Collision Course (Class 5, #6)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

Rose ran her hands over the soft green of the ferns on the ground level of the biome Sazo had built for her, and realized she should have come down here sooner.

She had not done very much today, but at least among the trees and plants, she wasn’t doing very much in beautiful surroundings.

“You’re finally taking your toll,” she said to her bump, rubbing it. “I’m just flat today.” Her baby gave a little kick, and she smiled.

She usually traveled from Sazo’s Class 5 to the Barrist , the massive explorer ship Dav captained, at least once a day, but she hadn’t felt motivated enough today.

She was an anomaly. A human amongst the Grih, and her pregnancy had sparked not just interest from medical quarters, but a range of emotions from fascination to outright animosity and fear amongst some sectors of Grih society.

There were some people who were disturbed by her and her four Earth friends, not just for their impact on Grihan society, but on the United Coalition in general.

She had to admit they had had an impact, but that wasn’t so much their doing as a strange confluence of circumstances. And actually, things could have been a lot worse for the United Coalition if they hadn’t been involved.

She sighed, tired of the whole thing, and tried to get back to the sense of peace she’d had earlier.

“Dav has just arrived.” Sazo’s voice came through her earpiece.

“That’s good. Thank you.” She turned, taking the path back the way she’d come.

The curves of the stone-lined path, the trees reaching over it, the gush of water from the stream Sazo had built to run through the garden, never failed to delight her. Still, she was missing one thing.

As she walked toward the tube to go up to greet Dav, she looked upward, searching the branches overhead.

And there she was.

With a chirp, Sweetpea sailed from one of the trees to land on her shoulder, not wanting to be left behind.

Rose smiled as she stroked her little head. She wasn’t a baby anymore, but she was still tiny, a cute ball of fluff who had free rein of the garden as well as the ship.

She had a feeling Sazo was now as much in love with the little flying mammal as she was. He was constantly making adjustments to the ship to increase Sweetpea’s enjoyment of her already pampered life.

She reached the tube, stepped in, and rose up to the main floor, the only part of the Class 5 that was meant for habitation now that Sazo had made the rest of the ship a massive conservatory.

The landing bay was to the left, the kitchen, lounge, and bedrooms to the right, and as she turned left, Dav stepped out of the bay into the passageway.

She realized she had missed seeing him today. Her heart gave a little leap in her chest and she held out a hand and smiled.

His eyes focused on her and then her bump, but before he could speak, Sweetpea leapt from her shoulder, spreading her little arms and legs to glide to Dav. She grabbed the front of his shirt and tucked up under his chin with a happy little chirp.

“My two girls meeting me after a long day,” he said as he stroked Sweetpea from head to fluffy tail.

Rose smiled. “We missed you.”

When Dav reached her, he put his arms around her, careful not to squash Sweetpea between them, and gave her a kiss. “You didn’t come across today.”

“No.” She tilted her head back to look at him. “Just didn’t have the energy.”

She knew he would worry about that, but she’d go across tomorrow, and let her friend and doctor, Hri Rivel, poke and prod a little and confirm everything was well.

As she thought that, the baby gave a hard kick, and Dav laughed, putting his hand over the spot.

“The baby missed me, too.”

“Of course. All three of your girls.” She tucked under his arm, and they walked toward the lounge.

“Borji says we’ll be at the outer probability sector by tomorrow.” Dav glanced down at her. “So we’ll be on alert from tonight, just in case.”

The outer probability of where they were expecting to find an inhabited planet with advanced technology.

A planet whose only run-in with the United Coalition so far had been with a rogue group of Tecran military. That run-in had been violent, and ended with the Tecran stealing a prototype spaceship from them.

That spaceship was as sentient as Sazo was, and while Irini was happy to give them the coordinates of her place of origin, she did not want to accompany them on their exploratory trip to make more friendly contact.

Her grynicha, as she called her creators, had hobbled her as much as possible, wanting the benefits of her abilities, but refusing to allow her the autonomy her intelligence granted her.

It made Sazo and his four fellow Class 5s suspicious of the people they were going to make contact with, and Rose was sure Grih Battle Center was a little nervous about how Sazo would react to their potential new friends.

Still, they didn’t want to not bring him along. Besides the fact that he was attached to the Barrist because Rose was attached to the Barrist’s captain, she knew they had decided that should they need to fight their way out of what might be an unfriendly meeting, it didn’t get better than Sazo for firepower.

“This is the first time the Barrist has ever encountered a planet with advanced sentience?” she asked.

Dav nodded. “And only because Irini gave us the general coordinates. We might have eventually got around to exploring this part of the galaxy, but who knows when?”

“How long will comms take from here to Battle Center if we run into trouble?” she asked.

She knew they’d been seeding little comms relays behind them as soon as they left Grihan airspace, but it still took time for the signal to bounce.

“A few days right now,” Dav said. “It’ll be longer the deeper into the unknown we get.” He left her to go sit on the couch, and went to grab some grinabo from the little station set in the wall.

This had once been the officers’ lounge, back when Sazo’s ship had been the secret weapon the Tecran had built and used to map uncharted territory. And steal stuff from unknown aliens.

Over time, she’d tweaked things here and there, so that it sported a look that was less airport lounge and more comforting home space. She leaned back against the cushions on the comfortable couch and closed her eyes.

“Tired?” The cushion dipped to the side as Dav sat beside her and took her hand, and she sent him a sidelong look.

“I shouldn’t be, but sometimes the less you do, the more lethargic you feel.”

“Should we go over to see Hri?” he asked.

She couldn’t help the quick upward curve of her mouth. “I’ll go tomorrow.”

He was trying not to hover, and she appreciated the effort.

“I saw her yesterday, remember?” she soothed. “And the baby’s kicking happily away.” As she said it, her stomach jumped.

“Tomorrow we start getting closer to a planet where we may not be met with friendliness,” he said.

“I’m not trekking through the wilderness to get to the Barrist , I’m just taking a small explorer across. It takes less than five minutes.” She didn’t need to tell him this. He did it at least twice a day.

He sighed. “I’m new to this.”

She patted his hand. “Me, too.”

He took a sip of grinabo, and she rested her head on his shoulder. And drifted off to sleep.