The Long Road Home (A Learning Experience Book 4)

by Christopher Nuttall

Elton was torn between awe and an odd kind of concern as Odyssey glided further into the alien system. All seven rocky planets seemed to be heavily populated, while giant structures hung over the three gas giants, and thousands of starships and interplanetary spacecraft made their way from world to world. The asteroid belt buzzed with life, so densely populated that he couldn't help thinking that the Harmonies were literally running out of living space. There were even a handful of habitats orbiting the sun, so close to the photosphere that he wondered just how they managed to remain intact. They had to have some pretty intensive shielding just to make themselves liveable.

  The system was pulsing with energy signatures, each one marking the presence of a mining station or an industrial node. It was impossible to be sure, of course, but even the most conservative estimates from the analysis deck suggested an industrial potential that matched or even exceeded the combined industrial base of every star for a hundred light years around Sol. The sheer potential of the system was enough to strike him dumb, even if their fabricators hadn't been unlocked. He couldn't help thinking that it was no wonder that the Harmonies had convinced the Tokomak to allow them some degree of autonomy. They had enough industrial potential to give even the masters of the universe a run for their money.

  His sense of trouble grew worse as more and more details flowed into the master display. It looked as though all of the gravity points were heavily defended, while the planets themselves were armed to the teeth. Harmony itself was surrounded by over forty orbital fortresses, bristling with weapons. And yet, there were some odd gaps in the defences ... he puzzled over it for a long moment before realising that the fortresses had been towed to the gravity points and emplaced there.

  A neat way of circumventing the ban on fortifying the gravity points, he thought, mentally saluting the Harmonies. It showed a degree of imagination he’d thought the older races had long since lost. And they have enough firepower surrounding their homeworld, even without the missing fortresses, to give any attacker a very hard time indeed.

  “They must have felt threatened by someone, sir,” Biscoe pointed out. “They’ve got enough firepower in orbit to ward off the entire navy.”

  “It looks that way,” Elton agreed. The analysts had yet to calculate how much the defences had actually cost, but he doubted they’d been cheap. Even Sol didn't have such a powerful network of fixed defences. The Solar Union was more interested in funding starships than fortresses. “A bargaining chip against the Tokomak?”

  “Or a make-work program for their industrial base,” Callaway offered. “They might have needed to keep the system in shape.”

  Elton was inclined to agree. The Harmonies had a vast population - and a captive market - but there had to be limits. Their industrial base looked larger than they needed. And yet, he doubted that anyone was actually complaining. The industrial nodes seemed to be working at full capacity, churning out everything from fixed defences and mines to freighters and warships. Given just how badly the Tokomak grip on power had been weakened, the Harmonies might be trying to break free ... or to engage in a little imperialism of their own.

  They have quite a few potential targets within range, he thought, grimly. And all of those targets are probably arming to the teeth too.

  Williams looked up. “Captain, they’ve selected an orbital slot for us,” he said. “And they want to send an inspection party as soon as we enter orbit.”

  Elton kept his face expressionless. They’d made preparations, ensuring that most of the advanced technology would be permanently out of sight, but it still galled him to allow the locals to inspect his ship. Maybe it was a tour, yet still ... he shook his head in cold annoyance. Rebecca was right - he would have wanted to inspect any starship taking up position near Stuart Asteroid - but if he’d been organising a diplomatic meeting, he would have arranged to hold it somewhere neutral. It wasn't as if there weren't plenty of potential meeting places in the interstellar void between Earth and AlphaCent!

  “Send back a confirmation,” he ordered, finally. “Helm?”

  “I have the slot,” Marie said. An icon appeared on the display, marking out a position in low orbit. “Captain?”

  “Mr. Williams,” Elton said. “Order the freighters to follow us in.”

  “Aye, Captain,” Williams said.

  Elton took a long breath. “Helm,” he said. “Take us in.”

  He forced himself to relax as Harmony appeared in the display, a blue-green sphere dotted with grey marks. They were cities, apparently. Cities so large that they could be picked out with the naked eye. Even the smallest within view had to be utterly immense. It made him wonder just how the Harmonies managed to live in ... in harmony. Humans would go insane if they were forced to live in such close confines. The murder rate in Earth’s giant cities had been going through the roof even before the civil war had broken out.

  Harmony’s orbital space was crammed with giant structures, ranging from immense industrial nodes to immense orbital habitat complexes. None of them appeared to be converted asteroids, as far as he could tell. They’d all been built from scratch. Countless starships and shuttlecraft moved in and out of orbit, the former remaining sublight until they were a long way from the planet. It didn't look as though starships were allowed to drop into FTL until they were well clear of Harmony, although it struck him as pointless. Maybe it was a security measure ...

  A new icon blinked into life as the sensor readings were matched against the files from the information broker. “That’s one of the Imperial Palaces,” Callaway said. “It’s currently the sole domicile of the Crown Princess. No one else is listed as living there.”

  “Noted,” Elton said, dryly. “Keep us on course.”

  He shook his head in disbelief. The Imperial Palace was immense, a giant structure easily two hundred miles from one end to the other. He'd known there were some immensely rich men in the Solar Union who owned their own asteroids - one man had claimed his own moon - but none of them were quite so determined to show off their wealth. It wasn't considered polite, in the Solar Union. And yet, no one doubted that they’d earned their money. A Crown Princess, the heir to a ruling family that had controlled an entire cluster for longer than humans had known how to make fire ... how could she have earned her place? She would never have had to compete for it ...

  “Entering orbital slot,” Marie reported. “Taking up position, now.”

  Elton rose. “Invite our guests to join us,” he said, heavily. “Mr. XO, you have the bridge.”

  “Aye, Captain,” Biscoe said. “I have the bridge.”

  ***

  It was generally believed, not least by the marines themselves, that the Solar Union Marine Corps had hired the most sadistic tailors in the galaxy to produce their dress uniforms. They might be stunning, at least to human eyes, but they pinched the wearer in a number of uncomfortable places. Lieutenant Levi Dennis had even heard, back when she’d been fitted for her first dress uniform, that the sadists hadn't bothered to make allowances for either breasts or penises. Given how badly her uniform pinched her, she had no trouble in believing that it was equally unpleasant for her male counterparts.

  But she did have to admit that the dress uniform did help to keep her awake. She only ever wore it during formal ceremonies, where the vast majority of the marines either stood in line or marched under the podium. Nodding off wouldn't be disastrous - unlike falling asleep when she was meant to be on guard - but it would be embarrassing and probably ruin her career beyond repair. Now ...

  She stood to attention as the teleport field shimmered to life. The pad glowed with light for a long moment, then faded, revealing a trio of aliens. All three of them wore silver outfits that hid everything, save for their faces. A chill ran down her spine as she realised she knew nothing about them, not even their gender. They looked to be completely asexual, as far as she could tell. But then, she knew that meant nothing. As humanoid as the Harmonies appeared to be, there was no guarantee that they mated in
any manner a human would recognise. There were races that laid eggs, races that pollinated like flowers, and races dependent on cloning technology to keep up the numbers.

  The Captain stepped forward. “Welcome onboard,” he said, in perfect Galactic Two. “My crew and I welcome you.”

  “We thank you,” the alien said. His Galactic Two was perfect too. “We welcome you to our homeworld.”

  Levi listened, keeping her face impassive, as the captain and the alien exchanged a whole series of meaningless compliments. She understood the value of diplomacy, but did they really have to use such flowery terms? She was almost sure that neither of them really meant a word they said. She tensed, inwardly, as the three aliens stepped off the pad - they walked stiffly, as if their legs were shorter than they seemed - and strode past the marines. They paid no attention to the marines or their dress uniforms. She almost smiled at the thought. She’d bet ten credits that no one below the captain would be acknowledged by the aliens and won.

  A series of alerts blinked up in front of her eyes as she turned to follow the party. The ship’s sensors had detected a number of portable scanners, ranging from fairly standard galactic-level tech to a couple of devices that hadn't been seen before. All concealed under the alien clothing, she noted. Nothing dangerous, as far as the sensors could tell, but she knew that meant nothing too. Her dress uniform included a number of badges that could be fitted together into a makeshift weapon, if necessary. Human - and alien - ingenuity could outwit any sensor, given time.

  She’d half-expected the aliens to object to the marines shadowing the group, but they showed no sign of concern. It was fairly standard to have guests escorted onboard warships, at least under galactic law, yet the Harmonies might have protested on the grounds that they outranked humanity. She wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not. The alien scanners kept pulsing, sweeping the ship for useful data; the ship’s counter-surveillance technology kept spoofing their readings, making it impossible for them to learn anything. Their naked eyes shouldn't see anything useful, she’d been assured. But she suspected that meant nothing too.

  You have to be careful what you show a potential enemy, her Drill Instructor had warned, back when she’d gone through OCS. You might see it as something meaningless, but they might draw meaning from it.

  Levi kept that thought to herself as they moved through the ship, starting with the secondary bridge and heading through sickbay before finally reaching the engineering compartment and pausing long enough for the aliens to ask a number of questions. She wasn't surprised when the level of pinging from the alien sensors increased tenfold, or when emergency sensors picked up the presence of alien nanoprobes. They’d started launching bugs into the ship’s interior ... Hopefully, the onboard security systems would be capable of neutralising them before they could send anything useful back to their masters. God knew that searching the entire ship for devices so tiny they couldn't be seen with the naked eye would be nightmarish.

  She triggered her implant. “Better make sure we keep the communications system on lockdown, sir,” she subvocalised. The aliens hadn't paid any attention to her or the other two marines, but there was no point in taking chances. “The nanoprobes might try to get into the system and subvert it.”

  “Understood, LT,” Major Rhodan said. He was monitoring the situation through the ship’s sensors, while a rapid reaction force was shadowing the alien party as it moved through the ship. “I’ll be deploying countermeasures as soon as they leave the compartment.”

  Levi nodded, feeling another shiver running down her spine. She knew, logically, that the alien nanoprobes weren't crawling over and through her skin, let alone preparing to dissolve the entire ship like a sugar cube. But it was hard to escape the sensation of danger, of violation, that the mere existence of alien nanoprobes caused. She knew, better than most civilians, just how badly galactic technology could be abused, if it fell into the wrong hands. And trying to introduce them into a starship without permission was, technically, a hostile act.

  The aliens showed no sign of awareness that their move had been detected. Instead, after studying the engineering compartment for a long moment, they insisted on returning to the teleport bay. Levi followed them, silently wondering how the captain managed to keep control of himself. No one, not even her very first Drill Instructor, had ever talked to her in a manner that suggested she was nothing to him. The Harmonies clearly regarded humanity as a very young race. Humans were children, as far as they were concerned.

  Her lips quirked at the thought. Young or not, humanity had beaten the Tokomak themselves in open battle. Even the oldest Galactics couldn't ignore that.

  And our technology isn't stagnant, unlike theirs, she thought. Give us a hundred years and we’ll have enough firepower to vaporise their entire navy overnight.

  She didn't relax as the aliens took their places on the teleport pad, ready to be beamed back down to the planet. If they wanted to introduce any more uninvited guests, they’d never have a better chance. And yet ... and yet ... she tensed, despite herself, as the aliens shimmered and vanished, fading out of existence. The scans were clear, but she wasn't reassured. It was possible - all too possible - that they might have missed something.

  “Teleport complete, sir,” the operator said.

  “Very good,” the captain said.

  Levi resisted the urge to sag, somehow. Sweat was prickling down her back. She’d been in more engagements than she cared to think about, but none of them had felt quite so dangerous. The Galactics had plenty of rules for smoothing out disagreements between alien races - particularly as one race’s smile could be another race’s scowl - yet the Harmonies might well have been looking for an excuse to cause trouble. She’d seen enough dangerous places, back on Earth, to understand how bullies thought. They might pretend to be civilised, but only as long as it suited them.

  “I’ve got teams already in engineering,” Major Rhodan said, “but start running a security sweep anyway. I want every last atom of this ship searched.”

  “Yes, sir,” Levi said.

  She shook herself, then led the way to the hatch. The aliens were gone, but duty called. She had been the one who’d followed them ... it was possible, just possible, that she would have a better idea where to look for any microscopic surprises. Unless, of course, the aliens had managed to sneak something in that the scanners had missed. A cloud of subversion nanities could do a lot of damage if they had time to start reproducing themselves.

  We’d notice them before they became a threat, she told herself. Wouldn't we?

  ***

  “They introduced two hundred tiny little spies,” Major Rhodan said. The Marine CO was also the starship’s security chief. “We think we caught them all.”

  Elton studied the datapad for a long moment, glancing at Rebecca before turning his attention back to Rhodan. “You think you caught them all?”

  “The nanoprobes we discovered were all standard GalTech, sir,” Major Rhodan said. “They were little more advanced than the nanoprobes we used ourselves in Afghanistan and the Middle East, back when we were fighting Islamists. If they were all on the same technological level, sir, we caught them all. But if some of them were more advanced ...”

  “They might have escaped detection,” Elton finished. A powered-down nanoprobe would be very hard to spot. One programmed to remain hidden for hours - or days - might remain unnoticed until it was too late. “What were they designed to do?”

  “Spy,” Major Rhodan said. “They weren't dissemblers, sir; they were just programmed to spy and broadcast data. I don’t see how they expected them to remain undetected indefinitely. Even if we missed them being released, we'd have picked up the signals when they started to phone home.”

  “It could have been a test,” Rebecca said. “They might have wanted to see if we detected them.”

  “Putting spies on the ship is not a friendly act,” Elton said, bluntly.

  “I can lodge an official protest,”
Rebecca said. She leaned forward. “And, as you know, I have to go down to the planet. I can raise the issue with the locals.”

  “That would also tell them that we found the bugs,” Rhodan pointed out. “And we’d lose any advantage that knowledge gave us.”

  “I think they’d assume the worst,” Rebecca said. “We do have equal or superior technology to them.”

  “It makes no sense,” Elton said. “But then, nothing about this makes sense.”

  He shook his head. “Be careful,” he warned. “We still don’t know what’s really going on here.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Except this comes with a price. Alliance with a single alien race - just one - brings with it obligations. We might be dragged into a war we didn't want, a war fought on terms we didn't choose. How many of our ancestors were killed in wars that didn't concern their homelands, but had to be fought because of alliances?

  I understand the value of having allies. But I also understand the dangers of having them, too.

  -Solar Datanet, Political Forum (Grand Alliance Thoughts).