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

  ‘Fine. Check up on us, see how we’ve formed our battle lines, and watch out for stray laser fire,’ Brutus replied sleepily.

  Cain opened the hatch and boldly walked through, face first into a fine mist from the watering system that seemed to have activated the second he walked in.

  “Hey!” he howled, trying to cover his face with his arms. The mist stopped, and he looked for the culprit between the branches and leaves of the heavy vegetation. “You did that on purpose, you fuzzy-tailed purveyors of terror!”

  He heard a Rabbit snicker. Cain headed in that direction, stopping when he saw Brutus lying on a tree branch, his four ‘cat legs hanging over the sides.

  “You look like road kill,” Cain told him.

  Brutus waved one paw as a mock one-finger salute. He didn’t bother opening his eyes. Cain flipped off his friend, with one hand, then two and started dancing in a circle around the head-high branch and waving his middle digits.

  ‘Carnesto says that Ellie misses you and needs your manly company,’ Brutus said matter-of-factly. Cain stopped dancing and tucked his fingers away, looking around to see if anyone saw him.

  ‘No kidding?’ Cain asked skeptically, having switched to his thought voice. ‘Let me talk with Carnesto directly.’

  ‘Nope,’ Brutus replied and didn’t elaborate further on Cain’s lineage or the usual put-downs he had ready to deliver at a moment’s notice as part of Cain’s daily comeuppance.

  “You are such an ass!” Cain declared aloud, storming away from the small, orange Hillcat.

  The rough-looking creature smiled to himself. ‘I always win. When will my human ever learn?’

  “I hear you!” Cain bellowed as he zeroed in on the sound of a Rabbit retreating through the brush. Brutus wondered momentarily if Cain meant him, but shook his ‘cat head as he realized Cain was going to take out his frustration on the Rabbits.

  Cain passed two lounging Hillcats on the way. He ignored them as they ignored him. “You both sprayed me with water and now you’re going to get it!” Cain blundered between two tomato plants loaded with fruit. A stream of water hit him in the face, and he twisted, bent, and fell over backward.

  “Watch the tomatoes!” Allard cried through his vocalization device. “Damn!”

  Both Rabbits appeared and picked a few of the riper tomatoes and two that weren’t quite ripe enough, but the branch had been damaged. And then there were the two tomatoes on the ground, crushed beneath the clumsy human.

  “Look what you did!” Beauchene said, putting his furry Rabbit hands on his hips in dismay.

  “If you hadn’t sprayed me…” Cain started, but Allard was still holding the hose and had it pointed in the human’s direction. Cain could feel a dozen sets of ‘cat eyes watching him. “I only wanted to check in and make sure everything was going okay.”

  “Fine, fine. Call next time so you don’t upset the delicate balance we have to maintain for optimal growing conditions. You are such a klutz!” Allard exclaimed, shaking his head. The two Rabbits conferred on something then hopped away.

  “I’ll be damned,” Cain said softly, standing up to find the seat of his pants was soaked. His shirt was soaked. His knees were wet, too. He found that his calves were dry, but that didn’t make him feel any better. He took off his shirt and underneath, he wore a black t-shirt with the Cygnus Marines logo emblazoned in full color on the left breast.

  He looked at it briefly and headed back toward the hatch. Cain glared at Brutus as he passed, but the ‘cat’s eyes were closed, his legs dangled, and tail was still. Cain was certain the ‘cat wasn’t sleeping, but he was making a good show of ignoring the outside world.

  “I love you, little man,” Cain whispered in Brutus’s direction. “Even though you let me get soaked, you little miscreant.”

  ‘I know,’ came the reply directly into Cain’s mind.

  ***

  Briz looked over his monitors, conferred with Jolly, made a manual adjustment on one of four different keyboards, and then chittered excitedly for two whole seconds before turning to something else.

  Ellie shook her head as she watched, wondering if he was playing chess with Jolly on one of the screens. He always had a game running somewhere. Ellie tried playing but found it distracted her too much. She was turning into a good engineer, but needed to focus on the tasks at hand.

  She turned back to the compressor that occupied her attention. It helped to move coolant through the system and was one of the more dangerous components. A coolant tank had blown in that very space, killing a Wolfoid lieutenant and almost killing her and Lieutenant Brisbois, if it hadn’t been for Cain coming to their rescue.

  Ellie snickered thinking about her complicated relationship with the Marine major. He had been an ensign with her at one point, but the great-great-grandson of Braden and Micah was destined for bigger things. She begrudgingly accepted that, along with his fanatical devotion to the woman he left behind.

  They had parted ways, Aletha and Cain, and Ellie and Cain. He was forced to travel through space alone, but not alone. Ellie’s door was always open for him.

  “It’s complicated,” she said out loud, staring at the condenser but not seeing it.

  “No kidding,” Cain said. Ellie jumped, dropping a spanner and slapping a hand to her chest to calm her surprised and racing heart.

  “Didn’t your mother ever teach you manners, like not sneaking up on people?” She scowled at him for just a moment, but he was looking at the condenser’s internals, appreciating the complexity of it and happy that he wasn’t the one working on it.

  Ellie’s initial fright passed and she threw her arms around his neck, pulling him close for a long, passionate kiss. His hands found their way to her backside; he gripped firmly and squeezed. She leaned into him and he pushed back until she was pressed against the condenser housing.

  She shook him off and carefully leaned forward. She slapped his chest as she turned to inspect the internals, making sure she didn’t damage anything that would catastrophically fail and kill them all.

  Ellie knew that the system wasn’t going to break by leaning into it. There were too many fail-safes, but it didn’t hurt to keep Cain in his place.

  “You dumbass!” she said softly.

  “Carnesto said you needed me,” Cain said suggestively. Ellie rolled her eyes.

  “Oh, he did, did he?” she answered.

  ‘I did not,’ Carnesto, the large black ‘cat told them both over the mindlink.

  “Why, that little rat…” Cain left it hanging, knowing that Brutus was in his mind and knew what was happening.

  “Oh?” Ellie stabbed a finger into his chest. “You only came because you thought your lost love was pining for you? Is that it? You need to march yourself right out of here and cool your jets, mister! And why the hell are your clothes wet?”

  She punctuated each sentence with a finger jab.

  He backed away, staying balanced and holding his hands up in surrender, his shirt still in one of them. He looked hurt and Ellie took pity on him.

  Yet another cruel Brutus joke.

  “You two are quite a pair!” She smirked. Cain wasn’t sure which two she was talking about so he didn’t say anything. She walked with him to the hatch leading to the corridor.

  She looked at Briz, who was fully engrossed in his systems, before pulling Cain close and brushing her lips over his cheek as she moved close to his ear. “See you tonight?” she whispered.

  Cain’s face split with a smile before she pushed him through the hatch and closed it in his face. She checked the time. Only six hours left on shift.

  Briz looked up, confused. His Rabbit whiskers fluttered as if in a heavy breeze. “Was someone here?” he asked.

  “Nope,” Ellie replied without hesitation as she walked back to where she’d been working.

  “Then what were you doing over there?” the chief of engineering asked as he looked from the condenser to the hatch and back to the condenser.

  “G
etting some fresh air. I had to clear my head before tackling this beast, but I have it all under control now. All of it,” she reiterated, not looking at the Rabbit.

  Attitude Adjustments

  Cain had skipped down two levels to go to engineering after the taunting that Brutus had given him, and he was glad that he did.

  It had been awhile since he’d had any private time with his former wife. The electricity between them was still there, but they’d taken separate paths and they had separate quarters. He needed to fix that. He’d changed his mind again, but this time he was certain.

  Holy crap, Cain thought happily, forgetting the reason he was in the stairway. He closed his eyes and relived the brief encounter, enjoying the fireworks flashing through his mind.

  “Which way you headed, boss?” Stinky asked through his vocalization device.

  Cain slowly opened his eyes. The Wolfoid was waiting patiently.

  Stinky wasn’t completely sure about reading human expressions, so he took a shot in the dark. “Are you injured?”

  “What? No, I’m fine,” Cain replied as Brutus chuckled in his mind. ‘You little rat! Wait until I see you.’

  ‘Then what, human? You’ll scratch my belly and make those ridiculous cooing sounds. That’s what you’ll do. Jeez. Why did they hook me up with an idiot?’ Brutus taunted his life-linked human.

  Cain thought “they” were the nebulous council of Hillcat elders. They detailed the ‘cats as needed to control the affairs of Cygnus VII. It was inevitable that Braden’s descendent and the descendent of the Golden Warrior would end up paired.

  ‘Because you’re one lucky ‘cat, you mangy cur,’ Cain replied, to which Brutus replied with image after image of Cain in every embarrassing position he’d ever been in. Cain tuned the ‘cat out.

  “Starsgard. I was looking for Starsgard,” the major said, reminding himself as much as telling the lieutenant.

  “I think he’s in weapons control,” Black Leaper replied.

  “I was just there and he wasn’t,” Cain said, before opening his neural implant. “Jolly, where is Corporal Starsgard?”

  “He is in the weapons bay running a diagnostic on the close-in missile system,” Jolly reported pleasantly.

  “What you’re saying, Jolly, is that had I waited, he would have come to me?” Jolly didn’t answer. Stinky raised his heavy Wolfoid eyebrows before turning and launching himself up the ramp.

  Had I done that, I wouldn’t be wet, Cain thought, but on the other hand, I wouldn’t have a date tonight, either.

  He considered it a win as he ran up the stairs after his friend.

  ***

  Starsgard looked angry. They’d only fired two missiles, but the system was showing the missile bank to be empty.

  He ran the diagnostic three times before bringing Jolly in to help.

  “Jolly?” Starsgard asked the ceiling, preferring to talk out loud as opposed to using his neural implant.

  “Yes, Doctor Starsgard, how may I help you?”

  “Why is the system showing no available missiles? How did we lose the rest of our missiles?” Starsgard whined.

  “I assure you we have eight missiles remaining,” Jolly said casually, seemingly unconcerned. “What I cannot tell you is why they aren’t showing up as available on your board. I’ll be right back.”

  The AI dropped off the comm system, leaving Starsgard to his own thoughts.

  He ran a second diagnostic on the signal jamming system, pleased that it showed as one hundred percent functional. He leaned back in the chair that sat within a gimbal and doubled as an acceleration couch. He clasped his hands over his head and closed his eyes.

  “WHAT THE HELL?” Cain yelled through the open hatch.

  Starsgard launched himself from the chair, landing awkwardly and rolling to the deck. He winced in pain and grabbed his ankle.

  Stinky slapped his friend on the back and forced his way past and into the room. “What were you up to, Corporal, before we so rudely interrupted?” the Wolfoid asked, looking accusingly at the major.

  Starsgard continued to rub his ankle. Lieutenant Black Leaper helped him up, but the man couldn’t put any weight on his leg. Cain rubbed his temples as he watched the corporal hobble to his chair.

  “Sickbay, Starsgard. Can you get yourself there?” Cain asked impatiently, before catching himself.

  Nothing mattered more than his people.

  “Grab on, Corporal, we’re taking a trip.” Cain draped Starsgard’s arm over his shoulder and they both headed out.

  “I’m going to check in with the bridge,” Stinky said as he walked in the opposite direction.

  Cain led the injured man to the stairs. “We’re going to take it easy on our way down, Starsgard. Tell me if we’re moving too fast, and while we’re on our way, tell me about the weapons systems.”

  “That’s the rub, sir. Jolly is trying to figure out why all the missiles are showing up as fired. The jamming system works great, but right now, if anyone attacked us, we can’t defend ourselves and we definitely cannot attack.”

  Cain stepped down first, and then Starsgard hopped down. They kept that rhythm as they descended, past the garden deck, and to the next deck where they’d find the mess, billeting, and sickbay. Cain shied away from the garden deck hatch. Finally feeling dry, he had no intention of going near the misters or the Rabbits.

  ‘Good choice, interloper,’ Brutus told him.

  Cain momentarily glared at the closed hatch and wondered if Brutus could sense the epic stink-eye that Cain was delivering.

  Probably not.

  “Jolly doesn’t know why the system isn’t recognizing our remaining missiles?” Cain wondered once Starsgard’s statement finally registered. “Can we fire them manually if we need to?”

  “I don’t know, but I don’t think so. We need our radars to paint the target and direct the missile. Without the ship recognizing that the missiles exist, I suspect they would be no better than an unguided rocket. Space is very big, and we only have eight left. I think we’re up a creek without a paddle, Major,” Starsgard opined while he and the major hopped onto the landing of the billeting and dining deck, where sickbay was located.

  The med bots had regenerated his burned flesh in there, and Captain Rand had a new arm printed and installed. The sickbay aboard The Olive Branch carried the most modern medical systems that could be stuffed into the small space. Cain had experienced a great deal of pain in the Cygnus-12 sickbay, but the bots put him on a fast track to recovery. Sickbay was a good place.

  If someone was alive when they arrived, the med bots would keep them that way.

  There were no doctors or nurses, only bots, equipment, and if you caused a fuss, Jolly would ask Commander Daksha or Captain Rand to intervene.

  Which they did on more than one occasion with Cain--even though he knew sickbay was a good place, the least he could do was share his pain and anguish.

  “Get in there, Starsgard,” Cain ordered, turning the man loose as soon as he could grip the examination table and pull himself onto it. “Med bot, work your magic.”

  The med bot ignored the healthy individual and turned its mechanical attention to the patient.

  “It’s my ankle. I twisted it,” the corporal offered meekly.

  “Yes, yes, I’m sure it was horrible what the big bad major of the Marines did to you. The bully can leave us in peace. Now relax and we’ll fix you up right dandy,” the med bot replied.

  “What in the hell?” Cain started to say, then stopped and shook his head. “Jolly. Have you been messing with the med bot programming?”

  “I have not!” the AI retorted.

  “Has Briz?”

  “Only the bedside manners, good sir. The med bot seemed too cold for the humans, who need a certain level of comforting as they are being serviced,” Jolly suggested through the speaker mounted in the corner of the high-tech room.

  “Nice try, Jolly. Please make sure that it doesn’t interfere with any of their pr
imary programming. I expect that I’m probably the single greatest provider of patients, but we want the med bots to earn their keep.” Cain bit the inside of his cheek as he looked around. “I’m not proud of that, by the way.”

  “Of course not, Major Cain. Practice how you play, isn’t that one of your sayings?” Jolly asked.

  “It is, and yes, we train hard, but we seem to have our share of accidents, too. Do you believe in luck, Jolly?” Cain wondered.

  “I believe in calculated possibilities, Cain,” Jolly explained. “Sometimes, there may be only a five percent chance of something happening, which means that it could happen. The better prepared you are, the luckier you will be, so in essence, I believe that you make your own luck.”

  “Truer words were never spoken, Jolly. Thank you.” Starsgard groaned as the med bot worked on his ankle. A piece of equipment was positioned near the injury. Cain could only assume that it was working as the man’s groans changed to moans of pleasure.

  “Starsgard!” Cain yelled to break the man from his descent toward becoming a human blob.

  “Sir!” the corporal answered, banging his head against the med bot as he sat up too quickly. His forehead started to bleed.

  “You are a one-man wrecking crew, Major Cain,” Jolly said, chuckling. “Maybe you can leave the poor and damaged Corporal Starsgard alone until he’s in better condition to deal with you.”