Ghosts of Memory (Shattered Stars #22)

Chapter One

Her ship rocked as she moved through the debris field. Skylar felt the pull in this direction, but all that was in this direction was garbage.

She got clear of the field, and her ship auto-answered the nearest station. She may as well get more water and try to find out who was calling her. None of the ghosts was saying.

She set the controls to take her to the station that was calling, and she went to lie down in her regeneration arbour.

She settled in her chair, surrounded by trees and moss and flowers. The life of the plants wrapped around her and perked her up. The song of the plants gave her energy and let her sleep. Breathing fire on Aten might not have been the best of ideas, but it had felt so very right at the time.

Skylar eased into sleep with a smile on her lips.

The ship was chiming, and there was a distinctive knock on the hull. Shave and a Haircut. Skylar fought her way to consciousness. “Ship, status.”

“Repairs to the biosystems have been requested. The station has a bio ship medic who is requesting entrance. Is clearance granted?”

“Single being?”

“Yes. Terran female.”

“Let her in.”

There was the hiss, and a very strange gait was coming toward Skylar.

She paused and got her headgear on, and the normal step followed by a heavy thunk continued to approach.

When the door to the interior garden opened, Skylar was stunned.

The medic was actually human; she had her right leg encased in a thick framework that hobbled her.

The woman had a pack and a shaved head with a station mark on her. “Good day. I am here to take a look at your bio setup. Your ship indicates distress.”

Skylar answered in common. “Please do what you need to do. Let me know an estimate of time.”

“Of course. This is a lovely ship.”

“I like it.”

The woman went to the watering unit and made notes on a tablet.

“I am ordering some more water and nutrients. I will clean your lighting lenses and check the output. You are having quite the energy draw from them, so I would recommend putting in some giving species. They are gossipy, like living with other plants, and get excited by travel. A basic consciousness, but a nice one to have.”

Skylar spoke in English, “Ship, are these recommendations reasonable?”

“They are. The captain is correct with what is needed. I am also requiring a filter change.”

The woman smiled. “I will get on that, Gertrude.”

Skylar gasped. “Gertrude? I would have pegged you for an Iris.”

The ship said, “My captain named me for her grandmother.”

The tech smiled. “She was a bitch, too.”

Skylar stared at the woman wearing a ton of bond markings. “This is your ship.”

The woman continued moving through the plants and trees, making notes. “It is. Was. If I try to leave the station, my leg rips through the hull.”

The ship’s voice said, “Calculating a means to divest you of the restraint. When calculations are complete, I will let you know.”

“Thanks, Gerty.”

The woman did the step-and-drag into the medical area.

Skylar stared. “Wait, wait, wait. If this were your ship, how did I get it?”

“I snuck up on your med bed and put the tablet there, told the ship about you and that we are nearly genetically identical, which meant that the cranky bitch accepted you right away.”

“I resemble that remark.”

“Yes, Gerty, I know.” The woman step-dragged herself as she did her job.

“Why are you doing that?”

“They are tracking the weight. If I don’t look like I am assessing your ship to start, they will cut a hole in the hull. Plants can’t patch that.”

“Right. Coming with you. Who are you?”

“Chloe. Seed of Terra. You are Skylar, Dyturan of Terra.”

Skylar pulled her headgear off. “What the hell is going on?”

Chloe grinned and went to a storage locker, got a filter out, opened a hidden cabinet, and replaced the soggy filter.

“I was activated the moment of the strike and managed to keep myself awake for a few months. I met your friend Zoey and Will and her grandfather, and then I fell into a coma and stopped moving when the Earth came to a slow grind of survival. I was lucky that no one ate me.” She chuckled and kept moving, replacing filters and dragging that limb.

“When I felt you die, I called for help, and help came. They got me and collected you.”

“Who did?”

“Collectors, I guess. They don’t talk much. I was settled with Gertrude and told that I was here to encourage Terran survival where colonies were being established.”

“What does that mean?”

“You are death and grieving and hope. I am lust and rage and reproduction.”

“The green ship.”

“Yup. It takes my extra energy when I can’t hand it off.

Anyway, I knew you, I felt your interaction with the people and felt that you needed to be with people more than any of your kind ever had.

We were scattered, are scattered. We each have different people we want to contact.

Well, I don’t. I was in the area on a solo vacation, have no relatives, and my friends are my plants.

I was doing greenhouse tours when the hit happened. ”

Skylar stared. “So you wanted me to be able to talk to the people I had missed?”

“Yeah. In general, Dyturans are pretty stationary. They sit around and focus on their different species and offer the memories of the dead to those who can reach them. Spoiler alert... no one can reach them from a newly acquired species.”

Skylar sighed. “Right. Is that why they are following me?”

Chloe smiled innocently. “They are following you? How unusual.”

There was an outrage that swept through her, followed by amusement. “You knew they would come after me.”

“Yeah, but they won’t do anything to you. They are chasing the ship. Gertrude’s a babe.”

“Funny, Captain. They are after your potential.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Skylar watched the plants as Chloe moved through the ship. Everything was blooming.

“Wait. So, the Dyturans want you...”

“To see if we can cancel out and have a little baby dragon person.” She smiled. “I wanted to see more of the worlds than their home world. Now that I am awake again, I want to live. I was asleep for nearly two years until the collectors warmed me up and gave me a snack.”

“Wait. I thought you were dead.”

“No. I was just motionless. No food, no water, not hot, not cold, just dormant. That’s apparently the difference between us on paper. I keep a heartbeat. Slow but steady.”

“Right. Well, hell. You used me as bait!” Skylar was laughing.

“Yes. Yes, I did. I wasn’t counting on my bond ship getting hijacked and locking me to this station, but it is what it is.”

“You brought us here?”

“Death whispers, life screams. I am so done hauling this around.” She wrapped her knuckles against her leg. “My kryptonite... Terran metal. They built it this way on purpose. I am going to need a ton of physio if this ever comes off.”

She laughed and changed another filter. “There we go, girly. Breathing easier?”

“Yes, Captain. We have a solution for your brace, but you need to get to the nekko vines and sparin flowers.”

Skylar saw the dawning hope in Chloe’s eyes. “When it comes off, I will chuck it out, and we can take off.”

Chloe said, “Have you gotten the water delivery?”

“Yes, Captain.”

She smiled. “How long to drop and run?”

“We are in electromagnetic clamps, so if you are willing to assist with power, we can blow out half the station and go when you are ready.”

Chloe looked at Skylar. “Do you mind a stowaway?”

“No, ma’am. Just tell me what I need to do.”

“There are cables underneath the control console. Gertrude will extend them to you, and you need to get them to me as close as you can. We are also going to put a separate seat out for her so you are shielded. Put any tech you want to keep on it.”

Gertrude said, “Cage is ready. Please insert any tablets you wish to keep.”

The wire-wrapped cage descended from the ceiling, and Skylar nodded and moved around. A pad on insulation rose from the floor. That was Skylar’s safe spot.

Chloe wiggled into position near the vines and flowers.

“So, what is going to happen is the vines are going to pull and ease the joints apart, and the flowers will slide in between. When the vines release, the flowers will explode under pressure. The cage will fall away, and the vines will pull it. When you dump the cage and call out, we will blow the connections to the station with a pulse. At that point, the ship will be running off my power until we can fully boot up again. The plants help with that. We should be on our way out of the system in ten minutes.”

Skylar nodded. “Grab the cage and dump it. Got it.”

Chloe smiled. “Yup. I will be bleeding a lot, but ignore that. The plants will take care of me.” She pointed to the brace.

“These bolts are going to shoot hard right when it is loosened, and I am going to scream. If they don’t come out, can you use one of those claws and pop the bolt loose. It has to come out through my leg.”

Skylar paused and walked over, looking at the unit. “I can just cut this loose now, and we can pull the bolts after the mechanism is out. Would that work?”

Gertrude said, “Yes, pilot. It would work. You need to work fast, though. The unit will begin to fire off distress calls.”

Skylar looked at Chloe. “I am willing if you are.”

Flowers bloomed next to Chloe’s face, and she turned her head and munched them. “Pain killer and muscle relaxant.”

She nodded and gripped a vine. “Ready when you are, Skylar.”

Skylar flicked out her deadly claws and slid them on either side of the thigh bolt, working through it evenly. Then the bolt above the knee, below the knee, and finally the top of the foot.

Chloe swallowed and said, “Ready to break it?”