by M. R. Forbes
The Knife's face was hard and serious. Mitchell could tell he was working the numbers, calculating the risk. The pounding came again.
"Very well, Colonel. We have a deal." He put out his hand.
Mitchell shook it.
19
The leader of the squad of exo outfitted soldiers was named Teal. He was a brawny man with a massive forehead, small eyes, and a wide, bright smile. He was waiting outside the Valkyrie when Major Long opened the hatch, his focused expression giving way when the Knife greeted him.
"Teal," Tio said, returning the man's smile. "We've got some new friends." He paused, looking back at Mitchell. "And some new enemies."
"We were keeping an eye on the battle, sir," Teal said. His voice was deep and calm. "We had crew ready to launch if it looked like it was going to turn ugly." His eyes trailed towards Mitchell. "It seems like your new friends had everything in hand."
"You can dismiss the others, Teal," Tio said. "I want you to stay with us."
"Yes, sir."
Teal faced the rest of the soldiers. "Tio's back and safe. Return to your posts. Dismissed."
The soldiers faded away behind him, some trying to cast backward glances to get a look at Tio before they left.
"Teal, I want you to meet the crew of the Goliath. They are members of the Alliance military, a special operations unit known as Project Black, or more affectionately known as the Riggers."
"Riiigg-ahh," Cormac said behind them.
"No shit?" Teal said, looking them over.
"You know who we are?" Millie asked.
"Not by name. I've seen the reports."
"Those reports are classified," Watson said.
"You'll get used to it," Teal replied. "You don't stay one step ahead of the law by being one step behind on intel."
"This is Admiral Mildred Narayan, Colonel Mitchell Williams, Major Aaron Long, Corporal Erubiel Watson, and Private Cormac Shen."
"A pleasure," Teal said. "Though I have to say, boss, if we're working with Alliance special ops, things are worse than I realized."
"They are, Teal," Tio said. "Much worse. Let's bring our guests down to operations."
Teal looked confused. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, Teal."
"Damn. It is much worse than I thought."
The big soldier led them back from the dock to a second corridor. A small transport pod was waiting there, and they piled in.
"Teal here is a former Alliance Space Marine," Tio said as the pod moved through the corridor, turned left, and slid neatly into a lift.
"Which company?" Mitchell asked.
"Raiders."
"Impressive."
Teal smiled. The Raiders were well-known for their drop efficiency and mission success rates. "Not as impressive as Greylock, but it'll do."
"You know who I am?"
"Heh. Yeah. I've seen you all over the streams."
"Most people who see me for the first time either wonder why I'm not dead or tell me they wish I were."
"The Knife vouched for you, Colonel. Whether what they say about you is true or not, that's good enough for me."
The lift stopped its descent. The door opened, and the pod moved out into another corridor. There were more people down here - men and women who could have hailed from any number of planets. Mitchell even saw a few children. They seemed focused but content, and they all stopped and waved at Tio when they saw him passing by.
"Your people seem to like you," Millie said.
"Why shouldn't they, Admiral? I take good care of them. Which reminds me. I've got a world-class medi-bot down here, Colonel, if you want to heal that wound once and for all."
"I'll take you up on that later," Mitchell said.
"Of course."
The pod continued, making a few more turns before moving out onto a walkway twenty feet above a large, circular room. The room was filled with water that spun in a vortex around the center. Mitchell could see the glow of lights beneath it.
"Our data center," Tio said. "We process so much incoming data that we have to keep it liquid cooled. Otherwise, the heat signature would reveal our location."
"We have a similar cooling system on our reactor," Teal said. "It's pretty awesome."
They reached the other side of the room. Operations was beyond it. It was a second large room, with rows and columns of workstations and people manning every one of them. They worked at screens and tactile inputs, watching data flow and manipulating it somehow.
"That would be much easier with a p-rat," Long said.
"No wireless networks," Teal said. "That's rule number one on Asimov. Nobody here has an ARR. We still do everything the old-fashioned way."
"How do you pilot exo without an ARR?" Mitchell asked.
"They've been modified to react to muscular changes," Tio said. "Everything has been modified and updated to work better with manual controls. No, it doesn't match the speed of thought, but what we lose in that speed we can make up for with practice."
"That's how we manage to win fights against the Alliance," Teal said.
"And we're immune to hacking," Tio added. "Not just from AI, Colonel. You may not know this, but the Federation has spent a lot of time and money to try to break Alliance encryption keys. The Tetron aren't the only ones who want to get into your head."
"Tetron, sir?" Teal said.
"I'll fill you in later. I wanted to show you the operations center. Corporal Watson, Admiral Narayan, I imagine we'll be spending quite a bit of time here over the next few days. This is where we capture the incoming data through the array and index it for processing. Some of my people keep an eye on it, checking for any anomalies in the transmission to ensure the data isn't corrupted. Others watch it for evidence of tampering. Corporal, I'll introduce you to my lead data coordinator, Bethany, once we've gotten things settled."
"Okay," Watson said.
The pod passed over the ops center, reaching another lift and taking a second ride down. This area was less populated and more serene. Large rooms were filled with greenery, with projections of atmosphere coating high ceilings. There were bulb-like apartments here, separate structures where the residents of Asimov lived. Tio's quarters were obvious, the largest of them all, protruding out from the center like a mushroom cloud.
"I have some business to settle before we continue our partnership," Tio said as the pod came to a stop in front of one of the units. "Teal, show them inside and get them comfortable. Make sure they have whatever they need. I'll pick you up in two hours so we can begin."
Tio remained in the pod while the others disembarked. Once they were clear, the pod headed off towards the central building.
Mitchell watched it go, a rising sense of anger and frustration in his gut. Fighting the Tetron was supposed to be his destiny. Had he lost control of it again?
20
"I've been thinking about our deal with the Knife," Mitchell said, glancing over at the readout on the small screen to his right. It had been four hours since Tio had excused himself to settle his business. Four hours that had left them sitting there to rot. Four hours wasted while the Tetron continued their advance.
"What about it?" Millie asked.
Tio had made them comfortable. Very comfortable. They had gel couches and a full bar, and a small crew of workers had come to cook for them. Meats and fruits and other delicacies he hadn't had access to in months. Mitchell enjoyed every moment he had spent eating it, but now the taste was turning sour. Teal had abandoned them an hour ago, leaving them with a squad of guards outside the apartment.
The Knife had said he didn't intend to imprison them. Mitchell figured Tio needed to look up what the word "imprisoned" meant.
"I don't think it's going very well," Mitchell said. "Have you been able to reach Origin?"
"Not so far," Millie replied. "I don't think the signal can make it out."
"We thought that might happen."
"I know."
Mitchell rose from the sofa, facin
g the others. "I was talking more about our plans. I think this shows us we need a third option. A wildcard."
"What do you mean, Colonel?" Cormac asked.
"We're hoping we can stop the Tetron advance on Earth by getting their attention, but it isn't guaranteed. Tio thinks we can if we get to his brother, which isn't guaranteed either. I think there's a third option we should explore."
"Which is what, Mitch?" Millie asked.
He had gotten the idea when he saw Tio's antenna array. When the Knife had bragged about how powerful it was. It had been flashing through his mind while they had been forced to sit and wait, vanishing and reappearing there, refusing to go away.
"Tetron communications happen in real-time," Mitchell said. "The trouble is, Origin doesn't have the equipment he needs to send a long-range message out for us. Nobody does, except the full Tetron."
"And Tio," Watson said. "If his array is as acute as he claims."
"Exactly. What if we can have Origin send a message to the array, and relay it from there?"
"What kind of message?" Millie asked. "Who would we send it to?"
"Alliance Command," Mitchell replied. "We could warn them about the Tetron. Tell them to turn off their p-rats. They would at least have a chance to organize some kind of defense. Maybe it would be enough to hold the Tetron off for a while, until we could get to them with reinforcements."
"That won't work," Long said. "Cornelius was already under Tetron influence. How do we know the other members of Command aren't as well?"
"Cornelius was in Delta Quadrant with the Tetron. The rest of Command isn't."
"The Tetron have had time to send messages back to Earth through human channels as Cornelius by now," Millie said. She flinched slightly when she said her father's name. "They're not going to believe you over him, whether he's the real Cornelius or not. They won't believe any of us over him."
Mitchell stood and stared at Millie. He closed his eyes. He knew she was right. What were they but a ship full of criminals that had made an alliance with another criminal? There was no way anyone in the Alliance would believe a word they said, especially with a story as crazy as one about AI from the past future coming to enslave and destroy them.
He was in the middle of it, and he could still barely believe it himself.
"It's not a bad idea," Millie said. "In fact, I think it would be a great idea if we could get it to someone who might actually listen."
"You're forgetting something, Colonel," Watson said. "It takes a powerful system to send the communication, yes. But only the Tetron are equipped to receive the signal. You'd be sending them a message to warn them about themselves." He started laughing, a whiny, low cackle that annoyed Mitchell more than his oversight.
"Damn it," he said.
"I have an idea though, Colonel," Watson said, his laughter vanishing as quickly as it came.
"What is it?"
"We send the signal out. The Tetron receive it. Maybe we can package it in such a way that when they do, it gets converted to standard human wavelengths. It travels the rest of the distance as normal."
"Can we do that?" Long asked.
Watson shrugged. "I don't know. We would have to ask Origin. Theoretically, it should be possible. It isn't much different than pushing a stream through a comm needle."
"Except I can't get through to Origin," Millie said.
"Not from here. The rock around the array is thinner to allow signals to pass."
"Okay, so we ask Tio to take us to the array so we can send a message up to Origin," Mitchell said.
"No," Millie said.
Mitchell's head snapped towards her. "What?"
"I don't want Tio to know anything about this, Mitch. We can't trust him."
"How are we going to do this without him knowing?"
"Oh, come on now, Colonel," Cormac said. "We're the friggin' Riggers."
"Whoa. Hold on, y'all," Major Long said. "The idea is great. It is. Except for the fact that even if we can get it to someone in the Alliance who isn't already under Tetron control, they aren't going to believe a word of it."
"There is that," Cormac said.
They all fell silent, their desperate plan rendered useless by their reputation. Mitchell returned to the couch, flopping down next to Millie and closing his eyes again.
"There has to be someone who would listen," he said. Someone who knew them. Someone who might believe there was some truth in what they were saying. Someone who had some amount of authority in the Alliance.
Someone like his brother, Steven. The Admiral.
He opened his eyes, the smile splitting his face.
"Mitch?" Millie said, noticing the sudden change in his mood.
"I know who we can send it to."
The excitement of turning the total defeat of the idea to a potential victory was quickly stamped out as the door to their apartment slid open.
21
"My apologies for the delay, Admiral," Tio said, entering the room. "I had an emergency I had to attend to."
His expression suggested that he knew they had been discussing something. It was possible the suite was bugged, and he had heard the entire conversation, but Mitchell didn't think so. The Knife didn't bring people he didn't trust to Asimov, and if he trusted the people who were here, why would he be spying on them?
"A bigger emergency than the Tetron?" Millie replied.
"Believe it or not, yes. Some things are more important than war."
"Like sex," Cormac said. His lowered his head when Mitchell's eyes bore into him.
"In any case, I haven't been idle while you've been waiting."
He motioned towards the door. They followed him out, back to the pod where Teal was once again waiting. A second person was with him now. A fresh-faced man in a simple navy blue uniform.
"Colonel Williams, meet Germaine Sanders. Germaine is the lead pilot and captain of the cruiser Avalon. He'll be taking you to Hell."
Mitchell gave Germaine a closer inspection. He couldn't have been more than twenty-two years old. Dark skin, soft eyes. He held himself with an air of cockiness that Mitchell wondered if the apparent pilot could live up to.
"Colonel," Germaine said, giving him a sharp military bow. "Your reputation precedes you, sir."
"Germaine," Mitchell said, remaining stiff. "You look a little young to have served."
"I did nine months before I flunked out."
"Germaine's parents were both Alliance officers," Tio said. "They didn't take his failure well."
"It's a long story, but I wound up here with Mr. Tio."
"He has the highest ratings of any of my captains by far," Tio said. "My willingness to loan you my best should give you an indication of the value I'm putting on our joint operations. In any case, Teal and Germaine have hand-picked the team that will be traveling to Hell with you."
"We have a team," Millie said.
"You do, Admiral. One that is too lightly staffed to carry out this mission. I'm sure you can't argue with that."
"I'm not sending Mitchell out with yours alone."
"You don't have to. I was expecting Major Long and Private Shen to accompany him."
"Three of ours? How many of yours?"
"I thought a crew of fifty would be sufficient," Teal said. "From what Tio tells me, we aren't expecting trouble, just a lot of heavy lifting."
Millie didn't look happy, but she nodded. "Unless we're the unluckiest friggers in the universe, the Tetron will have come and gone. We're going to pick at whatever was left behind."
"Yes, ma'am," Teal said.
Tio was smiling again. "You said it yourself, Admiral. You don't need your team for vulture duty."
"And I suppose Colonel Williams can't return to the Goliath before the trip, either?"
"What for?"
"My fighter, for one," Mitchell said.
"You won't need it," Teal said.
"That's not for you to decide."
"Look, Admiral," Tio said, putting up his h
and to calm the situation. "We can argue about this for hours, or we can start preparing to move forward. I understand I damaged our trust, but I don't understand why you seem convinced that I'm not on your side? You may not approve of my methods, but unless you believe I'm aiding the Tetron, or am a Tetron, the mistrust should only extend so far, don't you think?"
Millie was silent. Mitchell could see her bionic hand shaking, indicating her displeasure.
"If you want to return to Goliath, you're free to go. All of you. We can end this arrangement, and the Tetron can destroy us all. Or you can put the smallest mote of faith in my desire to see this threat halted and the proliferation of thinking AIs put to an end, and work with me to reach our shared goals. Tell me which it is, and tell me now, Admiral. My daughter is dying, and I would much prefer to be at her bedside instead of standing here defending every thought I have."
The monolog left Tio shaking, too. His eyes burned against Millie's, a battle of wills between two people accustomed to being in control.
Finally, Millie looked away. "Is that why you were delayed?"
"Yes."
"What's wrong with her?"
"She has a tumor. A brain tumor."
"Medi-bots-"
"Not this one," Tio snapped. He shook his head. "My apologies. As I said earlier, I have the most advanced medi-bots money can buy. The location and nature of the tumor make it inoperable. We keep her medicated most of the time, but there are some days when she wakes. Today was one of those days." A tear formed in the corner of his eye, sliding softly down his cheek. "It was the first time I was able to speak to her in nearly four months."
"I'm sorry," Mitchell said, picking up the words that were failing Millie. "We didn't know."
"Of course you didn't. I would rather not have told you about it, but we need to be able to work together if we are going to fight back against the Tetron. Colonel Williams, Teal and Germaine have selected a team for your mission to Hell. They would be happy to bring you and your men down to staging to meet them. Admiral, Watson, I will escort you back to operations to meet with Bethany. We can discuss the most efficient approach to both searching the data and getting it transferred off Asimov."