“Thank you, Admiral.” Shang’hai rose from her seat on Bei’s left. A holographic projector lowered from its cubby hole in the ceiling and a telescopic lens zoomed out, projecting an image of Nell’s stasis chamber.
Bei stepped to the left and stood on the opposite side of Penig, allowing the picture to cover the double doors.
Shang’hai flipped open the nail of her index finger and a red dot appeared on the image of the stasis unit. “During our search for the traitors, we discovered the citizen. Her life pod had apparently been scooped up with the debris of the Perseus. Nell Stafford is a one hundred percent organic human from Earth.”
A curly haired man in the back row leaned slightly forward. “I don’t recognize the writing.”
“It’s encoded.” With her pink hair standing on end, Shang’hai smiled. “Mathematical equations on the right side and text on the left. The math helped us translate the message.”
A woman in the front row stretched her legs into a patch of empty space and fingered her lieutenant’s insignia. “If Earth sent it, why was the message a secret?”
Before Shang’hai answered, Commander Brazil slammed his fist into his palm. The red button on his collar flashed in the dim light of the ready room. “What does it matter what citizens do? Admiral, are you really remaining in charge of the Fleet?”
Bei pushed away from the wall. Although wearing the red meant Commander Brazil had been charged with playing Devil’s Advocate in every executive meeting, the role could become quite tedious especially when someone relished the role as much as Brazil. “Yes, I am in charge.”
“And our mission?” Commander Brazil gestured, his lean brown hand nearly smacking the captain next to him upside the head. “How are we to get to Terra Dos with the wormhole collapsed?”
Bei had to get them to see Nell as a person not as a citizen before he moved onto the purpose of this meeting. The quickest way to do so was by using her name frequently. Taking a calming breath, he addressed his men. “Nell Stafford’s stasis chamber was scheduled to exit the wormhole sixty thousand kilometers back.”
Beside Bei, XO Penig rocked forward in his seat. “We missed the event horizon?”
“No.” Bei took his time and held the gaze of the most senior officers for a moment before continuing. “There is no exit event horizon.”
Commander Brazil scratched his head. His white scalp winked in the furrows of his black hair. “Then how was the citizen to exit?”
Bei looked at Shang’hai. She practically jumped up and down to answer. He nodded, giving her permission to once again take control of the debriefing.
She offered everyone a toothy smile and clasped her pale hands together. “The right side of Nell Stafford’s stasis chamber contains information on how to create an artificial event horizon.”
Bei’s own astonishment and relief joined the other emotions bubbling through the WA. Nell had tried to tell him before she passed out, but how could she know? A fissure of unease trickled down Bei’s plated spine. And who had sent her to save the Syn-En? A buried memory stirred. Save the World, why did it ring a bell now?
A young woman lieutenant braiding three of her fiber optic cables asked, “When will we exit the wormhole?”
Shang’hai’s face fell for a moment. “Soon, we hope. The math is extremely advanced and the code isn’t making it any easier, but we should have it cracked within the day and find out if it’s feasible given our energy reserves.”
“Why don’t you just ask the citizen?” Commander Brazil crossed his arms over his broad chest and set his pointed jaw. “They always know everything.”
Nods rippled around the room.
Bei glared at the Commander until the man looked down and started memorizing his fingerprints.
Before Bei said a word, Chief Rome spoke from the back of the room. “Nell Stafford is not in any condition to be interrogated.”
“Citizens were not made for space travel,” someone piped up from the group on the left.
“Blue,” another whispered as snickers blossomed in remembrance of Nell’s vomiting.
Shang’hai shook her finger at the gigglers. “Nell Stafford risked everything to get here. To save us.”
“Just looking after their investment.” Commander Brazil’s black eyes flashed.
“Not exactly.” Shang’hai glanced from the crowd to Bei, a question in her brown eyes.
Bei’s unease grew. What had the writing on the left side of the stasis unit said? Frustration clawed at his control. With the WA open for everyone in the fleet to hear this meeting, he couldn’t very well ask his engineer what she meant nor could he shut down the WA without questions being raised.
Chief Rome strode through the crowd and faced down Commander Brazil. “Nell Stafford is genuinely concerned for us. She died so Faso would stop blowing up Syn-En life pods and that gave the admiral the opening he needed to prevent her from targeting fleet ships. Given Nell’s natural state, the Doc didn’t even know if her death would be permanent. She believes everything she said and that includes her drive for justice.”
The crowd quickly shut up. Even the WA quieted.
Bei felt the swell of admiration for Nell, the Syn-En admired sacrifice for a duty and having a civilian willing to die for them was both humbling and unusual. He hoped it survived the next piece of information. Using his connection to the CIC, Bei focused on the bent piece of metal bisecting Nell’s stasis unit and zeroed in on the planet emblem. “There’s more. Earth knew the wormhole had collapsed when they sent us on this mission.”
Anger boiled through the room to the accompaniment of smacking body armor. Calls for justice simmered in the WA. Bei acknowledged them, knowing they mirrored what he’d felt when he’d discovered the probe’s wreckage in his cargo bay.
Shang’hai’s brow wrinkled as she tilted her head and considered him.
Elbows on his knees, XO Penig rested his chin in his palm. “How do you know this?”
Bei pointed to the metal band across Nell’s stasis unit, then projected the Jane’s entry about the probe on the door panel next to the image. “I found pieces of the probe that had supposedly made it to Terra Dos in the debris in cargo bay eight. Obviously it didn’t self destruct in the planet’s atmosphere as we were told. Indeed, it seems to have smashed into the end of the wormhole. No doubt a fate the citizens hoped we’d share. The Syn-En were sent to die, not to colonize a new world.”
Confusion reigned in the WA. Bei felt their frustration and incorporated it into his own. Six months had passed since the start of the Terra Dos mission and not every Syn-En had been aboard. What had happened to those Syn-En who’d stayed on Earth? “I don’t know the fate of those we left behind, but I suspect that any attempt to warn or rescue them would be in vain.”
“So we just give up?” Commander Brazil sneered.
“Never.” This time Bei scanned the room, meeting everyone’s gaze briefly and allowing them to feel the depth of his determination before continuing. “We will find out how to punch out of this wormhole. While we’re doing that, we’ll build a few more Starflights using our evac suits. After the new ships are completed, we’ll return to Earth and discover the fate of those who remained behind.”
“Too bad we can’t return and eliminate all citizens and the UEN Council.” Commander Brazil echoed the sentiment in the WA.
Bei nodded, but with the fleet in its current shape, Earth would cut it to pieces. The Starflights would provide a means to evade their sensors, look for their people and then hit all of Earth’s major defenses before returning here. “We have a choice to make. As representatives of your crew, you must speak for them. Because Earth has broken the covenant between citizen and Syn-En, I propose we declare our emancipation, become not Syn-En but citizens of a new world. This world. Terra Dos.”
Bei brought up the picture of the green and white planet found on Nell’s flight recorder.
Doubt and hope warred for control of the crowd’s faces. As usual, Commander
Brazil translated for the WA. “Since Earth condemned us to death, why should we trust the citizen?”
Shang’hai stepped forward and brought up a picture of Nell dressed in her Syn-En uniform. “Because Nell Stafford isn’t a citizen, as we know it, nor is she a representative of the United Earth Nations.”
“Not a citizen?” Chief Rome pinned Shang’hai with a puzzled glance. “Sensors register that she’s completely organic.”
“And she is,” Shang’hai agreed, “but Nell slept for over a hundred years in a stasis chamber waiting for us to find her. The information she came with will save us.”
Commander Brazil scrutinized Nell’s picture. “How is that possible?”
Shang’hai switched projected images to the wormhole. “We know that a wormhole bends time and space. It is possible that our futures selves used the time factor to send a message into the past, trying to reach us in the present and provide us with the information needed to save the majority of us. Obviously, they went a little too far back in time.”
Bei’s mind reeled from the implications. “We sent her?”
“The advanced design of her stasis chamber matches the ones designed by our Science personnel during this trip. Many of the mathematical formulas inscribed on the unit were only discovered since we began our journey and studied the wormhole in depth, plus the material of her stasis chamber isn’t from Earth, Mars or any of the asteroid mines.” Having made her point, Shang’hai brought up the image of the unit. “The text says, ‘We send her to you in your hour of need. She is the key to preventing extinction, the hope of our race. Treat her well and she shall Save our World.’“
“But why would our future selves choose a citizen, especially one so fragile?” Commander Brazil rubbed the furrows in his forehead. “Why not warn us before we left Earth?”
Shang’hai shrugged. “None of the equations leads me to believe we can predict when we’ll exit the wormhole. Our future selves may have tried to warn us, but ended up going back too far and decided this chance was better than none.”
Bei brought up a mission statement from the first Syn-En Vade Mecum. “Nell Stafford joined the Save Our World Foundation voluntarily. As many of you know, Save Our World was the original slogan for the Syn-En.”
Bold black letters confirmed Bei’s words.
“Why would anyone volunteer to come here?” A lieutenant spoke from the back.
“She’s from 2012.” Shang’hai brought up a new data stream. “The time stamp on her flight recorder and Doc’s biometric tests confirm diseases and immunities from roughly that time period.”
“2012?” Chief Rome whistled. “Hell, if only half those stories are true, we could have chosen any number of people.”
Bei nodded. If the Syn-En had truly instigated the mission they would have found others to increase their odds of one getting through. “Maybe we did and she’s the only one who survived.”
Silence reigned as they all considered the implication of Nell risking her life for their own, not once but twice. It went against everything the Syn-En had been taught. Yet, it also afforded them a guilty payback. Bei kept the knowledge that Nell hadn’t known the exact nature of her mission to himself.
“I’ll need a vote on Syn-En emancipation from United Earth Nations, the Council and her citizen subjects.” Bei felt their fear and determination in the WA.
XO Penig rose slowly to his feet. “Admiral, if I may. I motion for a verbal casting.”
“I second.” Commander Brazil also stood.
“All in favor?” Ayes chorused. “All opposed recording the vote?”
Silence.
Bei surveyed the crowd. “Then I put the vote regarding emancipation to the command staff of the Syn-En fleet.”
Bei’s XO stepped forward. “Captain Cassis Penig of the starship Starfarer votes in favor of emancipation.”
The lieutenant at the back of the room rose. “Lieutenant Commander Geneva Laos of the Beagle class transport Ursa Minor favors emancipation.”
One by one the command staff stood to record their vote, renouncing the pledge binding the Syn-En to the service of Earth’s citizens and the UEN Council. With one voice, the leaders committed themselves to the settlement of Terra Dos.
Twenty minutes passed before Bei registered his vote, the last in the unanimous bid for freedom. Elation and fear buzzed through those assembled.
Bei straightened and opened a com channel to all ships. “Admiral Beijing York, commander of the Syn-En Fleet does hereby declare all synthetically enhanced humans and every modified civilian assigned to her service emancipated from the yoke of the United Earth Nations and her Council. The crew, support staff and their families are endowed with all rights as fully enfranchised citizens.”
After a stunned period of silence, the WA exploded in joy.
Their course was set. There would be no going back. Earth would view the votes’ outcome as desertion perhaps even treason, both crimes punishable by death. Bei opened the doors connecting the ready room with the bridge.
Lieutenant Berlin looked up from his place at the helm, his skin pasty against his red hair. “Admiral, we’re getting a communication from the Supreme Council of United Earth Nations. It’s coming from just inside the event horizon.”
Syn-Ens owe their allegiance to citizens first.
Then, in order of importance, civilians, duty, honor,
and, finally, their comrades.
Never should personal wants or needs displace the proper order of things.
Syn-En Vade Mecum
Chapter Nine
Bei strode to the center of the half-moon shaped bridge. Fear flooded the WA and bitterness saturated his tastebuds. Why would he be receiving a communication from Earth just moments after the Syn-En declared their emancipation from the citizens? The announcement wouldn’t even reach Pluto’s relay station for two weeks.
Behind him, the forty senior officers of the Syn-En fleet stood in an arc several layers deep.
From the corner of his eye, Bei watched each man and woman don the neutral expression citizens expected of the soldiers, but, courtesy of the WA, the emotional maelstrom of his men played out inside Bei’s head: Fear they’d be executed for their decisions, certainty that Bei would take the blame for their defection, but most of all, steely resolve of their course. Ignoring the crewmen repairing the com and Nav hubs, Bei joined Lieutenant Berlin in front of the tactical station.
The young officer’s frown cut into his smooth Aryan features. His blue eyes glared at the black LCD screen immediately before him while he fiddled with the fiber optic cable connecting his neural interface to the CIC. “The Citizen Starcruiser America is using a secure Syn-En channel, Admiral.”
XO Penig shuffled across the deck, pausing every third step so the glitch in his co-ordination wouldn’t cause him to pitch forward, and lowered himself in the captain’s chair. “Could be the United Earth Council taking their yearly space cruise at the tax payers’ expense.”
Speculation blossomed on the bridge. Once the public got wind that they’d been funding the Council’s hedonistic lifestyle, the representatives had taken to raiding the Syn-En budget to fund their pleasure excursions. Bei and his people had been held responsible for hundreds of flawed missions because credit shortfalls had reduced the amount of equipment and supplies available. To justify the expense, the council made random communications while enjoying their pleasure jaunts.
Even if this was one such time, the Syn-En were firm in their course.
Crossing his arms over his chest, Bei waited until the Lieutenant stopped playing with his connection before addressing him. “Make certain none of the fleet ships are picking up the signal, then put the communication on screen.”
Behind him, the command staff stilled. The crewmen repairing the broken work stations retracted their tools into their fingertips and looked up at the screens.
Four of the LCDs banding the semicircular bridge filled with static. Slowly, a woman’s face formed
from the gray and black dots dancing on the white screens.
Bei recognized her immediately. Captain Petersburg had been left in charge of the Syn-Ens he’d left behind. The unease simmering inside his gut coalesced into a hard knot of foreboding.
The officer on the screen leaned closer to the helm. Worry furrowed her copper forehead. “This is Syn-En Captain Amazon Petersburg of the commandeered Starcruiser America calling for any Syn-En vessel of the Terra Dos Mission. Admiral Beijing York, we are in need of direction and assistance.”
From somewhere off screen, a woman called out. “We’ve got incoming, Captain. Four MIRVed nukes.”
“Evasive maneuvers.” Through the static-filled the image, Bei watched Captain Petersburg brace herself against the helm console.
“Decoys away.” The tactical officer’s fear transmitted through all four of the Bei’s screens. “Two warheads got through. Brace for impact!”
On screen, the America’s communiqué flashed white.
If the Syn-En’s collective will had been a weapon, Bei had no doubt the ships attacking the Americawould be space dust. As it was, he and his men were only spectators in the tragedy unfolding before them.
Bei scanned the four screens, looking for a reason why a Syn-En would have taken over a citizen vessel as well as when the events in the message were recorded. “How long ago was the transmission?”
Manning the helm in front of Bei, Lieutenant Berlin stiffened. “According to the America’s time stamp, the message was sent ten days, six hours and twelve minutes ago.”
Bei’s knees shook. His heart rate momentarily slowed from the sorrow. The America and her passengers could already have been destroyed, making Captain Petersburg’s transmission a message from the dead.
Captain Petersburg’s face emerged from the static. The image on the four screens highlighted the gash on her high cheekbone and the bruise to her chin. “Approximately four weeks ago, UEN decided they no longer needed the Syn-En and began their campaign to end our existence. I am sending you data packets from the citizens’ betrayal as well as intercepted communiqués detailing their planned genocide and the official version of events.”
The Syn-En Solution Page 14
