“And as a side note in case anyone is concerned about the appearance of nepotism by this assignment, be aware that I don’t give a shit. At the end of the battle, there were three units which stood alone between the Merkkessa and the Revenge. One was Jim Carter’s Merlin - which was out of missiles, by the way. The second was our CAG Winnie here and her flight. And the last was a shot-up squadron of three destroyers, with Dragon in the lead. Only one of those three destroyers survived - Dragon.
“The other two destroyer Captains will receive the Medal of Honor - posthumously. Luke gets the Merkkessa. If anyone wants to complain about that, feel free to get in a destroyer and stand out in front of us while the entire fleet shoots at you for twenty minutes. Survivors will be given a hearing.”
There was a respectful silence in the briefing room before Bonnie continued.
“And speaking of Commander Winston…Winnie, you are hereby promoted to Flag Aide with the rank of captain. If you’ll take the job, of course. It’s not always as easy as Captain Dallitta made it out to be.”
“Of course, milady,” responded Winnie. “Thank you.”
“And that means we need a new CAG. Lieutenant Commander Mitchell, welcome to your new job, and of course a promotion to Commander goes with it.”
“Thank you, milady. But…”
“But?”
“Well, uh, what about Jim…I mean, Commander Carter?”
“Commander Carter has resigned his commission. He will be focusing all his efforts on taking care of his wife.”
A gasp of surprise went around the table. Mitchell bobbed his head in understanding.
“Aye, milady.”
Bonnie stood. “That is all. Thank you, everyone.”
The group stood respectfully as Bonnie turned and went through the hatch to her Flag Cabin. Then they turned and departed, shaking their heads at the news.
Dekanna System
Dariama Naval HQ
Jim Carter - Commander, EDF (Retired), left the shuttle at Dariama Naval Headquarters and moved quickly down the corridor to the Medical facility where he had last seen Rita. Entering, he went directly to her room. She was lying passively in the bed, still in a coma. Various drips and devices ran into her body through tubes of all sizes. Jim sat beside her and held her hand.
“Hi babe. I don’t know if you can hear me or not. But we won. We paid a heavy price, but we held them. We held them, and Zukra is dead. We’ll have peace now. You did it, babe. It was you. Everything came together because of you.”
There was no response. Jim sat, holding Rita’s hand. He sat for a long time. The hand was warm, so he knew she was still alive. He held on to that thought, and held her hand, and remembered.
He remembered the first time they had made love. When they were on the run, hiding out, trying to survive while they repaired Jade. When they both thought Bonnie was dead. When the pain of losing Bonnie had ripped them apart, tore their souls, left them in a pit of loneliness and despair like they had never felt before.
By the end of the day, both Jim and Rita were exhausted. They had hauled another 98 buckets of nano glop to the top of the ship and poured each of them over the side, where the glop self-assembled into something that was starting to look like a starship hull, with dozens of circuits, sensors, lights, and other devices integrated into it. Jade even had them simply drop the purchased high-definition cameras, IR sensors and the three off-the-shelf TV dish antennae into the glop, which formed around them, moved them to required locations and integrated them into the rest of the ship.
At the end of the day, Jim was still in amazement at the technology. He shook his head as he came out of the shower. Throwing on a t-shirt and shorts, he went to the galley for dinner. He found Rita already there, using the microwave to prepare something which smelled delicious. She had let her hair down after her shower; it was long enough to look like a bob now and glistened in the lights. She was wearing shorts and a t-shirt too; Jim couldn’t help but feel a twinge of desire. She was a beautiful woman, now - fully fleshed out, no longer thin as when she came out of the medpod - and a knockout by any sense of the word.
I guess I’m only Human, he thought. But she’s not Bonnie.
“What are you making?” he asked.
Rita pointed to the empty box on the counter. “Salisbury Steak and Potatoes,” she said.
“Sound good,” said Jim, and rummaged through the reefer until he found a similar item. He opened it, popped it into the microwave, and stood waiting for it to finish.
“Three more days,” said Rita. “Today’s Wednesday. We finish the glop tomorrow afternoon. Then the ruthenium arrives on Friday. Andy will need one additional day to integrate the ruthenium, so he’ll be ready to test on Saturday. Oh-dark-thirty Sunday morning, we launch out of here.”
Jim pulled his dinner out of the microwave and sat down.
“It’s been a long, hard slog,” he said. “I can’t say it’s been easy. But at least we’re almost done.”
He and Rita ate their dinner mostly in silence. The absence of Bonnie was still like a rock standing between them. But Jim had been thinking about it throughout the day, as he worked. Finally, he felt it was time to say something.
“Rita,” he began.
She looked up at him.
“I’m sorry I got so upset with you about…about losing Bonnie. I realize you had no choice.”
Rita just stared at him. Finally, she bent back to her dinner. They ate in silence for a while. Eventually, Rita got up and retrieved a soft drink out of the fridge and brought one for Jim. She placed it in front of him.
Jim looked up at her.
Slowly she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
“I’m so sorry about Bonnie, Jim,” she said. Then she returned to her seat.
They finished their dinner quietly, both tired from the long hard day. Cleaning up, they headed down the corridor toward their cabins.
“Good night, Rita,” said Jim.
“Good night, big guy,” said Rita, entering her cabin and closing the door.
Jim went into his cabin and closed the door, went to the bed, and fell into it exhausted. He went to sleep almost instantly.
Soon Jim was dreaming about Bonnie. He dreamed that she had returned to life and was standing beside his bed. She leaned over and kissed him, then slowly got into bed with him. She held him close and kissed him again.
Suddenly Jim awoke. He realized it wasn’t a dream. Rita was in bed with him, holding him, kissing him.
Jim froze for a moment. So many thoughts raced through his head. He glanced at the clock. It was past midnight. He turned back to Rita.
“I need you,” she whispered.
She was beautiful, and naked, and in his bed.
Jim woke with a start, the dream fading. Dr. Bosama entered the room. Bosama smiled at Jim, then adopted a more serious expression.
“Any news?” asked Jim.
“None of it good, Jim,” replied Bosama. “She’s still in a coma. She’s still sliding downhill. We’re going to try one more thing this evening.”
“What’s that?”
“Another exchange transfusion. We replace all the blood in her body with new blood from donors. This will be the second one. Jim, I’d be lying to you if I said I thought it would work. I don’t. But it’s our last ditch, last chance approach.”
Jim nodded. “OK. I get it. But do the best you can, please.”
Bosama gestured to him. “Come with me, I’ll show you to a cabin where you can rest.”
She led Jim to a room, where she opened the door and turned on the lights.
“I’ll leave you for a while. There’s plenty of food in the fridge and more in the cupboards. There’s entertainment on the holo. If you need anything, just ask the room for it and I’ll get the message. And I’ll keep you informed about Rita - a
s soon as we know anything, you’ll know.”
Jim nodded. Bosama left out the door and closed it behind her. Moving to the fridge, Jim opened the door and gazed inside.
There was plenty of food in the fridge. He would not go hungry here, he realized. Evidently the Dariama ate much like Humans.
It was the beer that surprised him, though. There was a six-pack of beer in the fridge.
How in the hell did they do that?
Jim pulled out the six-pack and sat down at the dining room table.
I’d better sample this. Just to see if it’s been done right.
Dekanna System
Dariama Naval HQ
Jim finished a beer, cooked a meal, had dinner, and then went back to Rita’s room. They were preparing her for the exchange transfusion. Bosama was direct with him.
“She may not survive the night, Jim. You need to prepare yourself.”
He nodded. He went over to Rita’s bed, leaned over, and held her in his arms. He kissed her forehead. Then he backed off and let them take her away.
Returning to his room, he took the beer out of the fridge. He put a good dent in it, then fell asleep on the couch. About two A.M., he woke up and moved to the bedroom. He slept fitfully, as he usually did in a strange place.
Early next morning, the sun came peeking in the pseudo-window mounted on the wall, looking so realistic that for a moment, he forgot where he was. Jim cracked an eyelid at the light flooding the room and wished he had drawn the curtains. Finally, after trying to go back to sleep for a while, he gave up.
He rose, showered, and dressed. Moving to the kitchen, he prepared breakfast - bacon, eggs, and toast.
Everything seemed so completely normal. It was hard to believe he was 710 lights from Earth, in a system inhabited by an alien species which could, from a distance, pass for Humans.
There was a ding, which Jim realized was a doorbell. “Come!” he called. The door opened. Tika entered. She came over and sat down at the table with Jim. Her face was somber.
Jim braced himself. He could see the news was not good.
“I have bad news, Jim. The exchange transfusion did not work.”
“And?”
“Her internal organs are too far gone. She cannot survive as a biological being.”
Jim closed his eyes. He had hoped - hoped hard. He had prayed. He had gotten down on his knees and offered his own life in exchange for hers.
And none of it had worked.
She cannot survive as a biological being.
The way Tika had said it sounded a bit strange. Jim thought about it.
She cannot survive as a biological being.
“What are you saying?” Jim asked, as the strangeness of Tika’s statement finally sank into his brain.
“She cannot survive as a biological being. But she can survive as an AI like us - a Goblin. Her brain is intact; just poisoned by the rest of her body. We can scan her consciousness and convert her to our form.”
Jim shook his head, bewildered. “I don’t understand. What are you saying?”
In a gesture that was so Human, Tika reached out a hand and took Jim’s hand, squeezed it. “If we leave her as she is, she will die within a few more hours. If we scan her consciousness into an AI, she will live. It’s that simple, Jim.”
“No, no. It can’t be,” Jim muttered, his shock preventing him thinking clearly. “She can’t die. She can’t!”
Tika waited patiently while Jim went through an inventory of emotions. First bewilderment, then understanding. Then despair.
And finally a grudging acceptance. He heaved a long sigh.
“You’re sure? No mistakes?”
“No mistakes. The Dariama and Human doctors agree. She cannot survive more than a few more hours at most.”
Jim closed his eyes.
Can I make this decision for her? What would Rita want?
“She’s already been through so much,” Jim said out loud. “Created as a clone, with no actual childhood - just memories copied in from Bonnie and myself. Never fully knowing who she was. Adapting to one new life after another. Thrown into a war not of her own making. Battle after battle, feeling like she was a machine created purely for the purpose of killing…”
Jim looked up at Tika. “I don’t know if I can put her through another trauma like…like that. What kind of life would she have?”
Tika squeezed Jim’s hand once again. “Now I will tell you a secret, Jim. One I reveal to a Human only with great reluctance. But I was also once biological.
“Have you ever wondered how we know so much about Humans? The Goblins are not fools; they have visited your planet frequently in the past. They have taken Humans who were dying and transferred them to android bodies, to learn more about your planet.
“And I was one of those. I was born a Human in what you now call Central America, twelve hundred years ago. I was a small child, injured beyond recovery in a battle with another tribe. As I lay dying, my consciousness was scanned by a Goblin scientist studying Humans. I was transferred into an android body and taken back to Stalingrad, given to parents to raise up.
“So I am uniquely qualified to tell you that my life as a Goblin has been happy and fulfilling. Except for the time I was captured by the Ashkelon, of course. But otherwise, I’ve been totally happy.
“I believe that as a Goblin, Rita will have a happy and fulfilling life. She’ll have the opportunity to be with the man she loves. She’ll be able to raise her child. And she can go on with her life as she desires, whether that be in the military or doing something totally different.”
Jim closed his eyes. It was hard to think about it. He couldn’t imagine what Rita would say to this. Losing her body - yet retaining her mind in a different form.
Yet if he didn’t agree to it, he would lose her in both mind and body. It was on him. She would have to live with his decision for the rest of her life.
Finally he spoke quietly. “If you are absolutely sure she has no chance of survival, and if both the Dariama and Human doctors agree, then you have my permission.”
Tika squeezed Jim’s hand one last time. Then she rose and went to the door. Turning before she departed, she asked one more question.
“Do you want to say goodbye to her biological body one last time?”
Jim shook his head. “No. I held her and kissed her goodbye last night. I’ll wait here.”
Nodding, Tika left.
Dekanna System
Battlecruiser Merkkessa
Bonnie silently reached an arm around Luke’s waist and pulled him closer to her. It was an act she had never performed in view of crew before - and certainly never on the bridge.
Luke did not react. Some instinct told him to be still. Somehow, he knew this was a time to allow Bonnie total leeway.
She must be hurting terribly, thought Luke. After the slaughter we’ve just experienced - to leave both her best friends behind, not knowing if Rita will live or die. Knowing things will never be the same again.
Bonnie gave Luke one final squeeze around his waist, then let go. She turned and stepped back up on Merkkessa’s Flag Bridge and sank into her command chair.
“Captain, take us home,” she called.
Luke nodded.
“Merkkessa, initiate Fleet transit to Earth.”
In the holo, her surviving destroyer screen began a gentle acceleration toward the outer system, a vector that led directly to Earth. Like all other ships in the Fleet, the destroyers were pockmarked with hastily patched holes and the scars of near misses. And like every other ship in the Fleet, they were packed with wounded.
Shortly after, Merkkessa also began accelerating out of the system. Two surviving battlecruisers and three surviving cruisers flew in formation with her, a wedge of ships representing all that was still flyable of the proud EDF fleet from one week earlier. Both the Victory on her left quarter and the Asiana on her right - and the cruisers behind
them - were covered in temporary patches. They had just enough structural integrity to survive the trip home.
As they departed, Bonnie could see in the holo the mixed Dariama and Human task force left behind. The shipyards of Dekanna were filled with broken ships, while others waited in orbit to be towed in and rebuilt. In the battlefield in the outer system, tugs worked to collect debris, sorting it into usable materials to take to the shipyards or trash to be shot into the star.
And bodies. Burial details were still at work to find and collect bodies. They would be collecting bodies from the black for weeks, if not months.
Such a waste. Such a complete and total waste, Bonnie thought. If there is anything stupider than war, I don’t know what it is. And yet we had no choice. We were forced into it. Our backs were against the wall. It was fight or die.
Sherman had it right. War is hell. But more than that. It’s ignorance. It’s the brute stupidity of those who can’t leave others alone to live their lives. Who must force their selfish ego on the innocent, to stroke their own pathological perversions…
“On course for Earth, milady,” called Luke.
“Thank you, Captain,” Bonnie acknowledged. She rose from her command chair and walked toward her day cabin, her head down, thinking.
Luke watched his Admiral go. He could see the pain in her.
I’m not sure I ever want to be an Admiral, Luke thought.
Epilogue
Sol System
Surface of Venus
Command Officer Rauti stared at the cratered, broken surface of Venus stretching before him. His eyes were not like Human eyes - they used radar. That allowed him to see through the dense, corrosive atmosphere of the planet. Layer upon layer of specialized coatings protected him from the incredible temperature, pressure, and chemicals of the surface. His squat body had ten stubby legs, like a centipede. And like a centipede, he could move over the rough surface without hesitation.
Below him in the flat space where their capsule had landed, the rest of his Goblin party assembled their initial habitat. In a few more hours, they would have their surface station completed.
Then they would start assembling the first terraforming bot. That first bot would replicate itself. Then both of those bots would replicate themselves. Then again. And again. A month from now, there would be 262,144 terraforming bots working on the surface, while another 262,144 bots continued to replicate themselves. In six months, billions of the bots would be working to cleanse the atmosphere of its harmful chemicals and greenhouse gases. In a year, there would be trillions of them, covering the surface of the planet like algae.
The Short End: Broken Galaxy Book Four Page 29
