Twilight Serenade: Earth Song, #6

By Mark Wandrey

The Galaxy is Not a Safe Place!

 

More than five hundred years after Earth's destruction, the descendants of humanity's survivors are finally coming into their own under the leadership of First Among the Chosen Minu Groves. They've gained allies and slowly built their strength, and now Minu has decided the time has come to make their bid for freedom from the Tog, humanity's sponsors in the interspecies Concordia.

 

The Higher Order species have fleets of starships they can use to enforce their iron will, though, and to leave humanity helpless against them isn't acceptable. Minu knows, however, that there are several ghost fleets hidden in the deep recesses of space—remnants of the Lost's ancient armada from an eons-ago war—and if those ships could be found and reactivated, they might provide the defense her people need.

 

While the ships could be the final piece Minu needs to permanently ensure humanity's freedom, the other species have plans of their own, and the greater mysteries of her own history, her husband's fate, and the very nature of the Concordia may prove to be her own undoing…and with her, all of humanity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Theogony Books
• Release date: Nov 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9781948485678

Book preview

Twilight Serenade

Book Six of the Earth Song Cycle

By

Mark Wandrey

PUBLISHED BY: Theogony Books

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Copyright © 2018 Mark Wandrey

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All Rights Reserved

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Get the free prelude story "Gateway to Union"

and discover other titles by Mark Wandrey at:

http://worldmaker.us/

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Get the free Four Horsemen prelude story "Shattered Crucible"

and discover other Theogony Books titles at:

http://chriskennedypublishing.com/

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Cover Design by Brenda Mihalko

Original Art by Ricky Ryan

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License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

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Dedication

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To the fans of the Earth Song series. Your words of encouragement are like water falling on the desert sands, I never get enough! I hope this book rewards your patience. Don’t worry, there are many more books in this universe!

To my test readers, valiant among the heroes, Alijah Ballard, Robert Boyer, and Abby Smith, you have my eternal thanks.

And of course, to my wife, Joy, and son, Patrick, my love forever.

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Contents

Prologue

Part I

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Interlude

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Interlude

Part II

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Part III

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Epilogue

About the Author

Excerpt from Book One of The Seventh Shaman:

Excerpt from Book One of the Lunar Free State:

Excerpt from Book One of This Fine Crew:

Excerpt from Book One of the Abner Fortis, ISMC:

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Prologue

The Kaatan emerged from the tactical jump a picosecond after it disappeared a hundred light years away. Over time, the ship’s master had become far more adept at the operation. In the early days, the ship had to be at a relative standstill. Now she could jump while traveling thousands of times the speed of light with the gateway appearing a scant few thousand kilometers in front of the needle-shaped bow.

Lilith shook off the aftereffects of the tactical jump which were far less profound now that she’d jumped so many times. She floated in the center of the spherical CIC and took stock of her ship. Everything was perfect.

Next, she scanned space, using stars and stellar phenomena to identify her location to within a few kilometers. She’d emerged right where she wanted, a dozen light years from her home, Gamma Orionis.

Everything go okay? Kal’at asked over the ship’s intercom.

Yes, she said. We’re almost home.

Great, he hissed back. Lilith could see him in his quarters over the internal monitors. If the reptilian could have smiled, he’d have had an ear-to-ear grin. I cannot wait to be home again!

Lilith broke the connection. The part of her modified mind that handled the ship’s operations finished reviewing their course and dropped it to cruising speed, just under 15,000 times the speed of light. They’d be home in six hours.

With everything operating almost automatically, she turned her thoughts to a few days earlier, to a star system not too far away.

What to do? she thought. Some truths were liberating. Some were dangerous. Some were confusing. And some didn’t make any darned sense at all.

This is certainly the latter, she said. A nearby screen showed a planet in great detail. She had gathered an incredible amount of data in the few seconds she’d been within scanner range. There was a little redshift distortion from the speed she’d been traveling, but not enough to account for what she’d seen.

Lilith thought through the possibilities. Maybe she’d been in the wrong system. She examined her data and compared it to the People’s star charts and her personal records. She was certain she’d been in the correct system. There were no other systems with population densities that great within 592 light years.

Maybe her scanners were wrong. Not a chance. Anomalous signal data was possible but picking up EM signatures of that intensity and misinterpreting them was not.

She accessed archived human records. Unfortunately, they were incomplete as the humans had not made all their data available. However, she did find a few old, digital images, some of which were within a few orders of magnitude of what she considered normal resolution. The images had enough detail to allow her to make comparisons. They were... close.

Lilith spent a few more minutes studying the images, and she decided they were close but not exact. The land masses and other planetary features were perfect matches, but a few other things—artificial things—were not.

I’m going to need access to more records, she decided. This will take some time, and I don’t think it would be a good idea to let Mom know about it yet. She won’t react well. At all.

The ship continued through space toward home. Lilith spent the remaining travel time in deep contemplation.

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Part I

Chapter 1

Octember 24th, 534 AE

Office of the First, Ft. Jovich, Peninsula Territory, Bellatrix

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Thousands of Rangers had trained in the fort since it became operational, and Minu had almost designated it as the primary training center shortly after being named First a month earlier. Then she’d made the deal with the Traaga. Seemed like a good idea at the time, she mused from the balcony.

The scene fifty meters below was like something Dante might have written about. The training floor, over 150 meters on a side, could be configured into any training environment from vacuum to underwater. It could be divided into ten smaller rooms and one section was fit with shields to allow for full power weapons drills. But it hadn’t been built to train the semi-anthropoid Traaga.

Thousands of the four-limbed creatures scurried, climbed, jumped, and investigated everything they could lay any of their four hands on and, generally, ignored the training.

I do not understand what you were thinking, Var’at hissed as he skittered over from a nearby lift. Minu glanced at him and sighed. The Traaga are one of the most unreliable species in the Concordia.

They want to learn to fight and ally themselves with us, Minu explained. And since they have a thousand beamcasters, and they really pissed of the Tanam, it’s only fair to try our best to train them.

They heard a loud crash below them as someone tipped over an equipment bench. Yells from the Chosen trainers were followed by squeaks of surprise from the offenders. And what if they shake the fort to pieces?

Funny, Minu grumbled and walked toward the lift. Curious, the Rasa leader followed.

As the lift’s hoverfields lowered her rapidly toward the floor, the cacophony became so loud she could no longer hear the lift’s mechanism operate. Good grief, she moaned, it sounds like a life or death fight in a lobster bar.

The first humans who’d laid eyes on the Traaga described them as equal parts crab and starfish, with a dash of chimpanzee and a splash of crazy thrown in. They were rare, partial vertebrates with primitive skeletal structures under their dermal coverings. And they were arboreal, covered in thin but nearly waterproof layers of feathers that resembled fur up close. Their four limbs, each with three reversible joints and complicated, grasping, ‘chimp-like’ hands, were arranged around low-to-the-ground central torsos. Their heads, which telescoped out of the tops of their torsos, had large pairs of independently tracking eyes, long feelers, and sharp mouthparts made for eating plant matter. Minu suspected their strong torsos protected their brains and other vital organs, making the Traaga hard to kill.

I understand their brains are in their central body cavity, Var’at spoke over the dull roar, echoing her thoughts. She nodded. Maybe that explains why they have such a hard time using them. Minu found it hard to disagree with him.

The hoverfield set her on the training-level floor, and she stepped out. She tried to march in militarily but didn’t come close. How could she with her belly sticking out twenty centimeters over her belt and her feet hurting? She couldn’t help thinking that carrying Lilith was a lot easier, but she’d only carried her a few weeks before the Kaatan took over.

Minu walked up to Gregg and his command staff, who were standing with their hands on their hips watching the kloth and pony show. They’d obviously given up trying to regain control. Gregg sensed someone behind him and glanced over his shoulder. When he saw her, he jumped slightly. First on deck! he barked.

Crap, Minu moaned inwardly as Gregg’s staff came to rigid attention.

At ease, Chosen, she said. Gregg glanced at her swollen stomach then questioningly at her. Three months. Don’t get excited.

You sure there’s only one in there?

She snorted and nodded her head. Yes, the doc is quite sure. She turned and looked at the riot of activity that should have been an organized training session. This is a cluster fuck.

Full blown, Gregg agreed. Nothing works. We tried organizing them into squads and platoons, but they don’t seem to grasp the concept. Everything is a game or competition to them.

Minu nodded thoughtfully. The Traaga were commonly hired for off-world construction contracts. Their arboreal nature, complete lack of acrophobia, and radial body design made them incredible high-steel workers. Memories of watching the Traaga work together gave her an idea.

Where’s their commander, Bob?

A minute later, Bob came skittering down a vertical wall with almost no visible handholds like he was walking on a sidewalk. He? Minu didn’t even know if they had genders. Bob was instantly recognizable by the intricate, swirling paint patterns along the corners of his thorax and down his legs. For the first time, she noticed others sported paint patterns, as well.

I respond, he chirped through her translator.

You report as ordered, she corrected him. The being’s head bobbed in understanding. They couldn’t salute very well, so it was a compromise. Have you settled on a name yet? I’m tired of calling you Bob.

The Traaga looked from Gregg to her, then nodded. Gregg coughed, and she wondered what was up, until the Traaga answered. I wish to be known as Patrick.

She considered for a minute, looking quizzically from Gregg to Patrick and back. A few of the command staff snorted in amusement, and she scrunched up her face, trying to think of why the name sounded funny. Gregg grinned and started quietly singing, Who lives in a pineapple—

Minu choked and snorted, shaking her head. Asshole, she sputtered, and everyone started laughing. The Traaga commander curiously observed the mystifying humans. One of these days, you’re going to give some critter a name, and it’s going to figure out what you mean and rip your head off.

Gregg stopped chuckling, and a distant look came into his eyes. One time, Aaron started calling a Beezer ‘McDonald’s’ after that old burger store on Earth— he stopped when he saw Minu look away. Shit, Minu, I’m sorry.

He’s not dead, she said quietly, not in my mind anyway. She put a hand on her swelling abdomen. Or in my heart, she added silently. She addressed the aliens’ leader. Patrick, when you work on a contract for another species, you always work in groups of four, correct?

Yes, that is correct.

She turned to Gregg and cocked an eyebrow.

Squads of four? he asked. Minu nodded. Huh, he said and looked at the craziness.

An hour later, Minu walked back toward the lift, feeling like she was waddling. In her wake a thousand Traaga were organized into groups of four. Four Traaga to a squad, four squads to a platoon, four platoons to a company, and four companies to a battalion. It was somewhat non-standard, but it was working. It seemed natural to them, and while it would take time to figure out who the leaders were, it was progress. Groups of sixty-four Traaga moved in something that resembled a formation.

Gregg glanced over from where he was talking with Var’at and saw her heading toward her office. I don’t know how she does it, he said to his former enemy.

She understands people, Var’at replied.

People?

The Rasa leader looked at the Traaga and shrugged. I blame the translator, but you get my meaning.

I wish she wasn’t so alone.

Doesn’t her daughter return tomorrow?

Gregg nodded and returned to his duties.

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Chapter 2

Octember 25th, 534 AE

Bellatrix Orbit

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Despite the Kaatan being her home, the place she’d spent almost all her life from conception onward, Lilith smiled as she returned to the Bellatrix star system. Floating in the center of her CIC, all senses linked into the powerful warship, she swam through space as the ship dove toward the star lighting the planet where her mother, Minu Groves, was born.

The ship slowed to a few multiples of light speed as it passed the ringed world of Valhalla. Vulcan and Vega, the two worlds in the system other than Bellatrix, were elsewhere. She was only aware them in the mathematical equations and time indexes that danced in her cybernetically-enhanced mind. Her quantum communicator chirped a few moments later.

Is that you, Lilith? hissed a Rasa voice.

Yes, Var’at, she replied. I am pleased the advanced detection network is up and working.

We’ve been working for many weeks on Remus to assure its function. Since we modified the computer networks to attempt the movement of Bellatrix anyway, it was not a stretch to install the tachyon sensors without the human’s awareness.

Lilith nodded and made notes in one of the thousands of files she kept in secret places in the ship’s databanks. And replication of the batteries?

Well underway, Var’at replied in a satisfied voice. Tell Kal’at the designs were very adequate.

I am here, the Rasa scientist replied over the network. "This would not have been possible without the Kaatan’s computers and Minu’s expertise."

It was my pleasure. Lilith closed her eyes as she really didn’t need to see to fly the ship and took a deep breath. Her analysis of the system’s flyby had gone no further, and now that she was home, she had to tread carefully. She moved the images to deep memory and locked them away under a spot-written, ninety-bit script code. There would be time later.

The detection array she and Kal’at had helped the Rasa build on Remus was undetectable to her and all the instruments on the Kaatan, and that was just the way she wanted it to be. Her people were at a critical juncture of their lives within the massive Concordia. They were expanding in power and influence thanks to the Rangers and the other Chosen, and the demands from the Tog had all but ceased, leaving humanity to pursue whatever venture it wished. But as they moved out, others within the Concordia had taken notice.

Recently, the humans had come into conflict with the Rasa, eventually defeating, then allying with the former enemy. After the Rasa lost their home and most of their people in a war with the T’Chillen, they settled on Bellatrix.

A few years later, the humans fought a brief but brutal war with the Tanam on the Beezer leasehold. The Tanam had intended to take out the Tog and eventually the humans, but Minu had defeated them.

Next came the mission to find a medical codex that would save Pip. It was Minu’s first encounter with the T’Chillen and resulted in their getting the Kaatan. Lilith was born on that mission. Unable to fully operate the ancient ship, the medical intelligence had used the time distortion effects of faster-than-light travel and, in days, aged Lilith enough for her to operate the ship. Her brain was a hybrid of natural, human matter and computer implants.

Most recently, the Rangers were tricked into a mission on a world defended by the Mok-Tok. When the Mok-Tok were defeated, they released a virus designed to kill humanity. The Nocturne virus failed to kill everyone, but it did damage the brains of thousands of young children so severely that even the codex couldn’t help heal them. They were housed all over the planet in coma care wards, forever dreaming, unable to wake.

Now humans were well known in the Concordia and hated by many of the powerful higher-order species. The location of Bellatrix was still a secret, and the early warning system was part of Lilith’s plan to keep it so for as long as possible. They’d believed the Concordia didn’t use starships any more, but that had turned out to be a big lie. All the higher order species used starships, some more than others. Since humanity had only one ship, it was supremely vulnerable.

With Bellatrix only a few million kilometers away, Lilith dropped her ship below light speed, no longer generating a tachyon shockwave ahead of it. The shockwave allowed the Remus detection grid to register her entrance into the star system. She approached slowly around Romulus to give Var’at and Kal’at time to calibrate the array. She entered a perfect polar orbit over Bellatrix at exactly the time she’d planned. And just as planned, her mother checked in.

Are you home? Minu’s voice came over the local communications network. She didn’t need the quantum communicator this close in.

As planned, Mom.

I’ll be up in a couple of hours. I’m just finishing some work at Fort Stuart in Jerusalem.

No need, I’m coming down.

There was a slight pause before a surprised Minu asked, Are you sure?

Yes. It’s been a while since I’ve been down, and I want to meet the new First Among the Chosen in person.

The distant chuckle from her mother was honest. I’m no different than when we parted company a few months ago. Maybe a little fatter...

How is my baby brother or sister?

Still cooking.

I’m sorry?

Minu laughed again. He or she is fine. I just saw the doc a last week. He said I’m a kilo lighter than I should be.

Then we should have dinner at your cabin.

That’s a great idea. Why don’t you meet me there in three hours?

Perfect. That will give me time to drop off Kal’at.

That is appreciated, the Rasa scientist said over the radio.

See you soon.

Lilith wrote a series of command subroutines and stored them in the Kaatan’s semi-autonomous controls. She could command the ship from almost anywhere in the galaxy, instantaneously, through the quantum communicator, if necessary, but she preferred to be onboard if anything serious happened. She was confident that between her ship’s sensors and the new array on Remus, she’d have the better part of an hour’s warning should a ship decelerate into the system. That gave her plenty of time to return. No starship would risk passing through a star system at superluminal speed. Even a powerful ship of the line like the Kaatan would be hard pressed to survive an impact at more than the speed of light.

Once she’d tended to the housekeeping details, she informed Kal’at she was ready. She floated out of the CIC and down the corridors using gentle hand and arm motions that the computer converted into slight nudges from the ship’s force fields. At only 175 meters from needle bow through bulbous central section to cylindrical stern, the Kaatan was not a large ship, but it packed massive firepower and had adequate space for a large crew, if necessary. There were four needle-shaped shuttles in the ship’s boat hangar.

Her ground-side transport waited just outside the hangar. It was a huge spider-shaped bot with a null-gravity bubble projected on its back. Using the bot, she could spend extended time on a planet with relatively high gravity.

Though she’d worked to strengthen her body, being born and raised in zero gravity had left her without the physique Bellatrix-raised humans took for granted. Her bone density was only 40 percent of that of normal humans her age, and an accidental fall could easily cause her to break limbs.

Ready to go? Kal’at hissed. A pair of crab bots passed them, weighted down with baggage, samples, instruments, and a variety of other equipment. Scientists of all species were the same; they never traveled light.

I am. Are you looking forward to returning to Romulus?

It is not the planet of my birth, but it is now home. I look forward to seeing how the maturation of our young proceeds!

Lilith nodded and gestured, following her reptilian friend into the bay where one of the shuttles was already on the deck. They’d spent months together as the only occupants of the Kaatan. Lilith was somewhat surprised to realize she would miss the Rasa.

A score of the Kaatan’s blue crystalline bots scuttled around the shuttle, detaching power and consumable cables and verifying the craft’s readiness. The ship was automated to such a degree that she only needed to order it made ready, and the ship did the rest.

The Rasa crab bots worked side by side with the Kaatan’s to finish loading the shuttle. Lilith gestured, and her transporter trundled gracefully on eight insectoid legs to the shuttle. It found an empty space in the rear cabin, folded in upon itself, and went into standby mode as Lilith and Kal’at continued to the cockpit.

Before she left the hold, Lilith had triggered the flight sequences. The cargo door irised closed, the gravitic drives spun up, and the craft lifted off the deck. The exterior door of the Kaatan slid open and the shuttle passed out into space.

Why do you bother using the cockpit? Kal’at asked as he wedged his tail into a seat which was not designed for him. You could pilot the craft from anywhere on board...

Truth be told, I could fly it from anywhere in the galaxy. Kal’at turned an eye turret toward her. In many other beings that would have been a boast. But he knew a lot more about her capabilities, after months together. There was no false bravado in her statement.

Then the question is even more relevant.

Lilith shrugged and smiled slightly. My father made me promise. Should something happen to the automated systems, the manual controls are located here.

Is that a possibility?

Not even a remote one.

Then why give your word?

They’d cleared the Kaatan and were angling away. The big, green, cloud-covered face of Romulus swung into view and grew larger before she answered. Minu says it is human custom to obey your parents’ wishes. Kal’at seemed unconvinced but did not pursue the topic.

With the powerful gravitic drive of the shuttle, they burned down into the atmosphere of Romulus in minutes. The ship cancelled out all sensation of motion as they rode out the upper atmosphere turbulence and dropped below the perpetual cloud deck. Endless deep green seas stretched out below them.

Your people have begun construction of a third platform? Lilith asked as the shuttle dropped to just above the waves.

"That is correct. New food contracts have been very lucrative. The platforms are constructed largely from scrap we buy from your Chosen that contractors transport up here in Phoenix shuttles."

Lilith was aware of the arrangements, and she paid attention with a small part of her brain while allowing the rest to revel in the simple joy of flying a perfectly designed craft in the atmosphere. The Lost had been gone for untold eons, but their engineering feats were gloriously eternal.

Since they were traveling at five times the speed of sound, the prime habitat platform went from being a dot on the distant horizon to looming in seconds. Lilith applied gravitic control to break, bank, and climb with the kind of flawless precision only a pilot with a brain partly controlled by computers could manage. They dropped below supersonic speed barely a hundred meters before rocketing past the platform. She got a spectacular view of the facility with its hundreds of humans, Rasa, and Traaga, all busily working. Many looked up in shock at the sudden appearance of the shuttle, and some waved when they recognized the sleek needle shape.

The shuttle banked into a fantastic skew turn at more than two hundred gravities, tail slipping in to precisely line up with one of the platform’s many landing pads. Lilith backed the shuttle in and down, setting it onto the platform as lightly as a feather.

You are as wonderful a pilot as your father, Kal’at pronounced with a nod from the copilot seat. To his credit his claws hadn’t tightened on the hand rests during the hair-raising approach; he had complete faith in her abilities.

He still is, she said and floated aft.

Of course.

Lilith wasn’t being illogical. Now that she was home, she had every intention of meeting with her mother, then finding her father or those who had killed him. Her mouth curled into a little smile. That was something she was looking forward to. If there was no satisfaction, there was at least revenge.

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Minu had just taken the fish from the small, infrared oven when she heard the distant, multiple cracks of a vessel tearing through Bellatrix’s atmosphere at hypersonic velocity. She smiled as she carried the hot dish to the table, then checked on the mushroom casserole. She occasionally enjoyed making a meal completely from local foods. It didn’t always work out, but this time it did. In the fall, the mushrooms were plentiful on her island, and the fish were biting.

She’d removed a bottle of wine from the cooler and was reading the label when she felt a little shiver run up her spine and the cabin vibrate ever so slightly. She could just hear the whine of the shuttle’s gravitic impellers as Lilith set it down on the ceramic concrete pad between the cabin and the old observatory that had belonged to her ancestor, Mindy Harper. A few moments later, the door opened and in came her daughter.

Minu put the bottle down and went to her. The transporter bot stopped just inside the door and lowered to the ground. Lilith lithely floated to the floor and carefully released the gravimetric field. A sound somewhere between a sigh and groan escaped her lips as the pull of the planet’s core took hold of her. Minu cocked her head, and she nodded, then the two women embraced.

It’s so good to see you, Minu whispered in her ear and kissed her cheek.

Lilith hesitated a half second before returning the kiss. Physical displays of affection were something she still struggled with, even as a 24-year-old woman. I’m sorry your dad is not here to welcome you home.

Lilith nodded and felt emotions creeping into her consciousness. She intercepted those feelings and directed them to something more useful. We must discuss finding him.

That might not be practical.

Lilith started to disagree and explain that there was nowhere in the galaxy their enemies could hide when she really noticed her mother, or more importantly, her belly. You have gotten fat!

Minu gagged and covered her mouth, stifling her laughter. Her daughter was always a shining example of propriety.

No, daughter, that is your little brother or sister.

Minu had so seldom seen her daughter at a loss for words, she dearly wished she’d had a camera on hand. Lilith’s jaw dropped, and she gaped, reaching a hand out to Minu’s swelling stomach. But she hastily pulled it back as if she was afraid the pregnancy was catching. It’s okay, Minu said and smiled. Lilith gently laid a hand on her mother’s growing stomach. As if on cue, the baby kicked right under her hand.

Oh! Lilith squeaked and pulled her hand back.

Little one knows his or her sister is there.

Really? Lilith asked quietly. That is normal behavior for a fetus?

Sometimes, yes. Lilith put her hand back and felt another kick. Her eyes sparkled with more joy and amazement than Minu had never seen in her.

How much longer?

A few months.

She looked at her mother again and shook her head. I believe you will explode before you give birth.

Minu chuckled and moved to the table. I feel that way some mornings. Are you hungry? I could eat a kloth!

Minu felt she’d outdone herself on dinner, but Lilith only ate with partial attention. After giving her debriefing on the flight back and the functionality of the sensor arrays on Remus, she bombarded her mother with questions about how Aaron was lost, until Minu finally interrupted her.

Look, I know you want to go all Lone Ranger and kick some alien ass to find your father—

I do not know who this Lone Ranger is, but if he is one of your Rangers, he is welcome to come along.

Minu stopped for a second, considered how long it would take to explain the Lone Ranger, then aborted the attempt. Anyway, we have more important things to do right now.

There are thousands of children who were brain damaged by the Nocturne virus, Minu continued. Ted’s been working with Dr. Bane, the planet’s foremost cybernetics expert, and Dr. Tasker, who’s in charge of the Codex Trust. They have an idea, but they need your help.

Okay, what can I do?

"We need to access the Kaatan’s medical intelligence for help designing a cybernetic implant capable of bringing those kids back."

I don’t know if that is possible, Lilith cautioned.

Minu gestured at her daughter with a fork full of fish. You’re living proof it’s possible; the real question is if it’s practical. There are so many children. We have to try something. Legal has been working for weeks on a contract to offer the parents. It’s scant hope, but better than nothing.

You shouldn’t have released the Mok-Tok, Lilith grumbled. "Maybe pulling a