by Mike Freeman
Redemption Protocol
Mike Freeman
A thrilling story of exploration, intrigue, battle and vengeance set on a distant alien world...
Redemption Protocol is a hard hitting space opera/ scifi adventure. It is the FIRST book in the Contact series.
Rated [R]. Violence, sex, profanity.
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Thanks for buying this book – I hope you enjoy it.
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Copyright © 2011 Michael Freeman.
US English Amazon edition V1103.1.45.US
Redemption. Being made free from the power of evil.
Protocol. Procedure for healing a disease or condition.
Localization
This book automatically customizes to its delivery location, currently [Earth]. This customization includes measurement units and cultural analogies. If you wish to change location please tap the cover of your sense device three times and state your preferred planetary system.
Communication
A cast is an encrypted radio communication transmitted from mind to mind. It is usually perceived as a voice in the recipient’s head. People frequently speak the words they are casting, though not always. Where speed is of the essence, casts are streamed to text in the recipient’s mind’s eye and thousands of casts can be received, processed and transmitted in a single second.
A point communication is transmitted from person to person through direct contact. Point comms use a sealed interface and are almost impossible to eavesdrop.
Where it may clarify the text, the ‘>’ sign is used to distinguish cast communications.
Six Days of Night
Damnation
Reflection
Resurrection
Revelation
Retribution
Reckoning
Damnation
1.
Anna ran up the corridor, doused in red flashing lights, her feet rapping out the rhythm of her fear. A multitude of ship alarms tore at her senses, superfluous. She knew the intruder was close behind her, massive and heavily armored.
Invulnerable.
Terror ripped at her senses, her face set in a silent scream. She clawed at the air as she ran, grasping for more speed, for salvation.
Her uniform was soaked in Sarah's blood and brain splatter.
Sarah, her best friend, was dead.
She knew she was going into shock. It didn't help.
On shipnet, the dot depicting the intruder swept along, implacable and merciless. Seven of her crewmates’ vitals were dark – deceased. Ten of them left.
A life blinked out of existence.
Nine left.
She gasped. She wanted to close her eyes and hide. This couldn't be happening. It couldn't be real. The intruder’s dot converged smoothly with the end of the corridor behind her. There was a bright flash.
Eight left.
The end of the corridor was coming, but it wasn't coming fast enough.
She found religion in those last few meters; begging, pleading, willing her Lord to save her.
Please, God, let me make it.
~ ~ ~
Tully looked over at Katie, the girl that wild horses couldn't drag out of his mind, as she sat surrounded by her friends. So near, yet so far.
The square outside his building had a small playground with a merry-go-round, a slide and some swings. Katie sat on the right hand swing with one foot dangling beneath her, like an angel perched in the crook of the moon. As Tully looked over, his heart rate accelerated and his hands began to sweat. Katie glanced across and he smiled.
Too late. By the time he’d smiled, she'd looked away.
Why was this so difficult? His entire life now revolved around asking her out. Stage one: plan to ask her out (infinite detail), stage two: fail to ask her out (infinite embarrassment) and stage three: regret not asking her out (infinite remorse). Repeat cycle until death, apparently.
He couldn't stop thinking about her; her blonde hair, her pink hair band and the quirky black socks she wore with her white sneakers. Her skin looked smooth and soft – he wanted to touch it. He knew his mum would go nuts at him asking out a girl who had, heaven forbid, blonde hair. But every time he saw her it made his whole day better. Unless, that is, he'd told his buddy Jan that he was going to ask her out. Talk about pressure.
“You're staring, Tully.”
He looked away.
“Well?” Jan said.
“Today is the day.”
“You said that yesterday.”
“Today.”
“And the day before.”
“Try and help me, Jan!”
“She wants you. She keeps looking at you. What's the worst that can happen?”
“Humiliation. Embarrassment. Ridicule.”
“Only words. You read too much poetry.”
“Words have weight, my father says.”
“It's not your father you want to kiss though, is it, Tully?”
~ ~ ~
Anna collided with the wall at the end of the corridor and pushed herself sideways, rounding the corner in the nick of time. She sprinted the last few meters to the bridge and launched herself through the open doorway.
Captain Morgan thrust a weapon into her hands.
“Here.”
He pointed to the far side of the room. Anna hurried past crewmates crouching behind consoles. They hadn't had any time. No one was even wearing a suit. They were overmatched and underequipped. The attack, so far inside Alliance space, was a total shock. She imagined Karver separatists. But the capability of the intruder was beyond expectations. It was outrageous.
She stopped on the far side of the room, furthest from the door. Seven crew left. Their last stand. There was nowhere else to go.
“Should we jettison the LX?” she asked.
Captain Morgan smiled and shook his head. He stood to one side of the doorway with his weapon raised.
She watched on shipnet as the intruder approached. The image of the intruder’s heavy combat suit flickered and froze. She frowned. Surely the intruder couldn't have disrupted shipnet?
She had to get out of here. She was on leave in two days time; three whole weeks with Stevie. She'd been planning it for months.
She looked down at her tunic and grimaced.
“Any help?” she asked.
“Help is on its way,” their Communication Officer confirmed.
“How long?”
There was a pause.
“Ten. Ten minutes.”
No one said anything. No one had to.
~ ~ ~
Katie sneaked another glance at Tully. He had dark unruly hair and light coffee skin. He was thin and wiry and delicious. She thought he looked exotic. At night when she thought about him, she imagined his kiss would taste exotic, like rare spices. At night, the thought of his lips made her feel hot and restless. Now, it just made her feel frustrated.
“What's he doing Mel?” she asked, for perhaps the eighth time.
“He's looking at you.”
“Ugh. What's wrong with me?”
“Nothing. He likes you. He's just a coward.”
“No, he isn't,” she hissed.
“Then why isn't he coming over?”
“Because he wants it to be perfect.”
“Duh. Maybe there are too many of us. Maybe that's what's scaring him.”
“He's not scared!”
“You want us to go?”
“No, no way.”
“Ooh, are you scared?”
“Mel!”
“What wi
ll your mum say?” Mel crossed her eyes. “She'll. Go. Nuts.”
Katie laughed.
~ ~ ~
Anna hefted the unfamiliar weapon in her hand. She was a flight navigator, for God's sake. What was she meant to do with this thing? Captain Morgan gestured at her to get down. She ducked down behind the forward console, shielding herself from the doorway.
She looked around. There was nothing but bulkhead and screens behind her. She clung onto her weapon. She had to make it out of here.
Captain Morgan exuded confidence. They were properly armed and their defensive position was strong. Help was on its way. Her face grew determined. She was going to make it out of here.
Captain Morgan cleared his throat.
“Unauthorized intruder. I will give you––”
There was a loud bang, then silence.
Anna swallowed. She forced herself to look around the side of the console. Captain Morgan's headless body stood, one hand still raised, next to a smoking hole in the wall.
Fire erupted from her crewmates, obliterating the wall. Captain Morgan's tottering corpse disintegrated. She cowered behind the console with her heart galloping. Someone was screaming.
It was her.
~ ~ ~
Tully stared over the yawning chasm at Katie.
At night, it was simple, clear and obvious. In the day, with Katie so close by, it was complicated, labyrinthine and opaque.
At night, his confidence was a mountain, rising above the clouds like a beacon for the world. Now, looking at Katie, his confidence would comfortably fit in a toddler’s bucket. It trickled away like sand in an hourglass, shrinking with every passing second of procrastination.
Jan sighed.
“C'mon, Tully, we have to get to class. You've had your chance. Again.”
Ouch.
“No. Wait.”
“You always say that, Tully. Tully?”
His legs were striding forward. He didn't know who was controlling them or what was powering them. He could hardly feel them. He floated into no man's land.
“Tully!”
He turned his head. Jan was grinning like an idiot.
“Remember to smile.”
Tully nodded as his legs carried him away from Jan and toward his blonde Princess.
“Good luck!”
~ ~ ~
Anna felt time dilate, deforming under the pressure of events.
Thousands of hammers pounded anvils, battering her senses. The bridge reeked of brimstone; the kinetic rounds traveling so fast they burned the very air around them. Pungent smoke curled around her. The red combat lighting colored it blood, transforming the bridge into a tenth circle of hell. She drew her knees up and hugged herself, desperate to be anywhere but here.
Two of her crewmates blinked out of life.
Five of them left. She needed to do something.
With her teeth clenched and her eyes screwed shut, she thrust her weapon around the side of the console and discharged it. The weapon danced in her hands as the micromissiles streaked out, spiraling across the bridge and seeking out her enemy.
She was punched hard in the stomach and driven back by the stunning force of the blow. Her eyes popped open. She found herself slumped against the bulkhead with a gaping hole in her abdomen. She opened her mouth to express surprise. A mouthful of blood splashed down her tunic.
She vened hytelline, took everything, all at once.
Shit.
~ ~ ~
“Katie! He's coming!”
“What?”
“He's com... oh, he's stopped.”
“Stopped?”
“No, he's coming. He's definitely coming over! Ooh.”
“Mel!”
Mel squeezed her arm, hard.
“Stay calm. Don't giggle. But do smile. But don't witter. He's nearly here!”
“Mel!”
“Ooh, exciting!”
~ ~ ~
Anna tried to concentrate. Only two of them left. She felt numb and distracted. She looked absentmindedly at her weapon, a meter from her hand.
Standing in the doorway, obscured by the haze and bathed in red light, was the black silhouette of the intruder. Their jetpack reared up like demonic wings as smoke drifted from their shoulder racks.
It was the devil, come to collect.
The intruder walked forward with their right arm raised like tyrannical justice. Her final crewmate stood up and... died. So quick, so meaningless.
Her gut ached in a distant, remote way.
The devil approached her.
She raised her eyes and stared at him. She was the final remaining member of the Alliance Vessel Defiance. She'd never thought of the name as ironic, until now. She thought about Stevie in his dungarees. She brought up a picture of her son in her mind's eye. Maybe she should try to dictate a message, say something.
The reality of what was happening hit her.
She sobbed.
~ ~ ~
Tully stopped in front of the swing.
Katie looked up at him. Her expression was cool. She had a lollipop in her mouth and twirled the stick in her right hand.
The girls looked wary and a bit, well, scary. Tully looked down at Katie's cute black socks. Shit, he was looking at his feet. Attitude. He raised his head. Katie’s best friend, Mel, lifted her chin.
“Yeah?”
“Hi.”
He didn’t know what else to say. Nothing came to mind.
Mel smirked. Tully’s mind raced. He was blowing it. He'd had so many cool things to say, but now they all seemed lame. He was on another continent over here. A foreign continent. He turned to look back at Jan.
Jan shouted, loud enough to clear traffic.
“You're the man, Tully!”
He grinned.
“Hi, Katie.”
“How do you know her name?” Mel demanded.
Katie gently smacked Mel’s arm. Hope surged in Tully.
“I was wondering if you want to see a holo sometime?”
She looked up at him, sucking on her lollipop, prolonging his agony.
“You know, erm, together. Like, a date.”
“Ooh,” said the girls.
Tully caught the hint of a smile at the corners of Katie’s mouth.
He waited in trepidation.
He never realized how long a second was before.
~ ~ ~
Havoc stood by the forward console, cloaked in smoke and red light. He retracted his visor as he deftly flicked switches and communicated by cast. He didn't bother to mouth the words.
“I'm in.”
“I never doubted you, Son.”
“These clones are useless.”
“They're meant to be the best.”
“A real crew wouldn't be so easy.”
“Hmm.”
“Ok, weapons configured... and away.”
Havoc thought about what Forge had said about the clones. It sounded expensive.
“They're not going to give me a hard time about the clones are they?”
“Don't worry, Son. I'm sure that will be the least of their worries.”
“Good.”
He frowned. The clone lying in front of him was trying to speak. It coughed blood.
“Please. Help me.”
“Hell, General. Clones begging for their lives. What next?”
“It tests resolve, Son.”
“I have a son.”
“You're calling me Son and she's telling me she's got a son.”
“She?”
“You know what I mean.”
“He's called Stevie.”
~ ~ ~
Tully watched Katie as he bubbled in a pot of hope and fear.
Katie pulled the lollipop out of her mouth and gave him a cute smile. Her voice was playful.
“What do you want to take me to see?”
He might actually do this!
“Weelll,” he said, racking his brain.
He realized that his face was seriou
s. Smile, Jan had said.
He smiled effervescently.
Katie smiled back.
It was working!
~ ~ ~
Havoc stepped back and savored the moment.
“Full saturation. It's done.”
High in the atmosphere of Jemlevi, the munitions starburst. The shells rocketed outward before starbursting again, deploying hundreds more canisters. Viewed from above, the expanding circles looked like bacteria reproducing on a slide.
“Well done, Son. You should feel proud. You've done a great thing.”
Havoc felt elated. It was the pinnacle of his professional career. A twelve month covert operation culminating in the penetration of a military ship on active duty. A one man mission to highlight critical security weaknesses that could cost millions of lives. Now they could assess the threat and take proper steps. Months of follow up and closing the loop, but not by him. His job was done.
He felt justified pride in himself, his service and his boss, General Claudius Forge.
“Thank you, Sir. I couldn't have done it without you.”
“Well, hell, Son, I know that.”
He laughed.
The clone choked.
“Please.”
He looked at it, bemused.
“Damn, you are convincing.”
“Help me.”
“Help you what?”
“To live. My son.”
He shook his head. The clone stared at him, its features at a loss.
“What kind of monster are you?”
He felt a twinge. It was too much. Someone in aesthetic design deserved an award.
He shot her in the head.
It, he corrected himself.
~ ~ ~
Tully grinned.
It wasn’t by choice. His cheeks pulled outward as if someone had hooked their fingers around the corners of his mouth.
He was really grinning now.
