Endgame
Page 12
<‘Biomedical specialist AI’ just moved to the top of my list of drill sergeant types you don’t ever want to get, for what it’s worth.
With a heavy sigh, Kira complied.
She dashed across the room, closing the hundred meters in a second.
Truth be told, she didn’t mind being put through her paces. It was exhilarating to finally be able to let loose outside the context of facing down an enemy, to practice in a place where failure didn’t mean death for herself or her teammates.
Kira hadn’t had such a free session in years. She regularly trained with her team, sure, but she’d always had something to prove to them, with her smaller stature. With them, she’d never wanted to misstep, so she always played it safe.
Alone in a room with Jasmine, however, she could fall on her face repeatedly and no one would know.
Kira stopped to stretch.
“Fascinating,” a voice said from above, startling her.
She spun around to see Jason Sietinen looking over the railing. “Stars! When did you get here?” she exclaimed.
“A minute ago, maybe. I wasn’t sure what to make of your statements earlier when you talked about the Robus state. Have to say, this isn’t quite what I envisioned.”
Right, that. Kira reverted to her normal appearance. “I wasn’t expecting anyone to look in on this session.” At least he hadn’t shown up while she was a crumpled heap on the deck.
“You didn’t think you’d be able to get by without a firsthand demonstration of your abilities, did you?” He jogged down the steps to the lower deck.
“Hadn’t occurred to me, honestly.”
The young Agent approached her. “A genuine alien hybrid… The scales are bonded nanites?”
“Yes, as near as we can tell.”
“How strange. The Aesir have never mentioned tech like this.” He looked her over, seemingly searching for where the nanites had disappeared to.
“Sorry, what?”
He shook his head. “Never mind. I’m sure you’ve already been studied more than you like.”
“The Guard’s science team pretty much just calls me ‘Weirdo’ now.” She was joking, but it wasn’t far from the truth.
“Being unique isn’t a bad thing. Challenging and isolating, sometimes, but not bad.” It was clear from Jason’s tone that he was speaking from personal experience.
“Very much so. And you’ve found that in the Guard?”
“They were my family well before this transformation.”
He nodded. “Well, if you ever need other outlets, know there’s an open door to the TSS.”
“Thank you, I appreciate that.”
“In the meantime,” he began circling her, “I’d like to see how you can move with these new augmentations. Maybe a little sparring?”
Kira tilted her head as she looked Jason over. “What would it do for my career prospects to land a few blows on a senior TSS Agent?”
He smiled back. “You sound awfully confident you’ll be able to hit me.”
She smirked. “You saw that blur running across the floor. Still want to extend the offer?”
“What kind of an Agent would I be if I shied away from a challenge? Bring it on.”
Kira assumed a combat pose. “All right, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” With Jasmine’s help, she initiated a transformation into the Robus state.
The Agent took a step back as her claws and fangs formed. “Wow, that’s really something.”
Kira lunged for him, aiming her claws for clothing rather than bare flesh. The world appeared to slow down around her as she moved at the end of a self-generated spatial distortion.
Centimeters before she was about to make contact, Jason calmly stepped to the side to avoid her attack.
“The fok?” Kira’s time perception returned to normal.
“You can’t rely on speed alone when you’re dealing with opponents who share your skills,” Jason said. “The Trols have created others with enhance speed, correct?”
Kira’s brow knitted. “Yeah…”
“Then it is best to assume you may face them. Either be prepared to fight on their level, or you will be at a disadvantage.”
“What would I do differently?”
Jason grinned. “That’s what I’m here to show you.”
CHAPTER 12
The ensuing lesson was more illuminating than Kira could have ever anticipated. Her previous approach had been to jump into super-speed and remain in that state for as long as possible. Through Jason’s instruction, she learned strategies to employ bursts of speed to manipulate the enemy—minimizing her energy expenditure while inflicting maximum damage.
After half an hour of practice, she did manage to land a few blows on the Agent—even though he was probably going easy on her. All the same, she felt much more prepared to face any Trol combatants she may encounter on the alien ship.
“I really appreciate the pointers,” she said.
Jason rubbed his side, where Kira had landed her last kick. “Happy to help. I want to give you your best chance of success.”
Kira leaned against the bulkhead to rest. “It’s still crazy for me to think that I’m going up against these guys, instead of someone like… well, you.”
“Don’t denigrate your abilities, Kira. I wasn’t going easy on you, despite what you may think. You can hold your own in hand-to-hand combat.”
She smirked. “I wasn’t trying to show off or anything.”
“Sure.” He flashed a playful smile back.
“I’m just happy I can keep up with you on some level. You Agents can do all sorts of fancy things.”
“You shouldn’t take my abilities as a representation of an average Agent.”
Kira waved her hand. “Well, yeah, using the Conquest’s TK weapon requires a lot of raw power. But can’t most of you, like, astral project and teleport and stuff?”
Jason laughed. “Is that what they say about TSS Agents?”
“I mean, I’ve heard…”
He kept chuckling. “Yeah, no. First of all, the closest thing we have to teleporting is a TSD Arch, but that’s essentially a portal through subspace between two proximate devices. ‘Stopping time’—as we’ve demonstrated in this practice session—isn’t teleporting at all. As for astral projection, well… yes, a few people can do it, but it’s far less common than even the ability to create localized spatial disruptions.”
“Then how did that get to be such a common misconception?” Kira wondered aloud.
“I suspect there were stories from the Bakzen War. The Priesthood was big on spreading misinformation—particularly anything that painted Gifted as being untrustworthy outsiders. Former TSS trainees like Monica Waylon certainly haven’t helped that perception.” His face darkened.
“I’m getting the impression you looked her up?”
Jason nodded. “My dad actually had a vague recollection of her—not many trainees leave after the first year, especially from the Primus class. Turns out that she was in the cohort after his.”
“Small universe.”
“More than you know.” He shook his head. “At any rate,
while she had very promising test scores, there were some... disciplinary issues. If she hadn’t elected to drop out of the training program, it’s possible she would have been reassigned based on moral and ethical grounds.”
Kira’s eyes widened. “That happens?”
“Extremely rarely. There are extensive psych evals before someone is admitted. I mean, we’re pretty much training people to be living weapons. You don’t want to grant that kind of power to a psychopath.”
“Yeah, but she still seemed to learn plenty of skills all the same.”
“That was one of the reasons I wanted to look her up. She actually came from Valdos III, which is a conservative world, but one of the only places that permitted the open practice of telekinesis while the Priesthood was still in power. I suspect that background is what enabled her to learn advanced skills without training through the TSS.”
“I wonder what made her go down such a dark path?” Kira mused.
Jason shrugged. “A thirst for power can all too often lead to blind ambition. Once you make one ethical compromise, it’s a slippery slope.”
“I’ve always thought about telepathy that way, too. You need to be careful what kind of precedent you set.”
“We have a clear code of conduct for that very reason.”
Kira studied him. “All right, so tell me… behind the ethics and codes, what’s the truth about Agents and what you can do?”
He smiled. “For the most part, we’re normal people. Our abilities are just a part of how we are, and we strive to use that power to help others. Telepathy is the most basic skill, then small object levitation, manipulating electromagnetic fields and the like.” He conjured an energy orb in the palm of his hand, a casual action in a split second.
Kira jumped back. “Whoa!”
“This kind of thing,” Jason went on while he tossed the orb between his hands, “looks fancier than it is. Our ability to manipulate energy fields allows us to concentrate ambient forces into manifestations like this.” He dissipated the orb. “The Conquest’s weapon is a scaled-up version of that. Most people can focus a concentrated energy field the size of their fist, but very few can withstand channeling the energy needed to do large-scale damage.”
“And, yet, you’re here to operate the TK weapon alone,” Kira stated. Suddenly, she had a new appreciation for the extent of young man’s abilities.
He shook his head. “The Trol ship, despite its size, doesn’t have the dense mass of a planet. A few TK blasts should have been enough to break it apart.”
She only stared at him in response.
“Okay, admittedly, that’s a bigger feat than I’m giving it credit for.”
Kira raised an eyebrow. “You think?”
“Anyway, we weren’t anticipating the initial attack to be completely ineffective. It goes to show that all power is relative.”
“My fear is that we haven’t seen the limits of the Trols’ tech yet,” Kira murmured.
“From what you’ve said, it’s not the tech that concerns me. Their resistance to the attack may be a matter of the beings’ unique properties—the subspace connection on a nanoscopic level. Subspace’s properties are so different from physical reality that it requires an alternate offensive approach.”
“Can you fight them, if I don’t succeed?” Kira asked.
He hesitated. “We’ll always find a way to protect our fellow Tarans.”
“I sense a ‘but’,” she prompted.
“Honestly, I’ve never faced an enemy like this before. You have. I’m confident the combined forces of the Guard and TSS could stop them in the end, but whether that solution came in time to save your home system… there’s no guarantee.”
She took a deep breath. “Then it falls to me. I’ll come through.”
He nodded. “I have no doubt you will.”
— — —
Kaen disconnected from the remote video feed to the cargo room and leaned back in the desk chair. He wished he’d been able to test Kira himself, but he was the first to admit she had speed and strength on her side. Jason had made for a much more suitable opponent.
Being a third-party observer had also afforded Kaen the chance to objectively assess Kira’s state of mind—how she was handling the stress of having an entire mission hinging on her. She had given him no cause for concern; if anything, she seemed to be in good spirits.
Considering that the future of an entire system is presently in her hands, that’s a win for all of us. Even though it bolstered his confidence that the mission would be successful, he couldn’t neglect the contingency plans.
Beyond the danger to the Elvar Trinary, the Guard was at risk. The Trols had broken in once, and though they’d been blocked from reentering the system for now, the aliens could potentially get an infusion of new resources from the Elvar Trinary, which could bolster their strength. As sickening as it was to think about that potential, Kaen needed to make sure the Guard finished getting its own augmented defenses in place.
He established a secure comm link to Orion Station and initiated a video call with Major Olvera.
The chief of security picked up. “Sir, what can I do for you?”
“How much have you heard about my mission on the Conquest?”
“I know it’s connected to the Trols and the attack on the base, but not much beyond that.”
“Well, it’s time I explained,” he replied.
She nodded her understanding while Kaen laid out the details for the first iteration of the plan to take out the Trol ship. When he got to the part about the TK weapon not working, Olvera’s composure broke.
“It what?!” she exclaimed, her eyes bugging out. “Sorry, sir, it’s just…”
“I know, I haven’t been able to make proper sense of it myself. But we are about to implement a plan to disable those countermeasures, which we’re hopeful will allow us to use the weapon. If we can’t for whatever reason, though, we’ll need a way to keep Guard operations and the ships’ computers from being hacked again, to ensure we have a secure command center from which to lead our counterattack.”
“Network patches are in progress.”
“Is there anything else we can do?” Kaen asked. “I know this is far from my area of expertise, but they’ve broken through the digital security once. Are those patches a certain fix?”
Olvera was silent for a moment. “You’re right. We were approaching this from a ‘this should work’ standpoint rather than reengineering the system to make it a surety.”
“My guess is you don’t have time for a complete overhaul.”
“No, we definitely don’t—at least not before that ship hits the Elvar Trinary.”
“Any ideas, or are we in wait-and-see mode?”
She sighed and shook her head. “Sir, I wish more than anything I could offer a solution that would set our minds at ease. Truth is, though, they got their hands on some of our best tech. The Guard on its own doesn’t have the resources to implement long-term safeguards. The system needs to be rebuilt from scratch, and that will take the original AI programmers significant time to complete, if we go that route.”
“In other words, taking out the enemy is our only viable security measure,” Kaen concluded.
“Yes, sir, that is my professional opinion. Otherwise, if they come for us, there’s not much we’d be able to do to stop them.”
He scoffed. “The perfect storm of components to hit all our vulnerabilities at once.”
“And, to be clear, those weak points are very minor. Our security
was designed to keep out the kind of enemies we know. Trols don’t operate like them. When they got access to that external processor, we gave them the keys to the backdoor.”
Blowing up Gaelon was supposed to take care of that problem. Are there more of them out there besides this one ship? Kaen nodded. “I’ll leave you to finishing the patches, then. After we get through this successfully, we can work on that overhaul.”
“Yes, sir. We’ll do our best.”
Kaen ended the call and then swiveled around in to stare out the viewport in his temporary quarters aboard the Conquest.
The alien planet-ship appeared no larger than a fist at their pursuit range, a dull gray sphere against the velvet blackness. Aside from its size, it didn’t look like much—maybe an industrial colony ship, but certainly not the potential system-killer that it was.
When he thought about the threats facing the Empire, Kaen’s biggest concern had always been a massive fleet augmented by armored foot soldiers. Perhaps venturing from another galaxy, this foe, in his nightmares, would present an overwhelming force the Empire would have no way of defeating. His imaginings had always led to the Empire and the enemy fleet squaring off against one another, but he didn’t know if they’d fight until the bitter end or find another solution.
The Trols defied that worst-case scenario vision. This was a single, massive ship, capable of travel from system to system within the Taran realm, capable of wiping out those worlds.
He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but Kaen was terrified that their preparations would be for nothing. Any ship capable of negating a pure energy beam from the TK weapon would certainly be able to cut through planetary shields. No matter what protective tech they gave the worlds in the Elvar Trinary, it was only for show. Something to make them feel better—something to give them hope.
In reality, the alien ship could level everything that Tarans had been working so hard to build.
Kira has to succeed.
Kaen hated to put pressure on one individual, but it all came down to the ensuing hours. If the mission failed, they’d be in serious trouble.