"Okay." Tebrey frowned and looked away. "Okay, I'll talk to you."
"Captain Singh has lent me the use of his conference room," Shadovsky said. "If you'd follow me."
Think we could take him? Tebrey asked Hunter bad-temperedly.
I wouldn't place any bets, replied Hunter. Not without armor, anyway.
"I know what you are thinking, Commander," Shadovsky said as they walked.
"I sincerely doubt that."
"No, really." He turned and gave Tebrey a sharp look. "You were thinking it pretty loudly. I thought it only fair to warn you that I can hear you when you broadcast."
Tebrey blushed slightly at that. "Sorry, sir. It wasn't what you think."
"I understand that you don't actually harbored any ill will toward me, Commander. I also understand that you had to say goodbye to your wife earlier, and I understand you aren't in the best of moods. But since the Centaur is getting underway within the hour, I'd like to not waste more time on talking of such things. There is a bigger picture to consider. This is important."
Tebrey sighed gustily. He was beginning to think that the bigger picture would get along just fine without him in it. They had reached the conference room. Once the door was shut and the security wards in place, he addressed the admiral. "Okay, so what's so important?"
Hunter curled up in the corner and watched with amusement. He liked the nervousness he could feel from the two guards the Concord admiral had brought with him, and he cleaned his gleaming claws to reinforce it. Neo-panthers had been designed to deal with armored foes.
"The data chip that Admiral Meleeka sent me contained more information than just the part you knew about. It also held your entire military dossier."
"So?" Tebrey said. "Okay, so you know I almost flunked out of math in OCS – so what?"
"There was a bit more to it than that, Commander," Shadovsky said with a grim smile.
"Then enlighten me," Tebrey said. He wasn't really in the mood to play games with this admiral. If he had something to say, Tebrey wanted him to spit it out.
"There are some anomalies with your DNA–"
"Stop!" Tebrey interrupted. "I'm getting really sick of people saying that to me."
"I'm not sure what you've been told, Commander, but I think you need to hear this. You see, the Federation military decided to do some experiments..."
Chapter Twenty-Eight
The Marie, still disguised as the Celeste, translated out of hyperspace eight light-minutes from the orange-red dwarf primary, Epsilon Indi A. The star was only seventy-seven percent of the mass of Sol, and had a much smaller hyperlimit, hence the closer transit. Its dim brown dwarf star companions, Epsilon Indi Ba and Bb, were light-days away and invisible to the Marie without using sensors.
Captain Vardegan was certain that she'd be able to sell her illicit cargo on Neo Gaulia. Many of the inhabitants had been unhappy with the system's annexation by the Federation a hundred-odd years ago. The people there had formed a violent underground of… well… They called themselves freedom fighters. Rachael wasn't sure what she would have called them. She didn't care about their cause, only their credits.
Cafe bombs and sniper shootings were almost a daily occurrence on the surface.
Despite the constant threat of terrorist attack, there was a thriving interstellar trade with the planet. Of course, the system was less than twelve light-years from Sol, and less than five light-years from half a dozen other inhabited star systems. That made it a convenient place to stop over for repairs and refueling.
"I thought I made it clear that unnecessary stops were prohibited, Captain."
Rachael twitched uncomfortably at the sound of the man's voice. She hadn’t even known he was on the bridge. "Our negative energy nodes were stressed badly when we escaped Gamma Ceti. We lost two more of the nodes when we translated out of Beta Hydri. We were lucky we made it through translation without being crushed out of existence and smeared across space as a particle wave. We barely made it here. We need to land and make repairs."
The man glared for a moment, then sighed. "Very well, do what you must." He turned and left the bridge.
"And you thought he was cute," Rachael said irritably to Nancy.
"Actually, I said I thought he was hot," Nancy corrected.
"Whatever," muttered Rachael.
"Rachael," Nancy said softly, "what the hell happened at Kara-Nor?"
"Look, I really don't want to talk about it, okay? Our passenger killed a guy at a bar. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen. I'm still having nightmares. I don't know who or what our passenger is, but he scares me. He scares me a lot. He sort of threatened me before we came back aboard. I don't think we have any choice but to do whatever he tells us to."
"Damn. What are we going to do?"
"I don't know," Rachael replied. "I don't know if there is anything we can do. I just pray that when he is finished with us, he lets us live."
"Do you really think it's that bad?"
"I don't know. I mean, he has never overtly threatened me. He's just so demanding."
"He did pay us a lot of money," said Nancy, trying to be the voice of reason. "People with a lot of money tend to be a bit imperious with the help, you know?"
"It's more than that," said Rachael. "I really don't think he is human."
"Didn't we already have this conversation?"
"I'm serious, Nancy."
"That's what worries me."
In his private cabin, the man sat very still. His legs were folded into a classic meditation posture, and his face was smooth with concentration. With a small part of his mind, he had listened to the conversation of the captain and co-pilot. He wasn't happy about showing the woman some of what he was capable of. He'd intended to be discreet. He could not allow the forces he felt gathering around him to notice him. There would be time enough for those games later.
He frowned.
Most of his senses were strained to the limit. He was searching for something, casting his thoughts farther and farther away. He was determined, and he would not be thwarted. No one, nothing, would stop him from finding the man he sought.
And when he found him, well, that would be an interesting… reunion.
Tebrey sat on the deck in his quarters and absently caressed Hunter. Just then, he desperately needed the comfort the large cat provided. He was deeply troubled by what the admiral had told him, troubled that Admiral Meleeka hadn't seen fit to tell him herself, and by what it meant for his own future.
"What am I?" he whispered to Hunter.
You are what you are, his companion replied. You are my brother.
But I may not be entirely human, Tebrey thought miserably.
I know I'm not, said Hunter. You don't see me moping around, do you?
You kind of get special dispensation. You were engineered. What about me?
Maybe you were, too, Hunter replied. So what? Ana isn't exactly human, either. She's proud of the fact. You certainly seem to like her.
Yes, but she knows what she is. I don't.
You know now that you're different from the dirty, smelly, squabbling masses that swarm over most of the planets in the local cluster. What's so bad about that?
You're saying I should be okay with my difference?
Yes.
And what about the other? Tebrey asked. We have a brother in bondage, maybe more than one. We owe it to him to free him or die trying.
Yes, I suppose…, replied Hunter.
What's wrong?
It feels odd. How can we even find him? I know it explains some of the nightmares we've both had, but in those, we were little more than an animal. I don't know if I can face that again. I almost lost myself before. What if I lose myself again?
You won't.
How can you be sure?
Because you'll always have me, Tebrey said. I'll make sure you don't fall, and you'll make sure I don't.
"Take us out of orbit, Chief," said Captain Singh. "And please observ
e the posted speed limit."
"Aye, sir. Ahead at three thousand kilometers per second," Master Chief Madison replied with a chuckle.
Singh watched the crowded navigation plots on his air screen. Concord traffic was being rerouted to give the Centaur a clear run out of the system, but they still had to take it slowly for the first few hundred thousand kilometers. The gravimetric stress his ship created under full power would have severely damaged any civilian ship that got too close.
He had to admit that the Concord seemed like a pleasant enough place. It was prosperous, and the people had more personal freedoms than they did in the Federation. He wasn't sure about allowing aliens full rights under the law, but he understood why they did it. Too many people tended to think of all aliens as being like the Nurgg, but none of the other species humans had encountered had that insane, all consuming, racial paranoia.
And the alien allies of the Concord had been instrumental in winning the early battles against the Nurgg. The Rhyrhans were an impressive species, with a technology at least equal to that of the Federation. They would have made staunch allies. He just didn't see how anyone could manage to make all those conflicting ideologies and cultures work together. It seemed like a recipe for civil war to him. It seemed to work for them, though.
Singh trusted Admiral Meleeka, but he was still nervous about the mission. Although Fleet intelligence said there were no orbital defenses at Chi Orionis, the Empire often picketed several warships there. While the Centaur would have a definite technological edge over the more primitive Empire ships, they could still be outnumbered, perhaps badly. He was effectively jumping his ship and crew into the meat grinder, and he knew that not everyone would survive the encounter. He wished the Concord had seen fit to lend a ship of their own to the mission.
The trip itself was a cause for concern, as well. Singh had never made a hyper jump as long as the one they were heading toward. Chi Orionis was just over forty-five light-years from GL 570; it would take the Centaur at least fifty-four days at best speed to get there. That was a long time to spend in hyperspace, especially with the new data on the Thetas that Admiral Shadovsky had shared. Ships that spent a long time in hyperspace didn't always come back out.
Eight weeks was a very long time to be exposed to that risk.
Admiral Mandor Shadovsky stood, hands clasped behind his back, and watched on the screens with mixed feelings as the Centaur pulled away from Dawn. He understood now why the young marine commander inspired such loyalty and devotion from his friends and shipmates. Hrothgar Tebrey didn't even seem aware of the effect he had on people, which made it even harder to watch as he sailed off on what could be, and most likely was, a suicide mission.
Meleeka had disclosed the full details of the mission to Vesuvius to him – as far as he knew – and Mandor didn't think that it had a chance in hell of success. There were too many unknown factors. Maybe if they had been able to send more ships... Mandor sighed.
The Federation admiral had begged him to loan a Concord ship to the mission. It would have made a great gesture in these times of trouble: the Earth Federation and the Sentient Concord once again joined against a common foe. Mandor would have gladly loaned that ship under other circumstances, but it wasn't his decision. The truth was that, with the Federation threatening war, the Concord couldn't take a chance on losing any ships.
Many of the admirals in the Concord didn't trust the Federation, no matter what the circumstances. That business with the Federation destroying civilian merchant ships had almost led the Concord to declare war.
It seemed to Mandor, standing at that window into infinity, that the lines of fate were drawing together. Human history was full of places where events seemed to be carried forward by momentum, places where the number of available options dropped quickly. These singularities were dangerous points in history. He had never thought of what it must have been like to live through such times.
Now he knew.
What scared him the most was that he couldn't quite get over the feeling that the fate of the entire human species was rushing toward a point where a single decision might tip the balance toward a bright future, or toward the long, dark season of extinction. He didn't know what that decision would be about, but he had a frighteningly clear idea of who was going to make it.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Tonya Harris watched Jennifer closely as they finished eating breakfast. Tonya had spent the night on the couch in Jennifer's small apartment over the bar, which suited her just fine. Despite her playful banter, she was worried about the mission. She could feel that something was wrong on this planet, especially in the capital, Sinclair. That was why she was here, of course, but she really had hoped she wouldn't find anything.
"I wish I understood more about these aliens you say have infiltrated the Federation," Jennifer was saying.
No, you don't, Tonya thought. "All you need to know is that they're cruel and manipulative. This is exactly the kind of situation we find them at the heart of."
"So they're responsible for human cruelty?"
"Of course not," Tonya answered sharply. "Don't be stupid. People are people; we hardly need aliens to be cruel to each other. It's just that these aliens seem to feed on human pain and misery. They take a bad situation and push it to make it worse. What the Federation did here at Atlonglast was criminal. The Resistance was right to fight against that, but I'll bet some of the incidents that made things worse were orchestrated by the Theta. An arrest turned into a beating. A mugging turned into a murder. A protest turned into an angry mob. This is how they operate. Behind the scenes. They only act directly when there's little fear of retaliation. They're cowards that prey upon the weak."
Jennifer looked uncomfortable and turned away. "It's personal for you, isn't it?"
Tonya took a deep breath to calm down. "Yes. It is personal. I was tortured for months by one of these things. Given up for dead by the Federation. The Concord found me. Saved me."
I'm here, Ghost thought. We're safe.
Tonya shook with the memory.
"Look, I wasn't trying to offend you, okay?" said Jennifer. "But you have to admit that it's a lot to take in."
"Just believe enough to allow me to talk to the others. You may not believe in the aliens, but you do at least believe that I'm here to help against the Federation, right?"
"Yeah. I do believe that, at least. If you were with the Feds, you'd have arrested me by now."
"You don't think I could just be playing you to get to the others?"
"Not how they operate around here," Jennifer said, standing up. She picked up the empty dishes and carried them to the sink. "They use those computerized mind probes for interrogation."
Tonya shivered involuntarily. A mindcomp was a vicious device. They were illegal in the Concord, with good reason. The machine read the patterning of the neural pathways of the subject's brain via nanomolecular wires. It was said to be excruciatingly painful for the person being interrogated -- painful and destructive. The device broke down the pathways as it read them, leaving the victim in a mindless, vegetative state.
I'd never let you be taken, Ghost thought to her. You know that.
"When can we leave?" Tonya asked.
"Whenever you're ready."
"I'm ready now." Tonya stood up.
Jennifer nodded. "At least you don't look so out of place now."
Tonya had borrowed local clothes from Jennifer so she could blend in. She didn't like the worn grey coveralls and thick boots, but they fit well enough. They certainly had an inconspicuous, destitute look to them. They'd belonged Jennifer's sister.
"You're not carrying any guns, are you?"
Tonya just raised an expressive eyebrow.
"We have to go through a checkpoint to get to the others. They'll search us."
"I'm not carrying anything they'll find," replied Tonya.
Jennifer looked like she wanted to protest, but just shook her head instead. "Your companion is going to ha
ve to stay here."
"Don't worry about Ghost. She'll find her own way. You just get us to the others."
"Follow me, then." Jennifer walked out the door. Tonya waited just a moment for Ghost to vanish before catching up with her.
Sinclair was bleaker in the weak morning light than it had been the night before. The city had an aura of dread expectation hanging over it. Tensions were running high, and Tonya had to keep herself shielded to avoid being overloaded by the emotions around her.
Much of the local anger focused around the checkpoints, like the one Tonya and Jennifer were walking toward. The lines of tired citizens were roughly searched as they tried to get to work on time. A few were roughed up. Tonya was glad to see that the soldiers weren't scanning everyone as they went through. Her military-grade implants would show up on a deep scan; she'd have trouble explaining those.
Jennifer went through with little trouble.
Tonya stiffened a little as she saw the leer on the face of the soldier who beckoned her forward. She was more generously endowed than Jennifer, and the soldier had noticed. She gritted her teeth as his hands pawed at her from behind. She could feel his dick, such as it was, through her thin coveralls. He was a lot more interested in squeezing her tits than he was in finding any weapons on her.
"Hey, baby, you could at give me a reach-around," Tonya said loudly.
The soldier snatched his hands back, and Tonya laughed. She grabbed his hips and thrust her ass back against him. "Don't pull out now, I'm so close!"
The embarrassed soldier shoved her away as his teammates at the checkpoint laughed at him. Tonya caught up with Jennifer down the street. The scene had attracted the attention of the unfortunate's sergeant, and he receiving a very public bawling out.
"I'm sorry about that," said Jennifer. "They aren't usually like that."
"Don't worry about it," Tonya replied. "It served a purpose."
Jennifer gave her a sideways glance. "Do I even want to know?"
"I stole his pistol."
The Fallen Page 16
