Space Stations

Michael A. Stackpole is the author of eight New York Times best-selling Star Wars novels. He's the author of thirty-two novels, including Fortress Draconis, the second novel in the DragonCrown War Cycle of fantasy novels. “Serpent” is the fifth story set in his Purgatory Station universe.

FATHER Claire Yamashita heard the tones warning of the ship's alarm, but only distantly. It signaled the ship's imminent reversion from hyperspace. Ignoring it for a moment, she whispered a Hail Mary and fingered another bead on her rosary. She was only partway through her daily devotion, firmly in the eighth decade of rosary and contemplating the Sorrowful Mystery of Jesus' being crowned with thorns. It had become one of her least favorite of the mysteries she meditated about while saying the rosary. Even so, she forced herself to continue and complete that decade before she stopped praying.

Under normal circumstances nothing would have prevented her from finishing the entire devotion, but this time the reversion tones heralded the Qian ship Ghoqomak's arrival at her new home. I'm so far distant from Terra that the sunlight which shined on our Lord's face is not seen here yet. This she had known on an intellectual level ever since she requested the assignment, but—until her actual arrival—the emotional impact of the distance from Terra had not struck her.

She frowned. It disappointed her to be so weak that a petty personal concern could interrupt her prayers. Claire kissed the crucifix on her rosary, then rose from the floor of her cabin, allowing herself a smile. She came up from her cross-legged position without using her hands, which was not easy. The pod containing her cabin ran at slightly higher than Terran gravity for the benefit of the Haxadis ambassador, consort, and entourage.

She picked a piece of white lint from the shoulder of her black jacket, then pulled the garment on. With the flick of her right hand she tugged her hair free of the jacket collar and made a mental note to get her hair cut back again. She deposited her rosary into the jacket pocket, then slipped from her cabin. The door hissed shut behind her, clicking reassuringly, freeing her to make her way outward to the pod lounge.

Qian starships were known to many humans as wasps because of their look. The cockpit formed the head and the hyperspace drive was built into the thorax. The abdomen, which could get quite long on the powerful ships, was made up of pods fixed around a central core. Gravity could be adjusted in each pod, and each pod itself could be configured for anything from hauling cargo to a medical facility, machine shop, or passenger compartment.

The pod to which Claire had been assigned had slightly more luxurious appointments than most passenger pods, but that was only because of the Haxadis contingent. Claire had expected to occupy a small cabin like the ones she'd been in throughout her journey, but when the Haxadissi had learned she was a Catholic priest, they insisted she take one of the empty cabins in their pod.

Claire knew that “insisted” was far too strong a word. A Qian officer had extended the offer to Claire on behalf of the Haxadissi, but from the way the Haxadissi treated her when they ran across each other, she suspected the aliens had been pressured into making room for her. The Qian clearly wanted her in that pod for mysterious reasons, and the Haxadissi had complied for reasons known only to them.

An offer of passage from some other aliens would have made perfect sense, since the Catholic Church had forged significant alliances with a number of xenotheological sects.

All of them shared a basic agreement on gradual revelation and the direct intervention of God in history, always in the person of a savior sent to redeem the preeminent species on that world. Most included a baptism of sorts, many with water, so that common ground was easy to find.

The Haxadis did have a religion, Lyshara, that involved gradual revelation and even the intervention of a god in the affairs of mortals, but there the similarities ended. Instead of dealing with Good and Evil, the Haxadis had a trio of figures that covered Good, Evil, and Justice. Justice most often came as a trickster or arbiter, serving to chasten the other two divine aspects. It often insulated mortals from divine wrath, but just as easily turned and punished mortals for their iniquity.