- Ava -

“That has to be a really bad sign.”

Ava read the short report on her pad once more. It was just a list of observations from the star systems around Earth, prepared by the small and new intelligence branch of Space Expansion. But it was terrifying reading.

Dr. Gertrude Goanesi, the President of Space Expansion, looked at her from the two-dee image. “It doesn't look good. Suddenly alien species are filling up our neighboring star systems. Surrounding Earth, essentially. Alpha Centauri, a hundred and twenty alien starships. Barnard's Star, eighty. Wolf 359, two hundred. And so on. It looks like someone is about to hit us hard.”

“The Kunuru.”

“Their allies, certainly. Or those they're forcing into their service.”

Ava had a sinking feeling in her stomach. “When did this start?”

“Oh, before you went to see the Kunuru in the comet. But after that, the build-up accelerated.”

“Do we know what's going on?”

“We can only guess. They're preparing to attack Earth, and they always intended to. Your meeting with Nur probably didn't mean much one way or the other. Except perhaps to solidify their decision to attack. But that's speculation, not criticism of your efforts. You did your best.”

The sympathy in Goanesi's voice just made it worse. Ava would have preferred a harder tone. The tone she deserved to hear after this screw-up.

“Has anyone communicated with us? I mean, with demands or calls to surrender?”

“Not yet. We have tried to communicate with all the alien ships, but they're not responding.”

“If they all attack at once – can we defend Earth?”

Goanesi shrugged. “We'll try. We believe that Earth military spacecraft are superior to most of the alien ships. But we only have about fifty good warships. Most of them are stationed on the Friendship, far from Earth. It might be hard for them to reach us in time.”

“So we're screwed?”

“We don't know that, of course. It depends on the alien intentions and tactics. We're preparing for it as much as we can. We're mostly worried about that thing you saw on Krok with the Ysal that were killed and petrified with some terrible nanoweapon. We'd prefer the same not to happen to Earth. Straight land battles we're pretty sure we'll win easily against just about any alien species. Our weapons are infinitely more sophisticated than those of the Acerex, and they have held their own most of the time. Space battles, we don't know.”

Ava sat down on a chair, thinking. “The Kunuru are counting on us winning. They're sending their inferior species to Earth so that we will destroy them all for them.”

“Maybe. But we can't rely on that. If the Kunuru think we can defeat a massed attack by fifty alien species, they may be overestimating Earth's abilities to fight.”

“And if we lose, they've gotten rid of us, at least. It's a win-win for them.”

“That has crossed my mind.”

Ava had to concentrate not to slump in her chair. “Our only chance to avoid this was talking to the Kunuru. Shit. I'm sorry I fucked up that mission. I should have dismissed Xark'ion after the Solp encounters.”

“If you're to blame, then so am I,” Goanesi said. “I forced you to take on an Acerex bodyguard. If you had simply gone on these missions alone, the way you wanted, you would have succeeded.”

Ava thought back to the Solp missions. “I'm not so sure. Xark'ion got me out of a tight spot a couple of times.”

Goanesi looked past the image. The president wasn't alone in her office. “What I'm trying to express is that you should not feel responsible for this. This is a Space Expansion issue, not an Ava issue. You made an honest attempt. And you secured vital information. This could have been the Kunuru plan all along. We may never know.”

“This is why the Acerex have been getting off so lightly recently. The Kunuru have pulled back their forces to send them to attack the Earth instead. We're the new hammer to their anvil.”

“So it seems. Or maybe they just want us gone. Well, I just wanted to update you. I better sign off. We just told the governments of the world about this, and they're all demanding more details. I suggest you stay on the Friendship for as long as you can. Except for warships, nobody can enter or leave Earth until this crisis is over. Bye.”

The image of Goanesi went dark before Ava could return the goodbye, and she realized that she would probably never hear from the president of Space Expansion again.

“Fuck.”

Goanesi had been too tactful to mention that if Ava had agreed to her first suggestion, and brought a full team from Earth on her missions, this would have had a different outcome. Probably.

If he had really wanted to trick me, wouldn't he have said that I was his Mahan?

Maybe. Who could tell with aliens. Xark'ion had been much more alien than she'd thought.

She unconsciously cupped her stomach, although she was nowhere near showing.

'Not an Ava issue'. But it was. This was totally an Ava issue. She had failed. As usual. She'd failed when Harper got abducted in the first place. Then she'd failed when she brought the other girls to the Fire Planet. Then she'd failed when she'd not accepted Goanesi's offer for a full diplomatic team to support her. Then she had failed by not dismissing Xark'ion after the Solp missions, when he had showed every sign of not being a good match for diplomacy. Then she had failed by thinking he loved her. Then she had failed by bringing him to the most important diplomatic meeting in history, with his damn sword dangling by his side.

She had failed all along the line.

And now, her twins might not have a homeworld when they were born.

Because of her.

At some point, all that failure had to stop. One way or the other.

Who could stop it? The Kunuru leader. The Hierarch of First Rank, Sur. If Ava could explain things to him, it might change the way this disaster was going. Nur had seemed pretty eager for peace.

All they needed was time. Time to persuade the Kunuru not to kill everyone else. Time to show them a better way. Earth was good at that. There were only eighteen Kunuru. It might not be too hard to convince them that living in a universe with many species could be good.

There was only one clue about where to find the Kunuru leader. He would probably not be there. But it was all she had, and in this situation, every stone had to be turned.

It would be dangerous. But just standing by and looking at the destruction of her own kind would be much worse. She had to do something. Time was running out.

She stroked her stomach. “Mommy has some work to do. You two up for an adventure?”

- - -

The hangar was much more crowded than usual, and much more noisy. There was urgency everywhere, so thick in the air that it made the hairs stand up on the back of Ava's neck. The military section was more active than she'd ever seen it, servicing and updating all the gunships to battle-ready condition, armed with more powerful weapons that were normally not used when they were supporting the Acerex in their battles. Now they needed to be as deadly as possible.

Looks like you'll get your space battle after all, Charlotte.

She could just spot her friend on the other side of the giant hangar, calmly discussing some technical issue with her crew.

Ava would have loved to go over there. Hey, you want to take me to a secret destination in your pristine gunship for some mysterious reason that I'm not going to tell you?

Charlotte would have done it, Ava knew that. But this trip was such a wild goose chase that she couldn't take anyone along.

“Got a shuttle for me, Major? Non-armed?”

The deck officer looked up. “Ambassador. Not too many shuttles available today. You gonna fly it yourself?”

“Yeah. So it better be easy to deal with. And it should have a decent range.”

“What is your destination?”

The question she was hoping not to get. “Acerex first, then a different solar system. Very hush-hush.”

She knew the officer normally should ask her for a flight plan. But her diplomatic status gave her special treatment. She had often been on special missions with no set flight plan.

The major looked down at his pad. “I've got one. Old Acerex design, but upgraded with everything you'd want. Can you have it back here in ten hours?”

No chance. “Absolutely.”

“Let's see ... that one. Need a walkthrough?”

Ava flashed the major a smile. “No need. I've flown that type before.”

The officer saluted. “Then happy trails, Ambassador.”

Ava got inside the shuttle and fired it up. A converted Acerex shuttle was not ideal. She didn't want to remind the Kunuru of the friendship between the warriors and Earth. But it would be easier to fly than Earth designs, since Acerex were not the best pilots and their shuttles had many failsafes and automatic systems built in.

The engines came to full working power and she lifted off, keeping the shuttle almost steady, and then she powered up and slowly guided it out of the hangar and into space.

The planet Acerex filled the cockpit window to her right, but she wasn't going there.

She prepared for the hyperspace jump and aligned the shuttle with the right vector.

She would probably never set foot on Acerex again, regardless of how this desperate trip turned out.

She activated the hyperdrive.

- - -

The comet that had been Nur's disguised spaceship had followed its orbit and was exactly where the shuttle's computer expected it. It was the only clue anyone had to where the other Kunuru might be, and Ava set a course for it, hoping the icy bridge was still there.

On a hunch she checked the inner part of the star system for other comets of the same size. If that was how the Kunuru liked to get around, then there might be a chance there were more here.

But there weren't, at least not close to the star.

“Because that would have been too easy,” Ava mumbled and let the autopilot calculate and then follow an intercept course to the comet.

This time, everything about her was entirely peaceful. The shuttle was unarmed, there was no trace of any military equipment on the outside of its hull, and she had cleaned out everything inside that had any military markings or things that could be seen as war-like.

She didn't think she would have to invite anyone onboard, but it was also for her own sake. The mindset had to be right for this. This was her way, the peaceful way, the rational way that had always worked and that nobody had tried before. Approach the aliens with one hand stretched out, not clutching a gun.

Last time, she had come with war and violence in the shape of a warrior who'd never had anything else in his life. This time, she would be the outstretched hand.

It was probably too late. But the Kunuru seemed intelligent enough. They had to know that sometimes misunderstandings happened, that sometimes things didn't go as planned. Sure, killing their representative had to be counted as a pretty major misunderstanding, but here she was now, willing to explain and put herself at their mercy.

This time, Charlotte wasn't standing by just a few minutes away with a squadron of brand new gunships in case things went wrong. Ava had to trust her instincts and her own experience. The Kunuru weren't unreasonable.

It was probably in vain anyway. The chance that there were any Kunuru in this star system right now was ridiculously tiny.

“But mommy has to try,” she said, as if her unborn twins could hear and understand. “It could be either this risk or no home at all for you two. And for the rest of mankind.”

And that would be her fault.

She approached the comet. The ice bridge was still there, so she would be able to dock.

If she decided to do that. She shuddered at the memory of the ice cold corridors of gleaming metal and Nur's ammonia bath.

She tried the radio. “Kunuru comet, this is Ava Harris from Earth. I wish to apologize for what happened last time and to renew my offer for friendship between our two peoples. I have not brought anyone else with me. I trust that you will treat me honorably.”

There was no reply, but she hadn't expected one.

She had hoped for one, though. And there was a little pang of disappointment.

“Okay, fine,” she mumbled and maneuvered the shuttle over to the icy bridge, letting the autopilot perform the final adjustment.

The airtight attachment that the ice had formed to the shuttle last time didn't quite fit this craft, but it compensated with a rubberized connection of its own, and soon the display showed that there was equal pressure inside the shuttle and in the ice tunnel.

Ava got up and looked out of the hatch, over at the Kunuru ship. It all looked just the way it had when she and Xark'ion was here last.

“Here goes nothing,” she said and hit the hatch release.