“It has seven moons of various sizes,” AI~Stu said. “It is eleven percent larger than Jupiter, but is of the same type.”
The display filled with tactical annotations as they approached, closer.
“What we are looking for is on the direct opposite side, away from Baytirus,” Barcus said. “It's a ship. A big one.”
“How do you know that?” Po asked.
She looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
“I have no idea.”
He drank deeply from the rich broth now. He was starved.
“The planet. The sight of it. It reminded me, like I have been here before.”
AI~Stu made a broad arc around the planet after it came into his view.
“What is its designation?”
“We most recently named her, the Iosin,” Wex said.
They approached the ship at a thirty degree angle. It was configured like a single ring. There was a globe in the center of the ring, connected by a single arm, like a bicycle tire with a melon in the center, connected by a long pipe.
It all looked to be made out of dark gray stone.
Stats sprouted on every screen around the ship on the display.
“Stu, is this right?” Barcus said, incredulously. “This says it's 3,474.8 kilometers across.”
“I have double checked my scans. The scale is correct.” AI~Stu added information. “The ring is 121 kilometers tall and 103 kilometers thick. The sphere in the center is 257 kilometers in diameter and has a mass and density reading higher than that of Baytirus.”
“Stu, look at these readings. This can't be right. It's configured like a Mass-Harvester but ten times bigger.”
“The Mass-Harvesters are based on this basic design,” Wex said.
“Then that center core holds all the harvested mass?” Barcus asked.
They flew closer and closer. A great, black wedge came into view as the only infrastructure on the massive ship.
A rendered, virtual model of the vessel appeared on the screen. It paused as if viewed from directly above, with the globe in the center, the arm that attached it to the ring straight down to the 6 o'clock position, and the wedge structure at high noon.
“Head there.”
Wex indicated the wedge-shaped structure. It zoomed in on the screen.
“There is the main hangar. Land on the top level. I have no idea what the condition will be in there.”
The hangar bay openings were giant gaping maws of darkness.
“The bay that is farthest from the core is the one we want.”
They were closer now. Light, reflected from the planet, shone into the bays. They were full of ships. Hundreds of ships. Many kinds and sizes. Some of them Barcus even recognized from history books.
“There is gravity in this bay; .97G at this level. Set it down, Stu, as far back as you can,” Wex said, as they passed the plane of the opening to the hangar.
As soon as they entered, lights came on all around. They glowed as if they were being turned up with a slow dimmer. The lights revealed how deep the space was. They kept flying in. There were ships of various configurations parked along each side. None of these were the ones Barcus recognized.
The back wall of the hangar was about two kilometers in. From floor to ceiling had to be 500 meters, at least.
“Barcus, we have atmosphere, pressure, and the right O2 air mix,” AI~Stu said.
“How? That door is still open to space, to vacuum back there. I can see it,” Barcus stated.
“We passed through a gravity wall. It keeps the atmosphere in, but allows ships to pass through it without having to cycle an airlock,” Wex said, matter-of-factly.
“Where did all these ships come from?” Po asked. “Do they work?”
“I don't know those answers. But so far, the Iosin seems functional,” Wex said, as she pointed. “Stu, do you see that uppermost shelf there? The empty one. Let's park there.”
Barcus was dumbfounded. The ship was so big; he was in shock.
“I don't want anyone to panic when the Iosin scans us. It will scan us all, even you, Stu.”
Wex turned and headed for the ladder.
“If the ship is awake and doesn't decide to kill us. It will be interesting.”
Po and Barcus exchanged glances. Barcus knew she was lying again.
Wex was down the ladder before they were unstrapped from their five-point harnesses.
The ramp lowered as Barcus helped Po down. When it had completely dropped, a piling rose up from the floor, and a flood of light briefly illuminated Wex. A voice spoke from all around them in a language only Wex understood.
But Barcus somehow knew it was a greeting and a welcome home.
When they stepped forward, they were flashed as well. Then, all of the STU was illuminated, for an instant.
“Welcome to the Iosin.”
The voice sounded all around them and inside of them.
***
Richard Cook slid the Limo smoothly into the moon base’s garage airlock.
“Damn, this little shuttle is sweet. It only took us three hours to get here. And in comfort.”
Rand was not interested. She scanned the area, memorizing the features, trying to understand why she felt uneasy.
The chamber pressurized, and the inner door indicator turned green. They opened the gull wings and got out. When she opened the inner door into the hangar, she knew why she felt uneasy.
She saw the Warmarks.
They stood there, at attention, in a row. Some stood open, ready for a driver. Others loomed as if they were ready for the world to attack. Hagan inspected the Warmarks with Valerie Hume. There were cases of various weapons and attachments open there as well.
Ever since she had heard that those things had been on the Ventura, hidden in the Memphis, she felt uneasy.
She was a senior security chief on the survey ship. The single largest security issue had not been entrusted to her. Hagan had not known, and neither had Worthington.
What else was kept a secret?
She and Cook moved toward the Memphis, and Cook moon-hopped to the open ramp on the pinnace as he waved.
Rand greeted Hume without wanting to interrupt.
They had the control panel open on one of the Warmarks and a case open at their feet. It was not a weapons or accessories case but some kind of specialized medical device and supplies.
“It has an entire suite of specialty sensors that cannot be accessed unless you have the tailored HUD upgrade,” Hagan told Hume.
“And you just injected? Not knowing what would happen?” she said. “That massive an upgrade usually requires a full med review prior to the update.”
“Please understand, I was already dead.”
Hagan looked lost at that moment. But only for a moment.
“I was going to launch the drop ship toward the planet. I was going to fly them all down, on remote, together, with the grave-chutes deactivated, into an unpopulated area. I didn't want anyone to find them, much less use them.”
He seemed ashamed for his cowardice. Rand thought it was the bravest thing she had ever heard. Maybe because she knew that Hagan understood how lethal the Warmarks were.
“The thing is, the ECHO system must approve the Warmark control upgrade nanites and must be within range on install. Otherwise, they will kill the host, outright.”
Hume looked up at Rand, shaking her head.
Rand said, “It's true. Warmark piloting is an exclusive unit.”
She tapped the control screen, and nothing happened.
“With good reason.”
Hagan looked from one to the other.
“Echo has already asked Worthington for volunteers.”
“I'm in,” came from Rand and Hume, at the same time.
***
Jude and Cine stopped working above and turned off their work lights, just to listen.
CHAPTER TWELVE: Change of Plan
“The existence of the Iosin seed ship remains classif
ied. Its origin and capabilities are also classified. Most classified of all is the fact that we had no idea where it was for the last thirty years.”
--Solstice 31 Incident Investigation Testimony Transcript: General Patricia Chase, senior member of the Earth Defense Coalition.
<<<>>>
Barcus stood at the edge of the landing pad and casually sipped his chicken broth. There was no railing. It was about 300 meters down to the deck below. Wex and Po silently stood a few steps farther back from the edge.
His eye caught movement on a lower landing pad.
They looked like spiders of various sizes. Very much like the Emergency Modules, the EMs.
Po asked, “Didn't you say this ship has been parked out here for hundreds of years? How is it so clean?”
“There are maintenance-bots. Thousands of them, I bet. Millions maybe.”
He looked at Wex, with anger in his eyes.
“These bots, their designs, the EMs are based on these. This ship, the grav-tech harvester ships are based on this design,” Barcus stated.
He tipped up and emptied the thermos and looked out over the giant hangar bay. There were probably a hundred ships in there.
“Dammit,” he said, and threw the thermos out into the hangar.
It barely came to rest when a few small bots scurried out and collected it and the handle that had broken off.
“What's wrong?” Po wondered.
She reached for Barcus, but he ignored her. He got right up into Wex's face.
“This is what they wanted. Isn't it?”
His whisper sounded more like a growl.
“They were tired of a trickle and wanted it all.”
“Yes,” Wex said, not intimidated. “Instead of them, I'm giving it all to you.”
“Why?” Barcus asked.
His hand rested on the hilt of his Telis blade. Po's hand gently surrounded that wrist.
“Because of the long white. My one chance to end the war.”
Wex turned and walked away.
***
Worthington called everyone into the conference room. Everyone showed, except Elkin, Ibenez, Tyrrell, Weston, and Shea. They were still on the planet.
He began, “I know everyone has been wondering why we decided to delay our departure.”
Kuss suddenly raised her hand. Jimbo paused and gestured to her with his chin.
“No. No one wonder. If Worthington say delay, it's for good reason. No questions. Tell us or no, we still do what you need.”
She sat back.
“Yes. Thank you, Kuss. I appreciate that.”
He pressed a control, and the eleven Warmarks came up on the presentation board behind him for everyone to see.
“Most of you look at this and see just another modified maintenance suit, like the one that Barcus uses. More attachments but basically the same.”
He looked around the room.
“You'd be right and also wrong.”
“Warmarks, individually, are a devastating weapon. We have eleven.”
He pressed a button, and lifeboat 4 came up.
“We also have their drop ship and a full complement of weapons, some of which not even Master Chief Randall has seen. Half of the weapons have been banned by treaties in all the united colony systems.”
He let that sink in a minute before continuing. The weapons and specs cycled through, onscreen.
“Add to that an Extreme Combat Hellfire Operations system—an ECHO—and a fully trained team.”
He knew everyone remembered the squad of soldiers assigned to the Memphis that had been killed that day. Everyone thought they were Marines. They were, in fact, Black Badgers.
“Echo is not the chattiest or most forthcoming AI system I have ever worked with, but it has shed a lot of light on recent events.”
***
Barcus and Po followed Wex to the front wall of the bay. It wasn't vertical but curved and slanted at about forty-five degrees. They stepped into a clear globe with a dark, wide, flat floor. Barcus felt a tug in his brain. Not his vision really but some other sense.
It was an elevator. He knew, somehow.
It slid smoothly up the side of the hangar, until it entered the ceiling through a tunnel. A few hundred floors slid by as they moved up and forward. They saw they were rapidly decelerating, but they did not feel it.
The globe came to rest up through the floor in the center of a room about forty meters across; it was a perfect dome with no visible light source. Nine white sofas were arranged in a circle here. There was not a single particle of dust.
Barcus thought, this was just like the HUD dome in the STU. Just the thought activated it.
Unlike in the STU, the floor disappeared. It was as if the three of them were floating in space, in perfect 3D, in every direction. He gasped at the beauty of it all. He felt the heat of the distant sun and knew its temperature. He just KNEW the precise distance to the gas giant and the makeup of its atmosphere and even that it was called Afreet. He felt the solar wind on his body, heard every band of radio frequencies, and even sensed the silence when there was none. He was alive and swimming naked in outer space; and it was like he had been blind his whole life and now saw and felt and heard and tasted...everything.
“Barcus, what's wrong?”
Po had worry in her voice.
“Please sit, before you fall over.”
Barcus looked at Po then, like he saw her for the first time. He slowly descended to one of the lounges there and slumped back.
“What's wrong?”
She was very worried.
“Please, talk to me.”
“She can't...see any of it, Barcus.”
Wex was there now, looking. She drew in a deep breath, and Barcus knew it was the pleasure and the comfortable coolness of space that she felt.
“I'm alright,” Barcus stammered. “Why can’t she see this?”
“She’s not a Scarecrow.”
***
Worthington stood.
“For the last few decades, the new colonization expansion has begun. I don't need to explain that to any of you because we all served on a deep space survey ship with the specific mission to check out planets that might be good for colonization. Better than the last expansion.”
Worthington paced back and forth as he spoke.
“We wanted to avoid the overpopulation pressures that caused the last wave of colonization, the wars and subsequent isolation.”
“So we no leave Earth again in a state that looks like house after frat party over,” Kuss said.
Everyone laughed.
Cook said, “Kuss at a frat party? They never had a chance.”
“Focus,” Rand said, as a bit of anger slipped into her voice.
“That is actually the general idea.” Worthington continued, “The last time, the uncontrolled exodus destroyed the economies on Earth. Faction wars over race and religion skyrocketed as colonies on other planets were created to be 'pure' in several ways.”
“Now, it's 230 years later. Earth has recovered; technology has advanced by leaps and bounds. Colonies have begun trading and even hold diplomatic relationships.”
Jimbo sighed. He turned and looked at the images of the Warmarks.
Hume spoke. “These are third gen Warmarks, with an ECHO system behind them. All the pilots could be dead, and these things would keep fighting. There are two smart-nukes, in there.”
She pointed over her shoulder at the drop ship.
“Nukes with names and personalities. And, they follow orders and even make their own decisions.”
She stood.
“I do not recommend we wake them. They may have contingency orders.”
“Just as I think it's all going really well, it turns out, people are always going to be assholes,” Jimbo said.
“Wait a sec.”
Hagan stood up.
“Let's just ask her.”
“Who?” Kuss asked.
“Echo, have you been listening
to our conversations?” Hagan asked, looking toward the drop ship.
“Yes, of course.”
A small, dark-skin woman appeared behind Worthington. She wore a black military jumpsuit and had an ID badge hanging around her neck. A black badge with white lettering and a photo of her.
“Echo, your primary mission has been aborted, and we require information to determine our next course of action,” Hagan stated.
Jimbo spoke, “What was your primary mission?”
Echo thought about the question a long time for an AI, before answering, “To follow the directions of Captain Alice Everett, no matter what she asked of me.”
“Why?” Kuss asked. It caused Echo to tilt her head, like a cat.
“Captain Everett was operating under special orders from Admiral Krieger.”
Echo turned and looked at the Warmarks.
“There were difficult tasks to be performed. Kreiger believed she needed the right tools for the job. It appears it was not that difficult, as they seemed to have been accomplished by a simple maintenance guy.”
“What tasks, specifically?” Worthington asked.
“Terminate Dalton's genome project and ensure it cannot be restarted,” Echo stated.
“Dalton? Do you mean Chancellor Dalton?” Worthington asked.
She nodded her head and did not stop talking.
“Discover how the chancellor was eliminating entire ships and crews.”
She turned and met Jim's eyes.
“And recover one or more Scarecrows.”
“Wex is a Scarecrow,” Hagan said. “Barcus saw another one in the Citadel, just before it was destroyed.”
“Scarecrow?” Cook asked.
“The literal translation is protectors of the gardens,” Echo replied, including the verbose words in the original language.
Kuss scoffed, “Get it now. Retards back home too stupid to use new word.”
“Captain, there was an additional order,” Echo said. “Recover the Iosin, if possible. Wex’s ship. It is where she is, right now, with Barcus.”
“How do you know that?” Jimbo asked.
Blood of the Scarecrow: Book 3: Solstice 31 Saga Page 8
