by Korza, Jay
“No, ma’am. I mean, yes, ma’am, you’re right.” Bloom worked his control pad and gave everyone an image in their visor. “Although I’ve gotten into most of their systems, I still can’t breach their command controls. Everything that we’ve gotten so far has been considered non-essential so it wasn’t too hard to decrypt. But the command controls, I haven’t been able to crack them in the several days that we’ve been down here. My program has been going non-stop and it hasn’t even come close. My best guess is that I will never crack it.” A sound of failure entered his voice.
“So what are we looking at then?” Davies was studying the map that was given to his visor.
“This is a map of the route that we need to take to get to the core of this place. They have a security protocol that when this place shuts down, every top-level program and function gets sent to the mainframe and can only be accessed from there. As far as I can tell, we will still be able to access the controls for the hangar because they weren’t considered top-level before the shutdown occurred. Problem is, it’s booby-trapped. The route is heavily guarded with automatic systems and there is no way I can disarm them.”
“What about using the weapon systems on the ship to blow our way out?” Emily looked towards their escape craft.
“Sorry, el-tee.” It was Jockey’s turn. “You know how big the last explosion was. It would take almost the same amount of force as to blow this lid. None of us would survive. If worst comes to worst, we can autopilot her to do it while we hide somewhere deep inside this place.” He gestured towards the complex. “Set her for self-destruct and after it’s all over, we could just climb out.”
Davies was eating a protein bar but managed to speak up. “We don’t know if there is anything left on the surface. Those bastards could have killed everyone and destroyed all of our ships topside. If we get out of here, we could be walking into a bee’s nest of shit.”
“I agree.” Emily took on her new authority stance as she spoke. Daria had noticed Emily developing her power mode over the last few days. “And even if our forces are still alive on the surface, we can’t throw away this ship. If we go to war against these aliens, this technology might be the only thing that saves us.”
She turned towards Wilks. “Your ankle takes you off this one. Doc, you’ll lead a team with Bloom, Davies, Hood, and Snake.” In her mind, she wanted to tell them that Bloom was mission essential and that he was to be protected at all costs. But she also didn’t want the rest thinking that she thought they were cannon fodder. They’re all professionals and they know what Bloom means to us so I’m sure they’ll do their job, she consoled herself.
The scout team was preparing their gear when Davies’ comlink came on. “Hey Davies, meet me in the hangar bay control room.” Emily’s voice faded from his head.
When he got there, he could tell by the look on Emily’s face that she was going to have a heart-to-heart with him. “Have a seat, big guy. I, ah, wanted to know how you were doing. I mean, you haven’t been yourself.”
“Look, el-tee, I just…it’s personal, all right? I can work it out for myself; it’s just going to take a little time.” He looked at his friend square in the eyes. “Look Emily, I just can’t right now, OK?”
Emily suddenly knew what it was all about. She thought about pulling Davies from the scouting party but she figured that might do more harm than good. “All right, friend. When you’re ready, let me know. I’m always here for you.” As an afterthought, she said, “Would it be out of line for your CO to give you a hug?”
Davies flinched backward and then looked around the corner. No one was near the control booth. “Yes, ma’am. But it would be fine for my friend to give me one.”
The two stood and hugged. For the first time in his career, Davies was glad that his CO wasn’t a man.
Chapter 39
The Detrill Warship Emilian
The captain sat in his chair with his XO behind him at the weapons console. “Tell me, friend, what do you think of our mission?”
“I think that it is about time someone took care of those monsters. I have no like or dislike of the Nortes. They have done nothing to harm us in more than a thousand years. But their ghosts may come back to haunt us all.” The XO finished his system diagnostic and took a seat next to his captain and friend of thirty years. “You have been with my family during the sacred days of W’ishtung, so you have heard the story of my ancestor’s village on our home world. My story is not all that different from those of any other Detrill, but now I have a chance to repay them for what they did to us and our home world.”
Captain Netid looked at the information display that resided in the armrest of his command chair. “Our intel indicates that almost the entire enemy fleet massed in a staging location and then left simultaneously to an unknown destination. The last of that convoy should reach their destination in a couple of weeks.” Netid keyed in a few commands and a new figure was presented to him on the screen. “We should reach our target in one week. Are we ready?”
“Yes, sir”, Commander Aucted said as he surveyed his impressive crew. Although the captain’s question was barely a whisper to his XO, the bridge crew heard him and stiffened their postures automatically as if to answer the question for themselves so the first officer wouldn’t have to.
The security doors to the bridge opened and the tactical officer along with the chief engineer stepped out of the lift. “Sir,” Lieutenant Tredil began, “I have brought our latest tactical intel for review.”
The captain nodded and the four men went into the briefing room together. “The captain looked over his shoulder almost as an afterthought. “Ensign,” he barked.
A young man barely old enough to have his civilian air car license looked at the imposing figure that now stood at the rear of the bridge. “Yes, sir,” he managed to squeak out.
“You have the bridge.” And with that, the captain turned to follow the rest of his senior staff into the conference room.
All eyes on the bridge turned to the junior officer. After the soundproof doors sealed behind the more experienced officers, the bridge erupted in roar of whoops, hollers, and cheers for the young ensign. This particular shift had been staffed by the captain himself and consisted of entirely new officers who had graduated the Naval Academy just prior to being assigned to the Emilian before she left on her current mission.
The captain had always taken the newest officers and put them together as bridge staff early on so they could gain more experience and direct tutelage from him. Those who were lucky enough to be assigned in this group had to work the extra shift in addition to their normal duties. But for the last ten years, anyone who had been picked for this extra duty had always risen through the ranks faster than anyone else from their class.
The ensign took a brief moment to bask in his elation and then wiped the smile from his face. On cue and without a word from their new deck officer, the rest of the bridge crew ceased their impromptu celebration. They returned to their duties with a new sense of purpose: to make their fellow officer shine as brightly as he could.
The captain and his staff were seated at the conference table with data screens in front of each person. Tredil began, “I have been reviewing everything we have in our tactical database concerning our adversaries. We have all been taught the same basic information at the academy about their tactics, weapons, weaknesses, strengths, and so on. But until now, there was much information designated as classified that no one but a handful of bureaucrats has seen for centuries.” He paused as he keyed in a security code to his datapad, which then unlocked the secret information and sent it to everyone else’s screens.
He continued, “At first glance, it seems to be a lot of useless garbage that makes you wonder why it was classified. But on further inspection, it gets very interesting, and honestly, very scary.”
Tredil had tagged the information he deemed most important and each officer reviewed that information first. Lieutenant Morsid had already reviewed the information w
ith Tredil before the meeting and he continued where his colleague left off. “From an engineering standpoint, we are more advanced than they are but not by enough to give us a real tactical advantage. The main advantage we do have is their ships are very old and probably aren’t maintained that well.
“The classified information also details how the Detrill and Nortes worked together to free themselves and many other races from the empire. Apparently, a Nortes doctor developed a virus that wiped out the entire warrior class in this sector.”
“Now this may be a stupid question,” the XO started, “but why don’t we just use that virus again? Wouldn’t that be easier than a stand-up fight?”
“Well, sir,” Morsid continued, “apparently that doctor had a major moral dilemma with what he had done.”
Chapter 40
One Thousand Years Ago – Nortes Prime Colony
“You did what!” The emperor tried to keep from yelling at his minister of health but failed.
“I cannot live with what I have done and I cannot allow anyone else to repeat my mistake”, D’Bath choked out through tears and the blood already starting to build up in his lungs. “I removed all information concerning the virus and antidote from my databases and destroyed all of my research. I have killed children!” he protested through thickening froth and blood.
The emperor tried to call for assistance but D’Bath stopped his friend’s hand. “There is nothing anyone can do for me now. I took ten times the lethal dose to be sure that the only source of information on the virus left in the galaxy would be eliminated.” As his life slowly ebbed from his body, he looked into his friend’s eyes. “I had to do this. I deserve to die in the same manner as all those innocent people I murdered. Please forgive me.” And with that, his body convulsed rapidly as spurts of blood and lung tissue issued forth from his mouth and he died in the emperor’s arms.
T’Leh touched his comlink and requested a medical team to come and take his friend’s body away for a proper sending into the next life. As the medics attempted to remove the body, T’Leh clutched at D’Bath’s tunic for a brief moment before the gentle hand from one of the medics loosened his grip and proceeded to take the body.
Without D’Bath and the information he held, T’Leh and his accomplices had to make this succession work. If his empire ever found out the truth and were able to gain control over the warriors, there would be no stopping their wrath.
Chapter 41
Dig Site One - Journey to the Core
“Stop monkeying around with that before you kill yourself!” Wilks yelled at Bloom as he passed over Wilks’ head on the hover sled that had been found near a loading dock in the hangar.
“I’m just trying to get a feel for how it moves and what it can do.” Bloom circled the hangar once more and then stopped in front of Wilks and jumped off the sled. “She’s real maneuverable and better than any of the prototypes we’re still trying to develop back home. I still don’t understand exactly how it works but instead of working off the magnetic force of the planet, like what we’ve been trying to make, this sled seems to draw in the lightest element in the atmosphere around it. Then it sends some sort of energy through the elements, linking them together so they can’t mix with the ambient air again. And because the collected elements are the lightest in the ambient surroundings, it causes the sled to float on top of them. Sort of like a hot air balloon. And as the sled weight increases, it adds more elements to the ‘flotation skirt’ to offset the weight change.”
Davies walked over, carrying two portable heating elements from their survival gear. He placed each one on the platform and strapped them down. “So these heating elements will really fool their sensors?”
“I don’t know”, Bloom said honestly. “I’m guessing that even with their advanced technology, they still use basic concepts for detecting intruders. They can use heat sensors, weight sensors in the floors, acoustic sensors, and motion detectors. We can simulate each of those stimuli with this sled.
“The heating elements will simulate a live being, while the sled itself should trip any motion detectors that they have. And with the two forty-kilo crates the sled will be dragging, it should be able to trip any weight-bearing and acoustic sensors they might have. As an added bonus, the way this sled is made,” Bloom nodded back over his shoulder, “I think you could destroy more than half of it before it would stop functioning.”
“What if the sensors are set to detect only actual life-forms?” Emily was helping Wilks fasten the crates to the sled.
“Then we’ll find out sooner or later, ma’am.” Bloom adjusted the quick release device on the sled that would allow him to drop the crates remotely in case he needed to maneuver the sled more quickly than they would permit. “But I really don’t think that they would do that. By setting up defenses that only scanned for life-forms, that would leave a big security hole for any type of robotic device to get through.
“Again,” Bloom reiterated, “I can’t guarantee that this will work. But I wouldn’t risk our lives if I didn’t think that the chances of success drastically outweighed the chances of failure.”
Daria had spent most of the last several hours trying to memorize the map of the lower levels that Bloom had downloaded to everyone’s visors. She wanted to be sure that she always knew where an escape route was and the best places to set up a defensive perimeter. Much of her planning was dependent on whether or not the rooms lining the corridors on the route would be open or not, or at least accessible with a minimum of force.
“Are we ready?” Daria had joined the group from her solitary position inside the hangar bay’s control booth.
“Sure are, Doc.” Snake was stretching a little bit before the journey began. “I put a mini-cam on each corner of the sled so we can be anywhere in the complex and still monitor its progress.”
“Great job, guys.” Daria was just shouldering her rucksack. “I have marked off defensive and offensive fallback points on the map in case we encounter hostilities on the way.”
“You mean ‘when.’” Bloom completed his diagnostic of the sled and then looked towards his team leader.
“Yeah, right, ‘when.’” Daria regrettably agreed. “Let’s move out, guys. I want to be home in time for dinner.” Over her shoulder, to the rest of the team staying behind, she smiled. “Don’t pop this lid without us. We don’t want to have to walk home.”
“Don’t worry, Doc,” Emily said from Wilks’ side. “We all go home together.”
Chapter 42
The Truth
Emperor Nogil and Empress Hugany sat before the president of the Coalition and its military council. Both were uneasy and it was difficult not to show it. Everyone’s eyes in the room were on them. Some showed obvious signs of disgust and others were just plain astonished at what they had heard so far. And all were more than just a little bit frightened with the new knowledge they possessed.
The president was the first to speak. “Neither of your worlds are members of the Coalition, so you were not obligated to share all of your worlds’ history with us as new members are required to do. However, why have you waited until now to tell us? We could have been preparing for the day we would have to defend ourselves. And now that day is almost upon us and if only half of what you’ve told us is accurate, then we will most surely die. With your warp and space stream travel abilities, we might even have been able to launch an offensive and take them by surprise. But now we have no advantages at all.”
Space stream travel was yet another piece of information that the two worlds had decided to share with the Coalition now that it seemed inevitable that they would have to work together to fight their common enemy. The “space stream” theory was developed by a Detrill admiral almost five hundred years ago. He had found that there were currents in space that could be tapped into while traveling at warp speed. A steady stream of tachyon particles projected in front of the ship will disrupt the surface of the stream. As the stream attempts to repair itself an
d seal the rupture, the ship is pulled forward on the wake of space being folded back into the ruptured portion of the stream. It was analogous with a moving sidewalk used in almost every city on every planet. These streams were located throughout subspace and accessible while traveling at warp. They were of different lengths, traveled in different directions, and varied in speed. There was one that traveled almost the entire length of the galaxy but ended near the event horizon of a black hole.
Empress Hugany’s answer was calm and matter-of-fact. “There are several reasons we did not tell you of our history. First, we never thought that this would happen. Our soldiers were created in such a way that we thought they would be dead by now and no more than a bad memory. It was unthinkable that they would be able to create more of themselves without the help of our scientists who were taken from the empire for colonization of this sector.”
“Can they not breed on their own?” the Coalition’s lead scientist, Dr. Wabash, asked.
“No, they are created in labs under very specific conditions.” The empress continued, “They once were a species unto themselves but that was millennia ago. They bare no physical and almost no genetic resemblance to what they once were. I’m not sure if any information even exists that could be traced back to what they originally were. They are genetically coded to be the perfect warriors. We have given your scientists all of the information we have on them.
“Many of their enhancements were created to ensure loyalty. One of their enhancements makes it impossible for them to accept orders from anyone outside the royal family. Once a new member of the family is born, they are taken to the Supreme Council’s chambers, where they are touched by the elder warriors who make up the council. They are able to sense a portion of the infant’s DNA that is unique to the royal family. From that point on, the infant becomes known to all the warriors as one who can give orders. Every warrior has this ability to detect the DNA. It is a failsafe in case someone tries to impersonate a member of the royal family. If a person has not been touched by the Supreme Council and accepted, that person can never give orders via the holonet. However, in the unlikely event that a member of the royal family was never touched as a child, he or she could give orders to a warrior in person so that the warrior could touch them and verify their lineage. There is absolutely nothing a warrior won’t do at the order of the family, including killing a member of the family IF the warrior can be made to believe that that family member is a threat to the Empire.”