by Jay Korza
“Food?”
“There is a device that can create nourishment appropriate to your species. I can direct you to that as well.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Hugesh wasn’t sure what was going to happen next, but she truly felt safe for the first time in days and she was going to take advantage of that.
She found the staffing quarters and was surprised to see that at some point in time, there had been at least a few Nortes scientists living in the facility. She was indeed able to find some clothing that fit her with some slight alterations and rolling of the material.
The food dispenser also had Nortes cuisine on hand and it actually tasted homemade.
A quick trip to the medical lab and she was able to clean out her bullet wound and apply a tissue regeneration spray to it. It looked much better by the time she was done with it.
During this whole time, the hologram talked to her and led her through information she had mostly already put together on her own. It was good to hear her theories confirmed, though.
“Okay, let me see if I can tie this whole thing together now. Let me know if I get anything wrong.”
“Please proceed.”
“The Cherta were a race older than the Nortes and somewhat more advanced. When you guys found each other, both races had begun colonizing beyond their own systems. Together, you were able to expand faster and find more civilizations. Treaties and alliances were made.
“At some point, a war broke out, doesn’t matter who started it, and the Nortes and Cherta found themselves defending several other worlds. When it was all over, you guys decided to create one giant protectorate with the Cherta and Nortes running things. Both of you had the best of intentions from the start.”
“You have the basics correct so far.”
“The Nortes come up with the idea for genetically created warriors to maintain the peace. Using DNA from both races and of course the species that was ultimately chosen to be the base model for the warriors.”
“Yes.”
“Then, your gods, the Protectors, stepped in.”
“No. They are not our gods and they do not step in. They are advanced beings who have counseled the Cherta since we began exploring beyond our planet.”
“Okay, the God-like Protectors counseled you not to create the warriors but you did so anyway. Then the Nortes took control of them, wiped you out, and became the evil ruling conquerors we have come to know and hate.”
“Essentially, yes.”
“And this facility is where it all began?”
“Yes. But the original Cherta scientists had decided to keep its location secret from the Nortes. They didn’t know why the Protectors were against the plan, but they wanted to take precautions until they understood more. Some Nortes scientists were brought here, but in a way that kept them from knowing the laboratory’s location.”
“I can see why you would want to keep all of this information and everything in this place out of the wrong hands. But now that you know what Emperor T’Pong’s plans are, you can help him. Together we can destroy the birthing planet and make things right, the way the Protectors wanted them to be.”
“You have very logical assumptions, but unfortunately, the Protectors have counseled us in a different direction.”
“You’re in contact with them now? Let me speak with them. We can work this out to everyone’s benefit. I promise.”
“I am sorry, but it does not work that way. Remember, I am just a hologram interface for the computer system in this lab. The Protectors do not speak to or through me. They have spoken to those who created me. I am just passing along information.”
Hugesh thought about it for a minute and decided that arguing wouldn’t get her anywhere. “Okay. I understand. I have the information I need to take back to the emperor. I will let him know that you can’t be of assistance to us, and we will look elsewhere for answers.”
“I am afraid I cannot allow that. You cannot leave this laboratory. You cannot be allowed to disclose the location before the Protectors wish it to be disclosed.”
Hugesh knew enough about computers to realize emotional pleading wouldn’t sway its decision in her favor. “I promise to not reveal the location of this lab. I will wipe the information from my ship and not tell the emperor. You have my word.”
“If it were up to me, I would allow you to leave, but it is not. I am truly sorry.”
Hugesh cried. If she hadn’t been so emotionally and physically drained, she might have put up more of a fight at that point. But as it was, she barely had the strength to keep crying for more than a few minutes.
When her tears stopped flowing and her sobs no longer sounded in her own ears, she stood and faced the hologram. “This argument isn’t over. I’m going to find a bed and sleep, maybe for several days. When I’m done, you and I are going to have a long chat.”
The hologram smiled. “I know your intent is to devise a plan to escape or encourage me to release you. I can assure you that neither will happen.”
Hugesh rolled her eyes. “And why does that make you smile?”
“I am not smiling at your misfortune. I am smiling because I am excited to have company. I can already tell that you will be an intriguing and challenging companion. I often wonder why my creators made me semi-sentient and then left me alone. I do not believe it was their intention to be cruel, but it was nonetheless.”
Hugesh just turned and slumped down the stairs towards the staffing quarters. “Well, don’t get used to having me around. I won’t be here that long.”
Chapter 19
“And she never left this vault again.” Stroth summed up his findings for the rest of the team.
“Just glancing at this work, there is a lot of useful information. But which parts of it are immediately useful to us?” Seth looked to Emily.
“First off, we know exactly where the Nortes cabal fleet is headed. They have the coordinates to the warriors’ birthing planet, and if we left within the next twenty-four hours, they are still going to beat us there by at least three days,” Emily said.
“That’s if we use the Seventh Fleet to get there,” Jockey, the resident pilot, offered. He scrunched his face and did some quick head-math based on the star charts Emily had just displayed for everyone. “If we take our Cherta ship, we can be there less than a day after they arrive.”
Surgeon stood. “But once there, what could we do against their ships? We would just be a fly in their soup. They could blow us out of the solar system, it would be a waste of resources without any appreciable gain.”
Shar’tuk and Telfer had been conspiring during the meeting, focusing their attention on the security system for the birthing planet. Telfer thought she had a workable idea.
“Surgeon is correct. If our goal was to disrupt their fleet, we would fail. However, we could try a different approach.”
Telfer put up a holographic globe on the main table.
“You can see that the local space around the planet is protected with anti-space batteries that encircle the planet. In order to bypass the platforms, you would need a fleet of at least two thousand ships attacking from strategic points to draw the orbital weapons platforms into positions where they could no longer provide overlapping fields of fire.”
She grabbed the hologram with both hands and pulled outward, zooming in past the orbital defenses.
“If you did make it into the atmosphere, there are anti-aircraft guns surrounding the installation and there is no way to get past those without another multitude of ships, which by this point you wouldn’t have.”
She swiped the image to show the outlying areas beyond the AA guns.
“So you would have to land outside of the guns and try to march ground troops to the target. But there are minefields, antipersonnel guns, nasty indigenous predators that are encouraged to live in the area, and lastly, there are millions of warriors in stasis tubes that are fast-deployable as ground troops. Their tubes pop up, spit them out, and
have more waiting if the first few thousand don’t get the job done.”
“And I’m still not seeing your plan, Major.” Surgeon put his hand up. “Excuse me, Lieutenant. Apologies, ma’am.”
“No offense taken, First Sergeant. I am proud to be an officer in the Coalition.” She straightened her tunic. “I haven’t gone over our plan yet because I wanted to give everyone an idea of what we were facing, in case anyone else had an idea or some input.”
No one had anything to add at the moment.
“The first layer of security, the anti-space orbital platforms, has two layers of security within themselves. The second layer, we have already been made familiar with. A member of the royal family must provide a DNA sample in order to pass through the orbital guns.”
She highlighted a small orbital gun that was configured differently than all of the others. It had a landing pad on the side and a building that attached to the pad.
“To do this, they have to land on this platform here and proceed inside the station to the challenge device that determines the true identity of the user.”
She zoomed back out for a larger view. “The first layer is a signal that must be sent to the platform in order to gain access. If the signal is not sent, it doesn’t matter who is aboard the ship—the orbital guns will destroy the approaching craft.”
“Do we have this signal?” Seth asked.
“Yes. It is in the data we obtained from this lab. The signal must come from an approved device, one that is paired with the security system. We have information on the device but we don’t have one. We might, and I stress the word might, be able to build one.”
Shar’tuk added, “We think that’s why the cabal hadn’t enacted their plan before. We know they always had G’Pleh’s DNA, and he probably smuggled out the location of the birthing planet also. But they may have been missing other pieces to the puzzle that they needed to breach the security. During our research over the last year, we must have uncovered whatever parts they needed, like maybe the transmitter, the signal, or both. We just didn’t know what we had at the time.”
Telfer took over again. “Only a shuttlecraft will be allowed to land on the platform. No matter who is on board that shuttle, their fleet ships will not be allowed to pass through the orbital defenses. If they try, even after the emperor has been identified on the shuttle, the fleet ships will be destroyed.”
Telfer added some Nortes cabal ships to the display and positioned them around the platform.
“We can assume that the cabal’s ships will be somewhere in this area since they can’t go any lower into orbit.”
“But they are still surrounding the platform we need to get to.” Jockey thought he could pilot around the blockade but he didn’t see any course that would definitely work.
“Yes,” Telfer admitted. “But once we transmit the royal code to gain access to the platform, they can’t touch us. If they try to attack a royal transport, the orbital guns will fire on them and take care of the problem for us. If we reach the platform and can’t prove who we are, then we will be destroyed also.”
“That gets us on the platform, if we can make this transmitting device. And great job, by the way, on coming up with that plan.” Emily stood. “From Hugesh’s notes, we’ve learned that we need a living, breathing, and willing DNA match for the security system. Where are we going to get that?”
“The Cherta known as Jenny,” Telfer said.
“I don’t understand.” Emily sat back down.
“As a general intelligence gathering protocol, the Coalition takes DNA samples from everyone who boards their vessels.”
“Yes, I’m familiar with that protocol. Go on.”
“The information we have in the lab’s system has a copy of the original DNA used from the Nortes and Cherta family lines that created the warriors and the security system.
“Whenever new DNA is entered into our systems, there is a subroutine that checks it for matches that might be in the system. Again, another simple intelligence gathering protocol that we don’t even think about anymore since it’s done in the background for us.”
“And Jenny matches the original royal Cherta DNA used to make the warriors,” Emily concluded.
“Yes, she does. We have to assume that she is already aware of this fact. As is Princess Hugany that she is a descendant from the original Nortes royal family. We don’t have G’Pleh’s DNA on file, so we can’t determine if she is from his side of the family, but that is beside the point anyway.”
“How do we appeal to the Cherta to help us with getting on to the planet? They are at war with us simply because we won’t join their government,” Seth pondered aloud.
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Emily said absentmindedly.
“The last time you said that, it didn’t work out too well for you, ma’am,” Surgeon teased.
“Yeah, I know. And I even brought that up with Jenny, and she wasn’t moved by it either. But things are different now. Back then the Nortes cabal didn’t have access to the warriors. Surely now that they do, Jenny will see the balance of power will shift against everyone in the galaxy. The cabal cannot be allowed to have that power.”
“Too easy,” Joker said again. Everyone looked at him. “Look, we know the Cherta are much more advanced than us. And they seem to be almost clairvoyant. You’re telling me that Jenny is of royal descent and is just a lowly minister in their government? And on top of that, isn’t using her DNA to their advantage in the war? I don’t buy it.
“Not to mention that they just happened to lead us straight to their secret impenetrable base that has all of the answers we need, and oh, by the way, we penetrated it.
“They know more than us and have since the beginning. There’s something bigger going on and we’re being played.”
“I didn’t see it before,” Seth admitted. “But I think you’re right. They wanted us here, at this point, physically and mentally. But why?”
“It is possible that they also had to backtrack their ancestors’ footsteps in order to find the same information we were looking for. And us following couldn’t be helped. Remember, they are a very arrogant race. It is possible they didn’t care that we followed them because they never suspected we were good enough to figure things out on our own.” Emily played devil’s advocate.
“They also have a lot of faith in the beings they call the Protectors. If the Protectors set them on a path, they would probably believe that path was going to end in their favor regardless of the actions of the Coalition. They may just be ignoring us as inconsequential to the Protectors’ overall plan.” Daria backed her friend up.
“Alright, a lot of good information and theories on the table. Now, we need to decide what to do with it,” Surgeon said. “Who wants to go first?”
“I will.” Seth stood. “I want everyone packed up and ready to leave in four hours. Make sure we go through this place with a fine-toothed comb and don’t leave anything behind that might be important. We don’t know if we will get a chance to come back or if we can get back in once we do.
“The details of our plan don’t matter right now; we can figure them out en route to the warriors’ birthing planet. But that has got to be our destination and goal in the end—there isn’t anything we can to do to get around that. Questions?”
No one had any so they all set to task without another word or hesitation.
Joker wasn’t surprised when they were able to exit the lab with less energy than it took to get in. He was still working under the assumption that this was all a setup of some grand design.
Seth briefed the fleet admiral on his way into orbit. “Unless you have other orders, sir, we’ll dock with our Cherta craft and leave the system immediately to head for the birthing planet. The Seventh Fleet can follow at best speed and meet us there in a few days.”
“That’s as good a plan as any, Captain. I’ll make sure she is resupplied and waiting for you. Good luck. We’ll see you on the other side.” Th
e admiral offered Seth a salute and then terminated the connection.
Seth turned away from his monitor in time to see Emily ending a conversation on her own terminal. Her conversation ended with a bit more emotion as Emily punched the disconnect button.
“I take it Jenny was less than helpful. As usual.” Seth scooted over to his co-commanding officer.
“No,” Emily said angrily. “She was perfectly helpful in her arrogant and condescending way. She is going to meet us at the edge of the birthing planet’s system and come aboard.”
“Then why are you so angry?”
“Because, that means Joker is right! There is something going on and we are just their pawns. She hasn’t been helpful but once over the last year and now she’s ready to maybe give us the keys to the kingdom? It’s too easy.”
“Told you so,” Joker said from somewhere forward in the lounge area.
“Shut up!” the captains said in unison.
“Just sayin’…”
“Joker! I don’t know how many years I would get for spacing you, but I’m sure each and every one would be worth it!” Seth spat back.
“Copy that, sir.”
Seth turned back to Emily. “We’ve got a little bit of time to go over everything we have. Let’s see if we can figure out their end game or come up with something to improve ours.”
“It’s all we can do for now. Thank you for all of your help. Let’s get something to eat and then get to work.”
~
When the ship finally entered the warriors’ birthing planet system, Emily’s team had learned a great deal about the galaxy’s history before the Coalition had come into being. The data from the laboratory was a treasure trove that Emily could get lost in for the rest of her life if given the opportunity. But she still had yet to find anything that would give them an advantage over the Cherta.
Jenny and a small entourage had boarded the captured Cherta vessel. Jenny made it a point to nod to the POW Cherta pilots who seemed not to care who was in charge as long as they were allowed to fly their ships.
