“I feel like someone’s playing tricks on me,” said Stone with a sigh.
“Sir?”
“Never mind. What else did you learn?”
“The Raggers might also have advanced delivery techniques. Apparently, they are practically immune to disease. The Fangrin believe the Raggers dose their population with nanoparticles on a regular basis to keep ahead of mutating viruses.”
“Thank you for bringing this to my attention, RL Fields. If you learn anything else, let me know.”
“Yes, sir.” Fields didn’t leave the channel, evidently wondering if she should ask a question. “Have you suffered any ill effects from the nanoparticles, sir?”
“None whatsoever. It’s too early for me to say if I feel any different.” Stone drummed his fingers. “How many doses of the nanoparticles do you have in stock?”
“Fifty, sir.”
“How many more could you produce in…let’s say…a couple of weeks?”
“Fewer than two hundred. I can’t give you an exact figure – the replication process has a margin for error.”
“That’s not many.”
“We’re making arrangements to bring in some new equipment to speed up the process, sir. As you’re aware from our meeting, this is a complicated process. These aren’t off-the-shelf components – some will require manufacture. Looking to the future, we require assistance from several areas within the ULAF in order to scale up the process.”
“I’m aware, RL Fields. Manufacture the samples as quickly as possible, by which I mean spare no time, effort or resource to maximize our stocks.”
“You have a plan for them, sir?”
“I don’t know. Please proceed as discussed.”
Fields left the comms channel and Stone leaned back in his chair, his fingers steepled in front of his face and his brows furrowed.
“Two potential ways of saving humanity, both years away unless we somehow convince the Raggers to hand over their technological secrets. If we are successful in this mission, then each method of salvation becomes available in six months. Perhaps less. Truly the universe has a sensor of humor.”
“The Raggers might be willing to share their genetic technology,” said Austin. “I can’t see why they would have a problem with it.”
“You’ve been present nearly every time I’ve spoken with those bastards, Dr Austin. You must know how suspicious they are. Whatever reason we provide, they will believe something different. Even if they agree to our request, the data or hardware they offer will be purposely riddled with flaws to ensure the Raggers hold the key to its use.”
“Perhaps it’s time to fight fire with fire,” said Austin softly.
“Lie, cheat and steal?”
“If that’s what it takes.”
“I don’t feel comfortable descending to the level of my enemies, Dr Austin.”
She didn’t reply, only shrugged. It told Stone everything he needed about her opinion on the subject.
“I have to get on,” he said, his burger completely forgotten.
Stone accessed the comms software on his console and prepared to contact Londil Terax. His poised finger withdrew when his PA spoke.
“Fleet Admiral Stone – Priority 1 communication received,” it said, all trace of impertinence gone.
“Tell me,” he snapped.
“Warning from New Destiny. Confirmed Sekar sighting.”
Stone sat bolt upright. “Extent and casualties?”
“Data currently unknown.”
“Well find out, dammit!” he roared.
The PA fell silent and Stone ground his teeth together. He wanted to speak with his team, but he couldn’t risk missing the next update. Seconds passed and he searched his mind for the travel time of a boosted FTL comm from New Destiny. Less than five minutes, he remembered. It was enough time to send an urgent message to Captain Dyer and another to Londil Terax.
Moments later, Stone’s office door opened and Dyer rushed inside. He didn’t ask stupid questions like Are you sure? Instead, he got on with business.
“Sir, I’ve propagated the information to everyone of Admiral rank and advised them to treat it as proven fact unless they hear otherwise.”
“Thank you.”
The office speakers hummed quietly and Stone frowned – less than ninety seconds had passed. It was far too short an interval for a message to reach New Destiny and return.
“Priority 1 communication received. Possible Sekar presence on Centrium. Possible Sekar presence on Runston. Possible Sekar presence on Involar.”
Stone swore and waited to hear if any other planets would be added to the list. The next report chilled him to the bone.
“Priority 1 communication received. Brightstar Viper, ULS Twister.”
The carrier Brightstar was currently in defensive orbit around Earth. “That’s impossible! Confirm!” Stone yelled.
“Potential Sekar activity detected on the South American landmass. Location: Upper Amazon region.”
“Extent and casualties?”
“Unknown. The Twister is not equipped with tharniol weaponry.”
“I know that! I need information!”
“I will find out.”
The PA went silent again. Stone called up the flight plan and asset list for the ULAF fleet, ignoring the trembling of his hands. The Hantisar fleet was equipped with tharniol weaponry, but those spaceships weren’t stationed here at Earth. Stone had felt more comfortable relying on the existing fleet while his personnel completed a thorough audit of the alien spaceships. Now he wished he’d made a different decision.
“Mobilize the troops,” he said to Dyer. “I want that area filled with soldiers in an hour.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Go now! I’ll make everything available on the local defense network.”
Dyer went. The door had scarcely closed when Stone’s PA spoke again.
“Sekar rift detected half a million kilometers from New Destiny.”
Then came another kick in the balls. By this time, Stone was becoming numb to the pain.
“Priority 1 communication received from ULAF-1 base. Battleship Nullifier detected two-point-five million kilometers from Earth.”
With complete disaster looming, Stone did what he could to marshal a response. While he barked orders into his communicator, Dr Austin sat quietly in the corner, her face ashen.
Chapter Five
Having been granted a rare day off base, Captain Tanner Conway was shopping with his wife. He didn’t care much for the activity, but he loved the company. It was already well into the afternoon and the two of them were taking a break in a café. Conway would have preferred a table outside – it was warm enough, but a drizzling rain had started up.
So, they shared a table inside. Conway drank coffee, while his wife sat behind a concoction of hot chocolate and cream which required both hands to pick up. It was more of a fully blown desert really. In the background, cups and saucers clinked and the other patrons talked quietly. At Conway’s feet, a collection of bags betrayed exactly how successful this shopping trip had been so far, though not for the balance of the family bank account.
He didn’t have any regrets.
“This is nice,” said Alice Conway. “Just the two of us. Like the old times.”
“Could have done with some sunshine.”
“Stop grumbling, Tanner.”
“I’d say it was an observation,” he smiled.
Alice poked the mound of cream on top of her drink with a long stirring spoon. “I’ve been thinking.”
He raised a questioning eyebrow.
“Serious thinking, I mean,” she added.
From her expression, Conway guessed this was significant.
“Okay, tell me what it is.”
Alice didn’t look up. “I think maybe we should have another baby. If I lost you…” her eyes filled up. “If I lost you, I’d want something to remember you by.”
“We’ve got Emily.”
&
nbsp; “She’s everything I ever wanted in a girl. A boy would make our lives perfect.”
“Yes,” he said simply. “We’ve left it too long already.”
He thought she was going to cry, but she didn’t. She held his gaze for a long while. “We should make a start tonight. I’ve been on the daily control tablets since I heard you were going to be off duty today.”
Conway had no time to formulate a reply. His pocket communicator vibrated angrily in his pocket. He sighed and thought about ignoring it. Instead, he dipped a hand into his pocket, withdrew the device and stared at it. With a flick of the wrist he opened it.
“Something’s happened,” said Alice at once.
“Priority 1 recall.”
“That’s bad?”
He nodded. “It might be something real bad.”
“Does it say what it’s about?” she asked, dropping her voice to a whisper.
“Nope.”
“You’re worried.”
“Yes.”
Alice closed her eyes, like she was imagining the evening she had planned for the two of them. “I’d best not light the candles, huh?”
It broke his heart to hear her say the words. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not your fault, Tanner. It’s these damned stupid Raggers. Or Sekar. Or whatever it is this time.”
“I’ll order a cab.”
“One each.”
“Can you manage?”
“I don’t have much choice, do I?”
“I’m sorry,” he said again. It wasn’t enough.
Five minutes later, Conway was alone in an automated cab, heading for the Durham military base. The car’s personality computer chattered away until he told it to shut the hell up. Traffic was bad and he had plenty of time to wonder what had gone sufficiently wrong for Colonel Doyle to issue a Priority 1. To occupy his time, Conway made a few calls to see if he could find out what was going on. He was offered plenty of guesswork and that was all.
Forty-five minutes after ordering his coffee and a desert for his wife, Conway’s cab pulled up at his barracks deep inside the Durham base. He billed his fare to the ULAF and exited. The weather was still warm and the rain hadn’t let up. Everywhere he looked, he saw armed men and women in full ULG combat suits. Any faint hope of this being a badly timed drill were dashed by the sight. Not that even Colonel Doyle would dare use a P1 for something as minor as a drill.
It wasn’t just the troops who were on full alert. The grey sky was crowded with shuttles and he spotted a heavy lifter hauling a tank up using its gravity winch. When he squinted, Conway noted the vehicle’s distinctively long barrel.
“A damned Warrior,” he muttered.
Elsewhere, a pair of identical sleek shapes accelerated towards the clouds with the kind of physics defying ease that only came from a fleet warship. As Conway watched, three others emerged over the buildings near to the airstrip and a sonic boom rumbled across the rooftops.
A shitstorm was coming – even a new recruit stepping off the bus with long hair and a head full of dreams couldn’t fail to recognize the fact.
Eight hours after ordering his coffee and a desert for his wife, Conway was dressed in his combat suit and sitting in the passenger bay of a high-speed transport shuttle heading for orbit, his rifle gripped between both knees.
“Just us, huh?” said Corporal Kim Barron.
Conway was in his harness and didn’t bother looking around at the others in the bay. Familiar faces one and all. Eighty percent of the seats were empty.
“Got something in store for us, you reckon Captain?” asked Private Calvin Berg.
“This stinks of Kemp,” said Private Eddy Lester. “The Boy as I liked to call him before he turned into the Savior of the Universe.”
“What makes you think this has anything to do with Private Kemp?” asked Sergeant Denver Lockhart in a voice torn between irritation and bemusement. “It’s Kemp, you’re talking about, not someone who can mobilize an entire planet.”
“I dunno, sir. I was just talking is all.”
“You spoke some crap and have nothing to back it up,” said Corporal Rick Freeman. “You know what? I actually miss Kemp.”
“Not as much as Torres misses him.”
It was an open secret now. “Shut your mouth, Lester,” she said. “If you’re fond of your teeth.”
Torres was sore about it and Conway couldn’t blame her. He’d tried to pull some strings and have her transferred to a base on Earth, but the ULAF had Kemp locked up tighter than Freeman’s wallet and he wasn’t allowed visitors. Too important to be treated like a human.
The shuttle ride was a smooth one and the pilot put the senor feed on the internal screens so that the passengers could watch clouds gradually turning into the darkness of space. Conway’s squad offered speculation about the future, most of it wild.
“It’s Sekar or Raggers. I’m offering five to two odds on each,” said Berg.
“I’ll have a thousand bucks on one and a thousand on the other,” said Barron. “No - make it ten thousand.”
“Can someone lend me a million dollars?” asked Private Chuck Warner. “I think I’ll go half on Sekar and half on Raggers.”
“Ah shit,” said Berg. “I meant five to three odds.”
“Don’t give up your day job, Cal. If you have one.”
“I reckon the Captain knows,” said Lester. “It’s always the brass that gets to hear first.”
“I’m not brass,” said Conway, laughing at the insolence. “And I don’t know a thing more than you.”
“You guess better than we do,” said Barron.
“You’re pretty good at guessing yourself, Corporal.”
“Yeah but it’s your turn now, sir.”
Conway shrugged, a useless gesture since only Torres and Barron were on the same row and able to see it. “You can’t have one without the other. It’s got to be both.”
“There we have it, folks,” said Berg. “We’ll need tharniol bullets and a bucket of rotten meat for this deployment.”
The shuttle flew on and, though Conway tried to focus his mind on the reasons for this activity, he couldn’t stop thinking about his conversation with Alice. Distraction wasn’t going to help him and he blocked out the thoughts. Dead men fathered no children.
The ride wasn’t a long one and the shuttle’s destination waited in a comparatively low orbit. Corporal Misty Brice gave a low whistle when she saw it.
“That looks new.”
A spaceship flew slowly in front of the shuttle’s path. It was a high-sided, bulky vessel with rounded corners and flat upper and lower sections. The exterior bristled with offensive and defensive weapons, and Conway spotted chain guns, railguns, missile clusters and some other stuff he didn’t recognize. He didn’t know the spaceship’s dimensions from the sensor feed alone, but he was sure it was big.
“What is it, sir?” asked Warner.
Conway shook off the irritation at being expected to know the answer to every single question in the entire universe. Rather than offer a sharp response, he got on the comms to the shuttle’s pilot and found out.
“It’s the ULS Juniper. One of our new fury class carriers.”
“Obsolete before it lifted off,” said Freeman, a born cynic. “What with the Hantisar fleet having vantrium drives and shit.”
“I’ve heard the Hantisar propulsion isn’t much different to a tharniol drive,” said Lockhart, a more reliable source than most of the other soldiers. “Vantrium remains solid-state and doesn’t alter when it generates energy. The people I’ve talked to reckon we should be able to modify some of our existing warships.”
“Like fitting a supercharger to your grandmother’s sedan, huh?” asked Torres.
“Don’t ask me to draw you a technical diagram, soldier.”
“Space for twenty-six Vipers, a couple of planetary bombers and some shuttles,” said Conway, relaying more information from the pilot. “Plus all that external weaponry.”
; “Twenty-six Vipers? I guess Admiral Yeringar would have given his eye teeth for a couple of fury carriers in AF1,” said Barron.
“Anyway, that’s where we’re heading. First stop, the Juniper. Next stop, somewhere else,” said Conway.
“A tropical paradise,” Berg asserted. “I figure I still owe you guys a tropical paradise, so this time I’m promising you one.”
“And if it ain’t?”
“I’ll blame Kemp.”
Conway wasn’t in the mood for laughing, but he couldn’t help himself. The view on the screen indicated the shuttle was banking hard and gradually the open rear bay of the Juniper was revealed as a square of blue-white light. The shuttle’s pilot made some adjustments to the forward sensor array and Conway saw the Vipers lined up in opposing pairs against the walls.
Uncertain what was to come, but sure he wouldn’t like it, Conway waited for the shuttle to dock.
Chapter Six
The ULAF-1 emergency command and control center was deep underground. It was an extensive series of cold, grey-clad rooms linked by cold, grey-clad corridors. Everywhere was lit in a stark white that was designed to increase alertness, but instead made the eyes sting like they’d been rubbed with salt. Personnel hurried everywhere with barely suppressed desperation, hoping for news that might indicate their grip on life wasn’t quite so tenuous as they feared.
Fleet Admiral Stone, at the center of everything, couldn’t offer reassurances. His body was in that peculiar state where it was completely exhausted yet buoyed with so many stimulants that he couldn’t bear to sit down, let alone fall asleep. He fidgeted with the pen in his hand, spinning it constantly between his fingers, and took constant gulps of water to relieve the dryness in his mouth. Every update he received – either directly from his staff or from the constantly-buzzing handheld communicator – added new information to the heap, reminding him that the mountain in front of him was growing faster than he could climb.
“The tsunami from the Nullifier’s impact with the southern Pacific is receding from the South American land mass, sir,” said Captain Dyer. “Most of the west African seaboard is still underwater.”
Scum of the Universe (Fire and Rust Book 7) Page 4
