The Complete Clockwork Chimera Saga

by Scott Baron

  “That would be the second and third fleets. Both destroyed by the AI virus.” Daisy realized the jeopardy Marty was in. “Shit, the AI virus. Have your ship––”

  “Marty,” Arlo interrupted.

  “Have Marty shut down all external lines. The AI virus is still active.”

  Freya jumped into the conversation.

  “I’ve already given him the inoculation protocol, Daisy. He believes he is safely firewalled, but he’s going to run it while we head to Dark Side to meet the others. So don’t worry about Marty. He’s fine.”

  “Oh,” Arlo said, not terribly shocked. “That’s cool. So we’re gonna go to the moon base?”

  Daisy thought about it a moment.

  Sarah, your take on this? she asked, silently.

  “It’s kinda an odd situation, I have to admit,” Sarah replied. “But everything checks out so far, Daze. I don’t see why not.”

  “Yeah, I think that’s a good idea,” she finally said. “But I’ve gotta tell you, Arlo, it’s not the wrecked facility your people would have seen on their last visit to Earth. It’s been fixed up a bit.”

  “Cool. I’ll go back over to my ship and get cleaned up. I know my hat’s around there somewhere. We’ll follow you in. See you guys over there,” he said, walking for the airlock linking their ships.

  “Weird kid, Daze.”

  Yeah, but I kinda like him.

  Daisy opened the comms line.

  “Hey, Sid. We’ve got company coming to dinner. Let the others know, there’s going to be another ship in Hangar Two.”

  “I don’t read a ship in the vicinity of your transmission, Daisy,” Sid replied.

  “Yeah, you wouldn’t. He’s kinda like Freya.”

  “Another stealth ship?” Sid said, surprised. “Well, won’t this be…interesting.”

  The two vessels swung around and headed toward the moon, Freya leading the way, their new friends close behind.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “Daaang, will ya look at that thing,” Shelly marveled at the sleek ship nestled into Hangar Two. “She’s gorgeous!”

  “I’m actually a he,” Marty corrected over his external speakers.

  “Shit, sorry!”

  “No worries,” the amused AI said with a little chuckle.

  Arlo followed Doctor McClain from the hangar to her temporary medical station rolled into the hangar, where Chu sat waiting for them.

  “Hey, man. I’m Arlo. Nice to meet you,” he said, shaking Chu’s hand.

  “Alfred Chu, but everyone calls me Chu.”

  “Cool. It’s a pleasure, Chu.” He looked around the lab space as Doctor McClain warmed up her scanners.

  “I hope you will pardon the inconvenience, but despite Daisy and Freya’s assurances you are free of any remnants of the plague, I’d feel better if we had a proper series of scans done, just to be on the safe side. Once you’re clear, we can admit you into the base, proper, which I assure you is much more pleasant than out here in the hangar.”

  “Sure, no worries, Doc,” Arlo replied cheerfully. “And don’t worry about the hangar space. I grew up around this kind of stuff. High-tech clutter is my playground.”

  “Okay, then. Let’s get started. Chu, warm up the machines, please.”

  “You got it, Doc.”

  The technician got to work, while McClain did as well, though her task was more along the lines of the other hat she wore. That of base headshrinker.

  “Tell me, Arlo. You say you’re the child of human survivors.”

  “Yep. Mom and Dad popped me out the old-fashioned way,” he said, then crinkled his nose. “Eww, I can’t believe I just said that.”

  McClain allowed herself a little grin, then got back to work, clearly in the line of sight of a very interested base commander.

  From behind the observation window, Daisy and Commander Mrazich watched the process.

  “He said his people were a much smaller group that fled the Ra’az in a different direction,” Daisy told him.

  “And you believe him?”

  “Well, he checks out so far, and he’s entirely organic, so there’s that,” Daisy replied.

  “But his ship. It is far more advanced than anything we ever had in our fleet.”

  “Except Freya.”

  “Well, yes, obviously.”

  “She said Marty’s hull is made of a very similar nanite stealth material as hers. I mean, it really does look like a different branch of our family tree made off with some cells and some advanced tech and made their escape run the other way. It’s really a miracle we bumped into each other at all.”

  Mrazich rubbed his temple slowly.

  “Daisy, he said he had an urgent message for you,” he reminded her. “He came looking for you. How did he know you? If all of this is such a surprise to him, why weren’t you?”

  “Shit, good point.”

  I was so caught up in it, finally getting back to our own timeline, I kinda forgot about that.

  “I guess we’ll just have to ask him when the doc is through with him,” she replied.

  Mrazich was still uneasy.

  “I reviewed the log of his arrival after Freya made that tiny jump,” he said.

  Good, he bought our faked warp records, Daisy thought, relaxing slightly with a silent sigh of relief.

  “Yeah, that test put us just a short distance away, but the warp tech has promise,” she lied.

  “Did you notice how much this Arlo character’s arrival looked like your warp?” he asked.

  “Visually, perhaps, but Freya didn’t pick up a warp on her scans, and Marty is a stealth ship, after all.”

  “Maybe,” Mrazich mused, “but I still have my doubts about him. I want you to keep both eyes open. The timing of this is more than a little bit odd, his arriving just as we defeat the Ra’az on Earth.”

  “While I agree, I also think we should still give him the benefit of the doubt. With his tech, he could have stayed hidden if he had wanted to. Instead, he hailed us––hailed me––and made contact.”

  “Yes, that he did. And now he’s inside Dark Side. Go collect him and bring him to the mess hall. He knew who you are, Daisy. I want very much to hear how.”

  “Will do,” she replied.

  Daisy walked the long corridor to the airlock leading into Hangar Two.

  “Want some company?” Vince asked, sliding close to her.

  Daisy turned and kissed him fiercely.

  “Tone it down, Daze. He thinks you’ve only been gone a few hours.”

  I don’t care, she replied, pulling him in even tighter.

  “Whoa!” he exclaimed when she finally released her embrace. “What was that for? Not that I mind or anything.”

  “Just because,” she said with a happy grin. “Mmm. I missed you.”

  “Um, I missed you too,” he said, gladly accepting the warm press of her lips.

  “Okay, more of that later. Come on. Mrazich wants us to bring the new kid to the mess hall for a chat.”

  Doc McClain finished her tests a couple of minutes later, and Arlo followed Daisy and Vince back into Dark Side’s main facilities.

  “So, Arlo, Daisy tells me you have a really cool ship,” Vince said as they walked.

  “Yeah, Marty is awesome,” he replied. “He’s been with me a long time.”

  “So you two grew up together, in a way.”

  “I guess you could say that. I mean, he’s a super-smart AI, so he was really already grown up long before I was.”

  “Yeah, but you know what I mean. From what I’ve seen with Daisy and Freya, once you bond with an unusual AI like that, you’ve got something special for life.”

  Daisy smiled and pulled Vince close for a deep kiss.

  “Oh, gross. Come on,” Arlo grumbled, slipping around the couple and continuing down the corridors.

  “We appear to have grossed out a teenager,” Vince said with a laugh.

  “That we have,” Daisy agreed.

  They beg
an strolling hand in hand as they watched the young man walking in front of them.

  “Seems like a good kid, babe,” Vince said. “I like him. I get a good vibe, if you know what I mean.”

  “Yeah, I do,” she agreed. “Though there is something a bit odd about him. I just can’t put my finger on it.”

  “He’s leading the way, Daze.”

  He’s not too far ahead, Sis. Don’t worry, I’m keeping an eye on him.

  “No, that’s not what I mean,” Sarah corrected. “He’s leading.”

  Daisy suddenly realized what Sarah was talking about and paid far more attention to his movements than before.

  Well, I’ll be––

  “Hey, Arlo,” she called out after him.

  “Yeah?”

  “We’re going to the mess hall to meet up with the others.”

  “I know, you told me.”

  “Yeah, I did. But you said you’ve never been here before.”

  “Right.”

  “So how do you know the way?”

  “I’ve studied lots of military bases, and they all have pretty similar layouts,” he replied, not missing a beat. “Why? Am I going the wrong way?”

  “No, that’s it. Next corridor turn right,” she replied.

  “Got it.”

  His answer made sense, but she would have to have a more serious chat with Freya and her sisters when time permitted. For now, however, it was time for their guest to meet the others.

  Arlo was given a warm welcome by all present in Dark Side’s spacious mess hall. It wasn’t every day someone new arrived, and someone new with a cool ship to boot.

  “Oh my God. Are those chocolate chip cookies?” the teen asked, salivating as he sniffed the air.

  Finn had decided to prepare a little treat for the new guest, and had indeed whipped up a sizable batch, which he was just pulling from the oven. He quickly plated them and brought them over to the long table, where everyone had taken a seat.

  “Dig in, kid. And welcome to Dark Side,” he said, relishing the gusto with which his new acquaintance tore into the treats.

  “I freakin’ love chocolate chip cookies!” Arlo managed to say through a mouthful of gooey wonder. “Thanks!”

  “My pleasure. There’s milk if you like too.”

  Mrazich stood at the head of the table and surveyed his team.

  “Everyone, I’d like to welcome our new guest. For those who don’t know, Arlo here is from another, smaller group of escaped AIs, who apparently fled in a different direction than our progenitors. He’s come back to survey the planet and report back on its condition. Is that pretty much correct?”

  “Yeah,” the teen replied.

  “Fantastic. Now, there is just one thing I would like to clarify,” Mrazich said, pulling the tray of cookies out of the young man’s reach, drawing his full attention. “You said you had no idea about the other survivors, yet your first transmission on arrival was directed to Daisy Swarthmore. You knew her by name. That, and you said you had an urgent message for her.”

  “Oh, damn. He just went right for the jugular.”

  Subtlety is not Mrazich’s strong suit, Daisy agreed. This should be interesting.

  All eyes turned toward the newcomer in their midst.

  “Um,” Arlo began, quickly wiping chocolate remnants from his mouth and fingers. “The thing is, I may have slightly fudged that bit.”

  “Arlo?” Daisy asked with a piercing gaze.

  “Well, Marty and me––”

  “Marty and I,” she corrected him.

  He flashed an annoyed look.

  “Marty and I, we sort of scanned Dark Side when we first got here. We didn’t mean anything by it, it’s just something was different, is all. It was rebuilt. So we dug around a bit.”

  “And somehow overcame my peripheral security?” Sid asked, concerned.

  “No, not really,” he replied. “It’s just that we intercepted some comms, and we heard the name Daisy, and then the commander called her Swarthmore, so we put two and two together.”

  “But what was this urgent message?” Mrazich asked.

  “Well, we realized she was the one flying the ship that seemed so similar to Marty, and that meant she probably had the best chance of stopping them.”

  “Stopping who?”

  “We found a recording of a damaged Ra’az ship warping away just after the attack. I can see how you’d miss it, I mean, you were out of commission after all.”

  “He’s talking about the one you shot up, Daze.”

  Yeah. He doesn’t realize it can’t reach their fleet.

  “So, you were trying to warn me?” she asked the teen.

  “Yeah. I mean, if you could use your logs, we could pinpoint the ship’s path and catch it, maybe. I don’t know. I just thought it was really urgent we stop it from reaching reinforcements, is all.”

  Everyone in the room relaxed ever so slightly.

  “Kid, you don’t need to worry about that,” Reggie said. “When Daisy grazed the ship, she damaged its drive systems.”

  “But it could still––”

  “It would take decades, if not longer. By then, we’ll either win or be dead. Am I right?”

  The assembled team voiced their agreement.

  “Well, I feel pretty stupid, then.”

  “Nothing to feel stupid about, Arlo. You were trying to help, and that’s all anyone can ask,” Vince said. “Here, have another cookie.” He slid the tray closer.

  The teen perked up a bit.

  “I have to say, things are different than what I was sent here for, that’s for sure,” he said, taking a bite of a cookie. “And I don’t think I can just hop in my ship and fly back home. Not after what I’ve seen.”

  “What are you saying?” Mrazich asked.

  “What I’m saying is, I want to stay. Stay and help you guys.”

  “It’s sweet of you, but you really don’t know what you’re getting yourself into,” Daisy said.

  “I can handle it. Marty and me––Marty and I, we’ve been through a lot together.”

  Daisy looked at Mrazich for a sign. Subtly, he nodded his approval.

  “Okay, Arlo, then listen up. Here’s the new plan.”

  Daisy spent the next half hour detailing her discussion with Maarl, and the old Chithiid’s audacious plan to infiltrate and overrun the Ra’az fleet.

  “We have the salvaged Ra’az star charts, we know roughly where they’ve gone, and using their own ships to infiltrate the fleet––retrofitted, of course––they won’t even know what’s hit them until it’s too late.”

  “The plan is all fine and grand, Daisy, but you forget, we don’t have a functional warp drive,” Chu pointed out. “Without that, even if we integrate the weak warp devices from the Ra’az cargo transport ships, it’ll still take years to catch up with them. Possibly longer. What we need is a functional advanced warp system.”

  “Yeah,” Daisy said. “If only we had one of those.”

  “Why don’t you tell him?”

  Because I’m still not one hundred percent sure about that kid yet.

  “Seems all right. And we do have two spare orbs now.”

  Maybe, but I still think it’s better to be safe than sorry.

  “Chu, what if I told you I could get you some help in deciphering the notes you salvaged from the San Francisco warp lab?”

  “I’d say that was a start. But we don’t know anyone who can decipher them. It’s all alien to us.”

  “To us, yes. But not to the aliens.”

  “The Ra’az will never help us, even if we do manage to capture one alive,” Chu pointed out.

  “Not those aliens. The others. The Chithiid have been in their service for centuries. They’re the ones who silently watch from the sidelines. You keep working on those diagrams and notes. I’ll make a run to see if I can rustle up some help from some of the Chithiid from the San Francisco facility.”

  “They’d do that?”

  “D
ude, they just risked their lives and homeworld to free Earth. For a chance to knock out the entire Ra’az fleet? Yeah, I think they’ll do that. As soon as I take care of a few things up here on Dark Side first, I’ll get right on it.”

  “More secret projects?” Finn joked.

  Daisy couldn’t help but smile.

  “You’ll see,” she replied with a knowing grin.

  Arlo raised his hand.

  “This isn’t a classroom, Arlo. What is it?” Daisy said.

  “So, I suppose it’s worth mentioning that I tucked away a few dozen small observation satellites, hidden in the debris field when I first got here. Before I met you guys, that is. They’re out there circling the Earth in a geosynchronous orbit above areas that appeared to be hotbeds of activity.”

  “Daze, that’s exactly what you were doing. Was this kid watching us?”

  I don’t know, Sis. Kinda freaking me out a little, though.

  “And why is it you need to go retrieve them manually?” Daisy asked. “Why not just have them transmit the data directly to Marty?”

  “Because I needed them to be a rock-solid, incorruptible system. No transmissions equals no chance of catching the AI virus, get it?”

  “Yeah, I get it, but you already know Freya can cure it.”

  “Sure, now I do. But when I set them up out there, that wasn’t an option on my plate.”

  “I can help you and Marty retrofit them to protect them in the future when you get back, if you like,” Freya offered.

  “Thanks, that’d be really great,” Marty replied. “If it’s not too much of an imposition, that is.”

  “Not at all. But I do have some things to take care of while you guys are out collecting your goodies,” Freya said. “Daisy, I dropped off that, um, package for you. Is it okay if I work on my other stuff?”

  “Sure thing, kiddo. Go to your room,” she said with a little laugh. “And, Freya, thank you for being so awesome.”

  “Awww, thanks, Daisy,” the AI replied before powering up and flying out to her secret hangar.

  “She has a room?” Arlo asked, an eyebrow raised with curiosity.

  “More like a hangar,” Daisy replied.

  “I don’t see anything,” Marty noted.

  “She’s a stealth ship. Of course you don’t.” Vince chuckled. “Don’t worry, she’ll be around when you guys get back.”