by Terry Mixon
“He’s in computer storage aboard Persephone. One of our scientists extracted him from my implants. Now they’re in the process of building an artificial body that will fool the program into believing that he’s still inside Marine Raider implants.
“It’s going to take a while to even understand the basics of what they need to do. Eventually, though, Ned is going to wake up again. He will live again.”
Jake shook his head. “That’s really hard to take just on someone’s word.”
“Let me give you some more evidence,” Kelsey said. “I’m going to send you some files.”
She initiated a connection to his implants and then sent him a lot of images and video files that she’d recorded aboard Persephone. Ones that were taken inside the bridge and other portions of the ship that wouldn’t be known to anyone who hadn’t been there. She also sent him the recording of the meeting between the man and Ned that she’d referenced.
He sighed and rubbed his face with his remaining hand. “I can’t argue with any of that. That’s me, and I remember the meeting well enough, though I hadn’t recorded it. The layout of the planet and the uniform I was wearing are indisputable.
“There’s also no way that you could’ve known the layout of Persephone. I’ve been aboard her, and that’s exactly how she’s laid out. I can even see some of the same scars and blemishes on the bulkheads of the bridge. They were there when I visited, so you must’ve been aboard that ship.
“If I grant that, I suppose I have to give you the rest of your story, as difficult as it is to believe.”
He shook his head and chuckled. “I suppose it isn’t any more preposterous than me being over five centuries old, so we’ll just have to accept what the other is saying. You are a Marine Raider, and Ned—or some semblance of him—is still alive somewhere.”
Kelsey stripped off the sheathed swords and handed them back to the guard. He quickly scurried away. She supposed he really didn’t have any idea how dangerous she was with just her hands.
“Now that I’m unarmed again, there’s something else that I’d like to discuss with you. In private.”
Jake nodded and gestured for the guards to move back to the walls. They’d still be able to see everything that was going on but be unable to hear any normally pitched conversation.
Once they were out of earshot, Kelsey continued. “We need your help. We’ve come here for something that can beat the artificial intelligences.”
“The override,” Peters said with a nod. “I’m aware that it’s down in the vault because that was part of my briefing. I have no way of getting in there, but I suppose you do. I can’t claim that I have complete control over events that take place here in the Imperial Palace, but I’ll do what I can to smooth that path for you.
“The leadership of the group that I once formed to support us has taken on a life of its own. They give me a lot of leeway in what I can order them to do, but I’ve run into some things that they’ve refused. They’re decent people, but be cautious around them.”
“Thank you,” she said, smiling in gratitude. “We appreciate the help, though I’m still not sure how we’re going to get off this planet and back to Persephone. Even if we manage that, we’ve still got to get out of the Terra system somehow.”
“The Marine Raiders left a lot of caches of equipment and supplies,” he said. “I know where you can find a couple of stealthed Marine Raider pinnaces.”
That made her grin. “It just so happens that both Jared and I know how to fly. Maybe everything isn’t lost after all. Why didn’t you use one to get away from here?”
He shrugged. “Where would I go? The AIs had conquered the entire Empire. What use was it trying to get to another world?
“If they caught me, I’d have suffered an eternity of being a slave in my own body. I fought them and lost. Maybe you can win—and I’m more than willing to help you do it—but my time is past.
“When we moved to the Imperial Palace, we still had some older folk that could fly the pinnaces. They’re stashed in the underground hangar, so you can probably get access to them. No promises on their condition, though.”
“We’ll make it work. Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” he said in a low voice. “The leadership council isn’t going to tolerate strangers like you here in the Imperial Palace for very long. At some point very soon, they’re going to decide that it’s time for you to go. You need to act fast if you intend to get what you need before then.”
She smiled coldly. “Leave that to us.”
29
An hour later, Carl was in the medical center that had once been reserved for the Imperial Family. It looked like it was still in pretty decent shape and seemed to have been well stocked.
The Imperial Palace had been abandoned before Terra had fallen, so no one had used this facility in more than five centuries. It looked as if the Rebel Empire had sent people to search it—as well as the rest of the Imperial Palace—to make certain that no one was hiding here, but they’d left it abandoned.
Doctor Stone was going through the medical gear piece by piece, and if anything needed to be repaired, he was right on hand to do the work. Like the room itself, most of it was in good shape, but he’d found the tools and replacement parts he needed if he had to do any serious work.
It was very similar to the repairs he’d had to do on the derelict battlecruiser Courageous. The Empire built to last, but everything had its limits.
Once everything was ready, they’d brought Kelsey, Talbot, and the crippled Raider into the room. Talbot went into one of the spare beds while everyone else focused their attention on Major Peters.
The man’s guardians were not happy that he was leaving what they saw as his temple, but he’d made a fuss, and they’d allowed it. Now they stood next to the door, glowering at everyone with disapproving eyes.
Doctor Stone got the man up onto the exam table with Kelsey’s assistance. Once she’d run the scanner across him several times, she pursed her lips.
“It looks like your physical injuries are relatively benign as far as such things go, though considering the amount of scarring and the loss of your limbs, I understand why it might not feel that way.
“The good news is that we’ll be able to attach Marine Raider–grade artificial limbs if we ever get our hands on any. That wasn’t a certainty, even though you’d been fitted for artificial limbs before. The ones I’m talking about are capable of delivering the same kind of strength that your augmented muscles used.
“The bad news is that we don’t have anything like that here. In fact, there are no artificial limbs at all. I’m sure you already knew that because that would’ve been one of the first things you’d checked, but we looked again just to be sure.”
Peters nodded slightly. “When we first arrived, I had them tear this place apart looking for any without luck.”
Stone nodded. “Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we can get to something that’s of more immediate importance to you. I’m going to tap into Kelsey’s pharmacology unit and transfer half of her pain medication to you. You need that much more than she does right now.”
Carl could see the man visibly relax. “That would be amazing, Doctor. This constant pain has been dragging on my soul.”
“Between Kelsey and Talbot, we can bring you up to full on all your meds,” she said. “Anything that they’re low on afterward, we’ll make up from our stocks on Persephone.”
She lowered her voice, likely to make sure the guards didn’t hear her. Carl could barely hear her.
“If we can talk you into going to Persephone with us, we’ve everything necessary to bring a Raider back to full capability, even after a major injury. I urge you to consider that option.”
Peters pursed his lips, his eyes sliding toward the guards. “I’ll have to think about it. I’ve been here so long that I’m not sure if I can leave. At this point, I doubt that these people would let me, even if I insisted.”
&n
bsp; “That’s a problem for later then,” Doctor Stone said loudly enough that the guards, who were becoming a bit concerned about the conversation that they couldn’t overhear, visibly relaxed. “Kelsey, if you’d go ahead and lie down on your stomach on the adjacent exam table, I’ll extract the drugs from your pharmacology unit and transfer them directly across to Major Peters. This would be easier from the front, but I can manage with just opening the back of your torso armor.”
The process of moving the drugs from Kelsey to the crippled Marine Raider took about twenty minutes. When they were done, the man sighed and relaxed even further. “Man, you don’t know how good this feels. I’ve dreamed of being pain free for so long.”
“I’ve got a few more things to check, but you can go, Kelsey,” Doctor Stone said. “And thank you for your help, Carl. I can get Talbot over here and hooked up without any assistance.”
With them both being dismissed, Kelsey drew Carl out of the room and took them to another room, where Admiral Mertz was waiting. Two of the soldiers trailed along behind them, making sure that their hosts knew where they were at any time.
“We’re going down to the vault,” she said once they were inside the room and out of earshot of any of their watchers. “Everybody is busy keeping an eye on Peters, so it gives us a chance to slip away without a whole lot of attention being paid to us. We need to get the override before our hosts decide to kick us out.”
“What are we going to do about the spies keeping an eye on us?” Carl asked.
Admiral Mertz smiled wickedly. “We’re going to let them keep doing it. If my plan works the way I expect it to, they’re not even going to be aware of what we’re up to. While there’s probably more than one way into the vaults, the information I got from the Imperial Scepter talks about a secret passage. We’ll use that to give our watchdogs the slip.
“Since they’re happier keeping an eye on us as a group, we’ll all go to the Imperial Residence together. Once we get inside, we can use the secret passage while Clarice keeps up a conversation that makes the guards think that we’re all inside. You’ll note that they don’t feel the need to keep an eye on us directly but are happy to guard the doors where we congregate. We’ll use that to our advantage.”
“Actually, we need to make another stop first,” Kelsey said. “It’s on the way.”
She led them back toward the room where Major Peters had been kept. The guards fell in behind them as they walked.
To Carl’s surprise, she went past that room and led them to an even more ornate set of doors, which were propped open. It was much larger than the place where Major Peters had been, and even though the doors were open, it smelled of disuse. The walls were covered in faded and threadbare tapestries, and a dais at the end held a golden throne.
The Imperial Throne.
Carl was awestruck. This was the place where Kelsey’s ancestors had ruled over the Terran Empire for more than ten thousand years. He couldn’t imagine how much history had taken place in this very room.
Kelsey led them to the back of the room, where she ducked behind the throne and through another doorway set in the rear wall. The guards remained in the main room, seemingly disinterested in following them.
The suite looked as if it had been used when dressing for state ceremonies. The racks were filled with the remains of formalwear. After five hundred years, everything was in terrible condition, but it didn’t seem to have been disturbed.
Kelsey looked around for a few moments and then ducked through another door into what was obviously a private office. Carl immediately spotted a stand that looked like it was made for the Imperial Scepter.
Obviously thinking the same thing, Kelsey dug into her bag and pulled out the scepter, fitting it once more into the place that had been made for it.
“I bet that no one ever thought this thing would come back home,” she said softly. “Life is strange sometimes.”
She returned the scepter to her bag before circling the office and stopping at another stand, which held the remaining pieces of the Imperial Regalia. The Imperial Crown sat on a faded velvet pad, and underneath it was a thick, unadorned golden chain with heavy links.
“I bet my father would love to have these, and since we may never come this way again, I figured it was the right time to pick them up. I’d hoped they’d been left undisturbed. Sometimes the gods smile.”
Carl considered that. She wasn’t nearly as mortal as most. If Major Peters was anything to go by, she might live for a thousand years or more. Though, with all the fighting and other crazy stuff she did, that seemed unlikely.
Then another thought struck him. They’d given Kelsey’s father Marine Raider medical nanites. He might be an older man, but he wasn’t that old. He might still rule the New Terran Empire for a long, long time. How would that change society? Or would he choose to step down before then?
Once word got back to Avalon, it was going to set off a firestorm. Perhaps he should speak with everyone about keeping that little detail quiet for the time being.
As he’d pondered the implications of that, Kelsey had secured the regalia in her bag. Now she was looking at perhaps a dozen books on one of the shelves of a nearby bookshelf. He managed to see that the pages were filled with handwritten words when she opened one.
If he had to guess, those were probably Emperor Marcus’s journals—historical treasures of incalculable value.
She closed the book and started stuffing them all into her bag. They’d fill it, and it would be damned heavy, but she was strong enough to handle it.
With that out of the way, the group returned to the throne room and continued on toward the Imperial Residence via another corridor accessed from the side of the chamber nearest the throne. Their bored escorts fell in behind them.
The hall was lined with oil paintings that depicted the emperors that had once ruled over the Terran Empire. Closest to the throne room was Emperor Marcus himself. It seemed as they went back toward the residence, they were going backward in time.
Carl made sure to pause at each long enough to get a high-resolution image through his implants. There were plaques below each painting that gave their names and the dates that they’d reigned.
He took particular interest in the first emperor as they arrived at the doors to the Imperial Residence. The plaque listed his name as Andrew Bandar, gave his regnal name as Andrew the First, and listed him as an admiral in the Fleet of the Terran Republic.
Carl knew little about the man. He’d overthrown the corrupt Terran Republic and formed the Terran Empire. There was probably one hell of a story there, but it was mostly lost in the sands of time.
He was a handsome man, young for his rank. Oddly, he bore a striking resemblance to Admiral Mertz. The two men could have been brothers if not separated by millennia.
While he’d been considering the painting, the rest had opened the doors to the residence and were moving inside. He hurried to join them before the guards could catch up.
Kelsey closed the doors in their faces, and everyone waited to see if they demanded entry. They didn’t. It seemed they were content to wait outside. That was good. Otherwise, they’d have had to come up with another plan or do something irrevocable.
The common area in the Imperial Residence was a wonder. First, it was huge. Not as big as the throne room but far more palatial than anything he could ever imagine living in.
The deep carpet on the floor had likely once been white, though it was now so coated with dirt and dust that it was a dingy gray. Finely carved chairs, tables, and other pieces of ornate furniture sat scattered around the vast room.
What really took his breath away, though, was the extravagant centerpiece: a stone fountain almost ten meters across. It was filled with virulent green algae and smelled awful.
Above it was what had once been a waterfall. Natural stones piled one upon another going up three meters. Off to the right side, built of similar stones, a table projected directly out of the fountain. It was p
robably five meters long and bracketed by benches made of the same stone.
Kelsey turned toward them. “The table has the means of activating the secret entrance, which is under the fountain. It’s going to require Jared’s DNA to activate, but there’s some kind of switch that needs to be turned on. Carl, can you find where this needs to happen and make sure that it’s working?”
With a nod, Carl slid under the table. At the end directly opposite the fountain, there was a reader plate recessed into the underside of the table. He plugged a cable into it and brought up his diagnostic equipment on his tablet.
The reader had power but was switched off. It wanted verification of authority to reactivate.
“It needs your authentication, Kelsey,” he said. “You can use your implants to connect with it, but you’ll have to use my tablet as a bridge. Someone wanted to make absolutely sure that no one could get access to the hardware by accident. It has no implant-capable connectivity.”
Moments later, his tablet showed the reader was active, so he unplugged his tablet and slid out from under the table.
“It should work now,” he said as he put away his equipment. “Your DNA should activate it, Admiral.”
Admiral Mertz placed his hand on the reader, and nothing happened.
30
It took Jared holding his hand on the reader for five seconds before anything happened. Probably to prevent an inadvertent touch from activating it. His first indication of success was when there was a soft grinding sound from inside the fountain, and the water began draining away.
Relieved more than he could say, he watched the ugly green water mostly disappear before the stone bottom of the fountain sank into the floor. Once it had gone down about a hundred centimeters, it split into sections and retracted underneath the floor, revealing a set of stairs twisting tightly in a circle as they descended into the darkness.
It was very reminiscent of the stairs under the horde treasure building, and that gave him unexpected chills.