The broad-winged craft had been slaved to a dedicated controller on the ground with no secondary uplink. When that single control channel went dark, the drone didn’t have the permissions enabled to reestablish, or seek any other links on its own. It was an orphan, and didn’t know it. The only thing it knew was that it was headed for the base where it had launched from, and didn’t have the fuel to make it.
There were thousands of potential landing sites between its location and its base; any country road would have sufficed. However, the internal command software it was operating under had been designed for battlefield use. Somewhere in those millions of lines of code was a directive that its memory should be wiped before it crashed, lest it fall into the hands of an enemy who could extract something useful.
The drone’s computer finished overwriting its data storage, twenty-one minutes before it tipped over and plowed into the ground at 150 mph, ten miles outside of Jackpot, Nevada.
*
Eden, New Seattle
Elisabeth had gotten over the shock that had accompanied the return of the phone booth without Kyle. The return of Sir Geoff, along with strangers, had added to the surprise, none of which had fixed the sick feeling in her gut that threatened to overwhelm her every time she thought about Kyle being stuck on Earth.
Listening to the stories that Sir Geoff and Brittany Souza had shared had brought into focus the fact that Kyle had stayed behind in place of those who had been the subject of an ISS manhunt. That had been three days ago. She was now solely focused on getting the phone booth back to Earth to retrieve her fiancé. In pursuit of that end, she sat at the conference room table, listening to the physicists as they took turns getting up and walking back and forth between the whiteboards that lined the room. The walls were covered in equations and math that she could understand only at the most basic level.
She listened to their competing proposals, growing more and more frustrated by the hour. David Jensen and his team of fellow PhDs would go down rabbit holes of ideas that would take a half hour to explain, another hour to punch holes in, and yet more time to smooth over the egos involved. She knew there was a method to Jensen’s symposium; behind it all was the driving need to get the damned phone booth turned around, and following that, figure out a way to power the device’s return to Eden. If there had ever been a situation where the words “Perfect is the enemy of good enough” applied, this was it.
“Elisabeth?”
She looked up from the point on the floor that she’d been glaring at.
“Are you OK?” David was looking at her in concern, as if her emotional state was somehow of equal importance to him finding a way to get Kyle and the others back.
She bit down on what she wanted to say. She had known David Jensen since Paul had brought her into the program. Back then, he’d just been Doc Jensen, and had been as much a mentor as a friend of the family.
“I know this is a much-needed discussion, but shouldn’t we have already decided on a path that is doable, here and now?” She did her level best not to glare at the faces around the table and felt she failed. “Shouldn’t we be working on that solution?”
“Elisabeth, the phone booth has been charging for the last three days, and we’ve made immense progress.” David nodded to the whiteboard. “We’ve lowered the power required to create the needed field by almost half, which will cut in half the recharge time. As soon as its charged and the Kyle’s team has had time to reach the planned site – we’ll go. He was adamant that we shouldn’t expose the device any longer than we have to.”
“So why all this, now?”
Jensen let looked around the room at his colleagues. “I also promised Kyle we’d figure out a way to get something more reliable and practical in place. Remember, we have almost a hundred and fifty people on Chandra, and before we can get to them, we’ll have to make a primary trip to Chandra to collect enough observable data to be able to return to Eden from there. That, is what this is all about.”
She hadn’t forgotten Audy and his group; or had she?
“I know,” she said. It almost sounded like an apology to her ears. “How long before the phone booth is ready to go back to Earth? And how long will it have to recharge there?”
“We’ll be ready to go in less than 48 hours, but they wouldn’t be there yet. We’ll leave in four days and stay on Kyle’s schedule,” David answered. “We are using that extra time to add additional batteries and charging those before we leave. I think we all agree that extra time spent here, reducing time on the ground in the mountains of Idaho, is a good thing.”
“Agreed,” she said, as she stood up slowly, suddenly aware of how long she’d been sitting there listening in, and probably annoying the shit out of the physicists.
“I’m sorry; I’ll get out of your hair.”
“We’ll get them back, Elisabeth.”
“I know,” she said before pulling the door open and stepping out. Pausing in the hallway, she was unable to shake the feeling that something was wrong, that she was worried about something nobody else was thinking of. She had made it down the stairs into the lobby of the building when she ran into Brittany Souza, just coming in.
“I was just going to check on you, see how you were settling in.”
They’d had a chance to talk the first night after their arrival, over more than a few glasses of wine. It had been the first welcome-to-Eden tour she’d given in a long time, and there had been all the usual questions and excitement, especially with regards to her two children. Underlying it all had been the worry that Brittany’s husband, Tom, was stuck on Earth along with Kyle and the others. She could see from the look on Brittany’s face, that worry was now front and center.
“I was told this is where the science types are working to get our people back?”
“I just left them,” she said, pointing back up the lobby’s staircase. “They have a good plan, and are working it.”
“I really feel like I need to go provide them with a little motivation,” Brittany said, with a smirk. “I’m pretty good at that.”
“I don’t doubt it.” Elisabeth smiled. “Right now, they don’t need it. I almost started crying in there; they’re motivated. How about I just fill you in?”
Elisabeth could tell that Brittany Souza was considering marching into the conference room and threatening the scientists. It was clear, she was not a woman easily distracted from her chosen plan of action.
Britt blew out a deep breath of pent up worry. “I suppose that would be better than threatening them. I’m sorry; I’m going nuts not having anything I can do to help.”
Elisabeth hooked an arm into that of a fellow nervous wreck. “Well, unless you have a PhD in quantum mechanics, you would just be in the way. Come on.”
“So, you guys are already at war with these Kaerin? You beat their attack off here? And have sent a team to Chandra? Which is another mirror of Earth?”
They were seated at one of the makeshift cafés that had sprouted up down both sides of New Seattle’s main boulevard, the wide, paved road that led from the harbor front for nearly two miles. The majority of the city was situated within a mile of that one major road.
Elisabeth paused with her cup of coffee almost to her lips. She couldn’t tell if Brittany was angry, having learned the world she’d chosen for her family wasn’t without its risks.
“In a nutshell, yes,” she answered. “Sir Geoff couldn’t have told you about our fight with the Strema; he was with you when it happened.”
“I’m not upset.” Brittany waved away the concern. “Sorry . . . I know I’m a little intense sometimes. Tom says I come across like a badger that’s been stepped on.”
“It’s all right,” Elisabeth answered. “I’d say you’re entitled. You’ve just had your world turned upside down . . . or multiplied, rather. I was just worried you thought this was somehow a bait and switch . . . we’ve had our share of that.”
“I’ll bet you have.” Brittany smiled back at her
knowingly. “All I know is my boys slept in beds the last two nights. Today, they went fishing with some kids they’ve met. To top it off, the government here isn’t trying to erase my family.”
“They’re settling in? Is there anything you need?”
Brittany was quiet for a long moment before she shook her head and wiped at her watering eyes. “Worms . . .”
“Sorry?”
“It’s what set me off this morning. The boys got invited to go fishing, and they asked me if I knew where they could get some night crawlers.” Brittany shrugged in apology; “they said, ‘Dad always made sure we had worms,’ or something to that effect. I almost lost it in front of them. I’m pretty capable; most people think I’m a total bitch on steroids . . .” Brittany wiped at her eyes in anger. “The thought of trying to raise those two without Tom . . .”
Elisabeth’s hands seemed to go around her the swell of her womb out of reflex at Brittany’s words.
“I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to make this worse.” Brittany leaned forward and wrapped both hands around her mug of coffee. “I suck at this stuff.”
“Stop it.” Elisabeth shook her head. “You’ve been living on the road for months. Sir Geoff explained what you’ve all been through. You get here, and you don’t have your other half with you. You learn that we’re at war . . .” Elisabeth nodded at her own coffee cup. “Then you realize that our coffee isn’t exactly up to Earth standards, either.”
Brittany managed a smile and a slow nod. She took a deep breath. “Start with the Kaerin. I understood from your husband that they attacked you here, using some sort of janissary army.”
Elisabeth shrugged. “The Kaerin definitely would like to wipe us all out. We’ve learned that from their perspective, you’re either Kaerin, or you’re a slave. Their word for us, ‘Shareki,’ means those to be conquered and enslaved.”
“Now, that—that I understand.” The newcomer smiled as if she enjoyed the challenge. “Straight-up fight. Hell, there’s something almost clean about it; makes it easy to understand.”
“You sound like my Kyle.”
“He seemed like he had his head on straight. Tom liked him, too, and that doesn’t happen very often.”
“How long have you two been married?”
“Six years.” Brittany paused. “It’s November now?”
Elisabeth nodded, and laughed a little. “Yeah, we brought the calendar with us when we came here.”
“Be seven years, on New Year’s Day. We got pregnant when we were serving together, which was a big no-no. We both put our papers in at the same time. The Army came up with this winner of a plan to create a covert group using civilian married couples as a cover. We traded in the Army for suburbia and just did occasional special jobs. The boys were almost three by the time we got married for real.”
She’d heard some of the Souzas’ story by way of Sir Geoff, who was in bed at the hospital, being pumped full of nano treatments that weren’t going to be able to save him. Hearing their story from Brittany’s side made her unit sound a lot less sinister than Sir Geoff had. He’d finished the short debrief by saying the Souza’s ‘could be a valuable addition to what we are building.’ She’d known him long enough to recognize the implied affection and trust in the statement.
“Babysitting Sir Geoff was one of those jobs?”
“It was.” Brittany smiled to herself after a moment. “We were detailed to pick him up, not because General Gannon gave a shit about how comfortable the old fart would be living in a brick colonial in North Carolina, but because no one outside of Gannon and a few others even knew about my team’s existence. General Gannon was not a ‘good guy.’ Trust me, if he’d had a black site prison, worthy of the name, Grandpa probably would have wound up there.”
“Grandpa?”
Brittany looked at her for a moment with an inscrutable look on her face. “Both my parents, and Tom’s, died years ago. Our boys pretty much adopted him, and I guess if I’m being honest, so did I.” Brittany took a sip of her coffee and glanced out the window at the steady but light rain before turning back to her.
“I was wondering when I’d get the interview.” Brittany grinned at her. “You’re good.”
Elisabeth didn’t even think about playing dumb; not with this woman. “It’s not an interview. You’re just the first group of people we have here that didn’t decide in advance to make the trip. Trust me, Sir Geoff vouched for you, and no one here would even think about challenging that, least of all me.”
“I get it,” Brittany said. “You can believe me when I say I’m committed to this. Whatever it is. For one, we don’t have a choice. We were being hunted back there. They would have erased us—our kids as well.”
The idea that Kyle was still back on Earth and now a target of that hunt sent a shiver through her. Brittany reached out and laid a hand on top of hers. “I have to believe they are going to be all right. Anybody that comes after them is going to be expecting three married couples, two kids, and a geriatric Brit. I know Tom . . . and for that matter, Kyle and his team seemed very squared away.”
Elisabeth had sat down with this woman to offer some solace in the face of the new world that she and her children found themselves in. She hadn’t realized how much she needed a shoulder to lean on.
“How far along are you?”
“Almost six months. I’m about a month behind the population explosion we are about to have, especially where the Jema are concerned.”
“Those are the friendlies? From Chandra?”
Elisabeth nodded, realizing at for the first time who this woman reminded her of. “I have somebody you have to meet . . . a Jema. Her name is Kemi’sfrota, or just Kemi. She’s become a good friend,” Elisabeth said, as she was typing on her comp-pad. Kemi was in the city today for her own prenatal checkup. “She’s a council member among the Jema, and one of their warriors. You remind me of her.”
“I remind you of an extraterrestrial?”
Elisabeth had to laugh at that. “Kemi’s pregnant with her first child. I think you’d both, in the words of my stepbrother, wrestle a mountain lion in a phone booth to protect your family.”
Elisabeth watched a smile break out on the woman’s face. She had time to explain the Jema’s history before Kemi got there. Besides, anything that kept her own mind off where the father of her child was at the moment was a good thing.
*
Idaho, Earth
Kyle was in abject misery. It had nothing to do with the holes in his shoulder or legs. It had everything to do with the fact that Josh Carlisle was carrying one end of the stretcher he was laid out on, and his brother, Danny, was limping alongside, within easy earshot, on makeshift crutches. Their constant ribbing had started off with Danny complaining that Josh’s backpack was heavier than the half of Kyle that his brother carried. That had lasted nearly an hour. Now, they were arguing over some third-grade girl from their childhood, and which one of them she had kissed first.
“She only liked you because you were younger,” Danny said over his shoulder. “She felt sorry for the little guy.”
The stretcher almost jerked to a stop when Josh’s feet stuttered so he could think of a reply, which did hurt his shoulder. It was a pattern that was becoming too familiar. The two techs, sharing the heavier end of the stretcher supporting his upper body, almost went down as the foot-first end ran into Josh Carlisle’s mental processes.
“Well, big guy,” Josh was almost shouting, “the only reason we were in the same class, at all, was because you’d been held back a year. There were fifth graders younger than you when you were redoing the third grade.”
“You take that shit back.” Danny came to a complete stop and pointed his crutch at his brother. “You know I was dyslexic.”
Kyle racked the slide of the shotgun he was carrying.
“Put me down . . .” He could hear the threat in his own voice. “Slowly.”
Once the stretcher settled on the ground, he levered himself to wher
e he was sitting up and swung the shotgun towards Danny Carlisle.
“Do you know why the hole in your ass is healing so fast?”
Danny’s head jerked back in surprise at the question.
“Uh . . . Jeff said the shot he gave us had nan . . . nine . . .”
“Nanites.” Kyle nodded agreeably. “Microscopic machines that can fix almost anything.” Kyle gave the shotgun’s muzzle a little wave in the direction of Danny’s feet. “It means I can put a load of buckshot into your ass without really risking a whole lot. You’ll heal.”
“Can they fix stupidity?” Josh snickered, and started laughing.
Kyle reversed his grip and hammered the butt of the shotgun into Josh’s thigh.
“You’d better hope so.”
“What did I do? He’s the dumbass!” Josh was rubbing at his leg.
Kyle slammed the gun into his other leg. “Stop talking.”
He turned to Danny as the crutch-borne Carlisle took a deep breath in preparation of saying something.
“Both of you.”
Kyle reversed the gun and swiveled it between them. “No more talking. Nod if you understand.”
He got sullen looks from both of them, and after a moment, they nodded in reply.
Jeff, who had been breaking trail for the group, emerged into the clearing after having come back to them.
“You good?”
Kyle shot Jeff a look of what he hoped was pure hate. He’d begged his friend to take at least one of the Carlisles with him that morning. But Jeff had explained that he’d have his hands full, scouting a path that would be manageable with a stretcher. The excuse had sounded a little thin before they’d set off. Right now, it was translucent and he could almost see the smile fighting to crack on Jeff’s face. He knew what was really bothering him, everyone was moving slow because of him.
New Shores: The Eden Chronicles - Book Three Page 30
