“Now grant them full administrative access to the defense grid,” Barcus said. “All missile and plasma cannons.”
“Please confirm. Full administrative access,” AI~Poole stated.
“Confirmed,” Barcus said. Then, he approached Ronan.
“Ronan, we couldn’t leave your planet defenseless. And, we won’t protect it while holding a sword over your head. Poole will stay here with you. He will help you. He has more capacity, comms, and computing power than all your remaining data centers combined. He will guide you with your modernization plan. Take it slow.”
Ronan seemed to understand what that meant. All his fears evaporated in these few sentences.
“Hello, Poole,” he said.
“Hello, Ronan. Would you care to nuke anyone this morning?”
They all laughed.
Wex, Jude and Cine had retreated quietly into the Sedna.
***
Good-byes were quick, after that. There were hugs and tears and back slapping handshakes. The Sedna lifted off with twelve in its crew. They had an appointment to pick up Wes.
There was no reason for radio silence, so they made a planet-wide search for any additional survivors. No HUD comms were found anywhere else on the planet, or the moon.
The lifeboat was already in the hangar when they reached the moon base. The hangar door quickly closed, and the bay was pressurized, in no time.
By the time the Sedna’s apron was down, a man with a filthy flight suit, long hair and a beard stood there.
He looked pissed, especially because he stood there, holding a Frange carbine, and he was flanked by a pair of Warmarks, military drop suits with full weapons and exo-armor. These were the most dangerous war machines ever made.
They had been activated.
“Wes, what are you doing? Everything's okay, buddy,” Jimbo said, hands forward, palms open.
“Shut up and listen, Jimbo.” Wes did not sound as crazy as he looked.
There was a single laser dot on Hagan’s forehead. Hume flanked him. She awaited an order to fire.
“I have been up here, studying. Excellent sensor array, by the way, whoever set that up.”
“Thank you,” Kuss said, “Make your point fast or Hume kills you dead.”
She noticed there were seventeen laser dots on Wex. Both Warmarks had their weapons trained on her. And, these suits were bristling with weapons.
“This is her fault.” Wes sounded like he was about to rant. “This missile defense grid was not made to keep people out. It was made to keep them in. They are not humans. Well, not anymore. Come out of there. Captain Everett knew. We were to rescue…or to destroy.”
Wex complied, followed by Cine and Jude. She stood fully upright as she slowly descended the ramp. Head held high, her chest was covered in laser dots.
Barcus felt Po tense. They both noticed the bullet holes in her gown as the laser dots danced around them as she moved.
The suits advanced, placing themselves between Wex and the others.
“He was in the Citadel. In the dungeon,” Barcus said. They had not fed him food, or water, for seventeen years. “He was there when the Citadel was destroyed. He told me to tell Wex, that he was tired. That it would be all right. That he understood.”
“What the hell are you people doing?” Po pushed her way through and finally came to stand with the barrel of the Frange right against her chest. “She wasn’t the only prisoner on Baytirus. We all were! And, we are NOT free, yet.”
Hagan was suddenly not as certain. He was looking at Barcus.
“They called them a word that the AI would only translate to scarecrow. They crippled their own tech to keep it away from him. Away from her.” Wes screamed, “The defense grid here. It’s not for defense. It’s for permanent quarantine. A prison.”
“This was set up by the same bastards that destroyed the Ventura? Is that what you are telling me?” Hume asked, storming forward.
She stood between the suits, and the lasers swung away from her. “That grid was set up by the same people that have been doing genetic experiments on Po and her people?”
Po stood next to Wex. She remembered her on her knees beside Barcus.
“To hell with them,” Hume barked as she accessed controls on a cuff device. “Warmarks: Stand down override. Authorization, Hume, Baker-Seven-Niner.”
The suits retreated and the weapons stowed away. They were no less intimidating.
“Where the hell did you get two Warmarks?” Jimbo asked, as Hume walked to the nearest war machine and opened a chest plate to reveal a control/status panel. She was obviously very experienced with them.
Hagan looked uncertain. He was staring at Wex and then Barcus. Becoming less certain.
“I, er um, we have sixteen of them in the lifeboat, sir,” Hagan answered.
Holding his side, Barcus asked, “How are you driving them?”
“I have a specialty HUD upgrade. It also identifies…them.” Oddly he was pointing at Barcus absently, not Wex. “But, I’m not driving them, ECHO is. The AI.”
Barcus, Jimbo and Hume stared at Hagan.
“You have an ECHO-class AI on that lifeboat? An Extreme Combat Hellfire Operations AI? What the hell is going on here, Jimbo?” Barcus growled, before stepping aside and throwing up an alarming amount of bloody chunks onto the hangar deck.
“Can we load this boat up and get the hell out of here? I need a nap.” He paused, and continued, “Sir, we will have five months to figure it out.” Barcus spat out another chunk.
“Captain.” It was Hume, calling out. She stood in front of the lifeboat. “There are also two Javelin modules over here.”
Jimbo looked at Barcus, who with a broad, bloody smile said, “Em must have gone back. Stu, did you bring these here?”
“Yes, sir. It was on my task list,” AI~Stu replied, actually sounding abashed. “After the plutonium was transferred to the fuel pods.”
“Load those up as well,” Worthington said. “We’re going home.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
The Interim Report
“At this point, we have decided to submit this as an additional, interim report. The narrative attached is too important to await the full, final report. The recovered backups of the Emergency Module, the Shuttle Transport Unit and the Sedna have provided significant additional insights.
“Please note: The medical records found on the Memphis indicate that the following personnel received an ECHO module update to their Deep Brain Implant Matrix: Barcus, Worthington, Hume, Cook, Beary, Hagan, Muir, Elkin, Kuss, Shaw, Wood and the woman from Baytirus named Po. This detail was never mentioned by any of the survivors during questioning. Only one of the sixteen Warmarks were ever recovered.
“Conclusions: This report invalidates the charges leveled against Roland Barcus, regarding the destruction of the Ventura. It also calls into question assumptions regarding his role in the Solstice 31 Incident, and the deaths of 110 million people on Earth, on December 22, 2631.
“The Winter Solstice of 2631. The longest night in the history of Earth.”
--Solstice 31 Incident Investigation Testimony Transcript: The Memphis Recovery Team Digital Forensics Interim Report. Independent Tech Analysis Team. March 9th, 2663.
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Acknowledgments
I have several people to thank for their help with this book. I will begin, first and foremost, with my wife, Brenda. Thank you for your patience, as it appears I go deaf while I’m writing. Thank you for your encouragement and ideas. Thanks for all the help and love every time I need maintenance or require repairs.
Thanks go to my son, Gray, and daughter, Cady. Thank you for making me proud of you. Thanks for making it so easy to be your dad. I miss you guys.
Thanks go to my editors, Helen Burroughs, Kelly Lenz Carr, Dave Nelson, Karen Parent and Marti Hoffman.
I’d like to thank my friends Tony, Donna, Rob, Dewey, Nancy, Dave, Jimbo, Roberta, my brother Carl and all the people at the Loudon Scien
ce Fiction Writers Group and Writers Eating DC for your help, support and inspiration.
Again, I need to specifically thank Chris Schwartz for not pulling punches on the feedback, helping me kill favorite characters and reading the damn thing so many times.
Oh, and my cat Bailey. Best cat in the known universe.
About the Author
Martin Wilsey is a writer, hunter, photographer, rabble rouser, father, friend, marksman, storyteller, frightener of children, carnivore, engineer, fool, philosopher, cook and madman. He and his wife, Brenda, live in Virginia where, just to keep him off the streets, he works as a research scientist for a government-funded think tank.
For more information:
Blog: http://wilseymc.blogspot.com/
Web: http://www.baytirus.com/
Email: [email protected]
The Broken Cage (Solstice 31 Saga Book 2) Page 33