Tag Archives: Daniel

Arc 6.4: Stardock

Stardock: Part 10

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I wondered what Lim thought we’d even be able to do. Sure, Izzy might be able to redirect part of a planetary bombardment on her own, but she wouldn’t be able to handle all of it. She’d be kind of redundant to whatever Guardian and the various Defenders units were likely to manage. The ones that couldn’t fly in space had ships made at Stardock to work with.

With a slightly sick feeling, I wondered what Haley hoped to do. The jet might be able to destroy or redirect asteroids. For that matter, Camille could control gravity, and I didn’t know what her limits were. If she was anything like Sean, her half brother, she might be extremely powerful.

Lim’s voice broke through my thoughts. “Everyone! Now! I’ll brief you when you’re done.”

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Arc 6.4: Stardock

Stardock: Part 8

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Whether I liked the people I was with or not, however, it was time to practice. Brain Gang ran us through multiple scenarios and exercises, and we were okay if not brilliant. They were all based on the assumption that we had to hold off invading aliens long enough to evacuate and blow up the base. In short, we’d already lost, and it was now a question of how we’d deal with it.

At least that was my take. Basically, it was Star Trek’s Kobayashi Maru exercise but with specific orders on how we were handle the problem.

So far as I could tell, our orders required us to die a lot, but at least we won most of the time–assuming your definition of winning didn’t necessarily include personal survival.

The last exercise didn’t even go that well.

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Arc 6.4: Stardock

Stardock: Part 7

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Brain Gang, a short man with dark skin and short, black hair, stood in front of the group of us. He wore a green suit (with matching mask and hat) that to my eye appeared to include material similar to that in my stealth suit. The material on the outside seemed normal, but the suit appeared to be stiffer and just a little thicker than normal material.

I recognized Brain Gang’s name. I’d heard it from Grandpa. Either this was a descendant of the original Brain Gang, or the original was still around. Given that this guy appeared to be in his thirties, I leaned toward descendant.

The parking lot held no cars, and for good reason. If you were going to be training a bunch of college students, many of whom were still learning to use their abilities, would you want to have your car where a stray blast of energy could destroy it?

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Arc 6.4: Stardock

Stardock: Part 6

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“Uh…” I tried to think of a response that would calm the situation down. The honest response, “Yes, Daniel explained it to Haley and me, but not you,” didn’t seem likely to do that.

Izzy let out a breath, seeming to deflate as she did it. “Look, I’m not going to–” She paused, not saying anything. “I’d like to talk about this privately. Do you have a good sense of when we’d be out of his range?”

I had a pretty good guess as to whose range she meant.

Go ahead, Daniel told me. It’ll be okay.

Izzy raised an eyebrow, and gave a half smile. “He’s talking to you, isn’t he?”

“Yeah,” I shrugged. “Sorry. I think we’ll be out of range in a minute or so, but I’ll want to get my jacket.”

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Arc 6.4: Stardock

Stardock: Part 3

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Jaclyn followed Izzy in through the door. Izzy said, “Hi” as she moved out of Jaclyn’s way, and met people’s eyes as she did it–including Daniel’s. I didn’t hear any anger in her voice either. She did talk quietly, but she always did that when we were together as a group. My theory was that she still didn’t quite feel comfortable with everyone.

All the same, the fact that she was here at all hinted that whatever they’d talked about last wasn’t irreparable.

She’s not just nervous about being with the group, Daniel thought at me. It’s more complicated than that.

He glanced over at her. What’s going on with us is complicated too, but I don’t want to go into that right now.

Jaclyn lifted up her print out of the plan, a small sheaf of paper. “We’re here to talk about this, right? What did you think of it?”

She caught my eye, “What do you think of it?”

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Arc 6.4: Stardock

Stardock: Part 2

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Isaac led us through the facility, explaining generally what was going on on each floor. I would have asked a lot of questions except I knew better. He didn’t know anything worth knowing about how anything worked. Sure, he could tell us what the major activities on each floor were, but I could guess that.

What I wanted to know was what techniques they were using and if they’d made any advances over the Alliance’s standard ships.

I didn’t need Isaac to figure that one out either. All I had to do was to observe. The spaceships around me in various stages of construction weren’t quite designed to human specifications. Take the big spaceship at the bottom of the hole. When we walked through it, it was obvious to me that whatever race it had been designed for was on average about seven feet tall. Bearing in mind variation, they’d designed the size to allow people (beings?) as large as eight feet tall.

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Arc 6.4: Stardock

Stardock: Part 1

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My grandfather told me once that war was long periods of boredom broken up by moments of terror. From the stories that the original League told about World War 2 and their experiences afterward, it sounded right.

Knowing that, it’s not so much of a surprise to learn that after the Hrnnna’s disappearance, the Xiniti’s trip through the gate they normally guarded, the annual inspection of the Jay and Kay, and my own frantic call to Agent Lim saying that I had Figured It All Out nothing happened at all.

I went through the week wondering if we’d be invaded, or worse, bombed from space.

Neither occured, and we ended the week with a normal Stapledon weekend.

Well, normal for the fairly loose definition of normal I’d been living under during the last few years–the kind of normal that puts you in a position to fight evil alien space horses.

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Arc 6.2: Chancy Connections

Chancy Connections: Part 11

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“No way of knowing,” Daniel said. “I couldn’t read their thoughts very well. I got brief flashes of what happened to their home world—which was horrible. I can see why they’d hate the people who did it, but we’re not them.”

In a low voice, Izzy said, “They were telling the truth, then. Genocide?”

Daniel nodded. “Technically xenocide, but yes. Coming here does make sense in that light. As long as we’re around, the Abominators’ former servants can’t come here.”

“Except there really are aliens who want to destroy us just because the Abominators used us as a genetic base to create their servants,” I said. “So we can’t rule out the possibility that the Hrrnna are among them, but as they said, they’re here. I suppose they might be willing to destroy all life on a planet they’re living on, but I’d do it from a distance myself.”

Haley pursed her lips. “What did the creatures that killed them look like?”

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Arc 6.2: Chancy Connections

Chancy Connections: Part 10

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Haley didn’t get angry, but I did sense she might be tired of the subject.

She only sent back. I’ll show you later.

Then I felt Izzy’s dawning realization of what Haley had to mean. Of course she’d realized it. Haley and I had both been on national (and probably international) television more than once.

I hope you’re not worried about how you look. There’s nothing wrong with it.

Haley thought, No, it’s not that. Well, it’s not just that. It’s what goes along with it. When the Hrrnna turned, part of me wanted to chase it. That kind of thing happens all the time, okay? And not just with alien horses—small animals too. Squirrels. I don’t want to be the kind of person who chases squirrels.

I didn’t ask what kind of person that was.
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Arc 6.2: Chancy Connections

Chancy Connections: Part 9

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Haley froze as the horse-like alien wheeled around and ran back toward the trees.

The lead alien grunted, chirped, and soon the translation device started again. “Pardon our compatriot. Some of us are old enough to remember our people’s near extinction personally. To answer your question, yes, it was a dangerous journey, but this is a place of safety, possibly the only one.”

Still watching the alien that had run toward the trees, Haley said, “That makes sense, and I’m sorry if I scared your friend somehow.”

“There is no offense taken.”

Haley nodded, barely moving.

So Haley, and probably her grandfather, must have some connection to whatever destroyed these creatures’ home planet. I wanted to ask Haley about it but this wasn’t the time.

Continue reading Chancy Connections: Part 9 →