Joe stood up, I-Know in hand, as he continued to view the recorded message.
“There’s something going on behind the scenes of the MARC program, Dad. Half the fleet has been disabled by a saboteur. Great guy, you shook his hand at my graduation, but that's only part of it. Dad, the ship he was on, the Argo, has a functioning plasma drive. We're scrambling to find a way to save a hundred families, and I'm getting the run around from D.C. Control, even from my contacts in MARC. I can't get any straight answers out here. I know you didn't want us going, but we're here. I'm here, your grandkids are here, and so are a lot of other brave people. I'm asking you, please set it aside for now. Help me fight for these people. Tell me what's going on.”
Joe set the I-Know on his desk, quite softer than the last time. He leaned back, his head gently falling into the headrest. He struck the left armrest of his chair with his fist, not with violence, but with firmness. The demons he wrestled with were hard to fight off, but there was something in that message. Something that reminded a father of a boy he once played catch with. Something of a father that was once a boy.
Joseph Quinn Jr., rose from his old chair. Pulling his suit coat straight he walked over to the larger vidcomm on the wall beside his desk.
Swiping the vidcomm's panel a voice again broke the silence, different than the one heard moments earlier.
“I need the President of the United States,” spoke the senator to the White House Chief of Staff.
“Joe, good to hear from you, it's been too long,” the man replied. “Carl has staffing in ten minutes, I'll make sure he knows you called. Good to hear from you, Joe.”
The Chief of Staff lifted his arm to swipe off the vidcomm when a staggering voice interrupted him.
“Senator Joseph Quinn Jr., son of the Great State of New York, son of the people of the United States of America, and son of President Joseph Quinn is calling. And I assure you, that this calling is one that the current President of the United States hears.”
Noticeably taken off guard, the chief of staff paused for a second before regaining his composure.
“Senator, certainly, we can find a minute in the president's prep time for you,” he assured.
“Find two minutes…Ted,” added the senator, emphasizing the Chief of Staff’s first name.
Smiling and leaving the vidcomm open, the Chief of Staff walked briskly toward the oval office.
*
Chapter 13 Inventions have Mothers not Masters
“Dr. Andreou,” inquired Captain Dranius over the vidcomm. “Incoming message for you from The Order.”
Dominic paused as he contemplated the likely contents of the message. “Put it through.”
He inwardly shuddered at the image on screen. He had strategically avoided the senator, working to evade direct contact.
“Doctor Andreou,” the man addressed him by his formal name. “Our readings indicate your mission resulted in partial success. Four of the eleven colonial ships, however, remain intact. Though this margin of error was statistically within the parameters of your mission, I expected more from you.”
A look of disappointment spread across the man's face. The video feed followed the senator as he turned and slowly walked along a garden path. It was surrounded by a cornucopia of exotic plants. His white robe caught on a thin spiked plant forcing him to pause his stroll. Carefully untangling himself first, the senator reached out and grabbed the offending plant. The needles pierced his flesh as his hand ripped the plant from the ground. He tossed it to the ground as droplets of his blood dripped onto the path.
“Our secondary plan has been activated, please advise your captain to adjust his course accordingly,” the senator continued walking down the path. He bent down and examined a blue eggplant shaped fruit. “When you arrive, I'll expect a prompt visit with a suitable account of events. The Inner Order will consider your statement and adjust your Ethos accordingly. Please execute these adjustments discreetly." The senator picked the fruit from its stalk and held it aloft.
"Should the General Order note your actions," he tossed the fruit into the mass of plant life, "you will not exist to us.”
The vidcomm went to black. Dominic looked away from it, a scowl growing across his face. His fingers swiped the vidcomm activating a live transmission. “Captain Dranius,” he beckoned.
The vidcomm came to life again, this time with a picture of the ship's captain upon the bridge.
“Dr. Andreaou,” the captain returned his summons.
“Captain, I need you to follow our alternate approach course, I believe we will pay a visit to the MARC station after all,” he directed.
The captain nodded. “We will change course immediately, Doctor. Other orders?”
“Not at this time, Captain,” Dominic replied.
He swiped his hand across the vidcomm ending the call.
Returning to his workstation, Dominic stared for a moment at the monitor before bringing up several program screens. His fingers drug one in particular to the center of the monitor while enlarging it. The program was labeled “Neuroband Interface.” Tapping several file names on the screens, he activated overlapping three-dimensional schematics.
“You, my pretty, are my new love,” Dominic sub-vocalized to himself. “After all, anything she can do, I can do better.” He smiled to himself.
“Vidcomm, bridge,” he stated aloud.
The vidcomm activated, displaying the crew of the bridge.
“Captain Dranius, I believe I have another task for you,” he stated.
Moving to a nearby vidcomm the captain answered. “And what would that be, Doctor?”
“I need five lab assistants assigned to me,” he informed the captain. “Make sure they are non-essential crew members.”
The captain's eyebrows rose slightly as he acknowledged. “When do you need them to report, Doctor?”
“I should have need of them in, say, seventy-two hours, that would be acceptable,” Dominic qualified. “That is all Captain.” The vidcomm closed, and he returned to his workstation with a new sense of direction.
#
“Look at that,” Ashley directed to the brainwave screen on the workstation.
Glennay Mercedes took a closer look at the wave patterns.
“That's not supposed to happen,” she commented, “his theta waves are becoming entwined with his beta waves.”
“Exactly,” Ashley confirmed. “My design and testing of the neuroband allowed the theta waves of a dream state to bind to the alpha waves of a relaxed state. That's why relaxation protocols were designed, to help activate the neurobands while we're awake. I never imagined that I would see theta waves binding with betas.”
Jonathon waived at the vidcomm from the barren test room next door. Another Sentinel, Kyle, was in the test room with John both of them wearing the latest neuroband version.
“That's amazing, Ashley,” Glennay said in wonder of the findings. “But what does that mean? How can anyone use a neuroband in beta state?”
“I have a theory, but it's a bit, well...” Ashley tripped over her phrasing, “We need to run some more tests before I can say.”
As the two scientists discussed brainwave patterns, the two soldiers next door were having a discussion of their own.
“It's all voodoo to me John,” commented Lieutenant Kyle Jennings. “Using holographs in combat training is one thing, but creeping into a person's mind and projecting what you want them to see...it just seems like lines can be crossed.”
“When Ashley started all this, it was our friends in military command calling the shots,” John related to his sentinel team member. “You can bet they had their eyes on replacing holo trainers with a much more realistic version of training, and I doubt they would have been too concerned about privacy rights. Ashley has governors built into the regular neurobands and the computer systems running the transmissions. They're meant to limit what can be transmitted. You're right though, it’s teetering on a thin line.”
&
nbsp; “You said the other day you used one to talk to Jessica during the blackout,” interjected Kyle. “How does that work?”
“We're still not positive,” John tried to answer. “That's why we're here now. The best way I can explain it...have you ever been in a dream that feels too real? One that takes a few seconds when you wake up to realize you were dreaming?”
“Yeah, sure,” Kyle acknowledged.
“That’s part of it,” John tried to describe. “The other part is… if you've had a dream where you felt like you could guide its direction as the dream went on. I mean most of the time you wake up and realize how crazy and mixed up your dreams are. Sometimes you can even piece together why some of the things were in your dream. I'm talking about when you are awake enough that you know you're in a dream, yet can still steer its direction to go the way you want it to go.”
“I think I know what you're talking about,” replied Kyle. “I can't say I sit around thinking about it much.”
“Yeah, it wasn't on my hot list either, not until we started all this work with the neurobands,” John added.
John noticed the vidcomm with Ashley and Glennay looking at them and laughing. Ashley was mocking them by talking back and forth with her hands.
She stopped and asked them. “Are you two gals going to stop gabbing and get back to testing?”
“Love ya back,” replied as he touched two fingers to his lips and threw her a kiss.
A strange look came across Ashley's face. She quickly turned to the workstation screens. Noticing Ashley's strange reaction, Glennay asked. “What’s wrong?”
Ashley pointed to a wave pattern on the monitor. “Right there, see that? From six seconds ago.” Ashley tapped on the monitor as the wave pattern continued to roll across the screen.
“It looks like his theta waves bound to a beta wave,” assessed Glennay. “But look at the watts generated. That can't be right.”
“Glennay,” Ashley explained. “I felt that kiss he threw me. I'm not kidding. It felt as if he had leaned over and gave me kiss just as sure as he was standing here.”
“But he wasn't close to alpha state, I mean John was fully awake, joking, talking... Ashley this is pretty big here.”
“Yeah I agree, I'm shutting it down for now,” Ashley replied closing down systems.
Turning back to the vidcomm Ashley informed John. “Come on over, I think you've done enough for the day.”
Giving her a thumbs up through the vidcomm, he put his neuroband back in his belt case and headed toward the main lab.
Before she could continue her discussion with Glennay, Ashley was interrupted by an incoming call from the bridge.
“Dr. Quinn,” paged Ensign Williams. “The captain is sending reports on our communication status. All fleet communications are still down. We're still receiving static from planet-side communications as well.”
Ashley shook her head. For the last two days the U.S.S. Columbus hadn't been able to communicate with anyone outside the ship. She had worked for sixteen hours yesterday with search routines to catch the culprit inhibiting communication. So far the routine had come up empty. Her working theory was that Dominic had planted a few more bumps in the road as contingency plans. If that was the case, the Columbus wasn't out of hot water yet.
“I'm closing shop here,” she informed the ensign. “I'll be up to the bridge again within the hour.”
“I'll convey that to the captain,” Ensign Williams acknowledged before closing the comm signal.
Jonathon entered the lab giving a quick wave to Glennay.
“If you're so distraught by our girlie gab, then why are we calling it quits?” John said sarcastically.
Ashley placed the back of her hand across her forehead and replied in a southern drawl, “I'm afraid my delicate nature was overwhelmed with such a powerful kiss from afar.”
Glennay couldn't resist a small laugh.
John looked confused at first, but quickly recovered and replied in his own southern accent. “I will try to reserve myself when in the company of such beauty. I fear I do not know the strength of my own affections.”
Glennay rolled her eyes as she grabbed her jacket. “I'll leave you two hopeless romantics alone while I get some actual work finished around here.”
As she headed out the door, Glennay paused and peaked back in. “Try not to let your head get too big John when you understand what she's talking about.” With a jab and a wink, she left the lab.
“Now what did I do to deserve that?” John pointed at himself.
“I need to get to the bridge,” Ashley relayed to John. “But sit down quick and let me show you some brainwaves. Try not to fall out of your chair as I'm about to knock your socks off.”
John turned a chair around backward and sat down looking genuinely ready to be amazed.
*
Chapter 14 Worlds Apart
The MARC mission operated under a carefully constructed set of guidelines. The first phase was under the command of each ship captain. It included the launch, travel time, and arrival at Mars. Individual ship captains would handle any matters pertaining to their own ship. Situations involving the entire fleet, however, would be managed by a majority vote of ship captains. Any vote resulting in a tie would be broken by the fleet commander, in this case Captain Sterling.
After four days of fleet silence due to jammed communications, a technician on the HMAS Melbourne had dealt with the problem through unconventional means. Frustrated by the difficulty in tracking down the virus, the officer built a duplicate communication substation from scratch. Substituting the new system for the original, the Melbourne was able to bypass the jamming. He then sent transmissions to the rest of the fleet on how to replicate the process. It took over a day and a half for the entire fleet to bring their versions online.
During the four days of silence, a stew of heated emotions had cooked under the pressure of uncertainty. When the captains were finally able to discuss the emergency situation, an understandable explosion of accusations erupted. Four long hours later, cooler heads finally prevailed and sorted the matters into two concerns – What happened to the Argo, and how would the disabled ships slow their speed?
Captain Sterling took a deep drink of water as she finished a tiring round of fleet chat. A full complement of crew manned the bridge during this emergency. Waving for the bridge crew to gather, Captain Sterling addressed them.
“We have our work cut out for us,” she began. “Ten days from now we will be arriving at Mars. That gives us nine days to save hundreds of lives. Four of the eleven remaining ships will deploy their sails, channeling the incoming plasma beams into a smooth deceleration. Seven ships of the fleet will continue on their course proceeding at their current speed, and will either impact Mars or continue through space. Our every waking thought between now and then is to be filled with ideas on stopping this tragedy.”
Motioning to Ashley, the captain continued. “Dr. Quinn you are taking point on this. Pick your team of techs from across the fleet and get started immediately.”
Facing Glennay the captain specified. “Lieutenant Mercedes, I think you have a lost twin aboard the Melbourne. I want you to coordinate with Sub-Lieutenant Anderson. Find out if the Argo left us any more hidden surprises.” Saving Commander Quinn for last, she finished, “Commander, now that communications have been restored I want you to continue your previous task. I expect some answers soon.”
“Aye, Captain,” he replied.
“Get moving,” motioned Captain Sterling toward the exit. “Dismissed.”
As John joined the crew leaving on the lift, Ensign Williams signaled for his attention, “Commander, I have a transmission from Earth. It's the one you've been waiting on.”
Overhearing the ensign, Ashley cast John a silent look of understanding.
Nodding, he gave the ensign instructions. “Send it to my office. I'll be there shortly.”
“Aye, Commander,” replied Ensign Williams.
John s
arcastically lipped the words “Fun times” to Ashley.
As the lift finally started down, he let out a deep breath and thought, “I'm so looking forward to this.”
#
Pulling out a clear bottle from a desk drawer, John poured himself a drink.
Reminding himself he said, “This was supposed to be for our arrival, but this message warrants an exception.”
He sat down in his office chair and took a swig of the powerful concoction. He gasped slightly. “Oh Glenmorangie. That's the stuff. Let's hope after hearing this I don't want to lose my head.”
Leaning forward, John activated the message waiting for him on his vidcomm. His father appeared out of scene as he was not sitting in his favorite chair. In fact, his personal vidcomm recorded him walking briskly down a sidewalk. The senator's speech wavered in and out of coherence from his labored breathing.
“Jonathon, we need to talk about the old days,” he said forcing a smile. “Watching old movies with your grandfather, sharing books, debating history, those were times to remember.”
Pausing at a bench, the senator caught his breath as he tried to continue. “I know you have questions, but look to those memories for your answers. Here in D.C., one would think policy is going the way of the Empire.”
Wiping his forehead with a handkerchief, he added. “It's so hot this time of year, John. Makes it difficult to talk. You would think its four hundred degrees outside. I’m afraid my constitution is not up to the summer heat. It’s all out of balance. You might say I’ve run out of checks for the bills. I wonder if Aristotle had to think under such heat."
Starting another brisk walk, his father continued. “As for your friend, he fancies himself a senator too, though not as result of any elective in college. I'm afraid when you look behind his curtain, the Wizard of Oz is an agent of Spectre.”
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