There were still two alien ships remaining. The one which had been so severely damaged by the Intrepid’s arrival was still drifting, powerless. It had ceased leaking air and fluid. That might be because the aliens inside had stopped up the holes, but Sam thought it more likely that it was because the air was all gone and the temperatures dropped to below freezing. Without power, she couldn’t imagine anything living there for long. The ship was a dead husk.
The smaller vessel, the one they’d battled against for so many days, was also badly injured. It was still flying under its own power, limping away from the fight as quickly as it could manage. The Intrepid and her remaining fighters were in hot pursuit. Sam kept watching from afar as her Wasp drifted on through the night. It was all she could do. Without main thrusters she wasn’t going to change her course. The bump Xiang gave her had kept her alive for a bit, but she needed a pick-up or eventually she’d end up falling back into the planet’s gravity again.
Her scans detected a buildup of energy around the fleeing ship. It was getting ready to run. The Intrepid was weaponless and therefore helpless to stop it. Sam wished she could be out with those Wasps at least trying to accomplish something! But they were too little to stop the ship. A warp bubble flashed into being around it and then it was gone. No telling how far away it would exit or what it would do next.
Looking around the battlefield, Sam couldn’t help but think the aliens might consider a little while before coming back. They’d done a lot of damage to the human fleet, but they’d take a serious beating themselves. Of course, the few ships they’d lost might be like nothing to them, but she doubted it. No race could just write off the loss of three ships the size of those dreadnoughts - could they?
“Sam I’m getting a transceiver reading,” Harald said. “I’m going to investigate.”
“Understood, but be careful,” she replied. “Grim, go with him.”
The two fighters shot away from her toward the fragments of metal from the two exploded ships. What a mess. Sam wondered if all the junk scattered around would be harvested somehow and built into new ships, or if Neptune would get itself a brand new ring, or what. They were certainly going to need more ships if they were going to keep Earth safe.
Harald and Grim slowed as they reached the outer edge of the debris field. They coasted along. Now that they were near, Sam could see from their scans where the transmission was coming from. It was on the Triton side of the explosion, where the Hermes would have come from. Maybe a piece of that old ship drifting with an active computer on board?
“Hmm. That’s odd,” Harald said.
“What is it?” Sam asked.
“A repair drone. But the transceiver has been monkeyed with. I don’t know precisely how it was done, but it’s been altered. I think there’s a message, hang on,” he said.
Sam was left wondering what it was. Perhaps Max had left them some sort of farewell note? She couldn’t think what else it might be unless it was just an accident and not intentional at all.
Harald laughed over the radio. “Sam, you’re not going to believe this.”
“Believe what?” she asked.
“This message. Gods, but he takes after you. Never knows how to call it quits,” Harald said.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Sam said.
“No. It’s one of your more annoying and most useful qualities at the same time. But you’ve passed it on. Listen to this,” Harald said. Then he began playing back the message recorded into the drone.
“This Gurgle. No want get blowed up. No have to get blowed up. Gurgle good with drones, get drone to pull memory cores. Drone carrying them now. Please pick up drone so Gurgle no float in space forever, OK? Please and thank you!”
Sam laughed along with Harald. She’d know that voice anywhere even if he hadn’t said his name. He’d found a way to keep the Hermes crew alive after all! She didn’t know where he’d gotten the idea from, but it was a good one. Those memory cores should be swappable, which meant they could almost certainly save all those people.
“Damn. That’s awesome! Do the memory cores look intact?” she asked.
“Hard to tell, they’re stuffed inside the robot’s belly. But I think so. I’m picking up the drone. We need to get Gurgle and the rest of them over to the Intrepid. I don’t want to risk them out here with so much debris and crap flying around. Something hits the drone the wrong way and we’ll lose all of them,” Harald said.
“Do what you have to. I’m just hanging out here anyway,” Sam replied. It was the truth. She had hours left now instead of minutes. The Intrepid should be able to come fetch her long before she was at risk of falling into Neptune’s atmosphere again.
Harald jetted away, leaving Sam to consider what he’d said. He thought Gurgle had learned from her? It was a very ‘her’ thing to do, finding a way to snatch life from the jaws of death. She’d kept fighting long after most people would have thrown their hands up in despair on more than one occasion.
Had he somehow picked that up from her? Sam still didn’t fully understand what Gurgle was. He was clearly his own autonomous personality. Otherwise, the upload from Valhalla to the Hermes would never have worked on him. That meant he was only following her orders because he wanted to. He had free will. That didn’t mean he was super bright, although this latest scheme of his certainly added a new twist to Sam’s ongoing analysis of Gurgle’s intelligence. It felt like he’d been getting slowly smarter for a long time.
It was something she needed to find time to discuss with him. Later, when they were away from prying ears.
In the meantime, it was good just to know her friend was still alive after all.
30
Interacting with digital people was going to take some getting used to, Thomas decided. More multiple reasons, but they were at least making strides in the right direction. One of his computer techs on board the Intrepid came up with the idea of repurposing holographic projectors for his meeting room. This allowed the computers to display digital representations of their avatars, sitting in chairs like they were regular people.
If you could ignore the slight flicker and their translucence, it was a convincing illusion, and infinitely preferable to what they were doing before. A picture of a face on a screen didn’t do justice to the body language a human was capable of. These people from Valhalla Online were used to having bodies, even if they had been digital ones. Without being able to see how they were sitting or moving, one missed a great deal of silent communication.
For instance, Thomas could see that the pilot was extremely uncomfortable. He understood and sympathized. She’d last been a young officer in the Army. Staying out of the way of top brass was an excellent survival skill, yet here she was meeting with a pair of the senior officers in the United Nations Navy - himself and Kel. He hid a smile. The lieutenant might be a remarkable leader and capable of amazing things in a Wasp, but in some ways she was just like any other junior officer. She’d get over that soon enough. They had need of people like her.
Commander Knauf was much more collected, but then he’d been around higher ranked personnel for most of his career. It was old hat to him, meeting up with an admiral for a conference session. He wasn’t even aware of the lieutenant’s discomfort, near as Thomas could tell. A failing that might cost him someday, if Knauf couldn’t read the emotions of his crew well enough. Thomas made a mental note to speak with him about it privately.
“In short, you both did a stellar job,” Thomas finished, ending his brief speech about how pleased the Navy was with their newest Wasp squadron.
“I don’t understand, sir. We couldn’t complete the mission,” Samantha said.
“You came extremely close even against worse odds than we’d expected. The Wasp teams performed extraordinarily well for such fresh recruits,” Kel said. “You should be proud of your people.”
“I am. Just surprised, I think,” Samantha said. She pursed her lips and looked at the wall, lost in thought.
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“This isn’t over, of course,” Thomas said.
“It’s not?” Samantha asked, glancing back at him.
“I didn’t think so,” Knauf said.
“No, it’s absolutely not. One ship managed to get away. We tracked it to the Oort Cloud by spotting the particle burst of her exit from warp, but we don’t have any way to track something so small at that range,” Thomas said. “She might have gone home.”
“Or she could be out there building a new ring,” Samantha added for him.
He liked this woman! She was quick. Shy around admirals, maybe, but it was already wearing off. Thomas hoped that she would stay on. That she’d enlist and fight alongside his people for a future that was all too uncertain at the moment. He played with the lure a little bit, making sure there was plenty of slack. She was too important a fish to hook not to take all the care necessary.
“Yes. We’re moving into full-scale fleet building. We don’t have enough exotic matter to build many more Alcubierre drive capable ships, though,” Thomas said.
“Which is where we come in, I assume?” Samantha asked. The corner of her mouth quirked up in a half smile. “We can get to the Oort cloud faster than anything except the Intrepid.
“Which will be down for repairs for weeks. We were thrashed pretty hard in that last fight,” Thomas said. “Yes, we need you. Earth needs you. But - the deal was one mission, and you were free to go. That still stands. If you want out, you can leave today and find your own way in the world. I’m not sure what life will look like for those of you who choose to leave the service, but legally you can absolutely do so. The Navy is even tacking on a monetary bonus for each of you that should help get you launched.”
“That’s very generous, sir,” Samantha said. “I think some of us might take you up on it.”
“We hope you’ll stay on, Sam,” Kel said.
“Me? Why me?”
“Because after only a few days in the cockpit you’re already a better pilot than most of our people are with scores of times more flight hours,” Kel said. She leaned back in her chair and ran her hands through her hair. “You’re a natural. You fly that Wasp like it was an extension of your body.”
Samantha laughed. “When I fly that Wasp, it is my body!”
Kel joined her with a chuckle. “I suppose that’s true. But more than just your raw pilot skill, I appreciate your leadership. I want you to stay on as squadron commander for Ghost Squadron.”
“You’re keeping the name, then?” Samantha asked.
“It seemed to fit,” Thomas said.
There was a pause. Samantha looked over at Knauf, who tilted his head sideways and shrugged. He was letting her make the call for herself without trying to influence her. Which was probably the right move under the circumstances. Knauf still had three more years left of service due, or as long as the ‘needs of the Navy’ demanded. He was stuck. She wasn’t. Yet, anyway. That was her decision to make, and at the end of the day Thomas wouldn’t have it any other way. The Jaernyth might gain strength from mindless compliance with orders, but that wasn’t how humanity worked. Humans got their strength from their desire to be a part of something, not from being forced to do it. Time and again people had learned that a volunteer army outfought an equally trained and equipped army of conscripts every time.
“What do you say, Sam?” Kel asked.
She hesitated only a moment before committing. “I’m in.”
“Excellent,” Thomas said. “We’ll do the official oath for you in a short while, but let me be the first to welcome you back to full active duty, Commander.”
“Commander?” Samantha all but squeaked. With good reason - that was a sizable promotion for her.
“Well, yes. I can’t have a junior officer leading a full squadron. In time I expect it will be much more than that, too,” Thomas said. “I’d like your help with recruitment as well.”
“Of course, sir. I’ll do all I can,” Samantha said. “But speaking of recruits - there’s something I don’t understand.”
Thomas nodded to her. He’d been expecting this question. “Go ahead.”
“Xiang, sir. I’ve heard bits and pieces of gossip, but nothing concrete. Some people are saying he saved the day, but no one is sure how. Others claim he was conspiring with the enemy, and I can tell you that doesn’t make any sense,” Samantha said. “He was out there fighting alongside the rest of us. Worst, nobody seems to know what happened to him. There’s no sign of his Wasp at all. He saved my life, sir. What happened to him?”
Thomas interlaced his fingers in front of him and cracked his knuckles. He felt Kel place her hand on his thigh - urging him to keep his anger about Choi in check. He’d kept the story mostly under wraps by making the information classified as hell, but this was the Navy. Scuttlebutt moved more rapidly than the speed of light. He knew there would be rumors, and Samantha wouldn’t be the leader he hoped she was if she didn’t care enough about her people to track down any leads about what had happened to one of them.
“Xiang turned out to be a more complicated person than either you or I thought,” Thomas said. He wanted to choose his words carefully here. Partly because his new commander did have reason to trust the man, but also because Xiang - or Choi Xiang - had possibly saved them all, not just her.
“Can you be more vague, sir?” she asked. When he frowned in response, she sighed. “I’m sorry. It’s frustrating hearing nothing but rumors and half-truths.”
“I understand. I’ll be as frank as I can. The person you knew as Xiang’s full name when he was alive was Choi Xiang. He was the former president of the United Nations. Under his leadership Earth went to war with Mars, and we very nearly wiped out half of humanity thanks to his machinations.”
Thomas frowned, remembering those days. He didn’t like to revisit that part of the past, but it was important that Samantha understand Choi’s full nature. As much as anyone could. Even Thomas wasn’t sure he had the total picture.
“I remember some of that from my days in the service, sir. The pirate attack, the asteroids dropped… It was terrible,” Samantha said.
“The ‘pirates’ were a group funded by Choi to get humanity under a central power. I didn’t find out until after I’d killed the man, but humans had contact with aliens many years ago. Yes, these same aliens,” Thomas said. “Choi had spoken with them. That’s why he was able to speak with them again at the end of the fighting here.”
“So he was a traitor?” Samantha asked. Her face was pinched. She didn’t want to believe the worst of the man, despite what she was hearing. Thomas understood. He’d risked his life to save hers.
“No,” Thomas said. “After he saved you, he risked his life again to save all of us. He contacted the aliens and stalled them while Commander Knauf circled Triton. Then he lured their guns into facing the opposite direction so that the Hermes would be unopposed when it made that final plunge toward the dreadnought.”
Samantha chewed on those thoughts for a minute. Everyone at the table was silent until she spoke.
“I don’t understand, sir. Is Xiang a hero or a villain?”
“I honestly don’t know,” Thomas said. “I wish I did, because I’m sure we’ll see him again. He fled the battle. That’s why we haven’t found a wreck from his Wasp. We managed to spot his fighter leaving the area on our scan logs. Choi was headed back home. To Earth.”
“He said something about the power being immortal could give someone like him,” Samantha said.
Thomas gave her a sharp look. “He’s not wrong. Which is why I am certain that we’ll see him again. He’s not the sort to stay in the shadows forever. He wants to be a part of things too much. He’ll show up again.”
Thomas leaned back in his chair. Choi was going to be a problem for sure, but he’d also been an asset. Perhaps he could be both. Only time would tell. There were bigger fish to fry for the time being, though. Choi would have to wait his turn in line.
“But in the meantime, we hav
e a solar system to defend. The Intrepid is being repaired. We’ve got a captured alien dreadnought to study. And as soon as you put a full Ghost Squadron together I need you and Commander Knauf to take ships out to the Oort Cloud. You’re to ensure that alien ship gets sent home - or destroyed. Can you handle that?”
“Yes, sir,” she said.
The End
Read book two of the trilogy, “Ghost Squadron” - available for preorder at http://mybook.to/ghost2 until July 26th, when it releases!
Author's Notes
This novel has been a long time coming.
It’s the first book to officially meld two of my most popular story worlds - that of the Accord series and the Valhalla Online series - into one complete universe: the Ragnarok Saga. Although I’ve left a few clues for readers to find that the two worlds were one and the same (bonus points for spotting any!) it was never spelled out so clearly until the release of this novel.
Which was a lot of fun to write, I have to tell you! Science fiction is about cool adventures and blowing things up. But it’s also about asking crucial questions and thinking about deep topics. If we ever were able to upload copies of our minds, how would that change society? What impact would it have on how we lived and died? These sorts of things were on the top of my mind as I wrote this adventure.
Choi never had his story fully fleshed out in the Accord books. They were all from the perspective of the Steins - Thomas and his father, Nicholas. As a result Choi ends up feeling more like a diabolical evildoer, because that’s how Thomas (who has most of the interactions with him) sees him. But its truly rare for a person to see themselves as evil. Most of the time, even those who perform the most horrible acts think they’re doing it for a very good reason. So it was with Choi Xiang, who is the villain of the Accord series but is something else in this book. Not quite a hero, but not a villain. More of a person, trying to make his way and accomplish his goals.
Ghost Wing (The Ragnarok Saga Book 4) Page 16
