“Not likely. Our technology has proven to be far superior to yours.” The man then turned to Jane. “We will begin with this group and then bring in the population of the other vessel and the nearby city. My ship can hold over a thousand—”
Steele lunged forward. “Not my ship! I’ll kill you before...” Her voice trailed off as she suddenly fell to the floor. She lay there motionless with her eyes wide open.
The man went back to making plans with Jane, as Jake backed up to stand between AJ and Raines. “They have something in here that can control us,” AJ whispered. “Like with you, back on the bridge.”
“Agreed,” Jake whispered back. “That’s going to make it tough to stop them.”
“Then we’ll die trying,” she said. “I’d rather blow up our ship than leave with them.”
“You have a plan for that? Like maybe you had Norman install a secret self-destruct button on the Wave?”
“Please,” Raines said, “Our ship runs on electricity. I couldn’t blow it up even if I wanted to.”
Jake nodded. “Then it’s time to play poker.” When they both looked at him, he added, “We need a bluff. Something big, but not so unbelievable that they call us out on it.”
“Great idea,” AJ said, “What do you have in mind?”
He shook his head. “I’ll tell you when I figure something out.”
“I’m getting really tired of you saying that,” she whispered.
Something beeped on the pad that the man carried and he looked at it. “We have visitors,” he said to Jane. “Fifteen large objects are approaching from the West. Inexplicably, our damper fields are having no effect on them. What are they?”
Jake saw a look on Jane’s face that told him that she knew what was coming. Then she looked straight at him and said, “Ask Jake Stone. It’s his army.”
For a split second, he had no idea what she was talking about, but then he guessed. The timing was right, in fact, it couldn’t be better. “What you’re seeing is the first Wave of our Novum-class warships,” he said, inventing the story in his head as he spoke. “They are heavily armed and nothing you can do will stop them. I suggest you leave now.”
“This isn’t possible,” the man said, a hint of frustration showing on his face for the first time since they met. “We created you. You are inferior to us in every way.”
Jake replied, “We are also builders; you said so yourself. We’ve had a long time to prepare for your return.”
The man looked at his pad, then back to Jake. “I was going to do this peacefully. When I return, I assure you that it will be a different situation.” The man turned to leave and Jake closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. “Do you actually believe that you have won?” the man said, suddenly right next to his face.
“No,” Jake said, stumbling backward, shocked by the man’s sudden anger.
He then walked over, grabbed Vee by her arm, and pressed the pad in his hand against her forehead. “I am now going to kill this one, just so that you understand how disappointed I am.”
“No,” Raines yelled as he grabbed for the device. The man touched Raines with the pad, sending him flipping backward as if he was made of paper. He landed in a pile, blood pouring from his cheek.
“Don’t hurt her,” Jake pleaded. “She had nothing to do with this.”
The man looked at Jake. “Then call off your army. If you don’t, then I’m going to kill your people one at a time until they stop.”
Jake realized it was time to raise the bet, and push his bluff to the absolute limit. Remembering what AJ said about preferring to blow herself up rather than leave with them, he yelled, “Incoming Novum fleet: This is Jake Stone. Unless you hear from me in the next thirty seconds, you are hereby authorized to destroy the intruder’s sphere.”
The man looked at Jake as if to size him up. “If they destroy my ship with you inside, you’ll die with me.”
“You have twenty-five seconds.”
“You’re bluffing,” he said. “No one would give up their lives so easily.”
Jake looked at him with every ounce of confidence he could muster. “We’re not immortal, remember? We’re born knowing our life is short. To us, it’s only important how we live and how we die. Believe me, this will be a good death.” He let that sink before he added, “You now have twenty seconds to decide if you want to die with us.”
“The next time we meet,” he said as he let go of Vee and headed for the door, “I will remember your name, Jake Stone,” He looked at Jane as he passed her and said, “We are returning home to consider our options. Prepare to leave.”
Jane replied, “I won’t be coming back here again, so I’m going to gather my belongings. I’ll join you shortly, Brother.” The man nodded and disappeared through the back door.
Apocalypse 10
“Are you okay?” Vee asks as she and AJ pulled Raines from the floor. The cut on his cheek wasn’t as bad as it looked, but a large bruise was already forming.
“That little device packed more punch than I imagined,” Raines said as he winced from the effort to stand.
Steele crawled back to her feet to join them as they walked back inside the Rogue Wave’s cargo bay. “Whatever you just did, Captain,” she said, “I owe you an apology; if not for me, then for my crew.”
Jake pressed the button to close the loading door. “Don’t thank me yet, Captain Steele. We’re still not out of danger.”
“If we let them leave, they will just come back with more ships,” AJ said. “You won’t be able to bluff them next time, and we are powerless to fight them.”
Steele grabbed Jake’s shoulder. “Wait, you were bluffing?” Jake nodded, and she cracked a smile. “Remind me never to play poker with you.”
Jane walked up to Jake and touched his face, “I wish I had the power to change the past. I would make it so that you never found my sphere. Then none of this would be happening.”
“It’s not your fault,” he replied. “Can’t you just tell them you want to stay here?”
She looked at the faces surrounding her. “I’ve put you all in danger, but if I go with them, there is a chance I can find a way to stop them from returning. I have to try to repay you for all that you’ve done for me.”
She then began circling the group, hugging each person and saying goodbye. When she reached Raines, he said, “What’s done is done, my dear. As a student of history, I can assure you that, while you can’t change the past, you can learn to adapt to it.”
Jake suddenly slapped Raines on the back. “We can’t change the past, but maybe we can erase it.” He then grabbed Jane by the hand and said to Ash, “Come with me. The rest of you stay here. We’ll be right back.”
“Captain,” AJ protested, but he was already through the side hatch and running down the corridor to the aft deck with Jane and Ash close behind. He didn’t stop until they reached the rear crew quarters hallway, just outside the recreation room.
“I don’t think hiding back here is going to help us, Captain,” Ash said.
Jake ignored him as he opened the door to one of the unused crew quarters. “I thought this was where he hid it,” he said and he stepped out with a backpack.
“What are you doing, Jake?” Jane said. “I need to leave. They’re going to get suspicious if I’m in here too long.”
“You don’t have to leave with them,” he said.
“Yes, I do, Jake.”
“No, you don’t. You can send one of your assistants in place of you. They are perfect copies; you told me so yourself. You couldn’t tell them from the real thing, so I’m guessing they won’t be able to either.”
“How would that help us?” Ash asked.
He looked at his helmsman. “For one, Jane would be here safe with us. But also, an assistant could bring this with them,” he said as he pulled a cylinder out of the backpack.
“So, what did you have in mind?” Ash asked.
Jake told them his spur-of-the-moment idea but tried
to make it sound like it was well thought out.
“I’ll admit that it’s a really good plan,” Ash said, “even brilliant. There’s just one small detail you’ve overlooked.”
“What?”
“We can’t make assistants on the Wave,” Ash said. “That capability just wasn’t added when it was built.” He looked at Jake. “I hope you have another plan.”
Jake looked at Ash. “Actually, I do. You have a power supply inside of you, correct? You showed us how you can open and close your abdomen to access it.”
Ash nodded. “The power supply lasts about six months so it has to be replaced from time to time.”
“You can also modify your own skin. You changed your face to get rid of those scars.” Ash nodded.
“No,” Jane said.
Ash looked at her. “What?”
She looked at him. “Jake wants you to alter your appearance so that you look like me.”
Ash nodded. “Yes, I guess I could make myself look like Jane. Not in as much detail as an assistant, but I think I could at least—”
“No,” Jane repeated.
“I could also smuggle your device on board,” Ash continued. “I could put it inside me next to my power supply.”
“No,” Jane repeated.
“They haven’t seen her before today,” Jake said to Ash, ignoring Jane. “They don’t know her personality at all, so you should be able to—”
“No!” Jane yelled. “I won’t let him do that.”
“I would do it,” Jake said. “Without any hesitation, if I had the ability.”
“I can’t ask him to risk his life for me,” Jane pleaded.
Ash took the module from Jake. “You’re not asking me anything, Jane. I’m volunteering for this. I just need your help to make it work.”
Jane shook her head, and then looked at Ash. “I wish I could figure out another way, but there isn’t time.” She then turned to Jake. “Very well. Leave us right now. Try to stall them if you need to.”
A bit shaken by the realization that he was sending Ash on a one-way trip, he shook his navigator’s hand and then headed back to the cargo bay without saying another word.
He didn’t tell the others what he had done, but instead, opened the loading door, and just stood there, silently, watching it drop. Just as it locked open, Ash, looking just like Jane, came through the hatch and headed straight out the door without saying a word to anyone. He wasn’t copying her mannerism, or even her walk very well, but it fooled the crew, who called after her to come back.
“You can’t just let her leave,” Jessie nearly cried. “She’s my best friend.”
“Mine too,” Vee said, reaching out to hold Jessie for comfort.
“Is that my backpack she’s carrying?” Raines asked. Jake hadn’t noticed it, but then remembered that Jane had told them she was returning to get her belongings. Smart, he thought.
“Time to go,” AJ said as she pointed to the area outside the door that was already filling with water. Jake slammed his hand down on the door button and the loading ramp began to rise back up to seal the opening.
“I guess they are really letting us leave,” Vee said.
“Everyone to the bridge,” AJ ordered.
By the time they reached the top of the stairs, the water was already coving all viewports.
“Rear door is opening,” Vee said from her console. She looked at the empty seat to her left and added, “Where’s Ash? I need him on navigation.”
“I’ve got it,” AJ said as she slid into the seat. “Plotting a course out of here.”
“Got it,” Vee acknowledged. “Backing us out.”
As soon as they cleared the sphere, Jake had Vee kill the thrusters. “I don’t understand,” she said. “Why aren’t we racing away from here as fast as possible?”
“Because we’re still playing the bluff,” AJ said. “Right, Captain?”
“That’s the idea,” he said. “We need to look confident that the isopods are coming here to help us.”
“Isopods?” Steele asked.
“Long story,” he said. “I’ll tell you later--assuming we survive the next five minutes, that is.”
The sphere rose up off the seafloor and accelerated upwards. They watched it until it faded into the darkness above them.
“Are they gone,” Jake asked Jessie.
She nodded. “They went right up through a huge hole in the surface ice,” she said. “I guess that means their story wasn’t a lie. We really are living under a frozen ocean on old Earth.”
“I would hold off believing that story in its entirety,” Raines said. “However, it does provide a number of new research opportunities for me in the months ahead.”
“I would also hold off celebrating,” AJ said. “They will be back, and I don’t see Jake’s bluff working a second time.”
“They also have Jane with them,” Raines added. “As much as we cared for her, I imagine they will find a way to make her talk. She knows a lot about us, both our strengths and our weaknesses.”
“The Ascendants won’t be back anytime soon,” Jake said, “and Jane won’t tell them a thing.”
“How can you possibly know that,” Steele asked.
“Because Jane didn’t go with them.”
“What?” nearly everyone said in unison.
He looked at Jessie. “That was actually your brother. He volunteered to make himself look like Jane so that he could sneak on board.”
“Why?” she asked. “Why would he do that?”
Jake looked at Raines. “Remember that Mind Ship transmitter you found in the storage room?”
Raines nodded. “So that’s why she, I mean he, was carrying my backpack?” Jake nodded.
“That device only implants suggestions in people’s minds," AJ said. “You can’t reprogram an entire race to change their ways, so how does that help us.”
“Because I had Ash program two simple words into it.”
“What two words?”
“Forget us.”
“That was clever, Captain,” Raines said. “We don’t have to make them change who they are, we just have to make them forget they ever found us.”
“Exactly,” Jake said.
As everyone congratulated Jake on his plan, including Captain Steele, Jane finally emerged from hiding. Jake noticed her standing at the top of the stairs. “Come on in, Jane.”
She stood there motionless. Then she looked at Jessie and said, “Let me start by telling you how sorry I am.”
“Please don’t be sorry,” Jessie said. “Jake told me that my brother volunteered. I’m actually happy for him. I always thought of Ash as a hero waiting for a chance to prove it. Now he has that chance.”
Jane looked at everyone in the room and repeated, “I’m sorry, everyone.”
“No need to be sorry,” AJ said.
“You don’t understand,” she said, then looked at Jake. “Your plan was a good one, but it would never have worked. The Ascendants would have known that I wasn’t one of them.”
“What do you mean?” Jake asked.
Jane suddenly changed into Ash. “It was her idea,” he said. “She insisted that going herself was the only way to save the colony.” He looked back at Jessie. “I’m sorry that I’m not the hero you thought I was, Sis.”
Jake looked out of the window at the darkness above him. “Jane!” he whispered.
Raines walked up and patted him on the shoulder. “She’s back with her people now,” he said. “I guess you could say that she’s back where she belongs.”
“She belongs here,” Jake said.
“She’s a hero,” Ash said. “She will do what I couldn’t do. Protect all of you.”
In the silence that followed his words, Ash walked forward and sat down at his helm control. “Ship’s power seems fully restored, but I suggest a full system’s check.”
AJ rested her hand on his shoulder. “Agreed.”
As everyone sat down to go through their che
ck lists, Jessie called out, “You all might want to look out of the viewports. Jake’s Novum army just arrived.”
They watched in awe as fifteen huge isopods materialized out of the darkness, coming to rest in a circle around them. “They’re not attacking,” Raines said. “How did you know they would help us?”
“They’re actually not here to help us,” Jake admitted. “I made all of that up.”
“So, you really were bluffing?” AJ asked.
Jake nodded, but then clarified. “I guess you could call it a calculated bluff. I knew the isopods were sent here without the ability to receive signals of any kind. I originally thought it was so that we wouldn’t be able to stop them. In the end, I realized that it was so that the Ascendants couldn’t stop them either.”
“So, why are they really here?” AJ asked. “What’s the rest of the deal you made with them?”
All eyes turned towards him. “I think you’ll all want to sit down for this.”
He wasn’t sure how Steele or his crew would take the news. He didn’t even know how to start. Good news: the entire colony gets to move into a huge, garden-like torus. Bad news: We have to give the isopods all of the structure in our colony so that they can destroy them and use the raw material. Oh, and more bad news: the deal has already been made, so nobody can decline. More bad news: breaking his agreement would turn the isopods into our enemy, and a second enemy, especially one more powerful than the first, wasn’t what the colony needed.
His crew actually took the news quite well. That wasn’t a surprise since they had actually lived in the torus and therefore knew it would be a better life for everyone. AJ just nodded, but he knew she would have words with him later in private. He should have told her before the others, she would say. He would remind her of the situation they had just lived through, and that he simply hadn’t had the time. She would counter that he should have made the time, especially for his first mate. And he would finally tell her that she was correct, mainly because she always was.
Steele lived up to both her name and reputation. When he finished explaining his deal, and the reasons why it was not only a good deal but a great one for the colony, her face was as soft and readable as deck plating.
Novum Chronicles: A Dystopian Undersea Saga Page 45