Chapter 6 Fly Me To The Moon
Fly Me To The Moon
“Actually, I think I want my own ride up to the Osiris,” Jace said, his eyes fixed on the hovering spacecraft above them.
Osiris, send down the Storm Spike, Jace requested the ship’s AI.
It shall be done, the Osiris replied in its normal dry, inflectionless tone, but Jace could have sworn there was a touch of pleasure in it. It definitely wanted him on board.
“Aw, you don’t want to fly with me?” Thammah’s voice was full of amusement.
“No, Jace wishes to arrive at his destination in one piece,” Khoth answered simply.
Thammah let out a quick bark of laughter. “Are you making jokes, Commander Voor? If your mother hears those coming out of your mouth, she’ll really wonder if you’ve been infected by humanity!”
“On the contrary, that is the Kyptoria II, not I, for a reason. So I am being quite logical.” Khoth snorted and shook his head. The selchilite in his hair clacked together.
“Yes, that reason is that I was saving you. I should get a ta’na just for that, let alone losing my ship!” Thammah laughed. “Are you really sure you don’t want a lift, Jace? It would be an honor to bring the Pilot to the Osiris.”
“Another time, Thammah. I’ve been waiting for ten years to be united with the Storm Spike,” Jace told her.
“Ten years,” Thammah let out a breath as if the very idea of being parted from the Kryptoria that long would have crushed her.
Maybe it would have. He was practically quivering at the idea of getting his hands on the Storm Spike’s controls.
My very own spaceship!
He supposed that the Osiris was his on some level as well, but the Storm Spike was more personal.
Or, at least, it felt that way. He knew that ship backwards and forwards from the dreams. To actually be in it, to be piloting it, was more than just a dream come true. He found himself anxious to be flying.
A “small” section of the side of the Osiris opened–it looked “small” compared to the rest of the ship, but it was likely huge up close–and out of it flew two vessels: the Kryptoria II and the Storm Spike.
Though both were Paladin-class spacecraft he could easily tell the two vessels apart.
Thammah’s had bright purple lights and components while his had a spacey green color.
He found himself smiling so hard that his face hurt.
“I felt like you did once. The moment I saw my first F-22 Raptor I fell in love,” his father said with a slightly awed smile on his own face as they watched the three spaceships.
“You’re going to feel like that again, Dad, once I teach you how to fly a spaceship like the Storm Spike,” Jace told him.
Another thrill went through him. He had always admired his father.
Captain Jack Parker was Maverick in Top Gun but without the grating arrogance.
Before it was clear that his multiple illnesses were not going to recede, Jace had dreamed of following his father into the military to fly jets.
Now he would have the chance to do something so much better than that with his father.
“The Alliance has never let us touch one of their spaceships… well, not officially,” his father said.
“Let me guess… Thammah?” Jace’s lips curled into a smile.
His father nodded. “She had me on training wheels, but it was a thrill.”
The Osiris’ lights painted his father’s face with greens, purples and blues. Its lights were reflected in his eyes.
“Don’t sell yourself short, Jack,” Thammah’s voice continued over his comm. “You were pretty damned good. Now that we have a plethora of spaceships, you’ll be flying your own in no time.”
“A plethora?” Jace let out a bark of laughter.
“Just wait until you see the hangar bay, Jace,” Thammah said, awe staining her voice. “It’s like fucking Christmas!”
“You have truly adopted the vernacular of the locals, Flight Commander Pyrrhus,” High Councillor Nova Voor remarked.
“Oh, ha! Hi, High Councillor! Didn’t think you were on his channel,” Thammah said, but it was unrepentant.
“You are on speaker,” High Councillor Nova Voor responded dryly.
“Sorry, Thammah. I only have my Syntheskin suit on,” Jace told her with a grimace.
“Well, I can’t very well be exiled further than I am, Jace!” Thammah chuckled.
Thammah proceeded to do several loops in her ship even as the Storm Spike gracefully flew to them and landed about thirty-feet away.
Jace’s mouth was dry and his lips parted as the gangway lowered with a blast of cold air.
He could taste his ship on his tongue. That faint bitter flavor of electronics and hot Calcanth.
“C’mon, Khoth, Mom, Dad. Let’s go,” Jace said as he stepped towards his ship.
But there was suddenly a blue hand in front of him, blocking his path. And it wasn’t Khoth’s hand.
“We need to speak, young man,” High Councillor Nova Voor aka Khoth’s mom stated with a lifted eyebrow.
“You do the same eyebrow communication as your son.” Jace pointed to the arched brow.
That had her other eyebrow lifting. “I see.”
“I have a feeling you guys are a lot alike!” Jace hoped that was true.
“My son…” High Councillor Nova Voor’s eyes slid over to Khoth, who stood there looking for all the world that he did not await her judgment, but Jace was pretty sure he was bracing himself internally for something unkind to be said.
“My son has many good qualities that I do not possess. For example, I am not so patient as my son, however. I cannot be, Jace Parker. I am responsible for all of the Illumen Alliance.”
Jace had several pithy replies he could have made–would have made–if she’d been mean to Khoth.
Not to mention being blocked from the Storm Spike had him irritated.
Plus he was tired. But she was the High Councillor and, maybe more importantly, she was Khoth’s mom.
So he bit back words he would regret and smiled at her.
The best bet was honesty. That seemed to work well with Khoth.
She might be harder-edged than her son, but he was betting that they shared more than just the elaborate eyebrow-raises and the same high cheekbones.
“Before this afternoon, you didn’t even know I existed,” Jace pointed out. “Before a minute ago, you didn’t know that the Osiris could fly again.”
“Meaning?” she asked. Both eyebrows were lifted high.
Khoth’s eyebrows were drawn together, also in confusion. Jace could tell though that he was relieved Jace was being polite.
“Meaning that neither you–nor I, for that matter–could have possibly formed any plans around the current situation. We couldn’t possibly be relying on each other for the present moment or the near future,” Jace told her, though that actually wasn’t true on his side.
He had been thinking of what he would do when she arrived.
“We should get to know one another. Not jump to conclusions or rush to make plans.”
High Councillor Nova Voor was silent for a long moment. Then there was the faintest smile on her lips. “I see. That is logical on one level.”
“I need time–we need time–to figure all of this out,” Jace replied.
“That figuring out requires me to understand all of the Osiris’ systems, not to mention Gehenna’s,” she said. “And, of course, to understand you. The Pilot.”
“No, that’s what you want to know,” he continued on amiably. “But there’s a lot to figure out outside of that.”
He gestured in a stirring motion between her, him, Khoth, his parents and the General.
High Councillor Nova Voor stood straighter and crossed her arms at the wrist behind her back. Yet again another Khoth move!
“Before you, Jace Parker, humanity has had little to recommend itself to us,” High Councillor Nova Voor told him.
General Intoshkin’s face purpled. “Now, look here–”
She continued, “But, clearly, we overlooked something for the Osiris chose you as the Pilot. It is like the Altaeth themselves shining a spotlight on a species. So who are we to look away?”
Jace was not comfortable with this. It seemed so wrong on so many levels.
But she was an alien. She had different belief systems. He was sure that he would learn things that repulsed him just like he would believe things that would repulse her, but he, somehow, had to keep an open mind and a civil tongue.
“I’m not some pinnacle of humanity, High Councillor. Humanity is good and bad. Just like every species, I imagine. But what I’m trying to say is that–even without me being the Pilot–humanity has always had something good to offer you and the Alliance,” Jace told her.
She merely inclined her head. He didn’t know if she believed him or not, but she wasn’t going to say one way or the other.
“You are correct that we have much to discuss and I wish to discuss it starting now,” she finally said.
His shoulders slumped.
“Mother… High Councillor,” Khoth quickly amended, “much has occurred today for Jace--”
“Do you think he would welcome you pointing out a weakness?” High Councillor Nova Voor asked.
Khoth blued.
Jace was pleased when his mother spoke up, “Khoth’s consideration for Jace’s well being, both mental and physical, has been incredibly appreciated.”
Khoth’s head was lowered but he glanced over at Jace’s mom.
“I see,” High Councillor Nova Voor said, but he wondered what she did see.
Jace was just as quick to defend him as Khoth had defended Jace. “Actually, I’m grateful for the out. I am exhausted. And I’m in no fit state to talk to you as I should. You can call it weakness, if you want, but I just call it reality.”
“The Khul do not rest,” she said quietly.
He was pretty sure they did, but there were enough of them that it didn’t matter. There was only one of him, however, and he needed a break.