by Ben Winston
"Those rocks they knocked loose. There is just something about them that's just driving me nuts!" I said. "I wish I could be more specific for you, but I can't."
"I will take a closer look at the asteroids then. During the night cycle of the base, there is less for me to do, this will help occupy my time," Sarah replied. I could hear the smile in her words.
"You forget I check your log files regularly, I know you are not bored at night no matter what you tell me. I'm not going to ask you to look, but I'm also not going to prohibit you either. Just don't let this take priority over anything else, okay?" I said as I landed outside my building.
"I won't Eric, but I don't see how doing this for you would hurt anything. If it serves to set your mind at ease, then it will be well worth my time," Sarah replied. "Just so you know, your wife and family are worried about you. You've been gone a lot longer than usual."
"You didn't tell them about the whole being knighted thing did you?" I asked.
"No, but I did hint that something important happened. Speaking of hints, I think you missed one given by Lord Admiral Vance when he said there were two seats for the Terrans on the High Council," Sarah said as I got on the elevator.
"No, I didn't miss it, I ignored it. Sarah, I don't even want to be the head of the computing department, but I'm going to get stuck with it. There is no way you could talk me into taking a post on the High Council where I would have to make decisions for the whole world, mostly without their knowledge. I'd much rather rejoin the Marines and fight the Aracs again," I said.
"Well my Lord, you are about to face a hostile front of a different kind, are you ready?" Sarah asked as I got off the elevator and walked down the hall to our door.
"I don't think 'hostile' is accurate, perhaps concerned, or maybe worried, but I doubt 'hostile'," I said and opened the door.
There, just inside the door, all of the ladies were arrayed, standing in a semi-circle, waiting for me. I could easily see by the looks on their faces that they were not happy.
"My apologies, Sarah, it appears that I'm mistaken," I said.
Sarah made her hologram appear beside the ladies. "It does happen from time to time, Eric."
Dr. Cowan’s Laboratory
Alliance Apollo Base
Selene, Earth’s moon
Sol System
It seemed for a time that there was a lull in the seeming non-stop action that had become my life. Yes the ladies did indeed express their, uh, displeasure at my coming home late, but once I explained everything that had been going on, that is, everything I could explain to them since some of it was classified, they eased up on me.
They really took the news of my knighthood well. The look on my mom's face was clearly one of pride. She took me in her arms and hugged me. "Eric, you have done so much for me to be proud of you for that it has become impossible for me to let you know about it. But this is so far out there it fails words. I know for a fact that your father would be immensely proud of you. We may get upset with you from time to time, or give you a hard time for something, but never doubt that we are proud of you, and that we love you more than any of us can say."
She had tears in her eyes, Jamie had tears in her eyes, Christy had tears... you get the picture, the only one not crying was Sarah, and I'm she would have if she had been capable of it. Anyway, we all 'kissed and made up' after that, and life returned to what passed for normal in the Cowan household.
Ced talked to Hopsis about changing departments, and the promotion. Ced later told me that at first, Hopsis believed he had done something wrong, even though Ced had assured him that was not the case. Ced finally resorted to having Sarah explain it to him. It took a few minutes, but then it dawned on him that he was actually getting promoted, and he would be permanently assigned as the administrator of the Computing Technologies Department. He wouldn't be in charge of it, but he would be an integral part of our team. When he was told that I had asked for him by name, he puffed up with pride.
Corhen had taken him aside to show him what needed to be done, and how the department worked. He was soaking everything up like a sponge, and was asking questions. Corhen later informed me that she had been impressed with the young Simonian.
Vance made it official, Hopsis would handle the administration duties, and I would handle the rest. Although the change was made, Corhen didn't leave. The base couldn't spare a ship to transport her back to the Command Complex at Novalus. However, that didn't stop her from assuming her duties. She had Foreten set up an office for her complete with a full holographic communications suite so she could attend Council meetings and perform her new responsibilities in the Alliance hierarchy. Across the hall from her, Matriarch, now Councilor Alyessa, also set up shop. Her Clan had agreed that she would be the best for the position of Councilor on their behalf. She accepted the seat, and her eldest daughter was accepted as her replacement in the Clan. The other Shallan representative was someone I had never met before, and didn't know anything about.
Vance finally came out and asked me directly about taking the seat for the Terran delegation, since it had been the consensus of Terrans living on the base that I be nominated for it. When I refused, and gave him my reasons he said he understood, and moved down to the next name on the list, who also refused. He finally had to resort to asking the recruiters on Earth to find two people that would be good candidates for the positions. I silently wished them luck.
Work on the new AI for the Command Complex was going well. Sarah reminded me about the core instruction changes I had outlined based on Sarah's and Susan's operation. However, once I incorporated them, I began to have problems.
Because Athena would have radically different duties and responsibilities than both Sarah and Susan, I was writing her from scratch. When I first powered her up in our isolated core, it was discovered that she was mentally unstable, bordering on psychotic. I had intended her to be slightly more aggressive than Sarah and Susan, but still be considerate and dutiful.
She was more aggressive alright; she tried to kill the nearest person to her as soon as she came fully on-line. Luckily, it had been Carla that was the closest, and she simply stood there and let the new AI swing at her until I could shut her down. Carla told me later that she was trying to make sure Athena remained distracted while I shut her down. I returned to the programming suite, and tore into her personality matrix.
Two days had passed in blissful, if frustrating programming before reality once again shattered my world. I was in the programming studio when Sarah sent me an alert that she needed to speak to me, and that it was important. I saved my work, and shut down the sections I was working on before leaving the room.
Sarah was waiting for me when I left the room, which in my book, is never a good sign. "What's wrong, Sarah?"
"Remember the asteroids you didn't ask me to look at from the video of the seeding mission arriving?" She said. I felt my gut slowly start forming into knot. I was still having nightmares about Earth being overrun by the Hive.
"Yes, what about them?" I asked, dreading the answer.
"I think I might have found something," she replied. "I've made an appointment with Lord Admiral Vance for us."
"Let's go then, but what did you find?" I asked.
"Actually, it's more of what I didn't find," she explained. "The area of space where the seeding ship arrived in had no asteroids large enough to register on our sensors."
"Are you certain? How did you figure that out?" I asked.
"Well, when I examined the footage of the ship arriving, I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. So I decided to scan the records of the defense network for that area of space. According to the network, while that area is remote for them, there are no significant objects of mass for twenty thousand tics in any direction. Eric, there was nothing in that area of space for them to hit," Sarah finished. "Which leaves they either brought them through hyperspace, or they were dropped by the ship after it left hyperspace."
"You're
not setting my mind at ease here, Sarah," I replied getting on the slideway for Base Admin.
"There is nothing here to be easy about, Eric. If what I saw is correct, then Earth now has four Aracnise colonies on its surface."
"Do we know how they go about infesting a planet?" I asked, feeling a little sick at a Hive colony on Earth.
"Little is known about the process, Eric, only the result," Sarah replied. "The Novan colony world of Cypress Tyre was infested by the hive. The small colony was overrun. The actual seeding of the planet hadn't been noted, but there had been intensive fighting in that sector for months, so it was assumed that seeding took place during the fighting, although there was no proof to support it.
"A Simonian Colony world called Hergrath Tir was infested, again during fighting, and again no one saw how it happened. However it was noted that none of the Aracnise ships had been close enough to the colony world to send out ships," Sarah replied. "The list goes on, but the story is the same in each one; no one knows when the actual seeding took place, or even how it took place."
"Priority search, Sarah. All infested colonial records. Search for asteroid strikes prior to the Aracnise appearing on the planet," I asked.
Office of the Base Commander
Alliance Apollo Base
Selene, Earth’s moon
Sol System
"I've announced you, go right in, Eric." Sarah said as I neared the door to Vance's Office.
When I entered I saw we had interrupted a lunch date Vance was having with his mate Coryn.
"Sir, I'm really sorry to bother you, but Sarah discovered something we felt you needed to know about right away," I said. "Altuis Denay Coryn, I'm sorry about your lunch."
She looked concerned. "Is there anything I can help with, Eric? I don't think I've ever seen you this worried before," she replied.
"First, tell me what's wrong, Eric." Vance said.
"I think they did it, Sir. The Aracnise have seeded Earth," I replied and asked Sarah to present her findings.
Sarah reported everything she told me about, and finished with the search I asked for. "Sir, just before entering your office, Eric asked me to perform a search on reported asteroid strike on the worlds that had been overrun. Sir, in all but one case, colony records indicate asteroid strikes recorded somewhere in their hemisphere of the plant. I feel that I should add that in that one case, they also noted the asteroid strikes, but for them, it was an annual recurrence. A further note indicated that the shower had begun a week earlier than expected."
"They use asteroids, Sir. Somehow, they get their troops and a queen down to the surface in an asteroid, and they spread quickly," I said.
Vance looked thoughtful. "Sarah, Earth is visible to us, topside, right now isn't it?"
Sarah nodded. "Yes, Sir"
"See if you can commandeer one of Astrometrics larger telescopes and take a look at the landing areas. It's been the better part of three days since the event. Show us what there is to see near the strikes," Vance ordered.
The lights dimmed slightly, and a large hologram of northern Canada appeared over the table. Currently the terrain was flying past very quickly, but it soon began to slow down, and the point of view got closer to the surface but the details didn't look real.
"This is the site on the North American Continent, Sir. The impact started a massive forest fire, so I am using enhancement to see through the smoke," Sarah reported. As she was speaking, the fire line passed through the image, and the black, charred area was now visible.
"That's fine, Sarah," Vance replied absently. He was watching the hologram
"No one is fighting the fire?" Coryn asked.
"No, fires like this are allowed to burn unless or until they threaten lives or property. The Canadian officials feel it's a function of nature and just monitor them to make sure it doesn't get close to human habitations. This is so far north, I doubt they are even monitoring it," I said.
"That seems so wasteful," Coryn said.
"Down there it's just part of the natural cycle of the planet. In twenty years, this area would be full of live and new growth," I said still staring at the hologram.
Suddenly the scanning stopped and moved a little in another direction, as a pulsing indicator showed the impact crater.
"Magnifying," Sarah said.
The image centered on the target indicators, and zoomed in. What we seen caused Vance to us an Earth term for the first time.
"Oh, fuck!"
The image showed the cracked open remains of the meteorite, inside were the remains of several hundred large, recently hatched, eggs.
"Check the next site, Sarah!" I said, desperate.
The next site, once Sarah located it, gave a little hope. The asteroid had impacted a sheer cliff face. The remains at the bottom of that cliff showed that nothing had survived the impact at this location.
Without being told, she moved to the next site near Mongolia. This site was even harder to locate since there was a blizzard covering the area. However, With Sarah at the controls, we were able to get a good idea of the conditions on the ground. We were given a false color image of the area showing the frozen bodies of hundreds of small Aracs.
"Marking the area for a retrieval mission," Sarah said as she moved the scan to the last impact crater in the Sahara desert.
Little could be found there, as sand had refilled a good portion of the crater. Reflective areas created by melted sand shown through in places, but no other evidence of the impact was found. No trace of the Aracs either which meant they had made good their escape much like they had in Canada.
"Damn, we have a serious problem," Vance said.
"Very soon, there are going to be a lot more cases of arachnophobia on Earth. I know I'm beginning to get there," I said.
Vance nodded. "Earth is considered a Core world now, Eric. There will be a massive response to this, if you can, try to go back to work. I need to get the ball rolling on this."
I nodded. "I'll try Sir." I said good-bye to Coryn, and left the office. Earth was infested. I think Vance had it right; oh fuck!
43rd Task Group
High Orbit, Planet Veranor
Emergency Rescue Operations
Astralix System
Rear Admrial H'sten, Commanding
"All ships begin scanning for survivors," H'sten ordered. "Prepare all shuttles for recovery. Operations, assign Marines accordingly. No one goes down there unprotected!"
"Sir, I'm not getting any Veranorian life signs from the main continent!" one of the scanner techs reported.
"Then move on, Ensign! The faster you find them, the faster we can get them the hell out of there." H'sten ordered. "Remember everyone, these are civilians we are rescuing, they had nothing to do with what the Synod was trying to do to the rest of us."
"Sir, we have survivors! Relaying coordinates to the recovery teams now!" Another tech reported. "Sir, it looks like some of the Aracs are using Veranorian shuttles to get across the oceans."
"Flight control! Fleet wide! Launch fighters! Get those bugs out of my sky!" H'sten ordered. "Give me a count, Lieutenant!"
"Two hundred, thirty-one thousand Veranorians, Sir." She paused. "The computers are still counting Arac life signs."
"Operations, let's give them something else to think about; if there are no Veranorian life signs on the main continent, scan for large concentrations of Aracs, and begin orbital bombardment! Targets of opportunity!" H'sten ordered.
"One of the largest concentrations seems to be centered in the capitol city, Sir." The Lieutenant replied.
"Are there any Veranorian life signs there, Lieutenant?" H'sten asked.
"No Sir," the young woman replied.
"Then level it. I don't even want the sewers left intact, understood?" H'sten replied.
"Yes Sir," she turned and nodded to one of her people who immediately transferred the targeting data to the weapons officer as well as the operations officer.
"Beginning planetary bom
bardment. All weapons fire!" the weapons officer said.
"Admiral, there is no way we can take even a third of that number of survivors out of here, what are we going to do?" the Captain asked.
"There are other ships responding as well, Cartle," H'sten replied. "We can only hope that we'll have enough, and can hold on enough to rescue as many as we can. I may not care for their leadership, but these people are still counting on us for protection."
"Sir, there is a heavy freighter on planet that is refusing any more passengers," Cartle's XO reported.
"So? What the issue?" Cartle asked.
"His cargo pods are still full of his cargo, he is refusing to dump it to make room for refugees," the man replied.
"Commander, is there a platoon of the Eleventh available for a mission?" H'sten asked.
"Yes Sir, second platoon is available, but assisting with loading and unloading of shuttles," the man replied.
"Get them suited up and send them down to visit that captain. They are to dump that ship's cargo and take on as many refugees as can reasonably fit. If the captain protests past the initial order to do so, shoot him and commandeer the ship," H'sten ordered.
"Thank you, Sir." The man said and issued the order.
"Greed. At a time like this, someone still has to worry about their fucking wallet!" H'sten said quietly.
"Con! Tracking multiple inbound traces, origin... Arac space Sir!"
"Damn, damn, damn! We're running out of time, Cartle." H'sten looked over at the tracking officer. "ETA?"
"Multiple tracks, estimate fleet plus. Drop out in... sixteen hours, forty-one minutes!"
"You heard the lady, Cartle. We are leaving in sixteen hours, anyone not back by then is staying," H'sten ordered.
"What about the inbound rescue ships? Should I warn them off?" Cartle asked.
"Sort them out, anyone getting here later than fifteen hours might as well turn around. We're going to need the rest."
