Shadow of the Empire: Day 29

[aesmael]

Originally published at a denizen's entertainment. You can comment here or there.

Another very bad batch of words, but at least it was a pretty productive one so far as words go. This was a NaNoWriMo thing, an effort for the month because I was teetering considering and someone I'm very close to signed up for it, so why not? The goal was to try and write a novel, 50,000 words of the month. Currently we are at 18,119, all of which will have been posted publicly as draft by the time this is readable.

So that's a failure? I don't think so, depending how today and tomorrow go. I set out to tell this particular story, which I thought might have been novel-sized. It turned not to be. We are at nearly 20K words now and right on the cusp of the final sequence(s). So the word count isn't what it was officially supposed to be, but we're at the end of the story and nowhere near that, so it never was going to be. I wasn't sure from the beginning, had a vague idea of doing two successive projects this month (which didn't work out, but might have if I'd kept the WriMo pace). But I'm at the end of the month and the end of the story, however bad its drafting has been, and for me that's pretty good.

I hope I can finish the rest, and then it will be very relieving to move on to something else and maybe do some other stuff I have been neglecting.

(that second goal is the less public one I have been writing to - if the story reaches that mark I will have succeeded in doubling my year's fiction writing in a month)

The place they were taken to had the appearance of a hotel, many-levelled structure of rooms and hallways dug out of the ice and rock, even with a foyer at the top floor. They were assigned rooms six floors down in spare, comfortable circumstances with an odd abundance of grey. There were even facsimiles of windows, slightly inside rectangular areas of grey.

Although they appeared to have the entire floor to themselves after an hour or so they had entirely congregated in Algol's room, which was just large enough to seem cosy and not crowded.

"I think my favourite part of spending so long cooped up shipboard," said Ferideh, "is how much more appealing a full bathroom suite is when we get access to it."

"Hey! If you really want more of a bathroom I could probably rig you up one."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Might have to sacrifice your quarters..."

"Now that we're here," said Hanifah, with a brief glare sent Nawar's way, "what are we going to do?"

"We wait for orders," said Algol, "then we follow them."

"Come on. We have interests, we have a voice. If we get the chance to make that known higher up, what are we going to say?"

"Mmm." Algol rolled that around before answering. We want to do something about this situation, to take part in fighting back however we can- "

"And preferably not to be sacrificed." Shula's voice emanated from a small cube which Nawar had brought with her.

"- preferably not to be sacrificed, yes." Algol snapped her fingers. "And concern about the precariousness of our present situation. This is a pretty nice hideaway that's been dug out here, but it isn't especially secure, or proof against Algonthen assault. Hopefully no one is planning to stay here in any sort of long run."

"Not so hopeful, Commander," said Ferideh. This place looks awfully thoroughly cosy for a temporary hideaway. Carries an air of permanency."

"I hope you're wrong."

* * *

Ferideh was showing no signs of being wrong.The next morning Algol had been invited to meet with those senior members of the Zaran space corps who were available to be met with, the rest being either confined under Algonthen occupation or out-system and out of contact.

She took an elevator up to the top floor of their billet, where she was met by an escort. They took her along a few corridors, then down again many, many more floors. Finally she was checked in by a secretary at a desk and led through a door which did an excellent job of looking secure.

The room was filled mostly by a large, curved table in a shiny black that matched the rest of the room.

"Commander Algol, welcome," said a woman near the middle of the table. "Normally you would not be invited to meetings such as this, however, as I am sure you are aware, these are unusual circumstances. Please, be seated."

Algol recognised the woman as Rear Admiral Maysa and was simultaneously impressed and disheartened, then disappointed when only the latter feeling persisted. She could not identify anyone else present who outranked Maysa, and there should have been. Many of those seated at the table were escort Commanders like herself, though not enough that she felt confident about retaking Zara, and moderately senior space corps officers. The table was perhaps overambitious in its size.

Algol found a seat at one end of the table. A raised angular block across from her changed from blank to depicting her name and rank.

There was not much to the meeting. Apparently it was a weekly occurrance and their situation was moving slowly. The issues which were raised had the feel to Algol of a slowly stirred pot, still far from boiling yet past the point of anything new being added. Everyone was thoroughly acquainted with the situation except her, and it was simply enough that she felt well-oriented too by the end of it.

They could survive at their present location indefinitely. They lacked the resources to retake their home. There was currently limited prospect of acquiring the resources to do so, although possibilities were being felt out which might change the situation. These were expected to take a long time to bear out, if at all. When Algol raised the possibility of discovery the response was about what she had expected.

"That is a major concern, Commander," said Maysa. "Currently our best intelligence indicates the Algonthens have yet to learn of our presence, but when they do we will almost certainly have to abandon this position. We have measures prepared to evacuate in that event; your role, along with other escort captains, will be to hold them off until the situation is clear, then rendezvous at our fallback point."

That was about as significant as any of the meeting got. Algol was informed the details of that plan, among others, would be available to her at the end of the meeting.

* * *

"Looks like we won't be going anywhere for a while," said Algol.

Her crew seemed collectively crestfallen.

"We're in a very bad position. There simply is not much to do. Our two most likely paths for active involvement are a fighting retreat from this location, or a final assault to retake Zara. And one of those scenarios is a guaranteed loss."

"Which one?" said Hanifah.

"Shush. There's just not much for us to do except make up the numbers in an emergency. That is crucial however, so it's a good thing we'll be up to the task when the time comes. Meanwhile? It's a long, slow voyage and we aren't expecting action for a while."

"Aye Commander," came the chorus.

Afterward, Nawar came to her privately.

"I've been reluctant to bother you about this, but there's a personal sort of project I have been working on privately.Our last few stops since Shihab have not been especially friendly where resources are concerned, if you take my meaning, so I was hoping you might be able to secure some access to the local stores while we are here."

"Of course. Let me know what you need and I'll see you can get it." Algol turned to leave, then paused. "Ah, is there any chance this project of yours would have pertinent practical applications?"

"Oh yes! It will provide significant mobility benefits and a concomitent increase in tactical options when complete. That what you needed to hear?"

"Yep. I'll let you know."

* * *

Once Algol got Nawar access to the materials she needed, which took several days longer than expected, she virtually disappeared into Shula. Ferideh did her usual thing when between voyages and disappeared into the local society, bringing back whatever tidbits of information she collected. Hanifah took the chance for that shore leave she'd been denying herself and tried to find satisfaction in the complex's scant leisure facilities; after a week she gave up and started on a new model.

Algol and Altair played a lot of chess.

* * *

Eventually they were given word of a mission, first as rumour supplied by Ferideh, then as official instruction. It was a very simple mission, more busywork than anything else, and could easily have been handled without their involvement, but by this point it was busywork they were happy for.

There was another small body a couple of AU distant, on a very divergent orbit. With slow and quiet travel Shula and crew should be able to install a quiet listening post there and return in a week and a half without drawing attention to themselves. Given their distance from the sun and the proximity of their target, the time before it would become useful spoke unfavourably of their superiors' expectations of success for their movement.

They did not complain, mostly. Hanifah made up for the rest of them, though not in front of anyone more senior than Algol. It was almost reassuring, like being back in the good old days, albeit only the parts that had gone horribly wrong and nearly killed them all.

Their small cargo stowed in what was normally an empty brig, Shula lifted off quietly. The crew gathered on the bridge to watch the tiny world vanish behind them.

"That better still be here when we get back," said Hanifah. It was not still there on their screens an hour later, but by then they were laughing over lunch.

* * *

There was no question of entering orbit around their unnamed destination. Doing so would have been far more a stunt than any sort of operation in which gravity was involved. So Shula made the kind of landing that was not so well described as 'quiet' or 'graceful' but far better described as 'achieved via grappling harpoon'.

A long pause later and Nawar and Ferideh stepped out, hidden behind seldom-used excursion suits. Between them they carried their cargo, still with all its awkward inertia intact. The pair launched gently from the airlock, making delicate firings of handheld reaction mass in tandem so that they curved down to the fragile surface on a slow enough path they would not bounce away before being able to fix themselves in place, and a long enough one that Shula's departure would disturb it unduly.

They set the device down. Nawar ran a few last moment diagnostics, confirmed all was well, then activated it. That was the extent of their mission.

Having now accomplished that they launched themselves back to Shula, into whose confines they disappeared as quickly and as abruptly as they had appeared.

* * *

Detached, Shula needed only a tiny nudge to drift free and a long wait until they were far enough to begin thrusting safely. Now they were gone the device would wait some hours, then begin the process of transforming itself and part of the object on which it rested into a ringing sensor array.

It was as anticlimactic as it had been destined to be since they set out, but at least it had been something to do. Now they waited for the days back to pass.

It felt longer than the journey out, perhaps because they no longer had even a trivial accomplishment to look forward to.

On the third day Hanifah unveiled her newest completed model, which turned out to be an Algonthen carrier and dampened the mood for the rest of the morning. Nawar was still being secretive about her project in engineering.

When they arrived back at base it was again welcome, but only briefly.