by Shawn Jones
1200 Light Years From Earth
Speral watched the signal from system 432. The scout ships were destroying the third planet’s artificial satellites systematically. Upon arrival in the system, they confirmed that the expedition ship had been intentionally attacked. Protocol dictated that all threats to the scout force be destroyed immediately upon entering orbit. Then they would assess the situation before deciding on their next step. Once a scout force was dispatched, the leader of the force had complete control and was not required to seek additional input from Speral or the Commune before acting. It was acceptable for Speral to observe over the beacon system, but she could not interfere, or even offer an opinion unless asked by the force commander.
Commander Glydnal was a good choice for this type of mission. While he was brutal in his defense of his ships, he was also methodical. He would not do more than was necessary to ensure the third planet of system 432 was not a threat to his people, but he would do that, even if it meant sterilizing the planet.
Earth Orbit
Glydnal had never seen so many artificial satellites around a single planet. There were literally thousands of them. Clearly the civilization which had deployed them was inconsiderate of their system. Otherwise, they would recycle the debris. At the very least, it should be linked and contained. His own people now captured and recycled all orbital debris. When they were at the same stage of development as 432-3, they disassembled their debris in orbit and restructured it to form orbital platforms. But 432-3 was clearly developing faster than his own homeworld had. He had only seen such rapid development on planets that had military governments. For some reason, sentient species that had the desire to destroy seemed to evolve faster than those who did not.
“Parvess,” Glydnal said, “are you still receiving signals from the surface?”
“Yes, sir. Although we cannot decode them. They are not directed at us though. They seem to be being bouncing off the upper atmosphere to other areas of the planet. My guess is that they are coordinating their defensive strategy.”
Glydnal asked, “Do you think they are planning to attack us?”
“Just a moment, sir.” First Parvess closed his eyes and read. Once he opened them he said, “Sir, we have interpreted their signals. A few more moments, sir.”
Glydnal watched the surface for several fractions. Parvess opened his eyes again and said, “The northern area I am highlighting on the display appears to have separate leadership from this area and this area.”
Parvess waved a hand to divide the planet into three regions. “This region is the group that destroyed our expedition ship. It appears that we are destroying artificial satellites belonging to all three governments.”
“Can you differentiate which regions own which satellites?”
Parvess closed his eyes for a moment then said, “Only visually sir. They have different markings.”
Glydnal thought for a moment before saying, “Very well. Divide the ships. Order them to destroy only the satellites belonging to the region which attacked us. Hopefully, the other two regions will recognize our actions as not being directed toward them.”
“Yes, Commander.” Parvess closed his eyes and issued the orders.
In another system more than a thousand light years away, Speral thought to herself That’s why I chose you, Glydnal. Both to command this mission, and to be my mate.
--
“Mr. President, the alien ships are only targeting out satellites now. The other alliances have withdrawn their support for a joint attack. If we are to fight them, we will do so on our own.”
“Very well.” President Beards sat behind his desk and looked over the screens in front of him. “Wood, you have been a good aide. I, on the other hand, have not been a good President. Thank you for standing beside me through all of this.”
Wood screamed as he saw his leader and friend raise a disruptor and fire it at himself. It was set to ‘three’, terminating both his synthetics and himself.
Ten
Cort opened his eyes and looked around. He saw a man’s back across the room. “Where am I?”
The man turned and walked to Cort. “You are in the Oxia Palus infirmary, Mr. Addison. You suffered significant trauma in your defense of the colony.”
“What happened? Why are my fingers numb?” Sköll. Kay. The Earthmen. “Doctor, give me a quick synopsis of what happened after I entered the colony. I remember seeing Sköll die. What happened after that? Quickly,” Cort demanded.
“You need to rest, Mr. Addison.”
“Doctor, I won’t ask again. Tell me what I want to know, or I will leave now and find out on my own.”
“You would have a hard time doing that, but very well Mr. Addison. First, I am Doctor Verne.”
“Yes, you attended to my grandson during my first visit here, I believe. I know you. Continue.”
“Yes. Well. I can only tell you what I have heard. I was in lockdown during the attack. All of the security people were killed. You are the only survivor. All of the attackers were killed as well. The last one was in the power suit you destroyed. It is my understanding that the explosion you triggered overloaded its power supply. As near as I can tell, the explosion you triggered also destroyed your forearms. Had you not been wearing the FALCON suit, I believe you would be dead. As it is, you suffered major trauma to your torso as well.”
“How long have I been out?” Cort asked.
“Two weeks. I’ve kept you unconscious while your body mended. Your internal injuries have healed to the point that we can begin therapy. As I said, your arms were severely damaged. I ended up amputating both of your hands to ensure they grow back normally. Had I left them to heal on their own, it is quite possible that they would have been deformed. Your forearms were also crushed by the first explosion. I set them in casts to make sure they healed properly. I took the casts off yesterday, after the bones were sufficiently stitched.” Verne paused to drink from a water bottle. “Frankly, the reconstruction of your hands is possibly my greatest work. I’ve been removing scar tissue three times a day since you were brought here.”
“Your body suffered major concussive trauma. The induced coma allowed your bio-synthetics to mend you quite well, though. Every rib was broken, your lungs were bruised, and your liver and one kidney were compromised.”
“The others?”
“Dr. Gaines was killed by the last intruder. Her child was also lost, as well as Mr. Mines and his wolf. In all, we lost sixty-three people and nine wolves. Eleven of the sixty-three were civilians. According to Mr. Rhodes, over three hundred enemy were killed. Governor Keen held a memorial for the people we lost five days ago.”
“What else? You’re nervous, Doc. What aren’t you telling me?”
“Earth has been attacked. To all appearances, by a separate life form. The attack seems to have occurred immediately after the Atlantica assault. I don’t know the details. For more about it, you will have to talk to someone who has been in contact with the alliances on Earth.”
“Bullshit. You know more. What is it?” Cort demanded.
“There are rumors that the attackers are headed here now. I will ask Mr. Rhodes to join you and give you more information. But I need to run some tests first.”
“No. You can run them while Rhodes and I talk. Get him here now.”
“Mr. Addison....”
Cort interrupted the doctor. “Not optional, Doctor. Get him here now. Run your tests while he catches me up.”
“Yes, Mr. Addison.”
A few minutes later, Cort was listening to Rhodes recount the battle more fully while Doctor Verne connected Cort’s pink forearms to electrical leads and began causing muscles to flex and twitch.
“Our consular office in the Asianic Alliance notified us about the attack by the aliens. We still haven’t heard from Dar. For that matter, no one has heard from anyone in Atlantica,” Rhodes said.
“Tell me about the attack on Earth.”
“From what we know, the s
hip appeared about the same time as we were being attacked. Beards assumed it was us and ordered the ship attacked. Apparently they surprised the newcomers and were able to destroy them.”
“You sound as if you think it was a fluke. Why?”
“It was a fluke, Cort. I’m guessing the aliens didn’t expect us to be armed.”
“Not us, Chief. Earth. Remember, we are a separate people now,” Cort corrected.
“Yes. Well Atlantica destroyed the first ship. A few hours later, three more arrived and started destroying satellites. At some point, they must have figured out what had happened, because then they shifted their focus and attacked only Atlantic equipment. It is gone now. The Asians sent us some imagery. Atlantica is a wasteland. More barren than we are. And Cort, I’m not exaggerating. It is completely destroyed. According to the Asians, Beards committed suicide. Some general took control and launched everything they had at the alien ships. The aliens started using Earth’s satellites as kinetic weapons. They even turned the Atlantic missiles back toward Earth. The rest of the planet is going to have a hard time. Apparently the Atlantans had started making nukes again. Synthetics should protect the population, but it is still going to be bad.”
Cort was trying to process it all. “Fuck me.”
The doctor said, “Mr. Addison, will you stand up please? I need you to walk a little bit.”
Cort was clearly in pain, but he struggled through walking almost fifty meters while Rhodes continued, “Cort, two of the ships landed on Earth. We think they were doing search and rescue. A boat in the Bering Sea saw them lift some things from the…”
“Did you say the Bering Sea?” Cort gasped through the pain. It can’t be. Oh shit. It can’t be. “What did they retrieve there?”
“I don’t know. I can ask our people in Asia though. It was one of their boats that saw it.”
“Find out. Now.” Cort continued to walk as Rhodes had the message sent to Earth.
“Rhodes. We have to get to my quarters at Argyre. Now.”
“Why?”
“No, Mr. Addison,” Doctor Verne said, “you can’t go anywhere yet.”
“Again, Doc. It’s not optional. What if I wear a CONDOR, or the HAWC? Would that be okay?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s the best I can give you, Doc. I have to get there. Before the aliens get here.”
“What’s going on, Cort? What do you know?” Rhodes asked.
Cort put his hand on Rhodes’ arm. His fingers stung from the light grip he applied to the man’s forearm. “Chief. You HAVE to get me there before they get here. Or I have to go in the HAWC. But trust me on this, I have to get there.”
Rhodes turned to the doctor. “How can we make it happen?”
--
Two hours later, Cort was a passenger on the MELF that Rhodes was driving. Cort was inside his HAWC suit, which was strapped to the cargo deck of the light freighter. Rhodes was trying to process everything Cort had told him. “So you found this medallion on the sea bed. And the same technology was used to send you to our time. Now you think they are coming for the one you brought here with you. Does that about sum it up?”
“I know. It sounds crazy. But that’s what is going on. That statue that the Asians saw them lift from the water is where I found the medallion. It’s too much of a coincidence. How long before they get here, Chief?”
“Well, at their current speed, they will be here in three weeks. They are way faster than we are.”
“Okay. Well, that still gives me time to get the medallion away from the colony. If they try to get it right now, the best case scenario is loss of atmosphere, and that would be catastrophic. That gives me an idea,” Cort commed the Aeolis base. Rhodes heard him say, “Kim, it’s me. Stop a minute, we’ll talk later. Listen closely. I have something I need you to do. In my quarters, there is a safe. The code for it is 5-8-4-0-1-3-8. Write that down. 5-8-4-0-1-3-8. You only get one mistake. If you get it wrong twice, you will die. Repeat the code to me. Okay, that’s it. In the safe, there is a small lead box. Get that box and move it to one of the terminal modules. Do not open the box Kim. Then move that module as far away from the colony as you can. Got it? I know. We’ll talk more later. People’s lives depend on this, Kim. Seriously. Let me know once you get the module moving.”
Cort disconnected and spoke to Rhodes again. “Chief, how did they know where Kay was?”
“We’ve found three sleeper agents since the attack. I have people looking further into it. But it appears they had a lot of help from the inside. Rand has found five people at Aeolis. Kim says Argyre is clean now.”
Cort asked, “How can she know that?”
“There are very few people who are not in your pack there. And none of them have your new synthetics. So she interrogated them with disruptors. There were two spies. She had them both put into atmosphere. Keen implemented a new policy though. While you were out, we had a couple of meetings and decided to transition all Ares citizens to the bio-synthetics. After Kim’s technique proved successful, Keen ordered that anyone who get’s transitioned has to be interrogated before the process. A few people are griping about privacy, but it is going to happen.”
“That’s a good move,” Cort said, “but don’t force people to make the switch. We’re not a police state. If they don’t want to submit to the interrogation, don’t switch them. But anyone who refuses should be put in non-critical roles, monitored, and their clearances revoked. Make it their choice, though. That’s important.”
“Kim suggested the same thing. Also, Rand is sending a few security people to help train the replacements at Oxia Palus.”
“Chief, what about Clare? What’s going on with her?”
“I was wondering when you would get around to asking. She’s messed up Cort. She cleared out of Argyre. Moved to the Aeolis site. Rand says she locked herself in her quarters. Leaves once a day to get food. She lost you, her mother, and her grandfather in a matter of days.”
“She didn’t lose me. She threw me away.”
“She sees it differently, Cort. It’s none of my business, though. Keen gave all of her duties to Dr. Black. He’s in charge of all sciences now.” Rhodes decided not to tell Cort that Clare had been mating with just about anyone who was willing. It wasn’t his place, and he didn’t want to be trapped in the transport vehicle with Cort for several more days while that news simmered.
“I’ve ruined a lot of lives, Chief.”
“What do you mean?” Rhodes was puzzled.
“How many people do you think have died since I showed up in this time stream? I’m only good at killing. Now my actions have led to the death of an entire Alliance. That’s a lot of blood on my hands.”
“Cort, don’t carry that kind of guilt around. It’s not healthy. I know your story. Even from before you came to this time. You kill when you have to. To protect others. Governor Taps was a tyrant. You ended that. Your actions led to the founding of a nation on this planet. Other people declared war against us. Think about it. Back at your cave, they tried to take your wolf. Then they tried to kill Dr. Wills. You saved Rand. You avenged Kim. You rescued our colony. You are right, Cort. There is a lot of blood on your hands. But there would be even more blood if you weren’t around. It just wouldn’t be on your hands.”
They moved across the Martian landscape in silence for several hours before Rhodes spoke again. “Cort, I wouldn’t want to be you. The Gods clearly hate you. And you are one of those people who have only purpose in life. You were born to kill. At any cost it seems.” Rhodes remembered the video of Cort running down the corridor at Oxia Palus. “No reasonable person would detonate two anti-personnel mines while he held them in his own hands. I thank the Gods you also have a conscience and a sense of honor. Without those, you would be a monster. And I think you would be a nearly invincible one. I don’t envy the burden you do have to carry, but do not add to it with guilt. I am thankful you came. I had lost part of myself working for Taps. You pulled me bac
k from that abyss.”
--
“This is quite a puzzle, Parvess,” Glydnal told his first. The scout vessel he commanded was on schedule to arrive at planet 432-4 within twelve revolutions.
“Sir?” Parvess asked.
“How our beacon was taken to the fourth planet. Clearly it was done intentionally. It was removed from the sea floor on the third planet. It was activated once, then put away for over one thousand orbits. Then it was activated again. We now know it was activated on the third planet the second time. So in the last ten orbits, it was moved intentionally to the fourth planet. And why would they attempt to colonize the fourth planet without their own being united?”
