Talis In Vita

[SadGeezer]

TALIS IN VITA
SECTION #1
The Spacerunner (Rebel (ex-Federation) Scout ship, Class Alpha Omega 11, Clearance Code 991ZA Plural Alpha) lurched out of it’s bay and into the open atmosphere of Ganymede. The pointy-hulled Spacerunner continued on its course out of Ganymede’s atmosphere with a minimum of lurching, which had all six people inside of it relieved.
“Try the non-lurch option next time, Kalim.” A slim, tall woman with light but strangely vivid blue hair and a slightly pale complexion advised, annoyance underlying her tone.
Mark Ar Kalim just grinned. “Ain’tcha heard, lurch’s the most exciting option the ship’s got!” He joked.
“Very funny.” The woman, Neraya Avon, said with not the least hint of amusement in either her voice or her steely grey eyes. Neraya was renowned for her fantastic lack of humour and this Neraya, a clone, was no different than the original.
The ship broke out of Ganymede’s atmosphere and entered space just then. The difference between the atmosphere and space was startling, which was understandable considering that this was only the second time the crew had left Ganymede.
Where exactly the gaseous clouds ended and stark darkness broken only by the white light of stars started was always an uncertainty. A ship slow-moving enough to see that would be ripped apart before it had fully entered space.
“Cloaks.” Neraya ordered.
“Cloaks up, full power.” Gil Barain, a dark-haired man with a slight blue tinge to his skin that seemingly all Venusians had, reported. “Armor is perfect, don’t need any repairs at all.”
“Weapons at full power, ready to fire, ma’am.” Amar Java reported.
“Excellent.” Neraya approved. “Scan on a 360 degree turn.”
Gil pressed a few buttons on his monitor. “Nothing,” he said. Then he paused, concentrating. “No, there’s something… Kalim, bring the ship around 97.2 degrees.”
Kalim did. Neraya might be the Commander of the ship, but it was just a title indicating training and the ability for good, clear thinking. Anyone could tell anyone what to do, just so long as Neraya was the one doing it when they were under attack.
“There’s some sort of ship, the computer can’t get an ID on it.” Gil told Neraya, swinging around on his seat so he could face her. He thoroughly approved of having swivel-seats when the workstations were placed against the circular walls.
“Maintain radio silence, engage stealth and defense mode and inform the captain.” Neraya ordered. She walked down into the center of the room so that she could get a good look at whatever ship that was heading towards Ganymede.
It took a few seconds for the ship to come into focus.
“Zoom in.” Neraya said to the viewscreen, which zoomed the strange ship into clear view. Neraya regarded the ship for an instant before realizing what it was and feeling suddenly shocked and losing some of her composure. “Zoom out. Federation Heavy Battlecruiser, Destroyer Class. Kalim, get us out of here.”
“Wait – we don’t know why they’re here. Wouldn’t it be far better to see what they’re planning before we leave the area?” Kalim asked.
“All right.” Neraya said after a minute after regaining her composure. “But don’t move the ship. Zoom in.”
Once more the sight of the visually stunning Federation Heavy Battlecruiser filled the screen. It was slowly and inexorably making it’s way to Ganymede.
A deathly, shocked silence filled the room as everyone simultaneously figured the intent of the Battlecruiser.
“Do you wish me to open fire?” Amar Java asked, his voice seeming unnaturally loud.
“No. If you do that, it’ll reveal our position and the Battlecruiser will attack US. Even if we did attempt a stand-off like that, it wouldn’t give Ganymede enough time to send up defense fighters. If we warn them by radio, the Battlecruiser will pick up the transmission and attack. Either way, Ganymede doesn’t have enough time before it’s destroyed. Zoom out.”
There was the sound of two or three people swallowing hard, one of them being Neraya herself.
“Get us out of here.” She said, finally, despite her stomach’s urge to empty it’s contents on the floor. “We can’t do anything for Base.”
Kalim nodded mutely and began to pilot them further and further away from the ruins of what once had been an extensive rebel base on Ganymede.

[Anonymous]

SECTION #2
Three days and a couple of crew changes later, Neraya sat at a bar on Mars, ignoring the constant looks she got from the other bar patrons. She was now envious of Vremanda Potter (who she always referred to as ‘medic’), who, as a Martian, wasn’t out of place. Around the circular table sat Peter Sumner (the Spacerunner’s captain sat to Neraya’s left), Gil Barain and Vremanda Potter, who sat to Neraya’s right and was the ship’s doctor.
“What now?” Neraya asked Sumner, thankful that she’d engaged the privacy mode. “Ganymede Base’s gone, there are no other bases known to us. We’re reduced to half of the original crew and we have to double on jobs because of it.”
Sumner stared into his beer thoughtfully. “I don’t know.” He admitted. He didn’t say anything more.
“We can’t stay here long. It’s possible that the street law that caught Kalim have gotten enough information out of him to go after us.” Neraya added.
“That was half of Mars away.” Vremanda pointed out.
Neraya gave her a thin smile and Gil rolled his eyes.
“Street law are like bloodhounds.” Sumner said. “I’m going.”
He stood up and pressed the button that would disengage privacy and then left without finishing his beer.
Neraya, Gil and Vremanda just looked at each other.
“I suppose it all went downhill when Amar killed himself.” Neraya said quietly.
“I couldn’t do anything.” Vremanda remembered.
“Of course not, he was dead.” Gil said.
“We have the two we came for.” Neraya said. “We’d better leave. And hope.”
“Hope we don’t get caught.” Gil said gloomily.
“No, hope that those two Terrans can cheer us up!” Vremanda said lightly.
It brought a smile to the faces of her two companions, but that was all.
They trudged back to the Spacerunner’s docking room, occasionally glaring at Martians who stopped to openly stare at this bunch of people with skin that wasn’t brown and hair that didn’t have a red tinge.
It all went to prove that the Terrans and Lunans didn’t have much to do with Mars, Neraya thought sardonically, after all, the gravity and atmosphere of Mars made all people look the same one way or the other and the Federation had always kept the Martian governor, well, Martian. It really depended on who annoyed or bribed whom, though. It always did.
They entered the hallway of the Spacerunner and immediately headed to the mess room.
The two spoken of previously were there. Tobias Ramon and Rafe Katanai were the only ‘loose’ rebel operatives that anyone in the crew knew of so they’d travelled to Mars to tell them what had happened. Tobias and Rafe had volunteered to help out and had been taken up on their offer.
“You need cheering up,” Rafe said as they entered. He had a mountain of food pills at his elbow.
“Got any new food pills?” Vremandra asked, hoping that this selection wasn’t nearly as boring as the last lot had been.
“A lot. If pill vendors weren’t machines, they would have been suspicious at the number of pills we took.”
“Which flavours? Any of the traditionals?” Gil asked in interest, pulling up a chair and sitting down.
“Roast chicken, roast turkey, Peking Duck, lasagne, Mongolian chicken and corn soup – ” Rafe read out the labels. It was amusing to watch, actually. Rafe had black hair, tanned skin and looked like he should be lifting weights to get a bit more muscle going. The sight of him reading out pill labels was unnatural.
“Ah, corn soup, my favourite.” Neraya said happily, taking a seat next to Gil. “Any from Luna?”
“He got all Earth recipes. Always does.” Tobias spoke up. He had auburn hair and slightly tanned skin. He looked like he was the one who should be reading the labels.
“Oh well.” Neraya said, somewhat regretfully, before thinking on business. “We need to get rosters.”
“Does your mind always come back to work?” Vremanda asked.
“I’m half-Lunan, it comes with it.” Neraya replied. “I’m on board the ship, so my mind returns to work easily.”
“Mmm, best to get work out of the way first.” Rafe said. “What do you need to know?”
“I need to know what you can do. Specialties and such.” Neraya pulled out a Pad, an IX Series 4 and started typing names in a database.
“Well, I can qualify for weapons system operator.” Rafe said. “I’m a weapons expert and I qualify as a weapons system operator as well.”
“Science, pilot or communication. Also intelligence.” Tobias told her.
Neraya finished typing and then passed the Pad around. It said;

Avon, Neraya – commander
Barain, Gil – engineer/defensive systems operater
Katanai, Rafe – weapons expert/weapon system operater
Potter, Vremanda – ship’s doctor/scientist
Ramon, Tobias – pilot/communications/scientist/intelligence
Sumner, Peter – captain

“That’s good. That covers all areas.” Rafe said when the list got around to him. “You’re going to have to narrow it down, though.”
He handed it back to her, and Neraya made the necessary deletions, passing around the Pad when she was finished the new list. Given the tiny amount of modification needed, it took a few a few seconds for her to organize everything.

Avon, Neraya – commander
Barain, Gil – engineer/defensive systems operater
Katanai, Rafe – weapons expert/weapon system operater
Potter, Vremanda – doctor/scientist
Ramon, Tobias – pilot/communications

“I’m sure we don’t need the captain on the list.” Neraya said, handing the list back around. “I’ve got everyone doubled for duties and I don’t want to triple anyone.”
Rafe handed the list back to her. Judging from the general silence but slight enthusiasm (after a day of depression, the prospect of returning to work always did that) in the air, it was acceptable, so Neraya printed out enough copies to go around.
“The majority of you won’t need it, but the minority will.” She told them. “I’ve made the list, but, right now, I don’t know what to do.”
The enthusiasm grew. Apparently brainstorming was a favourite.
“We’re the last rebel ship and we don’t know where the bases are, so let’s find them.” Vremanda said.
“And get ourselves killed?” Neraya asked dryly. “I’m in favour of doing some serious damage to the Federation before they destroy us.”
“Good, but that’ll get us killed quicker. I say we should go back to Ganymede and see if anyone survived or if we can find some record disks in the ruins.” Gil said.
“Record disks would be completely covered over with debris and Ganymede doesn’t have any wind so we’d have to spend days digging. But yes, we should return to Ganymede.” Neraya asserted. “Any other ideas?”
Rafe and Tobias said nothing. Everyone else put it down to the fact that they weren’t part of the original crew and felt that they should leave the vote up to more experienced people.
“I’d brief the captain and he’ll decide.” Neraya sounded as though that wasn’t a good idea. “I should be able to draw up a complete roster after the decision.”
She got up from her chair and walked off to find the captain, pausing at the doorway to instinctively scan the corridor in both directions.
“Now, what were you saying about the pills?” Vremanda asked and Rafe began to read the labels again.
Neraya inwardly groaned. Poor guy. Thankfully, she was out of the door before she could be subjected to hearing the pill labels.
One of the things with a scout ship was that it could comfortably hold twenty crewmembers, still have top-of-the-line equipment and still manage to be small and light. Unfortunately, the crew’s quarters were so spread out from each other – and anything else – that it took Neraya four minutes to get to Sumner’s quarters.
She pressed her hand to the ID-scan so that it could identify her and open the door. At the same time, it was letting the room’s inhabitant know someone was there.
“Access denied.” The computerized voice said after the scan was completed.
Neraya sighed and pressed on her badge, which was attached to her black shirt. “Gil, can you override the door system?” She asked.
A moment later, Gil’s voice came back through the badge. “I’ll be there shortly.”
Neraya pressed the badge again and waited until Gil arrived, override control in hand. He pressed the override control against the ID-scan and pressed a couple of buttons.
“Access denied. Access denied, access denied, access denied, access granted.” The voice said as the door slid open.
“Thanks.” Neraya said.
“No worries.” Gil said, and then looked at the override control. “It’s working better than usual. Besides, I need to see Sumner myself. I need to get some spare parts for a few of my devices.”
“Well, why didn’t you come along in the first place?” Neraya asked.
“And miss the chance to see Vremanda discomfiting our two new crewmembers?” Gil grinned as he stepped inside the room and looked around. “He’s not here.”
“Nonsense. He’s always here.” Neraya stepped in and looked around herself. “He’s probably in one of the other rooms.” She walked to the room on her left and froze.
“What’s wrong?” Gil asked when he saw her. When the answer of a pointed finger came, he paced over to have a look. Falling back a few paces, he swore.
“Suicide.” Neraya said quietly. She felt sick, although not as sick as she had when the Ganymede Base had been destroyed.
“I know, but did he have to…” Gil asked, his voice trailing off.
“Medic, Rafe, captain’s quarters, medic, get a body bag.” Neraya said into her badge, after pressing it. She pressed it again once she was finished. “All the signs were there. But suicide didn’t seem likely.”
“No.” Gil agreed. “Why did you call Rafe?”
“He’s the weapons expert. I can’t see a weapon and I am not about to take a look around for it, either. I want Rafe to examine the weapon and when Vremanda’s done with the post-mortem and done a report on how the fatality occurred, I want to compare how the fatality happened and Rafe’s analysis of how the weapon could kill a person at close and distant ranges.”
“With a sentence like that, I can almost believe you’re military.” Gil remarked.
“Most of my people act that way.” Neraya replied. “After all, Luna is the Federation’s main army base. I will admit that there are times when I wish that I did have military training. It would be very convenient.”
“If you had military training, you wouldn’t be here. You’d be with the Federation, accepting bribes.”
Neraya winced. “I don’t like that mental image of myself.” She objected.
“I’m sure the Federation doesn’t, either.” Gil said.
“Mmm – I wonder what they call it? Additional tax payment for a good cause?” Neraya half-joked as Rafe and Vremanda, who was carrying a body bag, entered the room. “In here. Be warned, it’s not pretty.”
“No death is.” Vremanda said grimly.
“This is a lot worse than what Amar did.” Gil also warned them. Then he and Neraya stepped away.
Vremanda dropped the body bag, went pale and started looking for the bathroom. Spotting it, she rushed off to remove the contents of her stomach. Rafe just blanched.
“I don’t think she’s well-aquainted with death.” Neraya commented.
“I don’t think anyone’s well-aquainted with the shot-off head version of death.” Rafe told her shakily.
“Well, not the shot-off head version, but she is familiar with the decapitated version. We all are.” Gil said grimly, remembering Amar.
“Not now.” Neraya said. “Rafe, I want you to examine the weapon and write a report on what it is, what sort of injuries it causes, detailing all ranges. We haven’t found the weapon yet.”
“Have you looked?” Rafe inquired his voice more steady now.
Neraya and Gil swapped glances. “No.” Neraya admitted. “But I would have, eventually. I’ve seen plenty of dead bodies, we – with the exception of Vremanda – all have. I’m assuming you’ve seen a fair amount, too.”
“I have.” Rafe acknowledged. “They were usually all shot, though.”
“Well, there you go, we’re all veterans.” Gil said.
Vremanda poked her head around the corner, which was followed by the rest of her body. Everyone started smirking a little immaturely.
“What’s wrong medic, you look a little green.” Neraya said. Vremanda did look green – about as far as a Martian could. She also looked like she had just woken up from an hour-long sleep when she had needed twenty hours of sleep.
“Well, I’m glad all you veterans are enjoying yourselves.” She snapped, but the smirks didn’t die down after she had spoken. “You’re not the ones who have to put the body in the bag.”
“Good point.” Rafe said.
No one moved until Neraya walked over to the body bag and grabbed both it and Vremanda, who had returned to stand next to it. “Come on, medic, I’ll help you move the body to the bag.” Neraya said, dumping the body bag next to Sumner’s body. “I was moving corpses when I was a kid. Some of them were worse than this one is.”
“If some of them were worse than this, then why did you freeze up when you found it?” Gil asked, making a mental note to ask Neraya about what precisely had happened before she joined the rebellion. Vremanda also made a similar note.
“I knew him. I didn’t know those other corpses so it didn’t really matter to me.” Neraya said.
“Sounds like you should have been the doctor, not me.” Vremanda told her, walking over to the general area around feet of the corpse.
“Everything militiant is Lunan, everything scientific is Martian, everything politic is Terran and everything still settling is Venusian.” Neraya type-casted, very reluctantly grabbing the corpse by its shoulders as Vremanda – with even more reluctance – grabbed the feet. They both lifted and settled the body into the bag. Vremanda zipped up the bag and then both women shuffled carefully out of the room, past Gil and Rafe and out of the door.
“Don’t forget the weapon!” Neraya yelled from the corridor.
“This is not good.” Vremanda said, looking like she was about to perk again.
“No, but I’ll expect a full report.” Neraya told her.
Vremanda winced.

[Anonymous]

Very cool story, Chameleoin! I enjoyed it.

I was wondering, does the story take place during the early days (pre-Enterprise) of the Federation from Star Trek? Even if my permanently addled brain is on the wrong track, it’s neat when one can draw references (or cross-reference) to other sci-fi shows and books (and I guess we do this all the time), it gives the story a multi-layered feel, even when it wasn’t the author’s intent, and is therefore only in the reader’s imagination (in my mind I cross-reference everything).

For instance, I couldn’t help but imagine that they were cruising around space in this:

[img]http://www.mitsubishi.at/spacerunner99/Bilder/1.gif[/img] 😉

Looking forward to more!

[Anonymous]

[quote] I was wondering, does the story take place during the early days (pre-Enterprise) of the Federation from Star Trek? [/quote]

No, actually, it doesn’t! I originally started writing this (and pinched cloaks and transporters from Star Trek in the progress).

I started writing it and then I watched Blake’s 7 some 6 months later and nearly had a heart attack – it’s so similar! But at least on Blake’s 7 they didn’t have cloaks 🙂

It’s worth noting that the rebels have cloaks and the Federation have teleporters. The Fed don’t have cloaks and the rebels don’t have teleporters – YET. Kinda like the Fed and Romulans in TNG, when you think about it 😀

~~~~~LOL the car!~~~~~~
I never even realised!

[Author]

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