New Earth

by Randal Sloan

  Sara had no idea what that meant, but it sounded quite serious. She could only pass it on to the Princess.

  Jarra arrived much too quickly to suit Sara. Besides needing to come clean with her friend, Sara realized something else. Now was the time to go back to her duties, despite the fear that remained. She wasn’t ready, but if she didn’t try, she might never be ready.

  “You wanted to see me?” Jarra asked, working hard to keep her tone light and positive. Despite all that was going on with her own situation, she wasn’t sure if Sara was able to handle it. She would treat her friend very carefully until she knew she was alright.

  Sara couldn’t help but pick up on the hidden nervousness in her friend. It didn’t help her feelings, although she didn’t think it was because of her. No, something else was going on. It didn’t matter — she had to come clean. Mentally, she shook her head.

  She gave Jarra a tentative smile. “Please don’t be angry with me, Your Highness, but there’s something I’ve been planning to discuss with you. Up until now, I haven’t had the chance to do so,” Sara told her, “— especially with someone’s orders not to leave this sick bay. I’m fine, by the way, so I think it’s time I got back to doing my job.”

  Sara knew her smile was still a little weak, so she knew she hadn’t completely sold her case about her wellness. She could see that in Jarra’s eyes. It wasn’t like she was sold on it herself.

  Nevertheless, Jarra returned her smile. “I don’t buy the ‘Fine’ as you say, but I won’t argue with the second part. I’ve known all along your decision to leave here had to come from you, so I wasn’t going to push you. Neither will I fight you, but also understand, it’s going to take you a long time to get back to normal, whatever that is. If you find yourself needing a break, just let me know.

  “We’re also on our way to a possible conflict and if you’re up to it, I actually need you on the bridge. We’ll arrive at the planet New Earth in a few hours — our Marines there have need of us. No strings attached; you can hand your job off to Sasha and Gabo at any time, but it’s your job if you feel you’re up to it.

  “All that being said, let’s return to the original purpose of this meeting — just what is it you haven't told me?” Jarra tried to give her an unbiased smile, but she was still reeling from her message from the Master Sergeant, so she didn’t quite pull it off.

  That didn’t reassure Sara at all, but there was nothing to do but come out with it. “I sorta have an AI in my head,” Sara told her, giving her a smile of her own to hide her nervousness.

  That was the last thing Jarra had expected to hear, despite the fact Sara had constantly wanted such a thing after learning that as a Crown Princess Jarra did indeed have an AI in her head, the highest of Imperial tech being available to her and her family. She just stared at her friend in shock for a moment. However, she immediately saw the truth in Sara’s eyes, so she didn't argue. For once in her life, she found herself at a loss for words.

  Sara saw the shock and confusion within her friend’s eyes, so she quickly continued. “It’s not quite the same as yours. Adrihel, the Forerunner AI, somehow left a small part of himself within my head. I don’t know how he did it. He was the one who pulled me back from the brink before you and Master Hadassah found me. Without him, I fear I would have been lost.”

  Sara couldn’t hide the tears in her eyes as she thought back to that time. Even though that had only been a couple of days ago, it now seemed like a lifetime away. She had been buried so deeply within herself and so very terrified that Daghol had won that she’d been just about to give up when Adrihel spoke to her within her mind.

  “He saved me,” she told Jarra, her voice almost a whisper.

  Her voice grew stronger. “It’s quite astounding, but even more so, apparently he has the ability to receive messages from the larger original version of himself. He has given me an important message that I need to pass on to you.”

  Jarra had finally recovered her own equilibrium. “We’re going to need to have some discussions later about you holding out on your Crown Princess, as well as attempting to understand just what it all means, but for now, I guess you’d better tell me that message.”

  Sara nodded. “I don’t understand it myself but here it is:

  Although your sight appears clear,

  It is confused by the shadow of the past,

  Those that you might now oppose,

  Are the ones most needed for the last.”

  Sara shook her head. “Any idea what it might mean?”

  Jarra gave her a smile. “Yes and no. As I told you, we are headed to New Earth where I’ve been told we must fight against aliens again. This message seems to tell me I must find a better solution than their destruction.”

  “Good luck with that, Your Highness. I’ll leave the heavy thinking to you. I’m going by my quarters to change and then I’ll see you on the bridge. Adrihel also gave me a special course through the core that he says will save us time, time he says we’re going to need. I need to give that to Galen and help him program it all in the AI.”

  Jarra didn’t have to think about that one, unwilling to pass up any help the Forerunner AI could supply. Although, she wondered at the full ramifications of it. Just how did Adrihel have such information? “Send it to Galen and tell him to do whatever it takes to follow that course. We’re going to need all the help we can get.

  “We’re also going to definitely have a talk when all this is over. I’m going to need to know a lot more about this AI of yours.”

  Jarra gave her another smile, even as she prepared to rush back. “See you on the bridge. Get the course to Galen as soon as you can, so he has time to look it over.”

  Not trusting herself to speak, Sara just nodded. As Jarra hurried away, Sara started to remove the medical equipment still attached to her. Knowing how much her team needed her helped a little. She was just going to have to give it her best shot.

  She hoped it was going to be good enough.

  As the team’s Imperial Intelligence specialist, Sasha had been reviewing the data stream regarding New Earth the Master Sergeant had included along with his message. She had been particularly interested in the information regarding the aliens.

  Sasha had a special ability. She could read the patterns in a large data stream and come up with an accurate estimate of the results based on a probability matrix. She had no idea how her ability worked, but she knew it was beyond what anyone else could do in the Empire. Mostly that ability had worked out for her good, at least after she had gotten out from under the stupid bureaucracy that had plagued her at her original work location.

  Before she’d joined the team, Sasha had been reading the patterns in the Imperial intelligence data stream and had made a serious discovery. This was before it was known that aliens and rebels were involved in a plot to oppose the Empire. Her attempts to warn the Imperial Intelligence Admiral over her section had not been well received, resulting in her being sent off aboard a frigate in the Imperial Navy. It had been a horrible way to travel and the crew had been downright hostile to her.

  Luckily, she’d been rescued by the same Imperial Marine squad that was involved in the current situation. Quite a competent bunch so Sasha pitied the aliens that were pitted against them now. Sasha’s rescue had been engineered by Crown Prince John, Jarra’s cousin who had seen her talent for what it was. That and apparently fallen in love with her, something she still couldn’t believe to be her good fortune, for she returned the feelings.

  John had schemed to send her off to his cousin, both as a means to fully utilize her abilities and to remove her from his Naval chain of command so he could pursue a relationship with her. Despite her resistance to her cousin’s manipulations, Jarra had immediately recognized Sasha’s talents and made a place for her on her team. After all, by that time Jarra herself already knew about those rebels and aliens from her own experience, but Sasha couldn’t have possibly known either when she predicted it from her data ana
lysis.

  Later they’d learned those aliens were the Aerstone and that they were intent on wiping out all life in the galaxy. That had just been the beginning of their adventures, and they’d accomplished much in the opposition to those aliens and rebels. Sasha had been involved in it all.

  Sasha had already made quite a fruitful dive into the Master Sergeant’s data stream. Despite having limited data on them, she took a strong look at the aliens. The aliens at New Earth sounded much the same as the Aerstone, but yet they were different too. After puzzling about it for some time, she came up with the answers, far-fetched as they seemed. She knew she needed to let Jarra know her findings, but instead of speaking aloud, she used a direct implant connection to speak with her so as to keep it just between the two of them.

  “I have important news, Your Highness,” she sent, still unable to call her friend and leader by just her name. “It’s regarding the aliens on New Earth.”

  Jarra was still trying to come to terms with what she’d learned from Sara so this was good news to her. “I’ve been struggling with just what these aliens mean to us, so anything you have will be useful,” she told her friend, not bothering to call her on the “Your Highness” embedded in there. Still, it was getting to be too much of a habit. Sasha was the worst of them all too.

  “I’ve been studying the patterns in the data sent by the Master Sergeant, and I think these aliens are an ancient sect of the original Aerstone. I’m guessing they fled for either political or religious asylum to our arm of the galaxy, and it appears they’ve been hiding out on New Earth, most likely due to its remote location.”

  “That explains some things,” Jarra told her. “I can definitely make use of the information. Thanks for the good work.”

  “One more thing, Princess. Unlike the rest of their race, these Aerstone appear to be mortal. I’m sure you can see the ramifications of that.”

  Jarra nodded. “That makes sense. They must have left before they developed the means to download themselves. I wonder what else is different about them?”

  “That I can’t tell you, but it means whatever you do about them is more likely to be a permanent solution.”

  “Guess that means I’d better find the right one, doesn’t it?”

  “No one ever said your job was going to be easy. But I believe in you, Your Highness, and I know you’ll figure it out.”

  Sasha broke the connection, but not before she heard Jarra’s unbidden thought across the link, “That’s one of us…”

  Amy Swanson was busy doing her part too. As the team language specialist, she at first had wondered if she’d really be able to support her newfound team like she wanted to. When Amy had befriended the much too young Lieutenant Jarra when she transferred aboard the Imperial Navy super-dreadnought Relentless as part of an undercover assignment, she had no idea the girl would turn out to be a Crown Princess, but she’d wanted to be her friend anyway. When she discovered the truth, Amy had not been able to believe that not only did the Princess want to remain her friend, but she wanted Amy to join her team.

  It hadn’t helped that later Jarra and her ship had risked their lives to save Amy and her group of escort ships from a rebel attack. It had been her darkest hour when she believed they’d all died in that attempt. But they’d not only survived, they’d discovered “fast” hyperspace and had made use of that discovery many times since.

  Amy still had trouble believing she was a part of this special team. She did have a special knack for languages and she’d been surprised to see just how important that had become to her team. But after all, they’d been the ones sent on all the missions to the aliens, and she’d found herself having to translate one alien language after another.

  Once more she was having to work her magic. This latest one, buried in the data the Master Sergeant had sent, was really odd. It was an Aerstone derivative, something she’d never expected to see. Most of the Aerstone were very rigid, and the other Aerstone dialect she’d seen hadn’t changed at all in a millennia or two, making her job far easier than it could have been.

  But in this case, it was the differences in this dialect that made the latest sending so important. At first Amy had struggled with it, her own understanding of the original dialect confusing her to the meanings hidden in this derivative. For example, the word for “stop” was completely different from the word in the original, its meaning almost the opposite. But finally she had it all worked out.

  Something told her that all this would make a huge difference in their upcoming mission. Something about that one word in particular. She sent Jarra a message with the translation matrix, highlighting the differences. Somehow Amy knew without a doubt she would need it.

  Amy was just happy that she could once more help her friend. She had no idea just how important that help might be.

  Neither did Jarra when she received the language data from Amy, but she knew she’d better figure it out before they reached their destination.

  Galen swore when this flight was over, he was going to find a way to clean his slate with Lady Fate. When he’d first met Jarra and his new team, he’d made the mistake of bragging that he could navigate anywhere in hyperspace. Ever since then he’d been paying for that prideful boast!

  Time and time again, he was given an ever more difficult challenge to navigate through hyperspace. He had to navigate blind more than once, relying only on his instincts. Then they discovered “fast” hyperspace and it was almost more than he could manage. Just to add one more, there had been the job of navigating between the arms of the galaxy, especially when they had to use the void drive. Now this.

  That latest aspect of their current flight hadn’t even existed a few weeks ago. They’d had to invent the void drive just to complete their last mission. Oh, they’d used it to reach the Borjon ship stranded in the middle of the void between the arms of the galaxy, and they used it again in their desperately urgent flight back to get Sara to Master Hadassah in time for him to bring her back from her coma.

  That trip had been hard enough, Galen having to push their ship to the highest level he’d ever achieved before. But it had been worth it. Using his abilities as a Dream Master, the Master had been able to reach Sara in time to save her. Still, it had been a near thing. They’d all known that, Sara most of all. The whole experience had changed her, that was for sure.

  Galen smiled as he thought of his friend, Gabo. It appeared that Gabo and Sara had finally both decided to pursue their relationship, something that had already been bubbling beneath the surface but not quite happening due to Sara’s uncertainty. Her near brush with death had apparently been enough for her to overcome her original reluctance.

  Galen was glad for his friend, although he was a little jealous. The way everything was going, he’d be the only one on the team not paired up with someone. Well, neither were Kaeden and Amy, but the Borjon monk had explained that due to their long lives, he would not be interested in pursuing a relationship with someone of his race for many decades yet. Galen liked Amy, but the spark just wasn’t there.

  They hit a particularly strong hyperspace flow, drawing his full attention back to his current task. All of his experience with the void drive was paying off now. Following the data given by Adrihel, the Forerunner AI, at least gave him a plotted course. That was the only positive he saw in their current situation. Nothing about navigating in the core would ever be easy. He was constantly having to make tiny adjustments to their course, especially now that they were moving so fast due to the ship’s void drive.

  If Gabo hadn’t been working the sensors, it would have all been impossible. Somehow he was able to keep up, sending a view of the hyper streams to his screen even in the denser areas of the core. He’d just done it again, giving Galen just enough warning. Most in Gabo’s job would barely have been able to keep up with a normal hyperspace flight, much less assist in what they were attempting to do. It didn’t hurt that Katarina had the most advanced sensors in the Empire, but still Gabo
’s skill wielding his sensors made the difference.

  The last crisis over for the moment, Galen took a deep breath. He’d used the tunneling ability of the void drive to completely avoid dealing with that hyper flow which had been nearly contrary to their flight. On the other side of it, hyperspace smoothed out for a short distance. During that slight interlude Galen sent a quick, “Thanks, Gabo. You’re awesome!” by implant.

  Gabo just smiled. “Nah, dude, you’re the one breaking every record in the Empire. I have no idea how fast we’re going in the real universe, but I suspect it’s beyond anything I can conceive, I can tell you that.”

  Galen couldn’t argue that, but he didn’t have time to respond. The next upcoming wave in hyperspace was going to be enough of a challenge.

  Jarra just watched her team and smiled. Even though she still worried they wouldn't get there in time, watching them work their miracles was something to see. If anyone could do what it took to get them there by the time they had to make it, they could.

  She would tell them that later, but for now she let them work unimpeded. Their time was just too short.

  Chapter 9

  Calm Before the Storm

  Gauqur, High Master of the Order of the Dark Illumination, had been ordered to come before the Council to discuss his latest report. His intention to go forward with his plans had been brought into question once again. They were apparently having second thoughts. Too bad!

  “You would make a deal with the devil!” Yegir exclaimed. He was Gauqur’s biggest opponent on the Council. “You have exceeded your authority by agreeing to the terms from these aliens.”

  “What do we care about what happens out there?” Gauqur told him. “They’ve promised to leave us alone to run things. Once we become strong enough, we will drive them from our land. What do we care about the skies?”