Spoiler alert: This is the first draft of the ninth book in the Reckless Faith series, now with the working title of The Path of Andromeda. You can start with the prologue here: https://devonai.wordpress.com/2024/10/17/reckless-faith-ix-prologue/

“I think you could’ve worded that better, Vecky.”

Richter coolly assessed the situation at the table in the bar. Helena had a firm grasp on her pistol, some sort of projectile weapon, but had it cocked to her side, the barrel just above the surface of the table. Though her demeanor was stern, she clearly wanted to keep talking. John’s hands were on his enormous mug of beer, and Vecky’s were by her side. His own right hand was on the grip of his 1911, out of Helena’s line of sight, but she had to know what he was doing. Though he could draw and take a shot under the table, there was no way he could beat Helena. However, there was also no way she could take out all three of them. It was clearly a stalemate.

Vecky responded to John’s statement, keeping her eyes on the older woman. “There’s no way to mince word about this part, John. Yes, Helena, I fell in with the Cygnian Liberation Front. But I assure you, that was by chance, as the ship I was on was experiencing mechanical problems and had no choice but to land on Leda rather than Dellal. If not for that, I might have never heard of the CLF. Before we could move on from there, I began to receive messages from Aquila, in the form of powerful visions. Aquila wanted revenge on Cygnus, for reasons that were never made clear to me. But after my experiences on the Eagle, I couldn’t ignore him. His goals aligned with those of the CLF, so I took up their cause.”

Helena took a deep breath, but her aim remained steady. “Okay. What exactly did you do for them?”

“Mostly logistics support. Though I wanted to visit the Swan, I didn’t get a chance to do so until after combat operations had ceased. Come on, look at me. Do I really look like someone suited for the back of a dropship, ready to come out blasting?”

Helena stared at her for a long time. “Fine. Except I find it hard to believe that Aquila would bother making a personal connection with you in order to get you to fly around in a cargo ship. Especially not someone born on the Eagle. Doubly so after the formation of an entire cult dedicated to Aquila.”

“Oh, he wanted me to be more directly involved. Before I found out about the Adherents of Aquila, he made it out like I was going to be some kind of epic savior. That might have worked on me, except that my father had just become leader of the entire Eagle asteroid. If destiny is real, wouldn’t I be meant to be there with him? I decided to compromise: I’d help the CLF battle the SCC in space, but I refused to set foot on the Swan. This seemed to mollify Aquila and, after Cygnus was killed, I never heard from him again.”

Helena began to cry. “They play games with us. You and me both. They’re monsters.”

“I take it you had a bad experience, too?” asked John.

She put her pistol down on the table. “Cygnus pretended to be my friend. I thought I was special. Only the Chief Acolyte was supposed to talk to him. Though his death was ultimately welcome to me, the way it happened was tragic. The civilization of the Swan deserved better, and the CLF and their cultist friends had no right to interfere in our way of life.”

Vecky nodded. “I’m sorry, too. I’ll be happy if I life the rest of my life and never hear another whisper across the ether from a Kira’To.”

Helena produced a handkerchief, and wiped her face. “I wish I could say the same.”

John said, “Wait, you mean…”

“Are you sure you want to tell us this?” asked Vecky. “You hardly know us.”

“Do you trust these men?” asked Helena.

“John and Chance? With my life.”

Helena stood up, holstered her pistol, and crossed to the nearest window. “Not long after I arrived on Kuisu, I was contacted by a Kira’To who calls himself Andromeda. At first his messages were very cryptic, same as Cygnus at the beginning. As my visions, or whatever you want to call them, became more frequent, I learned how to better communicate with him. The messages were always the same, though. As a child of the Swan, as he called me, he said it was my fate to go to Ibnal’saffar.”

“The cursed planet?” asked John. “Why?”

“I’m not sure. Something about the secrets of the Kira’To. He was never very clear about that. Still, he was so persistent, I came to believe that the only way I could ever get him to leave me alone was to do as he said. The problem was just as you said: Ibnal’saffar is supposedly cursed. I couldn’t find any ships for hire on Kuisu that would take me there. I was running out of money and couldn’t afford to travel back to Dellal or even a closer planet. That’s when I discovered that the Flying Serpent was in orbit, and that its loop around this constellation brought it quite near Ibnal’saffar. I joined the Order of Andromeda, and off we went.”

“How long ago was that?” asked Richter.

“About a year. And I know you’re going to ask, but no, the Order of Andromeda doesn’t have anything to do with the Kira’To that I’m in contact with. I was a little disappointed to find that out. Anyway, I earned a stipend with the Order, and after I quit, I decided to gamble it all away. Instead, I won enough money to buy this bar. Funny how that works.”

John shrugged. “What the heck were you going to do if you lost all your money?”

“That would have been the end of the line for me. It became clear over time that none of the captains of the four working ships would bring me to Ibnal’saffar, even after I started dating Captain Strouthionum. I couldn’t convince him. I had to do something…”

Richter said, “Again, are you sure you want to tell us this?”

Helena returned to the table and leaned over, putting her hands flat on the surface. Her eyes flashed with anger, and she began to cry again.

“Andromeda won’t leave me alone! Every night, without fail, he shows up in my dreams, even if I scream at him to leave me in peace! Hell, even a catnap isn’t safe for me. I had to get down to that planet! By any means necessary.”

“What then,” began John. “Strouth wouldn’t take you with him on those water resupply runs? Why did you think this time would be any different?”

Helena sank into her chair, defeated. “You don’t understand. The charges that damaged the water tanks were only the ones that successfully detonated. There were more, though I’ve since removed them. My plan was to permanently disable the Serpent, and force an evacuation to Ibnal’saffar. Curse or no curse.”

“You’re taking a huge risk telling us all of this,” said Vecky. “Why shouldn’t we turn you in?”

“When I was dating Strouth, I had plenty of unrestricted access to the Kestrel. Stealing it would have been my first plan, but I couldn’t do it alone. You’re the only one on this entire contraption that I know will help me. With you and your team, we might actually have a chance.”

“Why would we help you do that?” asked John.

“Because I know you’ve been trying to gain access to a SRC transceiver. There’s nothing wrong with the one on the Kestrel. Strouth has been lying to you to protect the integrity of the Serpent.”

“We suspected as much,” said Richter.

“The only question left, then, is why you’ve been pushing so hard to get to one. You wanted to be here, right? You knew how long it would take to get to Tengshe. You must have agreed to the rules before you boarded.”

Richter looked at John and Vecky. They nodded to each other. John spoke next.

“I think it’s time you knew the whole truth, Helena.”

__________

In a busy restaurant in the City of the Eagle, a joyful reunion was occurring between the crews of the Faith, the Fox, and the Antares, the last of which had recently arrived. By now used to diverse visitors, the locals paid the spacefarers little heed as they ate, drank, and got caught up. Only Evangeline caught any extra attention being, of course, a bona fide hero on the Eagle. Each of them were able to enjoy themselves for the moment, though both the events on Tartarus and the upcoming mission were never far from anyone’s mind.

Though the crew of the Antares treated Fuyue no differently than before, Eva knew it must have been difficult for them to accept their Sortarii mentor in his new form, just as it must have been difficult for him to pretend that everything would proceed as normal. The reality of the situation could certainly wait until they’d returned to their ship, as the trip to Ibnal’saffar would take twelve days.

Also present in the group were three Eaglites who had been recruited to help man the Fox, including Ikari, a man Eva considered a good friend. She was grateful he’d been tasked with the trip and, since Milena was going to be in command of the Fox, she wouldn’t have to worry about micromanaging her new subordinates.

That left the crew of the Faith a little light, but Ari, Dana, Eva, and Friday were more than capable of managing it, as long as they didn’t get into a nasty, protracted brawl. For now, with the three ships due to leave first thing in the morning, everyone could relax.

After a couple of hours, Eva felt compelled to look at the door, and was surprised to see Maoko standing there. Eva excused herself from the table and weaved her way through the restaurant until she got there.

“It’s good to see you,” she said. “Did you decide to join us?”

“No,” replied Maoko. “I have another drawing for you. I’m afraid it isn’t of much use to me, but I thought you’d like to see it.”

The older woman handed Eva a large sheet of paper. On it was rendered a metallic plaque, with block letters written in a language unknown to her.

“Curious. I’m guessing you don’t know what it says, either.”

“I do not.”

Eva pulled out her PDA. “Fortunately, I have just the feline to help. If you don’t mind…”

“Of course, please.”

Maoko held up the drawing, and Eva took a picture. She opened a channel to the Faith.

“Friday, it’s Eva. I’m going to send you a file, I was hoping you could translate the writing on it for me.”

Friday’s voice could be heard. “Ready to receive.”

Eva sent the file. Maoko rolled up the sheet and tucked it under her arm.

“Are you leaving soon?” she asked.

“First thing in the morning. We’re all very eager to get going, but the crew of the Antares hasn’t slept in sixteen hours.”

“It’s okay. I know you’ll find her.”

“I have some results for you,” said Friday.

“We’re listening,” said Eva.

“The language is Caracali, from a planet in orbit around Alnach, a star not far from Ibnal’saffar. It’s a commissioning plaque, for a ship named the Tempest, launched from Caracal in a year number that probably corresponds to that planet’s calendar. I don’t know how long ago it was. Then the name of the shipyard. That’s it.”

“All right, thank you, Friday. We’ll see you soon.” Eva put her PDA away. “Interesting. So Vecky is on, or recently had access to, a ship. I’ll let the others know.”

Maoko asked, “So will you be heading to Alnach instead of Ibnal’saffar?”

“Well, that ship could be anywhere. We shouldn’t second-guess our first plan.”

“That makes sense. Whatever you decide to do, my heart will be with you.”

“I know. Thank you, Maoko. We will bring your daughter back to you.”

The women hugged, and Maoko exited back to the street. Eva returned to her group, and got the attention of Ari, Dana, Milena, and Lesath. They got up and joined Eva on the street. As usual, the City of the Eagle was resplendent at night; calm, quiet, and beautiful. There was nobody standing or walking nearby, so conversation was easy. Eva told the others what she had just learned.

“So now we have two locations to investigate,” said Dana.

“Do you want to split up?” asked Lesath.

“That ship could be anywhere,” said Eva.

Ari’s eyes seemed to lose focus, then she looked at the others. “The Reckless Faith or the Antares could get to Caracal in less than three hours. If our people aren’t on Inbnal’saffar anymore, and someone on Caracal knows where the Tempest is, then we’ll already have our next plan. Then we rendezvous and carry on.”

“That makes sense,” said Milena. “Still, one of you is stuck tagging along with the slowpoke of the group.”

“So do you want to flip a coin, or what?” asked Lesath.

Eva said, “The Antares has better medical facilities than the Faith. It would make more sense for you to go to Ibnal’saffar. The Faith will go to Caracal; we’ll just keep a low profile. Unless anybody has any objections.”

“Great,” began Ari, “we’ll go first thing in the morning. Let’s get back inside and let everybody else know.”

_____

Ten hours later, after two more hours at the restaurant and a full night’s sleep, the crews and their three ships were in orbit around the Eagle. That morning had been busier than usual for everyone, but especially for the crew of the Reckless Faith. Up until then, the Faith had spent most of its time in the Eagle’s main hangar; though the crew had been offered lodging elsewhere on the asteroid, they chose to remain on the ship. Despite that, they hadn’t done shakedowns on their weapons systems or activated their FTL drive in over six weeks. While Friday or Ari could easily confirm that the systems were configured correctly, and ready to rock, the only way to know for sure was with hands-on functions checks, live-fire testing, and a quick trip somewhere in FTL. So, after breakfast, they got their hands greasy, then travelled to the system’s asteroid belt to beat up on some defenseless rocks. Next, they went balls-to-the-wall to the heliopause of the solar system and back. Throughout it all, the Faith had purred like a kitten.

On the bridge, Eva and Ari were at their stations, Dana sat in the pilot chair, and Friday sat on a console next to Ari. Tycho napped next to Eva. They were waiting for final confirmations from the Fox and the Antares, and then they would be on their way. The mood on board was upbeat, and everyone but Eva was openly excited about finally having a plan of action after so much sitting around. With a few minutes to spare, Ari decided to ask her about it.

“You seem a little off today,” she began. “Is everything okay?”

Eva sighed, and smiled. “I’m fine. I just find myself overly worried about what, if anything, we’re going to find. After all, we only have confirmation that Vecky is still alive. I can’t help but mull over worst-case scenarios.”

“I know how you feel. Kheiron could have saved just her, for example, or scattered our friends across the galaxy for some reason. I think the worst part is that everyone else could have been killed on Tartarus, and we’ll never know. This uncertainty would keep me up at night, if I still needed to sleep.”

Friday said, “I know John is alive, I can just feel it.”

A beeping sound alerted Eva to her console. “Heads up, a ship is approaching. It looks like an… Umberian Mark Fourteen?”

“Like the one Thel Maktar used to go to Earth?” asked Dana.

“It’s transmitting an IFF code. It is the one Maktar used. They’re hailing us.”

Ari said, “Open a channel, and tie in the other ships.”

“Got it,” replied Friday.

A familiar face appeared on the screen. An Umberian man with gray hair, a goatee, and a faded green military jacket could be seen in the cockpit of the fighter craft. Friday leapt onto the deck, jumped on the port side consoles, ran along their length, then did the same on the starboard side, maniacally shouting as she did.

“It’s Seth! It’s Seth! It’s Seth!”

The man laughed. “It’s good to see you, too Friday.”

“Aldebaran,” began Ari. “Never in a thousand years would I have expected to see you out here.”

“Especially not in that old thing,” said Eva. “How did you get here so fast?”

“I thought you retired from spacefaring,” said Dana.

Aldebaran nodded. “I had, but I continued to receive care for my injuries over the years. Eventually I felt healthy enough to start thinking about returning to the stars. As for this ship, I simply asked NASA if I could work on it myself and restore it to its former glory. They said yes. When Christie told me about your current situation, I asked her to help me get it out of the hangar unnoticed so I could come help. She did. As for the FTL drive, it was fully functional the whole time. I told NASA it had been exhausted of fuel in case I ever needed it. So here I am.”

Dana laughed. “So you lied to them. That’s incredible. Are you sure you’re up to the rigors of space combat, though?”

“You bet I am.”

“What’s her name?” asked Ari. “What’s she got for armaments?”

“Neither of the plasma cannons were working, so NASA cannibalized their neptunium. They’ve been replaced with twin GAU-12 twenty-five-millimeter rotary cannons, with eighteen-hundred rounds each, sort of a scaled-down version of your own GAU-8. For defense, it’s got the same energy-dissipation hull as the Reckless Faith, though the powerplant can’t handle overloads as effectively, so it can’t take the same kind of beating. I christened her the Sagitta.”

“That seems fitting,” said Dana. “Well, it’s good to see you again, and I’m glad we have one more ship to help us search for our friends. Captain Lesath, are you listening?”

“I’m here,” said Lesath’s voice.

“Since I assume Aldebaran doesn’t want to spend this whole trip confined to the cockpit of the Sagitta, and the Antares is the only ship that can fit it in its cargo bay, would you be okay with Aldebaran joining your crew?”

“I don’t see why not. It’s always good to meet new people. I’ve read a little bit about your history, Mister Aldebaran. I’m sure we’ll have a lot to talk about.”

“I agree,” replied Aldebaran. “And yes, I’d rather have a berth on a ship. Thank you for offering. I look forward to meeting you and your crew.”

“Good,” said Ari. “We’ll get you situated and caught up on our missions. After that, we’ll be on our way.”

Friday returned to her original spot, and said, “Wait, we’re not having a reunion first? Surely we have time for that.”

“You need to focus,” said Eva. “Let’s get our asses to Caracal.”