Rhea - Prequel
By John Stevenson
Copyright John Stevenson 2013
“Shit…” Rhea snapped in surprise as the piercing wail broke into her deep concentration.
She tried to ignore the urgent warning, reminding herself that it wasn’t as if it was a new noise; in fact it was far too common. ‘They know, they must know?’ she muttered to herself. Why else were the attacks becoming more; becoming almost a constant assault on the facility? Had a spy; an agent warned the Corporation that they… that she had…
The door to the laboratory was flung open by a young security guard. “Professor…” He said urgently. “…The alarm?”
“I know I know.” Rhea almost shouted, immediately regretting her harsh response. “Tolbeck. I know,” she said in a softer tone “But I must finish…”
The man was unmoved. “No professor: you must go to the shelter: immediately.”
She looked at him; he hardly seemed old enough to be out of college, but that was normal these days with all the men in active conflict. “I will… Soon, I promise,” she tried to smile. “The work is vital to the Alliance. I must get the report onto the shuttle to Terran; I must finish... I will come as soon as I can?”
He looked at her unsure of what to do. “Professor this is worth your life?”
“Yes, it is,” she said with a certainty that even surprised her. “It is… You have done your duty, now go,” she brought firmness to her voice. “I promise I will join you in the bunker very soon... you have my word.” She turned away from him and back to the data.
She didn’t notice him leave, but a short time later the siren stopped and in the silence she heard the door open again.
“I know, I know.” she said without looking up “I’m done; I’m coming right now.”
She turned, but it wasn’t Tolbeck. It was Cassana one of her scientific associates: she didn’t like him much. “You?” she said in surprise “What do you want?”
“Shouldn’t you be in the shelter?”
She glanced nervously at the data transfer port: it was still active, and then back at her colleague. “You know this is a restricted area?”
“Of course; I was on my way to the shelter and saw you were still here. I thought there might… be a problem?”
The machine finished downloading and she reached out for the Data-Pac, gripping it tightly. “No there’s no problem…” Rhea said nervously fingering the electronic record of her experiments. “Well it’s time we both left.” She went to stand but slowed as she saw the hand slip inside the overalls and reappear with a disrupter.
“Wha…” Rhea began, before letting her words fade.
Cassana looked at her. “Why do you have to be so conscientious? Why couldn’t you have just gone down to the shelter like everyone else?”
She didn’t know, and if she had she couldn’t speak looking down the nozzle pointing at her
“I was just supposed to come and download the temp file. You weren’t supposed to still be here.”
Still Rhea couldn’t speak.
“It’s too late now. I don’t suppose you would give me the Data-Pac and forget about it us talking like this?”
The silence and Rhea’s expression was answer enough answer.
“Well I never really expected it to be that easy…” Cassana smiled. “You know I wasn’t a hundred percent sure you would actually succeed; well not at first, but the last test changed my mind. You have done it haven’t you?”
Rhea tried to sound convincing, but it was hard talking down the nozzle of a disrupter. “Done what?”
“Oh Rhea, we really haven’t time to play games, but its not a game is it, its what we all want.”
“All… you mean what the Corporation wants?”
“What will end the war: wafer thin armour plate, with the mass of a Draffnaes feather, amazing… it really is.”
“That wasn’t the reason I created it.”
“No? I suspect the faculty thinks that’s exactly why you did.”
“There are a hundred other uses.”
“I’m told thousands, but right here and now there are priorities.”
She looked nervously at the weapon. The basic military training and seminars on reaction under threat seemed woefully inadequate to the real experience. “And your priorities?” she said trying as her lecturer had advised to ‘keep calm, size up the situation, prioritize options’.
“I need to explain?”
Everybody would be in the bunkers; there was a class four weapon between her and the single escape route: options? There was only one… prepare to die. “The Data-Pac is encrypted.”
“Of course it is.”
“Then you think I will tell you the process? “.
“I don’t imagine there is even the faintest possibility, but as I said it is in the temp file.”
“It’s deleted.”
“No it isn’t, I saw you remove the Pac. You haven’t had time to close down and until you do it’s still in the data transfer circuit.”
There was an option, keep talking. “Would I be that stupid to have it written down like a shopping list? I was automatically encrypted before it was placed into the Pac.”
“I doubt that, but even if that’s so the Corporation have counter encryption programs.”
“Brute force wont work.”
“It never does.”
It was her last bluff. “The data is in process form?”
“Then I expect it will have to be reverse engineered.”
“It’s not that easy,” but she knew it could be done.
“I shouldn’t expect it will be, but that’s not my problem. All I have to do is provide a sample of the metal and your data.”
“I assume being as you have gone this far, you already have the sample?”
“You know it’s almost unbelievable that a civilization so primitive could have produced the basis for something so advanced, don’t you think so? “.
Rhea shrugged she wanted to argue, to delay but she didn’t want to say anything that could help. “They probably never imagined a ceramic meld?”
“As I said, a primitive civilization.”
“Maybe not so primitive, they got the probe this far?”
“True and this is all very interesting but in a very short time a Corporation cruiser will be here to destroy the facility, and all your reports “.
“They haven’t been able to yet,” she said defiantly “Our fighters always scare them off?”
“Not this time; the target will be determined to be the mineral processing facility at Coolebaan, the defense will be formed there, only at the last moment one cruiser will break away to deliver a blistering attack right here.”
“The cannon crew will still see it downed.”
“No, I have already deactivated it. When the cruiser arrives it will release a single bunker busting, thermal cruise missile. You’re not the only one developing new lines of research. It’s a weapon the Corporation has devised to carry a cubic klick of Oxygen compressed through a liquid to a solid and then much, much more, until it is smaller than your forearm. A super critical state, a pressure that is right at the edge of instability. In the center is a tiny piece of sulfur. So incredibly simple but the ignition of the sulfur causes instability and the oxygen reverts to its original state. At least it tries to, what happens is that it creates a fireball so intense that it will seek out every corner of this building and incinerate it down to the foundations… including the bunker.”
Rhea felt herself grip the Data-Pac tighter: the only backups were in the bunker.
“There are people there: people you know.”
“It is what is asked of us in war; sacrifice.”
“Martyredom y
es, but we don’t murder.”
“Give me the Data-Pac,” demanded Cassana.
She gripped it tighter. “You will have to take it.”
Her colleague smiled. “Correct me if I’m mistaken but don’t Department of Scientific Development agents do an extensive course in unarmed combat? “.
“How would I know what the D.S.D do?”
“Come on professor, I found out about your ranking in the service a long time ago.”
“I haven’t a clue what you mean,” Rhea lied.
“If you think you can keep me talking until someone comes along it isn’t going to work.”
It was exactly what she was thinking, and she had tried; but no one had come along. Rhea looked at the panic button: touch it and it would close down the terminal and lock Cassana out. Cassana had seen the look and could guess the thought. Suddenly the weapon discharged.
There was no real pain, but in the instant before she slammed back against the desk Rhea felt as if she had been kicked in the stomach. Her mind was afire with terror and disbelief as she stood; leaning back unsteadily, while realization gathered in her mind. It was as much shock as dread that made her look slowly down her body.
From just under her breasts, her white lab coat was torn open and saturated with blood. Instinctively she dropped the Data-Pac and clutched at her abdomen as if it would stop the flow. Instead her fingers delved deep into the cavity that once was packed with intestines. She clutched her hands over the gaping hole in hopelessness as her lifeblood gushed out between her fingers. Rhea looked up in disbelief at her attacker.
She tried to speak but only a trickle of blood came out of her mouth.
There was still no pain but moments later her legs had became too weak to support her, and slowly; as they buckled, she slid down to slump heavily onto her buttocks.
She sat there watching dazed and disoriented as her once trusted colleague put the weapon back in the coat and came over besides her, picking up the Data-Pac.
“Sorry Rhea, It wasn’t supposed to be like this. I was supposed to get the temp file and the missile was going to take care of everything else. Yes I know someone else will be able to work out what you have done, but it will take a long time, and by then the Corporations fleet will all be protected. Tell you what I will do, ill ask that they name the material after you… What do you think of Reheanium… yea that does have a roll off the tongue to it? Immortality in substance, it’s what all we scientists long for isn’t it?”
Rhea sat immobile as a hand reached out and slipped a small button into her breast flap.
“Mnn nice…” Cassana gave a sickening leer, “But I have to go.” The smirk turned to a cruel smile. “Is your scientific mind still functioning? I hope so, it will be a unique experience for you to observe a brand new cruise missile from the point of impact.”
Rhea - Prequel Page 1