Trail of Evil

by Travis S. Taylor

  “Please, be seated,” President Upton requested. In true military fashion the room quieted completely and everyone took their seats. “Yesterday, June 6, 2407, is a date that will live in human history with even more infamy than any other day across all the darkness in our past. As this date marks another great attack in the history of our great nation, so shall it do so again!

  “The United States, humanity, was at peace with itself, and to our knowledge, with the rest of the universe. We know now that peace of the past eleven years and the wars of the past two centuries were nothing more than a trial, a test, for us. It was a time for preparation. A great leader of our nation set in motion events over two hundred years ago that would shape our every move leading us to this day. The great President Sienna Madira had long been thought dead, but it has been revealed to us that she was in hiding in deep space preparing us for humanity’s greatest challenge to come.”

  Alexander continued to assess the forces that sat in the room before him listening to the president’s speech. Humanity’s hope was embodied in each and every one of the soldiers and clones of the Allied Expeditionary Fleet. Each of the soldiers and clones was hanging on every sound and syllable the Commander-in-Chief made, trying to believe that this was not the beginning of the end for all of humanity. They all needed some hope that humanity could stand up to the approaching force. If Upton didn’t give it to them, he knew that somehow he or Madira would have to.

  “I have discussed attack plans and strategies with many of you here,” the president continued. “I have discussed them with advisors, the Joint Chiefs, and senior members of both houses of Congress. All of the greatest scholars and military minds and policy makers who were trustworthy enough to keep this mission secret, as it needs to be, have given their unanimous consent, approval, and prayers that we should march forward, we can accomplish our objective, and we will by the grace of the God Almighty be triumphant. Humanity will rise to this test and we will pass it.” The president waited for the applause to die down.

  “I wanted to come here and speak with each of you this morning. I felt it a moral imperative that each of you will know directly from me that while you are very far from home—and you are about to embark on such a deep space mission as to be farther from home than any human had expected to be for probably another hundred years—that you are in my heart, mind, and prayers. You are the tip of the spear in our fight to survive in what now is clear to be a hostile and sometimes unjust universe. Perhaps we shall march to the stars with all our might. And with God on our side, our might and His will, we will prevail.” Once more, the room burst into applause.

  “I know that most of you have trained and prepared hard developing today’s course of action. You all must deeply miss your homes and families. I have been assured by General Moore that each of you who so desired did indeed teleport home before today and spend some moments with your families. After all, it is for the love of our families that we must march forward and do these hard things. This mission is an endeavor that has taken four months of planning and preparation and a Herculean amount of hard work and effort. Let’s hope, no, let’s pray, the hard work pays off.”

  Alexander listened to the president as she finished. She wrapped up telling the fleet that home would be there waiting for them when they all return and, Lord willing, they would all come home. Alexander knew better. Every wargame that he, Abigail, Madira, Nancy, and Allison had run had been grim. In fact, there were only a few of the battle plans run in random-fashion simulation where any humans came back at all. But simulations couldn’t account for everything. Sometimes, a good battle plan, strong troops, and a little bit of faith could pull a soldier through the shit. Alexander had seen it in his lifetime and he hoped he was looking at one of those times again. The time had come for humanity to step up to the grown-ups’ table, and that wasn’t going to happen unless they squirmed in and made some elbow room, or better yet, knocked one of the adults out of his seat.

  “Thank you,” President Upton finished. “Godspeed and good luck.”

  It had taken the better part of an hour for the president to meet with the troops individually. Alexander had watched how she interacted with them and he most certainly approved. Finally, his chief of staff managed to shuffle the president, Sienna Madira, and himself away from everyone and into the captain’s lounge. Alexander waited for the two women to be seated and then he joined them at the table. He was still in his dress uniform, but, as per his new battle-ready protocol, he and all of his crew would be armoring up before they set sail toward Alpha Lyncis.

  “Isn’t this the strangest of things?” President Upton said to break the tension in the air. “Three former U.S. presidents of very different but historically trying times locked away in a room together. What secrets we must have.”

  “Madam President,” Alexander smiled. “I’m not certain what secrets you are referring to.”

  “Oh, to hell with the protocol, Alexander,” Madira grunted. “What are you fishing for, young lady?”

  Alexander almost chuckled at the way Madira spoke. She had been president so many years, then a bloodthirsty maniac for several decades, and on top of all that she had been solely planning the salvation of mankind; she didn’t care much for small talk or politics.

  “There is clearly an elephant in the room,” Upton said. “It was never so evident until I met you in person, President Madira. It is a great honor, mind you.”

  “What elephant would that be?” Madira said.

  “I’ve met your wife and seen her picture in the history videos, Alexander.” Upton held a thin-lipped fake smile on her face. Alexander would have described it as a poker face, and not a very good one. “I just met your daughter. Lovely young woman. From her record, she must be outstandingly brave and bold just like her father.”

  “Thank you, Madam President.” Alexander replied. He held his own poker face perfectly expressionless.

  “And just like,” Upton continued, “her grandmother, I suspect. Who were Sehera’s mother and father, again?”

  “Madam President, you said yourself you have seen the history videos. Sehera was one of the millions of orphans from the Martian Desert Campaigns. That is where I met her. She actually helped me escape from Elle Ahmi’s torture camps,” Alexander said. He choked back bile and every urge in his body to eyeball Madira when he said that. The torture camps had torn into his psyche deeply and he would forever have to suppress the urge to tear Elle Ahmi from limb to limb for her part in it.

  “Yes, that’s right. I do recall reading that,” Upton replied.

  “Young lady,” Madira interrupted her before she could continue her thoughts. “It doesn’t matter. Whatever you are thinking may or may not be the truth. It may or may not matter in the grand scheme of things. But the elephant will stay in this room and nowhere else. Humanity is in the balance here, and discussing whatever past elephants in the rooms or skeletons in the closets will not help us move forward. I will tell you that I agree that Mrs. Moore and young Deanna are lovely and wonderful people. And over the past few months I have taken quite a shine to them. So much so that I’ve even suggested they consider me a godmother or godgrandmother, especially since they never got to meet their real ones respectively. So, let us just leave it at that and not bring it up again. There are more important issues to deal with right this second.”

  Alexander looked between the two women. Upton didn’t blink and Madira didn’t seem to give a damn. Moore suspected that Madira would as likely leap from the chair and strangle Upton to death before she’d let her compromise her plans. Somehow he had to maintain the peace between the two. As much as he hated to admit it, humanity needed both of the women to play their parts. Humanity didn’t need some sort of historical scandal to distract it from surviving.

  “President Madira, I can’t think of a better person to take on such a role for the two women. They are very lucky indeed.” Upton gave a fake campaign smile. “Now, how soon before you start your QM
Ts?”

  “Within the hour, Madam President,” Alexander exhaled in relief that she had dropped the issue. “Astro-nav calculates it will take us sixty-eight QMT jumps to get to Alpha Lyncis. We’ll make several stops along the way at planetary systems and drop off some of President Madira’s Von Neumann probes. The bots will start building forward bases with teleport facilities for us along the way at each of the stops where there are star systems. So far we’ve identified 47 Ursae Majoris, Gliese 433, and Alpha Ursae Majoris as viable planetary systems in the path to our target. There are most certainly more.”

  “How long until you get to your target?” Upton asked.

  “It will take us roughly an hour or so at each stop to recalibrate navigation and to make certain the probes are deployed. We want to do a rudimentary check for intelligent lifeforms. We’d hate to wipe out some indigenous population inadvertently along the way,” Moore explained.

  “So, seventy hours and you’ll be in combat?” Upton asked, already knowing the answer.

  “Well, possibly, ma’am.” Moore nodded. “We’ll stop in the outer parts of the system first and deliver our ambush teams, including several ships full of battle bots like those we’ve been fighting for the past year and a half. And, I’d prefer to have one sleep cycle before we go to battle so our troops are fresh at the start. Once we hit the inner system we’ll fire as many gluonium-tipped warheads as we can and engage whatever forces are in the system. If the intel we have is good, well, the forces there are quite overwhelming. But we’ll make do.”

  “I get the idea, and I’ve got the details of the battle plan if I want to go through it. This plan is all that humanity has. I am having simulations done for evacuation to systems further inward toward the galactic center, but I doubt we have time for that.” Upton finally let a frown slip through.

  “Don’t count us out just yet,” Madira said. “We haven’t even started the fight yet and you are already giving up.”

  “Not giving up,” Upton looked at Madira sternly. “Being responsible for the billions of lives trusting I have their best interest at heart.”

  “I would be more concerned about actual survival than getting re-elected,” Madira grunted. Alexander could tell it was time to separate the two. So he interrupted before the discussion could devolve further.

  “It isn’t really re-election that has been most on my mind,” Upton added. “How do we truly know that these Chiata are the bad guys? Even if they are the bad guys, does it justify such a first strike? This is similar to Pearl Harbor or the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks or the attacks on Olympus Mons during the Exodus. Only we are talking about killing every Chiata in an entire system.”

  “Young lady, from the data we have available, the expansion wave of the Chiata is clear. Granted we only have one source of data, but I have no reason to disbelieve it,” Madira said. “I have been in collusion with the alien calling himself Copernicus for a very long time and he has visited me here with other aliens from the galactic community. Trust me, they were very alien. And not a one of them had any love for these Chiata.”

  “That is my problem,” Upton said. “If all of these other aliens hate the Chiata so much, why have they not stood up to them?”

  “According to the data that I have passed along to you, they have and are.” Madira sighed as if she was growing impatient of reexplaining herself over and over again. “Copernicus expressed specifically that had it not been for the Chiata being occupied elsewhere they would have likely moved on us thousands of years ago.”

  “So, we are even more in the alien’s debt,” Upton said sardonically.

  “I don’t think debt is what they have in mind.” Madira nodded her head slightly and raised her left eyebrow. Her white-striped bangs came untucked from behind her ear. “I think vengeance is more like their hope.”

  “Vengeance?” Moore said, surprised. “We are so outnumbered in this and they expect us to exact vengeance for them? Whatever type of alien Copernicus is, we have to take his word for it, but they must be far more technologically advanced than us and stand a better chance at exacting vengeance.”

  “Copernicus’ people were wiped out by the Chiata. He claims that some thirty billion of the mollusk-like intelligences escaped and are hidden away somewhere. But remember that they needed some sort of other creature to bond with to carry them around. Copernicus claims there are none of them left. The Chiata knew just how to attack them. There are insufficient numbers of aliens, advanced or not, to stand against the Chiata expansion,” Madira explained. “I think numbers is what we can bring to the table. Well, that and a propensity to be stubborn as hell and to make war. Those are two things which you excel at, son.”

  “Well, hopefully, this first attack will excite more of these other aliens to join in and help us. And I don’t like the thought of helping out aliens that attach to and control other creatures. We better make a big splash and get help. Help enough so that we aren’t so devastated at the end of all this that some other alien group doesn’t take us over if we defeat the Chiata.” Upton frowned and then turned to Moore. “You better be as good as the history books say you are.”

  “Ha,” Madira let out an uncontrollable chuckle. “Sorry, but from everything I’ve seen about the man he can be one big pain in the ass.”

  “Madam President,” Moore said, ignoring Madira’s comment. “If you don’t mind, we have a lot of last-minute prep to do. I’d recommend you snap back to safety so we can get underway.”

  Chapter 40

  June 9, 2407 AD

  Alpha Ursae Majoris “Dubhe”

  123 Light Years from the Sol System

  Friday, 4:35 PM, Expeditionary Mission Standard Time

  “Planetary system here has very odd orbits, General.” The STO pointed out orbits in the DTM system view. “Dubhe is a double star system locally and a four-star system all together. There are planets scattered about, but only one fits into anything like the Goldilocks zone, sir.”

  “This one here, right?” Alexander tapped at the air in front of him, and one of the planets was highlighted with a see-through yellow ball. “How habitable is it?”

  “Not very, sir. Looks like a desert planet at best. There is a minimal amount of liquid water closer to the the poles. The equatorial regions are wastelands. No green anywhere. There are significant asteroids and several gas giants with moons,” the STO added. “One of the moons of the third gas giant out looks a lot like Europa around Jupiter. There is ice and as best I can tell now, sir, it has an ocean under the ice.”

  “No intelligent lifeforms, right?” Alexander decided to cut to the chase.

  “None, sir. At least none that I can find.”

  “Very well. XO, deploy the builder bots and let’s move on. That Europa-like moon might make for a good base since there is plenty of water there,” Alexander ordered the XO. “We still have eighty light-years to hop through.”

  Moore swiped the system view aside and pulled over the QMT hopping path. There were still twenty-seven QMTs left before they made it to Alpha Lyncis and the Chiata. With roughly an hour for navigation recalibration at each jump, that meant sometime tomorrow they would be able to engage the enemy.

  “Package is away, General,” Firestorm said. “If those little bastards are as busy as the bots we’ve been fighting for the past year there should be a Disney World finished by the time we swing back through here.”

  “I’ve been to Disney World, XO.” Moore laughed. “Last time turned out to be more than I cared for. But my daughter enjoyed the hell out of it.”

  “Yes, sir.” the XO replied. “All ships and stations are reporting nominal status and are ready to jump whenever the Nav is, sir.”

  “Roger that, Firestorm.” Moore turned to Commander Swain. “Penny? Jump us at your leisure.”

  “Yes, sir,” the navigation officer replied. “I’m getting the final astrogation observations fed into my AIC now. Another five minutes or so is all we’ll need before the algo
rithms lock onto our location. Then we’ll need another ten or so to get the rest of the fleet lined up.”

  “Good. XO, you have the bridge.” Moore stood and looked around at his crew and then out the viewport at the deep-space star system. They were presently farther away from home than anyone had ever gone. “I’m gonna go for a walk. I’ll be back when we jump.”

  “Major Moore?” Commander Buckley looked up from underneath a power coupling he was working on surprised to see the mecha jock in engineering. “What brings you to engineering?”

  “Hi, Commander. I know you are busy, but I need to talk with you about something.” Joe was puzzled. He had spoken to the Marine many times before, but mainly in a setting where Rondi was around. The two women were friends and apparently trained in hand-to-hand martial arts together. Joe had really only spoken to Deanna Moore in social settings.

  “Sure thing. What’s on your mind?”

  “Well, I was thinking about the upcoming mission and was wondering, why can’t my AIC control when and where my mecha does a snap-back or sling-forward? I mean, why does the CDC QMT crew have to do that?” Moore asked. Joe had to think about it for second. He had actually never given any thought to the mecha pilots controlling their own QMT jumps.

  Debbie? I can’t think of any physics or engineering reason, can you?

  No, Joe, as far as I can tell it is all in the software and protocol, the AIC replied.

  No shit?

  “I suspect it is mainly because if you and/or your AIC were incapacitated some other entity would have to trigger the system,” Joe explained to Dee.

  “But it is doable?”

  “Uh, yeah, it’s all in the software. I’d just have to get the general’s approval for it. But I’m not sure why you’d need it.”

  “That’s what I was hoping,” Dee said with a smile. “How hard would it be to give all the mecha-jock AICs the ability? I mean, we’re thirty-six hours away from our target; could it be done by then?”