"The admiral had me sorting through records of lost ships from over the last century. I've been attempting to determine when Thetas started attacking us."
"Anything interesting?"
"Yes and no," Ana said. "From what I know of Thetas, they have always been with us. Attacks can be traced back for thousands of years, if we assume all attacks that match the pattern are indeed Theta attacks. This matches what I know from my people's history and from the archaeological evidence on Cedeforthy."
"They found one in stasis there, right?" said Muerta. "Thousands of years old?"
"At least fifteen thousand years old," Ana replied. "Dating to around when my people are thought to have first arrived there. I assume you've encountered them before?"
"Steinway," Muerta said. "I fought against one with the admiral."
"Cedeforthy, for me. With my husband. And then here on Dawn."
"I'd heard there'd been an incident, but no details. What happened?"
Ana used her datalink to bring up the images from the attack on the desk air screens. "Thetas attacked my house during the attack on the planet. Five of them – class five, maybe higher."
Muerta made a choking noise. "Five of them?"
Ana nodded. "Luckily, two of the Aurorans, Lyra and David, as well as Lt. Commander Harris, Ghost, and Hunter were at the house. They managed to kill all of the Thetas, but Lyra, Tonya, and Ghost were hurt pretty badly."
"It's amazing everyone lived."
"It was close with Lyra."
Muerta read the pages of notes in silence while Ana waited. "It says here that the Aurorans were prevented from apporting out of the house. You mention an interdiction field. What's that?"
"I don't know," Ana replied. "David called it that. All I know is that we couldn't escape."
"Technological?"
"I would assume."
"Would you mind if I sent Riksen there to look around?"
Ana laughed. "You're the boss."
"That isn't what I meant. It was your house. The military isn't allowed to operate on planetary soil."
"If you think Riksen can find something there that will help in the war, then you certainly have my permission. I think you might want to see about getting the thing about the military changed, though. Archangel teams can't be limited to operating off-planet. They're going to need full authority to pursue Thetas wherever they may be."
"You're right." Muerta frowned. "They should have put you in charge of all this. You know this better than anyone."
"Me?" Ana said. "I don't think so. I don't understand all of the military stuff. I'm just good at figuring things out."
"Well, I can see why Shadovsky kept you around. I'll contact the Admiralty about getting broader powers for our teams. In the meantime, I'll ask Commander Tebrey to take Riksen to your house. The local police should allow him access."
"Access to the house?"
"It's still a crime scene," said Muerta, "even if the criminals were aliens. The police have to investigate, make sure nothing else is going on. Do you understand?"
"I guess so," Ana replied. "Do the police even know about Theta entities?"
"Probably not. Only Shadovsky would have known that."
"Another of those things he never mentioned," Ana said. "I wish he were here so I could smack him."
"I wish he were here, too."
Θ
The journey north had taken longer than Drake wanted, but he hadn't wanted his new allies to know about Hephaestus. He left his horse at a small farm in Ohio, where an Amish family had somehow managed to survive the war, the plagues, and the crazies. Drake and his two companions had stayed for two weeks with the family, helping with the harvest before moving on.
The days were cold, and the nights colder. The cold had never bothered Drake much – very little did – but his companions struggled with it. They stopped outside the ruins of Cleveland and found cold-weather gear before pressing on. There was snow on the ground in Cleveland, but Lake Erie hadn't completely frozen over yet. Drake knew it wouldn't be long before it was. The temperature was well below zero, even at the height of the day.
"Where are we going?" Brennen demanded one cold morning.
"Eight days that way," Drake replied, pointing. He hadn't slept. After dark, Hephaestus had notified him that two of the Enemy had attempted to gain access to the Waypoint. Hephaestus had taken care of them, but it troubled Drake to know the Enemy were closing in on it. He still hadn't figured out what he was going to do when they got there.
"Thank you," Brennen replied. "That was very helpful."
Onyx glanced up at them both, but didn't say anything. He just continued to roll up his sleeping bag. Drake suspected Onyx wasn't bothered by the cold, either. He was just trying to help Brennen save face.
The Mo'Ceri were much closer to the original genetic stock of the First than Brennen's people, despite their exotic form. They hadn't spent thousands of years trying not to be like their ancestors. Brennen's people knew only that people from the Courts were bad. Their legends demonized Drake's people, which he found ironic, since they were related.
"When I arrived here, I discovered that the Enemy was looking for something on this world."
"How did you manage that?" Brennen asked. "You ask them?"
"Yes, actually. I can be very persuasive."
Brennen looked as he wanted to ask, but didn't really want to know. "And?"
"There were three pieces of Ancient technology on this world. Two stasis chambers, which I took care of, and... something else."
"You still don't trust us?" asked Onyx.
Drake sighed. "Do you know what a Waypoint is?"
They both nodded.
"There's one on this planet."
"So what?" Brennen said. "Where does it go?"
"That doesn't matter. The point can be reprogramed."
"What? That's impossible."
"Theoretically," Onyx said reluctantly, "it could be done, but no one alive understands how to do it."
"You sure about that?"
"The Enemy?" Onyx asked.
"Some of them are very old."
"But... they'd have to be... a hundred thousand years old," said Brennen.
"At least," Drake said. "Two of the ones I fought recently were."
"Damn," Brennen said. "So you think this is what's going on here? They did all this so they could get access to it?"
"No." Drake shook his head. "They did this to punish me. This was a world I visited frequently. I had friends here, and a daughter."
"A daughter? What happened to her?"
"She isn't here anymore." Let them think the wrong thing, he thought. "In any case, we need to stop the Enemy from using the Waypoint. We need to lock it down."
"You think you can do that?"
"I know I can."
"Why is that?"
"Because I've done it before."
Chapter Fifty
Tebrey, Hunter, and Riksen got out of the aircar after it landed next to the ruins of Tebrey's house. They hadn't said much on the trip from the capitol. Tebrey didn't know Riksen that well. They had met before, of course, but that was about it. He could tell that the man harbored the same anger that he felt about Shadovsky's death. He didn't know how Riksen would do in a firefight, but there were other ways of waging war. Riksen had proven that he had courage during the Battle of Dawn. That was good enough for Tebrey.
His house was essentially destroyed. This was the first Tebrey had seen of what the Thetas had done to it, and it angered him. He'd been proud of that house. It was the place where he and Ana had planned to raise a family. Now it was effectively gone. The roof had collapsed in places, and blackened structural members reached for the sky like twisted claws.
A holographic police cordon surrounded the property, and another aircar waited for them. A tall, willowy woman in a pantsuit got out of her car as they approached. Her hair was fair and her skin dark.
"You must be Commander Tebrey," she said,
holding out her hand. "Detective Evelyn Parker."
She was at least five centimeters taller than Tebrey; he guessed she was a Martian.
"Was it the cat who gave it away?" he asked.
"That and the uniforms." She glanced at Riksen and back. "What can I do for you gentlemen?"
"I know this is an active crime scene," Tebrey said, "but I'm guessing your people haven't been able to figure out much."
She smiled thinly. "The military violated protocol by removing the bodies before our crime scene unit could look at them."
"We didn't remove any bodies that weren't breathing."
"Really, Commander? We know that there were five perpetrators from the statements of your wife and the others here. There are no bodies. Since your people said they killed all of them, there should be bodies."
"You'd think so, wouldn't you Detective?" Tebrey said. "The problem is, the aliens encountered here dissolve when they die. That makes identification difficult."
"They dissolve?" she said incredulously. "You really expect me to believe that?"
"I can prove it, Detective," said Tebrey, "but you're going to have to let us into the house."
"I have to have a compelling reason to break that cordon," she said. "You haven't given me one."
"Detective Parker, how long have you been here on Dawn?"
"What makes you think I'm not a local?"
"You're from Mars, Detective – native born, I would say. You haven't been here long, have you?."
"No, actually. I got here just in time for the evacuation."
"Have you heard any rumors about Thetas?"
She glanced away. "Everyone has heard rumors."
"Thetas attacked my house and tried to kill wife and daughter."
"How can you be sure of that?"
Tebrey pointed to Hunter. "Because my brother was here when it happened."
I love it when you call me that, Hunter thought.
Tebrey ignored him. "I've spoken to everyone involved. A member of my team was here and was injured, as well as two representatives of an allied foreign government."
"Assuming for a moment that I believed you, so what?"
"Those aliens might have left technology here, Detective. We're at war with them. We need any advantage we can get. If we can understand their technology, we can attempt to understand how they do the things they do."
There was something in her eyes for a moment that led Tebrey to think Parker knew things she wasn't talking about.
She nodded slowly. "Try not to muck things up too much in there, okay? I'm new to the department, and it's my ass on the line if you screw up."
"If it makes you feel any better, the president is considering granting operational jurisdiction to the Archangel taskforce for all planetary incidents involving Theta entities. It looks likely that she'll agree."
"Well, until that happens, it's still my crime scene, so be good."
"You're welcome to come along, Detective."
They approached the house. The entire front had been blasted away. Tebrey could see where the fires had raged, and the blood splashed on the walls. The blood was probably Lyra's, but it could just as easily have been Ana's or Amanda's. The enemy had gotten too close this time.
"Ana said that the Aurorans couldn't apport out before the house was damaged, so the device used must be outside. You look for that, Riksen. I'll head inside. Hunter will stay with you."
"Yes, Commander." Riksen seemed subdued. Tebrey remembered he'd been in the medical bay of one of those ships at Steinway. "I'll flag anything I find on the map."
Riksen had used the sensors on the Vigilant to make a dimensional scan of the property. The schematic was available to Tebrey through his datalink. Anything flagged on the map by either of them would show up for the other.
Tebrey entered the ruins and pulled out his small entropic sensor. It immediately started registering higher than background levels, not unexpected given the state of the house. He could see where two of the Thetas had died. Their armor was badly degraded, but he could tell it was of a design he'd never seen before.
"What is that?" Parker asked.
"The scanner or the armor?"
"Both."
"The scanner reads entropic field levels. Thetas generate entropy and use it as a weapon, degrading systems. It manifests as a kind of dark fire that eats into whatever is hit."
"That doesn't sound possible."
Tebrey shrugged. "You'd have to ask someone else about the science. All I know is it hurts really bad to get hit with it."
She looked away. "What about the armor?"
"Some kind of powered armor, but we'd need to get it back to a lab before we could tell any more. It isn't a design I recognize. It certainly isn't human-made."
"So your Theta things were wearing it?"
"Yes. Hunter said it was incredibly resistant to damage and healed after being breached. We could learn a lot from that kind of technology."
Parker walked over to the wall and looked at the blood splatter. "We ran this blood, but it didn't come back with any matches."
"It wouldn't," Tebrey said. "It belongs to Lyra Rhys-Griffith, from Aurora. She's a foreign Ambassador."
"I've never heard of Aurora."
"You wouldn't have. It's classified."
"You know, I moved here to get away from shit like that."
Tebrey met her eyes. "You are from Mars, right?"
"That's right."
"Why'd you move here?"
"To get away from the crazy religious fanatics."
"Drennanists," Tebrey spat.
"You've had run-ins with them?"
"I was in the Federation military until last year," said Tebrey. "One of those bastards blew up a shuttle I was on. Almost killed me."
"You're a psion, aren't you? The cat! Sorry, just made the connection. Was the Drennanist from Mars?"
"No, New Kenton, but I heard about what happened on Mars when I was there last year."
"You were on Mars last year?"
"No, I was at Luna, but I never left the FSS Centaur. I was there the same week as the massacre."
Parker grimaced. "They never released the full story."
"I know. I was working for Internal Security at the time."
"So how did you go from Internal Security in the Federation to here?"
Tebrey pointed at the armor. "That's the real enemy, Detective. They've taken over parts of the Federation. I'm here to make sure they don't kill all of us. The Concord took me in after the Federation tried to kill me."
"What did they do?"
"Did you hear about Prism?"
"I heard that the Concord fired on the planet. I didn't believe it, though."
"They didn't. I was there. It was two Federation ships controlled by Thetas. They were trying to kill me.
"They killed millions of people to try to kill you?"
"Commander, we've got something," Riksen called.
Tebrey was grateful for the interruption.
"Shall we?" he asked. Parker nodded and gestured for him to lead the way.
They left the house and circled around to where Hunter and Riksen were waiting.
"What do you have?"
Riksen held up a small, silvery sphere. "I think this is it." There was scrollwork around the sphere, and it looked very familiar to him.
"I've seen something like this before," said Tebrey.
"You have?"
"On Cedeforthy. They found an object like this at the dig site. It killed two students and made a lot of other people sick."
"I had the Vigilant do another scan, and this is the only metallic object outside the house.
"It must be the field generator, then," Tebrey said. "Is it still active?"
"I have no idea, Commander."
"We need to get this back to the lab. There are also suits of armor in the house."
"Those are evidence," Parker interjected.
Tebrey sighed and activated his link to the Vig
ilant. "Alessa, is there any word from the Admiralty?"
"Not yet, Commander."
"We've got Theta tech down here. Have Sergeant Pt'kar come down. Have her bring a unit of marines."
"Commander, it's against Concord law to conduct military operations on the surface of one of our worlds."
"What are you doing?" asked Parker.
Tebrey ignored the detective.
"We need this tech, Alessa. If it's destroyed or falls into the wrong hands, it could be disastrous. What is the law concerning alien troops in the surface."
"The military is allowed to respond in those instances, under section seven-ninety-eight-point-six."
"We have dangerous alien technology down here."
"I understand, Commander. I'll relay your orders, but you must realize you are walking a fine line. You could be court-martialed for this."
"I'll take my chances."
Parker tapped his shoulder. "What are you doing?"
"Calling for reinforcements," said Tebrey. "A squad of marines will be here in a few minutes. I'm taking the alien technology from my house."
"You can't do that." She reached for her pistol.
Tebrey caught her arm and disarmed her before the pistol cleared its holster.
"I'm sorry, Detective, but some things are more important than the law. We need to study this technology." Hunter, keep an eye on her. Don't let her go to her car.
Sure. Hunter moved next to Parker and sat so that he could meet her eyes.
"Riksen, flag the other tech in the house."
Riksen returned a few minutes later with a plasma rifle and Tebrey's sword.
"I thought you might want this," he said, handing over the sword. "I think this rifle belongs to Commander Harris."
"You're probably right."
"Commander, is this legal?" Riksen asked, gesturing at the detective.
"Not really."
Riksen nodded. "Just checking."
Chapter Fifty-One
"Commander, do you enjoy making my life difficult?" Admiral Macklin asked over the com.
Tebrey was back aboard the Vigilant after delivering Riksen to the capitol. Detective Parker had been furious with him for removing evidence, but he hadn't given her any choice in the matter. He'd left her pistol in her aircar.
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