Liam would be in space long before anyone began to suspect something might be awry.
As Fionava’s sun receded in the edge-to-edge viewport and the blackness of space took its place, Liam retired to the CO office. Though there had been rampant confusion among the officers on board, the departure itself was executed with a minimum of drama.
He drew in a readying breath and requested Peltski and Charlton on holo.
His expression was properly grave as he addressed them. “Gentlemen, I’m now able to fill you in on our mission. The Second Crux War isn’t as over as the media and official public statements may have led you to believe. The Prime Minister and the EASC Board have determined it is necessary to teach the Federation a lesson, one which will make them think twice about attacking us in the future.”
“But sir, I thought a peace treaty was signed?”
“It was, more or less, but our mission has nonetheless been approved at the highest levels. These actions are extremely clandestine. We will run dark, with no communications allowed beyond our three ships. Spies are everywhere, and if word leaks out too early then Seneca will be alerted to our plans. We can’t allow that to happen. Therefore, I’m implementing a full communications blackout beyond a four megameter radius, effective as of now.
“Our first target will be the Federation colony of New Cairo. Set a course.”
62
SIYANE
UNCHARTED SPACE
* * *
“YOU’RE INSANE.”
“It’ll work.”
“Which does not alter the fact that you are insane.”
Alex gave him her most beguiling smile. “You said that wasn’t a problem. In fact, you said it was one reason you thought I was, and I quote, ‘kind of amazing.’”
“I did. And I meant it. But the fact still remains.”
“Look. The rules of this place are the same as those in our galaxy. The laws of physics will hold.”
“And the portal itself?”
She worried at her lower lip. He didn’t give a damn what she said, the issue concerned her as well. “The portal, whatever it really is, shouldn’t be a problem. Since it’s our portal we don’t have to worry about the shift in axes. And if it is a problem, it’ll be a blip. Even if it knocks us out of superluminal, by the time it happens we’ll be parsecs away. Far enough.”
He found he was on his knees before her once more, and he didn’t care. Still, his chest tightened when she lowered herself from her chair to meet him as an equal.
“You realize we could die, simply by going through.”
She groaned as her forehead dropped to rest on his. “You’re seriously pulling out that line again? We’ll be fine. Promise.”
“I believe you.” He kissed her softly and let her go.
She climbed back in her chair, ran a hand down her hair, straightened her shoulders…and activated the sLume drive.
They were lined up for a straight shot through the portal. An army of ships approached from behind them and more waited on the other side.
At speeds such as this there was no margin for error. Mere meters off and the warp bubble would graze the ring and they would be dead, though at least they’d probably take out the portal with them.
Their speed was so great they had no perception of traversing the portal or warping past the alien ships which lay in wait for them. But eventually they had traveled long enough to be either well outside the center of Metis or have missed the portal altogether and be somewhere else.
Eyes wide, she disengaged the sLume drive and engaged the impulse engine so they wouldn’t be a sitting target. As soon as the stars solidified around them she was a flurry of movement, checking readings and location.
Abruptly she sank back in her chair in winded laughter.
“We’re okay?”
The laughter devolved into full-on giggles as she gazed over at him. “Holy shit, I can’t believe that actually worked.”
“What? You insisted it was a sure thing!”
“Are you kidding? I was terrified. I had no idea if it would work. I mean, I thought it would work—it should have worked—but it’s not like anyone’s ever done something like this before.”
They both stood at the same time, meeting in the middle of the cockpit.
He chuckled against her lips. “God I love you, woman.”
“Good. Want to go save the galaxy?”
“Hell, yes. Where to first?”
“First we send a message. Someone needs to be told what we’ve done and quickly.”
“True. I’m not sure—”
“Hold on. Messages are pouring in, which means my little trick on the comm system worked.” She laughed in amusement. “What do you know, she did remember….”
At his questioning stare she projected an aural. “It’s one of a hundred or so messages from her, but this one was marked ‘super-incredibly-seriously-urgent.’”
Alex,
You remember that project we did—well, you did—at university on quantum field interference? Well something similar is how the aliens are screwing up the exanet. Shield your comm unit; we’re shielding all of ours as fast as we can manage.
God I hope you’re alive.
— Kennedy
“I’m dying to find out what else is happening, but first to reply. Then we need to keep moving.”
Ken,
Way ahead of you. Also alive. We obliterated their superdreadnought factory. Reinforcements will NOT be arriving anytime soon. Tell my mother. Tell someone. More later.
— Alex
He only vaguely noted when she sent the reply off, for his own messages were flowing into his head one after another in rapid succession. Like Alex there were many things he wanted to know, but one particular thing above all. Call him selfish…
…he exhaled as a surge of relief and adrenaline rushed through his veins. He sank against the half-wall and closed his eyes.
“You’ve been cleared?”
He must have been grinning. He reopened his eyes and doubled-down on the grin. “We both have. We’ll still be hunted by a fleet of alien ships and a horde of human traitors but we aren’t fugitives wanted for terrorism and murder.”
She wound her arms around his waist. “This is a start.”
“It is. Let’s go finish it.”
63
EARTH
EASC HEADQUARTERS
* * *
DEVON JERKED AWAKE.
Wha…ah shit, he’d fallen asleep sitting at his cubbyhole desk. He checked the time. Nearly midnight. “Emily’s gonna kill me….”
He unglued his right cheek from the desk and sank back in his chair, rubbing at blurry eyes. Ever since Annie had been cleared for full operation he’d been working almost nonstop.
The bureaucrats were hyper-paranoid she was going to “get out” and kill them all—as opposed to the aliens who were already out and currently killing them all. They insisted on doubled and in some cases tripled security protocols. Protocols which were interfering with her logic subroutines and slowing down her analyses, which simply would not do.
Aliens were spreading across settled space and leaders needed hard information yesterday. The orders had come from the highest whatever: make her more secure, while also making her faster.
Right. Got it. No problem.
Emily was going to kill him. The alien attacks had her nervous. Skittish. She possessed a creative mind and an artist’s view of the world. It made her a crafty hacker because she viewed problems from a different perspective, and also a beautiful painter, but an artist’s view of the world was not always rooted entirely in logic. She was frightened. He got that.
He stood and stretched, and only then realized what had awoken him. A message from Annie blinked in his vision. The priority coding vibration had jolted him out of his slumber.
“Errors are occurring in the communications network on Fionava.”
He opened a direct channel to her. “Annie, what kind of proble
ms?”
“Messages and data are becoming garbled, cut off before completion, or not being sent or received at all.”
“It can’t be the aliens, can it? No way are they all the way over at Fionava?”
“Negative. The errors do not match the interference seen in the vicinity of alien ships.”
“Good. Talk to me. What’s your analysis?”
“Early investigation suggests an 87.6% likelihood a virus has infected the central communications network at the Regional Headquarters. Errors of varying severity are being introduced into the system at a multiplicative rate.”
“Can it get out? Is it in danger of infecting our communications here?”
“Unlikely. The corruption appears to be occurring at the Fionava node, whether it be incoming or outbound data.”
“Well that’s good. Still, pass a recommendation to Security to implement a firewall around Fionava. I’ll tell Tech to try to talk to Comms at the base on Fionava and figure out what’s up. Continue analyzing the network and see if you can identify the root problem, but don’t divert resources from determining where the aliens are going to kill us next.”
“Was that a joke?”
Annie retained mountains of data on human history, behaviors, conventions and mannerisms. Her internalization of the data showed itself sporadically and often at unexpected times, but more frequently every day. “Gallows humor. I mean, technically it is a more or less accurate statement of your directives.”
“Ah. I see. Though an alien offensive does not guarantee with 100% certainty the death of all humans.”
“Optimism—I like it.”
“Thank you. Instructions implemented.”
“Thanks, Annie. I need to go home for a few hours, but I’ll let Brigadier Hervé know about the problem. She’s in some super-secret meeting right now so it may be a few hours before she can issue you any new directives.”
His voice dropped to a mumble as he ran a hand through disheveled hair. It was probably shooting in every direction like he was some loon. “Emily is going to kill me….”
“What do you mean, they’re not attacking?”
Rychen forwarded the images he was receiving to Vancouver and Cavare, and a few seconds later they materialized in a long row above the conference table. “I mean they’re not attacking. Eight Metigen superdreadnoughts are in high orbit above Pyxis. They arrived half an hour ago yet are making no move to launch an assault on the colony. Their orbit is, I’m sure quite deliberately, a single megameter outside the range of Pyxis’ small defense array.”
Prime Minister Brennon’s gaze ran across those present. “This is new behavior, correct?”
“Certainly it—”
Marshal Gianno finished conferring with a colleague and returned to her seat. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I’m now getting reports of similar behavior above Brython and Nystad.”
Miriam looked up sharply at that.
She was situated in the largest conference room Logistics offered, simply because it was the only room large enough to accommodate so many holos. She had been reviewing the most recent data from ANNIE with Brigadier Hervé; they were considering—considering—allowing ANNIE and STAN to talk to each other. The firewalls and security protocols required to engineer such a conversation were going to be a nightmare to implement, which was one reason Hervé had been invited to the meeting.
On the various holos were the combined civilian and military leadership of the Earth Alliance and Senecan Federation. The only person of note absent was General Foster, who was a no-show for unknown reasons.
The meeting had been in session for over two hours, but a number of the finer details had begun to be hammered out for their next steps. It was difficult going at first as disparate leadership styles and procedures and pecking orders had stumbled over one another and tension lingered among those who had been trying to kill each other mere days ago. But eventually the common threat had risen to dominate lesser concerns.
The two military forces wouldn’t be engaging in joint operations—not yet anyway and not unless it became a necessity. They had divided responsibility for protecting the independent colonies, though most had fallen under the Alliance’s purview based on pure geography.
Seneca assumed responsibility for Pyxis, but when the alien—Metigen, she supposed—fleet finally departed Messium and headed to Pyxis the stealth reconnaissance platoon Rychen had left behind to monitor them followed. Evacuations had begun long before the aliens’ arrival, but with a population of nearly 200,000 and no Alliance infrastructure in place it was not a simple endeavor.
But the ships weren’t attacking.
Miriam shifted the marked-up settlement map to the center. A jagged, uneven line had been drawn to mark the advance of the aliens. It canted diagonally through the eastern third of settled space. The line currently sat 3.6 kiloparsecs from Earth but crept distressingly close to Seneca.
She flagged the colonies where the aliens had adopted a holding pattern. “I’m checking Henan and Dresden. Both are on alert, but we need to know ASAP if they see similar behavior.”
Alliance Defense Minister Mori leaned forward in his chair. “Perhaps they’re pausing to regroup. We did inflict damage to them at Messium. They may move more cautiously going forward.”
Miriam shook her head; she noticed Gianno did the same. “But by arriving at these worlds they’ve announced their intentions. By waiting to attack, it’s almost as if they’re daring us to come try again.”
Rychen grumbled. “I concur. They’re taunting us, or trying to provoke us.”
The Federation Chairman, Vranas, signaled agreement. “Neither option means anything good.”
“Still, every minute they don’t attack is another minute more civilians can be evacuated. I say we take full advantage of the opportunity. There’s no guarantee we’ll get a second one.”
Miriam had to admire Brennon’s composure under incomparable pressure. From the moment he took the podium in the Assembly Chamber to accept his reinstatement to the Prime Ministership, he had remained focused, determined and cool-headed. Prior to the crisis she had believed him a competent leader but hadn’t spared much thought on the matter. Now though, she was glad he was in a position of authority, even if he might not be.
Gianno pursed her lips, an interesting glint in her eye. “It so happens I have the entire 2nd Wing of the Northern Fleet stationed half a parsec from Brython. STAN identified it as the most probable next target. Only four superdreadnoughts there. If we wanted to allow them to provoke us, say the word.”
Vranas shrugged. “Frankly, I like the idea. Let’s make it clear Messium wasn’t our final stand—it was our first one.”
The response to her query arrived, and she updated the map. “Dresden is reporting four Metigen ships have adopted an orbital pattern but are not taking any other action.”
“Well, that settles it. They’re making some kind of play. We should—”
We offer you a choice.
“What—”
“Did anyone else get that?”
“Who is this?”
It is not a difficult choice: survival or extinction.
The voice was in her head, but attached to no person or other identifier. Judging by the confused expressions and turmoil around the table, not solely in her head.
Your effort at your Messium colony was an admirable act of defiance worthy of respect, but do not be so foolish as to believe you possess any hope of stopping us.
Brennon had projected his internal comm system so it could be heard by everyone. Nods around the table indicated it matched what they were receiving.
Our forces currently in your territory are but a fraction of those we are capable of wielding. Of those we will not hesitate to wield. Understand you are to us as a bug upon the ground. To flatten you requires but a thought and a step. Whether—
Chairman Vranas actually interrupted the alien. “Whoever you are, we have done nothing to you. We have not threat
ened or approached or offended you. We don’t know—”
Do not interrupt us again.
Miriam supposed the ‘or’ didn’t need to be stated.
Vranas fell silent but didn’t appear chagrined. Instead he and Brennon exchanged a ponderous look. She’d gotten the sense they had taken a liking to one another at the Summit and was grateful for it now.
Whether we choose to extinguish the human species is up to you. Your choice is this: cease all expansion along the Scutum-Crux Arm in the Fourth Galactic Quadrant. Abandon all colonies beyond the parallel 48° 2.9kpcs distance from Earth. You may if you deem it worthwhile continue to explore your galaxy along the Sagittarius and Perseus Arms within the prescribed boundary.
You are granted seven days’ time to withdraw all presence from the region east of the designated parallel. After such time, any excursion beyond this line will be viewed as an act of war. Any attempt to approach the Metis Nebula from the north will be treated likewise.
Brennon waited until the break was clear before speaking up. “For how long? We can’t make promises for those a millennium in the future.”
For all time.
“And if we agree to your terms?”
We will recall our ships.
“That’s it? Do we have your commitment you won’t return at a later point? What if you simply change your mind?”
That will not occur.
Brennon and Vranas exchanged another glance before Vranas responded. “We need time to discuss your offer. Can we—”
You have eighteen minutes.
Silence fell for several beats, then everyone was speaking at once.
“We can’t possibly tell them—”
“Why the Hell are they—”
“A week isn’t enough time to evacuate—”
“They ask us to leave behind too much.”
Miriam stared at the map. Brennon was correct. On the other side of the demarcation line were twenty-eight colonized planets, a quarter of the worlds humanity had settled in the last three hundred years. A number had now been leveled by the aliens but a core framework remained; they could be rebuilt.
Aurora Rising: The Complete Collection Page 90
