Triton – 01 sf-3

by Randolph Lalonde

  Alice laughed and shook her head. “Well, either way, it's going to be interesting to finally meet him. He's made an impression in this part of the galaxy. Must be in the blood.”

  “He made a bigger splash than I did, that's for sure. I couldn't imagine a life of bounty hunting, repossessions and everything else he's on record for.”

  “I could see you doing the privateering.” Alice said with a smile. “You'd make a great pirate.”

  “Okay, maybe, but privateering is different that piracy.”

  “Right, someone gives you a bazillion digit number that says you can destroy and steal stuff that belongs to specific companies and governments instead of you just going off and doing it without permission.”

  “See? Completely different.”

  “I guess. We're coming out into the Enreega system,” Alice said as the timer counted down the last five seconds and she took the controls.

  They emerged into regular space and immediately adjusted course to avoid a large section of hull drifting nearby. “Check the tactical screen.”

  “On it.” Jonas said as he looked over a holographic representation of the area around the planet Seneschal. He jerked in his seat as the image of the octagonal appeared along with the dozens of ships it was launching. “Holy hell! Looks like Regent Galactic is here, and they've been busy. There's a command carrier here that beats pretty much everything I've seen for volume and mass.” He looked around a little more. “Something really bad happened here, there's wreckage everywhere with various signatures, even a bunch of Eden Fleet ships.”

  “I hope we missed the main event,” Alice muttered as she guided her course to a nearby moon and engaged the cloaking device. “We're down to about fourteen percent fuel, the constant attack the Clever Dream maintained while we were escaping really cost us.”

  “I'm sorry my estimates were a little off after taking a tour of that strange ship's brain,” Lewis interjected.

  “Don't worry, you still saved our butts, but we should start plotting a jump out of the system. I don't want to be around here, cloaked or not.”

  “Yes Alice, but I think you might want to focus your targeting reticle on the ship ahead, you might find it very interesting.”

  Alice looked through the targets ahead and selected the Sol Defence ship. “The Triton?” she said to herself.

  “That's Wheeler's ship.”

  “The Freegrounder who betrayed you?”

  “Yup.”

  “But it's not registered to him. My target information says it was just captured by Jacob Valance as a war prize, legitimized on an Aucharian letter of marque.” Alice said with a wide grin. “Oh my God, how did he take a carrier?”

  “Oh hell, how am I supposed to top that?” Jonas said with a chuckle as he focused the scanners on it.

  “You got the girl, remember?”

  “Right, here's hoping that's holding true. It looks like they're trying to hide behind that moon while they take people on from a smaller ship.”

  “Lewis, open a channel, make sure he only sees me,” Alice requested.

  “Our cloak will be ineffective while we're transmitting,” Lewis reminded her.

  Alice flipped three switches to deactivate the cloaking system. “No need to waste fuel.”

  “Opening channel.”

  “ Clever Dream to Triton. This is Alice Valent, requesting permission to land.”

  A moment later Jake Valance's face came up on her secondary display, smiling uncharacteristically. “I can't believe it, we were just about to go. Could you do us a favour first?”

  “Name it.”

  “Pick that transit ship off our hull? Don't worry about it's condition, just don't expect to clip it off easily, it's hard docked to us.”

  “I have fantastic aim, don't worry.”

  “All right, after it's clear, land in hangar two.”

  “See you there.”

  The channel closed and she armed her pulse cannons.

  “I still can't believe how much he looks like me. I mean, I know he's a version of me built around a materializer frame, but it's like looking into another dimension, seeing the dark version of yourself.”

  “You think you're confused? Imagine the look on his face when he sees you.” She locked on to the smaller ship and angled her guns parallel to the hull of the Triton then opened fire with a burst. Half the vessel flew into pieces, the thin hull came apart like paper. She fired one more burst, closer to the Triton's hull and cleared all but the docking port away. She sucked air in between her teeth as her last pair of shots deflected off of the Triton's armour. “That's gonna scorch.” She cringed. “Good thing it's superficial.”

  She flipped the Clever Dream end over end and started a long turn that brought them in line with the open hangar on the underside of the much larger ship. “Reunion tiiiime,” she announced with a smile.

  “Can we enter hyperspace?” Captain Valance asked the helm.

  “Our profile is clean enough sir, as soon as the Clever Dream is aboard and the hangar doors are closed we'll be good to go,” replied Larry from navigation.

  The bridge was dead silent as everyone watched the main holographic projector display the Clever Dream landing in hangar two. As the sleek, black ship decelerated and touched down, the hangar doors slowly closed behind it.

  They sealed. “Get us out of here,” Captain Valance ordered.

  Ashley increased throttle to maximum as Larry started the hyperspace particle emitters and the Triton was moving faster than light in a matter of seconds. There was a collective sigh of relief on the bridge as the realization that they had made it out of the area sunk in.

  The View From The Top

  The Communications Lounge aboard the Kraken was pleasantly busy that afternoon. There were many well dressed men and women going about their business remotely, contacting their posts through micro wormhole assisted transmissions and hyper bursts as they pored over prospect data on the Enreega System. It was a boom time.

  The white and red booths and round tables filling the thickly carpeted space were the offices of the Regent Galactic Development and Product Deployment employees. They were the elite, the ones that generated the big projects, chased down the prospects that kept billions of peons in countless subsidiaries and contracted partners busy.

  Few had the opportunity to mix in if they weren't among their number, to walk up to the bar and have a complimentary unrationed drink, or to stand and look through the transparent wall at the top of the Kraken and watch all those rescue and utility ships go about their business. It was a monarch's vista with a rich water planet in the distance and the wreckage of thousands of vessels scattered across the busiest area in the system. The pickings were ripe for those who knew how to best take advantage. Cities were just waiting to be rebuilt, there was a well trained displaced work force looking for new jobs, and those rescue ships would soon be filled with people wondering where they'd be sleeping.

  The citizens had little to worry about. Rebuilding the Enreega system and the cities on the planet Seneschal would take years, possibly decades, but everyone would have plenty of opportunities and living space while the work was under way. They'd work under contract, have plenty of jobs to bid on and when it was all done they'd have great cities to live in and Regent Galactic would take care of all their needs for a price balanced against maximum market tolerance.

  These things were of little concern to two gentlemen sitting beside one of the massive two storey tall windows facing the moon named Vallestra. A quick flash of light marked the departure of what their attentions were drawn to. “What do you think the problem was?” The short one asked. He wasn't just stout, he had the appearance of a boy not yet in his teen years.

  “Who knows? We performed perfectly. The code was sent but Wheeler never acknowledged it. Were there any reports from our agents aboard?” Meunez, the taller of the pair, asked before taking a sip of his drink. The ice rattled in the bottom of the glass as he brought it up to
his chapped lips. He wore a blue Freeground style vacsuit and a flight jacket that made him look even thinner and more sickly than he was.

  “None, and there was no evidence of jamming on the bands we'd expect them to use. It is a waste to have to send the termination code though, that's what bothers me most,” Lister Hampon said, he looked truly remorseful.

  “Perhaps he was injured?”

  “Maybe, it's just as well. His chances of success weren't very high. It's that ship, we weren't allowed to give him the crew he needed. It wasn't in the budget. Too bad too, research and development had a field day with it before we gave it to him.”

  “Do you think he realized that the compound we built into him is an explosive?”

  The younger of the two shrugged, causing the shoulder pads built into his suit to touch his ears. “How could he? It's part of his body chemistry, built right in at the bottom of his major femurs. All we did was signal his nervous system to start the intermix process, in an hour or two he'll be seventy five kilos of high explosives. We told him it was lethal though, so he had every incentive to reply to our signals.”

  “Will it explode right away?”

  “It's random, any time after it goes active. Could be an hour, could be a couple minutes.”

  “Ah, those research and development boys love their games. What are the symptoms?” Meunez asked, clearing scraggly hair out of his face.

  “He'll have a fever, it'll get worse until he's sweating profusely, then his blood will stop coagulating. His orifices will start to leak as it thins out and his heart starts to pump faster to finish the intermix, then he'll die. The healthier he is the faster it works, that's one certainty.”

  “Nasty. Remind me to file my T-74's on time next week,” he chuckled.

  “Oh, they don't use this stuff on us. They'd just disavow our involvement and put an unbelievable bounty on our heads. We'd be fugitives everywhere.”

  “I could imagine.”

  The younger of the pair stood and ran his hand through his sandy blonde hair. “Well, Jake Valance is still out there, we have to send something out to try and get control of him so I released the last of our subjects captured from Starfree Port and activated the last copy of Wheeler. He's been working as a miner for a year or so, out of the way.”

  “Should we tell the new one about what happened to his predecessor?” Asked Gabriel as his eyes flicked and focused to something else for a moment before focusing on Hampon again.

  “Why not? I'm sure going after his ship will be a good incentive. Wheeler's profile also suggests he's a big believer in revenge. Too bad he's the last one.”

  “Speaking of duplicates, how is the new body working out?”

  “Great. I just wish my old one held out a few more years. Taking advantage of the more attractive Saved ones is nigh on impossible with this appearance. Still, I can't complain. I have almost half my memories and another lifetime ahead.”

  Meunez's face twitched and his eyes squeezed shut for a moment.

  “What is it that you're doing that has you so distracted?”

  His face relaxed and he sighed. “Interfacing with the Holocaust Virus. We are teaching each other wonderful things.”

  Lister's eyes went wide. “That's not wise, you're far too close to your micro-core for that to be even remotely safe. The Virus could actually access your human brains' input output systems.”

  “Yes, that's the point. To create a new virus that no machine can predict. The changes it affects in me are equally impressive. I've finally felt the emotions of a machine first hand.”

  “You gave the Holocaust Virus emotions? It's not supposed to be a true AI!” Hampon whispered urgently.

  Gabriel nodded slowly, grinning. “No one's seen anything like this and the more time I interface with it the more it becomes its own being. Version two will be ready when the galaxy learns how to defeat version one.”

  “What about the list of Saved and West Watchers?”

  “They will be safe. Your recruitment drive won't have been wasted. If a cult of the rich and useless is what you want, then that's what you'll have.”

  Hampon couldn't help but smile, conceding the point. “It's true, most of them are only good for their possessions and positions. A few are shaping up well though, the West Watch are growing in number and power. We even have a flourishing militia formed out of military deserters. Most of them even believe that if they are killed they will go to the East in the afterlife, to Eden itself. Are you on schedule to meet with Collins?”

  “Yes, I hope I get to see the Holocaust in action for the first time.”

  “I hope it puts the virus he developed to control the Eden Fleet to shame.”

  “It will, oh it will,” Meunez said with a twitch and a sigh. “Even Alice would be impressed with this new life.”

  The hologram of Meunez faded away and Lister Hampon left the lounge to board his private cruiser. It would take him to the first site of the Holocaust Virus mass infection, where he and many of his followers would witness the event that would validate his Cash Messiah Cult.

  Duality Plus One

  Angelo and Paula stood in hangar deck two looking at the Clever Dream. The ship's engines were cooling, sending wisps of steam out from the rear of the vessel, a light contrast to its glossy dark hull.

  The sleek black lines and low profile were a sight to see, it was in perfect condition. Several soldiers flanked the Deck Chief and his assistant. “That's one nice ship.” Angelo said before letting out a whistle. “They only built fifteen hundred of that model.”

  “Sticks out like a sore thumb. Probably have ship thieves coming at them every time they set down,” Paula commented.

  Their team and the qualified recruits from the starliner who had signed on to his crew with the approval of Stephanie, Cynthia or Captain Valance had finished clearing debris and other serious obstructions from hangar two. They were working on setting the Samson up on gravity lifts so they could move it to long term storage. The sounds of Angelo's team leaders shouting directions was a constant in the background.

  “Whose coming to meet them?” Paula asked.

  “Captain and his First I think.”

  The main gangway lowered and extended from the middle of the Clever Dream, it was a long, two meter wide ramp. A young woman with curly brown hair wearing a beaten up black leather flight jacket over a light green vacsuit came into sight first. She was joined by a man who looked almost exactly like Captain Valance in a black vacsuit and long coat that looked a little lighter than the one he had seen hanging off the back of the Captain's ready room chair.

  Paula cocked her head for a moment. “Huh,” was all she said before walking off to help with the Samson.

  “Captain?” Angelo asked tentatively at the fellow coming down the ramp. His attitude seemed so much lighter, he was even smiling brightly. “I wasn't aware you'd gone off ship.”

  “I'm his twin brother, Jonas,” he said, extending his hand and eyeing the soldiers.

  Angelo shook it and then shook the young woman's hand. “Good to meet you, Chief Vercelli at your service. What's the condition of the Clever Dream?”

  “Good, low on fuel, so if you have any Xetima on board I'd appreciate a drop. I'm Alice, by the way.”

  “Nice to meet you. I'll see what I can do about your fuel situation, but I can't guarantee anything other than charging your capacitors up for you. We're still getting the Decks in line.”

  “Thank you. Are we meeting the Captain here?”

  “Aye,” Angelo looked over his shoulder and saw the main express lift arriving. The heavy double doors parted with a grating, squealing sound that made half the deck hands cringe. Captain Valance and First Officer Vega stepped out. “Here they are now.”

  “Negative five on the rear struts! Come on!” Paula barked at the crew working on lifting the Samson. Everyone in hangar two could hear her piercing voice, normally barely loud enough to hear. As she shouted directions there was no way you co
uld miss it unless the main lift doors were opening. Which sound was more shrill was a growing debate.

  “That's my queue to get involved. Pardon me.” Angelo said as he walked towards the Samson.

  “It's like these knuckle draggers have never done this before!” Paula shouted at Angelo as he started crossing the hangar.

  “That's because most of them haven't. Give them twice the instructions and four times the time and it'll get done,” Angelo shouted back. “Whip 'em, hound 'em and they'll just do without thinking.”

  If Captain Valance was at all confused or surprised by the sight of Jonas and Alice he didn't show it as he and Stephanie closed the long distance between them. Stephanie's resolve was held with military discipline as well, only her gaze was focused on Jonas distinctly.

  Even when she tried to look somewhere else, she just couldn't help but examine the man. He was physically smaller, not as well muscled, seemed fairer somehow, lighter, and his demeanour was completely different. It was like looking at a version of Jake that had experienced a much less stressful life.

  Alice couldn't contain herself. Despite the confusion of having the real Jonas Valent at her side and a copy in front of her, the copy was the one she had saved. The one she had promised to come back for and the one she dreamt of finding for years. It really was like she was looking at her father figure, especially considering there were so many similarities between his methods and her own. As he walked through the middle of the soldiers she couldn't help but close the distance at a run.

  He caught her, and even though verification his greatest fear was standing not twenty meters away, it still felt so good to hold his daughter in his arms. “I looked for you. In every sector we passed through, every time we made port my ship's computer scanned for you,” he whispered to her.

  “I'm so sorry I had to leave you but it was the safest thing for you. We were sure they'd catch us and saving you would have been for nothing.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed. Understanding the relief, the joy she was feeling didn't matter. Somehow this reunion was more satisfying than the surprise she had when she found Jonas days earlier.