by Terry Mixon
No one was exactly sure how she’d managed to create an AI inside her implants, but Talbot was glad that Carl had extracted the AI and put him into a holding computer back on the carrier Audacious while he figured out how to make an artificial body or computer that could handle the AI.
Having a third party in the bedroom while he made love to his wife was not his thing, even if the AI had sworn that he’d turned off all external sensory feeds.
At least no one had made a crack about him now having two wives, at least not in his hearing. He’d come down hard on an offender if they did. Again, not his thing, and even the thought was weird.
In that respect, he was very relieved that the other woman had no interest in him. Though, from the looks she’d just been giving Carl before they’d gone into their separate tents, he might have a problem there.
Which was also weird. And Angela had the skill and size to tie this other version of Kelsey into knots if she made any moves on the young scientist. If that happened, the fight would be short and brutal, so even though she wasn’t here, Talbot would warn Julia to mind her manners.
“We’ll just have to keep our eye on her,” Talbot said in answer to what Adrian had said. “We don’t treat her as an enemy, but we don’t mark her as a friend either. As Kelsey says, trust but verify.”
He turned and glanced toward the sun. “It looks like we have another couple of hours before we start moving. I want you to make one final pass over your people and make sure they have all of the critical equipment packed and ready to go. I’ll do the same with the scientists and Fleet personnel. Once we start moving, we’re not coming back for anything.”
Adrian looked in the direction that they’d be marching. “What do you think we’re going to run into out there? We know there are humans on Terra. Do you think we’re going to have to fight them?”
Talbot chuckled darkly. “With our luck, what do you think?”
His friend muttered an expletive and turned to carry out his orders.
Once he was alone, Talbot considered what he’d just said. The chances that they’d have to fight someone on this march were high. He and his people would do it in a heartbeat, if that was necessary, but he’d like to keep the bloodshed to a minimum. The people of Terra had suffered enough.
He sighed. It wasn’t as if he were going to be able to stop someone from becoming aggressive. All he could do was hope that they’d either avoid the worst-case scenarios or only have to fight the really bad people.
The best case would be avoiding both, but as he’d told Adrian, he was more than familiar with the kind of luck they had.
After marching in her armor for the rest of the day, Kelsey was glad that they’d stopped for the evening. The journey thus far hadn’t been long—only about five kilometers—but doing it in armor was not something that she’d ever practiced. It chafed in odd places after a while. She’d need to rectify that at some point, but right now she was glad to be getting out of her gear.
Using the data that they’d gathered from the drone network before the AI had destroyed it, Jared had decided to stop at an abandoned building that was isolated from everything around it by kilometers in every direction.
It was low to the ground, somewhat small as a structure, and it didn’t look like it had been abandoned for five centuries. That made sense since Terra had been captured intact during the rebellion. The AIs had treated it like the other occupied worlds of the Terran Empire, at least for a time.
If she’d had to guess, based on the decay and damage to the building, the AIs had started their orbital bombardment on Terra about a century ago. In a way, that was promising. It meant that they might still find functioning technology in locations that were well away from the megacities.
Or in the megacities themselves, if they were silly enough to try to go there.
Their best defense against being exposed to the AIs was not being noticed by anyone. To do that, they needed to steer clear of the remaining human population, so that meant it was best to avoid the former cities. They were here to save the people of Terra but needed to do so without their help.
Kelsey forced herself out of her introspective mood and looked back at the building. From the outside, it was impossible to determine what it had been used for. Once she got on the inside—down a wide ramp that led to a subterranean vehicular door that the marines had forced open—its purpose became clear.
It had been a place to store equipment used on what was likely once some great mechanical farming system. There were all types of automated machines in the large basement at the base of the ramp. They’d likely once performed their tasks without human intervention, for the most part. Now they sat alone in the darkness gathering dust.
A lot of dust.
The marines had chosen one corner of the large basement to use for getting out of their armor. It was clear of equipment but held racks of tools and spare parts.
Each marine marched his powered armor to a bare spot on the floor and climbed out before sealing it up again. It took very little time for them to get clear of their armor, since they were very practiced at the maneuver. Then they stripped off their skinsuits and put on regular marine fatigues.
Kelsey watched Julia do the same, though Talbot and Major Scala had to assist her out of her black Raider armor. Then Commander Roche held up a sheet so that the woman could strip off her skinsuit and dress in her marine fatigues.
The other woman obviously hadn’t spent enough time around the marines to lose her self-consciousness about the process.
Kelsey got out of her armor as adroitly as the marines. She’d practiced the process long enough to build muscle memory. She turned her back to the Fleet personnel and scientists to avoid shocking them and stripped down to her skin before dressing in the marine fatigues that Talbot had packed for her. They fit perfectly, of course, but the boots and cut of the clothes still felt weird to her.
Once she was done, she faced the main group just as her brother started speaking.
“Everyone grab something to eat and drink,” Jared said. “Settle in and rest. We’ll be staying here for the night.”
His announcement was met by a ragged cheer from the bedraggled scientists and even some of the Fleet personnel.
The scientists had been utterly unprepared for today and were worn out. What they didn’t seem to realize was that the marines would be picking up the pace over the coming days and weeks. At today’s rate of march, it would take them almost half a year to reach the Imperial Palace. That was completely unacceptable.
Of course, getting there late was better than never arriving at all, but Kelsey wasn’t going to dawdle. Everyone—including her—was going to need to toughen up and do so quickly.
With everything that had been going on, Kelsey hadn’t had a chance to talk to Julia in any detail. She needed to start the process tonight. She had to know how far she could trust the other woman.
Her other self seemed to feel the same way, because just as soon as she was dressed, Julia walked over to stand in front of her. “We need to talk.”
“We do,” Kelsey agreed. “Let’s find a spot to sit down and eat while we do that. I’m starving and I’ll wager you are too, if you’re anything at all like me.”
“I’m famished,” Julia admitted. “I’m not looking forward to survival rations, but I’ll take what I can get.”
“You’ll get used to them after a while,” Kelsey said as she gestured toward an area behind the armor that was empty of people at the moment. “Shall we?”
5
Jared found a spot on the cold floor near Elise and sat. His wife was already watching Kelsey and Julia as they headed toward the corner of the cavernous room. The Fleet personnel had set up some portable lights, but most areas were still somewhat dark. That particular corner was almost lost in the gloom.
Before he could ask what Elise was thinking, Sean and Olivia joined them. Together, the four of them considered what they could see of the doppelgängers.
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“It’s really strange seeing them together,” Sean said. “It’s like double vision, only far more dangerous if they get excited.”
Jared laughed. “Isn’t that the truth? I don’t think they’ve had a chance to really talk. What I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall.”
Olivia shook her head. “I don’t think you would. I suspect some of this conversation is going to be rather raw. Julia has gone through a lot, and she’s got some chips on her shoulder that Kelsey is going to have to help her knock off.
“That’s not going to happen in a single sitting, but they’re going to have to be frank with one another and say things that probably revolve around you. I’ll bet those won’t be complimentary, coming from your sister from another universe.”
That sobered him up quickly. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
He started handing out ration bars from a larger box that they’d brought with them. As he was doing so, Talbot joined them. They sat in silence for a bit until Jared forced his mind away from his sister and her double.
“How did we do on the march?” he asked the senior marine.
“The good news is that we didn’t lose anybody to an injury,” Talbot said. “The bad news is that I think a group of kindergartners would probably have moved faster. We’re going to have to pick up the pace if we want to get to the Imperial Palace in a reasonable amount of time.”
Jared nodded, but he wasn’t really certain what the marine would consider “reasonable.” He suspected that it would be far faster than what he’d use the word for.
“It took us roughly four hours to get five kilometers?” Jared asked. “If we stretched that out over the entire march, we’re looking at close to five months, right? What pace do you think we should be doing?”
The marine took a bite of his ration bar and chewed with a thoughtful expression on his face. “That’s a complicated question. Most of the crew didn’t carry what the marines would consider to be a full pack. My people are basically overloaded right now, but they’ve trained for that. That’s also slowing us down, so I’m not blaming the delay solely on the non-marines.
“If it was just the marines with normal loads, I think we could double today’s speed. With the scientists in tow and my boys more heavily burdened, I’d be happy if we split the difference, so we could maybe make eighteen kilometers a day, once we get them in shape. That still means almost three months to get to the Imperial Palace, under the best case.
“Now, don’t get me wrong. They did okay for the first day, but they’re going to feel it in the morning. They’ll have a lot of soreness and aching muscles. We don’t want to push them hard enough that they injure themselves.
“I think it’s best if we keep this pace for the next two or three days. Once they’ve adjusted to that, we can see about moving a little faster.”
Elise rubbed her calf. “I think that I fall into the category of not getting enough exercise. I’m going to feel this tomorrow, just like the scientists. I can’t say that I’m happy that I need to get this kind of exercise, but it’s going to toughen me up.”
Olivia nodded. “It’ll be good for Sean too.” With that, she poked her husband in the ribs.
He snorted. “I’m in better shape than you are. At least I get out every once in a while. You spend too much time behind your desk.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You’d better watch it, mister. It’s never a good thing when a husband is critical of his wife.”
“Hey! That’s what you just did to me.”
She smiled innocently at him. “That’s a wife’s prerogative.”
After a moment she smiled in a more genuine manner. “Seriously though, I think we’re all going to be hurting in the morning, except for Talbot. He and his marines are going to be jogging circles around us while we slog for the next few days.”
“I would never do that,” Talbot said virtuously.
“Uh huh,” Jared said. “In any case, looking at the map, it seems like we’re going to be moving through some rougher terrain soon. There’s a lot of forest scattered around in the direction we’re heading, but I think this area used to be farmland. Even a century’s growth means that the scrub and trees are fairly light. That’s going to allow us to keep up a good pace.
“Unfortunately, about the time we’ll finally be ready to march faster, we’re going to run into what amounts to a real old-growth forest. That’s going to slow us down again.”
“Maybe not as much as you think,” Talbot said. “When you’ve got larger trees, it cuts down on the light getting through to the undergrowth. That means less trouble moving around. We won’t know for sure until we get close enough to put a few drones into the trees and take a look, but I’m hopeful that’s the case.
“Honestly, I’m going to feel a lot better once we’re under the tree cover anyway. That’s going to make it a lot more difficult for anyone to spot us. Someone could use infrared to find us, if they have the technology, but a less advanced set of observers isn’t going to be able to tell that we’re out there, unless they run into us or our trail.”
“And what happens when they do?” Elise asked. “We all know that’s going to happen sooner or later, no matter how hard we try to avoid the people here. This is their home, and they know it far better than we do. If there are people in that forest, they’re almost certainly going to find us before we know they’re there.”
That was one of Jared’s worries. The inevitable confrontation with the locals. He suspected that they hadn’t descended to savagery like the people of Erorsi. With any luck, they’d be dealing with people that at least had some of the trappings of civilization.
The Terrans had lived under the heel of the AIs for centuries before the System Lords began smashing their world. They’d only had a hundred years or so of being forced into primitive conditions, if the estimates were right.
As if a century was short.
In any case, he shouldn’t minimize what had happened. Terra had once hosted a population in the many tens of billions. The death toll must’ve been horrific. These people would still carry the scars of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers who’d suffered and fought to survive in the wilderness, cast from the technological Eden that they’d been raised in.
“I don’t think that we’re going to run into a bunch of kindhearted strangers,” Jared finally said. “These people have to be living hand to mouth, and that means fighting over resources. They’re going to see other people as competition. We have to be ready for that.
“Everyone needs to get a good night’s sleep, because we’ll be getting up early. Talbot, set a watch to make sure that nobody gets the drop on us while we’re stopped. Use your drones to circle around the area and keep an eye out for anyone sneaking up on us, and also have sentries out. Not that I should be telling you your business, mind you.”
Talbot grinned. “No sir, you probably shouldn’t. I’ve already got that all set up. We have drones in the air and scouts keeping an eye on the area. I’ve got a ready response team already in armor that’ll back up the sentries if need be. We can only use powered armor tonight, but why waste the opportunity?
“Trust me when I say that we know our business. You folks can sleep easy knowing that no one is going to be giving us any trouble tonight. Not without a lot of warning.”
“Good enough for me, Colonel.”
Jared eyed the hard floor. It was made for supporting heavy machinery, so sleeping on it was going to be damned uncomfortable. The small pad that went under his sleeping bag would help a little, but not nearly enough, he was sure.
Well, there wasn’t anything to be done about it. He’d best get some sleep and hope the rest of the trip was as uneventful as today.
The last thing he did before settling back and closing his eyes was give Kelsey and Julia another look. He knew that his sister didn’t need nearly as much sleep as he did, but he hoped she didn’t spend so much time getting to know her doppelgänger that she was overly tired tom
orrow.
If things went sideways, they’d need her to be sharp. Her Marine Raider augmentation might just save their lives in a pinch. It had before.
With that thought, he closed his eyes, and sleep quickly overtook his exhausted mind and body.
Julia sat cross-legged on the stone floor, eating her ration bar—her third ration bar—and eyed Kelsey as she did the same. The woman from this universe was doing the exact same thing that she was, assessing her opposite. Only the other woman’s expression was a lot more confident than she felt.
“This has to be strange for you,” Kelsey said. “We’ve spoken a little bit over the FTL com, but that’s not the same thing as what we’re doing right now. We didn’t know each other then, but we need to know each other now.”
Julia felt her lips twitch up at the corners. “And exactly how do we do that? I feel I should already know everything about you, but I don’t. Not really. Neither of us knows exactly who or what the other person is.”
“No, we don’t.” Kelsey balled up the wrapper from the bar she’d been eating and stuck it in her pocket.
That was one thing that these marine fatigues had going for them. They had lots of pockets. As both a woman and a princess, Julia loved that aspect of these strange clothes more than anything. There were never enough places to stash things—like ration bars—in a regular uniform.
Or, God forbid, a dress.
“So how do we do this?” she asked the other version of herself. “We have the same goals, but we serve different people. You’re here to help your empire, and I’m here to help mine. How do we mesh those two—potentially opposed—goals together?”
“By learning to trust one another,” Kelsey said. “I understand that you’re here because your people need to defeat the AIs. Believe me, I understand that better than most. I’ve already told you that we’ll do everything within our power to help you, but you’re right to worry. You have an entire empire counting on you.