“Later,” Cade said. With the goal achieved, his fierce mental control slipped and the need to touch Raina overwhelmed him. He slapped the Director on the shoulder as he strode past the man.
Then Marcus Cade began to run and then sprint toward his wife. Maybe Titus made a motion to the guards. The two holding Raina released her. She ran toward him.
Cade’s heart thudded with desire. She was so gloriously beautiful and moved with such sublime grace. His wife ran to him, her eyes shining and mouth laughing. For years now, he’d yearned for this moment. It was actually happening. That was too wonderful for words. All the obstacles in his way—they met in the corridor. Cade swept Raina off her feet as he hugged her tightly. She felt so good. He held his dear Raina and went round and round, smelling her hair, whispering, “Raina, Raina, Raina, oh Raina, my darling, my love.”
She hugged him back, squeezing as hard as she could. “My darling, my darling,” she whispered, as tears spilled from her eyes.
Cade stopped twirling and gently set her down. The intensity of the moment—he stared into her eyes as if lasers locked them into one unit. He absorbed her presence and knew overwhelming love. It filled him. It surrounded him. He was vaguely aware of his right hand moving, touching her chin and delicately lifting her wondrous lips. Her lips parted and he saw her teeth. She was so gloriously beautiful. With joy filling him, he kissed her, and that almost proved too much. His heart thudded with such tenderness, such contentment and love.
Cade hugged his wife once more. He had done it. He’d returned to her. He had achieved his great goal and reclaimed his love, his wonderful prize, his wife.
Everything was going to be good from now on.
Chapter Seventy
It would have been good to leave right there, going on a second honeymoon. But they were on Old Earth, in Director Titus’s custody. They were in subterranean tunnels, free for the moment on an evil man’s whim. Cade also didn’t care to ditch his only, if highly unreliable, allies: Dr. Halifax and Leona Quillian. They’d thrown in their lot with his, and he wished to honor that.
Thus, with Raina, Halifax and Quillian, Cade and the Director, and ten muscular, hard-eyed guards, took a subway train, traveling to an even higher security area.
Cade and Raina wore black uniforms and kept their guns in open holsters. The two sat together, whispering.
“It’s really been a thousand years?” Raina asked again.
Cade nodded. He’d learned that she’d only been awake several hours. It would appear Titus had revived her because of him. Cade had also learned that seventeen stasis units torn from the old sleeper ship were in deep storage down below. Three other Ultras were on different missions, controlled by cyborg brain-chips, working under Group Six case officers. The Director had grudgingly given Cade their names and assignments. The Director had also agreed that each would go under the knife, the chips removed, once they returned to Earth.
“In doing this, I’m showing you my good faith,” Titus had said.
Halifax had whispered to Cade that there must be problems with the three. Otherwise, the Director wouldn’t have said anything about them.
In Cade’s estimation, that seemed like an astute observation. That was even more reason to gather his fellow soldiers so there would be more of them to deal with instead of just Raina and him.
Cade now squeezed Raina’s hand and stared into her eyes. “I can hardly believe this is happening.”
Raina smiled. She was even more gorgeous when she smiled. “This is so strange to me. I’m…I’m having troubling accepting I’m a thousand years from where we started. How did it happen?”
“I don’t know,” Cade said. “The important thing is that it did. We can figure out how later.” He took one of her hands, holding it, stroking it and then looking into her eyes. “Maybe we’re supposed to be in this era. Maybe our real purpose is to help humanity finally defeat the cyborgs.”
Raina nodded. “You always seek a purpose, don’t you, Marcus?”
He smiled. “Finding you has consumed me for years.”
She gripped his hands. “I keep wondering why the rest of the Ultras didn’t survive the War. I mean Ultras as a group. What happened that all Ultras died off after the War?”
“That’s a good question.” Cade glanced at Titus sitting down the main aisle with his guards. Now, probably wasn’t the time to broach it with the Director. Had regular humans turned on the Ultras? Was that all ancient history? Given time, Cade planned to find out.
The subway cars halted and they filed out. They went through high-security checkpoints, the Director’s nod always enough to let them pass without formal searches.
Finally, in the company of a chief technician, they reached a dim chamber with a low thrumming sound and many machines. Technicians wearing masks moved among huge stasis cells torn many years ago from the lost sleeper ship.
Cade wanted to ask how the Director—or whomever—had chosen to awaken him several years ago. Why had Jack Brune been first? Cade sighed inwardly. That was another subject to save for later. He wanted the seventeen awake now, awake, armed and united about what they should do.
The ten security guards appeared more nervous than before. That made Cade nervous in turn. Was this a trap, a trick? But if that was true, why arm Raina and him? Why would the Director stay in their company if the guards planned treachery?
According to the chief technician, the other techs were beginning the revival process.
Noting the nervous guards, Cade rested his right hand on his holstered weapon. He whispered to Raina, telling her to watch the guards as well.
Small Dr. Halifax sidled up to him. “Do you expect treachery at this juncture?”
“Don’t you?” Cade asked softly.
“Normally, on general principle, yes,” Halifax said. “Not so much with the Director in our midst. Obviously, you’d shoot him first if things go south. I’ve been wondering about something else, though, the reason I’m talking to you.”
“Oh.”
“Once the techs finish awakening the others, will you be the highest-ranked Ultra?”
Cade stared at Halifax. “I don’t know. I hadn’t thought of that.”
“If you’re not the highest ranked, will you all have to obey the one who is?”
Cade considered that, and then considered longer. In theory, Halifax was right. But there were other considerations. The main being—“The Ultra Dominion no longer exists,” Cade said. “That means ranks, as such, don’t hold the old authority.”
“Not in principle, no,” Halifax said. “But you Ultras boarded the sleeper ship to go on vacation. You and they went under as part of the old system. You’ve had years to adjust to the change. It will take them time to adjust to this new era. To them, the old ways will seem relevant. That means the highest-ranked might try to claim your authority.”
Cade shrugged. “There’s nothing I can do about that.”
“That’s a strange attitude for you to hold,” Halifax said. “Start preparing for the possibility—have a contingency plan. Look, Cade, you have the Director on the ropes. He’s feeling unbalanced by what has happened. Smashing those brain chips was a master move. Reviving the rest of your buds is good thinking on your part. You need numbers. Then you need to get the hell off Earth.”
“You’re still afraid of the Director,” Cade asked.
“Hell, yes, I’m afraid,” Halifax whispered. “And you’d better watch out for Quillian, too. I’m thinking she needs to do something huge to get back into the good graces of the Director.”
“What about you? Can’t you do something huge to get on his good side?”
“Maybe,” Halifax said. “But the Director never really trusted me. I was a hired gun. He always expected me to do suspicious things. Thus, I can’t worm my way into his good graces to the same extent as Quillian.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“There’s something else,” Halifax said. “Since I’ve been you with
you for years, I know how Ultras think. I would make a good liaison officer between you and the Director.”
Cade wondered if that was true. He did realize that since Halifax was trying to worm his way into a new job, he likely wouldn’t try any double-crosses—unless that was what Halifax wanted him to think. Did the doctor ask this in order to put him off his guard? Cade sighed. He would watch Halifax. Then, he began to think about ranks, about one-thousand-year-old thinking and the others being here in this new era, thrown into it like a sleeping man tossed into the middle of a cold lake. How would they respond to all this?
Each of the big units began to unlatch as mist hissed from them. The Ultras were about to wake up.
“Sir,” Cade said to Titus. “Could I have a moment alone with them?”
Titus eyed him. “You mean have us leave before they fully awaken?”
“Yes.”
“What difference does having us here or not make?” Titus asked.
The ten guards grew even tenser than before.
“The soldiers are going to be disoriented for a time,” Cade said. “They might take it ill seeing armed…regulars watching them. They might take them as threats.” He glanced at the guards before regarding Titus again. “I can help them adjust faster if we’re alone, and I…ah, don’t want any accidents or problems. The others might strike out in anger at your guards. That could cause bad blood between us, which is something we should strive to avoid.”
Titus nodded thoughtfully, glanced shrewdly at Halifax and then beckoned his guards. After a few words, they filed out the door.
Several minutes later, seeing that everything was going smoothly, Cade shooed out the techs and chief as well. He let Quillian stay, however.
Once the last tech closed the chamber door, Cade went to Quillian. “Show me the camera eyes, the ones watching us.”
Quillian studied Cade as she pinched her lower lip. Finally, she shook her head and started for the door. Clearly, she was going to join the Director.
“I’d stop her if I were you,” Halifax said.
Cade didn’t. Free will, he was going to give Quillian free will because that was what he wanted for himself and the others.
“Point out the camera eyes to me, Doctor.”
Halifax began studying the ceiling and walls and start pointing them out to Cade. The soldier drew his gun and shot each camera lens one after another. He waited for someone to rush into the chamber and reprimand him. No one did.
“Was that wise?” Halifax asked.
Cade indicated the door. It stayed closed. So he nodded. Yes, it had been wise.
Just in case, Raina watched the door, her drawn gun trained on it.
Soon, Cade and Halifax helped each newly awakened Ultra sit up in his unit. The men moved sluggishly and painfully. They were sleepy-eyed and seemed dimwitted. After a thousand years of sleep, more actually, that made perfect sense.
“Is this why the Director put us in the liquid-filled cylinder units, to help us thaw out?” Cade asked.
“I have no idea,” Halifax said.
Fifteen more minutes passed, and the first Ultra to have awakened climbed out of his unit and stood, looking around until he stared at Cade.
“Soldier?” asked Cade.
“I don’t feel well,” the big muscular Ultra said. “But that’s not the point. I’m not on the sleeper ship. Why not?”
“Wait a few more minutes,” Cade said. “Then I’ll tell all of you everything.”
Chapter Seventy-One
The seventeen awakened Ultras stood at attention in a semi-circle around Cade. Raina stood to the side, watching the door, her gun ready. Halifax sat on an emptied stasis unit, staying out of the way.
The Centurion-Grade Ultras were all like Cade: big, muscular and despite their state, moved with graceful economy of motion. They wore shorts and nothing more.
“I’m Force Leader Marcus Cade of First Force, Second Command, Battle Unit One-Seventy-Five. Most of you already know me, but I’m going to make this plain, as you gentlemen are in for a huge and unsettling surprise. Firstly, I’ve been awake for several years already.”
There was a stir among the Ultras. A few frowned. That must have seemed all wrong to them. Finally, they all stared at Cade again, waiting for it.
“In the beginning, I worked for Old Earth Intelligence.” Cade paused. “This is going to sound strange. So please bear with me until you’ve heard it all.”
Several of them nodded.
Cade cleared his throat. “I worked for Old Earth Intelligence, doing so under duress. Then, I left their service and worked on my own to get back here to you. I was on the same sleeper ship as the rest of you.” Cade took a deep breath, finding this harder than he’d expected. “Gentlemen, we are not at the vacation world. We never made it there. In fact, we are no longer in the same era…”
The seventeen soldiers of Battle Unit 175 listened as Cade told them what had happened to the sleeper ship, how it had made an incredible journey across time. The War was long over, the cyborgs had lost, but so had much of humanity. He told them how he’d awakened after going through brain surgery and receiving a cyborg obedience chip. He’d awakened on Helos in the Rigel System as Jack Brune.
The seventeen stirred once again, with anger and revulsion in their eyes. Like Cade, they obviously hated the obedience chips. Like Cade, they were good soldiers and knew when it was time to listen and absorb information. Cade went on to explain the new state of affairs, about the Concord, about the radiated surface of the Earth and many other matters including Avalon IV. He told them how he’d defeated and destroyed an ancient Web-Mind. He told them more, and they listened, learning that the Old Federation, Ultra Dominion and cyborgs were all gone…except for one resurgent Web-Mind out there somewhere. He told them about Therduim III, the lurker and how he’d worked with Chief Arbiter Dragonfeld of the Patrol. Finally, he asked if any of them out-ranked him.
It turned out that none did. Cade knew a sense of relief. That could have been a problem.
“Soldiers, I’ve made a bargain with Director Titus of Group Six of Earth.” Cade told them what Titus had planned to do with them, and how he’d won their freedom by offering to help Old Earth find and defeat the last hidden cyborgs, but only as free men. He added how he’d stomped the obedience chips in his possession, smashing them.
The others nodded grim-faced. One gave him a thumb’s-up sign of approval.
Cade stopped talking, letting everything he’d said so far sink in. “I have no authority over you,” he said a minute later. “The Old Federation is gone, and so is its military. You are all free agents in this new era. I think we would do better sticking together, but that’s just my belief. What do you men think?”
A big blond-haired soldier turned to the others. “Do any of you remember Oghul III, that damned swamp world with the red rot?”
Most of them nodded.
“Cade was going to go back for his missing man. Force Leader Gersen stopped him. If I were going to take anyone’s advice in this new era, I’d want it to be Cade. If we’re no longer under High Command’s authority, I guess that makes us mercenaries. Didn’t mercenaries or free-company men vote as to who would lead them?”
There was a murmur of assent.
“I think it’s too early to vote for that,” Cade said. “You men just woke up. You need time to adjust and gain your bearings.”
“Respectfully, sir,” the blond-haired soldier said, “but that’s wrong. We’re Centurion-Grade Ultras. We decide on the spot. You saved us from cyborg obedience chips, from becoming zombies. Who knows if any of us would have succeeded as you did? You cared about us, your fellow men, your brothers-in-arms. You’ve always cared about your men. What’s more, you’re a Game winner. I see your wife over there, a Valkyrie of the highest caliber. I vote for Marcus Cade. He’s the best of us, and the most honorable of us. I trust his judgment.”
Several others murmured their agreement.
“I still sugg
est we wait to decide on who should lead us,” Cade said.
“No,” a different Ultra said. “I’m with Force Leader Den. You’re the best choice. You’ve already worked on our behalf. And I want to smash the cyborgs for good. It was why we fought in the first place.”
“Yes,” said several.
“Listen—” Cade said.
“Who votes for Cade?” Den shouted.
Seventeen hands went up.
“You’re the leader,” Den told Cade. “What do we do next, sir?”
Cade thought about that. Seventeen Ultras had chosen him to lead. Three others were out there. That made twenty-one super soldiers altogether in an era that had none. He nodded. “I accept your vote. I’ll gladly lead you to the best of my honor and ability. I suggest we—”
“Sir,” Den said. “I apologize for interrupting. But you’re the leader. We’ve chosen you. Make your decisions and we’ll obey. What I’m saying is that you don’t have to suggest a thing.”
Cade stood a little taller. He’d forgotten what it was like to be in the company of elite fellow soldiers. It was good to be among them.
I’m home, Cade realized. These brothers-in-arms are my family. Raina is with me. A surge of warmth and pride filled him. He’d fought alone for so long, it was hard to believe he was among his fellow soldiers again. There weren’t very many of them, but maybe there were enough. In that moment, Cade dedicated himself to wiping out the last cyborgs. He would love his wife with all his heart, and he would attempt to give her many sons and daughters. And he would lead these men to glory, he hoped.
Maybe twenty-one of them were enough to help humanity rid the universe of the cyborgs. It was time to finalize the deal with Director Titus and start on the new road.
“Very well, soldiers,” Cade said. “Here’s what we are going to do next…”
Epilog
Director Titus kept his bargain. At that point, it was in his and Earth’s interest to do so. Marcus Cade also kept his word—there’d been no question about that, as long as Titus lived up to his word. The three Ultras already out there survived their enslaved service and came home. They had the chips removed.
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