Rebel World
(The Eternal Frontier, Book 4)
Anthony J Melchiorri
August, 2017
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Books by Anthony J Melchiorri
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER FORTY
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Also by Anthony J Melchiorri
About the Author
Books by Anthony J Melchiorri
The Tide Series
The Tide (Book 1)
Breakwater (Book 2)
Salvage (Book 3)
Deadrise (Book 4)
Iron Wind (Book 5)
The Eternal Frontier
Eternal Frontier (Book 1)
Edge of War (Book 2)
Shattered Dawn (Book 3)
Rebel World (Book 4)
Black Market DNA
Enhancement (Book 1)
Malignant (Book 2)
Variant (Book 3)
Fatal Injection
Other Books
The God Organ
The Human Forged
Darkness Evolved
Rebel World (The Eternal Frontier, Book 4)
Copyright © 2017 by Anthony J. Melchiorri. All rights reserved.
First Edition: August 2017
http://AnthonyJMelchiorri.com
Cover Design: Illustration © Tom Edwards, TomEdwardsDesign.com
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
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CHAPTER ONE
Captain Tag Brewer traced his fingers over the polyglass of the cylindrical suspension chamber. It was warm to the touch. A throbbing yellow glow emanated from the chamber, like sunlight dancing across his skin. Inside, a human floated, naked and inert. Tubes coiled around the man’s body like overgrown mechanical vines, continuously pumping oxygen and nutrients in while removing carbon dioxide and waste.
“We’ll save you,” Tag said. He pulled his fingers away from the warm polyglass and then began walking down a row of similar chambers. Each was identical in construction, all containing people stolen from their lives and deposited into an alien ship.
“Where did the Collectors get all these people?” Lt. Sofia Vasquez asked, shadowing Tag.
“I’d love to know,” Tag said.
They paused near a woman’s chamber. She had the kind of wrinkles on her face that made it look like she’d spent her whole life smiling. Tag wondered if she would ever smile again. Hundreds of people just like these had been found on Dawn of Glory, the ship that Tag and his crew had stolen from a lone Collector colonizer named Ezekiel. The gigantic ship had been a factory of nanotechnology and murderous bots. They’d barely escaped alive.
The Collectors—or post-humans—were a strange breed. They were descended from humans who had genetically engineered themselves in a series of twisted experiments. These modifications were based on various species they had abducted and then conquered across the known universe.
Ezekiel, the lone Collector Tag had confronted and defeated, had said the post-human mission was to protect the human race by engineering their own superiority. Their appetite for rapid advancement had been sparked by an encounter with a strange and unexplainable alien race that had struck like lightning bolts in a human ship, the UNS Hope. The aliens had vanished along with a good portion of the crew. Nothing in human or other known alien technology could explain the way these aliens appeared out of nowhere and absconded just as quickly with their prey. Ezekiel had seemed to think it was just a matter of time before the strange, lightning-like aliens returned.
Tag didn’t know how much of what the blue-skinned Collector had said was true and how much had been the ravings of an unstable mind. Since Ezekiel had died during the fight against Tag and his crew, there was no one to ask. No one... except the comatose humans they’d rescued.
“To bring just one of them back to consciousness,” Tag said, his palm pressed against another chamber.
Sofia nodded, her brown eyes glinting with sadness. “We could learn so much. Where they came from, why they were taken. Maybe even who the Collectors are collaborating with in the SRE.”
Tag dragged his fingers across the polyglass, leaving faint smears. He was a goddamned medical scientist, a physician. He had created a half-synthetic, half-biological life-form, but he had no idea where to begin to revive these people.
Footsteps, coming swift and light, pattered amid the ranks of chambers in the vast medical ward. Coren jogged toward them with his lanky, extra-jointed limbs bending and flowing with each step. Underneath the black velveteen fur lining his snakelike face, he wore a serious expression.
Seriousness wasn’t unusual for Coren, who rarely laughed except when pointing out some inferiority in human technology, but after having worked alongside the Mechanic for as long as he had, Tag had begun to see the subtler signs of emotion on his face. Judging by the slight downward curl of Coren’s lips and the golden light pulsating out of his working eye, Coren was angry. Even his scarred white eye seemed to throb with a hint of malicious crimson.
“What’s got you so hot and bothered?” Sofia asked.
“No progress,” Coren said. “None of our researchers have discovered anything to revive the Drone-Mechs. Despite all the time we’ve been gone, all the deactivated Drone-Mechs are as unconscious as when we left them.”
A heavy weight settled in Tag’s gut. The Drone-Mechs had nanite antennae embedded within their brains—the tools the Collectors had used to control them from afar. The antennae had been disabled, but so had the Mechanics who’d b
een taken over by them. Where the Drone-Mechs had been zombies, mere husks of themselves under Collector control, they were now vegetables capable of only the most basic physiological functions. There seemed to be nothing left of the people they’d once been. Sofia stepped back, her eyes surveying the rows of humans they’d taken from the Dawn of Glory. Tag saw the question on her lips before she asked it.
“If they can’t bring back the Mechanics, I guess that means there isn’t much hope for these people, is there?” she asked.
“No, I am afraid not,” Coren said flatly. To the average human listener, the alien would have almost sounded bored. But Tag detected a twinge of regret, even remorse, that the Mechanics had failed to save their own people and those of the Solar Republic of Earth. Coren took a deep breath, his skinny chest expanding within his unisuit. “But I am confident we will solve this problem. This isn’t over yet.”
“We will find a way to bring them back and defeat the Collectors.” Tag wanted to feel as confident as he sounded. In truth, he wasn’t sure. The Collectors had the SRE, the Melarrey, and even the Mechanics beat in terms of technology. Not only had they mastered spreading nanites like a contagion among the Mechanic population, but Tag’s excursion through the Dawn of Glory had revealed their plans to infect humans as well. Not only would these nanites enslave Tag’s people just as they had done with the Mechanics, but they would impart permanent genetic changes to turn ordinary humans into Collectors.
Something churned in Tag’s stomach. It wasn’t just the thought of human-targeting nanites that made him uneasy. It was the knowledge that free humans, members of the SRE, were collaborating with the Collectors. They had seen Starinski Labs’ ships leaving the Dawn, and an earlier mission had nearly ended in disaster because of a double agent.
“We’ll find the collaborators and use them to track down the Collectors,” Tag said. “Maybe if we strike before they do, we can take them.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Sofia said, her brow knitted in worry.
“Whatever it takes, we’ll ensure no other species are reduced to this,” Coren said, waving his skinny fingers at the chambers full of nearly brain-dead people.
“That I can at least agree to,” Sofia said. She shivered. “I can still feel those nanites creeping through my skin...”
She let her words trail off. Tag had understood her completely. He remembered the way the particles swam through his veins like icy water while on the Dawn, making his limbs move of their own volition. His mind and his senses had still worked. He had borne witness as his body reacted at the command of the Collector who had imprisoned him. Every time his limbs had moved, he had felt like he was in a starship falling uncontrollably toward Earth. No matter what controls he hit, it was still going to crash. The dread, the uncanny movement, the helplessness—they still haunted him.
“We won’t let that happen again,” Tag said. Then, with an air of finality, he added, “Ever.”
“I’d rather die than let them control me,” Sofia said.
Coren nodded. “To bear silent witness to the atrocities your body commits with no say in the matter...it’s much better to be dead.”
“It makes me wonder,” Sofia said, staring at a woman in one of the chambers, “if they’re still in there, watching us, begging us to release them.”
“If there is a way to get them out, we’ll find it,” Tag vowed. He looked up. His eyes found the ceiling of the vast Mechanic medical ward, but his thoughts drifted upward beyond that, beyond the Mechanic city of Deep Origin and all the way to the stars. “There are answers up there somewhere.”
Sofia’s gaze followed his but soon returned to the people around them. Her eyebrows drew up in concern. “Are you sure these people will be safe here?”
“Of course,” Coren said. “Grand Elector L’ndrant said the medical attendants would maintain them just as they would any Mechanic.”
“It isn’t too much of a burden for them?” Tag asked.
Coren huffed. A slight Mechanic laugh. “No, not at all. Not compared to the burden of keeping alive all the Drone-Mechs we recovered. The humans are barely, to borrow one of your expressions, a drop in the bucket.”
The Mechanics’ word was as good as any legal contract. They would honor their promises to their own detriment.
They walked out of the medical ward and onto the street. It was filled with transport pods and pedestrian traffic flowing in a frenetic dance. Although it appeared to be midday, almost all the light bathing the vast city was artificial. Deep Origin was far enough underwater that little sunlight pierced the massive polyglass dome that protected the city from the crushing pressure of the ocean around it.
A shudder passed through Tag’s spine. “I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to walking around with an ocean a few cracks away from crushing me.”
“Yet you apparently have no problem sending us hurtling through space to fight aliens with god complexes,” Sofia said with a smirk.
Coren pretended to be outraged. “You don’t trust Mechanic engineering? It is, after all, far advanced—”
“—Compared to philistine human technology,” Sofia said. “You all are amazing gods of machines and computers.”
“Thank you for admitting it,” Coren said.
Tag grinned as they made their way toward the Mechanic Enclave’s government buildings complex. Even when faced with odds that would make a gambling addict think twice, his team shared a camaraderie that would make the coach of any professional Turbo team jealous. A warmth spread through his chest as he took the stairs up to the main hall of the Meck’ara National Gathering building. Soon he would have another meeting with the leader of the Mechanic Enclave—a one-on-one meeting, casual by Mechanic standards. He was going to beseech Grand Elector L’ndrant once more for aid to the SRE. Humans and Mechanics needed to stand united.
It was the only way they would survive against the Collectors.
The clatter of metal against stone drew his attention. Alpha was sprinting down the stairs toward them. Her countenance was as stoic as ever, given her droid chassis, but her words carried the weight of her worry.
“Captain,” she said, “the Mechanic Enclave council has just begun. They request your presence.”
Tag frowned. That wasn’t in the plans. L’ndrant had promised him a closed meeting without the council or their military advisors.
“When do they need me?” Tag asked.
“Immediately,” Alpha said.
CHAPTER TWO
Tag jogged up the stairs to the Mechanic Enclave council’s meeting chamber, his crew following. The Mechanic soldiers on guard outside the chamber opened the anteroom doors. He walked through, but the soldiers blocked the rest of his crew, including Coren, from entering.
Tag looked at the Mechanic guard staring down at him. “My crew has every right to be here with me.”
“The council requests only your presence,” the Mechanic replied, his grip tightening around his pulse rifle. “No one else.”
“That’s fine,” Sofia said, stepping back. “We’ll wait out here. I’m sure you’ll do great.”
Tag looked at her. She nodded, but her eyes were troubled. Already, things weren’t going according to plan. His clacking footsteps echoed off the walls of the empty anteroom. Pillars carved to represent molecules integral to the Mechanics’ cellular structure, such as their helical version of genetic code, lined the path. Obsidian walls loomed over him as the thrum of voices beckoned him toward the council chamber.
Whatever meeting he’d been called to, it wasn’t the one L’ndrant had promised. Maybe the council wanted to know more about the Dawn of Glory. Or maybe, he thought hopefully, the Enclave had preemptively decided to offer aid to the SRE in tracking down the Collectors and their human collaborators.
He knocked on the door, and it opened automatically. Harsh light, riding on a wave of impassioned voices, spilled from the chamber. For the Mechanics, this signified something truly contentious was being discussed. Tag didn’t
like it at all. The only thing he liked less was when the chamber went silent at his arrival and all faces turned toward him.
Accusatory stares lanced at him like a burst of pulsefire. It was as if he were a child who had just walked into an argument between his parents—and he was the cause. He searched for a familiar face. Grand Elector L’ndrant motioned at an empty seat, but she looked neither pleased nor angry to see him. The chair was built for a Mechanic’s physiology, so his feet were left to dangle centimeters from the ground, only emphasizing his feeling of being a kid who was about to be scolded.
“You all are familiar with Commander Tag Brewer, a member of the SRE navy and the captain of the SRES Argo,” L’ndrant said.
A chorus of mumbled assent tickled the air. L’ndrant waved her hand toward the ceiling. An image appeared of the sky—something piped in from a cam view above the water’s surface. Behind the scattering of white clouds, the gray face of a moon stared down at them. Beside it, nearly dwarfing the celestial body, was the Dawn of Glory in geosynchronous orbit, visible even with only the slight magnification provided by the cam on the surface of Meck’ara.
“We doubted you,” L’ndrant said, her eyes locking with Tag’s even as he felt others turn away, refusing to meet his gaze. “We underestimated the intelligence you gathered, but machines be damned, you turned out to be right. You found a post-human, and you took his ship. We owe you and your crew for everything we’ve learned about the post-humans and the nanites. While my colleagues may disagree, I am confident enough to say we wouldn’t be here without you.”
Her gaze fell harshly on the other Mechanics as she continued. “You’ve been open and honest with me and my people. You’ve brought us a tremendous gift. We will study the Dawn of Glory using every method at our disposal. If there is any intel that has been missed, anything you and your crew did not uncover, we will be sure to find it. And as per our agreement, we will share it with you. That much the Enclave has agreed to.”
“I take it you didn’t bring me here to confirm our agreement,” Tag said.
“Of course not,” L’ndrant said with an air of exasperation. “Apparently these walls are thinner than I remembered, and someone heard about our arranged meeting. The council was offended that we would choose to meet alone.”
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