Defending the Galaxy: The Sentinels of the Galaxy

by Maria V. Snyder

“Yes. They’re at our base.”

  Thought so, but I’d hoped we’d catch a break. “How many inactive Warrior planets have you infiltrated?”

  “All of them.”

  Not a surprise. “Even the ones that haven’t been discovered?”

  “Not yet. We wanted to establish our—what did you call it?—Warrior Express in Explored Space first before ranging further out.”

  Some good news. “Did you take the eight key Warriors off the planets or keep them in place?”

  “We took some to other Warrior planets and left some of the key ones behind.”

  “How many Warriors did you destroy?” I ask.

  “Only enough to remove the important Warriors.”

  More good news. “I already figured out you need to touch a heart to be able to wake, or rather open, a portal. Do you have to touch a heart to go through the portals? Or can anyone go through once it’s opened?”

  “The first person through has to have claimed a heart. The rest don’t. But the portals only go one way. If you try to go the wrong way…” His forehead crinkles as if he’s in pain.

  “What happens?”

  “You arrive, but only for a few seconds before it sucks you back through and spits you out in pieces.” Jarren shudders.

  That would explain the boot prints in Pit 21. I ask him if they tried it on Planet Dongguan.

  “Yeah.” He peers at me. Through his eyes, I see the wheels in his mind turning. “He ended up here? Wow.”

  “Wow what?”

  “He also ended up, briefly, on a number of other Warrior planets at the same time. I’m assuming all sixty-three of them. No wonder he was torn apart.”

  Ugh. “Did you try it again?”

  “No. That was the first and last time.”

  At least he’s concerned about his people. I mull over the information. Some good news, some gross news. “What about the last person through the portal? Do they need to claim a heart as well?”

  He shrugs. “Don’t know.”

  “You haven’t closed one?” That’s alarming.

  “Why should we? It’s faster to travel between planets without having to open a portal every time.”

  It only took about fifteen minutes when we opened the portal in Pit 21. “Does it take longer to open a portal when you just have the key Warriors, or is it shorter?” I ask.

  “It takes one hundred and twenty-eight hours. We don’t know why. When the pit is full of Warriors it takes sixteen minutes.” He gives me a sardonic smile. “Both numbers are divisible by eight.”

  But I’m still distracted by the fact that the portals are all still open. “Do you know that using a portal without the full complement of Warriors risks having HoLFs break through? Have there been any reports by your network of people about shadow-blobs attacking?”

  He doesn’t answer, but something shifts in his gaze.

  And then I remember Operation Looter Attack. “By the way your people reacted to the projections of the shadow-blobs, they’ve already had some encounters with the aliens.” Which isn’t good. At all. “Let me tell you what you’ve set into motion by exploiting the portals.” I explain about the entangled points and rifts being created by the reduction in the number of Warriors on a planet.

  “Talk about a crazy imagination. Where do you come up with this stuff?” Jarren looks at Niall and Rance. “And you guys believe her? You’re all insane.”

  “What’s insane is using an alien technology without learning all about it first. Once you figured out how it worked, you raced to exploit it. You didn’t wait for the rest of Lan’s discoveries that reported the danger. And then, when Lan drew closer to making the connections you’d made years earlier, you traveled to Xinji and killed her.”

  Twelve

  2522:267

  That last comment shocks me. I’d been willing to believe that Jarren had unintentionally released the shadow-blobs that were responsible for all those deaths on Xinji. But once I talked it out and chased the logic, Jarren couldn’t risk Lan learning about the Warrior portals. So he killed her!

  Jarren stares at me with a wary expression. Proof of his guilt. Anger surges through me. I jump from my seat, round the table, and punch the murdering bastard right in the jaw. Hard.

  He falls to the ground with a grunt. My knuckles throb and my ankle is going to remind me about this when the pain meds wear off, but I don’t care. It is very satisfying. I step back and let him catch his breath.

  “Did you see that?” Jarren appeals to Niall and Rance when he recovers. “She attacked me.”

  Rance looks at Niall. “I didn’t see anything. Did you?”

  “Not a thing.” There’s a glitter of approval in Niall’s blue-green eyes.

  I pull my energy wave gun and crouch down next to Jarren. Properly terrified now, he glances at the camera in desperation.

  “That’s not going to save you,” I say. “Worming into the video feeds is ridiculously easy. You taught me that.” I aim the weapon at him. “Did you kill everyone on Xinji?”

  “No! The hostiles killed them. I just…”

  I nudge him with the gun. “Say it.”

  “I killed Lan and her husband.”

  The desire to push the trigger and shatter all his bones in his body presses on me. Instead, I straighten and ask Rance to set Jarren back in his chair. Rance is happy to help. Jarren lands in his seat with a thud.

  I take my seat. “Now, you’re going to tell me who you’re working with.”

  All the fight is gone from Jarren. He complies.

  “Sonovabitch,” Radcliff says when I brief him on the interview. He was monitoring me through the cameras, but doesn’t mention my outburst. “That’s a bunch of high-ranking officers.”

  “Yeah.” My tone is grumpy. Guess I’m not all-knowing. Beau and I didn’t think to check DES’s Protectorate ranks. The looters have missiles, weapons, and shuttles. Where else would they get them but from the military? And then there’s the money. At least learning there are three major corporations footing the bill isn’t a surprise. Of course all of them want to exploit space, mining resources for their profit. Currently, DES is focused on science and colonization—no tourists in space. Except with the Warrior Express, the companies can charge lots of money for people to travel without the time dilation.

  Jarren managed to recruit a number of disgruntled Protectorate officers, failed navigators, and rich patrons. Impressive, except he’s evil. Too bad none of this information helps us deal with our situation.

  Radcliff wants to send a report about the Protectorate to DES. “Just for this one report, is it possible to block our activities from everyone else and ensure it reaches the directors and no one else?” he asks me.

  Can you do that? I ask Q.

  YES.

  “Yes. Let me know when you’re ready to send it and Q will protect it,” I say.

  “Good. Officer Dorey is waiting for you in his office.”

  Except the thought of protecting a report triggers another one. And it’s frankly horrifying. Did the Protectorate really send ships to the Warrior Planets after Xinji went silent?

  YES.

  But who are they going to protect? Us or the looters?

  UNKNOWN.

  I lean all my weight on my cane to keep from toppling over.

  “Something wrong, Lawrence?”

  “Those Protector ships. They might not be coming to help us.”

  “I’m aware.” His expression is bleak.

  I arrive in Beau’s office without memory of the trip there.

  “What’s wrong?” Beau asks.

  Radcliff didn’t order me not to tell anyone. And Beau needs to know. I explain about the Protectorate.

  “We’re screwed,” he says.

  “I agree.” I plop in the seat next to him.

  “The looters knew that once Xinji went silent, DES would send out Protector Class ships. They were a step ahead.” Beau runs a hand over his hair. It’s no longer spiked. Instead, i
t’s a sad version of his normal hairstyle.

  “Yeah.” I’m numb. And I keep coming back to the same truth. We’re done. End of the road. We don’t have enough people, resources, or anything really. Even if we evacuate to another Warrior planet, the Protectorate would just catch up to us there. So much for our goal of surviving until help arrives and being able to relax. I sink down in the chair and wonder where Niall is. I’m not waiting until my birthday, I’m not dying a virgin.

  “Ara,” Beau says, waving a hand in front of my face. “Snap out of it. We’re not going to roll over and die.”

  “But what are we going to do?” My voice is shrill.

  “We’re going to do our jobs. Let’s get those shuttles online for Morgan.”

  His brusque tone cuts through my self-pity. I focus on hiding the shuttle’s activity from the looters and not on our inevitable ending.

  It takes us all morning to protect one shuttle from any wormers. But Q takes over for the rest of the shuttles. We managed to confiscate three when the looters attacked us last time, and one from this recent attack, which is pretty impressive. The new shuttle is already operating outside the Q-net.

  Can you tell what it’s using to communicate with the looters’ base? I ask Q.

  NO.

  But it has to be using something and, even at gunpoint, Jarren refused to tell me. Maybe the astrophysicists can figure it out. After we finish, I ask Radcliff where Drs. Carson and Zhang are.

  “Why?”

  I explain. “If we can listen to what the looters at the base are planning, then we might have some warning if they come after us again.”

  “You don’t think they’ll believe we’re dead?”

  “Even if they do, they’re bound to come here to access the Warrior portals.”

  “Good point.” He consults his portable. “They’re in Pit 21. When it gets dark, I’ll send a tech to ask for their help.” Radcliff rubs the scruff on his chin. It’s peppered with gray. “In the meantime, I need you to work on Operation Desperation.”

  We share a disheartened look. Too bad my plan of escaping through the portals will only delay the inevitable. “I’m going to need a portable.”

  “There should be some around. Just stay out of the labs. And don’t take too long. I want you here.”

  “Do you want me to work in your office?”

  “Yes. Just in case I need you.”

  “Yes, sir.” I hurry out. I’ve a bit of freedom and I’m not going to waste it.

  The hallways in the base are in the same condition as the ones in security. Holes and cracks decorate most of the walls. Some lights flicker and others have shattered from the shock wave. A layer of white grit and broken glass crunches under my boots, and finding clear spots to set the end of my cane down is difficult. There’s a burnt electrical smell to the air. And there’s no one else around. It’s creepy.

  Finding a portable is easy. It appears that many of the devices were abandoned when everyone evacuated. Even though they’re not connected to the Q-net, they run standard plug and chug programs so you can keep working when you’re not near a terminal or if you’ve been entangled too long—over twelve hours and you risk brain damage. The portables have the ability to upload data to the Q-net via a terminal. They’re handy and can send messages between them. I stop. They send messages.

  I groan. The looters are using portables! Is the answer that simple?

  NO. THEY DO NOT USE ANY DES DEVICES.

  So they’re paranoid. But that doesn’t mean they’re not using the same technology that allows messages to go from portable to portable.

  IT IS POSSIBLE.

  I’ll have to ask the astrophysicists. That is, if they believe me. They still won’t acknowledge the possibility of other dimensions. I wonder what they’ll think of a sentient Q-net. Somehow I doubt they’ll embrace the concept.

  While I’m out in the base, I swing by my parents’ unit to grab a few more personal items and snag some food. I missed lunch. Before heading back, I go to the archeology lab. The Warrior heart I picked out for Niall has been tucked into a drawer. Since Jarren was so chatty, I won’t need Niall to help me experiment. I was worried a person has to touch a heart in order to travel through the portals. Of course, that means I have to trust what Jarren said. Hmmm. That needs more thought. And perhaps a consult with Radcliff over how much we believe him.

  I find a cloth bag to carry the heart. Then I glance at the doors to the pits. Only Pit 1 survived the cave-in. Curious, I go in to peek at the collapsed pits. Will it match my memories?

  Bright lights illuminate the smooth yellowish-tan-brown walls. Blocks of sandstone and crumbled piles of sand extend up beyond what is visible. I’d bet there are depressions in the desert over the three collapsed pits.

  There are gaps between boulders and I wonder if anyone is still alive under the rubble. I sincerely hope not. That’s an awful way to die. My father said they tried to find survivors, but there was only so much they could do.

  I shudder in the suddenly cold air. It has a familiar heavy weight. Oh no. Movement in the rubble catches my eye. A shadow-blob!

  Cursing, I message Radcliff through the portable. That rift might have been buried, but it’s still open. Obviously, shadow-blobs only need cracks to squirm their way through. And the null wave emitter installed on the wall to keep them out must have been crushed in the collapse.

  I rearrange the lights in Pit 1 to keep the shadow-blobs from entering the archeology lab. There’s only one hostile alien. For now. Prior experience has taught me that they’ll wait until there are enough of them to attack us. Not a pleasant thought. Just what we needed, another problem to add to the growing list.

  A message from Radcliff arrives. I’m to remain here until another guard can stand watch. All I have is my flashlight, but it should be enough. I hope. While I keep an eye out for more shadow-blobs, I consider how else we could protect the base from the HoLFs. Moving Warriors is not feasible. They’re super heavy and are needed to guard their pits. There’s the Warriors and hearts in the factory below the pits.

  That is, if it survived the collapse. We can’t get to it through the pits anymore, but we have that tunnel we dug to get into it when we implemented Operation Warrior Hearts. If we could bring up all the hearts from the factory, we could place them in Pit 1 to protect the base. And use them to fill in for the missing Warriors in the other pits that Jarren damaged. Except there won’t be enough. And does the heart work outside the Warrior’s body? Or does it have to be inside?

  INSIDE.

  There has to be a way to make more Warrior Sentinels. Q said fourth nation maintained the network of protection. All that alien equipment in the factory must be for manufacturing more hearts and Warriors to replace ones that are damaged.

  CORRECT.

  Do you know how the machinery works?

  FOURTH NATION LEFT INSTRUCTIONS.

  Where?

  IN FACTORIES.

  Will we be able to understand the instructions?

  UNKNOWN.

  Will you help us translate? There’s a significant pause. So I add, It’s all part of defending the Galaxy from the shadow-blobs.

  I WILL CONSIDER IT.

  At least it isn’t a no. And there’s hope we can produce more hearts. If we survive.

  It seems I’ve a couple of hours to plan as I wait for my replacement. The security team is stretched thin. Since there’s not much action in the pit, I connect to the portable and start planning Operation Desperation.

  There are four active Warrior planets not under looter control. Pingliang, Ruijin, Qingyang, and Nanxiong. On those four all the pits have been opened. Which means there’s a corridor that runs parallel, connecting all sixty-four planets. So if we pop in to one, we can get to another without any problems. Unlike Yulin, where almost all the pits are still closed and will take time to open. It took us hours before we could get into Pit 21 out in the desert. But we were being extra careful. I suspect it could be done quick
er.

  Q, which of our pits lead to those four planets?

  PIT 7 PINGLIANG. PIT 39 RUIJIN. PIT 24 QINGYANG. PIT 63 NANXIONG.

  Thanks. I work on the logistics of Operation Desperation until Elese arrives at eighteen hundred with two null wave emitters. By that time, my pain meds have worn off, I’ve eaten all my snacks, and I’m grumpy. However, I’m smart enough not to snap at her.

  “How’s your ankle?” she asks.

  “Stiff and sore. Don’t worry, nothing my pampered ass can’t handle.”

  She grins. Handing me one of the weapons, Elese asks, “Status?”

  “It’s been quiet. I’ve only seen one.”

  Elese follows me into the pit. She whistles at the carnage. “You’re one lucky lady. How deep under were you?”

  I point to the tripod with the pulley. It’s still sitting over my burrow. “I was near the edge. Another couple meters and I would have been clear.”

  She peers at me. “Maybe not so lucky.”

  “No. I was lucky.”

  The air turns cold.

  “There’s one!” Elese raises the emitter. A sizzle-zap sounds and the shadow-blob explodes into tiny black specks and disappears. “Take that, you ugly mother-HoLFer.”

  I laugh at her modified curse word. “I didn’t see any other HoLFs, but I stayed in the archeology lab. Maybe they can sense when we’re close.”

  Elese shrugs. “More fun sizzle-zapping them than being in the lab doing nothing.” Then she brightens. “Besides that’s one less ugly mother-HoLFer in our Galaxy.”

  I really missed hanging out with Elese. Her energy is infectious, but my ankle is inflamed. “Did Radcliff give you any orders for me?” I ask.

  “Yeah. You’re to report back to his office. Leave the extra emitter just in case I have to call for back up.”

  I notice the communicator in her ear.

  She taps the almost transparent device. “Emergencies only.”

  Which is good, especially as it can still be used when not connected to the Q-net. Perhaps that’s another way the looters are communicating. “Have fun,” I say to Elese as I leave.