The Tau Ceti Agenda

by Travis S. Taylor

  "What is that?"

  "This, my dear, is pain. Pure, liquid, pain. Enjoy it." He stuck the needle into her neck and drained the pink stuff into her.

  The injection started burning from the instant the needle touched her skin. At first Kira felt a tingling and burning spreading out through her face and then down her body. Her hearing heightened, and she could hear her own heartbeat begin to race as if it would beat out of her chest. Kira tried to shallow and control her breathing, but the burning grew and grew to the point were her body felt like it was being burned from the inside out. She screamed in pain.

  "I am so going to fucking kill you!" Kira did her best to put her mind somewhere else but the pain was too great to ignore.

  "You can't just destroy Luna City, Elle!"

  "Scotty, I can and I will. That is the only way to be sure that the election goes our way." Ahmi paced back and forth in her cabin. "Now, that's enough of this."

  "Elle, millions could die from an event like that. It was different when there were millions being saved on Mars, and we always expected that the U.S. would save them, but this is just murder. It's mass murder on the largest scale known to man. For what, just to sway an election!"

  "A means to a better end," Ahmi replied.

  "Damnit, Elle—" Scotty was interrupted by the door buzzer.

  "Yes?" Elle snapped the door open to face the ship's captain.

  "More info on the attack at the facility, General."

  "Yes?"

  "It appears as if we have overwhelmed them. The supercarrier has taken several direct hits from the mass driver on the moon. The space and ground forces are outnumbered more than three-to-one and are attritting." The captain stood still in the doorway awaiting Ahmi's response.

  "Good, Maximillian. And the other mass driver?"

  "They are too close to it for any useful firing solutions. The crew has been moved to the moon facility for more efficient use of their abilities."

  "The defenses of the base are working as planned. Good." Elle tugged at her ski mask, adjusting her ponytail in the back. "We will drop out of QMT and start the immediate recharge of the projector. The hauler and other battle cruisers will protect us until we teleport again. Once the cruiser is in the Earth-Moon sphere of influence, we will evacuate the ship completely. Got it?"

  "Understood ma'am." The captain saluted, and the door closed behind him.

  "How long were you going to keep this from me, Elle?" Scotty asked.

  "Right up until the last minute. I knew you would get all defiant about it."

  "You know I have family there! Why didn't you warn me about it?"

  "Would you have swayed one way or the other?"

  "I, uh . . ."

  "No, you wouldn't have. I know you too well. Now stop it, Scotty. I've got a battle plan to think about." Elle waved him to the door. Scotty shook his head and reluctantly dropped the topic, leaving the general to her work.

  Allison? Allison?

  Don't worry, I'm still here.

  You got really quiet on me.

  I didn't want to transmit just in case they knew how to detect it. Looks like our decoy implant worked. How do you feel?

  Yes it did, and I feel rough as hell.

  The CIA had discovered decades earlier that the Separatists often removed the AIC implants of captured agents and either hacked them or destroyed them. And in many cases, they killed their biological counterparts in the process. Allison was a member of the Top Secret AIC family that had been developed to grow as microfilaments along the human nervous system, rather than to be implanted as a small device in the brain. Allison's components were dispersed and intermingled throughout Kira's body and would likely only be removable if Kira were dead. The implant was just a copy AIC that had been put there years ago to act as a decoy. Most CIA operatives had similar AICs. The AICs had to volunteer and so did the operatives, as it pretty much made them symbiotic and intertwined for the life of the human.

  Any luck getting us out of here?

  The troop carrier we rigged this morning hasn't been repaired yet! Allison said excitedly into Kira's mind. That was a glimmer of hope. The lifter that they had commandeered in the hangar bay to fly them up to the mecha that they had ended up stealing for the getaway was still in line to be repaired. The Seppy repair crews had just rolled it aside for later maintenance. And it still had the hacks in place that Kira and Allison had previously applied. And it was still keyed into the ship's networks.

  Can you access it? Kira had put her mind so far out into space that she could barely keep her sanity. The internal burning sensation had finally lessened to a tolerable level, but that had been followed with a strange and frightening euphoria that had lasted for several minutes. The doctor had left her to her chemical trip as far as she could tell and was no longer in the room with her. The bastard hadn't even bothered to cover her up.

  I've got control of it now.

  Can it bust us out? Kira tried blinking her eyes and shaking her head hoping to keep the pain managed. The remnant of the immunoboost that she had taken hours ago was probably keeping the pain from overwhelming her, but the chemical had pretty much overcome what was left of it. Her head pounded like a repulsor hammer with each beat of her heart.

  It couldn't get through the deck plating. But it's a start and a way out if we can get to it.

  If we can get to it. Right. How do we do that?

  You have to get untied.

  I have no idea about that yet.

  The door hissed open and Kira braced herself for more torture. It was the doctor again. This time Scotty followed in behind him. The two were arguing about something, but Kira couldn't make out exactly what at first.

  "The general sent me back down here to ask more questions. Is she conscious?"

  "I can always wake her up if not," the doctor replied.

  "Leave us, now." Scotty glared at the doctor. Kira wasn't sure, but she was guessing that Scotty must be a high-ranking member of Ahmi's inner circle, if she had one.

  "If you need me, I'll be in my office," the man said, and the door closed behind him. Scotty turned his attention to Kira.

  "Here, this will help," he told Kira as she felt a sting in her neck.

  A flood of warmth and well-being coursed through her body. A feeling that Kira had felt way too many times that followed stims and immunoboost injections. But that was a good thing. She never wanted to feel the way she had a few minutes ago ever again. She needed the added strength and for some of the pain to go away. Almost immediately, the throbbing in her face subsided. There must have been painkillers in the injection as well.

  What the hell?

  This could be our chance?

  "I'm not privy to the plan to murder on such a mass scale. Everything we had done before was based on creating a new America. One that we lost so many decades ago. You have to stop this madness!" he rambled rather quickly and then slipped a knife underneath the zip tie, cutting her right hand free.

  "Why are you doing this?" Kira rose as he cut her left hand free. She rubbed at the scratches on her wrists that were healing in real time. The swelling in her face reduced, and the cuts began to close.

  "I told you. I'm not a mass murderer. Elle has stepped over a boundary that I can't." Scotty focused only on cutting Kira's bonds loose.

  "You know she is fucking nuts!"

  "No, she isn't. She is the most brilliant woman I've ever met. Probably the most brilliant human that ever lived, but with that great intellect, she has become so logical that she has forgotten the emotional aspects of being human on an individual scale. She only thinks in the grand schema nowadays." Scotty looked nervously over his shoulder. "Her big picture is brilliant but is getting too costly. And I have family in Luna. She could have at least warned me."

  Aha, it isn't selfless. He has someone he cares about in harm's way, Allison thought.

  Typical. But he must actually care for them to risk his neck for us.

  "She will have you ki
lled."

  "Not if you do this right." He cut her last zip tie and then put the knife in her hand. "Stay put. Dr. Ross will be back any second. Make it look like he let you loose." Scotty turned for the door. "Stop this ship from killing all those people."

  "Thank you. I will." Kira rubbed at the healing hole behind her ear and could feel the soft spot where the bone was beginning to fill in. She palmed the open knife in her left hand and squirmed back into place as if she were still tied down. "Now get the hell out of here."

  "Good luck," he told her as he left.

  Wasn't expecting that.

  Hope it isn't a trap.

  Me too. But don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

  The door slid open, and Kira could hear the doctor's shoes squeaking against the floor. She lay still as if she were catatonic with her eyes open wide and not blinking. With the pain subsiding in her head, she could focus and control herself better now.

  Wait . . . wait . . .

  The doctor leaned over to check her with a diagnostic tool, and he looked into her pupils with his flashlight. When he did, Kira grabbed the back of his hair with her right hand and jabbed the knife into his temple with the left. The blade slid into his head all the way to the hilt. Kira twisted the blade, scrambling his brains around, withdrew it, and then stabbed him again, repeating the process. She tossed him to the floor and rolled out of the examining stirrups over on top of him. The deck plating was cold against her bare feet.

  She quickly pulled his pants and shirt off and slipped them on. They were too big, but she managed to pull the slip fastener at the waist tight enough to hold, and she rolled the bottoms tight around her ankles. The shirt was still loose, so she tied it in a knot at her side. She hefted the knife in her left hand and backed up against the doorjamb, punching the open switch. The door hissed open. She looked around the doorway into an empty hall. It was clear.

  Great. Now where to from here?

  We need to stop this ship from getting to the Moon.

  Engine Room?

  Good a place as any to start with.

  "All hands, all hands, prepare for QMT jump in ten . . ."

  Chapter 17

  October 31, 2388 AD

  Sol System

  Oort Cloud

  Saturday, 7:31 AM, Earth Eastern Standard Time

  "Captain Walker!"

  "Go Nav." Sharon watched the purple and white flashes of the hyperspace conduit swirl in front of her ship. The Blair was approaching the Oort Cloud Seppy facility, and from the latest communication from the Madira, it wouldn't be a second too early.

  "Conduit collapsing in twenty seconds, ma'am."

  "Roger that, Nav." Sharon tugged at her seatbelt again to make sure it was good and tight. It was. "XO!"

  "Aye, Captain?"

  "All the forward SIFs at max and prepare for impacts."

  "Aye, Captain. Forward SIFs at max." Commander Brasher tapped at her controls, and Sharon caught a glimpse of her XO tugging subconsciously at her own seatbelt.

  "Nav. You got that secondary jaunt plan calculated?"

  "Aye, CO."

  Okay, Marley, sound it off, the captain told her AIC.

  Yes, ma'am.

  "All hands, all hands, prepare for emergence from hyperspace conduit. Man all battlestations and prepare for incoming. Normal space in nine, eight, seven, six, five, four . . ."

  The purple and white flashes of Cerenkov radiation swirled away like water in the bottom of a toilet bowl and then scattered off in all directions, vanishing. The U.S.S. Anthony Blair materialized in normal space at maximum normal space velocity only a thousand kilometers from the moon planetoid. The giant supercarrier loomed toward the mass driver suspected location as relayed by the STO of the Madira. The surface had been scratched up by what appeared to be DEG fire, but there was no sign of any direct hits or of the Madira for that matter.

  "STO, I want full sensors on those coordinates looking for that mass driver tube," Fullback ordered.

  "Roger that, Captain." Lieutenant Commander Zeke Caldwell toggled through mountains of sensor data being DTMed to him from the ship's CDC and from his own systems. There was nothing useful, yet. But as the ship's science and technical officer, it was his job to figure it out.

  "Where is the Madira?" Commander Brasher asked.

  "I've got a hyperspace conduit opening up about ten thousand kilometers away, XO. That is probably them," the STO replied.

  "CO Madira? This is CO Blair. You copy?" Fullback said over the command-net channel.

  "CO, CDC!"

  "Go, CDC."

  "Captain, we've got massive electromagnetic signatures building up over the Seppy facility. I think there's a teleportation occurring."

  "STO concurs with those readings, Captain. And the Madira just came out of hyperspace right beneath it!"

  "Roger that, CDC. Roger that, STO. Madira! Do you copy?"

  "CO Blair. CO Madira. Good of y'all to join us, Fullback. Watch out for the mass driver; it will be recharged in three minutes and twelve seconds. I'm having my STO synch up our clock to you. Be advised that we are dead in the water. Aux prop is at least five to ten minutes out, and we just did our last jaunt for a while, I'm told." Captain Jefferson's voice sounded a bit strained over the net. Sharon needed to give him some good news, but right now that wasn't about to happen.

  "Wally, in case you haven't noticed, there is a QMT disturbance forming less than ten kilometers above you. Is there anything we can do to help?"

  "Yes. Knock out that damned mass driver, and then get your ass down here."

  "Roger that, Madira. Good luck, Wally. Blair, out."

  "Gunnery Officer Blake, do you have a target yet?"

  "Nothing specific, Captain."

  "Captain! I've got a reading on the power source for the driver. There is signigicant buildup about a kilometer deep in the crust of that thing."

  "That's too deep to get at with DEGs, CO," the XO replied.

  "Where is the throat?" Sharon leaned back in her chair, watching the battle thousands of kilometers below them raging in her mindview. And the large disturbance over the teleportation facility continued to grow and grow for a few seconds more, and then there was a large flash of light in the sensors. The next thing she knew, the DTM was pinging new targets and painting the area with big red dots.

  "Looking for the throat, ma'am, but until it fires, we probably won't find it," the STO responded.

  "Understood."

  "CO, CDC."

  "I see the bogies below, CDC."

  "Aye, ma'am. Just thought you'd want to know that we just had a Seppy hauler, three battle cruisers, and a couple frigates pop into normal space down there."

  "Thanks, CDC." Sharon noted that the new red dots in her mindview had new labels on them, explaining what they were.

  "Okay, Nav, jaunt us out into the line of fire of the last mass driver shot at the Madira bow-first. That will put us just a few thousand kilometers from the engagement zone. You have the coordinates."

  "Ma'am?"

  "Well, we ain't gonna find them until they shoot at us."

  "Uh, yes ma'am. Prepping jaunt systems."

  "As soon as we take the first hit, or before if you can manage it, punch the jaunt drive. Understood?"

  "Roger that, ma'am."

  "Okay, we've got more than two minutes to kill here. Somebody, find us some targets to shoot at." Captain Walker made a bright, toothy smile at her bridge crew, hoping to spark an idea.

  "Well, Captain," the COB started between sips of coffee. "If we ain't got nothing to shoot at up here, why not shoot at something down there?"

  "Damned good idea, Bill." She turned her chair slightly toward the gunnery officer. "Ensign Blake, pick any enemy targets below and fire at your discretion."

  "Yes, ma'am. It'll be like shooting fish in barrel, whatever the hell that means," the gunnery officer replied.

  "Jaunt coordinates ready, Captain."

  "Captain Jefferson! We just had a Seppy
hauler, three battle cruisers, and a couple frigates materialize in normal space about ten kilometers straight up, sir," the STO reported.

  "Roger that, STO. Gunnery Officer Rice, target those bastards with everything we've got." Wallace spun his chair toward the air boss's station. "Air Boss, where are the rest of the fighters now?"

  "Well, sir, we let them out just before we jaunted through hyperspace, and even at max speed, they are still about four minutes out."

  "Goddamn, what a pickle," the XO grunted. "Sir, I'm getting reports from all over the ship. Whatever the hell Engineering did to give us that last jaunt blew out almost everything but the DEGs."

  "Well, then, keep firing them." This was about as grim as Wallace had seen it get. The Madira was wounded badly and floating adrift in space with no structural integrity field generators and no propulsion. Fire teams and damage diagnostics showed a hole through the aft section of the supercarrier big enough to build a housing community in and the majority of the air wing was four minutes away in deep space. Oh, and there was the little fact that there had just been a small fleet of enemy ships appear in normal space right on top of them. This was definitely a typical Navy day.

  I'm open for ideas. Timmy?

  I'm working on it, sir. The CHENG's team and I are rerouting everything we can to get us some sort of propulsion. With the enemy ships above us and the facility below us, on the other hand, it is unlikely that they would fire the mass driver at us, in fear of hitting them.

  That was the whole point of taking up this position, Timmy.

  Aye, sir.

  Keep at it.

  Aye.

  "CO! The hauler is dumping out Gnats as fast as it can throw them. I've got more than a hundred and counting!" the air boss shouted. "Our guys are gonna be outnumbered by at least one order of magnitude, sir."

  "Warn them and tell them to make do."

  "Aye, sir." The air boss reluctantly relayed the order to the CAG. What DeathRay said in return was rather foul.