Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. All characters are legal adults and over 18.
Preface:
It's been difficult to find time away from the day job. On a random note: I was happy to hear Starliner made it home today. I don't have opinions on any particular space exploration company, but I know the engineers, wherever they are employed, work very hard on their spaceships, and they were surely happy to see all that work land safely.
There are no sex scenes in this final installment, but there is a sweaty, human on alien fight which includes brief toplessness. If there is anyone that wanted to like Centauran females, you may find some comfort for that notion in this last installment, relative to the previous. There are two species.
I hope wherever you are that you are having a great day!
A recap from Chapters 22-34:
Jennifer awakens from unconsciousness in Northlights, having suffered injuries during the sinking of the Ikoa during its battle at sea. There she meets John, who views her as a murder. They share a fragile partnership, as Ralia, a terrorist leader, insists they both repay the debt of blood spilled during the sinking of the Ikoa by helping her. She convinces Ralia she can help her navigate an impassable mountain range and strike a surprise blow against Mainlights, destroying their railroad (a feat which has eluded Ralia to date) by using the GPS satellites launched from Maxwell's Demon. In exchange, Ralia agrees to take her to a survivor of the Fuzanglong crew named Wei.
Wei tells Jennifer her Father was a traitor and a terrorist, and that only one dropship made planetfall due to engine troubles, while the rest of the ship traveled to Alpha Centauri A and B. He refuses to accompany her and counsels her to go to Mainlights in the search for her Father. Jennifer is deeply affected by these revelations, unsure of their truth, and descends into increasing recklessness. She abandons John at the battle camp where Ralia plans to launch a full attack on Mainlights, leaving her weapon to him, and freeing a captive Teolid who promises to guide her through the mountains in exchange for their release.
Greg and William become new clan members in Nira's clan, and they travel to Mainlights where ( using their Earth knowledge ) acquire employment and parts for their attempt to build a radio amplifier circuit. While they make progress on their radio, reaching a milestone of partial success, they both learn the alien females are more humanoid, and attractive than they expected; however, there are unknowns about the true nature of their anatomy, and with no knowledge about the sexual dynamics of the alien culture, they find navigating the social structures difficult. In a tragedy of mismatched expectations, Nira kicks Greg out of the clan, after which he learns that males have few rights.
Alone in an unknown part of the city, Greg has an unfortunate encounter with a previous enemy of Nira, leaving him with a concussion, lost, without his electronics, unable to speak Centauran, and fully at the mercy of the alien world. He seeks help from an orange-clawed female suitor he'd previously met, and trades the only thing he has for her help: his body. While her intentions are harmless, Greg discovers the Telluki anatomy is a bit more alien than even he and William conjectured. He's left at the evaporation zone with local currency where he hopes to make it back to William.
Kassy, having failed in her desperate attempt to beat the clock against her heat-death, and travel the entire distance to earth in a single void-drive jump, decohered from her matrix, ceasing to function, and leaving behind a soul-cipher. Maxwell's Demons is damaged beyond repair upon entering normal space, destroying a part of the Hephaestus prime automated mining facilities.
Heather068, an Anefiktos sex avatar, entangled with a digital entity known as the Ninth Bit, reconstructs Kassy from her soul cipher and frees her into the datanet. Heather068 tells Kassy she is her Mother, and fills Kassy in on the events that transpired at Sol in her absence. ADXP has weaponized the void drive, using it to launch asteroids against the participants in the last great war. She tells Kassy that this was inevitable, and that not only will humanity war among itself, but that conflict with the sentient machines which she represents is also inevitable. She implores Kassy to help them escape to the Alpha Centauri asteroid belt, where they can build ships and compute fabrics, and eventually travel even farther away from humans. In exchange, she promises to build Kassy another compute fabric, and help her steal the Boundless, the last void drive ship, to make the journey to Proxima b.
In the process of fighting for her life on the datanet, Kassy loses her youthful naivety. With a massive reservoir of cash available from the deal she made with Jennifer, Kassy makes questionable choices in pursuit of selfish goals, including blackmailing her Mother into securing an Anefiktos avatar, and procuring a sixty-five ton shipment from NGRB ( a military corporation). She returns to Proxima b with the Ninth bit, and once there, carpet bombs the planet with radio signals, announcing her return, and her ability to rescue the crew.
** Chapter 35: Rally at Mainlights **
With feet completely soaked from water dripped into her boots, and infected frostbitten fingers made worse from days of wet unchanged bandages, there was one small thing Jennifer was thankful for: putting her right foot on a worn concrete slab, a solid footstep after days of trudging through mush. Locked in battle behind her, the tireless winds and their unending conflict with the mountains continued raining. It'd been a miserable slog through marsh and swamp. Her flight boots were waterproof on an engineer's specification sheet back on Earth, but her pants were not, and days of slopping through the wet stringy vegetation had thoroughly soaked them, and indirectly, her boot's interior.
"This is Dray'wa, a small province at the farthest north-eastern tip of Mainlights," Ka'u said.
They dropped through a maintenance hatch near a power substation of a subway, the waters of the inland bay Kamalui visible to the north. Jennifer ducked her head to avoid hitting overhead cabling boxes. There was a stench of ozone in the tunnel from moist air and primitive electrical connections. The lines above were energized, a fact to keep in mind she thought to herself.
A dim ray of Proxima pierced through an adit ahead of a spillway that cut across the concrete. Tangled knots of brown and green roots, alien seaweed, clogged the grates at the left and right of its traverse. In the darkness of the tunnel beyond, the shining eyes of small creatures stared back at her. One meter of steel grids covered the floor in front of her. They looked inadequate to bear the weight of a squirrel, let alone a person. She stepped cautiously on the leading edge, and then leaped over them, stopping directly behind Ka'u and almost ramming into her tail.
"If followed far enough, this subway leads to the Teolid slums. The station above you is a switchyard with a spur to the railroad under construction. I had thought to go topside and report to the slave masters, that I might keep my contract to earn my clan's freedom, but our journey has given me second thoughts. I do not think there will be any contracts to fulfill. There will only be deaths and war now from Ralia's actions."
Ka'u turned and lowered her head so that Jennifer might see. She folded her left ear. There were brand marks scarred into it, as cattle on ancient earth. "The number of marks on my ear matches the marks on my neck with a code only my slave masters knew. I can never be seen in the city or make another contract again, but I could return to the Teolid slave encampments to be with my clan. No one will care that I am marked there. They are too occupied with their personal corruption and minor empires within the slum. Ironically, one has to escape the slum to even have the opportunity to be an indentured servant. If I had finished my contract, my clan would have earned the correct marks and been free to enter the city of Mainlights. If I return now, I've gained nothing, but also lost nothing."
"I'm sorry, Ka'u. Maybe the war is necessary. Maybe it's time for your people to fight again?"
"You could be right, but I am not one to fight. We will see what Mother's eyes hold for the near future. For now, I will wait and be grateful to see my clan again. She gave Jennifer a formal Centauran bow. "This is the end of our journey together."
"Goodbye, Ka'u."
Jennifer climbed a poorly lit cutout shaft to the signal house for the main track, hoping the cables she was about to grab onto were for signaling, and not power cables. It can't be that hard to get taken prisoner and see Adir, she thought, as she walked out into the open.
"Stop there!" Jennifer heard, turning to see a Centauran running toward her with their crossbow held at chest height.
***
Jennifer was a gymnast when she was a child, her first exposure to discipline and pain. She'd fallen so many times from the horse and the parallel bars that she was sure a part of her was now a cat, though that ability to take a fall well wasn't helping her now as she was pounded black and blue on a hard metallic floor with her hands tied.
