Enemy of my Enemy (Horatio Logan Chronicles Book 1)

by Chris Hechtl

  Percy kept looking down with a slight frown on a muzzle. It wouldn't do to show the other officers his eye roll of exasperation. He knew that request had been a nonstarter from the get-go. What he hadn't known was that it had been a gimme, a throw away to save face with the yard dog.

  Captain Perth grimaced. “I'd hoped you'd find a way to squeeze something in. A little more warning and better resolution might smooth the ride out a bit,” he said. “I'll let Chief Zz'vv know.”

  Percy flicked his ears. “I know the feeling,” he said. “Another suggestion?” he said as he typed. “Get the ship architects to figure on a purpose-built ship—one with milspec components hardy enough to take the ride but also plenty of redundancy just in case something goes wrong. And figure on a maintenance team and supports on either end for repairs. They'll need it.” He snorted and paused what he was doing to look up. “Hell, most likely we will eventually,” he said.

  “So noted,” Captain I'rll said with her species version of a sigh. She flicked her antenna a few times. “Now, on to the sublight drive …”

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  The following morning the senior naval officers held the department staff meeting. It was their weekly SITREP of the navy's activities in macro overall with various major events brought to their attention and micro in the events within their own little command of Pyrax. It was also a place to discuss the schedule, priorities, and bring up potential problems before they became real ones. And hopefully, pitch solutions to current problems.

  Many of the officers like Commander Teague attended virtually since they didn't have the time to burn in a commute from their postings. Horatio wondered briefly if they were even actually attending from time to time. For all he knew, they could be using an avatar and reviewing the meeting later. He wouldn't put it past Irene.

  He had brought in Captain I'rll to train her for the meetings. The two of them had managed to make it to the admiral's wardroom in person to attend it.

  “I'd like to welcome Captain I'rll to the conversation,” Admiral Subert said, surprising them as he opened up the meeting. “You'll be a good replacement for Horatio … whenever we can dispense with his services,” he said sourly.

  “That eager to get rid of me,” Horatio replied with a theatrical sigh.

  “Something like that,” Saul replied with a glance to his boss. Admiral Subert had a tendency to come off a little too exacerbate for his own good. That sarcasm had bitten him in the ass several times. He tried to curb it, but sometimes it got the better of him.

  One by one, each department head gave them a brief on their activities and the activities of the navy abroad. Most of it was the same as before. The most changes were in the progress in the yards. There was little new news from Admiral White's Second Fleet.

  When the meeting seemed to wind down to its inevitable conclusion Horatio nodded to the bug beside him. “See? It is pretty easy once you get the handle on the protocol. You are a damn good understudy. Now the spotlight will be yours,” Horatio said.

  “Well, it will be when you get your carcass out of the star system, sir,” Commander Ch'n'x teased, clacking her mandibles at Horatio.

  “I'm going, I'm going. Can't get rid of me soon enough,” Horatio mock growled. He could see the levity between the Veraxin Ops officer and himself wasn't playing well with Saul or the admiral so he waved it off.

  “More like finally glad you are going on a vacation,” Lieutenant Strongbirth retorted as a parting shot. That earned a laugh from the group, and to Horatio's surprise even Saul and the admiral joined in.

  ~<><{<^>}><>~

  Rear Admiral Zekowitz sat on the edge of the examination table nervously as he waited for the checkup with Doctor Roman Taylor to proceed. It was supposed to be just a basic checkup, check his vital signs, and make sure all was well in a pre-op before he went in to surgery the following day for his full implants. Zek was clearly nervous about the procedure; he'd heard a few stories and seen what it was doing to Oprah. She had a couple scares that had put the willies in him.

  “Sir,” the absurdly young looking doctor said, coming in and extending his hand. He glanced at it and then shook it. He started to rise, but the lieutenant waved him back to his seat as he took a seat on a rolling stool. “I've been going over your vital signs. For the most part, they are good. Your BP is a bit high though. You also seem to be exhibiting some stress reactions.”

  “You could say that,” Zek replied with a slight nervous growl.

  “Work or ….” When the admiral seemed to scowl, he stopped that line of questioning. “Okay. Well, then,” he said, adjusting his discussion. “I understand you have some questions?”

  “I'm not sure what this entails,” the rear admiral said. “I've seen some things, but …” he grimaced.

  “Okay, well, we're not going to do a full strip like we normally do with the marines if that is what you are worried about, Admiral,” Doctor Taylor said, making the admiral squirm slightly. Roman nodded internally. He now knew what was causing the stress. The admiral was exhibiting signs of “white coat syndrome” along with a rising anxiety over the procedures.

  “What we're going to do is, we scan you with a series of testing equipment. A lot of that had already been done ahead of time on Caroline though. Our systems have better resolution though, so we'll want to run the scans to do a comparison,” he stated. “That's all noninvasive.”

  “I've gotten through most of that,” the admiral stated. “Move on.”

  “Right,” Roman said, nodding. He was still adjusting to the admiral. He had to defer to the other man's rank, but as the admiral's doctor, he was in charge. Finding a balance was tricky.

  “Okay, the nurse will set you up with a pre-op kit. Basically it will flush your system out. It isn't pleasant, but I'm afraid it is necessary. You'll also have to fast for a twenty-four-hour period.” The admiral grimaced. “Once you come in and we've got you in the system, we'll take more vital signs and scans and then finalize your implants.”

  “Lieutenant Si is taking it in stages,” the admiral stated.

  “If that is what you'd like to do, we can arrange that, sir. The recovery from each is easier, but it means you will have to be put under multiple times. There is some risk each time someone goes under anesthetic, but we try to minimize that.”

  The admiral grimaced. “What am I in for? Anti-geriatric treatments of course,” he said.

  “Some of that is already underway, Admiral,” Doctor Taylor replied.

  The admiral blinked in surprise. “It is?”

  The doctor cleared his throat, clearly surprised at the other man's confusion. “Apparently, you missed that. Um, okay, when you came in for your previous two check ins you were given pills, right?”

  “Horse pills,” the admiral replied with a tight nod.

  “Right. Several were for scanning and mapping purposes. There were also several pills that were to start you on your antigeriatric regimen. Unfortunately, due to your age we have to go full out on you in order to dial back the clock. Even with that we'll only be able to go so far. Had you gotten the treatments as you'd grown up and … well, never mind that,” the doctor said, cutting off his nattering with a wave of his hand. “What matters here is, we've started the procedures already. Now we're moving into the next phase.”

  “What exactly did you do before?” the admiral asked with narrowed eyes.

  “Um …,” the doctor checked the patient's file. He also checked for the disclosure forms. They had been hand signed. “Okay, we gave you nanite pills to clear up some of the minor problems in your body. They also flushed out toxins in your body and cleared some of your arteries of plaque buildup and other problems. The first series of pills mapped the system and told us what needed to be done. The next were our initial steps to do that,” he explained. “It's all there in the disclosure forms,” he offered lamely.

  “Which I didn't read since I was in a rush,” the admiral admitted, parsing out what the doctor had said. Whe
n he realized the intent, his eyes widened. “Are you telling me you put nanites in me?” he demanded, clearly aghast.

  The doctor noted the patient's vital signs spike in distress. Clearly, he wasn't ready mentally for the procedure if he could get this anxious, Roman thought. Not good.

  “Yes,” the doctor said. “But don't worry, they did their jobs and then shut down. By now they've been flushed out of you.”

  “But you did it without telling me?” the admiral pressed.

  “Sir, you signed the disclosure forms,” Doctor Taylor replied patiently.

  “But …”

  “It's over and done with now. You should be feeling a little better, correct?” he asked.

  The admiral scowled.

  “Okay, um, anyway, what we'll do is, um, we'll put you under then we open you up. We'll use a series of pre-programmed nanites and surgical procedures to add implants to your major organs. Basically, think of them as artificial nerves; they'll allow your implants to monitor your health and intervene if necessary,” he explained.

  “From there, we'll add additional links to your brain to a computer interface. You'll have a series of microcomputers built into your body and central nervous system, including your brain. We'll add jacks and a WiFi link, then get into cleaning up more of your systems.”

  The admiral didn't say anything so he continued on. “From there we'll work on injecting you with a series of drug treatments and nanotech to roll back your metabolic clock further. That will give you more muscle mass, better organ function, that sort of thing. Some of the implants, like a pharmacology implant will be added as well.”

  The admiral scowled.

  “From there, we'll add specific additions like a spacer package to allow you to handle the stress of zero G better. Systems to make your organs more efficient in processing food and keeping your body functional while under duress. Systems to enhance your senses and add new ones. Materials bonded to your skeleton and muscles to make you stronger and tougher. Then there are the classified systems, like your flag officer keys, IFF, and um, suicide package,” he said.

  “Unfortunately, we can't give you the full flag officer implant package at this time. Well, we can give you the hardware, most of it. The rest will have to be overseen by doctors and Admiral Irons at a later date and time I suppose,” Doctor Taylor stated. “Questions, sir?”

  “I need to see this. To go over it. To understand it,” Zek replied gruffly.

  “It's all pretty routine, sir. Every officer and enlisted gets most of it. We're not adding cybernetic limbs or anything. Just improving things while adding the necessary hardware for you to interface with modern equipment.”

  “I understand that in theory. But we're talking a major insult to my body. What are the problems with tissue rejection?” the admiral demanded.

  “That is indeed an occasional issue,” the doctor replied with a nod. “Encapsulation is as well. We have techniques for dealing with both however. The nanites in your body will interface with your immune system and steer them away from attacking your implants though. In rare cases we run into side effects and problems.”

  “Which is what I'm talking about,” the admiral growled.

  “Sir, the slim chances of those happening are …,” Roman waved a hand and then stopped himself. “Sir, the benefits far outweigh the risks. You'll live another two or more centuries easily. You'll be able to handle things …”

  “I get that. I'm still not convinced,” the admiral said doggedly. Doctor Taylor could tell Admiral Zekowitz was still nervous and uncomfortable to the point of balking at going through with it. “I don't want the nanotech—at all.”

  Doctor Taylor patiently explained he had implants already. “You also received early antigeriatric treatments, correct?” Zek nodded. “And the ID implant on Caroline?” Again the admiral nodded. “As I said before, those, sir, were nanotech as well. The pills were nanites. They opened up when you were asleep and did what they were programmed to do. In one case it was to map and treat problems. In the other it was to form your ID in your hand, arm, eye, mastoid, and brain. Once they were finished, they self-destructed and were flushed out of your body.”

  Doctor Taylor could tell that the pale admiral was not at all happy about being told about nanites in his body. He was actually reacting badly, the same as some of the other Bekian officers had initially. Taylor patiently explained they were deactivated and out of his body a third time, but it just didn't seem to penetrate the man's anxiety. He did his best to reassure him; he scanned and then showed the admiral the results. “No nanites, they have been broken down. They are just small robots, sir, sometimes not even that. Sometimes they are just substances. Under certain circumstances they are tailor-made retroviruses. It all depends on the application.”

  From his intense scowl, the doctor knew that Admiral Zekowitz was not happy at all about the idea. Doctor Taylor noted atavistic fear of nanotech in the admiral's medical record. He made a notation for education and possible psychological counseling. He went on to explain replicators and regen tanks were nanotech but saw that his patient was turned off to listening. “A topic for another time I suppose or homework for you. Just remember, we'll be in control of them the entire time, sir. There is no need to fear. I've never lost a patient, and I don't intend to lose one now.”

  “Sure you will be,” the admiral said in disgust as he rose. “I've got to get back on my schedule,” he muttered.

  Once he was out into the lobby, Zek was immediately called over by the receptionist. He put the surgery appointment off for a time using the excuse that his schedule was rather full.

  Chapter 7

  To distract himself and test his growing knowledge, Admiral Zekowitz tagged along with Horatio to see what the commodore's usual duties were all about. It turned into a tour of the shipyards together as they checked in on the progress of the various ships. The idea was to take notes and get on the same page while also getting to know one another.

  Horatio also wanted to get Zek to finish his implant procedure so they could get underway. He wasn't certain how to approach the problem however. The man seemed rather prickly about the subject, so after a couple of halfhearted attempts to get a story going, he gave it up for the moment.

  Zek seemed rather appreciative of all they had done in the yard. “We've been growing exponentially, or we were. We've pretty much saturated our raw material intake so growth has halted. Besides, we don't really need more slips to build some of the smaller ships,” Horatio explained. “There is only so much we can do with the crew we've got. So focus has shifted to building the ships themselves,” he explained.

  “As it should be,” Zek replied. “But to do all this in what, fifteen years? It rivals some of the yard space back home in Bek!” he said in way of admiration.

  “Well, we started with nothing as you know. We used Anvil's production facilities initially, but it was the factory ship Hephaestus 33 that made the difference here. Vulcan was helpful, but it was Admiral Irons who made it all possible with his keys,” Horatio stated. “Once he got a few of the industrial plants going, we used them to keep growing; eventually, we didn't need the input from Anvil or Hephaestus any longer.”

  “I see.” Zek grimaced as Horatio navigated their lighter around a cluster of robots working to move a section of hull into a larger module downstream for additional processing. The hull section already had stiffeners and holes cut in it and a few wiring harnesses and fixtures attached.

  “Hephaestus is in Agnosta still, working on the fortresses around the B458 jump point while also providing support to the marine and army bases. I'd love to have her here helping out with the orbital fortresses, but we've got other ships to do that I suppose,” Horatio admitted.

  “I see. I understand now why you don't try to build the fortresses here. You are too saturated.”

  “And we need them where they are. They are all hollowed-out rocks that we're plugging the hardware into when we have it,” Horatio stated.<
br />
  “But that wasn't on the general plan,” Zek probed.

  “No, no it wasn't. Admiral Irons hadn't gotten that far. Since I was stuck on the defense with limited abilities, I started the fortresses to allow us to expand and to defend the star system. I used what we had available. Kind of like the Kittyhawk program that came later,” he stated.

  “Ah,” Zek said with a nod. Motion caught his eye followed by blinking lights. “Watch …”

  “I got it,” Horatio said, pitching up and firing their OMS thrusters to get their small ship out of the way of another group of robots. “They are early,” he observed. “Someone's pushing the timetable hard here,” he said.

  “Is that good or bad?”

  “Good in that it means they aren't just going through the motions. But bad if they muck up the timing and things begin to stack up or become idle. It's all about keeping the flow consistent and on track,” Horatio said. “It took me awhile to get that sorted out mentally,” he said.

  “Ah.” Zek nodded. “I know the feeling,” he said.

  “I read some of your bio, but there wasn't a lot to go on, sir. You ran a slip?”

  “An entire section just before Caroline arrived. I oversaw the construction of cruisers,” Zek stated.

  “Oh. Cool,” Horatio said.

  Zek's lips pursed in an almost smile.

  “Well, that finishes it up for here. We've got a hospital ship being built one bay over. Do you want to see it?”

  Zek shook his head.

  They decided by mutual accord to skip the tour of the hospital ship. “I've been there once already,” Zek said. “And I understand I'm going to be there for a lengthy time in the doctor's clutches,” he said ruefully. Horatio cracked a sympathetic smile and nodded.

  “It happens. Everyone hates being laid up in the body and fender shop. Hurrying up and waiting in a waiting room is just as bad I suppose, but just doing paperwork and watching the TV sucks,” he said.

  Zek rolled his eyes. Tell me about it,” he drawled, shaking his head.