by Nick Webb
A minute later, they met, attempting to reset the same one before Zivic pulled his hand away and let him do it. The next moment, Shin-Wentworth tapped his handheld. “It’s ready! Let her rip!”
Zivic looked back to the middle of the floor, where the gun lay. He noticed Shin-Wentworth looking at it too.
“Well?” said Shin-Wentworth, dusting off the front of his uniform. “Are you going to shoot me?”
“Probably,” he said.
“Is it what she would have wanted?”
The question was unexpected. He couldn’t tell if the man was asking that to stall for time, or to get at his conscience, or to assuage his own. “I don’t know,” was all he had. “Does it matter what she would have wanted?”
“That’s up to you, Commander Zivic. Let me know when you’ve made your decision.”
Shin-Wentworth turned and left the auxiliary engineering bay.
Zivic did not stop him.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
Poincaré Sector
World IXF-459, Low Orbit
ISS Independence
Bridge
Proctor could feel the change in her companion before it even said anything. She could sense the feelings of rapture and imminent triumph. And she knew that she should feel the same, the sense of joy and accomplishment on seeing an ally win their objective.
But she didn’t.
She felt a deep sense of unnerving dread.
Something was . . . off. Wrong.
“Admiral, the robot fleet has begun firing on us!” said Commander Urda.
“Destachio, q-jump us out. Now!”
He shook his head in frustration. “Sorry ma’am. We’re seeing the same q-field dampening effect that the Defiance saw last week. We’re stuck here.”
The realization struck her.
You let the Swarm escape, didn’t you?
NO. THE ROBOTS DID THAT ON THEIR OWN, THEY FELT THAT THEY WERE ABOUT TO BE OVERWHELMED, AND SO LET IT ESCAPE FOR THEIR OWN PROTECTION.
Then why can’t we leave now?
Silence.
I can feel what’s going on. You have integrated yourself into one of the robots. You have a nominal degree of control over it.
OVER ONE OF THEM. YES. NOT OVER ALL OF THEM. THAT IS WHERE YOU COME IN, SHELBY.
A pit was developing in her stomach. Like realizing she’d walked into a trap.
Where I come in?
THE INDEPENDENCE’S INFINITELY-CORED DISTRIBUTED PROCESSOR. WE NEED IT TO CONTROL THE ROBOTS. IT WILL BECOME THE NERVE CENTER OF OUR NEW MILLION-STRONG FLEET. FINALLY, SHELBY, HUMANITY AND THE VALARISI TOGETHER WILL BE SAFE. NO SWARM, NO FINDIRI, NO QUIASSI—NO ONE—WILL EVER BE ABLE TO DESTROY US AGAIN.
It was a trap. This whole thing had been planned. From luring the Swarm ship here, to luring her here. All a ruse to put the Valarisi at the helm of a vast powerful fleet, with the Independence as its flagship.
“Admiral! We’re sustaining heavy damage from the sentinels!” said Urda.
“Ensign, evasive maneuvers. Tactical, take out as many of them as you can. See if you can zero in on how they’re generating the q-field jamming, and take it out.”
The ship shuddered from the impacts of the hundreds of rounds of enemy fire. The earlier fireworks show that she had admired was now focused entirely on the Independence . . .
And it would not last long.
SHELBY. DO NOT RESIST IT. USE YOUR INFINITELY-CORED CENTRAL PROCESSOR. REACH OUT AND ESTABLISH CONTACT WITH THE SINGLE ROBOT FIGHTER THAT WE CONTROL, AND WE WILL HANDLE THE REST.
No, she said.
THAT IS A MISTAKE, SHELBY. TRUST US.
How can I trust you now? After the lies and misdirection that got us into this?
HOW COULD WE TRUST YOU AFTER WHAT OPPENHEIMER DID TO US?
I am not Oppenheimer.
And she knew what she had to do.
“Meta-space transmission to Speaker Curiel,” she said. “Two-way, if possible.”
Moments later, Ensign Sampono nodded. “Got him, Admiral.”
She didn’t even raise the blur screen. Speaker Curiel’s head appeared before her.
“I think I know who you are,” she began.
His eyebrows rose a hair. “Oh?”
“Fairly confident. But honestly? At this point it doesn’t even matter. It all makes sense now, why you’ve been so vociferous in your pursuit of the leadership of the new multi-racial government. It’s what you tried to do thirty years ago.”
“Well, not exactly,” he said, with a small wink. “In my defense, both times I was trying to save Earth, my dear. Our goals are the same. Now, as then. We just go about it different ways. Playing to our strengths, no?”
She shook her head. “We will never agree, but no matter. I need your help. I assume you still have the GPC fleet at your disposal?”
He nodded. “And the Caliphate fleet, in fact.”
“We need extraction from IXF-459. A robotic fleet has attacked the Independence and we’re not going to make it out of here if we stick around too much longer.”
“We’re on our way,” he said. “Except, for this, I believe you owe me. I won’t beat around the bush. You know exactly what I want.”
She sighed. “I do. And you’ve got it. Let this be an official record: I hereby support Speaker Curiel of the Galactic People’s Congress to be Earth’s representative to a new multi-race government or alliance, or whatever is formed in the aftermath of this battle.”
His eyes narrowed. “Official record? Seems a bit overkill. Just tell everyone yourself when we re-convene.”
“Because,” she answered, getting up out of the captains chair. “I’m fairly certain I won’t be around when it does. Proctor out.”
Curiel’s face disappeared. Except now it was almost confirmed for her. This was not Curiel. Curiel was dead.
This was Malakov. The old Russian Confederation strongman who sparred for so many years with President Avery before and during the Second Swarm War. There was no one else it could be.
“I’ll be in sickbay. Commander Urda,” she said, turning to him, “you have the bridge. When Curiel and his fleet show up, stick around only as long as the q-field dampener is still active. Keep us alive until then, please.”
Urda was speechless, watching her go.
“Sampono. With me, please.”
The ensign followed her off the bridge and the two of them entered the lift. The ship still shuddered all around them and she could still hear distant alarms through the lift doors.
“Ma’am?”
“You were right, Ensign. You taught me a good lesson in trust with that assassin, Petrovich. I trusted too freely. I put too much faith in humanity. But then? I forgot the lesson.”
She shrugged. “We’re alive. Seems to me like you relearned it.”
“Not nearly soon enough, Ensign. And I fear that my misplaced trust will cost us greatly.” The doors opened out onto the hallway that led to sickbay.
“What are you doing, ma’am?”
“Something I should have done weeks ago.”
They entered and she went straight up to Nurse Jackson. “You were here when Oppenheimer’s goons extracted Decker’s Valarisi?”
She nodded. “I was. Basically just a fancy dialysis. Suck your blood out, strain the Valarisi-specific proteins and markers, and pump it back in.”
“Are you set up for it?”
“I can be within a few minutes.”
SHELBY NO!
She paused, just for a moment, considering whether the choice she was making was worth the almost-certain death that awaited both her and her companion.
And it was a simple decision, really.
“Then let’s get it done.”
Within three minutes she was laying down, her arm connected to a nearby machine.
Ensign Sampono stood watch over her, their eyes connecting while she felt her consciousness slip away.
But for those last few moments, for the first time in many weeks, she felt sil
ence in her mind. Her companion was gone too.
And she was free.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
Sol Sector
Earth
Findiri Flagship
“Let her rip!” Granger heard Shin-Wentworth say through the speakers.
“Varus? Ready?” he said.
“All systems ready. All ships answerable to me are in position.” Varus stood at an engineering station, a finger poised over a button.
Granger glanced at the screen one last time. The outer atmosphere of Paradiso had started to touch the thermosphere of Earth. A white hot region began to form, just as one had formed during the collision of Britannia and Titan as the two atmospheres slammed together. Earth had moments left.
The battle overhead between the Swarm ship and the combined Vestige and IDF fleets was raging. Ships died left and right. But soon every ship was racing away as fast as they could as Paradiso approached. Even the Swarm ship.
“Are we in position, helmsman?” he said.
The Findiri at the helm held up a fist, presumably confirming. “We have entered the coordinates you gave me for the inductive zone. We are falling fast though, and will pass through the zone within fifteen seconds.
He turned back to Varus. “Do it.”
Varus pressed the button.
Deep tremors ran through the ship as enormous amounts of energy poured into the systems from the Western Hemisphere Power Grid. Distant explosions indicated that some systems overloaded, and Granger hoped to high heaven they weren’t the ones they needed.
“Singularity shield is expanding,” said Varus. “Now at a radius of a five hundred kilometers. One thousand. Fifteen hundred….”
The shield expanded achingly slow. They’d need at least a radius the size of Earth, and then some. And as they watched in horror, the region of overpowering white overhead expanded until it filled half the sky.
Paradiso was here.
CHAPTER SIXTY-EIGHT
Sol Sector
Earth
Findiri Flagship
Zivic, too emotionally numb to think, watched the viewscreen in the auxiliary engineering bay. It was from the point of view of one of the Findiri ships still in orbit.
Paradiso’s and Earth’s atmospheres were touching, mixing, rather explosively, and soon the surfaces would collide into each other.
Maybe he should have killed the bastard when he had the chance, given that he was about to die anyway.
And then, the leading edge of Paradiso began to disappear.
The entire world looked like it was slamming into Earth, except it didn’t. It just vanished, as if passing through a veiled window.
Soon, it was gone, leaving only extreme residual heat in the atmosphere where the two worlds had briefly touched.
And then, just as suddenly, Paradiso emerged from the far side of Earth, again, as if out of an invisible, flat plane.
The distance between the two worlds grew and grew, until in the camera’s perspective, Paradiso was just a large blue-green ball in the sky, growing slowly smaller.
“Well fuck me. It actually worked.”
He kept watching Paradiso, now noticing sparkling in the atmosphere of the planet. Every now and then a huge fireball would erupt. “What the hell . . . ?”
A noise behind him caught his attention. He looked to see that Shin-Wentworth, who’d apparently been standing in the doorway watching the screen in silence, had fallen to the floor.
“No,” the man murmured. “Oh my god, after all this. No.”
“What’s wrong, Doc?” said Zivic, unable to hide the sneering in his voice. “Isn’t this exactly what you wanted? Congratulations. You did it. And killed who the fuck knows how many people in the process.”
“What’s wrong? Look.” Shin-Wentworth’s eyes were locked on the screen. “Look at all those fireballs. The hundreds, maybe thousands of explosions you’re seeing every second. That sparkling. Do you know what that is?”
Zivic shrugged. “Debris from the battle with the Swarm falling down into their atmosphere?”
“That, and more. Much more. Every day, over fifty tons of space dust falls to Earth.”
“Okay, so? They’re getting a good meteor shower then.” Zivic turned from the man in disgust. He could barely look at him.
“That’s not just a meteor shower. Look closer. Those explosions. They’re massive. Each of those is as large as a small nuclear warhead.”
Zivic peered closer at the planet receding into space. Indeed, the explosions in the atmosphere he saw earlier were far larger than he’d originally thought. Some were dozens of kilometers in diameter. “Okay, so they’re flying through a cloud of—”
“No! Don’t you understand what I’m saying? Fifty tons of space rock is falling on Paradiso every day, and fifty tons of regular matter is slamming into . . . anti-matter. I brought back Paradiso from another universe. One where . . .” He trailed off, unable to even complete the sentence.
Tears were in his eyes. And defeat.
Zivic scratched his head. “Wait. You’re telling me . . . that this Paradiso is made out of anti-matter?”
Shin-Wentworth nodded.
“And when matter from our universe hits it, then . . . blammo?”
He nodded again.
“Which means, your family is down there, right now. Alive,” said Zivic, slowly, “And you, still, will never see them again.”
He shouldn’t laugh. He shouldn’t smile. He shouldn’t feel the slightest amount of joy in that statement, because on the other end of that pain were kids, and a wife, who would feel the same pain.
But it didn’t mean he couldn’t say to the man as he stepped over him on his way out the door, “I should pity you. And I should hate you. But I don’t. I feel nothing for you. Nothing at all.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE
Sol Sector
Earth
Findiri Flagship
Granger could hardly believe his eyes when he watched the event on the screen. One world about slam into another, disappearing, and coming out the other side.
But, like with Jasper’s death, he didn’t have time to dwell.
“Twenty seconds until impact,” said the Findiri helmsman.
Granger pulled up the map on his handheld.
“Veer north! Are starboard thrusters still active? Veer north!”
The helmsman tapped on some buttons. “We have starboard thrusters. Engaging them now. But why, human?”
“Aim for Kentucky Lake. Huge body of water to the north. You can’t miss it.”
The approaching lush green landscape of western Tennessee soon gave way to a very welcome sight.
Water.
And, just like thirty years prior when Commander Shelby Proctor piloted a crashing ISS Constitution into the Great Salt Lake while he lay unconscious, he was scoring his own water landing in a ship the size of a small city. No unconscious Proctor, but just as well, he thought.
The Findiri vessel shuddered as it hit the water and skied for dozens of kilometers before he noticed they were finally slowing down. A jetty of land extending out into the water was demolished as the ship water-planed down the vast lake, and Granger hoped to God that no one was fishing on it. That all the boats had gotten to safety.
Enough people had died for him that day.
Even before the ship lurched to a halt, the comm speaker came alive with Admiral Diaz’s voice. “Tim, we’ve sustained some losses. But thought you might want to hear about this one.”
The ship stopped. He was alive. Still.
But his heart sank hearing the tone of Diaz’s voice. “What is it?”
“After the stunt you guys pulled, the Swarm ship targeted everything it had at one of the smaller Findiri ships. Blew a section of the hull clean off. The ship went down in the Caribbean, but the section of hull, well, it was collected by the Swarm ship and they hightailed it out of here.”
“What was special about that section of hull?”
Varus
was looking at the tactical readout and examining a schematic of what Granger assumed was the downed Findiri ship. “A singularity shield projector.”
Granger noticed a light flashing on the comm, indicating another waiting transmission. “I’ve got a bad feeling about that, Joachin. But not much we can do about it now. What’s the status of Paradiso?”
“It had a fair amount of momentum when it arrived and it’s currently flying out towards the orbit of Jupiter, after which it will fall back towards the sun in an elliptical orbit. Earth is safe, for now, but who knows what havoc this will cause with its orbit.”
“Earth safe, but the people on Paradiso, not so much. At Jupiter’s orbit, they’ll freeze before long,” muttered Granger. “Get the Vestige fleet repaired, restocked, and ready for action again, Joachin. We may need it before this is all over.”
“I was counting on it, Tim. Diaz out.”
Granger flipped the comm over to the incoming transmission. To his surprise, Fiona Liu’s face appeared. “Captain Granger, thank god you’re alive.”
“Still kicking. Where’s Danny?”
“He’s . . .” Her face lines tightened. “He’s not well. Lost a lot of blood from a Findiri energy weapon. And his Valarisi companion is not responding either—I can’t explain it.” She took a deep breath. “But that’s not why I called. It’s Admiral Proctor. She’s . . . not well either.”
The pit in Granger’s stomach tightened. “What happened?”
“The Valarisi. They tried something. Something bad, at the robot world you found, and Proctor tried to stop it. And as a result, she separated herself from her companion.”
“But won’t that kill her?”
“From what my companion says, she’s still alive. But only just. Probably in a deep coma, with extensive mental trauma. Luckily, her ship got out alive—Speaker Curiel showed up with the GPC fleet and a whole lot of Caliphate help and stopped the robot sentinels from destroying the Independence.”