Penig’s lightning bolts faded. “Squadrons moving into place.”
Once the gamma wave cleared the event horizon, the far right screens faded to black. Bei focused on the two left ones. He zoomed onto the satellite squadron and winced as they made contact with the America’s hull.
Nell’s fingers bit into Bei’s forearms and she leaned toward the screens. “Tell them to fire engines when they have contact.”
Bei relayed the message. “America reporting damage to hull. No breaches.”
Penig tensed as his avatar processed the data before hurling it toward Bei. “One degree course correction.”
After opening the communication from Chief Rome, Bei repeated the ships’ status for Nell. “Exit clear for omega wave.”
Penig smiled. “America’s course is corrected. She’s heading for home.”
Bei tensed at the new batch of information from the sensors. “Aperture down to seven-five meters. Shang’hai!”
“On it.” Shang’hai sounded out of breath on the com. “I’ve lost auxiliary engines. Switching to main.”
Power surged and ebbed like ocean waves under his feet. Damn. This hadn’t happened in the simulation. Could they get the America and her escorts through? He checked the America’s schematics. She was eighty-nine meters wide. The Starfarer needed nine-six meters for clearance. He tightened his hold on Nell. “Maximum signal.”
“Aye, maximum signal.”
The hum of the engines stabilized. “Event horizon remains at seven-nine meters.”
Nell bit her lip, and her blue eyes were wide in her face. Color seemed to have fled her face. “The ships on the America’s hull won’t make it.”
“Shanghai, open that damn hole.”
“Engines critical, Admiral.”
Bei pulled Nell closer to him. He didn’t want to lose her, but if he chose to save her…
“Save them,” she whispered.
Penig slumped in his chair. His black eyes faded to charcoal gray. The surges in the WA were damaging his interface. “America and company are two-hundred-fifty kilometers from exit. Aperture at one-zero-one meters.”
“This is Admiral Beijing York to satellite squadrons. Break off escort and get your asses through that event horizon. Maximum speed.”
On screen, ships of various shapes dashed away from America’s arrow-shaped hull. Saucers, darts, rockets and round clusters became distinct shadows on the white background of the wormhole before melting into the darkness of normal space.
“America is on course.” Penig groaned. Light sparked across his mouth. The bridge fell dark, taking the visuals with it. Nell pressed her face against Bei’s chest. He felt the drum of her heart echo through him.
The hum of the engines faded. Bei entered the WA. Penig’s avatar lay in a heap of bits and bytes on the floor. Ashes from the burning telemetry hub swirled in the room. Smoke rose from the Nav and com units. The door to engineering and helm controls had been obliterated. “Shang’hai?”
Nothing.
“Shang’hai report.”
“She’s unconscious, sir.” A man’s voice, low and tight with pain, answered.
Bei’s relief faded quickly. It took a lot to knock out a Syn-En. Could his engineer recover and what of the America ? “Wilson?”
“Aye sir.” Wilson’s breath rasped through the com. “The forward cannons overloaded and we got blowback. The EMP wiped out every system. I’m attempting to bring them online but I’m a little slow.”
Emergency lights cast a blue light on the bridge. Penig convulsed in his chair. Using his master code, Bei dissolved the XO’s avatar and knocked the man’s consciousness back into his body.
Nell fisted the front of Bei’s uniform. “Wilson won’t make it.”
Still in the WA, Bei merged all controls into one hub. Sensors detected the starcruiser at the event horizon. “America’s bow is through. Instability registering. Aperture fluctuating. Wilson, I need that power.”
Positive feedback in the com caused a high pitched shriek in the system. “I’m attempting to patch the line to the array now, but it’ll burn out our engines.”
“Do it.” They might make the event horizon with thrusters, but no one would make it without a little more power. Bei engaged the engines and the ship groaned around them. “Optical relays down. America’s half way through. Aperture down to eight-five meters.”
“Is it enough?” Nell whispered.
Wilson cleared his throat. “I’m at the relays. They’re badly damaged. I’m gonna try—”
The bridge’s lights flickered off then went on.
“Wilson?” The hum under Bei’s feet settled into the gentle oscillation of thrusters only. Damn. They’d lost engines and the civilian. Cyberspace began to crumble around Bei’s avatar.
“Can the America make it, Beijing?”
Bei ran the last sensor read through his head. “The event horizon is too small and closing. It’ll crush her stern.”
Nell’s eyes glistened and seemed to darken in the yellow light. “We can use that. Use the America’s magnetic shields to repel the charge. That should keep the opening big enough for them and us to slip through.”
“How?” Bei wanted to believe that she could save the Syn-En, save them. He was grateful for the time they had together and that he would die with her, but with CIC gone he couldn’t even stop his ship from plowing into the edge of the wormhole when the event horizon collapsed.
Nell stiffened in his arms. “Can’t. The information is coming too fast. I—I can't do it. I—”
“Nell. Your eyes.” Bei’s heart raced. An electric light amplified the blue of her eyes. He’d seen it once before, when he’d broken up a ring of anti-government forces. Their hackers had implanted a crude cerebral interface inside their skulls to help them in their fight against the United Earth Nations. Their efforts had paid off until a power surge had liquefied their brains. Why had whoever sent Nell risked the same thing happening to her?
“Aperture at nine-nine.” Her eyes glowed in the darkened bridge. “The America is through. Damaged but no casualties. Starfarer is moving. We’re going to make it.”
“Nell?” Bei clasped her upper arms, gently shaking her. “Nell you must disengage.”
“I must survive. My mission isn’t complete.”
A chill washed down Bei’s spine. The voice wasn’t Nell’s. It was too flat, too unemotional. He’d interfaced with computer banks with more personality.
“Entering event horizon. Exit closing. Nine-five meters. Nine-zero.”
Metal screamed around them. Sparks flew from the walls. Red lights flashed then died. The Starfarer’s bridge plunged into darkness, except for the glow from Nell’s eyes.
“I—I failed.” The light faded and Nell fell limp in his arms.
“No, Nell. We saved them. Everyone else made it through.” Bei placed the mask over her face as his own neodynamic armor sealed his nose, mouth and covered his eyes. His systems registered the lack of atmosphere and he knew the closing event horizon was tearing his ship in two. Bei wrapped his legs around Nell’s and locked his armor in place. One by one, his systems shut down. He wanted to override the failsafe, but couldn’t. If he were rescued in two days, Nell stood a chance of survival. If not, he didn’t want to be rescued.
Maybe in the distant future, if Nell and he were found, he hoped his discoverers learned that this was as close to heaven as any Syn-En had ever been.
A successful campaign involves more than intelligence.
To win a war, you must find what the enemy values and trusts most, then
undermine it.
Syn-En Vade Mecum
Chapter Sixteen
Bei opened his eyes and stretched. His ribs ached and cold stone leached the heat from his skin. Outside the arched windows, birds chirped and the air hung heavy with the scent of flowers. Rising to his feet, he scanned his surroundings. Hunting frescoes adorned the white walls, and rugs woven in bright, primary colors covered the ma
rble floors.
He knew this place. Everything about the room was familiar.
Familiar, yet alien.
The slaughtered beast on the mural was not from Earth. Nor had he ever seen dual string bows. Even the stylized representation of the people was off, thanks to a second thumb replacing the pinky finger on both hands and the backward flexing of their joints.
He had dreamt of this place often in the past three weeks.
Bei glanced to the right. In a room off the landing at the top of the staircase, Nell would be waiting on a bed of silk sheets. She’d be propped up against a mound of pillows with the skirt of her dark blue gown spread around her legs. Anticipation coursed through him as his footfalls whispered across the marble and he raced up the stairs.
He’d memorized every detail of that dress, had traced the gold and silver threads that swirled over her breasts and his fingers had teased the embroidered pink flowers on his way to the zipper running down her spine. When he reached the landing, Bei increased his pace. Could she hear him coming? Would she be scooting away from the headboard of the platform bed, eager to receive him?
The brass knob turned easily in his hand, and he tossed open the dark wood door. At the sight before him, his smile fled.
“Bei.” Nell cowered near the headboard, clutching the ripped fabric of her bodice against her bare chest. A red hand print rose from her pale cheek. “Help me!”
Whoever was responsible would die. Slowly. He'd been trained to do it.
A man stepped from the shadows into the soft light cast by the sconces. Anger burnished his tan skin and thinned his lips. He grabbed Nell’s arm and yanked her off the bed. She tumbled to the floor at his feet. “She is mine. My wife. My property.”
“No!” Bei roared. Before he could move, pain clamped down on his skull.
“Don’t!” Nell’s scream reverberated inside his head as he came fully awake.
Eyes closed, Bei labored for each breath as the assault continued in his cerebral interface. That was no damn dream. Neither was it a memory. Yet it was a strange combination of both. Nell’s cerebral interface must be the origin. But why the man? Although he sensed Nell knew the man, the trace of intimacy wasn’t there.
Could an outside source be attempting to control Nell through her interface?
And where had the bastard come from?
Bei sensed his foul presence in the WA. In his mind, he tracked the energy signal through cyberspace and isolated it. The transmission’s signature matched Nell’s.
Damn. To keep the man out, he’d have to block Nell’s access to the WA, but he had no choice. She’d tugged his command codes out of his skull while they were on the Starfarer. If she used the information or let it slip to the stranger, every one in the fleet was at risk.
And the man posed a threat.
Bei’s avatar tagged the signal to be attacked the next time it appeared in the CIC, then he changed his command codes. Still not happy, Bei activated the guardian protocol. Two digital Dobermans sniffed the air before dashing off into cyberspace.
Now to hunt down the man responsible.
Bei opened his eyes. A white curtain billowed in a draft while a monitor above his head recorded his vital signs. Obviously, he was in sick bay. A common precaution after emergency hibernation, but which ship’s infirmary and where was Nell?
He pushed aside the soft cotton sheets and sat up. The mattress dipped under his weight. Pressing his hand into the foam bedding, he watched it spring back. Such luxuries occurred only when citizens were around. He must be aboard the America .
But how did he get here and had Nell survived the vacuum of space?
Bei wiped the fatigue off his face and pushed out of the bed. His feet hit the deck with a loud thud. Artificial gravity. The Syn-En scientists had proposed a means to achieve it years ago, but the UEN Supreme Council had vetoed it as too expensive. Obviously, they’d changed their minds.
Setting aside his anger at the Council’s injustice, Bei focused on the task at hand. First, he’d find Nell, then he’d see to his crew, and finally he’d hunt the man in that dream/memory. After pulling on his uniform, Bei grabbed the white curtains and yanked them open.
Expecting a large infirmary like that aboard his starship, Bei discovered the room was surprisingly small. The other bed had been shrouded by a curtain as well. Bei walked the two paces to the fabric wall and slipped inside.
Nell lay on the bed. Her paleness clashed with the cream-colored blanket tucked around her naked body and the mottled bruises on her skin. Above her head, the diagnostic screen relayed her vitals. All were perfectly normal. Too normal. No human alive kept to the norm unless they had a cerebral implant regulating their functions. He’d been a fool not to see it before. Yet they’d become so accustomed to the normalcy, neither he nor Doc had thought it strange.
Bei knew it was strange now, and it caused a disquiet deep inside him. Someone had gone through a lot of trouble to hide Nell’s implant, and Bei seriously doubted it was the Syn-En or their descendants.
And what of those dream/memories?
They’d been meant for Nell alone, supporting his belief that the strange beasts and the alien humanoids actually existed.
But the man in the dream had lacked two thumbs on each hand and the backward knee and elbow joints. Like Nell, he had to be human and modified. For what purpose?
Bei extrapolated from what he knew. The implant had given her knowledge of where to go and how to get there. On her medical records Doc had noted that Nell had been altered to remain young for a long time. And fertile. Bei swallowed the bitterness in his mouth. Her implant could have influenced her acceptance of a sexual relationship with him. Hell, for all he knew, the damn thing could have caused his own response to her. It explained so much. Except perhaps the most important thing: Why?
Given the stranger’s hostility, Bei knew it had nothing to do with saving the Syn-En. So what world had Nell enlisted to save?
Terra Dos.
The certainty cut through Bei. Whatever had changed Nell, it concerned that planet. Was he leading his people to their death? Although he commanded a fleet of warships, their weapons were minimal and probably didn’t compare to a race who could hide their technology.
He needed information. Could he risk sending a probe to the planet? Had they picked up on his fleet’s presence already? Bei fought the urge to get to the bridge and instead entered the WA. No alien energy reading showed up to cause alarm, nor had anything been sent from the planet.
Was he worrying for nothing?
Bei clasped Nell’s hand, ran his thumb along the soft skin. Her cry for help ripped through him. Damn, she wasn’t going through the WA. She was trying to contact him directly- interface to interface. Bei allowed the opening, taking the risk of exposing his command codes to reassure her. “I’m coming. Just hang on.”
Hurry, Nell cried.
“You’re awake.” Doc’s voice sounded behind Bei.
Bei didn’t respond as the doctor walked along Nell’s side and faced him across the bed.
The green diag beam shot out of his palm as if he didn’t quite trust the citizen’s technology. “If it’s any comfort, all her stats are normal.”
“Too normal.” Bei waited to see if Doc caught the underlying meaning in his words.
“Yes, I—” Doc’s brown eyes widened, and he glanced over his shoulder as if to verify they were alone in the square room. “How did you know?”
Bei shrugged. Although he didn’t want to admit their affair was nothing but sophisticated programming, he couldn’t dismiss it either. Nor could he ignore the potential influence it held over him. He kissed her knuckles. If just his life were at risk, he’d take the chance for her. “Nell has a cerebral interface.”
Doc’s jaw went slack for a moment.
“I wish you had told me sooner. It wasn’t until I was giving the inductees a check up that I noticed the variation in their vitals.” Doc ran his hand through his dark hair. “I sc
anned her as soon as I arrived, but couldn’t find anything.”
“Look again, but this time search for any abnormality. It’s there.” Bei didn’t doubt it. Whoever put the cerebral interface there didn’t want it found. Nell didn’t know of it. She valued honesty. The man’s presence was a shock to her.
Was he on the planet, waiting for her?
Bei had to disconnect her cerebral interface before the bastard could use it to control her. Nell belonged with him.
Bei turned on his heel, intent on leaving the infirmary to consult with his senior staff. Damn. He’d nearly forgotten. “How are the others?”
“Shang’hai suffered some damage and is having her interface rebooted. Wilson has a broken arm and his enhancement overloaded from a power surge.” Doc tapped the keyboard and a low hum filled the air. Light sparked off a silver sphere hovering beside his head. Doc batted it away. “Damn citizens and their zealotry for manual input. They built the whole ship without a single fiberoptic port.”
Bei grunted, keenly aware Doc had not named the XO. “Did Penig make it?”
“Aye.” Doc grinned. “He’s teaching the inductees Hide and Seek.”
Bei smiled. The XO’s love of the game and his insistence that Syn-En children learn to play had kept the children out of the dormitories the night of the attack. The new inductees’ presence added more weight to Bei’s burden. The Syn-En had to settle Terra Dos.
Nell’s pulse increased and she winced in her sleep.
Damn it, man. Leave her alone.
You can’t stop me. Came the replying taunt.
Doc frowned at her diag reading. “Her brain activity is off the charts. It could be what’s stopping her from waking up.”
Awake or asleep, the signal could still reach her, manipulate her. Bei’s hands curled into fists. “Put her in a chemical coma.”
Doc’s forehead wrinkled. He opened his mouth then shut it. “For how long?”
“Until we reach the planet.” Bei didn’t like giving himself a deadline, but he didn’t want Nell harmed either.
The Syn-En Solution Page 24
