Matt’s jaw tightened. He blinked several times. Then he looked back at their Mom, herself and Eliana. “Ladies, that means I have to go to this star system and kill that clone of Charlotte. I will not allow a clone of my sister to be used and abused by the Anarchate!”
Charlotte wondered briefly if the clone copy of herself could somehow be a new sister to her. Then she recalled the subservient manner of Alien cloneslaves that she had seen when traveling with her Meligun master. The clones had been more than a servant slave. They had been almost animal-like in their efforts to please the demands of their owners. She looked back at her Mom and Eliana.
“Mom, take it from me. Matt is right. That clone of me could never become my sister. Or a new daughter of yours,” she said, a sniffle of sadness escaping. “Eliana, this abomination must be removed from life. She has no will of her own, no self-identity. This . . . this cloneslave is why yours and Matt’s crusade is essential to all life in the Milky Way.” She blinked and looked back at a sober faced Matt. “Brother, please tell Mata Hari to implant that cyborg socket in my neck. And to make a combat suit for me, like the one Eliana is wearing. Whatever my far future may hold, my present requires me to join with you, with Eliana, with everyone else in fighting for the end of cloneslavery!”
“Charlotte, no! No!” cried her Mom. “Matthew, don’t pull my only living daughter into this fight against the Anarchate. The Aliens will destroy you and her!”
Matthew, facing their mother, shrugged like Charlotte herself often did, as if it were a family genecode. He slowly smiled at their mother. “Mom, I rescued you and Charlotte so neither of you could be used like this clone. You lived for fifteen years on the planet Working, with your Mican owner. Do you think he would have treated you nicer if you had been a cloneslave?”
A long silence. “No,” whispered her Mom.
Matthew, still smiling amiably, looked at Charlotte. “My sister, welcome to the fleet. We have four thousand light years to go before we get to this gas giant refueling stop. Which will be a trap for me,” he said nonchalantly. “That is weeks away. Time enough for the surgery to implant a neck socket and to implant the tachlink module behind your left ear. With the socket and the module, you will always be in the minds of the members of Hexagon Prime fleet.”
Charlotte nodded slowly. “Will the mind communion be really weird?”
Eliana chuckled from behind her. She turned to see the woman who had become her brother’s lifepartner. A woman who had once hated AIs. “Young lady, you have not felt weird until you have touched minds with the three-lobbed brain of Toktaleen the Brokeet! Giant ants have a mental worldview unlike any human culture!” Eliana stepped back to the rear wall of the Bridge, then her combat suit bent forward. She heard a hiss like a gasket seal opening. Out stepped Eliana, completely nude and with her arboreal tail whipping from side to side as she walked over to an accel-couch that lay to the right of Matt. She lifted a bare foot and stepped into the accel-couch, sat down and showed no reaction as a silvery fiber optic cable socketed into her neck. She waved at Matthew. “Walking around a starship bare-skin naked will not seem weird at all!”
“Oh, Matthew,” moaned her Mom.
Charlotte grinned. “Hey Mom! Watch me when I get my own combat suit! I’m gonna outshoot Matt, Eliana and everyone else on the laser rifle range!”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Matt stood in Suit on the armory’s shooting range, watching his sister Charlotte use her combat suit’s shoulder mounted laser pulse-cannons to deadly effect against small Spy Eyes, nanoShells, gyrocopters and a rolling ball loaded with explosives. But the steel grey ball had a coating of sapphire crystals which deflected the low power laser beams aimed at it. The ball continued rolling toward his sister, aiming to get close enough to ‘kill’ her with an explosive blast. Charlotte flung out both arms and began hitting the ball with her fingertip lasers as her shoulder cannons changed laser frequencies to reach below the sapphire crystals on the surface. The ball showed a few scorch marks but still kept coming. Feeling his sister’s mind as she thought swiftly, he smiled as she adopted the one, two, three punch scenario that Matt knew her suit Tactical CPU was suggesting.
The rolling ball shuddered to a stop as Charlotte’s waist pack of ultrasonic vibers focused on the ball. The rocket gun tubes on each bicep ka-thumped as each tube shot out titanium penetrator darts followed by clusters of nanoShells set for white noise blockage and silicon chip fracturing. In less than a second the rolling ball showed a dozen holes from penetrator darts, then a swarm of tiny nanoware energy seekers entered the holes and began to take apart the ball from the inside out. In another second a thermite rocket shell began to melt through the ball’s innards even as its steel skin fractured and began to come apart like an egg shell, thanks to the release of ultra frigid nitrogen within the ball. At the end, the ball opened up like an apple split into a dozen vertical segments. Two blasts from Charlotte’s shoulder lasers sufficed to melt down the remnants of the ball’s programming Core.
“Nicely done,” called Eliana’s external Talker as she stood in her own armored suit, watching her star pupil.
Matt gave his sister an encouraging mental smile, then gestured with his gauntlet. “Your switch to the multi-prong attack was well-done,” he said, using both mindspeech and Suit’s external Talker. “Including the melting of the memory Core. Never forget that while your organic opponent can die, pre-programmed attack actions live on within its combat suit so long as suit power is working and broadcast signals can reach servo mechanisms.”
Charlotte’s mind image of herself smiled at Matt. “Thanks my brother! And you too Eliana! You both helped me find the way to ‘relax into’ being at one with my suit’s Tactical CPU.”
“You performed adequately,” said the motherly voice of Charlotte’s Tactical CPU.
Matt thought that voice resembled the voice of their mother Kristen, who had pleaded the need to give nutrients and water to the rose bushes in the Park habitat. His mother did not like seeing her daughter become a human-cyborg killing machine. But the tough woman who’d survived being a labor slave to a Mican griffin-tiger was also in the Park because that was where Gatekeeper, the AI partner of Mata Hari, spent most of his time. The former casino manager for Omega Casino had taken the soil, grass, plants, small trees, insects and a few tiny shrew-like mammals from Morrigan and created a true Park environment. A lifeweb place of living things that welcomed people of all species. Seeing his Mom treat the silvery mind globe of Gatekeeper as if the AI were an adopted son both amused Matt and pleased him.
Charlotte appeared on one side of Matt’s Faceplate, even as she turned in her suit to face Matt and Eliana. Behind his sister the approach of small Spy Eyes and nanoShells that sought to attack her was defeated by the pressor beams emitted from her suit’s armored helmet. “Matt,” she said as her mind welcomed in Eliana and the red cloud of Mata Hari to their mental conference. “Do you think I’m ready to socket into your ship and get a ‘feel’ for a real living and thinking T’Chak Dreadnought ship?”
That was the core issue they had all faced during the weeks of their Translation travel counter-spinward, toward the blue-white star where the clone copy of Charlotte would be waiting to entrap them. In another day all seven ships of Hexagon Prime fleet would exit Translation at a spot three light years out from HD 86523. Whatever Anarchate ships held station beside the gas giant would detect their gravity pulses and know they had arrived. The enemy ship commander would likely wonder why they had not Translated into a close flyby of the gas giant, the way his fleet had often done. Well, this time they would not do things the way they’d done them before. As Sun Tzu had written in his small book The Art Of War—Now war is based on deception. Move when it is advantageous and create changes in the situation by dispersal and concentration of forces.
Matt gave Charlotte a mental half-smile. “Yes, you are welcome to ‘socket in’ while sitting in one of the accel-couches. Mata Hari will guide your exploration of
this ship. It is a wonder!”
Eliana’s beautiful mind moved to give Charlotte a mental hug. “Young woman who is nearly my age, being in mindlink like this is a true wonder. You will experience ocean-time thinking at true computer speeds once you mindlink with Mata Hari. You will also ‘feel’ the inner emotions of every person who shares mindlink with you.”
Matt also mentally hugged his sister. “Charlotte, you’ve shared your fifteen years of labor slave living with me and everyone via this mindlink we now share,” he said in mindvoice. “What I have seen of your resourcefulness while pretending to be a dutiful slave for your Meligun bear owner tells me you can handle the multi-level thinking and fighting that is required to be a pilot for a T’Chak ship like my Mata Hari Dreadnought.”
Eliana’s mind gave Matt a hug, then turned to Charlotte. “My sister of the mind, come with me to the Bridge and I will show you around this ship while in mindlink with it!”
Matt watched the women for whom he cared most. Eliana had given him the gift of her love. And her support in his efforts to eradicate cloneslavery. Soon, he would give her what she most desired. Meanwhile, Charlotte and his Mom had mostly healed his feelings of guilt for being the sole escapee of the genome harvester attack on their family farm. The two periods of long Translation had allowed the Welsh captive Gareth Davies to spend time with Ben on his ship, as he ‘learned the ropes’ of how to behave at slow real-time speeds. And Toktaleen had similarly welcomed the Meligun and Orko captives they’d rescued from the cloneslaver base. The two had worked together on creating a Park habitat on the Brokeet’s starship.
Now he must tend to the needs of the other members of his ‘mind family.’ Ben the Aussie, George the battlemate, Sarah the organizer, Rafael the schemer, Toktaleen the deep thinker and Suzanne the precog who like him was a native of Thuringia, they all deserved the best he could do as the commander of a war. A war where ethics, not greed or power, were the driving force.
Running Leader inspected the composition of star HD 86523 as depicted in the front holosphere of the Bridge of Defiant II. First there was the B3V blue-white main sequence star. A few million nipads out from the star’s corona lay a small, airless, rocky planet where molten rock covered the side of the planet that was tidally locked due its closeness to the star. The planet’s dark side was frozen coldness. Next out at an orbital spot where liquid water was possible lay a wide asteroid belt. For some reason the asteroids and planetesimals had never formed into a planet. Or a planet had once existed and then broken apart. In the third orbital range lay the red and orange-banded gas giant above which his ship, his fellow battleglobe Dedicated and the Courier Meltiades orbited.
He ignored the automated Supply sleds that moved from each ship of his small fleet to the local gas giant’s atmospheric refining station. He ignored the record of hydrogen, helium, ammonia, methane, nitrogen and similar gases that the station sifted for hydrogen isotopes. They had been in place for three days with no sign of the renegade Human. The renegade should appear soon, since the distance each had to cover from the Orion Nebula battle to here was nearly identical.
“Gravity pulses!” cried Malel from his ring of WorkPads and holo pedestals. “Our NavRemotes triangulate the seven pulse sources to lie at a distance of . . . three light cycles out!” His fellow heavyworld ally angled his long scaly ears in a body sign that indicated puzzlement. “Sector Captain, they are not pursuing a near lightspeed flyby, as in prior battles.”
“Not yet!” Running Leader croaked to Malel and the rest of the Bridge crew on shift duty. “Chief Lark, increase our supply of neutron antimatter, and power up the equatorial accelerator to the level needed for black hole production.” He touched on the comlink to the Alcubierre engine modules. “Chief Engineer Melatoon, apply that Loglan mind of yours to activating our Alcubierre Bubble defense!”
The neurolink patch affixed to his skull showed him the complexities of moving a twelve nipad thick battleglobe from Alert status to Combat status. Scores of crew moved to relieve other crew at the Offense stations, including the polar antimatter cannon embrasures. The six fusion power plants that provided energy for every weapon, every gravplate and all ecofields inside his ship moved to maximum output. The flow of deuterium, tritium and lithium six isotopes to the magfield held plasmas in each fusion plant increased notably. He thought an order to the Bridge holosphere.
“NavCore! Have you alerted our fellow ship commanders to this news?”
Yanakutt the Brokeet gestured. “Affirmative, Sector Captain Running Leader. Both ships are moving from Alert to Combat status.”
He focused on the Brokeet at EMP Shields post. “Brokleen, orient our Alcubierre Bubble shield to face away from the gas giant. I doubt our enemy will try to materialize between us and the gas giant!”
“Complying,” clicked Brokleen.
Running Leader focused on the changed Bridge holo. This holo showed space from three light cycles out and inward, with the current orbital position of his three ships and the two planets icon highlighted. Shifting his vision from yellow light to ultraviolet and infrared, he looked for any sign of comets or Assault Asteroids that might be aiming for them. There were no moving neutrino sources. Just the gravity wave pluses of seven starships that had arrived out system.
“My crew, there are two hundred battleglobes from Sector 15 in deep stealth hiding out there!” he said over the ship’s AllCall system. “We are the hammer stone against which the outer fleet will press their attack on these T’Chak ships. Be ready to eject black holes, antimatter, our Bethe Inducer beam and every directed energy laser post!”
A small holo pedestal to the left of his Command Bench showed a repeat of the Charlotte clone galactic tachnet broadcast that had brought the renegade Human to this star. The Human Dragoneaux was no fool. It knew as well as he that a trap lay inside this star system. Perhaps it thought Running Leader would secretly apply the Nova Blast weapon against the planets of this system as soon as the T’Chak ships arrived near the gas giant? He had no such plans of course since the only ships with Bethe Inducer installations were his two battleglobes. But the Human did not know that. So perhaps it would seek a covert entry into the system?
Well, his ships had dispersed thousands of tachRemotes, Spy Eyes, sensorBeads, Assault Asteroids, antimatter-laden Supply Tubes, Thermonuke sleds, Picket Globes, and similar devices, many in stealth mode. Most could detect neutrino, infrared and UV-emitting sources. Anything that did not send the Friend/Foe identifier emission would be instantly attacked.
Suzanne sat in her Interlock Pit, in mindlink with Matt, Eliana, the blue mind glow of her ship AI Lorelei, and the minds of the other pilots and ship AIs. For most people this linkage over the tach module would feel crowded. But for pilots taught to compartmentalize their mental attention into hundreds of compartments, each segment operating on its own until a change required her personal attention, it felt normal.
Lorelei assumed her female T’Chak form. Her red eyes gleamed with her version of eagerness. “Is it correct that our Vigilante Matthew will travel to the gas giant using the Dark Energy stardrive of our Bogean allies?”
“Yes, Lorelei. That is Matt’s plan. Which should happen within a minute or two.” She focused on a mental holo of the nearby star system, paying attention to the two planets and asteroid belt that made up the star’s ecliptic plane. Their ships had arrived about twenty degrees north of the ecliptic, which gave them a small ‘look down’ ability when detecting normal lightspeed emissions. However, the cluster of tachRemotes that her lifemate George had ejected just prior to their crossing of the ecliptic, now floated about the gas giant. “You can see from our own tachRemotes that the battleglobes have seeded the area with thousands of Remotes, Picket Globes and a few Assault Asteroids and small Supply Tubes. Matt aims to exit in Alcubierre stealth next to the two battleglobes. He will attack them before they know he is beside them.”
Lorelei’s purple back scales glowed with energy even as her crocodile snout o
pened to show sharp white teeth. “A tasty tactic. Do his actions better resemble your probability games of chess or poker?”
Suzanne laughed. She gave thanks she was not yet in ocean-time mode. So she could hear her own laugh and feel mostly normal. “Lorelei, you might ask that question of Mata Hari. After seven years spent inside Matt’s mind, and he inside hers, Mata Hari could do a better job than me at relating his actions to a game module!”
Lorelei gave a loud mental snort, loud enough to echo in her mind. Fortunately her AI, like the AIs of the other ships, spoke mentally at a volume much lower than that of BattleMind. “This persona will do as you suggest. Once Matthew resumes talking to us. He and Mata Hari have now entered the Dark Space realm. They should arrive shortly.”
Suzanne let her mind go ‘open’ to future space-time. What she saw made her smile a bit. “Eliana,” she called to her mind-sister. “Matt will arrive safely. And he will be successful.”
The albino-white face of her mind-sister loomed before her, her dark green eyes looking distant, as if she too had taken a precog look at the near future. “Suzanne, thanks much! I just saw that myself. Good news. But looking ahead some days I see trouble swirling around Morrigan like a storm. Even more trouble lies ahead in Sector 15, where our fleet will head to after this business is completed. We . . . we all survive, from what I can see. But new players enter our future and the Anarchate officials I can sense have become fixated on killing Matt and destroying all of Ocean Fleet and Hexagon Prime fleet.”
Suzanne saw that herself, as she pushed her precog senses forward along the probable timeline. “Sister, recall that what we perceive is the future that is most probable. It can change, based on our actions and those of other actors elsewhere in the Milky Way. Feel reassured. Our battle against cloneslavery will continue!”
Anarchate Vigilante (Vigilante Series 4) Page 28
