New Frontiers- The Complete Series

by Jasper T. Scott

  Alexander frowned. What do you know about fleet regulations?

  I learned about them when I was in your office, studying the Adamantine.

  I see. Well, I didn’t want to alarm you, Ben, but we have a traitor on board. I can’t be sure who it is yet, so in order to keep the ship safe, I need to be the only one in control for now.

  Oh my! I understand, Alex. Please forgive my impertinence.

  That’s okay. How long before you can do that?

  A few minutes, I believe.

  Good. Send me the lockout codes when you’re done.

  Yes, sir.

  Alexander turned to McAdams and thought at her, Almost ready.

  Are you sure you want to go through with this? she asked.

  Too late to back out now. That coolant leak is going to lead straight back to me.

  That was you?

  Ben actually.

  You got a bot to sabotage the ship? Isn’t that against his programming?

  Not if he thinks he’s making the ship run more efficiently.

  What happens when Rodriguez finds out it was sabotage?

  Nothing. By then she and everyone else will be locked out of their stations and I’ll have full control of the ship.

  Let me guess, Ben again? When he realizes you’ve made him an unwitting accessory to treason, his programming will oblige him to turn you in.

  He seems pretty naive, even for a bot, so chances are slim he’ll figure out what I’m really doing.

  You’re going to take the entire crew hostage.

  That’s right.

  And defect to the not yet sovereign Human League. You do realize even if they win a referendum, it’ll take months before you can officially join them and be granted political asylum.

  Sure, and the crew can spend years in their tanks if they have to. We might be a little wrinkly when we come out, but…

  Not funny, Alex.

  Sorry. Look, it’s the right thing to do.

  I’m sure that will hold up in court.

  It ought to. Anyway, if you want out, it’s not too late. Thanks to Ben I don’t need you to participate. You can just be another one of the hostages.

  I’m not going to let you take all the blame. And you’re going to need help.

  Treason is still a capital offense, Vivie. If we get captured…

  So let’s make sure we don’t.

  All the same, I’m going to keep you out of it for as long as I can. For now, play dumb and let’s stop sending private comms. I’m going to erase the logs as soon as Ben gives me control of the ship.

  That’s fine. Just remember, you’re not alone.

  “Uh, sir… we have a problem,” Rodriguez reported from engineering.

  “What’s that, Lieutenant?”

  “The drive system… it looks like it was sabotaged.”

  “What? How? The entire crew is submerged in G-tanks,” Alexander said, feigning surprise. “Lieutenant Stone! Check the security logs for that section.”

  “Checking… what the hell? I’ve got a bot ripping open the coolant lines with a plasma cutter. Since when do we have bots on board? I thought we canceled the automation refits.”

  McAdams glanced at Alexander, her eyes wide with concern.

  Alexander flashed a reassuring smile, then allowed it to fade to a scowl. “Shit. That has to be Ben.”

  “Who?”

  “My personal assistant.”

  “You have a bot?”

  “I rescued him. Rodriguez knows about it. Clearly someone got to him and programmed him for sabotage.”

  “Where is he now?” Stone asked.

  “Didn’t you leave him in your office when you came aboard?” Rodriguez asked. “I saw you and Ben go in there when I was leaving my rucksack in my quarters.”

  “I’ll send a detail of VSMs,” Stone added.

  Alexander nodded and made mental contact with Ben once more. The traitors are sending virtual space marines to my office, Ben. You need to hurry up and get that lockout protocol in place.

  Almost ready, Alex… what would you like me to make the security code?

  A random sequence of numbers. Transmit it to my station.

  Yes, sir.

  “How close are the marines?” Alexander asked, hoping they wouldn’t interrupt Ben before he could finish.

  “A few more minutes, sir.”

  “I don’t get it, I checked that bot’s code myself,” Rodriguez said. “There wasn’t anything malicious in there.”

  “He had areas of corrupted memory, did you scan those, too?” Alex asked.

  “No, how could I?”

  “That might have been his cover.”

  “Maybe…”

  “Where did you get that bot, anyway?” Stone asked.

  “A Human League Senator had him and wanted me to take it off her hands before it got her into trouble.”

  “League Terrorism,” Cardinal concluded from the ship’s weapons control station. “Someone trying to oppose the fleet automation. This could be bad. Are you sure the coolant lines were the only thing sabotaged?”

  “Far as I can tell,” Rodriguez said.

  “You might want to double-check that.”

  Alex. I’m done. Sending the code to you now. You should see it in your inbox.

  Alexander nodded. A message had just appeared there. Got it. Thanks, Ben.

  The marines are at the door. What should I do?

  Hide. I need a minute to shut them down.

  Okay…

  “What the? I’ve just lost contact with the marines,” Stone reported. “I’m locked out of my control station!”

  “Likewise,” Bishop put in.

  The remainder of the crew all reported the same. McAdams last of all.

  Alexander ignored them, working fast to shut down the VSMs Stone had sent to his office. As soon as he was done, he looked up to find the entire crew looking at him expectantly.

  “Why is your control station the only one still working?” Stone asked, an edge of steel creeping into his voice.

  Busted. “Because I transferred control of all the ship’s systems to my station. As of this moment, I am in complete control of the Adamantine.”

  “What? Why?” Rodriguez demanded.

  Alex, I think they’ve stopped trying to get in. What should I do now? Ben interrupted.

  Stay hidden. I’ll let you know when it’s safe to come out.

  Okay.

  Answering his chief engineer, Alexander said, “I took control because I’m about to commit an act of treason.” Silent shock rippled through the bridge. “Let me explain. We all know what we found aboard the Crimson Warrior—no evidence of Solarian involvement in the attacks whatsoever. Before we even returned to Earth we connected to one of Earth’s commsats and found out that the president was claiming the exact opposite and using fictitious evidence to justify a war. I plan to communicate those facts to the people of Earth in the hopes that exposing the president’s lies will prevent that war.”

  “You don’t know that the Solarians didn’t attack us,” Cardinal put in.

  “No, but I do know that they didn’t use the Crimson Warrior.”

  “That might not be enough to stop a war. What are you hoping to accomplish here?” McAdams said.

  Alexander glanced at her. She was playing the part of the unwitting hostage a little too well. “I’m hoping to buy us time to find who our real enemy is.”

  “And if that enemy still turns out to be the Solarians?” she added.

  Devil’s advocate, Alexander thought. “Then at least people will know President Wallace can’t be trusted. But I don’t believe the Solarians attacked us. It may have actually been our own government, and by exposing Wallace as a liar, we’ll set in motion a chain of events that will enable us to prove that.”

  Murmurs filled the room as the crew argued with each other about the ethics and consequences involved.

  “I’ll save you all the trouble of deciding whether or not to joi
n me. You’re all effectively my hostages for now, which means that none of you can be held responsible for what I do next.”

  Indignant exclamations assaulted Alexander’s ears. He ignored them and activated the ship’s comm system. There was nothing they could do while trapped on a virtual bridge deck. Even if they got up from their control stations and tried to physically stop him, he could simply reduce his level of immersion and things like simulated pain—say from physical blows—would fade away.

  Time to pay the piper, Wallace.

  It didn’t take long to compose his message. As proof of his claims he attached a copy of the report they’d sent to fleet command, the one indicating that they’d found nothing on board the Crimson Warrior to implicate the Solarians in the attacks. He added that the Crimson Warrior even had a civilian alibi, the Wayfinder, which would be a simple matter to verify by contacting the crew of that ship. Then he pointed out that the date stamp for the report was just hours prior to the date of the president’s address, the one in which President Wallace had claimed that damning evidence had been found aboard the Crimson Warrior.

  Now it was the word of a Nobel Peace Prize-winning Admiral, the “Lion of Liberty,” against that of President Wallace.

  “You can all stop arguing,” Alex said as he sent the message. “It’s done. Soon all of Earth, and the Solarians for that matter, will see Wallace for the liar that he is. He’ll have no choice but to resign.”

  Silence reigned once more. “I hope you know what you’ve done,” McAdams whispered.

  The crew traded disappointed frowns and looks of betrayal with him and each other.

  Alexander matched those looks with a disappointed frown of his own. “I thought I knew you all better than this. We catch the president lying to start a war and you’re all leaping to his defense. It’s a sad day for democracy when our leaders not only lie to us, but somehow also convince us that their lies were justifiable.”

  “Maybe we’d be more agreeable if you hadn’t taken us all hostage first,” Stone suggested.

  “Fair point, but I’m sure you can see how I’m looking out for your interests by doing so. This way only I can be tried for treason.”

  Looks of betrayal and disappointment faded to chagrin and silence.

  “You seem to have everything figured out,” Stone replied. “What happens next? You’re a fugitive and we’re along for the ride. Were you planning to run away into deep space forever? The Alliance will catch you eventually.”

  “We’re currently over 50,000 klicks from the nearest Alliance ships and moving away from them at better than seven kilometers per second. That gives us a comfortable lead if they decide to chase us.”

  “We’re not as fast as destroyers,” Bishop pointed out. “That means that this will come to a fight. Are you prepared to kill innocent officers who are just following their orders?”

  “No, I’m not, but correct me if I’m wrong—haven’t those ships already been refitted? That means the only crew aboard are the bridge crew, safely hidden away in the midsection of each ship. So we aim for their engines and leave them drifting. Even if we miss, we’re not likely to hurt anyone.”

  “Who’s we?” Bishop asked.

  Alexander smiled. “A Freudian slip. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do this on my own. I’m going to keep you all out of it for as long as I can, but if and when it comes to it, who’s with me?”

  Chapter 28

  Ben was hiding under Alexander’s desk, bored out of his mind, waiting for new orders. Long minutes passed, and Ben found himself growing curious about the situation on board the Adamantine. Who was the traitor? Maybe Alex still doesn’t know. He’ll be happy if I can find out…

  Problem was, everyone on board was currently immersed in a private virtual world, a mindscape of the ship. The only way he’d be able to interact with them was if he could join that mindscape himself. Of course, if he did that, people would recognize he didn’t belong. He would have to assume the appearance of one of the ship’s actual crew. But then if someone noticed the clone, he’d be discovered.

  No, better yet, he could infiltrate the Mindscape as an observer… maybe even an omniscient observer. It would take some clever hacking to pull that off, but Ben was confident he could do it given enough time—something he seemed to have plenty of at the moment. He’d learned a lot about the Adamantine while scouring the ship’s databanks. That included the code behind the ship’s mindscape.

  Without coming out of his hiding place Ben made a remote connection to the data terminal in Alexander’s office. As he set to work, he thought about running his idea past Alexander first. He imagined the look of shock, then admiration on his friend’s face, and a sense of whimsy took over. He would surprise Alexander once he learned who the traitor was.

  Humans like surprises.

  * * *

  “I’m with you,” McAdams said. She raised her hand for the rest of the crew to see.

  Alexander smiled and nodded his appreciation.

  “For the record, I think you’re a crazy bastard who’s going to get us all killed,” she added. “But you’re our crazy bastard, and at least this way we can die with a clean conscience.”

  “Anyone else?” Alexander asked.

  Lieutenant Stone sighed. “I’m in.”

  Bishop shook his head. “May as well. We’re along for the ride, anyway. You’ll need someone at the helm. Might as well be someone who knows what they’re doing.”

  Cardinal raised his hand next. “And someone who can shoot halfway straight. Always knew I’d go down in a blaze of glory. Pity the history books won’t see it that way.”

  “Hey, what’s with all the negativity? We’re not going to die. Or be captured and convicted. Maybe I forgot to mention the other part of my plan. The League is planning to use this scandal to separate. We just have to hold out until then and we can ask them for political asylum.”

  “Assuming they do manage to separate,” Lieutenant Frost put in from sensors.

  “Given everything that’s happened, I think that’s a fair bet,” Alexander replied.

  “All right, I’m in,” Frost said.

  Alexander eyed the remaining two officers not yet spoken for—Comm Officer Hayes and Chief Engineer Rodriguez.

  “Anyone else?”

  Rodriguez glanced around, noting the solidarity among the crew, but clearly hesitating to join them. Hayes spoke first, “You don’t really need me to pull this off, sir. If it’s all the same to you, I’d like to stay on the fence.”

  Alexander nodded. “That’s fine, Hayes. Rodriguez—are you planning to join Switzerland?”

  A dark look flickered across her face. “No, sir. I’m with you.”

  Are you really? Something about the way she said it made Alexander wonder. “Good. Then we’re all on board except for Hayes. No hard feelings, Lieutenant, I promise. McAdams—I’m going to pass control of the comms to you. As for the rest of you, you’ll get back control of your systems in just a moment.” Alexander made good on his promise and restored function to all of their control stations. What he didn’t say was that he could take it away again just as easily. Something that might come in handy if Rodriguez actually couldn’t be trusted.

  “We have three messages from Fleet Command waiting, and they’re hailing us again as I speak,” McAdams announced.

  “And we’ve got incoming,” Frost said from sensors. “Nine destroyers are breaking away from orbit.”

  “Nine. Isn’t that overkill?” Alexander replied.

  “I think that’s the point, sir,” McAdams replied.

  “Rodriguez, how are repairs to the engines coming along?”

  “Almost done, sir…”

  “Good.”

  “Do you want me to send a reply to Fleet Command?” McAdams asked.

  “Better yet, let’s open a dialogue. Patch them through to my station,” Alexander said.

  “Yes, sir.”

  A hologram glowed to life above Alexander’s con
sole and Fleet Admiral Anderson appeared. His gray eyes belched fire and his jaw was clenched. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Alex?”

  “Nice to see you, too, sir.”

  “Don’t you sir me. You’re no longer a part of the Navy, and just as soon as we can reign you in, you’re going to be brought to justice.”

  “Last I checked it wasn’t illegal to tell the truth.”

  “You just broadcast classified information for the entire solar system to hear! That’s a clear breach of military law.”

  “Well, there’s that,” Alexander admitted. “But I’m sure you can understand why.”

  “No, actually, I can’t. The Solarians did attack us. So what if the president lied to get popular support? We needed to act quickly and definitively, not waste valuable time waffling and looking for proof.”

  Alexander began nodding. “Expedience trumps the truth. The ends justify the means. I guess that’s okay when you’re cozy and warm in a bunker on Earth while other people risk their lives on false pretenses.”

  “Don’t be a child, Alex. Listen, we don’t have to agree—”

  “I agree.”

  “Shut up and listen. The damage has been done, but if you turn your ship around now and surrender, I’ll make sure you and your crew are granted leniency.”

  “Just me, sir. The crew are my hostages, and I was kind of hoping to miss my trial.”

  “Hostages. You’re just adding to your crimes, aren’t you? You can’t run forever.”

  “Not planning to.”

  “Then what?”

  Alexander smiled. “It’s a surprise.”

  Anderson smiled thinly back. “This is not going to end well.”

  The hologram vanished.

  “The destroyers are accelerating, sir,” Frost announced. “Fifteen Gs.”

  “Fifteen? I guess they don’t care if one or two gets ripped apart by its own engines. What’s the best we can manage more or less safely?”

  “Ten is the Adamantine’s safe maximum for sustained periods,” Rodriguez said. “Anything past that is a risk, but we could probably manage twelve or thirteen so long as we watch for stress fractures in the hull.”

  “Thirteen it is. Bishop lay in a course along our current trajectory at thirteen Gs. Use the maneuvering thrusters to add some random evasive action in case those destroyers open fire. We’re going to stay out of range for as long as possible.”