Cygnus Arrives: Humanity Returns Home (Cygnus Space Opera Book 3) Read online

  Cygnus Arrives

  Humanity Comes Home

  Cygnus Space Opera

  Book 3

  A Tale in the Free Trader Universe

  By Craig Martelle

  Humans and the Intelligent Creatures

  The Hillcats

  Mixial – Tandry’s bonded ‘cat, a small, long-haired calico

  Lutheann – bonded with Cain, all white

  Carnesto – bonded with Ellie, all black

  Brutus – the newest ‘cat who keeps Cain honest

  Tobiah – the largest Hillcat of the era, bonded with Spence

  The Humans

  Cain – Great-great-grandson of Free Traders Braden & Micah

  Aletha – Cain’s true love who wants to stay home

  Ellie – Engineer aboard the Cygnus-12 & Cain’s ex-wife

  Tandry – Sensor operator

  Dr. Johns – clone of the Cygnus VI survivor. In charge of the SES

  Captain Rand – captain of the Cygnus-12 Deep Space Exploration ship

  Spence – a small man, huge in spirit, a squad leader of Marines

  Jo – a Marine, she is a gifted marksman

  Starsgard – a professor of Astrophysics, Marine Corporal

  Pace – a flight lieutenant, pilot of the Cygnus-12

  Foucault – called Fickle, an academic and Marine

  The Mechanicals

  Cygnus-12 - also called The Olive Branch, the only space fleet interstellar ship capable of flying itself through the heliosphere and into the gravity well of a solar system

  Holly – the artificial intelligence on Cygnus VII

  Jolly – the artificial intelligence that Holly created for the Cygnus-12

  Graham – the artificial intelligence on Concordia in system IC1396

  The Hawkoids

  Chirit – Crew member on Cygnus-12, sensor operator

  Ascenti – Marine, stand-in sensor operator

  The Tortoid

  Daksha – Third Master of the Tortoise Consortium, son of Aadi, Commander of the Cygnus-12 exploration mission

  The Lizard Men (Amazonians)

  Peekaless – nicknamed “Pickles,” Lieutenant of Marines

  Zisk – a Marine

  The Rabbits

  Brisbois – called “Briz,” technical genius, Chief of Engineering

  Allard & Beauchene – gardeners assigned to the Cygnus-12

  The Wolfoids

  Black Leaper – nicknamed “Stinky,” Lieutenant of Marines

  Night Stalker – Sergeant of Marines

  Bull – much larger than the average Wolfoid, squad leader of Marines

  Grace – a squad leader of Marines

  Razor Fang, Aurochs Ring, Bounding Shepherd, Gray Streak, Black Shadow, Silent Tracker, Hidden Slayer, Lightning Flash, Dark Forest, Tan Mountain, and Shades Racer – the Marine Recruits

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I want to thank the Just In Time readers who did an incredible job making sure this was a clean manuscript, that the story continued without a hitch from the past two which were written over six months ago. Since then, I’ve written eight other books and four short stories, so I got confused.

  A lot.

  THANK YOU!!

  Beck Young

  Lori Hendricks

  Thomas Ogden

  James Caplan

  Leo Roars

  Theresa Barber

  Norman Meredith

  Diane Velasquez

  Dorene Johnson

  Table of Contents

  Table of Contents

  Debriefing

  The Next Chapter

  Attitude Adjustments

  Shipboard Training

  Payback

  The Ghost in the Machine

  EL475 – Welcome to Heimdall

  To Wit, ‘Cats

  Dead

  Landfall

  Retrograde

  Let the War Start Here

  Truth

  Hide

  Secure the Perimeter

  The Firefight

  A New Plan

  They’re Coming

  Recovery

  Shuttles Prepped and Ready for Launch

  The Dilemma

  Leaving the Gravity Well

  Cygnus Arrives

  Humans

  Into the Gravity Well

  Earth Two

  Welcome to our Home

  What Next

  A ‘Cat’s View of the World

  Never Cross a Rabbit

  Kick the Tires and Light the Fires

  Trapped

  The Free Trader Series

  Postscript

  Author Notes

  Debriefing

  “Crap!” Cain yelled.

  ‘Really,’ Brutus told him in his thought voice. ‘I should hold the title of general, but it would only be honorific, of course. I have no intention of giving orders to this mob.’

  Cain rolled his eyes and shook his head. His senior staff tried not to look at him. The major’s conversations with his Hillcat were colorful, to say the least.

  Brutus was sitting on the conference table and licking his fur.

  “Would you go somewhere else to lick your butt?” Cain asked out loud, having little hope the ‘cat would acquiesce.

  ‘No. I think you’re jealous, that’s all. Your team is waiting, dumbass.’ Brutus continued his personal grooming without pause.

  Cain looked at the faces around the table. His lieutenants were there, Black Leaper and Peekaless. It was time for the after-action review of their fight on Concordia. He used a simplified process, but it was all they needed to improve from one action to the next.

  “Each of you, tell me one thing we did well and one thing we need to do better,” he prodded.

  The Wolfoids sat on the floor, but their muzzles were well above the level of the table, keeping them engaged in the conversation. Black Leaper was next to Night Stalker, and Stinky went first while Stalker watched him closely.

  “They couldn’t match our speed and agility,” Stinky said through his vocalization device. He had thought they’d done well, despite the injuries and the loss of Hidden Slayer. They thought they had lost Tracker, but we hadn’t. The Wolfoid survived thanks to getting back to sick bay as quickly as he did. The med bots worked a miracle on him, bringing him back from what seemed a sure death.

  They Cygnus Marines had routed a determined enemy from a fortified position. Stinky continued, “Our ability to breach barriers was limited within the building and without bringing the whole building down, I’m not sure what else we could have done about that.”

  “Jolly, are you capturing these notes? We’ll need a list and your help later to propose solutions, but not now. We just want to capture our thoughts,” Cain said, looking at the ceiling, which was what he always did when talking with the disembodied artificial intelligence they called Jolly.

  “Certainly, Major Cain,” Jolly replied pleasantly.

  The Lizard Man was wearing his skinsuit, casually watching the others. The Amazonians didn’t show their emotions in a way that humans or the other intelligent creatures of Vii could understand.

  Cain had given up long ago trying to figure the Lizard Men out. He resorted to asking them, and he understood that they would answer guardedly and in clipped phrases.

  “Pickles, what do you have for us?” Major Cain prompted, forgetting that he promised not to call his lieutenants by their nicknames in front of the other platoon members.

  “The ‘cats’ contributions were incontrovertible,” the Amazonian said philosophically. The Lizard Me
n and the ‘cats could not converse mind-to-mind for reasons that no one knew. Stoic and stalwart, Lieutenant Peekaless did not elaborate further.

  “What would you change if you could, Pickles?” Cain pressed to get a little more from his friend.

  “The ‘cats. We should have brought them into the fight earlier. That’s all. We are good now.” Pickles rested his hands on the table.

  Cain studied the Lizard Man’s face before accepting that Pickles would contribute nothing else.

  Brutus chuckled directly into Cain’s mind. The major rolled his eyes and shook his head.

  Cain looked to his squad leaders next, disappointed that they had nothing new. He thought he had trained them in critical thinking, but in the big scheme of the Cygnus Marines’ existence, they were a fledgling force with leaders new to their roles.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” Cain started, standing so he could walk around as he lectured, never missing an opportunity to train his people. He maintained his upright posture, leaning back slightly as he had seen the ancient United States Marines do. He cocked his head and then continued speaking.

  “Every action that we survive is a chance to learn and grow. If we don’t improve from engagement to engagement, then our enemies will eventually get ahead of us. We can’t have that, because that means body bags and I’m not ready to fill those with any of you.” Cain looked down at the table, happy that Brutus wasn’t digging into his mind to berate him on one point or another.

  Corporal Spence sat in his chair while Tobiah was behind him on the floor. The oversized Hillcat looked like he wanted to jump onto the table, but seemed torn. Cain wondered if Brutus was holding him back. Tobiah was three times Brutus’s size and would fill the table.

  “We’ve seen humanity return to space. Then we found what a dangerous place it was out here,” Cain said softly, lowering his voice and narrowing his eyes. He wasn’t reciting a history lesson, he was recalling the hard lessons that real-life had taught them. “So we formed the Cygnus Marines to protect our people as they made contact, and we’ll keep protecting them. Just like Starsgard did to save the ship. In space or on land, we’ll fight the enemies of freedom. And then we’ll pack up and move on.”

  Cain had circled the table. When he made it back to his chair, Tobiah launched himself smoothly over Spence’s head, landing on the conference room table with a short slide, his claws scratching across the table’s surface. He knocked over a cup of water in front of Night Stalker before stopping.

  The large tan ‘cat casually walked in front of Spence and turned to put his butt in his human’s face before laying down, tucking his front paws under his chest and keeping his head up, but closing his eyes.

  Everyone had watched the ‘cat, which was probably half the reason that Tobiah did what he did.

  All Hillcats loved attention as long as it was on their terms.

  Stinky wiped the table off using a hairy foreleg. Stalker wiped her leg after his, and that took care of the spill. Then they snuggled next to each other.

  Brutus started unblinkingly at Major Cain. ‘Make it stop,’ Brutus told Cain in his thought voice.

  “You’ve all heard the rumors,” Cain started, standing tall as he looked proudly at his leadership team. “Next stop is EL475, a K-Class star system approximately eight-hundred and fifty light years from here. That was one of the designated colony planets that Graham reported to us. We’ll stop by to say hi, in our special way, of course…”

  The group snickered as Cain tried not to look too smug.

  “Once we’ve made new friends, we jump seven hundred light years to the edge of Sol’s heliosphere.” Cain paused for effect, looking at the star map on the screen behind him. He pointed to the screen. “That’s right, people. We’re going to Earth.”

  The Next Chapter

  “ETA to heliosphere departure?” Captain Rand asked, looking at the people on the bridge.

  Lieutenant Peekaless was doing double-duty as a Marine and ship’s data systems analyst. Private Foucault, Fickle as they called him, was at the workstation next to Pickles and was assisting the lieutenant.

  Lieutenant Pace sat at the flight console, watching the instruments as he programmed the next leg of the journey. He was an excellent pilot, but in deep space, Jolly handled the vast majority of flight duties.

  Next to Pace, Ensign Kalinda worked at her navigation console. She was embroiled in the data that Graham had transferred to Jolly from the Concordian database. Entire new galaxies were opened up to her, well beyond what she had seen from the original expedition to the Cygnus star system.

  She huffed in dismay, then leaned closer to better manipulate her screen. Pace looked at her, annoyed at the interruption. He was used to flying the ship from a separate compartment, but on the last refit, he’d been moved onto the command deck.

  Pace pursed his lips and twisted his mouth sideways. He shook off whatever he was thinking and went back to studying his console.

  Peekaless’s three-fingered claws were flying across the input screen as he pulled and parsed data. Jolly was assisting as needed. Until Pickles saw the data, he didn’t know exactly what to ask for, so he looked at the raw numbers and played with them manually.

  Jolly was sentient and that made him an AI. He would appear in holographic form in areas where there were projectors, the bridge and engineering. He wanted to visit the garden deck, but hadn’t moved the projection installation high enough on the engineer’s priority list. He watched through the numerous monitors and lived vicariously among the ‘cats and the Rabbits.

  He wanted a close-up of the tenuous peace the two species maintained. If he got bored, he figured he’d unlock the weapons locker again and turn the Rabbits loose on what they considered the Hillcat infestation. Jolly replayed the last battle between the Rabbits, the ‘cats, and the captain when he wished to be entertained.

  There were fewer ‘cats on board now, having left a healthy contingent on Concordia, although the biggest instigator was Carnesto, who continually plied the decks, looking for his next victim of his creative practical jokes.

  Jolly found it fascinating and was happy to see the ship filled with intelligent creatures of all shapes and sizes. He swore to improve his emotional engagement on this leg of the journey by adopting more human speech and mannerisms. He wondered if the humans would even notice.

  The AI appeared on the bridge next to the captain’s chair, hands behind his back as he wore a perpetual smile. Pace glanced his way, before returning his attention to the starfield occupying the front screen.

  Commander Daksha floated near the back of the bridge, his legs constantly moving as he swam to keep himself in place. He’d perfected his technique over the years and no longer even thought about it.

  “A shade over nine days at current acceleration,” Pace reported.

  “And then another two weeks banking dark matter for the jump to EL475,” Jolly added helpfully. “We could refer to it by the name that the colonists gave it--Heimdall, the guardian of Asgard.”

  “Three weeks and two days to Heimdall it is,” Rand stated as he rotated his chair to look at Daksha without having to turn his head. “Commander?”

  “Open ship-wide communication,” the Tortoid ordered casually through his vocalization device.

  “Done!” Jolly replied enthusiastically, nodding. Pace cocked his head as he looked at the AI.

  “All hands, this is Commander Daksha.” He didn’t know why he introduced himself, but he always did. His voice was unique and the crew was small. They knew who was speaking after the first word came through the sound system. He opened his turtle-like beak and laughed at himself, a sound that wasn’t projected so no one heard.

  “We will continue out of the Concord System at our current acceleration, so business as usual people, getting the ship ready for our next jump, which will be to EL475, called Heimdall by the colonists. It is the last stop before we jump to triple zero, the root of our coordinate system.”

  He didn
’t elaborate, because he didn’t need to.

  ***

  “Starsgard! Where the hell are you?” Cain bellowed, leaning out the hatch of the weapons bay. Cain stepped into the corridor to assure himself that no one was there. He activated his neural implant, bringing up the window before his eye. “Jolly, locate Corporal Starsgard for me.”

  The AI responded instantly. “He is on the mess deck.” The information window blinked as if Jolly was waiting for a response.

  “Thanks, Jolly,” Cain finally said as he headed for the stairs. “You are the absolute best AI on this ship. Bar none!”

  “Why, thank you, Major Cain. Wait, what?”

  Cain closed the window, looking smug at having successfully delivered another joke at Jolly’s expense. Cain expected the AI would be in a philosophical lockdown for the next week as he rehashed and analyzed the statement.

  The major descended the stairs, taking them three at a time. They weren’t as wide as they used to be since the upgrade when a Wolfoid ramp had been installed along with a sideways curve to allow interdeck transit during acceleration within the gravity well.

  Cain stopped when he reached the platform and doorway leading to the garden deck. ‘What do you think, Brutus, a quick stop to say hi to Allard and Beauchene?’ Cain asked in his thought voice.