“Ah, you mean was there a tunnel and a bright light or was Tanu the Great waiting to carry my soul into the next existence?”
“Yup.”
“Nope, I don't remember any of that, mostly because I was dead I'm thinking. Maybe because I'm man made, but if there's anyone you should be asking about this I'm not it. There's a man on my ship though, his name is Liam Grady. He spent time on Earth and is a practising Axionist. You can ask him all about it if you and this group come aboard.”
Alaka stopped and stared at Jake for a minute, who didn't notice for a few seconds.
“What?”
“I was going to ask if we could have your assistance. I overheard you and Ayan speaking before you took your rest and you said that the Triton should be coming. I didn't know if-”
“I would help everyone here? Of course, it's a big ship. If you have skills to offer I'll even give you jobs. I don't know what I can pay you, but at least you'll have a place to live away from infected machines.”
“You say it like the decision carries no weight but it's all some of the people have been able to talk about,” Alaka whispered as he started working the rope again, lowering a pair of young children who had been tied together.
“I can imagine. I'll be honest with you Alaka; at first I didn't want families aboard Triton, but with the way things are out here I couldn't refuse you. Nowhere's safe as long as the Order of Eden and their virus is spreading. We'll have to use the Clever Dream to get off the planet, and it'll be a tight squeeze but after that I'll locate the families in the habitation section of my ship if they can work with the crew somehow.”
“You are a generous man, Jacob.”
“I need skilled people, and anyone who can't help on the Triton will be put off on the safest port in range.”
“What about the children?” asked a young man holding a much younger wide eyed boy in his arms. The child was mesmerized by the sight of people being tied then slowly lowered down into the short tunnel they had dug to get into one of the older passages.
Jake had thought about that as he tried to get to sleep and didn't hesitate to answer. “The Galaxy doesn't need more orphans. I'm sure there are people aboard Triton who would take care of them, and as for children attached to parents who want to stay aboard, there are family quarters aboard that are secure from any exterior hatches. It's more like a neighbourhood than the inside of a combat carrier.”
The young man bounced the small passenger in his arms and said; “hear that? Captain Valance is going to take you on his space ship.”
The boy only glanced at Jake before looking back down the hole, watching the tense line lower people down. The work was effortless for Alaka, who snickered at the young boy watching him before looking over his shoulder at Jake for a moment. “I have been speaking with one of your old friends, Oz they call him. Unusual name.”
“It's short for his middle name, Ozark.”
“An even more unusual name,” Alaka commented with a slightly startled look before turning back to his work. “Thanks to his good navigational skills I know exactly where they are. I've directed them to an old access point that will lead them down into this tunnel much further down the line. They kept it open for servicing since they never got around to filling most of the lower tunnels.”
“How far off are they?”
“Only a few hours once we're on our way. They'll be meeting us on the way to the space port.”
“I'm wondering, can I get a copy of your map of the area? I checked the Regent Galactic command database and there's nothing about them in there.”
“You won't find anything. Even the city planners didn't know all of the old tunnels. I used to hunt all over the city, the abandoned places beneath us made good nesting places for rim weasels and a few other things.”
“Lucky you're with us then.”
“I would say not. The bots attacked the humans first and I had a chance to take my family into the mountain. When the explosion struck inside we were already down the transit line because a friend of mine, Roman, was able to warn us. If we have any luck it's by being near humans who seem to have no luck at all. Roman went after the saboteur to stop him from causing the detonation you saw.”
“So it wasn't a bomb inside the Mountain?”
“It was a micro fusion reactor that had been set to overload.”
“I'm sorry. It sounds like Roman was a friend.”
“He was, but loss seems to plague this world. Even when the Carthan drop ships came on Tartan Isle, their initial casualties were in the thousands just in the first few minutes from what we could see from the mountain.”
“So the Carthans have already made an appearance?”
“Over a week ago now, and they're still fighting in the Tartan cities, but the drop ships stopped after a few hours. As far as we can tell their support in orbit either left or was destroyed. With no communications until recently there's been no way to confirm that until yesterday, and well, their communication bands are silent.”
“I noticed. It's like our two groups of refugees are all that's left.” Jake said as he felt a call notification through the connection he had unconsciously made with his command and control unit. It was like his arm had brushed up against something, barely grazing it, and in the act he knew who was trying to contact him, on what channel, how secure the communication was, what kind of communication it was and what band it was on. The command interface popped into his head, marking the origin of the transmission less than a hundred kilometres away and forty two meters down.
“I'm sure there are other survivors, even just before the mountain exploded there were signs of fighting on other islands. They must be using short range proximity radios or none at all since we haven't been able to-” Alaka was saying.
“Can you handle this on your own for a while? Ayan's calling.”
The tall nafalli nodded, his pointed snout exaggerating the gesture. “Humans are very light, even two at a time.”
Jake let another refugee take his place to help gently lower survivors. The crowd was already thinning behind him with the constant but slow flow of people being lowered and climbing down the long rope ladder.
“Jo-Jacob?” Ayan's voice came over his subdermal communicator. The sound of it was lighter, more feminine than he remembered.
“It's me. How's your group doing?”
Lalonde, Randolph
Spinward Fringe Frontline
“We've just come out into the older tunnel thanks to the directions that Alaka gave Oz. We would have never found it if it weren't for him, we even had to break through an old rotten grate they put up behind a big air compressor. Everyone made it though, we're fine.”
“Is it secure?”
There was a pause before she answered. “I couldn't imagine soldiers finding their way through behind us. We're safe. How are your people?”
Jake couldn't help but chuckle at the way she asked; “I wouldn't call them my people. Alaka and his wife seem to have taken charge here, I feel like a minor consultant really. They're doing well.”
“Somehow I couldn't see that.”
“You will when you meet these nafalli. I think I heard someone say they had eleven children, so I think they're used to controlling a crowd.”
“Eleven children?”
“Unless I heard wrong. Looks like I'll have at least one large family aboard the Triton after all. Probably more, there are a few orphans and single parents here.”
“Do you have anyone aboard that would take them? I mean is there anyone who could take care of them?”
“I'm pretty sure there are, there are civilians aboard, they live around the botanical section.”
“There's a botanical section?”
“More like a park. I was hoping it would be enough to entice you to stay aboard, that or the engineering section.”
“I don't need to be enticed. Freeground may have given me an assignment, but I was ready to come on my own. I was just lucky Minh was headed the same way.”