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When 24-year-old Tally Craven was assigned to pilot the Motherland, she had been disappointed. Yes, it was a prestigious position. But that ship had gone over half a century without seeing action. Tally didn’t love the idea of going to war - but she did want to make a difference. The Spree wars raged on, but they were all little skirmishes, nothing that required the Motherland, the most powerful ship in the Salem empire.
It was a prestigious position, being placed on the Motherland. If something went horribly wrong, The General was on the ship. But Alder had been in cryosleep for the past forty-seven years, waiting for the next great emergency. Tally hadn’t thought she’d live to see that day.
Then, while Tally was at the helm of the ship, plotting the next month’s course, the alarm began to chime. It was a sound she had heard only in training. The wail of the alarm, a sound that began low and then climbed high told Tally everything she needed to know. This was a level one emergency. The sleeper would need to wake.
Tally scrolled through the announcement that came with the alarm quickly. The old enemy had returned. The Camarilla aliens had returned, destroying four Salem empire ships in the Helix Nebula.
Pilot Raelle Collar strode purposefully into the deck of the ship, a thin piece of e-paper in her hand.
“I’m supposed to relieve you,” said Raelle. Tally turned away from the screen in front of her to see Raelle’s concerned face. “I’ve got a new assignment for you, because of this Camarilla mess.” Raelle passed the e-paper to Tally. “You’re to assist the General,” said Raelle with a smirk. Tally and Raelle had been in basic training together, and Raelle remembered the look on Tally’s face when she had watched all those ancient training videos with General Alder in them. She had been more than a little starstruck. “Don’t pass out or ask her for her autograph, okay Tally?” Raelle teased.
Tally’s eyes flicked over the paper. It was true. She was to head to the cryo tanks, to witness the awakening of General Sarah Alder.
“The Camarilla have returned, Raelle. You could try to be serious,” said Tally, attempting to ignore Raelle’s remarks about Alder.
“It’s just a few ships. Looks like they made their warp-drive calculations wrong 400 years ago, and went through hyperspace wrong, landing now. It’s hardly a threat. Scylla’s getting our weapon systems online. You know how good my girl is - we’ll shoot ‘em down easy.” said Raelle with a smile. Raelle patted Tally on the back, as she vacated the pilot seat.
“No crazy manuevers, Raelle. I don’t want any new holes in this ship!” said Tally. Raelle rolled her eyes and got in the pilot’s seat.
—
Tally had been to the cryo deck before - though only occasionally. Tally, Raelle, and Abigail, who had all gone through basic training together, sometimes came to the cryodeck to talk quietly. There was never anyone there - the systems were automated. Anyway, the cryodeck only held one woman.
This time, when Tally used her key-card to open the deck, it was full of people. The council of seven older soldiers who ran the ship were there, along with one middle-aged woman handling the General’s reanimation. All of them were standing in front of the General’s cryo-tank, with solemn expressions on their faces. There was an empty hospital bed next to the cryo-tank.
“I’m supposed to be the general’s assistant,” said Tally quietly. Several members of the council nodded in unison. They had always creeped Tally out a little.
“She’s waking,” said one of the older women.” She touched her hand to the e-paper with Tally’s new orders on them, and the paper updated. “Once she’s recovered from Cryosleep - I need you to brief her with the information on this page.”
In the tank, the general’s body twitched gently. Tally tried not to look too closely - as the general was completely naked, as was customary in cryosleep. The blue fluid in the tank began to drain, and the general twitched again, more strongly this time. The moment the fluid had drained from the area containing her face, Sarah Alder’s eyes opened. For a moment, she was looking right at Tally with those incredibly blue eyes. Alder should be the one who was cold from the tank, but it was Tally Craven who shivered. Tally wrenched her eyes from the General and began to read the information on the paper.
The situation was far more serious than it seemed. Raelle had told Tally that the Camarilla ships had been lost in hyperspace for hundreds of years - but that was just a cover story to keep people calm. The Camarilla had been in hiding, growing stronger and building ships while living underground on an old base of theirs that the Salem empire had thought to be abandoned. This would not be a short easy battle at all. This might be the end of the Empire.
The fluid finished draining, and the pod slid open. The technician dealing with the pod (Izadora maybe? Tally had never been good with names) began disconnecting a series of tubes connected to the General. It was gross to look at, but Tally was fascinated. The General’s mouth was open, but she hadn’t made a sound. Cryosleep could be difficult to wake up from, especially when it had been so long. Sarah Alder made a series of unintelligible noises and then began to speak quietly.
“I assume we are in crisis once more,” she said. “How long has it been since my last battle?”
“It has been 47 years since your last awakening, General Alder,” said Izadora. The general nodded, closing her eyes.
—
Alder spent several hours regaining control over her own body. She hardly spoke. Izadora moved Alder from the tank to the bed and dressed her in a General’s uniform. She also administered several injections that seemed to bolster Alder’s energy. Tally didn’t say a word to the General. Initially, Sarah Alder didn’t seem ready to absorb information - she asked several times how many years it had been. People waking from cryosleep often had a bit of temporary amnesia. Tally sat on a chair by Alder’s bed, reading and re-reading the information she was to brief Alder on. Alder opened her eyes and turned to Tally.
“You’re my assistant, correct?” Alder asked. Tally had been concentrating hard on the information on the e-paper, trying to memorize the various statistics she had been presented with. When Alder spoke, she almost jumped out of her seat.
“Yes, General,” Tally replied. Alder gave Tally a half-smile.
“I haven’t spoken to anyone in half a century. I’d consider it a favor if you’d call me Sarah - at least in private. That might help me feel human again,” said Alder.
“Yes, General - I mean Sarah,” said Tally. Alder chuckled weakly. “How did you know I was your assistant?”
“The paper you keep re-reading. I assume that’s my briefing,” replied Alder. Tally nodded. “Give me the short version.”
“Hundreds of Camarilla ships are in the Helix nebula,” said Tally. Alder shook her head gently.
“Every mistake I’ve ever made comes back to me,” said Alder. “I thought I wiped them out.” Tally spent the next hour going over the rest of the information, explaining every single statistic. It was during that time that she realized exactly why she was needed. The general’s blue eyes had been injured in the process of so many cryo-sleeps. She couldn’t read anything - could only sort of view the world around her. Tally was not just to be the General’s assistant, but also her eyes.
—
There was something infinitely sad about the General. What must it be like, to exist only as a weapon of the empire, Tally wondered. Before she had known her, she had thought about Sarah Alder as a great hero. She hadn’t thought about the sacrifice the woman made. The General was taken out of cryosleep during every crisis of the empire - and put back into it after each crisis was dealt with. That was hardly a life.
Sarah Alder had a fondness for whiskey, Tally learned. Every night, in her chambers, the General would have exactly one shot, and then go to sleep. Tally left her every night and returned each morning. One night, Sarah Alder offered Tally Craven a drink.
“You seem troubled, Craven,” said the General, sitting at her desk. She pushed a glass towards Tally. Tally grabbed the glass and took a small sip, making a face.
“It’s nothing,” said Tally. The General frowned.
“It’s definitively something,” Said Sarah Alder. Tally exhaled, slowly.
“I just don’t think it’s very fair, what you have to do. The way they put you in and out of cryosleep. You don’t really get to live, do you,” said Tally. Then she brought a hand to her mouth. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“You, Tally Craven, are not wrong,” replied Sarah. “But you’re missing the full picture. I was the greatest General the world has ever known. And for the sake of bringing peace to the galaxy - I asked them to freeze me in time. To take me out when they needed me. So no, I don’t get much of a life. But I do get to see what I built grow. And every once in a while, they unfreeze me and I get to meet the next generation of brilliant soldiers, like you. And it’s exhausting and I won’t last forever - but I think I made something that will. That’s enough for me, Craven.” Tally looked at the General, into those blue eyes that saw very little but also saw everything.
“Is it enough? Is it right for us to sacrifice you for all the rest of us?” asked Tally. Sarah sighed.
“It is what it is. No more and no less,” replied Sarah Alder. Tally couldn’t resist asking one last question.
“Do you wish there was more, though?” she said, quietly. Then, she gulped down the rest of her Whiskey.
“I think I always will,” replied Alder. She stood up from her seat, and walked over to Tally, putting her hand on the younger woman’s shoulder. Tally felt the warmth of the whiskey in her stomach, and not for the first time, she thought of doing something very much against protocol. She thought of kissing General Sarah Alder.
Tally stood up, a little unsteady.
“Goodnight, General,” she said. Alder withdrew her hand, and Tally left the General’s chambers.