by M. R. Forbes
“Give an old woman her fantasies, will you, Doc?” Faith replied, laughing.
“Will he be able to help repurpose your amplifiers to use quantum frequencies?” Tsi asked.
Jackson looked back at her over his shoulder. “I don’t know what that means.”
“I think between the two of us, we can get it done,” Faith said. “I haven’t had a lot of experience with quantum theory. We humans were just getting deeper into the quantum realm when the trife showed up and ruined the party. And the planet. I’ve read a few articles on the latest breakthroughs from the Engineering datastore. It’s probably ancient history for you though.”
“It might be,” Tsi replied. “But we had the aid of the Axon to push our technology forward. History tells us the main Inahri homeworlds aren’t nearly as advanced.”
“Homeworlds?” Jackson said. “As in, more than one?”
“According to our histories,” Tsi said. “I’ve never seen any of them, and who knows what’s happened since the Axon brought us here. Maybe we haven’t advanced at all.”
“You would think your kind would be more interested in bringing the Axon tech back to your other worlds than using it to go after the Axon,” Jackson said. “Violence only begets more violence.”
“I agree,” Tsi said. “That was one of the reasons I fought my way free of the Relyeh. They know the Axon will not be as easy to defeat as the other races they’ve conquered. They want the Inahri to soften them up, so to speak. A tactically sound plan from Arluthu’s perspective. Insanity from mine.”
“And mine,” Jackson said.
He was starting to like the Inahri woman. In the short time they had spent together, she had proven herself a total opposite from Sergeant Harai. Where the sergeant wanted to rage against the universe, Tsi wanted to negotiate peace—even if that meant fighting a war to get it.
It was true he had run Metro with a tight grip. It was true he had used threats and force to keep the population in line. It was true he had made a lot of decisions to better his advantage, rather than how it would best serve the community. But after what had happened to Orla and Beth, peace was all he wanted for himself and the colony.
They made their way from the seal to the lift and from the lift to the bridge. There were DDF soldiers stationed outside, having returned to the area when the decision was made to bring Tsi up. Jackson was surprised by how eager they were to return to their duties despite the number of casualties they had taken during the Relyeh attack. They had quickly volunteered to head out into the ship and ensure the path to the bridge was clear.
“Governor Stone,” the one on the left said. They both took a knee as he approached, responding with the standard show of respect.
Jackson motioned for them to stand and then offered them a salute. “Thank you for standing up for Metro,” he said.
The soldiers were wearing Space Force Marine Advanced Tactical Combat Armor, their faces hard to see through their helmets. Even so, Jackson could make out the shift in their cheeks as they smiled and saluted back.
“Yes, sir,” they both replied.
Jackson rolled to the security access panel beside the closed hatch leading onto the bridge. He tapped his wrist against it, the panel accepting his identification. The door slid open, and Jackson led his small party inside.
A chill ran through him as he did. Engineering and maintenance workers had helped clean up the most visible remaining damage, replacing bent and broken ventilation covers, removing the destroyed holotable, covering cracked displays, and fixing the large primary display at the front of the room. Even so, the history of the battles that had taken place on the bridge was written in the scent of ancient blood, made even worse by the humid outside air that had seeped through the ship’s seals to permeate the bridge. Jackson did his best to ignore it as he circled the back of the central command station.
Deputy Klahanie was sitting in the chair on the slightly raised pedestal, tapping at the control surface of the smaller terminal embedded in the front of the station. A single crack split the terminal in half, but it didn’t seem to have affected any of the operations.
“Deputy Klahanie,” Jackson said, getting the man’s attention. Klahanie was obsessed with the ship, and with the systems that ran it. He had spent more hours on the bridge in the last week than anyone probably had during the entire trip from Earth, planting himself in the padded command seat and working tirelessly to get access to every subnetwork and datastore. One of Riley’s scientists, Harry, had hacked layers of security into the source code, ostensibly to prevent the alien intelligence, the Intellect as Tsi had named it, from seizing control of the ship.
Not that it had changed the outcome. The Intellect wanted to come to this world. To Essex, or Titang, or Arluthu’s World, or whatever the hell it should be called. So had Riley. They had both gotten what they wanted, and all of Harry’s work had been for nothing. In fact, at this point it only served to slow the colony’s ability to control the starship.
“Oh. Uh. Governor Stone.” Klahanie shuddered, taken by surprise. The move caused him to knock over a bottle of water, which hit the side of the station with enough force to pop the cap off and cause it to spill across the floor. “Oh. Shit. Damn it.” He glanced at Jackson, face flushing. “I’m sorry, sir.”
The whole station was a mess of food wrappers and empty water bottles. Jackson leaned sideways as best he could to pluck one from the station. “I don’t recognize this as part of Metro’s stores.”
Klahanie smiled sheepishly. “MREs from the mess a couple of decks down. Thanksgiving Dinner. So good.” He seemed to realize he was still being a bit informal. He stood up, preparing to fall to his knee.
“We’re saluting now, Deputy,” Jackson said, offering him one. “Things have changed.”
“You can say that again,” Klahanie replied. “What happened to your legs?”
“I was shot by the attackers. Part of my spine is a mess. I’m getting used to it. I think. It doesn’t matter right now. You got my message?”
“Yes, Governor. I wasn’t expecting you up here so quickly.” He stepped down from the station.
Klahanie was one of Sheriff Dante’s most loyal officers, and despite Klahanie’s bumbling nature, Jackson could sense an undercurrent of distrust and dislike in the man’s voice and posture. A lot of Law was loyal to Dante and hadn’t agreed with what he had done to her. In hindsight, he didn’t agree with it either. It had been a mistake to send Sam after Card. Another example of his pride getting the best of him. Pride that had cost his wife her sanity, and could still wind up costing all of them a lot more.
“I know you don’t trust me, Deputy,” he said. “I shouldn’t have done what I did to Sam, or to any of the people I sent out there. I want to make things right.”
“Yes, Governor,” Klahanie replied. “As long as that’s true, I’ll work my ass off for you, sir. I’m holding onto the hope that Sam’s still alive out there, with Sergeant Card.”
“Me too, Deputy,” Jackson said. He motioned to his left where the rest of the group was standing. “I want you to meet Sergeant Tsi of the Free Inahri.”
Klahanie glanced to the side, freezing when he saw the black-suited figure standing between Faith and Doctor Rathbone. Jackson didn’t blame the deputy. The mantle made Tsi’s face appear blank, while the tight fit of the Intellect Skin didn’t leave much to the imagination. It was an out of place contradiction that still made him uncomfortable when he looked at her. He had solved the problem by staying in front of her and keeping his gaze somewhere else whenever he could.
“Uh,” Klahanie stammered, holding out his hand. “It’s, uh. A pleasure to meet you.”
Tsi reached up, removing the mantle from her head so Klahanie could get a look at her face. He seemed almost equally taken aback by the real flesh and bone, though he reacted more positively.
“Wow,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Hello,” Tsi said, using the only English
word she knew. She took Klahanie’s offered hand, shaking it lightly.
“Hi,” Klahanie replied, smiling. His face was beet red.
“Oh come on, deputy,” Faith said. “Aren’t I prettier than she is?”
Klahanie glanced at Faith, his face finding a deeper shade. “I didn’t say. Uh. Nevermind. How can I help?”
Chapter 8
It took two hours for Klahanie, Faith, and Tsi to modify the ship’s communications systems in a manner that Tsi believed would allow them to transmit something to the Free Inahri compound, which she claimed was approximately five hundred kilometers away. It included enough alterations to the circuit boards and wiring of at least part of the comms that Faith had to go back to Engineering to get two additional engineers, along with complete toolsets and an entire tray of potential parts to complete the procedure.
By the time they were finished, the comms station was in pieces, the boards and wires still connected to the mainframe and the main power supply, but spread across the floor as their connections demanded. Various colored LEDs freshly soldered to the boards helped provide status, while alterations Klahanie made to the software allowed them to hopefully send and receive.
“Just speak normally,” Klahanie said to Tsi. “The microphones will pick it up, and the system should convert automatically as long as we did everything right.”
“I did it,” Faith said. “Of course it’s right.”
Having put her mantle back up so she could communicate with the engineers, Tsi lowered it again. She smiled at the deputy before spitting out a few sentences in her language. They all waited eagerly for a response, all eyes on the LEDs.
“Which one means the message was picked up?” Jackson asked.
He had stayed out of the proceedings, taking the free time to pull Doctor Rathbone aside to discuss his paralysis and the complications that would inevitably stem from it, as well as the timing of the procedures that could hopefully restore his legs. She had gone through a lot of potential scenarios and provided a lot of information. The worst part seemed to be that the damage had robbed him of the ability to feel the need to void, meaning he would have to force himself to do it or wind up toxic. It threatened to leave him feeling sorry for himself, but he resolved to stay focused on helping the colony.
“That one will blink,” Klahanie said, pointing to one of the boards. “If we detect the transmit has been calculated.”
“It’s not quantum mechanics as humans understand it,” Faith said. “There are some similarities, but this is way, way more advanced stuff. It’s simple and elegant in ways I don’t think I ever would have conceptualized. The crazy thing is that we can duplicate it with our existing hardware. We just needed to have the right math.”
“Meaning what?” Jackson asked.
“You know Einstein’s theory of relativity?”
“I know the basics.”
“Take that and circumvent it by bending the rules instead of breaking them.”
“I don’t follow.”
“These guys have total mastery over the entire concept of spacetime. Einstein always theorized wormholes. Einstein-Rosen bridges. The Axon have the tech to both create and destroy them at will like they’re nothing. It takes a buttload of energy, but the energy units allow them to do it as easily as you and I would snap our fingers.”
“If that’s true, why do they need starships?” Rathbone asked.
“They still need a focus point,” Faith said. “So they can take a shortcut from the source to a destination, but to make it exact they need to plant a flag, so to speak. Anyway, when you think about all of these little folds in space and the Axon using them to jump from one part of the universe to another…it’s just...” She put her hands on her head and spread them wide. “Boom. Mind blown.”
Tsi activated the comms and spoke into it again, still trying to raise a response.
Jackson was the first to notice the LED begin flashing.
“Look!” he said excitedly, pointing at it.
“We got something,” Klahanie said.
Tsi smiled, speaking more rapidly. The light continued to flash. Klahanie’s eyes shifted from the LED to the comms station’s terminal. Data was flowing across the screen, though Jackson had no idea what any of it meant.
A minute passed. Tsi kept talking, repeating the same message over and over, her voice becoming more sour with each repetition. The initial excitement waned as Faith and the deputy shared concerned glances.
“What’s wrong?” Jackson said.
“It looks like everything’s working correctly,” Klahanie replied. “But either nobody is responding, or we’re getting a false positive.”
“Can you check it?”
“I did. Twice already.” He pointed to the terminal. “Everything says it’s functioning correctly.”
Tsi pulled the mantle over her head. “I’m adjusting the Skin’s internal comms to transmit out to our Dancers through the array.” The LED stopped flashing when she reset the comm. Jackson and the others waited while Tsi did whatever she needed to do. Then she started speaking again. “Dancer One, this is Sergeant Tsi. Do you hear me? Dancer One. This is an emergency. Please respond.”
She repeated the statement a few more times. The LED remained unlit. She kept trying for another minute.
Nothing.
“The Dancers aren’t responding,” she said. “No connection, either. I can only assume the Relyeh Inahri found them and killed them.”
“And no response from your base?” Klahanie said.
“No. Nothing. But the connection is being made.”
“Is it typical for the comms station to be unmonitored?” Jackson asked.
“No, Governor. There should always be someone watching the comms when we have units out. This outcome doesn’t bode well for any of us.”
“Do you think the Relyeh attacked them?” Faith asked.
“That isn’t possible. They don’t know where the compound is. It could be the external arrays were damaged. Signals don’t reach into the cavern itself. There are towers on the surface a few kilometers away, holographically disguised as part of the surrounding forestry. They transmit wirelessly to smaller collectors both above the compound and decoy collectors placed nearby. If the Relyeh found the towers, they would have destroyed them. But that hasn’t happened in all of these years. It can’t be a coincidence that it’s happening now.”
She fell silent, considering the possibilities.
“I have a theory,” Jackson said, thinking it through. “Doctor Riley Valentine.”
He couldn’t see Tsi’s expression change beneath the Skin, but he heard her sharp intake of air.
“She wouldn’t,” Tsi hissed.
“She brought us here to wage war,” Jackson replied. “I think she would. I think she did. She told the Relyeh where to find your base. She knew where it was. You said she came to you.”
“She did,” Tsi said, voice laced with fury.
“How did she know where to find it if it’s hidden?” Faith asked.
“She said she tracked our transport from the Seeker. She was picked up outside. She got close enough, and then our people brought her in.” Tsi exhaled as sharply as she had inhaled. “In hundreds of cycles, we never had anyone betray us like this. We were too trusting.” She slammed her hand down on the side of the comms station, leaving a slight dent in the metal “Wa ba dan!”
Jackson didn’t need a translation for the expletive. It was easy enough to fill in.
Tsi was silent for a moment before shifting her head toward Jackson. “Governor, you were gracious enough to help me make an effort to contact my people. I understand if you need to deny this next request.”
“You want to go back to your base,” Jackson guessed.
“Yes. I need to know if it was destroyed.”
Jackson stared at her. He could understand what she was probably feeling. He had spent most of the last twenty-four hours in a similar emotional state. At the same time, he had n
o idea how he could help. He didn’t have the soldiers to commit to helping her. He didn’t even have a pilot ready to fly one of the remaining transports.
“Governor,” Klahanie said, sensing his dilemma. “What about the Daggers?”
“What about them?” Jackson replied.
“The CUTS system makes them easy to fly without training. Sergeant Card managed to pick it up in a couple of minutes.”
“They’re single seat,” Jackson said. “Even if I let her go, someone needs to go with her to make sure she comes back.”
“Governor?” Tsi said.
“I told you. My people need training.”
“And you think I’ll abandon you? I told you, the Free Inahri need fighters. I understand Doctor Riley’s actions have harmed your trust. I feel the same way. But our shared betrayal should solidify our alliance, not erode it. If you give me a ship, I promise I’ll come back. Even if I have to come back alone. I promise I’ll help prepare your people to defend themselves.”
Jackson closed his eyes. He was hesitant to let her go, reluctant to believe she would keep her word. Or what if the Relyeh were still at the compound? What if she wanted to make it back but died before she had the chance?
“If I go, I can bring others back with me,” Tsi said, “ with weapons, armor, everything you’ll need.”
“How? If the compound is destroyed…”
“It was our main military base. We have a secondary settlement, fully stocked. But our numbers will be badly depleted.” She fell silent suddenly. “If the Relyeh destroyed the compound, it’s very likely they captured the Seeker as well.”
Jackson knew what that meant. The Relyeh could be back for them at any moment. An hour or two of training wouldn’t help all that much. Reinforcements, weapons, armor. That might.
“You need to go,” he said. “Right now. Deputy, can you show Sergeant Tsi to a Dagger and get her acclimated?”
“Yes, Governor,” Klahanie replied. “I’d be happy to.”
“Thank you, Governor,” Tsi said.
“I’m counting on you, Sergeant,” Jackson replied. “I’m trusting you.”