Lacuna: The Sands of Karathi (6 page)

“Captain Liao, it’s Doctor Saeed.”

Liao reached down and pressed the talk key. “Liao here, go ahead. How can I help you, Doctor?”

His tone was lighthearted, and he sounded pleased with himself. “Lieutenant Xia Jiang has awoken from her coma, Captain. She’s asking to see you.”

Grinning widely, the Chinese woman tapped the talk key. “Copy that, Doctor. Some good news at last. I’ll be up in a moment.”

Giving Kamal a firm nod, Liao stood and made her way to the stern of the ship.

Infirmary

TFR Beijing

Crossing the threshold from corridor to room, Liao stepped towards the long term care section of the ship’s medical bay. A small crowd had gathered around the section holding Lieutenant Jiang, who sat–pale faced and gaunt, but smiling–propped up in her bed, small flowers from visiting crewmen around her. They were arranged in all manner of styles: resting inside plastic vases, arranged inside bouquets, or simply laid on any flat surface available.

The flowers meant more on the ship than they would on Earth. The
Beijing
had very limited capability to produce fresh greenery and a much smaller allowance for nonessentials like flowers; they would have been imported at vast expense from the surface via a medium-lift rocket along with other supplies. A single bunch of those flowers may have cost a month’s wages, or more.

The murmur of voices subsided as Liao approached, the crowd parting to let her through.

“Well, look who decided to finally stop sleeping all the damn time.” Liao gave Jiang a warm smile, reaching down and patting her foot through the blankets. “Welcome back, Lieutenant. We’re glad you decided to wake up.”

“Wasn’t done with the party yet, Captain.” Jiang’s voice was quiet and groggy, her chest still heavily bandaged. Machinery beeped and chirped beside her, and an intravenous drip gave her fluids. Despite her attempt at bravado, to Liao she still looked sickly and frail. “Even if I have been busted napping on the job.”

“Don’t worry,” Liao said. “I think we can come to some kind of arrangement regarding your missed hours. And we saved plenty of booze for you.”

A low chuckle from the crewmen greeted her remark.

Jiang tilted her head to one side. “So we got ‘em, huh?”

Liao nodded, giving a wide grin. “In no small part due to your efforts, although we should really be thanking Summer for taking out the last of the boarders. She finally got to drop the Bond one-liner she was talking about for months.”

Jiang smiled weakly. “She must be happy.”

Liao did not have the heart to explain Summer’s mood to Jiang at the moment, so she opted to say nothing. In the corner of her vision she could see the others nearby adopting slightly awkward, uncomfortable posture.

“I wouldn’t know. I’ve probably been keeping her too busy to be happy.” She patted Jiang’s foot again. “Anyway, I think you’ve had enough excitement for today. You’ve got a lot of paperwork to catch up on, and aside from that you need to rest. We’re going to need you at full strength very soon.”

There was a titter amongst the crew, who all stared at Liao expectantly. No announcement, formal or otherwise, had been made regarding their plans once the last of the repairs were complete. With the most immediate disasters taken care of, she imagined the majority of the crew would be looking towards the horizon—to their next goal. The next mission. She aimed not to disappoint.

Jiang tilted her head. “我不相信它。We’re going someplace already, Captain?”

English only, you know the rules,
came the tiny voice in the back of Liao’s mind, but she put that aside. She’d permit a little gratuitous Chinese for crewmembers who had nearly died in the line of service.

“Something like that, yes. Once the repairs have been completed, we have a mission.”

Jiang’s voice held a mixture of excitement and trepidation. “We’re going after the
Tehran
, aren’t we?”

Oh, how Liao wanted to say yes. How she wanted to throw everything she had into the recovery operation, to hunt down the
Tehran
and find James safe and well. To explain to him that he was going to be a father
and to hold him in her arms once again.

“Not immediately,” she admitted, forcing her tone to be as neutral as possible, “although the missing ship
is
on our medium-term agenda. This mission addresses slightly more immediate concerns.” She took a breath. “All will be revealed in short order. Briefing room, 0900 tomorrow morning. Don’t be late.”

Captain Liao’s Quarters

TFR Beijing

Just before the briefing

Grunting, Liao pulled up her uniform pants, sucking in her belly and pulling them up with both hands.
Try as she might, the garment–size eight female, the same size she’d worn her entire career – would not slide past her slightly larger hips. She was now two months along, and her body was beginning to adjust itself to the small but growing life inside of her.

Her breasts had swollen and become tender, but a simple bra replacement had solved that. She wasn’t sure if anyone had noticed, although hers were always small to begin with. Perhaps, in a way, the crew had subconsciously seen her body's changes as a return to what might be seen, in this day and age of skinny, mega-breasted superstars, as ‘normality.’

But the pants were another matter, and there was no easy way to fix the problem. Eventually admitting defeat, she let them fall to her ankles and kicked them away. Liao put her hands over her belly, sighing. She closed her eyes, letting her fingers trace her no longer perfectly flat stomach, Doctor Saeed’s words echoing in her ears.

You won’t be able to hide this forever…

A surge of anger came to her then. Maybe she could continue to serve throughout her entire pregnancy, or maybe she couldn’t. That was not
his decision to make; it would be one made on her
terms, nobody else’s, and she would not let the mere fact that she was pregnant stand in the way of what she wanted to do.

She was pregnant, not crippled.

A press of her radio and a few words summoned the ship’s quartermaster to her room. Red-faced, she explained to him, with careful phrasing, that she’d been gaining a little weight lately–Doctor Saeed had insisted she eat more to recover from her injuries – and she had found the routine hard to break, so a size ten uniform would be a more appropriate fit. She was careful to make it clear that this would be temporary, and she knew that she was setting a bad example for the crew, but her injuries made it difficult to exercise.

She was nonspecific as to exact nature of her 'temporary condition,' but thankfully, probably due to her rank, he did not ask.

Liao wasn’t sure she convinced him, but it did not matter.
Five pairs of size ten pants found their way into her cupboard, and five pairs of size eights were returned to the stores. The replacements were a much more comfortable fit, although as she looked at herself in the mirror, she couldn’t help but feel the mask covering the truth was a cheap one and that if someone looked too closely, her disguise would not hold.

It would stay strong for a little while, though. The future was the future, and what would come would come. Saeed was right. There was no sense worrying about it. Liao made a point of fetching the string of pearls from her desk.
Staring at her reflection, she gingerly placed them around her neck, tucking the long string underneath her uniform and making sure it could not be seen.

A gift from James, one that was against regulations. She could not wear the necklace openly–that would set a terrible example for the crew, and she hated being a hypocrite–but they were a special gift. Apart from the fetus growing inside her, the pearls were the only physical reminder that James was ever hers.

Liao’s secrets were mounting and she, just like the slightly stretched pants she had convinced the quartermaster to return, was feeling increasingly unable to contain them. It was just like the press conference. Although this time, rather than simply being an international embarrassment, keeping those kinds of secrets might cost her the career she had spent so many years working towards.

You’re going to have to take a leave at some point…

Perhaps Saeed was right about other things, too.

Briefing Room

TFR Beijing

0900 hours

Nobody was late. Even Jiang was there,
albeit in a wheelchair, Lieutenant Dao pushing her around and doting on her. The room was packed to capacity, every head of every department and every senior officer present, even those whose attendance was strictly optional.

It was heartening to see such enthusiasm after their trials, but this was also a sign that her ship needed to get moving. The crew was restless. They needed action.

If she was being honest with herself, however, Liao would be perfectly happy if the mission was a quiet one.

She recalled the argument she’d had with Fleet Command soon after they had learned that Sheng had been in communication with the Toralii. The top brass insisted that both remaining Pillars of the Earth stand ready in defense of Earth, just in
case the Toralii Alliance launched another attack on their system. Liao postulated that if they stayed in their cradle forever, humanity would eventually lose. She had resorted to quoting Sun Tzu.
“
Invincibility lies in the defence; the possibility of victory in the attack
.” Although Earth had locked down their system with gravity mines, missile and gun batteries, and scores of gunships and fighters, they couldn't lock the doors and windows and hide under the bed. They had to explore. To reach out. To seek advantages over the Toralii.

Reluctantly, Fleet Command gave the Beijing the go-ahead to proceed. After all, Liao was a decorated war hero whom, along with Captain Knight and his crew, many considered to be humanity’s last defense against the alien menace.

Liao took a breath and, without preamble, began the briefing. “I’m not really sure how to open this one, so I’m just going to come out and say it. We have come into possession of intelligence which indicates Commander Gaulung Sheng was, before he even came aboard this vessel, in contact with what we presume was a Toralii Alliance agent. We intend on acting on this intelligence.”

A murmur, like the wave on a beach, ran through the assembled crowd. Liao studied their reactions.
Some of the Marine Division had supported Sheng's mutiny, and although Cheung was the only Marine present and she had not supported it, Liao knew that sometimes feelings and emotions ran deep.

“I say presume because his contact–whoever it was–did not indicate a great deal about themselves, only that they represented some faction of the Toralii.”

Lieutenant Yu raised his hand. “If we don’t know what faction they represent, then what do we have to go on, Captain?”

Liao tapped the key on her remote, changing the floor to ceiling presentation monitor from a generic welcome message to a series of numbers.

“Jump coordinates. The contact gave Sheng jump coordinates.so that when he had his own ship, be that the
Tehran
or the
Beijing
, he could travel to this location. The contact, according to what we’ve been able to piece together from their communications, wanted very badly to meet with Sheng in person.
He or she was prepared to give Sheng whatever consideration he wanted in exchange for that meeting.”

From the back of the room came a voice speaking the Toralii language. It was Saara, the Toralii woman's growling voice echoing strangely throughout the crowded room. [“Since the message was written in one of your languages, I cannot be more specific regarding
which
Toralii faction the contact may have represented. All I can say is that approaching a jump-drive-possessing society secretly, as this mysterious contact did, is highly unusual. So unusual that I cannot think of a single instance where it has occurred in recent memory. Accordingly, we should be prepared for the possibility that this may be a trap. The Kel-Voran, for example, know enough of our language and culture to do something like this—to impersonate one of our kind—but it would be uncharacteristic of them to be so underhanded, as they favour direct confrontation. It is a mystery.”]

A quick glance around the room revealed that Saara’s words had been understood. Most of the crew were still learning the Toralii language. Although it had proven to be an easy language to grasp, Liao and the engineering teams had kept every hand busy for so many weeks that finding time to study was difficult.

Liao tapped the remote again, bringing up a breakdown of tasks for the remaining divisions. “Because primary systems are now operational and the vast majority of our repairs are complete, I want everything ready to move in three days. Shore leave, if you or any of your subordinates have taken it or are planning to, is
cancelled effective immediately. Sorry about that. Make sure anyone who’s been partying too hard is given a day to rest. We will need to be at our best because we could be jumping straight into a trap.”

A gentle wave of nods around the room. Yanmei Cheung, the head of the Marine
division, raised her hand to speak. Liao could see the rest of the crew, at least those behind the woman, staring at her hand – pitted and scarred, as though scores of maggots had been eating away at her flesh. It was the first time many had seen her wounds in public and.
Ignoring the looks Cheung received, Liao nodded her way.

“Yes, Lieutenant?”

“Captain, we have a full complement of Marines onboard, but we were expecting a half-dozen extra to come in the latest resupply. They should be here before the three days are over, but there won’t be much time for inductions and introductions.”

Liao nodded again. She knew that Marines tended to fit in to everchanging circumstances. “That shouldn’t be a problem. I'm not anticipating any issues,
but if anything comes up do your best. I’ll leave them in your capable care.”

Alex Aharoni leaned forward in his chair and raised his hand. “The strike fighter detachment is at full strength and ready to go, Captain. The new Mark II Wasps have been bought on
board, along with four nuke-equipped Broadsword gunships to help deal with capital ships, plus one for search and rescue or other duties. Our Mark Is have been reassigned to the defense of the Mars Lagrange point.”