Tree of Liberty (Book 3 of The Humanity Unlimited Saga)

by Terry Mixon

  “Earth has a lot of catching up to do and we can’t allow any one government to do it alone. That’s why we summoned you here.”

  “Even seeing it with my own eyes, I can’t believe it,” Isaiah Vaughn said slowly. “This is just too crazy.”

  Jess’s expression turned sympathetic. “Imagine how difficult it was for those of us that actually located the equipment and made it work.”

  “Did you find something on Mars?” Reginald Baker asked. “I remember seeing something in the news about your people landing on some big volcano there. Is that what you found?”

  She smiled at the man. “That’s exactly what we found. A fully operational base filled with technology beyond our dreams.”

  “I do not understand why you are telling us this,” Sato said through his interpreter. “You are Americans. Surely the American government will be angry that you revealed it to us. Why are they not your partners in this endeavor?”

  Clayton took that verbal slow ball and swung for the fences. “The government of the United States isn’t what it used to be. It’s become more closed-minded, more corrupt.

  “The name of the company we formed to exploit the technology is called Humanity Unlimited for a reason. These discoveries need to belong to humanity as a whole, not to one government bent on using it as a club against its enemies. Or even its allies.”

  Kevin McHugh picked that moment to walk through the gate from the French base. He edged over to Jess Cook and spoke softly in her ear. Jess excused herself and headed back through the gate, while Kevin remained standing beside the power supply.

  Clayton hoped there wasn’t some kind of serious trouble brewing. Even if there were, however, he needed to get on with the demonstration.

  He cleared his throat. “I have one other location I’d like to show you. My son inadvertently discovered this place by transposing two characters while exploring the gate system. Pure chance, you understand.”

  He held up his phone and entered the address Harry had discovered. The gate connected and revealed a sparkling beach with plants very similar to palm trees underneath a sky with two suns.

  That got their attention.

  “From everything we’ve been able to discover, it’s perfectly safe. The island is relatively small and located in the tropical zone of a world thousands of light years away. No dangerous creatures have been identified.”

  Vaughn stared through the gate. “Are those palm trees?”

  Clayton shrugged. “I don’t believe so, but I can’t rule out them being related in some way. The similarity is striking.”

  He stepped through the gate and into the bright sunlight. “As far as we’ve been able to determine, this was a resort at some point. There are no buildings on the island, just serving areas. Old tables and chairs that are just about to come apart.

  “The kitchen and serving areas must’ve been at a different gate address. Frankly, we’re told that that was a common practice for the Asharim. The wealthiest in their society would have homes with separate rooms in different locations connected by gates that were never turned off. Basically, their homes were distributed across the galaxy.”

  Vaughn shook his head as he stepped through and stared out over the waves. The rest of the dignitaries followed suit.

  Clayton said nothing, content to allow them to take it in at their own speed.

  Five minutes later, even though no one had said a single word that indicated they were ready to finalize a deal, Clayton knew the inevitable outcome.

  They couldn’t shield their body language well enough to pretend they hadn’t already come to a decision. The Republic of Nauru, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan would have a pact for mutual protection and exploitation of the technology by the day’s end.

  * * * * *

  Nathan burned inside. The bastard had raped him. He’d quite literally restrained him and forced something into his mind. Then, after forcing him to learn their language, the bastard hadn’t asked him a single question.

  And his mother had let it happen. Hell, she’d thrown her own son to the wolves.

  Oh yes, she was going to pay for that. Only right now wasn’t the time.

  His mother and the Grand Dick Head had been strategizing for the last hour on the specifics of an attack plan for the base in France. They intended to seize it from the Islamic assholes.

  Nathan didn’t have any objection to that. Those sorry bastards deserve to die. He just didn’t want to risk his own neck to make that happen. Not when he was certain he’d never see any reward for his efforts.

  The only problem was that he didn’t imagine he could opt out.

  He needed an exit plan from this fiasco, but he’d have to execute it once he got back to Earth. If he could arrange to separate himself from the attacking force, he could make his way to Paris and use the resources his mother and he had around the globe to set himself up.

  His mother wouldn’t be pleased with that. Teach her to make him do all the work. He knew where everything was.

  It was at that point the conversation between the Grand Dick Head and his mother turned to him. The three of them were seated at a long table in the temple, along with the butt munch that had captured them at the space elevator.

  His first inkling that they finally wanted his input in their stupid plan was his mother’s imperious instruction to tell them everything he knew about the base in France.

  She’d seen enough of it that he couldn’t outright lie about the layout. Pity. That would’ve been amusing.

  He sketched a verbal picture of how the gate room was at the bottom of the base, the number of floors that sat above it, and the landscape surrounding the facility. He then described in rough detail the capabilities of jihadis.

  The Grand Dick Head dismissed that last with a wave. “These savages barely qualify as combatants. Our forces will sweep them aside.”

  The man who’d captured them didn’t look as convinced, but he seemed disinclined to argue with his leader.

  “So how do we do it?” Nathan asked. “Find a local gate and push through enough force to seize the other end?”

  His mother’s expression became irritated. “It seems the Masters did something to the gates here that I can’t figure out how to undo. They won’t turn on. We’ll either have to use the gates on the station, if there are any, or transport people to the ship and use the one there.

  “Once we get to the other side, I’ll use a gate there to connect with one of the ones on the planet here. I’ll lock it open and they can bring through as much reinforcement as they want to take the base.”

  That was going to restrict the number of people they could send through for the initial assault, particularly if they had to transport them to the ship on that little boat.

  He allowed himself to nod. “That sounds fine. When do we go? Tomorrow?”

  The warrior shook his head. “We cannot allow the enemy to consolidate the gains they have made. Even now, they might be bringing reinforcements to this base.

  “We leave as soon as this council is complete. I’ve already gathered a large strike force. Most will wait here while we strike, but I’ll take my best men with us.”

  And that’s what they did. The level of general planning horrified the professional inside Nathan. They were just going to take a gamble that they had enough force, push it, and hope they had what it took to open a gate back.

  They’d gathered about a hundred fighters armed with alien rifles. He’d seen how potent such weapons could be and knew the men were devilishly strong, so maybe this wasn’t as weak as he’d feared.

  As the group marched back to the space elevator, Nathan edged close to his mother. Thankfully, the Grand Dick Head was leading the way, giving them a little bit of privacy.

  “Are you sure this is the right thing to do, Mother? Once we get to Earth and open the gate back, these people are going to be in control.”

  She gave him a withering look. “I don’t see where we have much of a choice. T
he entire damned planet is arrayed against us back home. We need allies.”

  “I can’t imagine how you see these people as allies. They’re going to be our masters.”

  “You never could see the long game, boy. Sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to in order to position yourself for future success. Just trust that I know what I’m talking about.”

  So much for forcing her to see reason.

  The force they’d gathered barely fit inside the space elevator and the trip up seemed to take forever. The view of the approaching space station through the clear ceiling was spectacular.

  As he’d expected, the gates on the space station proved to be unresponsive. Why would they be any different from the ones on the planet?

  That meant they had to do this the hard way. It took forever to ferry the men across to the ship. More wasted time.

  The warriors they’d brought dutifully lined up in an attack formation in front of the operational gate, ignoring the ripe bodies scattered around the gate compartment after the fight with the Islamists. Nathan set himself at the rear of the column. It appeared that the Grand Dick Head and his mother were going to wait on the ship.

  The religious nut had several of his acolytes guarding them. In that particular, they didn’t look much different than the warriors. They were armed and tough.

  When the gate finally formed, the fighters rushed through and began shooting people. To Nathan’s surprise, the people shooting back were not Islamic nut jobs. They looked like Harry’s people.

  Even better.

  He raised his rifle and charged in, shooting as he went.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Jess gaped at the heavy-worlders rushing through the gate for a moment before dropping behind the closest cover. In this case, a pile of crates holding supplies from Freedom Express for the refugees.

  Christ, the refugees.

  She pulled her phone out as she huddled there and called Rex. He was somewhere upstairs with Sandra.

  “Go,” he said moments later.

  “We’re under heavy-worlder attack through the gate. Get the refugees out and bring help.”

  “Crap. On it.”

  She set her phone beside the nearest crate and drew the pistol she carried at the small of her back. With the number of enemies pouring into the base, she didn’t have nearly enough ammunition to stop them. Not even to delay them.

  What she could do was take one down and upgrade her weapon. The downside with that plan was that she’d draw an immediate hostile response when she opened fire and those flechettes would be deadly.

  Well, it wasn’t as if she had much of a choice.

  Jess raised herself just enough to see what the situation in the gate room was like. It wasn’t good.

  The heavy-worlders’ attack had caught everyone by surprise. Even the people that were there to defend against just such an incursion.

  The defenders had taken significant casualties and fallen back to reinforced positions. They were taking a toll on the enemy, but they hadn’t escaped unscathed. The bodies of far too many of her people littered the floor.

  Thankfully, they’d done a real number on the heavy-worlders, too. That left several flechette rifles lying tantalizingly close to her hiding place and the enemy was focused on the forces arrayed in front of them.

  She’d have one chance to strike from the rear. She’d better make it count.

  Jess raced from cover toward the nearest of the fallen. She’d made it almost halfway to the weapon she had her eye on when Nathan Bennett stepped through the open gate and spotted her.

  She snapped several shots at the man as she threw herself down beside the dead heavy-worlder. Harry’s brother had seen her and ducked behind one of the fighters. She was pretty sure she’d missed the rat.

  Apparently, her shots hadn’t missed everyone, though. She saw another group of about half a dozen heavy-worlders on the other side of the gate. These were dressed in robes and wore odd headgear. Half of them were clustered around a sagging man at their center and the remainder were looking at her with blood in their eyes.

  Perfect.

  She emptied her pistol at the new threat before dropping it and snatching up the fallen flechette rifle. Thankfully, she’d had the opportunity to practice with weapons just like this one.

  Bennett hadn’t shown himself, so she exchanged fire with the heavy-worlders on the other side of the gate.

  They weren’t idle or cowardly, though. Some of them charged toward her while the remainder opened fire. Their dead comrade was not going to prove much of a barricade against the flechettes coming her way.

  Her initial burst took down the three heavy-worlders charging toward her. Unfortunately, that gave the three on the other side of the gate time to zero in on her.

  She flattened herself behind the bulk of the dead man as flechettes ripped his body to shreds. The man’s bulk miraculously stopped most of them, but not all. She felt a sharp pain in her gut and then another in her left leg. She’d been hit.

  Jess didn’t let that stop her. She exposed herself just enough to empty her flechette rifle at the enemy. Several of them went down. Not all of them, though. One was still on his feet and heading her way.

  She ejected the spent magazine and tried to pull a fresh one from dead guy’s belt. Her hands felt so clumsy. She couldn’t seem to focus. Her vision was narrow and she felt so cold. That probably wasn’t good.

  Before she could fit the new magazine into the rifle, the heavy-worlders kicked the weapon out of her hands. He shouted something at her in an alien language and raised his weapon to finish her.

  His head exploded and he dropped like a stone.

  That meant he dropped right on top of her, knocking the air out of her lungs. Jess struggled to roll him off, but he barely moved. The irony of being suffocated before the gunshots could kill her would have made her laugh, if she had the air.

  The weight vanished as someone rolled the body off her. She sucked in blessed air and saw Nathan Bennett grinning down at her.

  “Well, well, well,” he purred. “We meet again.”

  She did laugh then. It sounded wet and horrible. She could taste blood in her mouth. A lot of it. “I think you’re a little late to do anything to me now.”

  He scowled at her body. “No! You’re mine, goddammit! You can’t die now!”

  Then he grinned. “I have a brilliant idea. You’ll hate it.”

  She didn’t imagine the dead hated much of anything, so she wasn’t going to worry about it. She’d focus on the regrets flooding over her. She’d never explore the universe and never see her friends again. That was almost worse than the physical pain.

  Nathan snatched her up off the ground, threw her into a fireman’s carry, and raced through the open gate.

  Jess wanted to fight him, but her dying body didn’t have the strength or coordination. Jess had no idea what he thought he could do to save her, but she knew it was doomed to fail.

  She’d caught a glimpse of her body as he picked her up. Her torso was covered in blood and she actually saw her intestines through the rip in her flesh.

  Her left leg had been opened to the bone, too. She’d bleed out long before he could do anything to her and that was just fine. Better death than being his prisoner.

  The dizziness had almost overwhelmed her when Nathan carried her past the dead heavy-worlders on the other side of the gate. She saw something she’d missed in all the excitement.

  Harry’s mother had been standing off to the side. Somehow, she’d survived where they’d died. No, it wasn’t her. It was a young woman that looked something like her. Odd. The blood loss was affecting her in some really strange ways.

  Jess saw the unknown woman manipulate a gate controller and the gate to the French base closed.

  Nathan didn’t slow down as he raced through the corridors. She recognized the layout and realized they were on the ship that had once been in the Sol system. The one Nathan and his mother had escaped in
.

  Her world had shrunk to almost nothing when he set her down on a cold metal surface and grinned down at her. “Still with me, I see. Good. We’ll talk again real soon.”

  She wanted to spit in his face, but she couldn’t focus well enough to make it happen. She was barely alive enough to see some kind of metal lid slide across above her. She realized she was in a sarcophagus as her world went dark and she died. That seemed appropriate, somehow.

  The last of the light vanished from her world and she knew nothing more.

  * * * * *

  Harry opened the passenger door to the SUV tiredly. As he’d more than half expected, they hadn’t found anything. If there was a cave out here that held one of the quantum gates, it was exceptionally well hidden.

  Or perhaps it had just collapsed in the intervening years. There were enough rock falls that could’ve concealed an old cave out here. Without bringing in equipment and doing a search that would undoubtedly draw the wrong kind of attention, there was no way to know for sure.

  If anything, Brenda was even more annoyed than he was. Understandable. After all, she considered this her backyard.

  “What do we do now?” he asked as he handed bottles of water to the other three. The two from off planet examined theirs curiously. He showed them how to twist the plastic caps off. They made faces at the taste.

  “We go back into town,” Brenda said. “This was a good reconnaissance, but we’re going to need a lot more bodies to do this right.”

  They’d almost made it back to Washington when his phone rang and he saw Rex’s number.

  “Go, Rex.”

  “Heavy-worlders just opened a gate into the base and they’re pouring through,” he said. “We’re pushing back, but Jess is down in the gate room. We’re moving the Volunteers up to the surface.”

  “Crap. Do the best you can and I’ll be there as soon as possible.”

  He disconnected. “We need to get back to the gate as quickly as possible. The bad guys found the French base. We’re moving all your people up to the surface, Susanna.”