by Terry Mixon
“Some,” she admitted. “I’m good now. Most of it is Talbot’s, and Lilly says he’s going to be okay. Eventually.”
Never taking her eyes off her doppelgänger and her young friend, Kelsey sat. She’d thought she wouldn’t see this kind of thing again until they got off Terra. She was utterly floored.
When they finished bringing her up to speed, she raised her hand slightly. “What about the attack? Did we drive the horde back, or are we still going to have to deal with some of them?”
Mordechai smiled widely. “The trap that you led them into was more successful than we’d imagined possible. There were survivors, of course, but not many. None of those escaped the city. The invasion is over.
“Considering that they must’ve lost between four and five thousand of their warriors in this incursion, I seriously doubt that they’ll be back anytime soon. Their forces outside the city didn’t suffer any losses other than the ones incurred when you destroyed their treasure room and palace and the fight for domination that caused, but they’d never had as many mounted warriors as foot soldiers. Considering how warlike they are in general, I don’t believe they’ll be back up to their normal fighting strength for at least a full generation or two.
“Since they had to execute so many of their surviving leaders to settle the rulership question, whoever runs them now is going to be consolidating power for some time. He’ll have his mind on other things than trying to come after us.”
The older man leaned back in his chair and considered Kelsey. “I’ve heard great things about how well you fought. Both you and your husband exhibited capabilities that I never would’ve expected possible. It appears my understanding of what a Marine Raider could do was incomplete and understated. Well done.”
“There is something else that I need to tell you,” Jared said solemnly. “When we were going up and down the stairs, I found this.”
He opened the pouch at his belt and handed her a small metal pin. She took it from him and then almost dropped it as soon as she saw what was on its face: the emblem of the Marine Raiders.
She stared at him. “How is that possible? Has it been down there for five hundred years?”
“Doubtful. I think that whoever stole the fusion plant was wearing it, based on its condition. Maybe those people are descendants of Marine Raiders. Maybe their group was trained by the Raiders back in the day or perhaps simply inspired by them.
“Whoever they are, they still have technology and a connection to the Marine Raiders. We’re going to have to find out who they are because, if we can get off this planet, they’re probably going to play some part in getting us there.”
Kelsey sat back and turned her mind inward, ignoring the rest of them for a minute. The news was shocking. She wasn’t sure which of the possibilities could be the truth. Hell, they could all be true. Or it was something so strange that none of them could possibly guess the connection.
Coming back to herself, she focused on Carl. “Is there any way to use the maglev system to determine where these people came from and where they took the fusion plant?”
He shook his head. “The system was never designed to give a location for a train that’s not currently in service, so our best bet is going to be reactivating it and then seeing where it comes from.”
She gave him a raised eyebrow. “That’s going to tell them that we’re onto them. Is that what we really want to do?”
“Do we have a choice?” Jared asked. “Unless we want to walk a thousand kilometers through an unknown tunnel system with potentially toxic air, we’re going to need that train. We might as well get it into our heads that we’re going to be talking with them.
“We’ll go in as prepared as we can, but we have to be ready to fight a technologically advanced group if things go badly. We’ll do our best to make friends, but there’s only so much we can do to cajole them into doing what we want.”
Kelsey sighed. One more group that they might have to fight their way through to get what humanity needed. It felt like they’d either been on their way to Terra or down on the surface of this damned planet forever. She just wanted to be back in space and on her way to a new location with a new mission. This one felt like it would never end.
She turned her attention to Carl. “How soon are we going to be ready to do this?”
The young scientist smiled slightly. “I can go downstairs and call the train right now if that’s what you want.”
“I think we should rest up after the fight,” Jared said. “We can gather all the equipment that we’ll need, but tomorrow morning is soon enough.”
Kelsey nodded. “A good night’s sleep would do us all some good. If our history is anything to go by, we might not be getting any rest tomorrow.”
She could hardly believe that they were almost ready to leave Frankfort and try to get to the Imperial Palace. Yes, they’d have to go through another group of people to get there, but this was just the kind of break that they’d been desperately needing since they’d arrived on Terra.
They had to make this work. They just had to.
Jared was up early the next morning and made his way down to the lowest level of the city. The air smelled significantly better on the journey than it had the last time, and he hadn’t needed any air bottles.
Once there, he took a brief tour of the maglev control center and was impressed that so much of it still seemed operational. Carl was already going through what he could of the system. He’d plugged some of his gear into one of the consoles and now had the controls up and was trying to figure out how they worked.
Jared sat down next to him. “What have you found?”
“About what you’d expect,” the young man said. “The system has had failures here and there, but it has enough redundancy that it can still do what we need it to. I’ve gotten the serial number of the train. It’s been inactive for seven months.
“None of the other trains that used to use this system have been online for at least a century, so this one has to belong to the people that we’re looking for. I can’t tell you where it is, because it’s not active at the moment, though.
“The system was never designed to pinpoint the location of an inactive train. Sadly, it can’t even tell me the location where it last received a signal from it. Like I said, the original designers didn’t think that was necessary. I mean, who steals a train?
“What I can do is send a signal to reactivate it and then summon it here. Once it starts moving, I’ll be able to determine its location and where it’s coming from immediately, because it’s going to show up on the big board there.
“So long as it’s on automatic control, I should be able to determine a lot of things about it. If there’s anyone on board, they can cut me off pretty fast if they’ve got the knowledge to do it.”
Carl quirked an eyebrow at him. “Did Kelsey ever make you watch any of those Star Trek vids? Particularly The Wrath of Khan?”
Jared shook his head slightly. “She’s made me watch a lot of things, but I don’t remember anything by that name. What’s its significance?”
“In that vid, they have a situation where bad people stole one of their ships, so the good guys utilized their knowledge of its systems to lower its defenses remotely at a critical moment during a fight because nobody had bothered to change the codes their Fleet used.
“It’s nothing like what we do with our ships since we don’t allow other vessels to control them, but it’s a lot like what happens with the maglev train system here. I’m utilizing the controls built into the system meant to redirect traffic. Those trains are designed to obey commands from authorized control systems unless that feature is turned off.
“I’ll wager that since these folks seem to be the only ones using the system, they’ve never bothered changing the codes. If I’m right, their train will drive out right from under their noses before they can stop it. Once it’s in motion, Ralph will hack it and change the control code to prevent them from calling it back.”
“That sounds awfully complicated,” Jared said with a scowl. “Once you gain control of the train, can you determine if anyone is on board?”
The young scientist shrugged slightly. “I can access the vid feeds from inside the control area on the train. If someone shows up there, I’ll see them. I’m not going to be able to look into the passenger areas or where they keep cargo.
“The other feeds can be accessed from inside the train, but there was never any need for a general controller to be able to examine that information.”
Carl leaned back in his seat, obviously thinking about it. “I suppose it’s still possible, though. Once Ralph hacks the train, he can probably get access to the internal vid feeds. I’m not going to be able to say one way or the other until he gives it a shot.”
“If we can get access to those interior vids, I want to make that happen.”
“When are we planning to kick this off?” Carl asked.
He checked his internal chronometer. “They should have the last of the equipment that we’ll be taking with us down here in about an hour. I think that would be an excellent time to make this happen.
“I spoke to Leader Mordechai this morning, and he said that he’d send troops with us if we wanted. While extra bodies might be good, I’m not sure that mixing the people that were our captors yesterday with the thieves that stole from them a few years ago is a great plan. I’d rather keep this first meeting as straightforward as we possibly can.”
Carl chuckled at that. “You won’t get any argument from me. What about Talbot? Is he going to be ready to travel?”
“Travel, yes. Fight, no. Lily says that he needs to rest a couple days before he tries to exert himself. I’m not going to argue with her.
“We’re going to take all four sets of armor, which is why you had the other two brought down and charged them up this morning. Since we only have two Marine Raiders—counting Julia—you’re going to be using the set that you’ve already fitted for yourself.
“The last one is going to Lieutenant Laird. As a trained marine, she’s going to have an idea of what needs to happen if things break bad. She hasn’t used Raider armor, but she has used the standard marine version. That’ll give her a leg up.”
“I’ll get them fitted as soon as possible,” Carl agreed. “Add another hour to your time estimate to cover it.”
The scientist turned in his seat to face Jared. “Are you worried about this trip, sir? These people have technology, and they might be bad guys. If that’s the case, they might overwhelm us, and we’ll be screwed again.”
“Sometimes you just have to do the best you can,” Jared said as he clapped the other man on the shoulder and stood. “I’m going back upstairs to say our goodbyes. Be ready to start Operation Choo-Choo in two hours. We’re probably only going to get one try at this, so I’d rather not have it all come down around our ears.”
“Operation Choo-Choo?” Carl asked, amused. “That has to be a Kelsey thing.”
“Got it in one. Now, back to work.”
Jared smirked a little as he headed toward the door. Of course Kelsey had come up with the name. He had only the vaguest idea of how it connected to the maglev train, but she’d been insistent.
His expression grew more pensive once he was away from everyone else. He was less confident than he’d tried to sound. It was all too likely that they’d meet this next group and end up in another fight. One they might not be able to win.
They’d have to proceed as cautiously as they could and hope for the best because if they screwed this up, that was it for humanity. The human race might not die today, but it would die. And that was something he couldn’t allow to happen.
25
Julia set the large pack next to the pile that she and Kelsey had already hauled to the maglev platform. Even with the lift now working, it had taken the two of them more than an hour to carry down the bags that Carl had packed for them.
Lieutenant Laird had stayed in the cache room and continued packing what their former captors would allow them to take while they moved it. Thank God they didn’t have to carry everything down stairs the whole way.
Now that they’d repositioned everything on the platform, the rest of the folks going with them began sorting the contents so that everyone would have what they needed.
Carl had also come out of the control room and begun fitting armor to Chloe Laird, now that she’d arrived, and started fine-tuning Kelsey’s armor.
Once she was done, Julia edged over to her. “Do you think we’re going to make it?”
She had to ask because it seemed hard to imagine that they were going to get off this planet with the override. They’d been through so much and lost so many people that she was feeling really cynical about their chances at this point.
Kelsey gave her a sideways glance. “Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that we’re going to fail. We’ve got to have a positive outlook, even when things look darkest. That’s how we triumph again and again, because we don’t take no for an answer.”
Julia considered that for a few seconds and then shrugged. “I guess that’s one of the differences between us. I’ve failed so many times that I’ve just stopped believing that I can win. We’re so far behind the eight ball—both here and back in my universe—that victory seems unimaginable at this point. The AIs hold all the cards.”
Kelsey put her hands on Julia’s shoulders. “You’ve got to remember that they don’t know about you. They don’t know about the people that we’re training or the ships that we found for you.
“The knowledge of how things work here is going to give you a leg up there. By the time we’re done getting the override and fighting the master AI at Twilight River, you’ll know what you have to do.
“And you know that we’ll help you do it. Maybe not us personally, because I doubt my father—our father—will allow Jared or myself to go to your universe, but we can send plenty of ships packed with advisors and helpers to guide you.
“Admittedly, it’s going to be a challenge, but you can’t go through life expecting everything to fail. At some point, if all you do is look forward to failure, you’re going to give up. When that happens, victory is forever beyond your grasp. Don’t fall into that trap. Imagine victory and then make it happen.”
“You make it all sound so simple,” Julia grumbled. “I know that it’s not, and that’s what makes me lose hope. We have so many balls in the air. All it takes is dropping one for the enemy to win. So many people that I love have already died. It’s hard to believe I can redeem them.”
Before Kelsey could respond, Carl waved the two of them over. Julia followed in her doppelgänger’s footsteps.
“Kelsey, the armor is ready for you to put on and run through a test routine,” Carl said. “It’s not completely customized for you, but it’s the best I can do with the generic equipment I’ve got on hand. If we ever get back to Persephone, I can have it completely customized inside an hour. The same goes for you, Julia. That’s not going to be a problem.”
“I’m sad that I had to leave my original armor here,” Julia said with a shake of her head. “The black armor, I mean. It’s odd how the color matters to me. I have no idea why it’s different here, either. One of those little mysteries that we’ll never know the answer to.”
“It just goes to prove that when you’re looking at the multiverse as a theory, there are going to be inexplicable differences between even the most similar realities,” Carl said, visibly dropping into lecture mode. “Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if there were universes out there that are exactly like either one of ours, with only things like the names of ships being different. Or perhaps even different people aboard, assigned to different positions. The combinations are literally infinite.
“I wouldn’t get hung up on the details if I were you. When we get back to the ship, I can change the color for you. That’s not really that complicated an issue. It’ll take a little experimentation, but I can work it out
in a couple of hours.”
She nodded, but she wasn’t sure that was what she really wanted. The black armor belonged to a different person. Even in the short time that she’d been in this universe, Julia had changed. Even thinking of herself by her assumed name was feeling more natural.
Honestly, it was like getting a fresh start. She could leave her mistakes and failures behind by merely changing her name. Julia would do better than Kelsey had in her universe.
Of that, she would make sure.
Julia nodded distractedly and looked around the platform. It seemed as if almost everyone was there and packing their gear. They’d only brought along things that they thought they could carry, as they knew that they might have to hike at some point.
There was only so much equipment that they could take that would help them in the long run, too. The immediate goal had to be getting from point A to point B and dealing with the people that they were going to negotiate with if that was even happening first.
The train would be great—if it actually arrived—but wasn’t going to get them to the Imperial Palace. That was going to take some hiking, whether it be aboveground, where they’d have to potentially fight other people, or through the tunnels, where they needed supplies to allow them to see, breathe, and eat.
Weirdly, that made her think about the horses that they’d been forced to leave tethered outside the horde city. They’d left the reins in such a way that the horses could tug them loose, but she was confident that the horde had recaptured them by now.
Thankfully, those murderous bastards were actually the kind of people that cared for their animals. Still, she missed the ability to ride. What an odd, introspective thing it was to think about how horse riding brought her pleasure at a time like this.
While she was thinking about that, Mertz exited the control room and began waving for them to gather around.
“Everyone, it’s time to get the last of your gear packed. Now that Carl has the armor fitted to our fighters, he’s going to call the train. I’m not sure how long it’s going to take to get here, so you need to begin getting yourselves in order. It might bring hostile guests right to our doorstep, and we’ll want to give them a warm welcome.”