Chapter 14: ‘Tidings’ (4181 words)

In the aftermath of the stone ship's fragmentation, Halycen is determined to find out exactly what the coordinate is.

“Attention Aelfr, Aelfi, and Aelf, of the Ulmadr predominance. Please stand by for instruction”. The static voice spoke up a second time, droning at an even and unnatural pitch. Halycen grimaced at the unseen loudspeaker, the sound cutting across her ears unpleasantly; it was difficult to ignore. The broadcast began with the same robotic address, as it always did, on the rare occasions that the Patriarch was to speak.

“Citizens”. Fresh as she was from her encounter with her imposing uncle, Halycen shuddered at the voice. An eerie satisfaction seemed to infuse the tone of the Patriarch of the house predominant and the home-ship itself; Vievel’s father, Vaegath Ulmadr.

“We stand on the eve of a monumental discovery. In accordance with Aælfir diplomatic and survival protocols it is my duty, and my delight, to announce the beginning of a new fleet gathering”. Halycen turned toward Vievel, noticing a glazed expression upon his face; either he wasn’t paying attention, or her cousin was caught just as unaware by the announcement as she was. A gathering happened, without fail, once each long-cycle. The last was only half that ago, not due again for another six months. The Patriarch left a pause in his speech, likely to let his listeners discuss and digest the sudden change, and then continued. “Withdrawal from the flank and return to the fleet shall begin within six hours. May the silver light of Callisto shine upon us all”. With his announcement concluded the patriarch ceased speaking as quickly as he had begun. The unseen loudspeaker crackled as it went silent.

Without missing a beat Halycen was the first to speak up again.

“So we should try to find out what it is right?”

“What?” Vievel asked. He seemed dazed, dumbstruck by the frigate’s fragmentation. It was a devastating display, but it was one that Halycen had already witnessed before. One that she was sure Vievel had witnessed before, come to think of it; the home-ship had routed, salvaged, and fragmented a pair of Dwurkn scouts, not three mid-cycles past. Vievel had stood beside her in quarters as they’d watched the fragmentation. Vievel included, all three of the Aælfir beside her seemed hypnotised by the now-past spectacle.

“The coordinate!” Halycen said loudly, trying to rouse her companions. As if she could’ve meant anything else. Whatever the coordinate was, it was a secret to the majority of the military - that alone would have meant it was something of great importance. But now? With a gathering called early? The frigate expedition had been one thing, but becoming instrumental in a Patriarch-sponsored plan, proving herself to an assembly… she’d be admitted to the Rangers with honours.

This is it. This was her ticket.

“Hallie!” Ria said, raising her voice and shaking her head. The ribbons on her dress shook, a few pins falling from the bundle fastened to her capelet; Halycen knelt down to pick up the fallen pins as the reprimanding continued. “You can’t-that’s such a stupid idea-” She never missed an opportunity to mother the three of them; though she was a few years younger than her, this seemed to often include Halycen.

“Of course I’m serious,” Halycen bit, her reply a little harsher than she’d meant it. She loved her like a sister, but sometimes… well, she hated her like a sister.

“Hallie, you seriously need to grow up”. She should’ve been able to control her anger. Her father was always saying as such. The comment stuck to her skin and made a home for itself; dug and dug until it managed to break through to poison the blood beneath. It was always the way when someone questioned her capability or maturity.

“-and you need to watch your tongue, Illandr skel,” Halycen cursed. Beside her she heard Eaden gasp, the profanity even seeming to break Vievel’s fugue long enough to make him turn. It was the worst thing she could’ve said. Ria’s face contorted from shock to disgust, flickering between the two for a moment, at last settling upon a deep sadness as the words landed.

Some part of her immediately wanted to apologise, knew it was the right thing to do; admit that the comment had landed in an unfortunate manner and pushed her to say something she now regretted. She found herself voicing nothing of the apologies that raced throughout her mind.

“Come on Eaden,” Ria said, turning away. “Let’s go”. She frowned, the coldness of the frown almost permeating the air around her, but she didn’t look up or meet Halycen’s eye. If she had she might’ve seen the sadness that was now plain in Halycen’s expression instead.

Eaden pulled his netcomm out of his pocket, glancing at the device.

“I’ve got a free shift,” he said.

“Are you fine to make your own way home?” Ria asked, pursing her lips. The young Aelfr nodded enthusiastically, smiling as wide as he possibly could.

“Uh-huh,” he grunted.

“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow then,” she said. Glad to have you home Vievel,” she added, as she turned around to leave.

As Ria left Felder’s corner, Eaden said something beneath his breath, too quiet for Halycen to hear. From the way he was glaring at her, every time he thought she wasn’t looking, she imagined the mumbled comment had been at her expense. Frowning, Halycen turned back to Vievel.

“Alright cuz,” she smiled. “Expedition number two? Wanna find out what the coordinate is?”

Vievel shook his head, and Halycen found herself not even a little surprised by his response.

“I’m not feeling well,” he murmured. “Need to go lay down again”.

“You’re always sick,” Halycen said, rolling her eyes. It had shocked her he’d agreed to go to the Dwurkn frigate - she didn’t imagine he’d be on board with much else anytime soon.

“Feel better, I guess,” she added, a moment later and a moment too late. He did look pale, and seemed distracted; he didn’t respond to Halycen’s comments. As Vievel reached the door that led to the dirtied corridor outside, Halycen could’ve sworn she heard him mumbling to himself.

“Eaden, how about it? Want to find out what the coordinate is with me?” She inwardly groaned, but the Aelfr was her last choice; a couple of long-cycles younger than even Ria and Vievel, Halycen already older than both of them, Eaden was undeniably the baby of their group.

There had never been many Aælfir children on the Ulmadr ship - with most of her and Vievel’s cousins serving as wards, stationed with different houses, the four of them made up the entirety. Even if the floors had been swarming with younglings, Halycen imagined Eaden would’ve stood out from the pack; aside from his obsessions and shy manner, his green coveralls and flared shorts, a testament to his unique fashion sense, caught the eye.

“Why am I always last to be picked for everything?” he sulked. A dour look on his face made him look childish, more youthful than he actually was.

That’s why you brat, Halycen thought, uncharitably wishing that it had been Vievel or Ria who had stayed until last.

“Come on, that’s not true,” she said instead. It wasn’t that she disliked him, not exactly, only that they had very little in common.

“You don’t want me to come, not really,” he mumbled. “I’m just all that’s left,” he said.

“Sure I do, I wouldn’t have asked otherwise!” she lied. He seemed determined to sulk; whatever bad mood was gripping him, it was contagious. Frustration swirled around in Halycen’s stomach and a scream knocked from behind her lips, asking to be let loose. It might be better to go it alone.

Instead of letting her irritations control her, Halycen tried to concentrate on her better instincts. She took a deep breath to calm herself, and then exhaled, feeling the motion roll across her chest.

Nope. She was just as fed up as she’d been before.

“Do you want to come with me or not?” Halycen she growled. He seemed to consider the question for a moment and then nodded. He didn’t say anything else but followed her as she turned to leave Felder’s corner. The quiet suited Halycen just fine.

The two followed the winding and tarnished corridors leading away from the abandoned sector; Halycen guiding them silently back toward the Ulmadr quarters.

“So, where are we going?” Eaden said, his bad mood seemingly settled at last. The hallways were peaceful, empty save for an occasional stranger passing in the opposite direction, but Halycen felt wary enough to draw closer. She slowed until she fell into step with the young Aelfr, and then whispered her answer to him.

“Military offices”.

“To meet your dad?”

“Yeah,” Halycen lied. Eaden was trusting, believing every word that slipped from her mouth, but she didn’t share that same trust with him. “He said he’d tell me all about the coordinate”.

“Aces”. His voice trailed off for a moment and Halycen had difficulty keeping pace with his gradually slowing stride. Halycen was only a few seconds away from grabbing him, and pushing him forward, when Eaden finally ventured a question.

“Did you mean what you said to Ria?” he asked, not looking up to meet her eye. Guilt swept up and knotted together, striking her firmly in the stomach.

Illandr skel. There were worse things she could’ve called her friend, insults that would make polite company gasp and words that were usually whispered only in the heat of anger, but she’d knowingly picked a pair that would particularly sting, calling Ria houseless and disloyal; ugly words to name anyone without family. Her friend had been taken in by a particularly distinguished household as an infant, but she wore the wounds of abandonment close to the surface.

“No,” Halycen confessed. In the heat of the moment, she’d just said it to hurt her.

“Why do it then?” Eaden said, with a bluntness only the youngest could manage.

“I-” Short rapid explosions interrupted her thoughts, thankfully distracting Halycen from having to answer. The deep bursting sounds resounded from the port face of the ship, a series of four quick pops sounded off in a rapid sequence, each beginning inside and then echoing outside a moment later; as soon as the first series of bursts ended, another followed, and then another, continuing until six sets had finished.

“What the Andlátta was that?” Halycen exclaimed. She half-expected the cacophony to continue; the rapid bangs had given her the impression they were building up to something. The sound stopped, the sixth set apparently being the last.

“Scavenger batteries,” Eaden said. He’d stopped in the middle of the hallway to look up at the ceiling, though the ceiling was entirely bare and uninteresting to Halycen’s eye. “It’s the launch tubes firing,” he said, lost in reflection.

Launch tubes? Scavenger batteries?

“The drones which are goin’ to go to work on the fragmented Dwurkn ship,” he continued.

“Right... okay”. Halycen slipped her hands into the shallow pockets in her leggings. “You really know a lot about this stuff, huh? Ship-tech?” He nodded.

“It’s cool,” he said, not meeting her eye. She wasn’t sure that she agreed, but it was certainly a desirable skill set; half the non-military jobs on the home-ship went to engineers. Eaden started down the hallway again, breaking into a slight jog to catch up to Halycen.

“My father is an engineer,” Halycen said quietly.

“Chief engineer, right?” His face lit up as the two walked down the gradually-widening corridors leading toward the Ulmadr quarters.

“Yeah,” Halycen said. He’d not stopped looking toward her now that she’d accidentally broached a subject that he cared for.

“Can I meet him?” the young Aelfr asked, flush with anticipation; clearly he was used to getting his own way.

“Hey, if everything goes okay, sure,” Halycen lied.

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

Though it had been a few hours since the military’s return, the hallways inside the quarters were largely deserted. At the atrium entrance only an Aelfi soldier was on duty, and a quick glance up revealed why; the glass court - the public rule of the home-ship that lay separated from the atrium by a transparent floor and ceiling - was bustling with activity. Halycen had never seen the court so active and wondered what could possibly be on debate.

Getting past the atrium was as simple as giving the on-duty soldier Eaden’s name. As heir secondary Halycen had almost equivalent authority to Vievel, meaning she was freely able to accept responsibility for any guest. The further they made it into the Ulmadr quarters, the more the decision started to feel like a mistake.

“Eaden, come on-”

How does Ria deal with him? Halycen wondered. They’d stopped suddenly at the mouth of a long but narrow corridor. The walls of the hallway were decorated with a series of portraits - the styles ranging from crude hand-drawings to realistic photo depictions. Each displayed a different Patriarch at distinct points in the home-ship’s life, from the original salvaged deck and sectors, to the present configuration, and he was happy to let his fascinations run wild with each.

“This is all awesome!” he exclaimed.

“Not-” Halycen grabbed his arm, pulling him onward. “-why we’re here”. She led the complaining lad round the nest of hallways which made up the formal offices of the Ulmadr.

“Ow-” he protested, fighting Halycen’s grip futilely as they drew to a halt.

“Look,” she said. A grin of anticipation bounded from her lips. At the very end of the hallway stood several heavy metal doors, flush and fixed tight, seemingly impenetrable, but unguarded.

“Where’s your father?” Eaden asked.

Oh right. She hadn’t told him the truth yet.

“He’ll be here soon,” she said. “I’m just going to let myself in, so I can wait for him”. Sometimes it astounded her how quickly the lies came.

“Oh, you’ve got a key?” Halycen slipped a hand into the shallow pocket of her leggings, fishing around for the small pins that had fallen off of Ria’s dress.

“Yeah, sort of-” she said, stepping up to the door. Chief engineer and her father still preferred a mechanical lock; despite his position, he was rather technology averse.

“What are you-”

“Just go over there and keep watch,” Halycen replied, cutting Eaden off so she could concentrate. She could see the trust on his face beginning to waver, but the young Aelfr did as she asked regardless.

The pins worked their way around the tumblers, knocking the springs up at down but failing to set any into position. A few minutes passed as Halycen continued to work at the lock, and a feeling of defeat began to set in.

Come onnn- It had seemed so easy in the diagrams she’d looked up on the LAN. She cursed herself for not taking the opportunity to practice before putting the new skill into action, but mechanical locks were so few and far between she wondered where she would’ve even taken the opportunity to do so.

Eaden’s impatience was beginning to grow audible, his feet working their way into the floor as he paced backwards and forwards near the mouth of the hallway. Halycen was about to lose her temper, bark at him to be quiet, when the internal parts of the mechanical lock suddenly snapped into place.

“Ah!” The door swung open as its catch slipped out of holding.

“How did you do that?” Eaden’s yell of bewilderment carried from the other side of the corridor. Halycen ignored him and strode into her father’s office with enough purpose that any onlooker would have imagined she belonged there; it took a minute, spent taking stock of the room, before she realised that Eaden had lingered in the corridor outside.

“Ead- come in here”.

“I’m keeping watch,” he mumbled, barely audible from outside. Halycen frowned.

“The door is already open, and you’re my guest,” she said. “Under my watch, so my responsibility, get it?” Halycen stepped up to the entrance so she could see the young Aelfr on the other side of the hallway. “It’s already open - getting caught outside, instead of inside, won’t make much of a difference. You may as well come in”.

Eaden walked up to the office door, but the colour of his face didn’t follow. He shook slightly, standing with his arms wrapped tightly around his chest.

“Can we go?” He frowned for a moment, glaring at Halycen. “You’re not meeting your dad - you lied to me”.

“We can go in a bit, and yeah, yeah I did,” Halycen murmured, not looking at him. Standing in front of her father’s desk she marvelled at the number of handwritten documents and books, stacked in meticulous piles; a single netcomm could’ve stored the information that was heaped a full foot tall, but instead, the chief engineer chose to keep messy transcriptions.

The office was sparsely decorated, with plain walls and no plant-life, missing the furnishings common in offices of other Ulmadr brass, but the room didn’t lack for storage. Her father’s thick desk dominated the room, the top surface swamped by his possessions and the interior hollowed to make room for many drawers, but the office also held a wooden storage chest, a tall cabinet with a thin glass mirror built into the metal exterior, and a series of wall-mounted shelves.

“You said you wanted to meet my dad,” Halycen said. She picked up some of the loose documents not already sorted into a pile, looking them over. “Getting to know him through his stuff is sort of like getting to know him,” she said.

“It’s don’t think that’s true,” He snarked. A split-second later, however, he took a step closer to one of the shelves, looking over some of the books displayed on it.

Family trees. The most recent pages her father had been looking at were records of her distant cousins, the children of his cousins that now served as wards, diplomatic messengers, to other major houses in the Aælfir fleet.

Why? Why now? The other Ulmadr were estranged, and for so long that she and Vievel had practically never met their extended cousins; the patriarch hadn’t even let their distant cousins remain on the home-ship, making them wards as soon as they were of age.

As she looked over the loose records she caught sight of a stray book, on the floor beneath the desk. Unlike every other book on or in the desk, It was wide open. Stooping down Halycen lifted it from the floor, wincing at its unexpected weight.

‘Architecture of the Great Stations’, by the sage Pious Oromist. A thick tome, handwritten in Aælfir script by a now-forgotten author. At first Halycen imagined it had laid open simply from the way it had fallen, but as she thumbed through the pages, skimming them at random, she noticed signs of wear; the page corners were well-folded, many recently turned, and several of the pages had been dotted or marked with scribe’s ink, perhaps to indicate they were pages of importance. The book was definitely well-read.

She placed the tome aside, intending to explore it properly once she was finished with her search, and instead started to make her way over the documents on her father’s desk. She carefully removed volumes and pages from the piles, one at a time, and placed them back in the same order once she’d looked them over. She’d half-expected the desk to be filled with secrets, private intricacies of the Ulmadr, but the pages and files only seemed to concern themselves with minutiae: military drills, economic tariffs, proposed legal bills for dealing with smugglers. Nothing she read mentioned the coordinate.

“Hallie, look!” She spun around as Eaden exclaimed, worried by his sudden clamour. The second she came to face him however, her alarm faded, and her face instead broke into a wide grin. “Check these out!” he huffed, pulling a large pair of serrated scissors from her father’s storage chest.

The Cairnknife.

She didn’t know how her father had come to possess the scissors, or why, but at that moment Halycen didn’t care. She strode over to the chest, reaching out to take them from him.

“Hey!” he exclaimed, gripping them as tightly as he could. Halycen looked the young Aelfr in the eye and explained the origin of the scissors, how she’d taken them from the Dwurkn frigate. Eaden let the scissors go immediately, staring at them with dismay the second that Halycen explained they were Dwurka-made.

“You can keep them then-” he said confidently. Despite his conviction, his eyes didn’t move off of the scissors for a moment. He turned back to the open chest, thumbing through some of the junk and clutter at the top with disinterest. Halycen placed the Cairnknife down on her father’s desk, moving the heavy architecture book onto the floor again to make room for it, and turned back to her search.

“Can we please go?” Eaden stressed. A few minutes had passed and the young Aelfr was growing increasingly fidgety.

“I haven’t found anything useful,” Halycen admitted. She sat down in her father’s chair and started rifling over the written records inside his desk drawers. “Give me a little longer to look”.

“O-okay”. Eaden was uneasy, looking toward the ajar door every few seconds as though he expected someone to burst in. He wouldn’t dare leave; non-Ulmadr weren’t allowed in the quarters unescorted.

The documents inside her father’s desk were just as dull. It wasn’t like she’d expected to come across a folder labelled ‘the coordinate’, she thought, but it was starting to feel like an entirely hopeless search. When Halycen was halfway through her third drawer, starting to plot which of the wall-mounted shelves she’d work her way to next, Eaden made a sudden enthusiastic noise.

“Hey check this out!” He was sitting on the floor of the office, leant up against the wall beside the door. In his hands, he held the tome on architecture that Halycen had found earlier.

“What?” She barely took the time to look up from the files in front of her. As long as the book occupied him, stopped him from interrupting her, she’d count it as a worthwhile find.

Eaden lifted the tome with difficulty, turning it around with both hands until Halycen could see the page he was reading. On one page was a hand-drawn picture depicting a slim space-station - a great deal taller than it was wide - with thin branches reaching out at regular distances apart, and circular chambers attached to the end of each branch. On the adjoining page read ‘Mortza Deep Station’ in large print, before the text became too small for Halycen to read at a distance.

Halycen shrugged and turned back to her reading.

“And?”

“The first paragraph mentions the coordinate,” he blurted out. A split-second later Halycen was already on the other side of the office; she was half-aware she’d dropped the files in her hand out of order, and that organising them again might be impossible, but she didn’t care.

“Where?” she asked, grabbing the book from Eaden. The young Aelfr stood up and pointed to the top half of the page.

-built originally as a fortress to guard the coordinate, the Mortza Deep station- Halycen sighed.

“The military already found the coordinate,” she said. “It’s obviously not there”.

“So? This is something”. Halycen continued to read. The text went on to describe the station’s appearance and fortifications, but didn’t mention anything of the station’s location, nor what the coordinate referred to.

“I guess,” she mumbled. It was something. What exactly, she didn’t know. Halycen glanced toward the office door herself, suddenly worried about how long they’d been lingering. Gathering up the book, the family records, and the Cairnknife, she turned back to him.

“All right, we can go - maybe there’s something else useful in here,” she said, hoping, a hope she already recognised as foolish, that her father wouldn’t miss the pilfered items.

The heavy tome weighed on her, more so than even the Cairnknife, or the rest of her knapsack. Eaden smiled, not at all hiding his relief as they made to leave, and stepped outside the office. Halycen followed, setting the mechanical lock again once she’d closed the door; it was easier to close than it was to open. Once she’d stashed her finds Halycen quickly guided Eaden to the entrance atrium, thanking him for his help, and then retired to her bunk for the evening. She was eager to start going over the tome.

----- ----- ----- ----- -----

Halycen was awoken suddenly, a loud bellowing snapping her consciousness to high alert. Her eyes roused slower, the bunk-room muddy and barely distinguishable, but her heart was pulsing. She didn’t even remember falling asleep. Immediately Halycen thought of the contraband in her room, thankful she had already stowed both out of sight, but the relief quickly faded as her sight adjusted and she came face-to-face with her father. He stood over her, a fully-armoured member of the Ulmadr war company standing beside him, and a solemn flame burning behind his eyes.

“Halycen,” Vostoth growled. “Get up, and follow me”.