Starmind Chapter 40 (Patreon)

At Temeri’s request I sent a message to Sophia to pass on to Tammeron, telling them that my Crew had arrived and were settling back in. “A courtesy call,” she called it when I pointed out that Sophia already knew that they’d arrived. “The point isn’t to tell them something new, but to show that they’re on our minds. Add on that we appreciate the show of good faith, too.”

Settling in mostly meant checking which things needed doing and doing them. The adorable little toddler golems — the porters — had brought all of their things back, so those needed to be stowed in their appropriate places. Varlanda and Bekeri both had some high-priority systems to check on that hadn’t received any maintenance in the past twelve days or more — none of them were critical, which I told them, but they wanted to check themselves anyway. While they were busy doing that, Harvin put away Simeon’s things, then settled into his couch on the bridge to “get eyes on the revived station crew,” as he called it. And Temeri…

Temeri lay on her bed in her cabin. She’d invited me in. Actually, what she’d said as she opened her door, which made me feel so very warm and happy, was, “There’s no need to blind yourself to my space anymore, unless you want to. I’ll let you know if I want some privacy.”

As she lay there staring at the ceiling, fully dressed on top of her blanket and with her hands under her pillow, she said, so softly that it was almost a whisper, “Star? Are you there?”

“I am, Temeri,” I replied. I felt uncertain — almost a little timid. She’d said that it was okay, but… “Are you really fine with me looking and listening in your cabin? You didn’t just say that to make me happy?”

“No, Star. I didn’t just say that. I’ve had a lot of time to think these past two weeks, and…” she sighed, but it wasn’t a tired sigh. It sounded like she was letting go of something heavy, and finally able to rest. “It’s ridiculous, isn’t it?” she asked. “Demanding that you blind yourself to a part of yourself?”

“You were worried,” I reminded her. “You didn’t know me, and you had to think about your Crew.”

“Sure. But it was all in my head, wasn’t it? I’ve been trying to recall as much as I possibly could of the days since the accident, and you never actually did anything to deserve my suspicion. Maybe you could have expressed yourself a little better at times, but you never did anything except try to help us.”

“I’m so happy that you’ve seen that!” I gushed. I wasn’t sure what she meant about me expressing myself, but I wasn’t bothered, either. “I really do just want you all to be safe, and happy, and as comfortable as you can possibly be!”

Temeri laughed softly. “Do you know at what point I think I started truly accepting that?”

“No! When?”

“When you put in a mini gym and a giant hot-tub for us. It’s such a ridiculous waste of resources. Neither has any practical use, not really. The hot-tub is too small to swim laps in for exercise, and there’s no real need for any strength training onboard beyond calisthenics. The only reason for you to provide us with either of those — and hells, you made up the gym equipment for me, personally — was to make us happy. You didn’t even hesitate. Why would someone with complete control over our lives do that, unless she was just a good person?”

“You think I’m good?” I asked softly. Barely speaking was the only way I could keep from boiling over with happiness, and maybe overwhelming her entirely. Temeri wasn’t great with big emotion.

“Yeah, Star,” she said, smiling at the ceiling. “You’re good. You’re a good person, and a good ship, and we’re lucky to have you.”

I didn’t know what to do with that, but I had to do something. I just had too many feelings; they were too big and too swirly, and I needed to let some of the pressure out somehow. If I had a Crew body…

“Okay, don’t freak out, but I’m going to do something!” I told her in a rush. Then I grabbed the loose ends of her blanket with my telekinesis, and before she could even respond I’d wrapped them tightly around her, enveloping her with all the inconsiderable pressure I could.

“Um, Star?” she laughed nervously. She still had her hands free, and she pulled lightly on the blanket. She didn’t need to put in much effort to move it. “What is this?”

“This is me hugging you, Temeri. I really need to give you a hug right now.”

“Oh,” she said. Then she relaxed, releasing the blanket and laying her head back on her pillow. “Okay. That’s fine, I suppose,” she said, even more softly than before.

“You don’t mind?”

“No, I don’t mind.” She paused for a beat then said. “This is pretty nice.”

*

It was 1000 hours, and four of my five Crew had been back home for an hour and a half, when we contacted Captain Tammeron to begin negotiations. She replied immediately, like she’d been waiting for us.

“Star!” she said, sounding a little more alert than she had that morning. “I was starting to wonder when I’d hear back. Can I assume that Captain Carlon and the rest of the crew are there as well?”

“They are!” I confirmed. “So I’m going to let the captain talk, if you don’t mind?”

“By all means. Captain Carlon, Enchantress Tell, Artificer Bekeri, and Diviner Alder. I trust you’re more comfortable back on your own ship?”

“We are,” Temeri said. “Thank you, Captain Temmeron, for your decency. You could have easily conducted these negotiations from a position of power, but you chose to release us back to our ship. Be sure that I’ll take that into serious consideration when you say what you want from us.”

“If you’re in a mood to show appreciation, I should also point out that the turrets in the landing bay have been retracted, and that the docking tunnel is open. You’re free to leave whenever you want. The only thing between you and the void is an atmospheric retention field.”

“But you hope we won’t,” Temeri said.

“But I hope you won’t,” Tammeron confirmed. “Though, considering Healer Tell is still up here with me— say, hi, Sim!”

“Morning, all!” Simeon sounded tired but cheerful. “You all make it back to Star alright?”

“We did, thank you, Tell,” Temeri said. “When can we expect you back?”

“Well… I’ll be honest, Captain. Their only surviving Healer is a mess. Can’t tell you any details, obviously, but I need to go slow and careful with him. And I can’t in good conscience leave these people without a Healer, not with so many severely injured in stasis. If you order me down, I’ll come, obviously, but…”

“But you’d rather I didn’t?”

“Right.”

Temeri thought for a moment, then said, “Captain Tammeron. If I ordered Healer Tell to return to Star right now, would you let him go?”

“Carlon…” Tammeron’s sigh was heavy enough to be heard over the comms channel. “If he truly wished to comply with your order, yes. I would. I may be able to force him to stay and continue, but I’m no more willing to do that than I am to keep you all here against your will. But I would appeal to your decency and compassion, and beg you to reconsider. Like he said, we have many severely injured in stasis. I know every one of them. I consider many friends. And I would consider it a tremendous act of good will to allow Healer Tell to remain here and continue caring for them, even if it restricts your ability to leave.”

Temeri looked over at Harvin, who was lying in his couch, eyes half-lidded. He nodded.

“Alright,” she said. “Let’s say for now that I agree to let my Healer stay and help you. It would be good to have some time to breathe, free and on a friendly station. Then what? When everyone’s on their feet and your own Healer can take over? You said that you thought we could help each other; I’m guessing you meant more than just the services of a Healer.”

“I did,” Tammeron said. “Honestly, I think we could use the help of Enchantress Tell and Artificer Bekeri, as well — there are a lot of maintenance tasks that Sophia hasn’t been able to perform with just the golems. And if the Enchantress and Diviner Alder could take a look at the ritual circle that was supposed to plane-shift our spent mana, I’d appreciate that, too. And then, well, the next part might be a little more dangerous…”

Tammeron, Sophia, and their crew had a problem. Or, they had a bunch of problems, but they had one that we were uniquely suited to helping with. Most of their leadership and crew had been abducted by the Order of the Ring; some during what was supposed to have been a negotiation under truce between Captain Osterling and Commander Aspari; some with Doctor Melervan’s attempt to ransom the Captain and the people with him; and the rest when the Order attacked Sophia, using the Captain and Doctor’s codes to lock Sophia out of using their defensive measures for long enough to board the station.

“I don’t know if there’s any hope of getting them back,” Tammeron admitted. “I hate to sound defeatist, but I was against Melervan’s mission, and that turned out exactly how I expected it to. But we can’t even surveil Erebus Prime, much less attempt a rescue. We don’t have any ships, for one, and while we have the equipment and materials to build one, we wouldn’t be able to crew it. But you have a ship, and a crew.”

“An unarmed survey ship,” Temeri pointed out. I couldn’t help but think she sounded a tiny bit sour. “With a minimal crew intended for a scientific mission. Tammeron, if you expect us to rescue—”

“No such thing, Carlon,” Tammeron replied quickly. “I’m not asking you to board the station or any ships. I’m not even asking you to fly anywhere inside ten times the weapons range of anything they can muster. But you have good sensors, and a skilled Diviner, and if anything resembling an opportunity presents itself— I mean I don’t know what we could do about it, but we haven’t heard one word about our friends and colleagues since Captain Osterling was first taken. Not a single communication from the Order. Almost everything we know is from divination and signal interception, and, stars…”

Tammeron gave one of those deep, weary sighs again, the kind that carried through the microphone though it was supposed to filter things like that out. “Please, Captain,” she said. “We just want to know— even a chance to know. I don’t want you to take any risks. Just get out there, go dark, and listen. Then let us know if you learn anything. That’s all.”

“And in exchange?” Temeri asked. “I’m not unsympathetic, but my duty is to bring my crew home. What can you offer me to risk their lives for the sake of a group of complete strangers?”

Tammeron was quick to answer. “Real food, fresh and preserved, from our vats and gardens. A huge library to copy, text and audio, both factual and entertainment. Materials, parts, and components. Information on the situation in the outer planets which you may lack.” She paused. Not like she was waiting for a response, but like she was making her mind up about something. “Research which your navy would likely find extremely useful. All that besides the gratitude and companionship of the remaining station crew, and the knowledge that you’ve done something essentially good.”

“I like that!” I told the Crew. “We should do it! Oh, and tell her I want the drones! I think they could be really useful and Sophia doesn’t want them for anything anyway now I’ve messed with them!”

Instead of replying to me, Temeri held up her hand and said, “That’s all very well, but I’m going to need to see what kind of intel you have already. I’m not going anywhere near that station unless I’m convinced that it’s both doable and worth the attempt. We don’t need anything you have; we can make it back to Mundus as it is. Eating nutrient paste six days a week and reading the same books over and over won’t be fun, but none of us joined the navy for shits and giggles.”

“Alright, that’s fair,” Tammereon said. “We’ll put something together. Anything else?”

”Yes. I’m going to need to actually see Healer Tell so that I know he’s free to come and go. And if the two of us are to agree on anything, I want to do it face to face. It doesn’t have to be today. I don’t know how far along you are in your recovery, and I know Tell’s busy. We can wait. But I do need both of you down here at some point in the future.”

There was a longer silence this time as Temeri waited for a reply. When it came, Tammeron said, “Simeon tells me he can make a decision tomorrow morning. With his approval, we should be able to meet at 1200 hours. Is that acceptable?”

Temeri’s eyebrows rose, and the other crew looked at each other, gauging their reactions. Varlanda looked especially excited; she hadn’t seen her brother for a few days. Even if he’d said that he was alright, hearing and seeing were very different things — as I’d just experienced.

Temeri fought down the satisfied grin that had come over her and said, “That should be fine. We’ll get together a preliminary list of priority supplies we’re interested in, and then we’ll see. I’m looking forward to finally meeting you, Captain.”

“Likewise, Captain. Sophia will notify Star as soon as Healer Tell gives me his decision. Tammeron out.”

“So,” Temeri asked into the silence that followed. “What do you all think? Alder?”

“There’s definitely a Diviner up there, and he knows about me. We gave each other a bit of a wave, to put in material terms. I counted four others beside him and the acting captain, but they’re all in and out of sleep, so I’m guessing Simeon is keeping them mostly sedated while they recover. But Tammeron feels honest. More than a little out of her depth, though, and whenever anything related to their abducted crew came up, she came alight with pain and worry. I’d say… as long as we’re furthering her goal of learning more about what’s happened to her people, and she doesn’t think we’re playing her false, we can trust her.”

“Thank you, Alder. Anyone else have any thoughts about Tammeron? No? What about her request?”

“I think we should do it,” Varlanda said. “And I think Simeon would agree. I mean, unless there’s something in that intel packet…”

“If we can get some proper food and some new entertainment out of it, I think it’s worth a shot,” Harvin said as Varlanda trailed off. “But we’re not leaving the station until Simeon’s onboard, right?”

“Absolutely not,” Temeri confirmed.

“Then in the worst case we’ll be in no worse position than before we came here, but hopefully with more supplies. If there’s any real danger, we can take off at maximum acceleration, send a “So sorry!” to Captain Tammeron, and be on our way.”

Temeri nodded. “Right. Bekeri?”

“I would suggest the risk is not worth the payoff,” Bekeri said. “So long as we have mana, we have what we need to survive back to Mundus. But I also think Simeon would be terribly upset if we didn’t try, so I agree with Harvin. At the worst, we’ll be fleeing with a little more time to prepare than last.”

Temeri nodded thoughtfully. “Alright. Thank you all for your thoughts. It remains to see what Captain Tammeron has to offer, and what intelligence she can provide us with. For now I want each of you to put together a list of high- and low-priority supplies and get it to me ASAP. That goes for you, too, Star. After that, I’m sure there are things you’ve been itching to get back to. Tell, Bekeri, let Alder or myself know if you need help with anything.”

Then she got an odd glint in her eye, accompanied by a little smile. “Star, could you have the pool ready by 1900 hours?”

“I could have it ready in ten minutes if you want!”

“Excellent. In that case, crew, between 1900 hours and the end of the day you have a choice of joining me in the pool, or doing whatever you feel like. And while I make no claim on your free time, I suspect I at least will be remaining there until bedtime. For now, you’re dismissed!”