“Full stop,” he repeated. “May I ask why?”
“Not here,” she said. “Meeting, me, you, and Fran in four hours.” She leaned against the wall as if her strength suddenly left her.
“Okay, I’ll see you there. Do you need help getting back to your room?”
She smiled, and even her smiled seemed youthful. “No, I’ll make it.”
She headed back to the infirmary where the doctor was waiting for her. He seemed excited as he looked at his data pad. “Captain, this is extraordinary.”
“What is it?” She asked.
“I have the results of the scans and the blood work. Please, take a seat.”
She looked at him with an inquisitive eye and sat on the table. He pulled up a chair and sat next to her. Tilting the data pad up so she could see what he was looking at he said, “According to the scan the Handlers injected you with a large amount of very advanced nanobots. I would need to do more tests but from what I can gather they’ve taken over almost every system. They’re making your red blood cells more efficient. They're making your liver and kidneys function well above normal and, most incredibly, they seem to have taken over all the damaged nerves from your Fullerton.”
“What do you mean taken over?” She asked. The idea of millions of tiny robots insider her body made her shutter. She felt violated beyond belief.
“Fullerton damages the nerves, basically destroying them slowly over time. The nanobots have bonded with the damaged nerves. They’ve taken over the function of passing the electrical information from the brain to the muscles.”
“Can you remove them?” She asked.
He seemed taken aback by the question. “Why would you want to do that? Right now, you’ve got nearly super-human abilities.”
“Captain Ruzoto said I would live for another three hundred years,” She replied. Depression sank in. She felt tired and alone. “But I don’t want them inside of me. I want them out.”
“Captain, I don’t see how that would be possible. Maybe when we get back to Earth-“
She held her hand up to stop him talking. “No, Doctor, I need to know if you can do it.”
“I don’t want to commit to answering. I don’t have enough information to say if I can or if I can’t. I’ll need to run more tests.”
“Fine, run your tests. Run as many as you need. I want them out. I want them gone.”
The Doctor stood from his chair. He seemed to have a strange determination about him, a resolve she knew she had put there. It’s what a leader did, she thought. It made people do things they never thought they could do. “Give me a few days to figure this out. I’ll do my best, if anything I can at least gather information to give to the Corps doctors when we return.”
“Doctor, we’re not going to return.” Captain Cook said lying back on the table. She closed her eyes and, as she drifted off into a deep sleep, continued the thought. “Not if I have anything to say about it.”
*****
Four hours didn’t seem long enough, and Marjorie was still tired when she walked into the conference room. Sitting around the table where the people she trusted the most. Normally, there would be the Professor-
She pushed him out of her mind and did her best not to start grieving for him here and now. This wasn’t the time. That would come later. She would have plenty of time to grieve.
The group stood as she slowly walked to the head of the table. “Please, sit down.” She said and they did. “Commander, fill me in what happened when I was out.”
“We lost contact with you for a bit of time. When that happened I assembled a team but you returned not too long afterwards.”
“Yes, the Captain took me to the sphere. Please continue.”
“I decided to wait to see what would happen. I knew this was a first contact situation with a highly advanced race, and I did not want to instigate anything unless I was sure. So, we waited and monitored.”
“That was a wise decision. What happened next?”
“We kept monitoring you and noticed several spikes in your blood pressure and heart rate. It worried us. Then, we got word that Professor Ricter and Ensign Monrow were missing. It was after that that I decided to interfere. We met no resistance up until we found you. When we entered the room we found several aliens hovering over you. They charged us, and we were forced to fight back.”
“You did well. They were interrogating me.” Marjorie replied, her voice cracked as she spoke and she found it hard to look anyone in the eye. “Captain Ruzo killed himself right after drugging me. He said they had kept him alive for over four hundred years and promised him they wouldn’t revive him if he helped.” She sniffed back some tears. “Then, they invaded my body with nanobots and read my memories. They took me to places I had been, had me relive all the good and the bad. Had me see people long since dead. It took me a while to figure out why they were doing it, and I hope I didn’t give up the secret.”
“What secret?” Fran asked, a look of concern on her brow.
“The location of Earth. They want to destroy the Earth and build a Dyson Sphere around our sun.”
“What?” Fran asked. “There are plenty of suns out there, why ours?”
The memories were a bit fuzzy now, trying to remember what the Handler had told her. That might have been engineered, erase the memory of any information before shutting the system down. It would make the most sense as to why they were so open with her. If it wasn’t for the Commander she was sure nothing she heard would have been remembered. “They want to destroy us because they think of us a threat. Well, not a threat now but a threat in the future and they want to stop that threat before we can give them a challenge.”
“That’s crazy,” Fran replied. “We can share the universe. It's a big place.”
“They don’t think so,” Marjorie replied. “From what I understand they live long lives and reproduce very quickly. They’re like viruses, and the galaxy is their host. They won’t stop. They don’t want to stop expanding and Earth, Ulliam, and all the other planets in our local group are in their way, and they won’t stop until we’re gone. The only thing they’re not sure of is where we are, and that’s what they needed me for.”
“Did you tell them?” Fran asked.
“No, at least I hope not. If they found Earth now-“ She tailed off leaving the statement hanging. “That’s why I called you all in here. We need to make a choice, a tough choice, but we need to make it.”
“What kind of choice do we need to make?” Commander Pippleton asked.
“We need to figure out if we’re going to go home, or if we’re going to exit Wormhole space now and never return.”
There was a silence around the table and Marjorie used it to continue talking. “I can’t take the chance that they’re following us. I can’t take the chance that they have a way of tracking us. I worked hard holding that information away from them, and I don’t want to give that up now.”
“But, you’re talking about never gone home,” Fran said. “You want us to just get lost in space? To just move on, to not tell anyone on Earth what happened to us?”
“That’s what we need to talk about. I know what we need to do and I want you guys to convince me otherwise. I don’t want to give the order. I don’t want to be the one to tell the crew we’re not going home. Even though I know we have a reason for it, a reason that could very well save everything, I’m not going to make that choice until I’m sure we don’t have any other choice.”
“How can you be so sure we’re being followed?” The Commander asked.
“I don’t know. They have advanced technology, we have no idea what they are capable of. They spotted us in Wormhole Beta space, they knew we were coming so they can monitor us.”
“It could have just been while we were in Beta space.” Fran said, despair dripped from her voice.
“I’ve thought about that, and you may be right. We don’t know and that’s the tough part. They could very well be able to view us through w
ormhole Alpha space. If they can and they see where we exit they’ll know where Earth is.”
“But we don’t know for sure,” Fran said.
“No, we don’t.”
“What if they did find Earth?” Commander Pippleton asked. “I’m sure it would take them a while to gather a fleet to attack, that would give us time to prepare a defense. We could fight back.”
“They’re very advanced,” Doctor Lipton replied before the Captain could say anything. “I didn’t get to see much while I was logged onto their computers, but I saw enough to know they’ve gotten at least a millennium head start on us.
“Say we do decide not to return to Earth,” Doctor Lipton continued. “What then? Do we know where we are? Do we know if there’s a planet we can survive on, or do you plan on having us stay on the Arwen?”
“We’ll find a planet,” Captain Cook said. “Luckily planets that can sustain life aren’t as rare as most people believe. It could be bacterial life but as long as there’s water and air we can build and relocate.”
“We have another problem,” The Commander said. “We only have enough food for six more months. If we stretch it we could probably make it nine months.”
“We’ll send out probes to find a suitable planet,” Captain Cook replied.
“What if we don’t find anything?”
“We have nine months to figure that out,” she replied.
“It sounds like we’re going to do this,” Fran said in a melancholy voice.
“I’m not ready to give that order yet.”
“Why not leave it up to the crew?” Commander Pippleton asked.
“You mean a vote?”
“Yes, a vote. This isn’t something I think you can decide for yourself. Everyone here has families back home, people they want to get to. I know I want to see Ulliam again. I want to defend it if attacked I think we need to bring the crew up to date, give them all the information and let them decide what to do.”
Captain Cook leaned back in her chair. She didn't think of that. The duties of the Captain were to make the decisions for the crew to give them the best chance to survive. If this were a battle and she ordered the Arwen into a suicide dive, like she had a few years earlier in the final battle with the Gyssyc, she had made the choice to take their lives. However, that was in the heat of combat and a battle decision was not to be questioned, only obeyed. If they had time to talk about it, to put it to vote would they still choice to end their lives to save Earth? That’s what this was about. If they never returned to Earth it would give Earth and the Corps a chance to keep the planet safe. If they went home, and they were followed the ensuring war would be short, and they would lose. It was logical for her to make that choice but was it fair to make it for the crew? Was she avoiding making the choice because she had decided to destroy the Arwen to many years ago? “Commander, you make a good point.”
“Thank you,” he replied.
“What do you think?”
“I say we vote for it,” Fran said. “We need to let them know what’s at stake. We need to let them know that if we return and we were followed it could destroy everything.”
“We won’t sugar code anything,” Commander Pippleton said. “For the record, I say we don’t return to Earth. I feel it would be for the best if we don’t.”
“Good to know, Commander, thank you. If we’re going to do this, I need to address the crew. Arrange for everyone to meet me in the docking bay. That should be large enough to hold everyone.”
Chapter twenty-five
Juliet slowly opened her eyes. She felt good, better than she had felt in a very long time. She knew it was the nanobots and the only reason she agreed to it was because the Professor told her to. She trusted the Professor. She knew he would never do anything to harm her.
“It’s true,” she heard from somewhere, from everywhere. “I would never hurt you.” She looked behind her to see Professor Ricter looking down, smiling.
“Can you hear my thoughts?” She asked.
“More or less,” he replied.
“I wished you had told me that before I injected myself with the robots.”
He laughed. “Hopefully we’ll figure out how to use those things to keep our thoughts to ourselves. In the meantime, try not to think nasty things about me, it might hurt my feelings.”
She looked closely at him and noticed he looked different. The wrinkles around his eyes seem to be fading. The gray in his hair was gone and he seemed to be slimming down. He looked, she had to admit, handsome.
“It’s the nanobots,” he thought, not moving his mouth, sending the message to her in her head. “They’re fixing things, making me younger. I haven’t felt like this in a long time. It feels like my mind is opening up. It guess it’s amazing how much you lose as you age. How you never notice how cluttered your thoughts are until you have the renewed ability to juggle more than one thought at a time. I was good at that a child. I thought I lost it because I learned how to hone my thoughts when, in fact, I lost the ability as my brain aged.”
“You talk way too much,” she said but continued to look at him. Were his eyes always that blue? “I don’t need a book to explain my questions.”
“But I’m really good at giving book answers.”
She sat up and looked around. They were in some sort of medical bay. It smelled like antiseptic cleaner. There were instruments all around she didn’t recognize but she had the feeling they were for medical purposes. “They are,” Professor Ricter replied. “This is their medical bay.”
“Who are they?” She asked, this time with her voice and not with her thoughts.
“That’s a question I have very limited knowledge of. From what they have told me they are the remains of races that have been destroyed by the Handlers. They go around and sweep up as many survivors as they can from races that have been destroyed.”
“Do they want to fight back?”
“No, they don’t.” He said, and she thought she felt contempt in both his voice and in his thoughts. “But I plan on changing that.”
*****
Captain Cook stood on top of the shuttle's wing and looked over the crew in front of her. They were all here, all 4,236 members of the Arwen. These were the people she was going to ask not to go home. It seemed unfair. It was unfair.
There was a soft murmur which quieted as more people became aware she was standing there. She waited until they were all quiet before speaking. “I’m not going to talk to you as the Captain,” she started. “I’m going to talk to you as a citizen of the United Earth Alliance. I’m also going to spare you a long speech, but you all need to hear this. When I’m done you will have twenty-four hours to decide. Considering what I’m about to tell you that might not seem like enough time.”
She let that sink in. The faces that looked back at her were young, so very young. Commander Pippleton stood below her under the wing. Fran stood in the front row looking up at her. Fran had her arms crossed. When Captain Cook met her eyes, she looked away.
“As you know, you know we have just left one of the most advanced races we have ever encountered. We call them The Handlers. They kidnapped me and attempted to get out of me Earth’s location. If they had that they could attack Earth. We are not equipped to fight them. We will lose, and we will lose badly.” Once again she knew to let that set in. Some people started talking to each other. She scanned the crowd; some looked concerned while others seemed confused. She continued. “We can’t let them find Earth, and I fear they are tracking the Arwen. If the Arwen returns to Earth they will find it. We cannot allow the Arwen to return to Earth.”
There it was, now people were reacting. As the news sunk in the crowd grew more agitated. “Please, let me finish. Let me finish!” She waited for the crowd to quiet again. “If I were up here as the Captain, I would order us to exit Wormhole space, find a nearby planet and settle it. However, this is too big for me to decide. You all deserve a say in this, so we are going to put it to a vote. You will a
ll return to your rooms and read the reports I and Doctor Lipton have prepared. My report is on why we can’t return. Hers is on why we must return. Keep in mind, neither report is objective and both are passionate with reasons. Read them, think about them, and decide. Majority wins. You are all dismissed and good luck.”
****
“We must attack!” Professor Ricter yelled pounding his fist onto the table. He was standing, his face red with determination. In front of him were fifteen races, all of them had been displaced by the Handlers. He used his voice, not his thoughts, to get his point across. His thoughts were angry, but he couldn’t display that anger by sitting in his chair thinking about how angry he was. These aliens were so docile they hardly moved even after his display. “We can’t let them take Earth, Ulliam and the other planets of the Corps.”
In his head he heard one of them say, “We will lose the fight. They are too powerful, too strong.”
“If they were to attack now I would agree with you but we have a chance, a head start. They attacked your systems before you knew they existed. Now, we know they exist and we know they’re preparing to attack a planet that could get advanced enough to fight them. This is a chance to draw a line in the sand and fight.”
“Line in the sand?” He heard, it was a different voice. “We understand the metaphor but please try not to talk in metaphor.”
“We will always lose,” another voice said. It was frustrating not knowing who was talking. They continued to look at him impassively. The Professor wondered if they were talking to each other on a different frequency. “There is no point in fighting.”
“Please, whoever is talking raise some sort of appendage. And we can fight them. We have to fight them. If we don’t they will destroy more and more planets. Why not fight back?”
“It will be a waste of life,” someone else said. He didn’t see any appendage lift up so, once again, he didn’t know who he was fighting with.
The Arwen Book two: Manifest Destiny Page 19