Along with several others sent in to deal with these mystery ships. The issue is we don’t know whether the mystery ships had the power to do that, or if there might be a fatal flaw in the newest generation of battleships.”
“You think it was these mystery ships?” Astarte asked.
“No. The reports weren’t able to determine much about them, but their size and mass is roughly equivalent with a main series destroyer. I personally believe that the lack of armor on the type nines was a major oversight, and that their production should be canceled before we waste more credits. But some of the higher ups are convinced that the two incidents are related since both the type nines and Prophets Flame has a heavy reliance on shield systems for defense. They’re convinced someone found a way through powerful shield systems.”
Astarte tilted her head to one side. “But your unconvinced”
“Many people have tried to find a way past shield systems, such a break through would change the nature of space warfare, same as FTL weaponry. Its just not possible.” Tharadun looked down at his hands
Astarte nodded, looking slightly unnerved on the surface. But visible to only Rachel was a brief twist of her lips into a smile that was gone in an instant. Something the Admiral had said pleased the pirate, and the pirate didn’t want anyone to see it. Why?
Surely no group of pirates could have weaponry like that. Right?
Rachel felt her stomach twist with discontent. Her mind told her that was impossible, but her gut said otherwise.
Tharadun looked up sharply, “After that I was pulled from Femeri to lead a campaign against known Kruhur holdouts. With the absence of the Prophet it should have been the final nail in the coffin for those voidlings. But every Kruhur fortress we found was a field of wreckage, ripped apart by weapons that had the signature of Kruhur weaponry.” The admiral said with a concerned look.
Astarte frowned “Isn’t that a good thing. The Dra- Kruhur killing themselves?”
“No. The Kruhur have never had a war amongst themselves. Not once since the loss of their home world. This means something has changed.”
Rachel wasn’t sure why a change in Kruhur society would matter, but Astarte understood. “And a change like that means a change in the tactics they have stuck to for millennia.”
“Indeed.”
Astarte looked contemplative “Thank you for the warning, I’ll have to warn my cargo ships to be wary of this. You said that your force was pulled from Femeri, and I know that a new fleet hasn’t been assigned. Is the Union pulling back from that sector or can we expect reinforcements soon?” her last question had a hint of worry to it. though Rachel wasn’t convinced that the pirate was worried about her sector being unguarded.
Tharadun looked suspicious. “I should not be discussing fleet orders with a civilian.” He said pointedly.
“Forgive me, but I worry for my business ventures. Femeri is already dangerous as it is.”
“Yes. The Union wont be abandoning any sectors, even a backwater one. But I don’t know who will be sent.”
She smiled and took another sip of Uq’ot. “Well, we’ll just have to wait and see I guess.” She glanced at her watch and frowned. “As lovely as this has been…”
“Yes, I agree.” The Admiral stood and Astarte and Rachel followed “It has been a true pleasure speaking with you Miss Astarte.” He extended a hand.
Astarte took and gave the Admiral a smile “The pleasure is all mine. Its not everyday I get nerd out over space ships with a peer.”
Rachel mentally noted how she addressed the Admiral as an equal and not a person with a higher rank than hers. Another piece of the puzzle that was Astarte. Did she view herself as equal, or did she have no care for social ranking whatsoever?
“Indeed. Would you mind if I spoke to your companion for a minute?” the admiral asked politely.
Astarte looked towards Rachel, who was currently feeling very confused of why the admiral would want to speak with her.
After a moment of thought, Rachel nodded her head.
Astarte paused for just a minute before she stood up and left.
Rachel watched as the door slide closed behind the pirate before turning her gaze back on the admiral. “So miss Heart, just who did you bring aboard my ship.” The Admiral asked, his tone no longer polite and genial.