by Terry Mixon
Jared grinned. Finally, some good news.
“Is everyone okay?”
The man’s face didn’t seem to indicate that everything was okay. “There are complications, sir. He didn’t pass on all of the details, but they seem to have misplaced your wife.”
Jared blinked in consternation. “What? How could that possibly happen? What’s going on?”
“All Colonel Talbot said was that it was complicated. He’s left Mister Owlet to find your wife, and he’s on his way here to try and explain what they found. He says he doesn’t really trust that he can do it justice without being face-to-face. He’s aboard one of the destroyers that were guarding Caduceus and will be here as quickly as he can.”
Jared closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. He had to trust that his wife was actually safe. Whatever they’d found down there had belonged to a dead alien society. The odds of something untoward happening to her were minimal. Whatever had trapped his friends must have done something similar to his wife.
They’d gotten themselves out, and they’d get her out as well.
“We’ll want to be back to the far flip point with Persephone so that we can pick him up. I don’t want to chance doing something that will cause any of the AI forces here to detect us. Get us moving.”
Jared was worried about his wife but not as concerned as he was about Kelsey. It was just one more thing that he didn’t need to have on his plate right now. Whatever the story was, he was sure it was interesting, but it wasn’t going to change the fight to save humanity. It was just a distraction.
20
Carl hated leaving Elise, but he’d had to make sure all of his people made it out of the facility. Besides, he needed different kinds of equipment than he’d had on him to track her down. There had to be some method to detect the runes that she’d seen, and he needed to figure out what it was.
He worked as quickly as he could to gather the equipment that he needed from above and was back down at the large opening in the side of the cliff in ninety minutes. The door had closed, but he still had the scanner records from the pinnace that had picked them up.
Two marines accompanied him out onto the ramp as the pinnace hovered, both of them attached by lines to the small craft. He also wore a line, but it was connected to one of the marines.
Even if he found the rune, part of him was afraid that the door wouldn’t open, but he was able to find some subtle indications of where the rune had to be. A touch at that spot opened the large door, confirming his readings and setting his mind at ease.
It was astonishing how the aliens were able to create and dissipate matter so rapidly. He doubted very much that it was simply vanishing or appearing. It seemed to be manipulated at a miraculous pace by what he suspected were extremely capable machines that were even smaller than nanites.
Nanotech was the height of the Old Empire’s technology, but theoretically, there were better things. For example, picotech—machines far smaller than the ones currently in use. Those had only been theoretical at the height of science that the Empire had achieved.
But these aliens were so much more advanced than humanity that he wasn’t going to dismiss the notion out of hand. It was even possible that they’d gone farther and created femtotech.
Nanotechnology manipulated matter at the atomic and molecular level. Picotechnology manipulated the structure and chemical properties of single atoms. Femtotechnology influenced energy states inside atomic nuclei.
The feats that could be accomplished with those kinds of smaller devices were mind-boggling and would certainly explain some of the fantastic things they’d seen thus far.
Almost anything was possible with nanotechnology. Miraculous things like keeping a living being alive for centuries longer than they should’ve survived. Deconstructing walls and putting them back again at a moment’s notice? That had to be something significantly more powerful simply due to the time scale involved.
He wondered briefly if their ability to travel so far across the universe had something to do with that. None of them had considered this, and he wasn’t about to raise the specter with anyone else at this point, but the most likely explanation was that they’d been disassembled just like these doors, the data sent to the destination, and then they’d been reassembled so precisely that they couldn’t tell the difference.
Honestly, that was like that prespaceflight television show that Kelsey had made him watch: Star Trek. This was like their transporter.
One of the characters on that program had detested that form of travel because he was certain that he wasn’t really the same person at the other end.
Carl wondered the same thing. Had the original version of himself been killed and a copy created? Did his everlasting soul still exist in this new body?
Science still had no answers when it came to the existence of souls or the afterlife. Whether such existed was something that one either had to have faith in or accept that he’d never know until the moment of his death.
Personally, Carl knew that science had proven that nothing was ever lost. Energy changed states, and so did matter. Would his consciousness survive the death of his body? He didn’t know, but he liked to think it would.
With the large door open, Carl made his way in. The biting wind ceased as soon as he was through whatever protective field shielded the tunnel. The two marines disconnected themselves from the pinnace and followed him, their weapons up.
“You’re not going to need those,” he assured them. “There’s nothing here that’s going to attack you. The danger isn’t one that can be taken care of with flechettes, and I’d rather you didn’t shred something important by accident.”
The two didn’t seem convinced, but they lowered their weapons slightly. He supposed that that would have to do.
When he reached the area in which he’d thought Elise had disappeared, he scanned the wall and found her DNA at the same location as a hidden rune. He touched it, and a door opened.
He wasn’t surprised when she wasn’t on the other side. If it’d been that easy, she’d already have been back in the tunnel.
“I think we’re ready for you, Corporal,” Carl said with a gesture.
She nodded and released a double handful of small drones that headed down the tunnel. They wouldn’t be able to send information back because of the shielding, at least not directly. The plan was to daisy chain them.
One of the drones would stop where it could still detect them while the rest continued down the corridor. As soon as it looked like they were losing signal from the one behind, one of the drones would stop and backtrack to reestablish contact.
If they didn’t have enough drones in this set, the marines had brought a lot more that could be sent down. If there was danger below, they were going to know about it before they ventured in.
A map of the tunnel began emerging. It turned into a spiral that went downward and was wide enough in its circumference that it passed underneath the tunnel they were currently standing in. Why the aliens had done it that way Carl didn’t know, but it seemed like lifts were not their thing.
It did take a second set of drones to continue the process, but the communications link actually worked. Deep below where they were standing, the spiral ended with one of the closed alien doors.
Unsure if it would work, Carl had the remaining drones bump into areas where the rune was probably located. One of them must’ve found it, because the door abruptly opened.
The area beyond the tunnel held a small oval chamber. The walls were lined with what looked like machinery, and in the center of the room was a relatively short platform that held something terrifying.
Elise stood inside what looked like a bluish force screen. She had her hands on her hips and was turning in a slow circle as she stared at what certainly seemed to be a prison.
“It looks like we’re going to have to go down there and get her out,” Carl said grimly. “Let’s send an update back to the pinnace. If we’re not bac
k in half an hour, they need to send another group to figure out what’s happened to us.”
Reopening the large door took only a minute, and they acknowledged his orders. That done, Carl reopened the small tunnel and followed one of the marines into it. It was time to find out what Elise had gotten herself into.
Kelsey used her implants to tie into the passive scanners on the pinnace as they got closer to the defenders around the old science station. Some of the vessels were actively scanning, but there were gaps that they could use to get in if their luck held.
The machines hadn’t expected anyone to be in the system. They knew the Clans had arrived inside their defensive perimeter through a method that they—presumably—were not aware of, but if the Clans could’ve gotten straight into Twilight River, they’d have done so.
The AI’s thinking would change if the machine survived. For the moment, the implications hadn’t sunk in.
Also, it didn’t know about the New Terran Empire. Its forces had encountered Kelsey and her friends before but not in a way that gave it any clarity. The events on Terra were undoubtedly still very confusing, but it couldn’t interpret the events there as leading to the attack here.
The outright theft of the Dresden orbital probably concerned it but was readily explainable using the resistance or the Clans as the villains. That cloak of ignorance was wearing a bit thin, and it wouldn’t be long before both the Clans and the Rebel Empire knew there was a new player on the field. The Rebel Empire, in particular, was already trying to get to Pentagar.
The flip point jammer that they’d placed there was keeping them out, but it was a big red flag that there was a player that no one knew about. The AI wouldn’t be letting that question go unanswered.
The only thing that she could do to keep her friends and family safe was to make sure this mission was a success. She’d already racked up some serious ass chewing for pulling this stunt, so she’d better make it count.
The two pinnaces passed far too close to one of the battle stations, but it hadn’t been scanning as much as some of the others. They’d waited until after it had scanned the general area around itself to begin their insertion and had hoped that there would be enough time to get past before it looked again.
If it did scan while they were this close, it would see them. There was only so much that the pinnaces’ stealth materials could do. Timing, as they said, was everything. This was a throw of the dice, and she prayed that they didn’t come up snake eyes.
To her relief, they made it past without being scanned. Now that they were on the far side of the final defensive line, the only thing that stood in front of them was the science station holding the master AI.
“We’ve got the deck plans for how the station was originally laid out,” Angela said, “but it’s probably been modified over the last five centuries. My guess is that security is going to be a lot tighter inside than it was before.
“I doubt there are any humans aboard that station, even controlled ones. If any of the security systems see us, the master AI is going to know what’s going on and call down every bit of hell that it can to stop us. What’s your plan, Kelsey?”
“I think the plan you came up with when we started this mission is still the best option. We find a maintenance airlock with a decent path to get to the labs. I think the corridors are a terrible idea, but as we well know, there are other ways to get around a ship or station.
“The first thing we need to do is locate an airlock. Once we’ve gotten inside, we can start assessing what changes the AI has made. My best guess is that we’re going to see some of those autonomous weapons platforms built on Harrison’s World. If we’re lucky, they won’t be able to fire on us, but I certainly wouldn’t count on that.”
There was a moment of silence as the senior staff absorbed what she’d said, and then Jake Peters shook his head. “There’s too much reliance on luck in your plan. Counting on luck is going to kill you when luck runs out. I suggest that we split into two groups. We’ll send the other pinnace around to latch onto the other side of the station and try to make their own way to the labs.
“I understand that only this group has the override, but if we get taken out, the other group still might be able to destroy the AI. Taking it out in a way that frees up humanity is absolutely the priority, but if we can’t do that, we’re going to have to settle for at least eliminating it. Once that’s done, the New Terran Empire can start fighting the sector AIs one at a time.”
Kelsey went over the information that she had in her implants about the station and selected two airlocks that would’ve been out of human traffic areas and highlighted them.
“I suggest that we start with these two. We can send a tight-beam message to the other pinnace. Now that we’re inside the defensive perimeter, we should be able to clamp on without trouble. The station hasn’t scanned once since we’ve been observing it, so the odds are good that it’s not going to do so now. If it does, we’re screwed, but at this point, we’re committed.
“Angela, have everyone go over their gear one last time. We’ll be docking in fifteen minutes. Once we get into the station, we’ll continue on to the objective no matter what obstacles we face. We’ve got enough explosives to destroy the AI, but I really want to get it shut down in a way that lets us bring this war to an end.”
“What about the Clans?” Angela asked. “Even if we beat the AIs, having them stand down just hands the Rebel Empire over to them. We’ve already seen that they’ve got a lot more ships and manpower than we’d guessed.”
“We can only deal with one problem at a time. At least the Clans are human. They might be right bastards, but they probably won’t try to exterminate everyone. They’re a problem for the future.
“Also, I’m pretty sure that the Singularity is going to stick a shiv into their backs as soon as they can. They’ve wanted to rule humanity since before the Old Empire fell, and they’ve gone to great lengths over the last half millennium to do it.
“That might actually be a plus. If the Clans are fighting the Singularity, they won’t be fighting us. Either one of those groups is powerful enough to crush the New Terran Empire in short order. No matter what the future holds, it’s going to be complicated.
“So let’s focus on something simple and go kick that machine’s ass.”
21
Talbot got to Persephone’s bridge about the same time as the ship flipped back to Twilight River. The destroyer had pushed her engines hard and made record time.
The admiral was in the center seat and turned to face him as he entered the bridge. “It’s good to see you, Talbot. I was getting worried. What’s this I hear about my wife still being stuck in there? What happened?”
He stopped next to the admiral’s chair and grimaced. “I thought we were all going to get out, but she got separated from us at the last minute. If I had to guess, she went off to look at something and got stuck. Carl went back in with a couple of marines to get her.
“Nothing I saw down there leads me to believe that she’s in imminent danger, though there’s some risk. The machines still work, so it’s possible that she’s gotten into something dangerous.”
Talbot took a deep breath and shook his head. “I don’t know if you’ve had time to look at the report I sent, but the technology down there is amazing. I’m pretty damn sure it transferred several of us to a planet closer to the galactic core than humans have ever been. We’re talking about tens of thousands of light-years in an instant. It was like magic.
“We found an ancient city where the one building I looked at still had an operating machine inside of it that kept it clean. Hell, it managed to synthesize food and water after millions of years. The water was still perfect, and even the food was edible.”
Admiral Mertz rubbed his eyes. “It sounds amazing, but it’s a distraction that I think we could do without right now. I’ve got some bad news for you too. Kelsey made a deal with Julia and switched places with her to go on this mission. Aga
inst my orders, I might add.”
Talbot shook his head. “You really should’ve watched more of those old Terran vids. That was a trope in movies with twins.”
“Probably. Still, it’s done.”
He found himself frowning. “While I shudder to think about what my wife can get into while I’m not looking, why would you stop her from going? She’s the best-qualified person we have to lead it. When I went down into the obelisk, she was already going to be the one leading it. What changed?”
His brother-in-law stood and gestured toward the hatch. “Let’s take this to the wardroom. I have something that I need to tell you.”
As soon as the wardroom hatch had closed behind them, he asked the question that was on his mind. “Why exactly was my wife not supposed to go on this mission?”
“I really wish she was here to tell you herself,” Jared said, “but you deserve to hear the truth. She’s pregnant.”
He found himself blinking in shock, the words not making a lot of sense. “Pregnant? She has a contraceptive implant. How is that even possible?”
Jared nodded. “The EMP knocked out her contraceptive implant, and she must’ve gotten pregnant very shortly after that since she’s about five months pregnant. The baby is healthy, and that precluded her from taking part in combat.
“She’s breaking every kind of regulation meant to protect the child and herself, and when I get my hands on her, I’m going to wring her neck.”
Talbot found himself reaching for one of the chairs and sitting down. “I’m sure I should be pissed, too, but I still can’t get past the part where I’m going to be a father. Do you know what sex it is?”
“It’s a little girl.”
He was going to be a father. Even as he thought that, it still felt impossible to accept. He and Kelsey hadn’t spoken about having children, though he’d known that was something that she’d have to do as the heir to the Imperial Throne. Lines of succession were important to dynasties.
