Chapter 2
(A/N: Thank you all for my first one-hundred views on a single chapter. Your enjoyment with this story is the reason I write. I hope this next chapter brings you joy in reading it.)
The large Sydney airport sat only haft a mile from the department. The trip there was quick given a military escort up to the VIP terminal. One pelican sat on the landing pad ready for takeoff. I held my large duffle bag in my right hand like a life line thrown out to save me. I never told anyone but flying in these things unnerved me ever since my father was shot down during the war. The captain and I walked up the extended ramp into the troop bay. Feeling a bead of sweat roll down the back of my neck I took my place near the door to the cockpit; wanting to be far from the large hatch as possible. The captain already in his seat opposite of me. The PA system came to life filling the compartment with the Australian accent of our pilot. I could barely hear what he had to say over the sounds of the engines screaming to life, and the prayers I was reciting in my head, only making out our ETA to the Saber. One hour.
The hatch sealed shut with a soft hiss the interior turning a dull red color as the lights dimmed, and the bay became pressurized for space flight. The collar of my suit jacket was wet with sweat by the time we got thirty minutes out and nothing outside except the deep reaches of space. I sighed to myself thankful the trip so far had been a silent affair. The captain looked occupied with something on a data pad. I reached into my right pants pocket and pulled out the small translator/recorder that I had been given. This little device would hopefully be enough to bridge the expansive language barrier between me and the elites. I tucked the device away and patted my leg making sure it was safe and secure.
The PA system came to life, and the pilot spoke quickly.
"Alright, you two we will be arriving at the beautiful hotel in the sky in the next five minutes and thank you for choosing down under airlines. We hope to have you flying with us again soon."
The captain did not look happy by that comment but chose to voice no grievances. I thought it was a bit funny, or at least it helped to calm my nerves. The pelican's acceleration slowed considerably as our pilot maneuvered the craft for the final approach to the ship. The small window I sat by soon filled with the bright lights from the ships interior. The dull thud of touching the deck made me let the breath out I had been holding in. The compartment depressurized while the hatch opened and extended to the deck for us to depart. I grabbed my bag and made all due haste to get myself away from the pelican.
A man about my height in a naval jumpsuit was waiting for us near the pelican. His suit held the insignia of an ensign on the collar. He stood at a rigid position of attention when the captain came up next to me. I saw him salute his CO as they quickly started talking, but I was to busy looking around at the massive bay that housed six pelican docking ports and enough warthogs and tanks to mount a considerable ground op. I did not notice the captain step close to my right and jumped out of my skin when he spoke in his rough and commanding voice.
"For someone who hates flying; you seem quite impressed by the armament I have here."
"This is a diplomatic mission captain." I remined him. After I had recovered from my jump scare.
He looked at me and pointed to the door leading out of the bay. I followed him hoping he was going to explain why he carried enough weapons to invade a city. We walked in silence and soon the bridge doors came into view. Lee passed through first getting the bridge crew to stand at attention. The bridge looked larger than others I had seen the stars being visible from inside through a massive viewport at the furthest end of the command deck. On the starboard side of the bridge stood four crew members each at a station facing his direction their consoles in front of them. On the opposite side of the bridge held a large screen taking most of the wall space. It showed a map of their current position close to Luna. I could see Earth with this short-range sensor view on display.
"Be seated." The captain said to his bridge crew. All of them following without question. They began to type out on their stations going through ship systems; readying them for our mission.
"Follow me."
I followed the captain to a room on the port side of the bridge. The room had no windows and was only illuminated by dim overhead lights. At its center was a table that showed a holographic image of our destination, Sanghelios, an ugly looking planet, but one I would soon call home. He started to spin the planet with his hand and stopped it. He pointed out a large continent to me. I stepped closer to get a better look; it looked like everything else on the planet dry and hot like a desert.
"From what their representative was gracious enough to share with us; this city-state they call Vadam will be where you are headed."
An outline of a large section of the continent, all the northern portion, showed in green. I had to admit these freaks had a nice section of this barren hole all to themselves. The image disappeared while Lee looked through what files he had on my temporary home. He pulled a piece that looked like an audio file. The file began to play but whatever it was saying I had no clue. I pulled out the device in my pocket and switched it on; setting it on the table it began to translate the language comparing it to the records stored within itself. In the middle of getting what I could from the audio file a male voice came over the ships PA system; sounding very much like an A.I.
"Captain, we are now cleared to execute slip space transition to the elite home world."
"Thank you, Hudson."
The captain looked my way and paused the audio file and began to shut the table down for the jump. The lights in the room becoming brighter; now I could see the space was haft the size of the bridge and could seat at max eight people. The table taking up most of the room. I quickly placed my T and R device back into my pocket before both of us headed into the bridge. A young lieutenant looked up from his post and reported to his CO.
"FTL drives are at one-hundred percent and awaiting your order captain."
"Alright lieutenant Loftin; you may commence the transition."
A flash of hellish green light filled the bridge forcing me to look away. The light faded as quickly as it appeared giving me no time to watch the bridge started to bend and distort my vision becoming clouded; blurred, and it was over. I looked but a large metal blast shield was all I saw outside the glass. I looked around me everyone was working at their post save for the captain who sat in a chair looking at a data pad attached to the seats right armrest. He looked my way and stood up. I walked to him and he quickly spoke.
"We have quarters set up for you near engineering. Go collect your things and get settled in I will have what files I can on their language sent to you."
I collected my duffle bag from the map room and headed down to my three-day sleeping arrangements. The ship was a lot larger than I had realized getting awkwardly lost on my way aft. I had been on only a few UNSC ships in my life and every time the configuration was different. A marine sergeant was kind enough to guide me to my destination. My room felt small; a desk sat attached to the wall at the end of the bed. The chair secured to the deck; I spotted a large locker at the rooms far end and put the whole bag inside. I noticed a A.I. pedestal next to the bed at the headboard. The current time floated where the A.I. would normally be, but it kept switching at random, so I made the decision to keep the clock off it would be useless going through slip space anyway.
The pedestal began to beep; I looked up from the desk in my third hour of trying to translate what the captain had sent me. Standing up a figure looked at me. It was clearly an A.I. designed with some odd clothing, like a centuries old military uniform with a red coat being the notable piece of the whole outfit.
"You're Hudson, I presume." I said to the military figure.
"Indeed, I am sir."
He spoke with a heavy British accent; regarding me with a kind smile like we had been friends for a long time. Walking to the bed I placed myself close to the headboard pushing the pillow back towards the wall. He looked concerned by my fatigued features having had no rest since getting up at 0900 to get some final arrangements for my new assignment finalized. Now, on top of that trying to translate an alien language with a limited background in linguistics having only translated other human dialect to English.
"Does the captain need me?" I asked Hudson and yawned being up for six hours straight was wearing on me.
"No sir, this is a social call. I wanted to see how you are settling in, but it seems that bit has been taken care of."
"I am settling in alright Hudson, but the real concern is why we are carrying so much firepower to our former enemy's home world?" I ask him a clear worried expression upon my face.
"To answer your question sir; it is for precaution only. Their representative, the one you are meeting, informed us that ever since the wars end. The planet has dealt with civil uncertainties; it could lead to full on war."
The thought of being caught in the middle of angry aliens tearing at each other's throats did not appeal to me, but I had to do this for my family, for what is left of humanity. I stood up and walked back to the desk. I hit play on the device I had been given; alien speech erupted from the speakers. The device was having a little trouble with this bit. Someone cleared their throat behind me; I turned around seeing the ships A.I. looking at me. I shook my head apologetically.
"Sorry Hudson; my mind is just all over the place right now."
"I understand sir, though I am no Cortana I could help with your permission?" he asked me. I nodded thankful for the extra brainpower.
Lines of the language floated around the A.I., his eyes closed, brow furrowed in intense concentration. I could make out some of the speech being transfigured to a perceivable form. They certainly hated us; two words kill, and human, grabbed my attention with the fury spoken by the aliens. I had to remind myself that this was old recordings and we had new allies with the elites. More of their tongue became understood, then one name came up with frequency, sangheili, that must be the true name of their people.
"Hold there." I said to Hudson. He stopped with the name pushed out from him.
I came by and looked it over; the sound of the word left an odd taste in my mouth like poison burning inside. It would take time to get used to speaking their language. Hell, maybe the rest of my life. I nodded to Hudson resuming his help in my task. We spent several hours on the words; pausing to get a word and try to sound it out. The only one exhausted was me when I decided we had found a good point to conclude our work. He looked at me and without a word receded leaving me alone with my thoughts. I needed some sleep. The bed felt stiff and rough like a stack of sandpaper; my tiredness took away my discomfort with sleep catching and holding me in its arms.
I awoke the room dark only the soft blue luminescence from the pedestal beside my bed to guide my feet to where I had, in a haste, stashed my duffle bag. The cool air in the ships corridor caused the hair on my arms to stand on end. I shivered a bit. They sure kept it cold here; I thought to myself. The suit I wore providing nothing against the chilled air. A quick walk to the shower area, outside the engine room, made no alleviation for me.
The showers were thankfully empty upon my entrance. I found one near the back of the room. It did not take me long to clean up for the start of another day, as I finished up drying my hair and frame. Hudson's voice came over the PA system calling me to the bridge. I got dressed quickly in pants and a light-colored button-up shirt. Speculating on why they needed me while I walked forward of the engines. Not having brought any light jacket to keep the cold off I walked with haste to where I was needed.
Something was wrong when I entered the command deck. First, the blast shield was up the stars bright and almost inviting save for the second thing; a covenant cruiser off the ships port side. I could see only haft of the alien ship, but knew it was quite large. I had a dreaded feeling that we all were on borrowed time now. To my right sat the captain in his command chair. He waved me over he looked worried but had me look at a message received from the other ship.
"Tell me I'm not about to get in a fire fight in the middle of nowhere?" He asked of me.
I detached the pad from its spot on his chair and looked at the message. I could scarcely understand the words, but one word stood out; allies. I shaked my head the captain looked relieved and spoke to the junior officers around him.
"Looks like we have some guest all stations stand down."
The pad beeped a scroll of alien text flashed across the screen. I walked to the large window. The captain followed and stood at my left. I brought the device up closely examining the words. Dropping my arm down I looked dumb struck at what I could make out from the message.
"They say they have been tracking us since we left Sol." I told Lee.
"What do they want?" He asked me a clear since of growing frustration in the man's words.
"I don't know sir, but in any case, this is a great opportunity. You can send me over to speak with them face to face."
"Are you mad?!" He asked me with an astonished air about himself at my willingness to meet the hinge-heads face to face.
"Yes captain, let go of what you thought of them, cause if they came to kill us we would not be having this conversation." I was having none of this from the forty-year old.
"What is the status of their weapons?" I asked one of the other officers.
"Their weapons are powered down and…." He paused for a split second. "My god their shields are down too."
"See captain?" I looked back to the senior officer.
He sighed accepting the situation for what it was; not what he thought it to be.
"My only question is why they are tracking us, and why we were told it would take us three days to get to their home world?" He asked me to think I had the answers. I shrugged my shoulders seeing no reason for the elite's odd mannerisms.
"I'll go ask; with your permission sir?" I asked him.
"Go. I will have a pelican ready for immediate departure in hanger bay two." He said to me, but his eyes cut to the ship with a look of hatred for our former enemies.
What the captain failed to realize, or what I declined to inform him was that our feelings towards the aliens is mutual. I made it back to my quarters and packed my suit in my duffle bag with all the rest of my clothes. I looked at the pedestal; Hudson stood there I approached him. He stood at the position of attention, arms by his sides hands flat, I smiled. He nodded to me and raised his right hand placing the back of it against his forehead.
"It has been an honor sir, though our time has been short-lived. It was my pleasure to assist in your mission."
"Thank you, Hudson. I am thankful for your help."
I returned his gesture in kind, and he was gone back to more important task. I exited my quarters and made my way to hanger bay two. This time I was not nervous about being in the pelican, because I knew greater things lied ahead of me. Not only would my life change I would help bring in lasting peace between different civilizations. The pelican lifted off the deck and the interior became darker; the light bleeding away as we made for the emptiness of space towards the covenant cruiser and an uncertain future.