The Far Field: A Military Science Fiction Epic (Seedlings Book 1)

by Richard Sosa

  In the apartment overlooking the church, Overseer Abulanket peered out his window. His fat fingers tapped on the pane as he thought. He saw the news glider and information drones circling the church. Members of his church were speaking to authorities and his enemies pointed up at his apartment. A troop transport pulled in front of the apartment complex. Abulanket put his hand on his chin contemplating his options, from his back window he could see the police and some military moving along the alley. He had no exit. He examined his wrist unit with an earbud and tentatively turned it on. “Is this thing secure?” He watched out the window while listening, “I have transmitted all the plans and most of the credits.” He frowned, “No, don’t stop. All the things we need have been moved so don’t worry.” He pointed up his finger in the air for emphasis, “don’t worry about that.” He searched the alley below, it was empty and shook his head, “it's not your concern, just do your part. God be with you my son.” He set down the earbud and sat on his bed. Abulanket retrieved his pulse weapon from the bed stand and steadied himself for a battle.

  Abulanket glanced at the door to his room as a tentative light tapping occurred on the other side. “Yes?” The silent tapping continued. He stood up and opened the door.

  Novice Herium was standing back from the door. He was a thin, pale, man with red eyes from crying, his hands folded in front of him and his shoulders were hunched over. His body trembled and he looked up at the Overseer and pointed out the window behind him with a shaking hand, “soldiers are walking around the building. What should we do? Overseer, I am afraid.”

  The Overseer inspected the man. “Herium, did you urinate on yourself?”

  “I am afraid,” He scanned the windows and looked around the area to find someplace to run, “they peered into the bathroom and I ran out.” The Novice wrapped his arms around himself and sniffled, “What…what are we going to do? What’s going to happen?”

  Abulanket gestured at the young man into his room and rooted around in his bag. He removed a thin black tube. The tube had a heel on its bottom as if it could stand, there were red and white small lights that chased around the heel in opposite directions. It looked like a child’s toy. The Novice frowned at it but also eyed it with terror. “What’s that?”

  Abelanket regarded the instrument in his hand as he adjusted it with manipulations. “This is my aspergillum. It’s not for holy water but it has been blessed. We will leave through the tunnel under the seminary.”

  “No, there are rats down there. Let's just go outside. Those soldiers will take care of us.”

  “My son,” Abelanket put his hand under the shaking Novice’s chin, “go with God.” He put the instrument to the boy’s face and moved it to his forehead keeping it on the boy’s forehead for a long moment. The Novice’s shoulders pushed back as he stood straighter and he stopped shaking. He looked around the room and back at the Overseer with a flat smile on his face. The overseer regarded the boy but kept the instrument on his temple. He turned off the aspergillum. “You take this instrument of God,” Abelanket ordered as he placed the instrument in the man’s hand, “through the seminary tunnel and go to the Jarheim House, then find Priest Gramber in the Berkiam region and ask him to deliver it to the Trimair-ek Provence,” Abelanket crushed his hands over the Novice’s holding the instrument, “do you understand?” The Novice smiled at him and placed it in his pocket. Abelanket rooted in his bag and gave the Novice a pulse weapon and a knife, “kill anyone that tries to stop you or if you need a diversion. If you need resources to carry on God's work steal them. Until you get to Berkiam and deliver this, you cannot get captured. Do you understand?” The Novice inspected the weapon and expertly loaded it and put it in his pocket and then viewed his new knife and smiled as he lightly ran his finger along the sharp edge. He nodded at the Overseer. “Herium,” the Oversee said to get his attention, “when you give this to the Priest that you seek. You may go to your reward. Find someplace where your body will not be located and use this knife to cut your throat. You are an instrument of God.” The Novice smiled at the Overseer and quickly left the room. Abelanket heard the cellar door open, close and lock.

  The soldiers at the Overseer’s front door leaped back when they heard the single pulse blast and a ‘thud’ from a large body landing on the floor as dead weight.

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  The hinges on the door shook with each blow from the battering ram and then the door flew open with a shower of splinters and dust. Lights pointed in all directions as soldiers searched for movement in the small room. They carefully advanced into the tight space making sure all the places where someone could be hiding were cleared. An instrument to detect bombs was blinking.

  “All clear here.” A soldier shouted.

  Dask stepped through the entry where his large frame was barely able to pass through the small false vault. “I need a recorder and a forensic sweep,” he ordered, “be sure and disarm anything remotely acting like a bomb. Carefully neutralize and remove any explosives and move them to the secure transport unit. Gods, what the hell were they planning?”

  Rik stepped through the doorway behind Dask and looked at everything in the room. There were tables piled with pulse rifles, handguns, flash bombs.

  A soldier called out. “Sir, there’s more back here.”

  Crates of weaponry and military technology were stacked to the ceiling. A soldier scanned the materials with his instrument. “Sirs, most of this shit is stolen, some cobbled together from older warehoused parts and most markings and identification has been lasered off the metal parts.” Dask inspected the bins. “There’s monitoring equipment for spying and that plastic bin is filled with explosive devices,” he tilted his head, “looks like C4, Plamatic-7, disruption wave detonators and crap, old canisters of weaponized viruses.” Dask closed his eyes and blew out a tired breath. “Program a stabilizer for continuous scan and neutralize this stockpile, I don’t want an accidental discharge.” He turned to Rik. “These are the weapons of terrorists intent to hurt a lot of people.”

  Rik noticed something familiar on the table and bent his head sideways as he inspected. “Can I touch this?”

  Dask held his hand up. “Wait let’s have the scanner Tech do his job.”

  A soldier ran a handheld unit over it and then put the scanner under the table, he inspected his instrument and said, “Sir, it’s clear.”

  Rik lifted the locator unit and examined it. “This is a replica from an original plan. Must have been created from Neil’s plan or may be stolen from him.”

  Dask said matter-of-factly, “That can’t be Dad’s locator,” and was disinterested, “it’s a worthless replica.”

  Rik set the replica back on the table and took out his. “They don’t sync,” he frowned as he examined his unit and then turned both units on to their send and receive cycle and monitored his unit, “the replica isn’t working as a locator,” It buzzed and produced static on Rik’s locator that died away. “I know that reading, Dask when I first arrived here, I received this exact reading. I thought it was Neil trying to reach me, but the signal wouldn’t hold. Something was wrong with it and I concluded Neil must be in trouble,” Rik contemplated, “I was being baited out for a sniper.”

  “They are or have been well funded, I have my ideas who is behind the credit trail, but we can’t prove anything yet. The special investigator is pulling on the forensic financial data and we must keep this under wraps until she’s done,” Dask said, “the Provider and possibly others like him were out to kill you. I should have been more circumspect.”

  Rik set the instrument back on the table. “That’s what Iris said also.”

  Dask looked at his watch. “Don’t you have a production meeting to get to? I need

  everything to stay on track.”

  Rik glanced at his time unit as well and grimaced. “You people are riding me all the time.” He smiled at Dask and quickly left the area leaving while Dash continued to survey the room.

  Da
sk spoke his mind to the drone recording. “I wonder why the Provider didn’t mention this place?”

  A soldier checked the inventory created in his scan. “Sir, there are no new generation

  weapons here. A lot of this stuff looks impressive but it's old.”

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Rik arrived at the Tech Center for his meeting and walked through a quiet hallway. He noticed at the end of a hallway a quite comatose café and he contemplated a dol-ve. He saw the meeting room numbers on the door, TECH 45 MEETING ROOM and steadied himself with eyes closed and hand on the doorknob and it was harshly yanked from his hand as it opened, a person ran out past him and someone yelled from inside, “You better run.” Rik stepped into the room, which was larger than he imagined. There was chaos everywhere. A wad of paper flew by his ear, he smiled, followed by a graphing calculator that slammed on the wall, his smile vanished. MekTaj-jec pointed at a group of engineers and yelled, “Don’t give me shit. These calibrations are not going to work, redo them.” He tossed the drawings on the floor and turned his attention to the scientists who modeled the kill points for him, he scanned the group and turned his attention to their lead. “Reagnol, let me guess, you’re drunk, right? Because that’s the only way you could do such a shit job. Remember the brain is here, he pointed to a lower location on the drawing, so put the control on laser splinters lower. Make it work. Thanks for the effort but take another stab at it,” he pointed to a group of engineers, “Test Group Six, back these guys up, I need this done by tonight.” MekTaj-jec noticed Rik and smiled. “Hey Captain spaceman F-up, glad you could stop by, we have some items in production to show you.”

  Rik eyed MekTaj-jec. “Drop the F-up part, that’s not my real name. Aren’t we supposed to be having a meeting?”

  MekTaj-jec looked side to side. “We are, this is how engineers hold meetings, we talk over each other, we do our work while others are talking, we throw things on the floor. Seriously, here’s the update, my guys are doing the design and Level One group is testing, Ra is doing the math and Gelka-tec, remember him, he is refitting and re-testing and levels Two through Seven are final testing and putting everything into production at three hundred forty locations. I have the easy part.”

  Rik observed the work. “No weapons production here?”

  “No, we’re not as advanced as you but we’re not that stupid. That level of production is out in the sector thirty-four area and then we stage everything completed at munitions. Heard about the people who tried to kill Iris.”

  “They tried to kill both of us.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t give a shit about you.” MekTaj-jec slapped Rik hard on the back making him lurch forward and smiled.

  “If you didn’t have that technology that makes you a good fighter, I’d be kicking your ass about now,” Rik’s eye turned deadly, then he smiled.

  “Let’s take a ride,” MekTaj-jec said and led the way out the room.

  The hoover skimmer craft moved fast over the city and within no time Rik could see the layout of an industrial park, “Is that it?” he pointed to the distant buildings and runways.

  “Yeah. Gelka-tec is excited to show you the new weapon.”

  Once they landed Rik noticed Flyers with red and green tags on the wings. Staging and testing were proceeding at an overdrive pace. The Techs ran back and forth and danced with anticipation if they had to wait for someone to finish a part or sign a document. Rik scanned the activity in the large room and jumped when a flash exploded inside a long tube that ran through the building. Another flash of light that sounded like a jet of water combined with an electrical arc sound made Rik jump again. A loudspeaker announced, ‘Test Four Seven Alpha complete. Stand by.’ Techs closest to the tube pushed up their eye protection to their forehead and bent over their monitors. Rik heard them clapping and cheering.

  Gelka-tec approached and smiled. “Rik, space captain F-up, it’s great that you could make it. We have the preliminary testing completed and we believe we can reach a level twelve ratio.”

  Rik frowned. “What’s a level twelve ratio?”

  Gelka-tec glared at MekTaj-jec. “I can’t rely on you to do anything. You said you would brief him.”

  “You do it, this is your project anyway,” MekTaj-jec said and turned to Rik, “this is the guy who pirated your stuff before you gave the cube to Karl. The head start helped us.”

  Rik shook his head. “Lots of that going around. What do you have? Start with the ratio thing.”

  Gelka-tec cleared his throat. “The ratio is a factor of combined laser power that we believe will breach the Orb surface. If all the data we have about those things is accurate, we can do that now.”

  “How are you testing this?” Rik wondered.

  MekTaj-jec read his notes on his IARI, “Very carefully. Doctor Megs identified the elements of the creature’s exoskeleton and then we developed the compounds, some compounds we had to invent. We were able to extrapolate something they might build for space travel. It’s not perfect until we can get an actual sample, but it will be close.”

  Rik ran his hand through his hair. “That is impressive.”

  Gelka-tec smiled and then had a determined expression. “Right now, we don’t have a material on the planet that can withstand the laser. The twisted light technology is a massive amount of power. We’re playing with fire like blind children.”

  They inspected and walked the long length of the complex; Rik no longer noticed the laser flashes in the tube on the other side of the building or the large thundering sounds as engines were being tested to extremes. Rik read the information and held up his laptop for everyone to see. “We can do this. Karl's work along with my cube data and this team's work is the solution I am certain of it. The liquid crystals wrap the pulse lasers around twisted light and your gravity well technology gets this done. It's an ass load of power. The energy focus doesn’t degrade in space even over large distances.” Several Techs were visibly relieved, smiled at Rik. Rik pointed to the data on his laptop. “This is the primary weapon. Then we’ll use regular lasers modified with the same technology and old fashion cannon ceramic projectiles using the new hardened material. We'll tear them to shreds in space once they are compromised.” Rik settled into a team and worked with Gelka-tec and Ra through the night.

  The next day at the Military Services Bunker Megs inspected Rik and her eyebrow arched. “Rik, did you sleep last night? You look like Karl. Maybe try to run a comb through your hair.”

  Iris looked over at Rik and tried to smooth his hair out. “He worked all night nonstop.”

  Dask stepped in and looked at his Laptop. “From the update, I’ve received the production people are close to having a lead weapon that facilitates our advantage. Let’s get the Teacher Units Applications online and copy the training modules with these weapons modifications and have everyone start getting familiar with the technology.” He marshaled Rik to his side, “finally I feel hopeful about all of this. Let’s get our pilots up to speed, son.”

  “Roger that,” Rik turned his computer to Dask and Megs. On the screen was a visual of a flock of birds in a group flying together and then scattering to confuse the predator in the air and then they rejoined in flight again. The birds flew over the cornfield in a unified dynamic flowing wave. Rik pointed, “Your pilots are learning this defensive process. I'll demonstrate the maneuvers for—"

  “He's been training all night. He worked out the flight process and then the navigation routine. Then he worked on various exit flight patterns needed during a fight. He has these named and ready to go,” Iris said excitedly, “anyway, I copied him to the Teacher Units Applications and hardcoded the applications on the common net, so it captured and mimicked every detail, every hand motion. It can be replayed and trained. As the pilots learn they enhance everyone else’s training because Ra installed an AI component.” She regarded Rik with a proud smile on her face.

  “Science monitored as well. What an interesting concept, swarming beha
vior,” Megs said as she stepped up to Rik, “that’s a survival tactic and it appears we are going to use it here to optimize our attack but also to minimize our losses. Good work mister F-up.”

  Rik calmly set his laptop on the table and turned to address everyone in the room. He shouted. “Listen up everyone. This is important. My god damn name is not ‘mister F-up’. Please update your damn data and remove that out. My name is Rik Onanes, period.” He picked up the laptop and moved to a corner ignoring everyone. He smiled at Doctor Megs and approached showing her his device. “Game system protocols, that’s what the training modules are composed of and so I learned to pilot quickly. Once I worked out the moves, Rabid did the math and then a bunch of these geeks came online, and we were able to map the entire sequences overnight. Iris connected me to all these gamer people. They don’t sleep. I would never have been able to do all this in one night. Then Stu Oman used his experience to track how we could change up the routines immediately and still stay in the fight. He’s a very experienced combat pilot. Iris helped as well. So now, each pilot gets on-line, trains, their movements are recorded, they get instant correcting information and then it's shared as they learn and improve,” he regarded Dask, “in no time, old man, these pilots will all fly like one person just like these birds in the cornfield on my laptop.”

  Everyone had their heads buried in their work and correcting Rik’s profile information. Dask was impressed but turned to Iris with a disapproving stare. “I always thought these gamers were a bunch of losers. What the hell?”