by Terry Mixon
As she was speaking, her armed retinue escorted Kerrick Vidar and two of his associates through the gate behind her, the prisoners’ arms secured with ridiculously thick manacles. The armed men came from the New Zealand portion of the security contingent.
“Who ratted me out?” Jess asked, annoyed that she’d been caught.
“Does it matter?” Harry asked. “I shouldn’t have to say this, but this is a stupid plan. It doesn’t matter how many troops you take with you, you’re going into enemy territory. These people have already proven how violent they are. Are you looking to get shot again?”
“No, I’m not. But I’m also not going to sit on my butt hoping that this problem solves itself. I believe I can do something to undo the damage your mother caused. And in case it escaped your notice, I am the boss. If I decide that I’m going, I’m going.”
Harry simply shrugged. “I know that I can’t stop you, but I can at least make certain you’re safe. I put in a call to Sandra, and she’s going to have a team joining us here in just a couple of minutes. I’ll go along with you as well.”
She shook her head. “No. It’s too dangerous for both of us to go.”
“If it’s too dangerous for both of us, it’s definitely too dangerous for you,” he said in what he probably intended to be a reasonable tone. Unfortunately for him, it came across as somewhat condescending.
Of course, he was the military expert and she was an engineer. One who wasn’t supposed to be skilled in combat or diplomacy. Unfortunately, everyone was having to take on roles that they were unfamiliar with. She’d make it work, and he’d just have to deal with it.
“I hear what you’re saying, but this needs doing, and I’m doing it. You have other very important fish to fry.”
She looked over at Brenda Cabot, Molly Goodwin, and Karl Krueger where they were arrayed safely distant from the confrontation. “While we’re waiting, what did you think about Earth Two?”
“I’m pretty sure you can’t call it that,” Kevin McHugh said as he came through the open gate behind the guards. “One of the comic companies has that trademarked, I think. The very last thing you want is to have someone like them coming after you. I can almost hear their lawyers writing cease-and-desist letters as we speak.”
Jess put her hands on her hips and stared at the hacker. “Are you serious? That’s really a thing?”
“Yep,” he said cheerfully. “Maybe you should go with Earth-B or something.”
“This is ridiculous,” she muttered. “Fine, Earth-B, unless that’s taken up by someone else. Which it probably is.”
One of the other gates activated, and Sandra Dean walked through at the head of a dozen of Harry’s special operations troops. They were all integrating into Humanity Unlimited, but that was going to take a while to get settled, and they had things that had to be done in the meanwhile.
Like making peace with hostile heavy-worlders.
“What’s this I hear about a road trip?” Sandra asked, hefting her long rifle. “Can I do some sightseeing?”
Since she was a trained sniper, that simple question had all kinds of hidden meaning.
“Maybe. You’ll know when I do.”
“I’d better find out first, just to be safe. Gotta line up all the best angles on interesting things ahead of time.”
Jess turned her flinty gaze back on Harry. “This makes my life far more complicated than it needed to be, but you win. I’ll take the extra people. You, on the other hand, have Mars to deal with.”
Commander Krueger perked up at that. “I’d like to see the Mars base, if you don’t mind. I’ve heard bits and pieces that lead me to believe it’s big and fully operational. Bigger than the base in France.”
“That it is,” Harry said. “We’re still exploring it, but most of the systems are online, and it has so much stuff scattered around. It was the main base the rebel humans used before the heavy-worlders came.
“I’d be happy to show you, but I really need to start focusing on the Chinese Mars ship. It’s full of secret-society heavy-worlder descendants and they’ll be in orbit in two months, unless they have a secret to help them get there faster.”
Krueger nodded. “And you can be sure they’re armed to the teeth. Best to deal with them in space, preferably very far away from Mars.”
“It’s not that simple,” Harry said with a sigh. “We’re not officially shooting at one another, so that means the treaty they signed with my father keeps them from openly attacking Nauru and our holdings on Earth. They’re powerful enough to take the base in New Zealand, should they decide to do so. Or the island.”
Before he could go on, Jess’s quantum phone rang. It was one of only four in existence. They’d thought they’d lost the one that Clayton Rogers had had on him at his death, but he’d passed it on to Molly Goodwin before that final mission. Harry had the third, and Brenda Cabot had the last one.
At least having a quantum phone meant that she wasn’t getting those stupid robocalls, though it wouldn’t shock her if someday some prince of a fallen world across the galaxy was calling to tell her he wanted to give her his fortune but just needed a little money to make it happen first.
“Somehow, I’m betting this isn’t a social call, Mister Weller,” she said into the phone.
“No,” Weller said. “Though it almost falls under the category of someone else’s problem if you squint hard enough. Secretary of State Queen just gave a rousing speech at the UN. One where he dropped the bomb about the Asharim, the Chinese heavy-worlders, the base in New Zealand, and a host of other things.
“It’s all over the news, and to say I’m being inundated with calls from governments and reporters is perhaps the greatest understatement imaginable. The secret is out, and everyone is now demanding a slice of the pie.”
“Perfect,” she said, rubbing her eyes. “As if we don’t have enough distractions. Get some extra staff hired to take messages and promise nothing. Queen made the statement, so refer them back to him. I’ll deal with the most important calls as soon as I make sure that no one is shooting at us. No one is shooting at us, are they?”
“Not to my knowledge, but that could certainly change quickly enough.”
She looked back over at Harry. “I’m sending Harry to deal with the public relations aspects of this new problem. Perhaps he can leverage it into getting the Chinese to turn back. He’ll call you.”
Once she hung up, she raised a hand to forestall his objections. “This just became too important to put off. Let Brenda, Molly, and Karl examine the Mars base, but you need to hustle back to Earth and make sure this doesn’t blow up in our faces.”
Brenda was angry. Jealous and angry. The Mars base Harry had taken for Humanity Unlimited was everything the legends of her people claimed and more. It was huge and in such good condition. It should’ve been hers.
But it wasn’t, and no amount of envy was going to change that. Her mother had made sure that she understood the consequences of envy quite clearly, so she forced herself to take a deep breath and set the feelings aside, as hard as that was to do.
Good things came to those with the patience to wait for them. There was an entire universe out there, and she had no doubt they’d have their base soon enough. With the Families having power for the portable gate now, it was only a matter of time.
Molly Goodwin and Karl Krueger were much more appreciative of the sightseeing tour.
“This is a lot more than I expected,” Krueger said, looking down into the atrium with its lush vegetation. Animal calls floated up to them from below. “Those sound like Earth birds. How could an environment like this still be alive after a thousand years?”
“I’m told it’s from Earth,” she said. “My ancestors installed gates on the lowest level of the facility, in addition to the ones on the cargo level. One of which was left permanently on and connected to an island on a world somewhere out there. One the Asharim had either forgotten or abandoned.
“They filled it with Eart
h vegetation suitable to the tropical environment and seeded some species there to help with that ecosphere. I can only imagine what effect it might have had on the other biosphere, but the damage is long done now.”
“Can we go see it?” Molly asked.
“I don’t see why not, but it’s not much to look at. Frankly, it looks like a deserted island. I keep expecting Gilligan and the skipper to pop out from behind a palm tree.”
“The professor would be more helpful,” Krueger said with a grin. “See? I can do old pop culture references, too.”
“I have no idea what either of you is talking about, but I’d like to see another world where I can stand outside without worrying about freezing to death, having my face bulge out because there is no atmospheric pressure, or being shot at by primitive aliens.”
“And there you go with an old pop culture reference of your own,” Brenda said with a smile. “Total Recall. Nice. Come on.”
It only took a few minutes to find one of the lifts and take the trip to the bottom of the facility. While they walked, Karl became serious. “Other than being big, what does this base have that the Chinese agents on their ship want? Are there weapons here?”
“Undoubtedly,” Brenda said. “I couldn’t say what kind, or if they’d be ones usable on more than a personal scale, but my ancestors were staging a rebellion. They’d have plenty of guns lurking about.
“There are small craft here too, including at least one heavy-worlder assault shuttle. It would be a very rude surprise on the modern battlefield, I’d imagine. All that said, weapons aren’t what they’re after.”
“It’s the gates,” Molly said. “They want to get out into the broader universe, don’t they?”
“That’s exactly right. They serve the Asharim and want to rejoin their masters. Or perhaps they’re expecting the Asharim have fallen and want to take their places. Unless we can get some live prisoners, we’ll never know. Hell, even then, the underlings might not know the truth.”
“How do we keep them from taking the base in my country?” the other woman asked, a worried expression on her face.
“Easy and already done,” Krueger said as the lift opened onto the lowest level. “We have one of the vest pocket nukes there with a team that has orders to arm it if the base is attacked. Then they’ll retreat through the gate.”
The answer didn’t seem to please the woman. “That sounds a lot like taking a sledgehammer to a watermelon. Messy and permanent.”
“It is that, but once the Chinese know about it, they’ll hopefully keep back. The gates aren’t the only ones our side has access to, and they know we’ll deny them possession. With the quality of the rest of the base, they have little to gain.”
The floor of the atrium was like walking in a jungle. What had probably been a garden in the old days was now completely overgrown to the point that one couldn’t see that one was underground at all.
There were three gates along one wall, and one of them was active. Brenda was somewhat surprised that Harry had left it open, but after all this time, it seemed likely no one was going to discover it.
The three of them walked through the gate and into bright daylight. The gate opened up on a small clearing abutting the rock face holding the gate. Over the edge of the trees, Brenda could see the ocean. Interestingly, it had a shade of purple to its greenish blue. What could cause that?
Molly stepped out, looking around in wonder. “Wow. It’s gorgeous here!”
Krueger stayed beside Brenda, and she saw him place his hand on the grip of a holstered pistol. Smart. No telling what might be out in the jungle.
“Stay close,” she called out to Molly before turning her attention to the military officer.
“So, you’re the ally of my ally. And I have my own separate agreement with Queen—in writing—that says he’s not going to come after me or my people. What does that make our relationship?”
The man smiled a little. “Complicated. I’m not Queen, though. I’d like to think we can be friends.”
“I’d like that. My agreement with Queen is a little on the bare bones side. I’d like to invite you back to my place so we can get something a little more robust and binding.”
“You’re not going to get me drunk and take advantage of me, are you?”
She laughed. “Only if you want me to.”
He grinned and stuck out his hand. “Deal.”
11
Harry took one of the troop transports from the French base to the hidden gate in South America, Peru specifically. It was hidden up high in the inaccessible mountains and was only a very short flight to the Pacific Ocean. From there, he could go north, cross Central America, and make his way to the East Coast of the United States over the Atlantic Ocean.
That wasn’t as risky as it sounded. The military craft was made to be hard to detect, and the metal of the hull absorbed radar and didn’t reflect light in a way that would draw undue attention. It had no engine noise to draw the eye, either. Also, the gate was in an extremely remote area of Peru. It was a risk, but a small one.
The ship was smaller than the heavy-worlder version that he’d seen at the base on Mars but had the same kind of weapons and layout. If he had to guess, someone had taken the heavy-worlder assault ship to use as a model and then built this ship.
His knowledge of how the two compared was hazy, but Black Jack McCarthy had assured him that it was just as fast and nasty as the original. Since the former marine colonel had been a fighter pilot before he’d come over to Humanity Unlimited, he’d take the man’s word on it.
Harry could have borrowed Brenda’s gate to get to his destination faster and without risking getting shot down, but that wasn’t the point. The news was out there, so he needed to make a public statement that couldn’t be ignored.
He had the ship packed with his men, armed and armored for a fight. Less because he expected a fight than to make the right impression. He wanted people to ask themselves how many of these ships he had and what he could use them for if they screwed with him.
And speaking of screwing with people, while Black Jack took them out to international waters, Harry pulled out his regular sat phone.
It had taken Kevin McHugh less than five minutes to figure out how to get the assault shuttle to allow the transmission to be handled by the small ship. It would now forward his call out and redirect the incoming signal to his phone, bypassing the hull that would normally block it.
Dawn in Peru meant that it was later on the East Coast, so Queen should be at his office. Harry dialed the number and was connected directly with the man’s assistant, Gina Tanner. She passed him right through.
Queen was blunt and to the point as soon as he picked up the line. “What do you want?”
“Good morning, Mister Secretary,” Harry said, putting a hint of cheer that he didn’t feel into his voice. “I hope your day is starting out well, because I’m about to complicate it in much the same way you did for me yesterday.”
“Perfect,” the other man muttered. “Though I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me. What are you going to do?”
“I’m in a ship, and I’m going to the UN building. I expect to be there in an hour. You might want to be in New York to meet me when I land.”
Harry heard the other man curse, call for his assistant, and then order a helicopter to get him to a jet. “An hour might be tight,” Queen said. “Can you give me a little longer?”
“I’d be inclined to do so if you’d bothered to tell me what you intended rather than blindsiding me at the UN. Now? Not so much.
“I’m going to confirm everything you told them with hard evidence that they can’t refute. The ship, my presence here rather than on Mars, and some of the tech I’m going to demonstrate to every reporter I can lay hands on should do the trick. If you want to put some spin on it as well, you’d best get a move on.”
With that, Harry disconnected the call and turned the sat phone off. If Queen called back, he’d get voice mail.
“You’re kind of an ass,” Black Jack called back from the front. “I like that.”
“If I let him walk all over me, he’ll never give us the respect we’re due. He needs to understand his place in the alliance, and I’m going to make it crystal clear to the reporters that the US is the junior partner. Humanity Unlimited calls the shots with the support of the main alliance nations and their little buddy, the US.”
McCarthy laughed. “That’s great. How will the Chinese react to that?”
“Damned if I know. The Australians have been keeping an eye on them, politically speaking, since Queen made his announcement. Other than denying everything, there’s been no sign that they’ve done anything. Still, I’m sure there’s a lot of chaos in their ranks right now.
“They did send an encrypted message to their spaceship on the way to Mars. It didn’t respond to multiple transmissions, so I’ll wager that counts as confirmation that the heavy-worlders’ secret society exists. That has to be a lot worse for them than the revelation that Brenda Cabot and the Families have the US penetrated seven ways to Sunday.”
The former marine shook his head. “That means there’s a fight for domination happening as we speak. That’s gotta be ugly. How will it affect us?”
Harry shrugged. “There are many more regular Chinese people than secret society members, but we have no way of guessing how deep the tendrils go. They’ve had a thousand years to get influence over that which they want to control.
“If the Chinese come out on top, perhaps we can stop some of the madness. Then again, maybe not. They want the tech, too. If the secret society wins, they become more direct. We already know that they’re willing to go to war to get access to the gate system. We have to believe they’ll do a lot more to win.”
That pretty much killed the conversation, leaving both men deep in thought. Things weren’t as dire as they could’ve been, but they could still get very, very ugly before they got better.
