Race to Terra (Book 10 of The Empire of Bones Saga)

by Terry Mixon

  With a determined step, she headed for Carl’s lab to make the magic happen. If Sommerville didn’t come around, she’d keep trying until he did. One way or the other, she was getting to Terra.

  Olivia was standing in the docking bay when Fielding’s cutter docked. To her shock, Jared came out of the cutter with Austin, carrying the Rebel Empire Lord. Kelsey had the two guards in her arms, showing off exactly how strong she was.

  “Well, this isn’t quite what I was expecting, but it works,” Olivia said. “We caught the other guards trying to set explosives on the crates. What did these two do?”

  Jared grinned. “He overheard us plotting with the System Lord and didn’t like what was being said. Speaking of which, have them start pressurizing the cargo hold. We’re going to get rid of that damned cargo.”

  They handed their prisoners over to the marines, and Olivia left for the cargo hold with them. “How did you convince the AI to help us?”

  “That wasn’t as hard as you might think. It’s not very friendly toward its brothers, as it calls them. That isn’t to say the damned thing is any less bad, but it just wants to be left alone, or so it says. I’m willing to leave it be as long as it doesn’t interfere with us.”

  “As if we could stop it,” she said. “More ships arrived while you were off, and there is plenty of firepower all around us to keep us from doing anything hasty. Did it say how it had gotten free of its programming?”

  “Not exactly,” Jared said as they arrived at the hold. “It did say there is a piece of hardware that is supposed to reinitialize it if it strays too far from what the Master AI considers acceptable, but it says it sabotaged that with its remotes. How it could do that without being off enough to violate its core rules is a question for Carl once we get the hell out of here.

  “For now, it’s willing to give us the code to disable the charges—which I have no idea how it could know—and then we’ll jettison the bioweapon and destroy it. The AI says it has no desire to aid in the killing of humans or their subjugation.”

  That news rocked her back on her heels. How could one of the cold, powerful AIs that ruled the Rebel Empire not want to crush humans under its proverbial heel? That really was going to take some thinking about.

  The marines passed then through into the hold. Sean and Scott Roche were already there. So was Elise.

  “I heard that I can come out of hiding,” she said, grabbing Jared in a hug. “Thank God. I was going stir crazy. Are we safe?”

  “Not exactly,” he said. “First, I need to get rid of this cargo. I’ll need a channel open to the AI. Let me do all the talking.”

  Moments later, he had his com out and was arranging with the bridge to connect him with the System Lord.

  “I am here,” a chilling voice said from the com. One that had given Olivia nightmares for decades. She shivered involuntarily.

  “We’re in the cargo hold,” Jared said. “I’m transmitting you the video. We have a code to open the crates. Will that make things easier for you?”

  “Perhaps. Open the crates and show me the explosives.”

  Jared must’ve done so, because all the crates slowly began to open. When the closest one was fully open, Jared panned the camera across the drones in their racks and then gave the computer a closeup of one of the charges.

  “I am going to send an interrogative,” the computer said. “This basic code will allow you to get a status response from any hardware used in the Empire that is controlled or programmed by my brothers.”

  Whatever happened was done without sound. Moments later, the computer spoke again.

  “I believe that I know the code to disarm the charges. There is a small, but notable chance it will not work.”

  “And what happens if it fails?” Jared asked. “Will it go off?”

  “Doubtful, though possible. I’d estimate less than a five percent chance that failure would be catastrophic. Even so, that would only happen in the case my code was incorrect, which is less than thirty percent likely.”

  Jared shook his head and glanced around at them all. When they said nothing, he shrugged.

  “Go ahead,” he said.

  The lights on the charges blinked three times and then turned off.

  Olivia let her breath out slowly. That was a lot riskier than she’d have preferred. At least that was one sword no longer hanging over their heads.

  “The self-destruct charges are disarmed,” the AI said. “You have fifteen minutes to jettison and destroy them. Based on the number of visible charges and the responses from my command, I have calculated how many crates you must destroy, and it matches the six I see in your hold. Leave your com on, set it so that I can maintain visual observation of the crates, and then jettison them.”

  Jared propped his com against the bulkhead and exited the cargo deck. Once they were all clear, he called the bridge and ordered the hold opened to space.

  “Let’s get up there and finish this,” he said.

  The trip to the bridge took just a few minutes. Jared took the center seat. “Target the crates, Mister Brodie. One missile each.”

  The man raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that a bit of overkill, Admiral?”

  “For that kind of weapon, there isn’t such a thing as overkill. Blow them up, Commander.”

  “What about all the ships aiming weapons at us, sir? If they open fire, we’re done.”

  “Believe it or not, this is already preapproved. All your concerns are noted. Open fire.”

  “Firing. Crates destroyed.”

  That was the second sword over their heads that had been removed. Now there was only one left: the AI.

  “Incoming communication,” Commander Dieter, the communications officer, said. “Audio only.”

  “On speakers,” Jared said. “The bioweapon is destroyed. I believe that completes my part of this bargain.”

  “I concur. I will transmit a file with some data that you might find useful in your interaction with my brothers and on your journey to Terra. You will proceed to the flip point along a direct course and leave. If you need to contact me again in the future, which you will undoubtedly do if you are victorious, you will find a code in the file allowing one ship of destroyer size to enter this system again.”

  The transmission ended without waiting for a response.

  “You heard the computer, Commander Hall,” Jared said. “Get us the hell out of here.”

  “Do you think it was being honest?” Olivia asked as the surrounding ships moved to escort Athena out of the system.

  “I think so,” he said. “We’re going to have a lot of fun questioning Fielding, and I really do hope our ally of convenience gave us some useful information. This fight is going to be hard enough as it is.”

  Olivia nodded. Beating the AI at Terra wasn’t going to be simple. Maybe the new information would help. If not, they’d make it work or die trying.

  20

  Angela scouted the next flip point—a regular one—as instructed by Princess Kelsey from Audacious. She wasn’t sure how the other woman had convinced Commander Sommerville to help, but he’d given them the next of their steps to meeting the resistance leaders.

  She wasn’t sure what they were supposed to do once they got into the next system, but she doubted it was going to be where the fabled resistance was hiding. No, probably only the first of a number of flips to get them to where they needed to go.

  Arianna Knox seemed to share her view on the transition. “How many more do you think we’ll have to go before we find someone?”

  Angela shrugged. “If it were me, I’d want at least three or four barrier systems to keep potential enemies at bay. I’d have scouts watching for ships as far out as I could get. If the enemy is coming, I’d want to evacuate anyone I could before the fight.

  “I suspect that there were some probes watching the Razor side of the far flip point we came through, honestly. They would’ve transmitted data about us to a scout at another flip point via tight beam. It
likely sent word to the next system and retreated to keep an eye on us as we proceed.”

  The senior lieutenant nodded. “They don’t have FTL coms, so they have no way of keeping us under observation while we explore the Razor system. To avoid one of our probes spotting them, they have to retreat early. They’ll have gotten the count of our ships and what size they are but left before we made it to Razor. What do you think they got from Audacious?”

  Angela chuckled. “They’ll be crapping themselves. The Rebel Empire doesn’t have fighters, so they’ll have to identify them first, but there were so many out and screening us that they won’t have too much trouble figuring it all out. They just won’t know what to make of it. Or Persephone, for that matter.”

  “The FTL probe is ready to flip,” Jevon McLeod said.

  “Send it over,” she ordered.

  “Incoming call from Audacious,” Jack Thompson said. “It’s Princess Kelsey.”

  “Put her on the screen.”

  The image of space vanished and was replaced by Princess Kelsey. She stood on the carrier’s flag deck next to Commodore Anderson’s chair. On her other side were Commander Sommerville and Veronica Giguere.

  “Angela,” Kelsey said brightly. “Are you ready to go solo?”

  “I’m ready for anything, Highness. What am I doing?”

  “You’ll go across and send a signal that Commander Sommerville will send you. It’ll let the picket guards know we’re friendly. Not that they’ll believe you.”

  That made Angela smile a little. “If they don’t believe it’s authentic, won’t they just sit there?”

  “I’m not sure,” Sommerville said. “I’m also giving you the ‘I’m not under duress’ signal, so they’ll be unsure. It’s possible they’ll contact you. It’s equally possible they’ll assume I’m in enemy hands and run for the hills.”

  “Nothing like certainty in an endeavor,” Angela said with a shake of her head. “We just sent a probe over, but I don’t expect it will spot anything for us. It’s stealthed, so they probably won’t see it arrive. Do you have advice on where to send it once we arrive in the system?”

  He nodded. “The far flip point in this system is almost directly outbound from this one in the next system. They’ll notice your arrival and flip before you can get there.”

  She wasn’t so certain of that. Persephone was an incredibly stealthy ship, and a flip point was a very large volume of space.

  “Stand by for our signal and proceed as you think best,” Kelsey said. “We’ll stay on this side of the flip point until you call for us. Just in case you need him, I’m sending Talbot over. He has the authority to talk if they feel like responding.”

  “Copy that,” Angela said. “Persephone out.”

  “We just received the code that they were talking about,” Jack said. “It’s basically gibberish, so there’s no telling what it really means. It might be instructions to kill the bearer.”

  Angela doubted that, but she wasn’t quite ready to rule it out, either.

  “Send a signal back to the flag. We’re going to let the FTL probe do some scouting before we flip. I want to know the layout on the other side and where any ships might be hiding before we take the plunge.”

  “Will do. We’re getting telemetry from the probe. No ships near the flip point. I’m scanning passively for probes, but that’s not always useful. They’re hard to detect without going active.”

  “I’d be very surprised if there’s one close to the flip point,” she said. “If a ship came over and went active, they’d pick it up right away. Any probes will be far enough back to avoid easy detection.”

  “If they’re that far away, we can take Persephone over without being detected,” Jevon said. “Then we could work in conjunction with the probe to go out to the flip point. If, of course, it’s really here.”

  Angela raised an eyebrow. “You think it might be a fake lead?”

  “If we go right for a flip point that doesn’t exist, that’ll tell them we have their people. That’s a great way to say something without saying it.”

  “I’m not going to go down the path of paranoia,” she said. “We’ll assume this is a valid lead until circumstances say otherwise. Any word on Colonel Talbot?”

  “His cutter is on the way. It’ll dock in fifteen minutes.”

  “Excellent. Let’s send the FTL probe toward where the flip point is supposed to be, Jevon. Take it around a bit so that it’s coming in from the side. We’ll flip once the colonel gets here and circle around the other way. With any luck, we’ll be able to bracket the picket before he knows we’re here.”

  Of course, with bad luck, they’d be sitting ducks when the shooting started. Angela hoped Kelsey had been very convincing with Sommerville. If not, this might be a disaster.

  Kelsey looked at Mertz and Olivia uncertainly across the conference table. They’d finally gotten all the senior people together in the open to plan their next steps. The only person that might have been there that wasn’t was Austin Darrah.

  “You want me to question Fielding?” she asked. “Why? Shouldn’t you two do that? And don’t we already know what we need to know? You put him under the implant reader and pulled the data off his implants.”

  “The important parts are encrypted, just like for the rest of us,” Mertz said patiently. “If he has an access code for getting to Terra via the new route, I’m not seeing it. We have the codes for the original path the Rebel Empire commander intended to use, but we’d have to backtrack to make that work.

  “We’re almost out of the system, so we’ll be able to use the FTL com soon, but it won’t move data at a high enough rate to do us any good. If it did, we could have Carl work on cracking it. It’ll be much easier if we could get them from him. He’s a bastard, but I’ll wager we can make him want to make a deal.”

  “That Carl guy sounds like a natural resource I should be tapping in my own universe,” she said. “Is there anything he can’t do? Hell, I should marry him before he gets away.”

  That sparked a laugh from the other two, but she only shook her head. “You think I’m kidding? I’m not. He sounds just like the kind of man I want at my side. The one with all the answers.”

  That cut off their laughter instantly, setting them to blinking at her in confusion.

  “You don’t think you should meet Talbot first?” Elise asked.

  “Why should I? I’m not exactly the ‘throw myself into danger’ kind of girl your Kelsey is. I’m more than happy to let someone else do the fighting. I need to learn how to lead effectively, and that doesn’t mix well with being in the thick of the fighting.”

  Scott Roche cleared his throat. “I’ve had a lot of time to look over the records you gave us and probably know your Kelsey better than my Kelsey does by a good way. She’s right. Her style will never be the same as your Kelsey. This is confusing to talk about them at the same time, by the way.”

  “I’ve started mentally calling them Kelsey One and Kelsey Two,” Olivia said. “It makes it easier. Sorry, but you’re Kelsey Two.”

  “That doesn’t bother me,” Kelsey said. “If it makes things easier, that works. Go on, Scott.”

  “In any case,” Scott picked back up, “your Kelsey—Kelsey One—is much more impulsive than Kelsey Two. She’s also very much more inclined to use physical force to settle something rather than letting others use force under her command. More like a line marine rather than a platoon leader, if you know what I mean.

  “Kelsey Two is much more comfortable making the call to action from the bridge of a ship and relying on the experience of her military forces. She doesn’t have the same experience as Kelsey One, and even with the Marine Raider implants, she’ll never really be a Raider. Sorry, Highness.”

  “That doesn’t bother me,” Kelsey said with the shadow of a smile. “I got into far too much brutal fighting to ever be comfortable doing that. I was a Pale One, even if only briefly. That left a mark. I already knew that, but talking wit
h Doctor Stone made me see it clearly.”

  Lily Stone nodded. “It’s like twins separated at birth. They aren’t the same people. Don’t try to fit one into the same mold as the other.”

  “And there’s nothing wrong with not being a marine, Highness,” Major Scala said. “It’s not for everyone, and there’s no shame in that. Rely on the marines and we’ll make the magic happen. If your Angela Ellis is anything like the woman she is over here, she’ll make a killer Marine Raider to lead that group. Either her or Russ Talbot. Or both. They’re a great team.”

  He smiled. “Maybe they’ll make a couple, since you seem determined to steal Angela’s husband.”

  That made Kelsey laugh. “From what I hear, she never had the triggers in my universe to fall for someone so different. Me? I spent my youth running around musty libraries. I think someone so studious would make an excellent match. Only time will tell.

  “Now, if we’re done trying to play matchmaker, I’d like to get back to the subject at hand. Admiral Mertz, I’ll do what I need to do, but I still think you or Olivia would make a better choice. Or maybe Elise. Fielding has never seen her before. The surprise might shake something loose.”

  Mertz leaned back in thought. “Maybe, but I’m still inclined to give you lead on this. You’re both a known factor and an unknown one. You can perform feats of strength that will bewilder him. Maybe I should lead the questioning with you, Olivia, and Elise there.”

  “That sounds good,” Kelsey agreed, “but I need to ask how you can trust the answers he gives you. He could lie, and then when we tried to cross a system to get back on course, we’d get challenged.”

  “That is going to be the hard part,” Jared admitted.

  “If I may?” Olivia asked. At their nods, she continued. “You need to remember this is the Rebel Empire. He’ll be inclined to take our threats seriously because he’d mean them if he made them.”