I looked back at the comm display. "We will meet again, Ambassador. And you won't be quite so smug when that happens."
The ambassador gently shrugged his shoulders in an "oh well" type gesture just as the comm channel closed. The Garmon accelerated skyward along with the rest of our small fleet.
I turned to Jack. "Head for Doomlight once we're away."
Chapter 22
* * *
The journey to Doomlight was long and full of dread. The Odentas who traveled with us had already lost their world. If the Saltons had wiped out their remaining brethren on Doomlight, I feared for their sanity. As we entered the Doomlight system our sensors lit up with activity. We pulled to a stop.
Jack said, "I have at least five thousand ships in high orbit. Give me a sec and I'll have visual on the city we left them in. The planet's rotation places it on this side."
Garrett crossed his arms. "I don't know if we want to see this. If Harden did them in like the ambassador said, I might have to go back through to Alpha Prime and kill him myself."
Jack continued, "OK, we have the city, and... it looks to be intact. Those look like Odentas."
I replied, "Raise them on the comm."
Seconds later an Odenta voice answered. "We are glad to hear from you! How did the mission go?"
Garrett jumped in. "What's going on? You have Salton forces all over that planet."
The audio feed changed to video as well. "The Alliance ships showed up and threatened us. We have a large contingent of very powerful gravity cannons which we had the bots build for us. After two days of siege with no progress, the Alliance vessels gave up. They offered peace if we wouldn't interfere with their works."
I replied, "I have a hard time believing they kept their word."
The image on the display shook his head. "They didn't, but we were prepared. They attempted a ground assault, which was disastrous for them. Atmospheric assaults yielded the same results. They even attempted to bombard us with space rocks, which we also repelled."
Garrett asked, "What about ion cannons?"
The Odenta officer nodded. "We were able to modify the inhibitor field to come on almost instantaneously. The field is momentary, but it was all that was needed to stop the ion blasts from coming in. Thankfully they didn't press the strategy as our defenses would have been easily overwhelmed. Instead, they chose to ignore us. They have other business to attend to."
I said, "Well, we'll get you out of there. We need to find another planet to camp on that's out of the way."
Go came onto the bridge, carried by two bots. "I have a possible solution. These bots are immune to the radiation on Odenta. We can send a shipload of them out there to start cleaning up. All we need is an area of maybe a hundred square kilometers to begin with. Send out maybe ten thousand with orders to replicate and then to start cleaning. We could have that area detoxed in a month. The whole planet could probably be done in a year. Filtering those oceans will be the hardest part."
Garrett returned a suspicious expression. "You sure that's possible?"
Go nodded. "I am. And not only that, I think we get the added benefit of everyone believing that planet is radioactive. If it was me, without the bots to clean, I wouldn't go near that place for at least ten years. Even then, it would only be useful for short visits. But if the bots can clean it up, well, I think it might make a great place to hide out for a while."
I turned to Jack. "We have two transports with nothing but bots and AIs. I say we send them out with orders to clean out an area for us."
Jack replied, "Why not just tell them to analyze the situation and optimize the cleanup of the whole planet?"
I shook my head. "No, I think we want to initially stay with a small area. That way, any scans by a passing ship and that planet should still show on the sensors as highly radioactive."
I turned back to face the Odenta. "I think we might have a solution."
The Odenta replied, "We've discussed this at length since you've been gone. We would just as soon stay here as search for another planet."
I smiled as I nodded: "What if we were to take you home to Odenta?"
The image on the display sat forward. "Is that even possible?"
"We believe so," I said. "It will require that you stay here for a bit longer, maybe a month."
Go signaled his bots to take him back to the lab. "I'll get with Anterra and get started on this."
Garrett half frowned. "The AIs have names. I know they may be the only reason we are still around, but they still make me nervous. Especially as comfortable as Go is with them."
Jack said, "That's the original name for that one. The clones don't have names. And thus far they haven't given us anything to worry about."
Garrett thought for a moment. "No, they haven't. But they are machines. They have infinite patience. They could be continuously plotting our overthrow and we wouldn't know it until it happened. There's no emotion to alert us, no questionable behavior. Their motives could remain completely hidden right up until the point where they pull the trigger."
I laughed. "You need to take a step back, Garrett. You start letting your emotions run wild with speculation and you will soon be full of paranoia. You have the kill switch still at the ready?"
Garrett nodded. "Always."
Jack replied, "Well, there you go. That's the best you can do. Just keep it close and you have nothing to worry about."
Garrett huffed. "Yeah, except I may be here and the AIs and bots might be a month away. The kill switch isn't magic, you know. It's not universal in its effectiveness."
I smiled. "True. Which is why each of us has a trigger for that switch. And it's why I was thinking of sending you out with the bots to start the cleanup process."
Garrett thought for a moment before looking over at Joni. "Can she come?"
Joni began to speak, to which I held up my hand. "We need to keep her here. I want to get her on the Alliance command ships to see what it is they are planning."
Joni half smiled. "I can do that."
I looked back at Garrett. "If we can get this colony established on Odenta, and if we can get their people off Doomlight and back there, that frees us up to go back through that portal. We need to check on the progress of that new portal ship Harden is building."
Garrett frowned. "OK, I'll do it."
I gestured to Jack. "Arrange for all the Odenta transports and cruisers to head out for Odenta. We'll work on how we're going to get everyone off this planet. And, Garrett, as soon as you can empty those transports and send them back this way, the sooner we can load them back up. We need transports if we're going to move these people."
Garrett replied as he turned. "I'll get started on that now."
Joni smiled and then followed Garrett off the bridge.
Jack said, "Those two are getting close."
I nodded. "They are both deserving of a chance at a relationship. I just hope it doesn't interfere with what we are trying to accomplish."
Jack leaned back in his chair. "Yeah, but I think we have to just let them go. We might still be fighting for what we want to accomplish twenty years from now. Wouldn't be fair to make them wait. Let them have at it. We'll just have to learn to work with it."
I smiled. "I think we are both in agreement. I just wish I could supply them with a better environment for starting a relationship."
Jack laughed. "Well, you can look at it like this, if they can hang together through all this, they'll be unstoppable."
Garrett transferred to an Odenta cruiser and was soon on his way. The other cruisers and transports followed. Joni plopped herself down in a bridge chair with a sad face.
I sat beside her. "How's the suit holding up?"
Joni replied, "I just had the power cells filled, and the filter cleaned. The bio-gel was replaced yesterday. Everything is at 100 percent."
I placed my hand on her shoulder. "We need to get you onto one of those command ships. Our only method is to send you out and for you to power your way
over to them. That was an eight day drift before we added the extra power cell. You should be able to accomplish it in two now. You'll just have to keep your speed at sixteen SOL or less."
Joni nodded. "I can do two days. Should I tag the bridge of the ship I land on?"
I thought for a moment. "Hold on."
I opened a comm to Go. "Did we ever get more stealth tags from the bots?"
Go replied, "Yes. I have about dozen now. If I can get some free time to work with the AIs on them, I believe I could get them to the point of being made as they are needed."
"Can you get half of those tags for Joni? We'll be sending her out shortly to do some recon on the Alliance command ships."
Go nodded. "Send her down and I'll have them ready. I'll even give her a quick lesson on how to best deploy them."
I stood with Joni in front of Go.
"I can't believe you have those bots carting you around like that," Joni said. "Who's the emperor here?"
Go replied, "Yeah, well, my right leg isn't in all that great shape either."
Joni half smiled. "Well, you look good considering what you just went through."
Go nodded. "The Talisans are excellent surgeons. And they have a good understanding of nerve endings and nerve bundles. I actually feel OK. Pain is minimal. Just have to get used to doing everything with my left hand. The bots have been a big help."
Go pulled a tab from a drawer. "Here are some dummy tags. You can practice deploying these before you have to do the real thing. You will probably want to do it somewhere with a camera. Play it back to see if you show. After you've done half a dozen, I'd go up to the bridge and see if you can do it without getting spotted. When you think you have it, come see me and I'll evaluate your stealthiness and the tag placement. If you want to deploy one, you press down on the dot with your fingertip, and then press your fingertip against the surface you want to stick it to. It activates as soon as it leaves the tab."
Joni replied, "Press and stick. Got it."
Go shook his head. "Not exactly. That works great if the suit is inactive. If you're blinked out, it can get complicated."
"How so?" Joni said.
Go brought up his holo-display. "Bear with me a few seconds. I can't press the buttons on this thing anymore. I have to tell the bots what I want. Select... stealth tag... deploy... while active."
An image of the suit came up on the display. "OK, what you have to do is to blink in, press, and then stick it where you want before blinking out."
Joni frowned. "Won't I be visible?"
Go nodded. "With a little practice you can do it with an activation level of 2 percent of your glove. Your hand will be visible, but not fully so. If you can blink fast enough you'll just look like a blur on a bridge camera. Go too slow and a good tech could pick out your glove outline from the video. Also, you'll want to place it somewhere that has the best view of the bridge. And remember, it's not always just the people you want to see. Having a look at a console display can tell you as much or more as watching any crewman."
Joni practiced with several tags before heading back to the bridge.
Go looked at me. "I improved the battery life. We should get a good six months out of them now."
I replied, "How's the active sodium material coming?"
Go held up a finger as the bots carried him to another table. "Over here. We've been having trouble shrinking it down to the scale we need, but I think it's only a matter of time before we have it. And I've been thinking a lot about its use. If we cover a ship, we have no propulsion and we lose our gravity shields."
I sat in a nearby chair. "Could we just cover the front half of a ship?"
Go shook his head. "No. It has to be fully enclosed. I've been studying the BHD, the coil gun gloves, and the external speaker and mic. I have no idea how they were able to make those features function on this suit. Eventually I might figure it out, but right now it's out of our grasp."
Go ordered up a display. "If we covered an entire ship, we could make it disappear. Without that external mic and camera signal though, we would be completely blind to everything outside the active skin. While that might be good for hiding your ship, it's not practical. The material isn't all that hardy, and without being activated it would get blasted off a hull by normal space dust. It's kind of an all-or-nothing proposition."
"What about for another suit?" I asked.
Go again shook his head. "Again, without the BHD glove and external sensor feeds, the suit would be useless. But I'll figure it out. I just need time."
I said, "Have the Talisans been helpful with this?"
Go nodded. "Tremendously so. But their expertise is on the implementation side. You get something working or close to working and they can improve upon it."
I looked around the lab, gesturing at the AI named Anterra. "What about the AIs?"
Go leaned over on his good arm as he looked back. "I'm not sure. When it comes to this suit, I've been very careful about what information I share with it. I don't know, maybe Garrett has me a little spooked. I won't tell him this, but I do try to keep a certain distance with our critical technologies. Take the gravity beam weapons: the bots and AIs have fully assembled those, excluding one very sensitive part, the gravity focusing mechanism. And to date, all we've used have been hand constructed by the Talisans. As a last step we put that part in there ourselves."
I frowned. "Couldn't the AIs just pull one of those out and reverse engineer it?"
Go shrugged with his left shoulder. "I don't know. I suspect they could. But I don't really want to find out. I'd rather use them to construct things for us from known designs."
"How about an ion amplifier?" I asked.
Go thought for a moment. "I haven't done anything with blasters. That might be a good subject to turn Anterra loose on. If we could make our own efficient amplifiers, that would come in useful for any ships we might build."
Go said to the AI, "Anterra, you will find a blaster rifle on that wall over there. See if you can determine exactly how the ion amplifier in that works. If you figure that out, let me know immediately."
Anterra replied, "Thank you for making use of my abilities, Go. I will inform you when progress has been made."
A bot assisted the AI by retrieving the blaster rifle from its perch. Seconds later the parts of the weapon were spread across another table.
Go looked back at me. "It may or may not take it very long. This might be a good dry run for determining if it really is smarter than we are."
After several more minutes of conversation, I returned to the bridge. Jack was studying the nav display as the rest of the crew went about their normal duties.
I sat in a chair next to Jack. "What are we looking over?"
Jack replied, "Well, I'm just trying to determine what ships we have out there, and which ones are the command ships. And I'm trying not to laugh every time I see Joni attempting to be all stealthy."
Joni blinked in just in front of us. "Hey, it's harder than it looks."
I asked, "How many tags have you deployed?"
Jack answered, "Three."
Joni laughed. "Ha! Four! I put one on your forehead just before blinking in."
I flipped down my visor and zoomed in. "She's right. You have a tag on your forehead."
Jack rubbed with his hand. "OK, I'll give you that one. But the one over the door, the one to the left of the nav console, and the one that looks right at the comm console... you were a little too obvious with."
Joni smiled as she blinked out. "I'm learning."
Less than a minute later she blinked back in. "OK, tell me what you saw?"
Jack pulled up the images from several video feeds. "Hmm. I got nothing this time."
Joni again laughed. "Well, good. I'm glad. Because I didn't try to place one."
Jack shook his head. "You see how little respect I get around here?"
"Tell me what command ships you have targeted," I said.
Jack returned his focus t
o the nav display by popping it up on the big wall. "Let me zoom a little. This one is a good possibility. Only problem is, it doesn't seem to be very heavily armed. Command ships are usually your best. It has a high volume of comm traffic emanating from it though. And this one is almost a definite command vessel. Big cannons fore and aft with cannons lining both sides. Armor looks substantially thick as well."
"Wait," I said. "How are you getting all this sensor data? Shouldn't they be able to see us?"
Jack smiled. "I had Garrett drop a string of probes on his way out. He left three on a slow drift toward Doomlight. He spaced them out, so we should be covered for another twelve hours or so. After that we'll be mostly blind. I was thinking we could have Joni deploy a few more probes on her way in."
I nodded. "She could carry them in the suit pouch on her leg. Although, she will have to stop to deploy them, so it will take her longer to get there."
Joni blinked in. "OK, how many did I drop this time?"
Jack looked over his camera views. "I got nothing."
Joni grinned. "No. You got tagged five times!"
She looked in my direction. "I'm ready when you are."
I pointed to Jack. "I think he has a target all picked out for you."
Jack gestured toward the full wall display. "This battleship looks like your best bet. If you get there and it turns out to be a dud, don't feel bad about searching out a new one. If you get those probes deployed properly, we'll be in constant contact with you."
Joni nodded as she blinked out. "I guess I'll check in with Go and then I'll be on my way."
Chapter 23
* * *
Two days later, Joni drifted aboard the New Alliance battleship. After powering her way to the bridge she settled into a corner with a panoramic view.
Jack said, "We have the video feed. I would say this is definitely a command ship. You usually don't get three admirals standing on the same bridge."
Joni replied, "Give me a few minutes and I'll drop a couple tags. We should be able to pick off the comm channels they are using from that console; and of course the nav display is a given."
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