I spoke. “Aw, crap. Sorry, I forgot about that. Until we take that suit fully active, it doesn’t fully seal.”
I carried the leg over to the touch-wall, grabbed a universal cable, and plugged the ends into the leg and the touch-wall. Two screens later, I had the leg parameters on display.
I depressed several touch-wall buttons. “Hmm. It looks like someone did a detune on this leg. With the current setup, you aren’t much better than standard.”
I grabbed another cable and plugged it into a small socket on my leg and again into the wall. “Let’s move over these updates and do a quick reboot. OK, I think we have it. Take off your other leg and hand it to me. Frost, give her a hand.”
Fifteen minutes later, York had been updated with the latest controller codes.
Frost spoke. “What about me, Sir?”
I laughed. “Sorry, I’m not touching your legs, Frost. Yours are natural, and I know what you are up to.”
York turned with a smile. “I think that proves that he does know us, Frost. Those gears in your filthy little mind are always turning.”
Frost replied, “Hey, a girl’s gotta try!”
After a quick cleanup of the spilled bio-gel, I set York’s suit to full activation. “Now, understand this, Sergeant. I just ramped up the power delivery on those arms and legs. You are going to want to move real slow until your brain has been trained to react to the impulses coming back from those prosthetic interfaces. Maybe we can get lucky and your brain will remember, since you had those settings before, but I would just be careful for a bit.”
York slowly stood and walked around the room. “I think I have it, Sir. It feels pretty natural.”
I pushed one of the metal chairs over to her position. “Take the top of that chair in your hand and crush it.”
York reached down and squeezed with her left hand. The thin metal of the chair back twisted and then snapped.
Frost spoke. “Whoa! Maybe I should have those, Sir.”
I replied, “We tried to get you to swap out, but you didn’t want any part of it. ‘Natural or nothing’ was along the lines of what you said at one point.”
Frost nodded. “That does sound like me.”
I picked up the damaged chair and set it next to the door for collection. “You both have two hours. I want you to wander around the station and get used to the feel of the suits. York, that should be plenty of time for you to make sure you have proper memory control of your arms and legs. I’ll meet you both back here at that time.”
Chapter 11
With their suits on and at least a minimal amount of time spent in them, I decided it was time for York and Frost to go for some real practice. We moved through the portal to the complex and powered our way over to the adjacent portal building. A new portal was opened to the planet, and we stepped through.
I spoke. “OK, the two of you have an entire planet to practice on. Fire your weapons, blink in and out, and fly around. And please be careful of where you are aiming; I’d rather not have any deaths or injuries before we even get started.”
The two sergeants powered off in opposite directions. I was soon feeling the distant thuds of tungsten rounds impacting the ground. I was sure the two of them would come back in as ready a state as any seasoned vet would. In fact, I counted on it.
As they began their practice, I moved over to check on the progress of the shipbuilding. I had left the bots with instruction to size the first ship to carry at least a hundred men and to have the ability to extend a portal across a galaxy if needed. I was not expecting to see a ship the size of a destroyer under construction.
The foundation of the ship had been laid, and work had begun on a massive power room. It would house four huge cesium reactors capable of putting out more than a thousand times the power of the reactor on the Swift. A newly modified antenna with a design similar to those in the portal room on the Duke’s complex was being incorporated.
I quizzed one of the bots on the maximum distance I could expect from a portal large enough for the ship to pass through and was shocked at the reply. Nine hundred seventy-six thousand light-years’ distance could be traveled in a single hop. Time between hops had increased to eighteen seconds. Travel time from the Tadpole galaxy back to Earth would be just over two hours. The universe was getting ever smaller.
I again quizzed the bot about the expected completion date, and had to smile at the result. Eleven days of furious construction would have the first of many ships ready to travel. With the power aboard for the portal generation, the ion cannons were more powerful than any I had seen on a destroyer, easily surpassing the cannons on a Durian battleship. Three thousand microlayers of Tantric would protect her hull, while a Yacabucci web powerful enough to hold any ship in place would be placed both fore and aft.
When the sergeants had both returned from their practice, the three of us stood watching the ship’s construction for several minutes.
Frost spoke. “It’s like building it in slow motion, Sir. This is fascinating. I could just plop down in a chair and watch this all day.”
I replied, “You and me both, Frost. When she’s done, we will be able to return to the Grid in just over two hours.”
York spoke. “Why so long, Sir?”
I turned to York. “So long? Two hours’ time to go 420 million light-years’ distance is insanely fast!”
York pointed towards the portal back to the Duke’s complex. “We came that distance in an instant to get here, Sir. I don’t see how two hours is so fantastic.”
I shook my head. “The complex has the power of a brown dwarf star behind it, York. This is a stand-alone ship. We can travel in it to wherever we want to go.”
York replied, “Sorry, Sir. I didn’t mean to question your intelligence. Two hours is fast for a ship… I suppose.”
I gestured towards the portal. “OK, well, let’s get back to work. We have a complex to recon.”
Once through the portal, York asked a question. “Sir, I noticed that half of the equipment in this room deals with the portal and the other half appears to be sensors. Have we done an evaluation of those sensors to see how powerful they are or what things they might detect that we currently don’t? It seems to me that any advantages we can take away from this place, we should be grabbing.”
I replied, “That is an excellent suggestion, York. Let’s power back over to the other portal, and I’ll have the Colonel send through a tech team to evaluate what the Duke has.”
Frost spoke. “Sir. I see there is a bot sitting in the corner over there. Is it ours, and what’s the purpose of that?”
I nodded and replied, “I left it as a safety in case the Duke shuts down our other portal. Frankly, I don’t know why he has allowed us to jump in and out of these things so far. If he shuts down the other portal, I have the bot programmed to open a new one if it detects a loss of signal from the other one. It will wait for three months before doing so; hopefully that would give us time to plan an assault.
“The timer lets it sit here passively until we need it. If the Duke shuts off our access to this place, we are going to be no better off than we were before. This is his fortress, and we need to destroy it once we have found and destroyed the other android participants in this nasty game.”
After delivering a message to the Colonel, we were making our way towards the Duke’s fortified room. We powered through the outer wall, stopping just short of space occupied by the Duke’s android army.
I spoke. “We drift in slowly. They can detect the BHD or the active skin if you are close enough to them. If you come within a hundred meters of one, you are likely to be detected. Only use the BHD if proximity is imminent and then only for microbursts. The drifting will take us about an hour. If we can get in there undetected, we can assess and destroy as needed.
“If by chance they detect you, then get out as fast as you can. The area outside of this fortified wall is vast. Just try to lose them before heading back to the portal. Nobody goes to
the portal until we all go. If we have to blow it once we go through, then that is what we’ll do. If we make it to the inner chamber, just wait for my signal before blasting away. If the Duke is in there, kill him first before doing anything else. After that, we can trash the place. The androids need the Duke to give orders, or else they just shut down.”
After the slow traverse through the fortified area, we came to a stop just short of the Duke’s lair. “OK, I’m going to power around and come in from the other side. On my signal, go through this wall. If you see the Duke either in android form or laid out as his core on the pedestal in the middle of the room, remember to take him out first. Otherwise we are going to be in for hard times.”
I moved myself into position and then used a microburst of my BHD to propel myself slowly forward. As I emerged from the wall, the Duke’s core was once again sitting in the center of the room. I squeezed the trigger, and a tungsten round found its mark.
As York and Frost entered, I spoke. “I was expecting a fight. Take a minute to look around the room; then we take it out and get out of here.”
As the two sergeants began to look around, York spoke. “Sir, I have a hail from the Duke. He wants to talk to you.”
I sighed. “What is it, Duke? Why won’t you stay dead?”
The Duke replied, “Really, Mr. Grange. Why would you think that I would not have every contingency covered? I have been expecting you, and Miss York, and Miss Frost. You are three of my favorite warriors. It would do me no good to have you killed before the real fighting even begins.”
I settled on the floor at the base of the Duke’s former pedestal. “If you knew we were coming, why didn’t you stop us? I don’t get your logic sometimes, Duke.”
The Duke laughed. “Nor do I expect or desire you to get my logic, Mr. Grange. Part of the fun of this game is to keep you guessing. And I will say that I have thoroughly enjoyed it so far.”
I looked around the room as I responded. “OK, well, let’s see. You took control of this complex again with your local fleet, you had a portal opened to wherever your android body was, and you came through and hooked yourself back up. I would guess there is another android out there with the wormhole connection to its core, probably who I am speaking with right now. And I would also have to slap myself for not thinking about you still being able to track both York and Frost. Am I at least getting close to an understanding of what just happened?”
The Duke replied, “That is very astute of you, Mr. Grange. It seems that if I lay enough hints out there for you, you will eventually pick up on how recent events transpired. I will say, Mr. Grange, you Humans have been the most entertaining species I have had the pleasure of managing in the last several hundred thousand years. And you are the first to reach this complex! An astounding feat!
“Now, Mr. Grange, I would advise you and your cohorts to leave immediately, and I’m afraid this will be your last visit to the complex. Should you somehow return again, I will not be so accommodating. The real fun in this galaxy is about to begin!”
As I turned towards the wall to leave, I spoke. “You know, Duke, I thought it was against the rules for you to interfere with the species you brought to the games. Won’t this place you in bad standing with the others?”
The Duke smirked. “What they don’t know, Mr. Grange. And, technically, I did not interfere. You are the one that has provided great advantage to your people. The other participants may not be pleased with the results; they will, however, gracefully accept defeat at the hand of my forces. It was their votes that selected primitive weapons this time. I have not interfered with you providing the Humans with the means to win.”
When we arrived back on the Grid, the portal closed behind us. We were shut out of the complex. I walked to the Colonel’s conference room for a debriefing.
As I sat down at the conference table, I spoke. “Colonel, it looks like we have been given the go-ahead by the Duke to dominate in the upcoming wars. We will likely be facing enemy fighters with the same hand weapons that were on this station when they dropped you in. The Duke is also a blatant liar and deceiver, so we should take those statements with some hesitation.
“We are now cut off from the complex, at least temporarily. We should have a way back in, but that won’t be for another three months. I have a ship coming in four days that will take us wherever we need to go. I would suggest we try to find the other species before any fighting starts. If we can do that, we might just be able to figure out where the other overlords, to use a new term, reside.
“I am also of the opinion that the Duke can track all of the movements of normal Humans, all of them. I have altered DNA, which prevents him from tracking me, but I made the mistake of taking York and Frost with me this last time, both of whom he can track. I think we need to ramp up the genetic formula research and see if we can start to make some conversions.”
The Colonel replied, “Almost every time we talk, you are dumping some grand information on us, Mr. Grange. It’s going to take us time to absorb it.”
I shook my head. “We don’t have time, Colonel. The war is going to start soon, and we need to be ahead of the game. If we just go out and win, we are all dead. We have two fights we have to deal with right now, and the primary fight will be against the overlords.”
Over the next few days, I donated half a litre of blood for use in creating the DNA serum. Our science and medical teams were having difficulty creating a serum matching that which had been injected into my veins. The following day, the new destroyer arrived.
I powered out to it as I spoke with the Colonel over the comm. “Wow! That is one beautiful ship, Colonel.”
The Colonel replied, “That it is, Mr. Grange. We are looking it over on our monitors.”
I drifted onto her bridge and set down on the main deck. The bridge was small, housing only four stations. A large blank wall covered the front half of the room. I took note of the single chair that sat in the center.
I spoke. “I’m patching through my video feed, Colonel. I’ve just sat in the command chair, and it looks like, ah, the front wall just lit up. We have a large view-screen that looks like the holo-displays on the Swift. I think I have control of all the duty stations from here. Nav, weapons, defenses, there is even a small environmental display. I guess if the crew is all in BGS suits, the environmental needs are minimal. There is no cafeteria, no restrooms, minimal bunking. Looks like it will take a crew of five and has transport room for several hundred Marines. Now we just need another five thousand just like it.”
The Colonel spoke. “Are we expecting more?”
I replied, “I left instruction to continue to expand construction abilities at a 2 percent rate while the ships are being built. This one took five days and four hours. I would plan on receiving the next one 2 percent sooner.”
The Colonel looked over the monitors in front of him. “We are going to need to get a crew on there for you. I’ll consult with the Admirals to see who they would think is best.”
I replied, “I’m afraid I’m going to have to be the only one on this ship until we get that DNA serum worked out. We can’t have the Duke tracking our movements and expect to do anything that he has not already planned out for us.”
I punched in the coordinates for Molov. “Wow, Colonel. I can make a jump to Molov in a few minutes. Give me twenty, and I should have a sample of the serum that I was injected with.”
I set the coordinates for Molov into the nav system and powered up the wormhole generators. As the power to the antennae grew, the ship began to rumble. At eighteen seconds, the full-wall holo-display in front of me showed a black void that grew in size until the light from distant stars shone through. In an instant, the destroyer passed through the portal. Six jumps later, I was coming to a slow orbit around Molov. I entered the coordinates for the mountains of Sarah and was soon setting down in the open field of the Defender.
As I exited the destroyer, an icon flashed in my HUD. Sarah, the Defender’s comput
er, had information of relevance to me.
I visually selected the icon. “What do you have for me, Sarah?”
The computer voice of Sarah Rogers replied, “The Defiant fleet reconstruction is complete. All ships have equivalent updates and are awaiting your command.”
I smiled as I thought of what lay just over the horizon from our location. I had forgotten about the fleet and its reconstruction. I attempted to slap my forehead with my palm and was stopped by my helmet.
I spoke. “Thank you, Sarah. And Sarah, I am having trouble creating the DNA serum you gave me. I’m passing the information to you. What piece of the process am I missing?”
Sarah replied, “The serum must be exposed to a plasma field that is rich in gamma radiation. Optimum exposure time is eight minutes and four seconds.”
I opened the Defender’s rear hatch and stepped up into the four-chaired cockpit. “How do I create this plasma field?”
A diagram appeared on a holo-display in front of me. “The plasma field generator is a specialized piece of equipment that is built into this ship.”
I selected the diagram to zoom in on its location on the Defender. “Is this generator available on the Swift and the other ships that were updated?”
Sarah replied, “Yes.”
I spoke. “Why was this not included with the plans for making the serum?”
A new diagram appeared. “The serum can be modified to be applied to other species. As a safeguard prevention measure, it was decided that the two sets of information be separated.”
I replied, “Thank you as always, Sarah. I will be leaving now.”
I blinked out and powered my way back to the bridge of my destroyer. Contact was made with the Defiant fleet, and orders were given for a transfer of all ships to the Saw Blade galaxy. The journey would take just over thirty hours.
I lifted off from Molov and was pulling to a stop just outside of the Grid several minutes later.
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