Gods of War (Jethro goes to war Book 5)

by Chris Hechtl

“Relax. Focus on not moving. Breathing only. By the way, life support?” Jethro asked.

  “Um … nominal,” Letanga reported after a moment.

  “We need to work on your familiarization of the HUD if it took you that long,” Jethro said as the armor tried to take a step, then stopped. “What are you …?”

  “Leg froze,” Letanga growled. “Servos locked up at the knee and hip. I'm getting all sorts of flashing lights and warnings,” he reported.

  “Damn it,” Jethro muttered. “Okay, shut down. We'll need to figure it out,” he said as he helped Letanga get the suit back to the casket while moving with one leg.

  <)>^<)>/

  Once they had swapped the sticky servos for parts Admiral Irons had provided, they tried again. Since it was dark outside, Jethro authorized a test outside. He first had Bast scan the area around the morgue; there was no telling when someone might be inconveniently walking by or stalking the morgue. Fortunately, no one was around so he led Letanga out.

  He waved to the guard, then quietly informed her that Letanga was going for a test drive. The woman nodded and went back to her stoic expression as the two cats passed her.

  Letanga took the armor out for a walk, which quickly turned into a run. He yowled as the servos amplified his speed and strength, sending him careening about until he got the hang of it. He made a few unexpected leaps and trips before he returned to Jethro.

  “I'm not even panting,” he said with a grin in his voice.

  “That's the way it should be,” Jethro said with a nod. “I should have started you on armored tactics, not just the basics,” he mused with a shake of his head.

  “We all have to start somewhere,” Letanga reminded him. He cocked his head at his cousin then snorted. “Let me guess, going to get the others on it?”

  “You know it,” Jethro said with a growl. He sent himself an email through the Wi-Fi to do that very thing. Bast snorted at his antics but didn't say anything.

  “Okay, so, we need you to start the basic training.”

  “Right, but we've still got bugs to work out,” Letanga said. “I'm getting some overheat warnings, and there are some problems with the backpack,” he said, turning to look at his hip and spine area.

  “Something we need to figure out then. The batteries are backups to the microfusion reactor Admiral Irons built. Any problems there?”

  “No. Surprisingly given it's supposed to be managed by an A.I.,” Letanga reported. He cocked his head. “Does this mean the A.I. is awake?” he asked.

  Jethro looked at Bast. She shrugged but then shook her head. “I doubt it is that easy,” Jethro said. “Come on, time to go indoors,” he said.

  “Hang on,” Letanga said. He held still and then faded. But then the pixilating problem came back. He turned brighter than the surrounding area before his skin popped and then went black again. “Damn it!” he cursed.

  “Not what I was expecting,” Jethro said.

  “Why can't I do it?” Letanga snarled, clearly frustrated with the process.

  “Okay,” Jethro said slowly. “I remember it is tied into my armor. I'm now regretting not putting my own on,” he said, looking back the way they'd come. Bast nodded. “But we can train together later I suppose,” he said, turning back to Letanga. “The armor takes its cue from you. If you try to cloak, it will too. But you need to focus on cloaking all the way. It's partially discipline and ability. Believe you can and you'll get there. Eventually,” he said.

  “With lots and lots of failures along the way,” Letanga sighed. “What about the shields?” he asked.

  “That is definitely something we need to do in an outdoor place. Preferably in an open field,” Jethro said. “Don't you dare screw with it now,” he growled, pointing a finger at the Neocat.

  “I wanted to but …”

  “Don't. Consider it an order for the moment then,” Jethro said. “Come on, RTB,” he said, waving to the Morgue.

  “Race you there,” Letanga said. He took off at a sprint. Bast smiled on his HUD.

  Jethro snorted. When Letanga slowed his pace, he gathered himself and then took off, dropping to all fours. He didn't lope so much as run flat out. Within a second, he'd caught up to a surprised Letanga and started to pass him. Letanga hesitated, then he too dropped to all fours with a laugh and raced in earnest.

  <)>^<)>/

  The more Letanga trained with the armor, the more problems came up, but then were diagnosed by their symptoms and then ironed out. They still had to work on the suit's nanites, shield, and cloak. Unfortunately, those sections were off-limits. Bast pronounced that they would have to be recoded to the new suit and Letanga by Admiral Irons. It meant they were stymied on those fronts for the time being.

  “So, we're stuck,” Letanga said as he worked on fine tuning and debugging the suit some more while Jethro worked on making components for another feline suit.

  “Pretty much. It's partially the nanites. From what I've read, we've got viral nanotech in us. It’s part of the Royal Jelly,” Jethro reminded him. It's also a part of our cloak.”

  “And you got the full package while I only got a partial copy,” Letanga said grumpily. Doctor Thornby had confirmed that the day before. She had also stated that they were going to start the initialization of Letanga once the admiral returned. It was tentatively scheduled in two days at the Project Resurrection facility. Apparently, there was enough of a medical facility there to handle the process, Jethro thought. He wasn't too sure about the location though; the security situation was doubtful given the project was public.

  If he knew the powers that be though, they'd find a way to get them in and out unseen.

  “It is what it is. We didn't choose it,” Jethro said as he watched Letanga flex his bicep and then wiggle his fingers as if inviting an arm wrestling match.

  “Just like my problems with cloaking,” Letanga grumbled. “It'd be nice if we could get it sorted out.”

  “Nothing is ever perfect. But if we want it to be, we have to work at it,” Jethro said. His cousin stared at him for a long moment then gave an ear flick of amusement and agreement.

  They got into working out a training syllabus and implant procedure as they worked through the various problems. A system was set up where they would identify a problem, then break it down into component steps to resolve it. Some things were a bit nebulous, and a few didn't have good answers though. “Ever get the feeling we're making this up as we go along?” Letanga quipped as Jethro took notes.

  “Something like that,” Jethro said. He finished his notes, then looked up to see Bast rolling her eyes. She brought up a section of the download files Admiral Irons had given them and highlighted a passage similar to what Jethro had just written about. He groaned, slapping his forehead.

  “What?” Letanga asked, eying him. “Do I even want to know?” he asked. Jethro shook his head.

  “We are indeed reinventing the wheel. From now on, we look up something before we get in too deep and waste time,” Jethro growled in disgust.

  “Well, the good news is, you wrote it so you should be able to remember it easier,” Letanga said. He chuffed and ducked as Jethro threw a greasy rag at his head.

  <)>^<)>/

  “I have to travel in the suit?” Letanga asked as they went to the resurrection facility.

  “Yes. It is to bond you to the suit. I've detected the nanites moving into you. The longer you are in the suit, the more they become accustomed to you. It is why you can use the suit at all; you are related to the primary bloodline,” Admiral Irons said.

  Captain Burrows frowned from where he was standing in the shuttle but didn't say anything.

  “Why now, Admiral? Why start the Cadre now? I'd thought you were focusing on the Navy,” Jethro said as the shuttle went into a gentle bank.

  “I've come to realize I need to delegate more,” Admiral Irons stated slowly. “I've been focusing on the Navy side since we need to control the orbitals,” he said.

  “He who cont
rols the orbitals controls the star system and eventually the planet,” Jethro quoted with a nod.

  “Exactly. But we also need boots on the ground. For the time being, we're going to be going in and smashing the enemy's ships and infrastructure, then moving on. But eventually we'll need to go back with those boots on the ground. Which is why I've been delegating the buildup of the Marines and Army.”

  “Okay, got that. But why us now?”

  “Well, ONI has confirmed the enemy has its own version of elite units,” the admiral said. Jethro nodded slowly. “I know it will take time for you to get up to speed, and a long time to ramp up numbers. They've got a lot of elite units. They've been stealing hardware for centuries and reconditioning it or even copying it as best they can. I want you folks to be ready when you are needed.”

  “Gotcha.”

  “And it doesn't hurt to have an ace up your sleeve,” the admiral said as he sat back in the shuttle. “You are just starting out; we're all learning here. Learning what's involved, how it works, all that. For the time being, you are going to be a shadow of the original Cadre,” he explained. “That's the problem with working without antimatter and without the original playbook. But we'll get there eventually.”

  “Just not any time soon though. I get that part, sir. To be honest I'm glad we're sticking with fusion. It might be limiting, but we can refuel. We need to learn from the mistakes during the Xeno war too, sir,” Jethro said.

  “Wisely said,” the admiral murmured with a nod.

  <)>^<)>/

  Jethro was on hand with Admiral Irons as Letanga went through the final steps of the Cadre initialization process. Doctor Thornby had a full medical team on hand to oversee the surgical proceedings.

  The first thing she did was implant cloned Royal Jelly that Letanga had been missing. Then she inserted nanites into his body. The nanites were directed to interconnect the Royal Jelly to the sergeant's implants and body.

  Admiral Irons provided the keys. From what Jethro overheard, the admiral worked with Proteus and Protector to rekey the existing nanites in the armor and in Letanga to Letanga, then use them to build the A.I. cores and bridges to the Royal Jelly. He understood why the admiral's implants were so critical when he realized they weren't quite finished flashing the nanite queens and control nanites.

  While the admiral worked on that, Doctor Thornby oversaw Letanga's vitals and issued medication or directed her own nanites to break blockages in his arterial system. She also did her best to relieve swelling.

  Jethro wasn't certain what he was there for, other than moral support. He kept looking at Letanga's armor. It was jacked into the computer system that Letanga was jacked into. Bast, Sprite, the admiral, and a newly minted medical A.I. named Ensign Asclepius formed a bridge and then began the final wake-up of the A.I.

  “Initialization and bonding is complete,” Admiral Irons murmured.

  “I've probed the matrix,” Sprite replied. “It is compiling now.”

  “It will take time to get to full sentience. It will draw on historical files it has as well as the network to build its personality. It will also access memories and personality from the host,” Bast replied.

  “The new A.I. takes its cues from the host, correct? For the species form? Is that what you mean?” Doctor Thornby murmured.

  “That's what the literature said. Letanga is related to Jethro so he has the Hathor bloodline in him. The A.I. will take a feline god persona.”

  “That is true,” Bast replied. Doctor Thornby looked up and then over to Jethro. He flicked his ears in a form of a shrug. She went back to her work.

  “What about gender?” Sprite asked.

  “That part I'm not at all certain about. It depends on the A.I. host interaction. The notes weren't specific,” the admiral replied.

  “It depends on the historical database and subconscious preference of the host,” Bast replied, “as well as a psychological matrix.”

  “The bridges are fragile. We've got some issues with swelling again. And I'm detecting some issues with his respiration,” Doctor Thornby warned.

  At one point, it was touch and go for the cat; the A.I. fought them and started to initialize a purge.

  Letanga was under anesthetic so he was oblivious to the procedure, at least initially. As the new A.I. was woken, he was too, so they two could form a gestalt together.

  “Beginning final wake-up call. I'm sending it data to help it wake-up,” Commander Sprite said.

  “I will support you,” Bast murmured.

  <)>^<)>/

  The new A.I. was feline of course, but primal. Data was fed into its modules, but it lashed out initially, fighting the force-feeding. Bast sent soothing code to the A.I., making it hesitate. Eventually it accepted the data stream and then suckled it like the newborn it was. It reached out to the host and caressed the mind, admiring it and then drawing information from his neural network as well. Then it went back to the data feed.

  When the A.I. seemed bloated and ready to sleep, it turned on its host and examined the mind with sleepy curiosity. It recognized that Bast was its mother and that it had to choose a different identity. It searched the data until it found an easy-to-read file. “Satet,” the A.I. said, taking on similar form and shape to Bast but going with a leopard skin. She was a tiny thing, a virtual cub. She yawned at Bast and the other intruders, then curled up and went to sleep to process the mountains of data and experiences she'd had.

  <)>^<)>/

  “Satet, Egyptian fertility goddess. Feline. Female,” Sprite announced to the organics in the surgical suite a moment later as she withdrew. “She's stable,” she stated as Doctor Thornby took note of some troubling signs.

  “That's nice, but we need to focus on other problems,” the doctor said in a stern voice as she went to work. “We need to stabilize the body and keep it from rejecting the new tissue. We're already seeing signs of that,” she warned. “He's got a fever, and it is rising,” she warned.

  “I'll leave you to it,” Sprite stated, stepping out of the computers.

  “Thanks,” the doctor said absently as she swung back into action. “Asclepius, work with me here,” she ordered.

  “I'll use the nanites to scrub his lungs of fluids so he doesn't get pneumonia, Doctor. We are getting negative interference from the host nanites.”

  “We can't control them; that is up to Satet. Don't provoke them. Work around them or withdraw,” Bast warned.

  “That will make repairs difficult at best,” Asclepius said peevishly.

  <)>^<)>/

  “Is he going to make it?” Jethro asked as Bast indicated he could disconnect. He pulled the ODN line as Admiral Irons backed out of the surgical suite with a concerned look on his face.

  “I don't know,” Admiral Irons stated, eyes going to the observation window. “We're in the best hospital with the best doctor in the galaxy, so I think he's in good hands,” he said.

  “You know I can hear you. You are distracting me. Go away,” Doctor Thornby ordered as she continued to work. Nurses moved in with a fresh tray from the pharmacy. Another nurse brought in a package of ice to help cool the swelling and fever.

  “Right,” Admiral Irons said as he indicated they should leave. “Thanks Sprite,” he said, looking up to the overhead.

  “No problem, sir,” Sprite responded as the two organic beings exited the observation room. “I'll try to remember to check on him in a few hours,” the admiral muttered.

  “I'll put it in your schedule, sir,” Protector stated from the admiral's shoulder.

  “Right,” the admiral grunted.

  Jethro looked worriedly over his shoulder, then to the admiral. Finally, he sighed and nodded.

  “Hey, someone come get this armor … no, okay, never mind,” Doctor Thornby said from the overhead. Jethro snorted as he and the admiral looked up and then away.

  “I've got other work I need to attend to. Keep me posted, Jethro,” the admiral said with a squeeze of the cat's shoulder in
passing.

  “Aye aye, sir,” Jethro replied dutifully.

  <)>^<)>/

  It wasn't until Jethro had exited the facility that he realized they'd been at it for an entire day. And he also had a ton of inquiries growing in desperation for input from the other Cadre members and even Captain Lyon. He grunted and then started answering them. Bast shook her head and took what he was writing and then copied it to each of the inquiries instead of allowing him to answer each email.

  Jethro grunted. He was fatigued, more so than he had been in a long time, and he hadn't really done anything. Letanga was the one who'd gone through … well, not hell, but a transformation. It remained to be seen how he'd handle it he thought.

  Since he didn't have a billet in the area, he wearily hopped a flight back to the RECON base. He knew Bast and the doc would keep him informed when they could.

  <)>^<)>/

  The following morning Jethro woke and inquired about Letanga before he got out of bed. Bast flicked her ears and put up Letanga's ID tag and vital signs. He blinked, yawned, then rolled out of bed and started his morning PT.

  At breakfast he checked on the base while he ate. There were no details about Letanga, so he finished, cleaned up his kitchenette, and then went in to the office.

  It was difficult going through the motions of his day not knowing. Even harder still when some of the Cadre initiates came by to ask about Letanga. He could tell them that it had been an initial success, but there was no news.

  “Well, no news is good news, right?” Pamplona said with a shake of her head. He grimaced but nodded.

  Near lunch he couldn't stand it anymore and put in a request for more information. Doctor Thornby responded. “I just woke up and checked on him myself, Jethro. He's stable. He's going to have a long hard road to recovery though; he doesn't seem to have the same abilities you do. We'll have to keep that in mind when we go further,” she said.

  “Yes, ma'am.”

  “That damn suit is with him. It won't leave his side, so I'm guessing it is a good thing,” the doctor grumbled. “But it keeps getting in the way.”

  “I'm sorry to hear that,” Jethro said.