by Chris Hechtl
“Sir, what do we do?”
Isaiah opened his mouth then closed it when he saw the twins in the doorway beyond his wife. Asia was rubbing her eyes with her tiny fists. Her brother yawned. Cecily turned to look at them. She seemed to crumple, all fight left her as she went to them.
“Sir? General Sloan? Sir?!?”
The general shook himself and then reluctantly pulled his eyes away from his family. “Go on alert. Cancel all leaves and get our people back on base. Alert the police and utilities then go to lock down.”
“Aye, sir.”
“I'll be in soon. For now reach out to the former Imperial officers we know and trust. Get them on board with us. Something tells me we'll need them.”
“Sir? They are the enemy ….”
“They are fellow human beings,” the general said, rising to his feet. His wife turned to look at him. “We are facing a common threat. We need to work together to solve it,” he said. “It is time we come together or the aliens have won,” he said.
“I don't know if that is possible, sir; we are ….”
“It has to be done. One way or the other we have to … have to learn to trust,” the general said roughly, eyes going to his wife. “I'll be there in a moment,” he said, picking up his jacket. He walked to the door, leaving his wife and kids behind. “Have all dependents confined to quarters. No exceptions,” he said, eyes cutting to his wife sternly. She blinked.
“Sloan out,” he said, cutting the link. “I have to go,” he said. He gave the kids a quick salute and then left.
Cecily stood there shaken. She didn't know what the future would bring. His last few words heartened her but … she bit her lip. She felt hurt too. He hadn't kissed her; he was so … cold. It frightened her. He was pulling away from her and now everything she had built … they had built was in jeopardy.
She felt a tug on her hands and looked down. The kids were there, expectantly looking up at her.
“Momma? I'm hungry,” Ethan said.
“Of course you are, Son,” she said after a moment.
“Me too. What's going on?” Asia asked.
“It's … hard to say. Come on, let's get you two hungry birds something to eat.”
~~~<*^*>~~~
He worked through the night and into the next day. He finally came home to rest near sunset. They had kept a lid on things, but the agitators were waiting there, ready to cause hate and discontent. To foam riots that would sap his energy, sap the public's interest and force them to take sides. Instinctively he wanted to discuss the situation with her as usual but stopped himself. Instead he paced. It was near the twin's bedtime, both were in pajamas and planted firmly in front of the living room video screen. Ever aware of their presence, both adults fought the urge to renew their fight.
She felt for him; he looked exhausted. He needed sleep; he needed food. She realized she could do something about that. Silently she went to the fridge and put a meal together. She heated it up, and then put it on a plate in front of him. He pushed it away. She quietly pushed it back. He looked at it, then to her determined gaze. He sighed when she looked pointedly down at the plate. Finally he surrendered enough to pick it up and eat. He picked up the fork and dug in.
“Can you do anything?” he finally demanded as she handed him a glass of fruit juice. “We need a miracle here. If we don't find one soon, we will lose. Not just here, but everywhere,” he said. “Humanity will become extinct.”
She flinched and bit her lip. It was now or never; she had to … she rubbed her arm, unsure what to do. She had to trust, but how far?
She closed her eyes. It was all or nothing she realized. “I am … I can help. I … I have the technology. More,” she said.
He stared at her.
She sucked in a breath and then let it out slowly. She revealed to him that she had the secreted technology, all available, along with a hidden automated orbital factory and shipyard in deep space near the capital.
“No one knew it was there?”
“My father built it using remotes in secret a few weeks before the Republic hit the capital. It wasn't brought fully online. He shut it down.”
“But it is there?”
“Yes.”
He looked away, frowning as he thought hard.
“We can do this. Like you said, together,” she whispered, looking at him with hope in her eyes. “Come on, honey, please …,” she insisted.
“I don't know,” he rumbled quietly. He got up and paced again. She stood there quietly watching him.
The twins looked on, slightly confused but aware something significant was going on. The emotions and tension crackled in the air. Their intelligence allowed them to understand far more than a child of their age should. Asia took her mother's hand in hers and squeezed. Cecily looked down to her with watery eyes. After a moment she squeezed back.
General Sloan came back in to change his uniform. He stopped at the tableau of his wife and twins. Asia smiled at him. His son Ethan took him by the hand and then dragged his reluctant father over to the two ladies. Asia took her father's free hand as Ethan took his mother's. “Whatever the future brings, we are together.” Ethan said.
Cecily looked away biting her lip then something tugged on her awareness. She looked up to her husband's waiting eyes. Something was there. The love was still there, but his stubborn determination to do right as well. She became lost in that gaze again. He felt the kid's hands drop as his hands rose to grip his wife's face. He pulled her in to kiss her. She chuckled a wet, sobby chuckle then placed her forehead to his. She felt her hands in his. Their fingers interlocked. Slowly she smiled, perfectly synchronized with his.
~~~<*^*>~~~
When the general returned to the office, he was immediately met by his staff. His adjunct and others urged him to do something, fight on and organize. “Become a warlord?” he asked.
“If that is what it takes, sir. The government has fallen, sir. You are the only source of central authority left, sir,” George insisted.
“Call a press conference,” the general said as his wife entered the building. He nodded to her. She looked nervous but determined. “Arrange for additional security around my quarters,” he stated. George's eyes cut to Mrs. Sloan and then back to his boss. He saw no answer there but a sense of power, a sense of decision. He slowly nodded.
“Ready for this?” the general asked, smiling to his wife. She was beautiful, dressed in flowing purple trimmed in gold. She nodded again to him, still mute. “Cat got your tongue?” he teased, taking her hand. She snorted slightly, squeezing his hand. He squeezed back. He kept it in his grip as he led her into the conference room George had set up for the press conference.
Cameras were there as were a few of his senior officers. He nodded as they came to attention around him.
“Ladies and gentlemen, be seated,” he stated, coming to the podium. He smiled an apology to his wife as he deposited her beside him. “Don't go far,” he murmured to her. She jerked a quick head nod.
The director signaled to him and then indicated the teleprompter. He subtly shook his head no. He was not going off a prepared speech; he wanted it to come at everyone cold and didn't want a leak. He'd made all the preparations he could; now it was time to see if it paid off, if what he thought would happen would work. It was all or nothing, he thought, turning to his wife with a smile. He kissed her hand, and then gently let it go.
The director touched his ear, and then hand signed that they were ready to proceed. The general turned and watched the countdown. When it hit zero, he adjusted himself and inhaled, then exhaled. He waited a beat until he saw himself on the screen and on the prompter built into the podium. He nodded. It was time.
“This is Major General Sloan. I am addressing the people of the Empire of Light as well as any Republic citizen remaining. No, to be honest, to all mankind,” he stated, hands gripping the sides of the podium top.
The princess was nervous; she didn't know what he was going to do. “La
dies and gentlemen, we are facing a grave threat. One that is about to consume all mankind if we do not face it together. But we cannot face it until we put some things into our past.”
He frowned, then cut a look to his wife out of the corner of his eye. “Ladies and gentlemen, the missing princess has been found.” He waited out the gasps of consternation in the room. “She has been here, under our nose this entire time, serving her people as well as the Republic.”
He turned to his wife. “She is my wife,” he said, holding out his hand to her. She rose and took it. “She is the rightful heir to the throne of light,” he stated, bowing over the hand and kissing it.
He stunned one and all by revealing his wife as the princess and rightful heir to the empire.
Cecily shook herself. What was done was done; now they had to work together to survive not just the external alien threat but also the threats from within. “My people, I am the crown princess,” she stated. “I have been here, hiding as I was instructed by my father. He ordered me to guard our people in secret and to live my life. To love,” she said, holding her husband's bicep and arm for support. “I hadn't thought such was possible. But I had fallen in love with a great man. This man. I learned to trust him and he me. Now we must work together. We can no longer be enemies; the war is over and a new war has begun. One we must fight together or we shall fall.”
She drew strength from her husband. He nodded to her, eyes looking at her. She blushed slightly. “To survive we must work together. But survival isn't enough; no war was ever won on the defense. We must also win,” the general said, eyes glittering as he turned to the cameras.
“We will do so. Through our strength of heart, mind, and body.”
“I have turned over the technology of the empire to the general,” Cecily stated. That earned a second gasp. “And we have taken steps to insure our future here. We ask that you step forward. Those of you who have served in uniform, your liege calls for your services once more.”
The general nodded. “We will take them in as fellow soldiers. But we need more; we need scientists, engineers, and technicians to help build the weapons and equipment those soldiers and sailors will need.”
Prior to their announcement, he had discretely sent a scout to locate the hidden base and return with word. The automated scout had returned a few moments before the conference with images that made him feel like there was finally an end to the long night.
“Together we can win,” the general said, taking his wife's hand and holding it in his. She gripped it, smiling. She nodded.
“Together we will thrive,” she murmured, her eyes locked to his.
“Then let us begin,” he said as the room thundered with ovation.
The End
Federation stories:
“Island of Moreau” is another story from the To Touch the Stars time period. I also jotted out the rough version before the book (in this case before it was finished). Again, I was saving it for a later anthology book, but I decided to drop it in here. :) It tells the story of one of the reasons why Neos do not like to be called Moreaus.
“Bumper and Boomer” is a story that takes place during To Touch the Stars. (Near the end of the book though, I seeded the book with mentions of it at various points.) I was saving it for a future anthology of that time period, but I thought I might as well throw it in here. I actually jotted out the majority of the story before TTTS, so some of it may not synch up as well as I'd like.
“The Good Ship Lollipop” is an odd story. I'd like to blame John Ringo or someone or something else for inspiring it but well, okay, blame Shirley Temple if you must. It takes place after the first AI war as well as the First Terran Interstellar War.
“Lewis and Clarke” is an orphan, I had intended it for the rear of Ghosts from the Past, but the book ran longer than intended. So, I snipped it off and stuck it here. It tells the story of Lieutenant Lewis and the marines that followed him to Hidoshi's World.
Island of Moreau
May 2165
Angela felt woozy. She didn't know why, only that she … she shouldn't. It wasn't time for bed, she thought, fighting the feeling. Fatigue crowded her thoughts, made her sluggish. It was so hard to think. She moaned, trying to lift her hand to rub her head, but her hands were too heavy. Finally she gave in; it just wasn't worth the effort. Her eyelids fluttered.
The next thing she knew she felt hands helping her. Rough hands though, so she tried to protest. “She's not quite out,” a stern voice stated.
“Then sedate her.”
“If we give her too much ….”
“Don't worry about it,” the other voice said with a laugh. “The way they are falling out of the skies, there will always be another and another after that.”
“Whatever you say, boss,” the first male said. Angela tried to look but felt something … it felt like tape over her eyes. She tried to move but more of something bound her. That tape was going to rip her fur, she thought starting to get angry as a mister touched her neck. She felt something get injected into her and then felt no more.
“There goes another one,” Neo chimp security officer Elliot noted darkly. Angela Lansmerry, a female Neochimp with marketing. She was the tenth Neo to have gone missing, the fourth in the past year.
After the eighth chimp Oliver had disappeared, a friend of a friend had asked Elliot to look into it quietly. At first Elliot had thought it had been something innocent. Oliver had relocated to Earth; after all, it could have been just a simple change of address and such, forgetting to touch base with old friends and relatives. But he'd come up empty. He didn't like that. It wasn't possible. So, he'd done some digging. He'd checked into Oliver and hadn't found any sort of criminal history. So, he checked with local PD, but the cops weren't interested in the case of a missing Neochimp. That had pissed him off enough to go looking himself.
The more he looked, the more he didn't like what he found. Oliver hadn't been the first; in picking through the chimp's past, he'd found two other associates who had gone missing in the past two years. He'd ended up pulling up a check on all Lagroose employees and gotten hits on people who had gone off the grid.
That was when he started to find a pattern. Every single one had been a Neo. “Not good, nooot good,” he muttered to himself. When the puzzle pieces had started to fall into place, he hadn't liked the implications. He'd put a tag, an electronic ping on everyone in the company groundside. The little software spider was supposed to call in every twelve hours with the person's ID and location. Angela's spider was overdue.
He pulled up her last known location then hit the PD for any signs of her. He didn't want to jump to any conclusions; she could have been in an accident, altercation, or in a drunk tank. But there were no hits in the booking database. Again, not good.
He brought the problem up to his boss. Trevor immediately passed on it. He was busy, something to do with the starship program. But he'd exquisitely pointed out it was company security's area anyway. Not that Elliot didn't already know that, he thought with an exasperated sigh. He just wanted to follow protocol.
Elliot was a gen seven Neochimp, an old hand at the cybercrimes division. He had two bosses, the cyborg Trevor in charge of all of the company's computers and the security chief Roman. The maxim about a man with two masters ran through his head nearly daily.
He was a big time mystery fan in his spare time; it tied in to his work. Many people in his field had something to get away from the work. A few played VR games, Paul golfed, and Asen knitted of all things. He had a Sherlock Holmes collection since he'd been a kid and had played the detective in online virtual sims for years before Neos had been outed to the public. He'd been rather amused that his Holmes club had never suspected. Some detectives they were, right? He shook his head.
Now he was in the big leagues. He'd spun his hobby off into a career, one he loved. He'd did his stint holding up a wall as a guard and even played bodyguard to the Lagroose family before h
e'd finally found his true calling. He wuffled a sigh, making a boating raspberry noise with his large lips. If he wanted to look into this further, he'd have to put in a transfer to field work. Again. He grimaced. He wasn't sure what to think of that. Once Roman roped him in, he might get stuck and wouldn't be able to get back here to where he thought he belonged. But people were missing, possibly dying. Dying on his watch. Was there really any other choice, he thought?
Roman called him into his office within an hour of his email hitting the security chief's server. He put everything he had on file in a flash stick as well as a dog and pony presentation he'd prepared. He made a copy for his own implants too so he could refer to them during the brief. He did one last quick check of the net for new intel before he went to Roman's office to brief him.
“Elliot, long time no see. Digging into things? Looking for mysteries because you're bored?”
“That's a part of the job,” Elliot said as Roman motioned for him to take a seat across from him. Roman nodded. “And it really is a mystery.”
“I know,” Roman said, suddenly serious. Apparently the time for small talk was over Elliot thought cheerfully. “Unfortunately you were right. And we're not getting anywhere with the authorities on the ground,” the security chief said with a look of disgust on his face. “They just give us a smarmy smile and tell us it is out of our jurisdiction.” He shook his head. “If this is real, it could get ugly when someone notices how deep we're digging. They are big on privacy laws down there, you know.”
Elliot shrugged.
“If it's not we're going to have a lot of egg on our face. But I think it is real. I think you are right. It's too much to take in, too many coincidence. Two of the people quit but the others ….” He shook his head.