The Redwood Trilogy Box Set

by Jaxon Reed

  I was rich, but only recently thanks to an inheritance from Professor Milton Kalinowsky, who died in the Battle of Redwood about a year previously. I had also travelled to several planets down string, as well as Orange up string. But that was thanks to my status as a Servant of the State on Redwood before the University Revolution.

  Space travel had become so automated that serving as a pilot was considered menial labor. Things rarely, if ever, went so wrong that human intervention was required. As a Servant of the State I had often been assigned pilot duty. But even with my travel perk, I had never gone farther down string than Alexandria, three planets away from Redwood.

  As we watched, several men dressed in bulky suits exited an airlock and headed down into the atmosphere below.

  “They’re headed for the forest,” Sledge said.

  I said, “Looking for Fred and others like him, no doubt.”

  “Can those suits survive reentry?” Jacob asked, his dirty blond hair reflecting back the sunlight showing on the monitor.

  I shrugged. We watched as they maneuvered in unison, heading down toward the planet’s surface.

  “Looks like they expect them to.”

  We were at war. The University Revolution had erupted on the outer planets, cutting us off from the rest of civilization. But we discovered war had spread among many of the middle and inner planets on the string as well, finally making its way to Old Earth.

  We also found out Old Earth had set up a high tech communications network among Agents and GPs on the distant planets. Their quantum communicators could relay information in real time, rather than waiting on light or radio signals to pass through the rings.

  Word of our capabilities as “vampires” had spread from New Texas back to Old Earth in record time. Dee Dee and I are particularly hard to kill, and our restorative powers are incredible so long as we have access to fresh blood.

  The revolution was not going the State’s way. Most of their fighters across the string were dead. Closer to home, all assassination efforts against us personally had failed. In one particularly dramatic episode, I’d survived being shot point blank a few times before taking out the gunman.

  New Texas A&M, or at least the Board of Regents and President Montoya, decided against trying to weaponize our abilities. If you have a bunch of hematophagic warriors requiring blood, and who can infect others, eventually you’ll run out of people. Or, some other horrendous possibilities might occur, like having groups of humans cultivated for food. They were forward thinking enough to rule out expanding our numbers beyond Dee Dee and me.

  But the bureaucrats back on Old Earth didn’t see it that way. All they considered was the possibility of an invulnerable army which could take back the planets where they were losing the war.

  So, they reconfigured the Janus ring in synchronous orbit with Janus One. Every Janus ring needs a “counterweight” in orbit, but Janus Zero didn’t lead anywhere. Until now.

  Now the Janus String had become a circle, with a direct link from Old Earth to Orange, the last planet. Old Earth had sent a ship through, with plans to stop at Redwood, the second to last planet. There, they were tasked with finding Fred, the hematophagous monkey that had infected Dee Dee. Or one of the others like him. Reports indicated about a dozen existed on the planet.

  Major Moore said, “If they get Fred’s blood back up to that ship, they’ll be able to form an indestructible army.”

  Sergeant Sledge nodded. He added, “And the next stop is New Texas.”

  Moore turned to me and gave the order.

  “Arm this thing and take that ship out, Savitch.”

  I nodded and gave the computer the control codes I’d memorized our first day out.

  In ancient days, ships and other vehicles could fire torpedoes through the water at one another. In space, we use missiles. But they’re essentially the same thing, operating on the same principle: send an explosive close enough to the opposing ship in order to breach its hull. Our corvette had four missiles.

  I launched one center, right and the other center, left in case it tried evasive maneuvers. Then I shot one center, up and one center, down. No matter which way it turned, at least one of them should hit, I thought. We watched on the screen as the missiles raced out toward the larger spacecraft in the silence of space.

  When they came close, an energy shield materialized, shimmering in the sunlight. All four missiles exploded harmlessly, far from the ship.

  Sledge muttered a curse word under his breath. Moore grimaced.

  “We should have expected them to have defenses.”

  “Looks like we caught their attention,” I said, pointing at the screen. A small missile shot out from the side and headed straight toward us.

  “Can we avoid that thing?”

  “I’ll try.”

  I took over manual control of the ship, and pulled us down toward the atmosphere. The missile changed course and followed us.

  “It’s going to hit!”

  “Everybody brace for impact!”

  At the last minute, it exploded in a flash of light. Our engines stopped, and we drifted. The lights flickered, then went out. We could still see, though, from the glow of the monitor and lights on the control board. We all began floating around the cabin as the artificial gravity went out.

  “What happened?” Moore said. “What was that?”

  Jason spoke up.

  “I believe, Major, that was an electromagnetic pulse. Or something like that. It was designed to take us out while leaving the ship intact.”

  “He’s right,” I said. “The only thing I have left is emergency landing power. Which I guess is what we’ll have to do. Everything else is shut down, including life support.”

  Even as I spoke, the air seemed to grow stale and stuffy.

  Moore looked back at the monitor, with the Old Earth ship growing smaller as it receded in the distance.

  “What about escape pods?”

  I nodded, examining the controls again.

  “They’re on a separate system designed to be absolutely foolproof. They’re good to go.”

  “Do we have enough power for flight?”

  “Not much. Only enough for a safe descent to the surface.”

  “But we can fly up here for a while, right?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  She stopped to consider the situation for another moment.

  “What do you think, Sergeant? Is this ship big enough to get through their shield?”

  “I think so, ma’am. Most shields are designed to prevent smaller things like missiles from getting close, but not another ship. It’s worth a try.”

  Moore nodded, her mind made up.

  “Everybody evacuate. Three to a pod. Get to the surface, regroup, and wait for instructions.”

  The cadets hurried to obey, filing into the ship’s escape pods. Extras had been installed, since we had so many people for this trip, leaving us with even less room on board. They were lined up near the emergency escape hatch. When three people squeezed inside one, they shut the door, pressed the big red eject button, and flew down toward the surface as the queue progressed. Everybody evacuated quickly and efficiently.

  Jacob and Jason nodded at me before climbing into pods with Andrea and Charlie and others. I nodded back, my own mind made up.

  Soon Sledge, Moore, Dee Dee and I were the only ones left onboard. We had two escape pods left.

  “Show me how to maneuver this thing, Savitch, then take a pod and go with the Sergeant and Fremont.”

  “Begging your pardon, ma’am,” Sledge said. “I believe I should be the one to take over the ship and ram that rascal.”

  “Beg all you want, Sergeant. I’m flying this thing into the enemy.”

  “Those cadets down there are going to need an officer, ma’am.”

  She snorted.

  “They need a sergeant! Now take the other two and go, as soon as Savitch shows me what to do.”

  “I can’t teach you how to co
ntrol this ship in the time we have, Major. I’m going to stay onboard. You go.”

  She sucked her breath in to argue, and I could sense her tension rising. Officers aren’t used to having their orders disobeyed, after all. But I was not a member of the Corps of Cadets. Technically, I did not have to obey her orders. And she knew it, too.

  Sledge joined in, on my side.

  “Ma’am, he’s right. He’s the only one who can do it. There’s no sense in you risking your life like this for no good reason.”

  Finally she nodded, and reluctantly followed him to the escape pod.

  She turned toward me one more time.

  “I don’t need to tell you how important it is we take that ship out. We’ll do what we can down on the ground, but destroying that thing is absolutely critical. No one is to leave this planet until the threat is neutralized.”

  I nodded while she climbed into the pod.

  That left Dee Dee, who had stayed silent this whole time. She looked to be near tears. I hugged her, and gave her a quick kiss on the lips.

  “Don’t worry. There’s one more escape pod.”

  “You’d better be on it, Marcus Savitch.”

  “I will, Diane Savitch.”

  I gave her the most reassuring smile I could muster, and squeezed her tight one more time. Before the trip started, we had been married less than a week. Overall, less than a month and a half. Private time together had been practically nonexistent on the crowded corvette.

  She followed Moore and Sledge, squeezing into the pod with them. They pulled the door shut, pressed the button and the pod shot out and down toward the surface.

  I turned back to the control panel, and looked at the giant ship from Old Earth on the monitor.

  “Okay. Let’s see if you can withstand this missile.”

  I fired up the emergency landing thrusters and set a course for the other spacecraft. The corvette’s computer piped up.

  “Warning. Emergency landing fuel depleting soon.”

  A stopwatch appeared on the screen, counting down fast.

  “Doesn’t matter. We’re not going to be landing anyway.”

  The enemy ship loomed larger in the screen. Another missile shot out from it. I cringed, but when it came close it exploded in a flash of light again.

  “Ha! You already tried that.”

  I maintained course, drawing closer.

  My biggest worry centered on the energy field breaking up my ship. As I neared it, I tensed again in expectation. But a flash of light across the monitor, and a slight bump felt throughout the ship were the only indications that I hit it. The corvette kept going, and the other ship continued to grow larger on the monitor.

  I smiled.

  The computer tried to be helpful again.

  “Proximity alert. Proximity alert.”

  I kept my hands on the controls to make sure she didn’t try to override anything. I gave a final boost to the landing engines, depleting all the reserves in one last blast propelling me forward.

  “Collision alert! Collision alert!”

  I manually programmed in a “maintain course” command, made sure the system wouldn’t override it, then ran back to the last escape pod.

  “Collision alert! Collision alert!”

  I pulled the door shut and pushed the pod’s big red button.

  “Collision alert! Collision . . .”

  With a rush of air, the pod flew backward and away from the ship as it raced down toward the atmosphere. I now had a perfect view through the pod’s window of the two ships, my smaller one racing headlong toward the larger one from Old Earth.

  For a brief second I felt a pang of concern about being to close to the blast radius when they met.

  Somebody on the other ship must have realized a collision was inevitable because it started to make emergency maneuvers. It began moving, slowly.

  “Too late,” I said with a smile.

  My little corvette slammed into the side of the larger ship. I imagined the crunching sound it would be making if we were in the atmosphere instead of space.

  Air and debris rushed out from a giant hole, along with equipment, shrapnel, and human bodies.

  Then both ships exploded.

  I braced for the hit to my little pod. It shook violently, then spun around. I saw the surface, stars, surface, stars. Then the pod bumped against the atmosphere several times as it skated along the outer edge of Redwood’s air.

  Finally, the pod went down, at a much sharper angle than it was supposed to. My last thoughts before blacking out, as the little cabin around me heated up from the atmosphere’s friction, was that the reentry trajectory must have been messed up by the force of the blast.

  -+-

  When I came to, the first thing I noticed was how sweaty I had become. The air in the pod felt like an oven.

  I popped open the door and crawled out into blessedly cooler atmosphere. The pod had left a furrow in the soil stretching a hundred yards back. That was about all I could see, as giant grass grew all around me.

  I stretched, and took a few deep breaths to calm my nerves. Nearby I could hear munching sounds. The ground shook.

  A moment later, the head of a giant cow appeared over the top of the grass. It looked remarkably similar to an Old Earth cow, just much larger. Bos primigenius redwoodian. She saw me and the pod, and poked her head closer for a better look.

  “Go away.”

  I windmilled my arms at her. Startled, she drew her head up in a loud snort, then trotted off in the other direction.

  I sat down on the edge of the pod and waited.

  After several minutes I got up and tried walking around the perimeter, but the grass stood at least six feet tall and making my way through it by foot proved difficult.

  I stood on top of the pod to try and get my bearings, but I couldn’t make much out in the scenery around me. Mostly giant grass, with a few cows off in the distance.

  Finally, I gave up and settled back down in the pod and tried to nap, wishing I had a vid sheet with some good books on it.

  A couple hours later I heard the distinctive whuff whuff from wings of a synthetic bird. I jumped on top of the pod and shaded my eyes from the sun while looking all around in the sky for it. Sure enough, one came flying in. It landed next to my pod with a final whuff, flattening the grass all around it.

  Ranger Bradley Jones climbed off the bird and smiled at me.

  “Welcome home, Marcus!”

  Chapter Two

  I sat behind Ranger Jones in the indentation the bird made for me on its back, and stared down and around in awe. Redwood is beautiful. It’s my adopted home planet, so maybe I’m biased, but in my opinion it is the most beautiful world in the string. It’s the most beautiful one I’ve ever seen, anyway.

  Everything sparkled bright green as far as my eyes could see. Miles and miles of beautiful green grassland, interspersed by smaller trees and the occasional stream or lake.

  In the distance, drawing ever nearer, the giant trees of Redwood loomed, bringing a different kind of beauty into focus. They stretched 8,000 feet high and dominated the center of the lone continent, stretching out for hundreds of miles in the most awesome forest imaginable.

  I didn’t realize until I saw the trees again how much I’d missed them. I had spent most of my life trying to get near the forest, taking any excuse to leave Redwood City. Those jaunts into the planet’s wilderness were few and far between, since human activity outside the city had been heavily restricted by the State.

  Finally, after killing an Agent in self-defense, I flew a quadcopter as close to the forest as I could. I ended up at Agricultural Experiment Station 3, and met Professor Kalinowski who lived there alone. After staying with him for a while and helping out on his secret tobacco farm, he sent me to Ranger Station Alpha, the giant tree house city on the forest’s edge.

  From the looks of it, that’s where Ranger Jones headed now. I could make out straight lines among the branches ahead of us, a sure sign
of civilization.

  The giant synthetic bird made a final whuff! with its wings, and landed on a large wooden platform. I looked around at what had once been my home, about a year ago. The entire city had been made from the wood of one dead tree. Buildings sat at different levels, with wooden sidewalks and trestle bridges and rope ladders connecting everything.

  We climbed down off the bird together. I stretched to ease tension in my muscles from the long flight.

  Like Major Moore, Ranger Jones’s dominant ethnic ancestry was African. He smiled at me as he climbed down. He had a rugged, outdoors look. He spent a lot of time in the wilderness, like most Rangers.

  “The place hasn’t changed a bit,” I said. “Where is everybody?”

  “Gone. We evacuated to Redwood City when those soldiers came down from space and into the forest. Leesa and I are the only ones here. We’re trying to keep an eye on things, but we haven’t seen anything yet.”

  “So, our other escape pods? Everybody from the ship?”

  “They’re in Redwood City, too, including Diane. They all landed out near the desert and everybody has been retrieved by quadcopter. Your pod was the only one that strayed off course. We were closest, so Curtis asked me to go get you.”

  I nodded in understanding, and felt relieved that Dee Dee was safe along with everybody else.

  “Come on, let’s go see Leesa.”

  I followed him into the city, our steps echoing on wooden sidewalks as we made our way further into the center.

  I had never seen many people at Ranger Station Alpha, maybe three dozen or so. But now it felt especially empty. I glanced at the garden where I had spent so much time working for Mrs. Ng, and a wave of nostalgia washed over me. She and her husband had died in the Battle of Redwood. She had given me her blood so I could withstand the bullets from the load bots and take them out.

  I felt a different set of emotions when we passed by the little chapel. When Dee Dee and I got married back in New Bryan, everybody at the station attended by telepresence from that chapel. Dee Dee’s adoptive father, Professor Curtis Cruz, was able to walk her virtually down the aisle even though we were separated from him by thousands of light years.