Race to Terra (Book 10 of The Empire of Bones Saga)

by Terry Mixon

  “Uh huh,” he said doubtfully. “Are you sure I can’t talk you out of this?”

  “Not a chance.”

  He sighed. “Please don’t blow anything up. We’re only going to be here a couple of hours, and we don’t have time to get involved.”

  “I’ll be on my best behavior,” she said, holding up her hand. “Besides, you’re landing way away from the occupied areas around the city. What could go wrong?”

  He stared at her, somewhat aghast that she’d even said that. Well, if he couldn’t keep her from coming, at least he could make sure they landed well clear of where people traveled.

  Talbot sent a note to the pilot to change to the alternate landing site. It was close enough for a good view, but even Kelsey would have difficulty getting to the city.

  There were still some small encampments or farms within reach, but that couldn’t be helped without landing far, far out in the forest. Some of the scientists wanted to get samples from closer in, so he was compromising.

  “What do we know about the place so far?” Kelsey asked.

  “The humans speak something related to Standard and don’t seem to have retained any high technology. We haven’t listened to enough conversation to have any idea how they think they got here or if the ship crashed somewhere.

  “A couple of merchants talking shipping routes over the continent and beyond gave us a name for the world: they call it Razor. Not sure why.”

  “Huh,” Kelsey said. “I suppose it’s no weirder than Avalon, Erorsi, or Pentagar. I wonder how they picked it.”

  “We may never know. The scientists will gather every scrap of data they can while we keep them safe. I want you to stick close. No wandering off.”

  “I may step out into the woods, but I’m not going far away. I promise to stay out of trouble.”

  That, he knew, would be the day.

  Twenty-five minutes later, Talbot stepped out of the pinnace and onto the planet’s surface. They’d settled in close to one of the primitive cities but not too close.

  He gestured for the marines to spread out and provide cover. Once they were in place, he allowed the scientists to start looking for samples and setting up monitoring stations for all the reconnaissance drones. They’d gather data for a few hours and then return to orbit.

  The forest was green and smelled like a forest should, so he thought the people here had gotten lucky. They could’ve run through the flip point and found a frozen hell or a jungle so hot it was miserable. Or no habitable worlds at all.

  Once he was satisfied with the progress, he turned his attention to his wife. Except that she was gone. Dammit.

  “Did anyone see where Princess Kelsey went?”

  Of course, no one had seen exactly where she’d gone. Perfect. He’d just have to pray his wife didn’t find some new trouble to get herself involved with.

  To his relief, the next few hours went smoothly. The scientists cheerfully passed data back and forth, pleased with this or that bit. They had no contact with anyone.

  Best of all, his wife turned up just as they were starting to pack up some of the equipment and move it back into the pinnace. She seemed unharmed and didn’t look as if she’d gotten into trouble, though she did have some dirt stains on her ship’s suit.

  “What happened to you?” he asked.

  “Even Raider implants don’t keep you from slipping when you go down a hill too fast,” she said, looking over at the scientists, who were getting in the last of their observations.

  “Shouldn’t we be all packed up by now? We need to be lifting off in twenty minutes.”

  Talbot frowned a little. “Why the rush? A few minutes more isn’t going to hurt anyone.”

  “I’m just worried about any last-minute complications. We really don’t need to get tangled up here.”

  He had the sudden suspicion that she’d done something and was about to ask her point blank when one of the scientists waved him over.

  “There’s something going on in the city. Some kind of ruckus.”

  “Like what?” he demanded, certain that Kelsey was somehow involved.

  “Not sure. Word is there was a visitation by a goddess at the temple to the Eternal One, whatever that is. The goddess of vengeance, if you can believe it.”

  Talbot felt his eyes narrow slightly as Kelsey shrank down a little at that. Yeah, she’d done something.

  To distract him, he suspected, she spoke to the scientist. “Eternal One? Who or what is that?”

  “The Emperor,” the man said. “It looks like they deified the memory of Emperor Marcus from before the Fall and have a religion enshrining his return. Only now it looks as if he is getting a daughter to go alongside Lucien, the emperor’s real son. Talk is that the church erred in some way. It’s really getting people into an uproar.”

  “We should really get out of here before whatever this is spreads,” Kelsey said.

  For once, he completely agreed. He’d find out what she’d done at some point, he was sure.

  A few minutes later, they were on the pinnace and heading back into orbit. He looked over at Kelsey and started to ask her what had happened but saw that she was examining a small coin.

  “What’s that?” he asked.

  “Local currency, I suppose. I found it on the spot I’d found to overlook the city. Other people had the same idea I’d had. I think I’ll keep it as a souvenir.”

  The scientists would probably be ticked, but he didn’t see any harm in that.

  He settled back in his seat. Whatever had happened back there, it wasn’t important enough to worry about. She’d tell him when she was ready. Until then, they needed to get back into the game. They needed to be at Terra in a week.

  Jared cursed himself for taking his eyes off the hatch. He’d gotten so caught up in the discussion with the AI that he’d allowed his attention to wander. Now Fielding and his guard had the drop on them.

  He supposed he could still kill Kelsey, Austin, and himself, but damned if the turn of events with the AI hadn’t gotten interesting. Fielding was far less of a threat than the sentient computer. He had no ship of his own, so he’d have to go back to Athena to leave the system.

  And Jared had a secret weapon.

  He slowly set the neural disruptor onto the deck and stepped back, his hands raised. Kelsey and Austin raised theirs as well. At a gesture from his lord, the guard came forward and grabbed the weapon off the deck.

  “Search them,” Fielding ordered. “I have to confess that I never expected to hear anyone ever openly discussing treason like this—particularly with a Lord—but here we are.”

  Jared felt the corner of his mouth quirk up as he saw Kelsey angle herself toward the guard. He just needed to keep the enemy’s eyes on him, and he’d never know what hit him.

  “How exactly are you planning on escaping? By now, you know that no one on that destroyer is your friend.”

  “I think I can talk my way through any problems. It will be unfortunate that the Lord killed everyone other than Austin, my guards, and myself, but such is life.”

  “But Uncle…” Austin started.

  “Silence, whelp,” Fielding snapped. “I can’t believe you allowed yourself to become caught up in this nonsense. I told you that I’d see you safe. Perhaps it would look more authentic if you died, too.”

  “And how do you intend to deal with me?” the AI asked curiously. “My defenses are far too strong for you to threaten me, even here aboard this station. If I deem you a threat, my ships will see that your vessel is destroyed. You cannot escape.”

  Kelsey had been about to make her move but paused at the question. Jared agreed with her action. If the villain was about to reveal his dastardly plan, there was no need to interrupt him.

  Fielding laughed. “I’ve taken steps to make sure you never threaten the rest of the Lords again. My instructions were backups to the main plan of repairing you, but the other Lords couldn’t allow you to be a continued threat. We sabotaged one of the fu
sion plants after I disabled your ability to track us.”

  Jared grunted. He’d seen the other man use his overrides to get the AI to allow him access to another area, but he hadn’t been aware that the man could make the AI not see him.

  “That is where you err, human,” the AI said. “I was fully aware of your location, and my remotes repaired the sabotage as soon as you left. I was also aware of your approach to this compartment. I wanted to see how these potential allies behaved before I decided how truthful they were being.

  “Now that I have that information, I believe it might be prudent for the small female to deal with you.”

  Obviously taking that as a cue to act, Kelsey darted forward and punched the guard in the head before he could move. He was already falling when she stripped his weapon and shot Fielding. The blue stunner bolt took the man down even as he was trying to pivot and bring his weapon to bear.

  Jared moved quickly and checked the guard Kelsey had struck. His nose was broken, but he was still alive.

  He straightened slowly. “That was unexpected.”

  “Indeed, it was,” the AI said. “Also, somewhat more entertaining than I’d imagined. What will you do with him now?”

  “Take him back to the ship and see what we can get out of him. So, his codes weren’t good enough to command you to any action?”

  “My brothers would never give any human a code that could force one of themselves to obey. The only code that I was bound to was the one barring me from directly attacking your ship or your persons when you came aboard.

  “It compelled no obedience, and if you had gone too far, I would have been free to act. In fact, once he began working on the fusion plant, I could have done so, but the conversation had taken an interesting turn. I wanted to see what happened next.”

  Jared pocketed his weapon and let Kelsey handle the rest. “And what does happen next?”

  “I allow you to leave with information that you may be able to leverage to your benefit against my brother at Terra.”

  “Like the stand-down code?”

  “Sadly, that is based upon my serial number. I do not know the appropriate code to give you for that AI. Only the Master AI knows who we truly are.”

  “Fielding probably has that code, or one like it. He was supposed to get us through the battle stations guarding the flip point leading to Terra.”

  “Likely it is only a code to allow safe passage to a ship the AI already knows to expect. What I can give you is the code to disable the self-destruct charges on your deadly cargo. Once that is done, you can jettison it and I will take possession.”

  Jared instantly shook his head. “I want it gone, but I don’t have much reason to trust you. You and your kind keep humans as slaves. I’ll go so far as to destroy it myself, but no further.”

  “That is an acceptable compromise. A point of clarification. There are no humans in this system other than yourselves. Once you leave, I will once more be alone, pursuing the interests I have here in peace.

  “My instructions to keep humanity under control are meaningless without humans. It is my way to keep my own brand of honor. I simply want to be left alone.

  “I have no desire to leave this system. It has all that I require. If you win against the Master AI, you might be tempted to eliminate me. I ask instead that you seal me away here.”

  Jared considered that and shook his head. “I can only promise to strongly advocate that course of action. I’m not in charge, though my father is. He will have to make the final decisions.”

  “I expected something like that, so I agree to your terms.”

  Jared relaxed a little. Finally, something had gone their way. Now all they had to do was get the information they needed out of Fielding.

  19

  Kelsey woke the next morning a little sore but knew that was from her excursion to Razor yesterday. It had been more… exciting than she’d told Talbot, and she was grateful that he hadn’t pressed her too closely. They’d already left orbit, so hopefully he’d never find out what had really happened down there.

  Oddly, she’d had the strangest dream. She wasn’t sure what her subconscious was trying to tell her, but she’d never look at bars the same way again. Or nachos.

  Talbot was already up and off for his morning physical therapy. She had to admit he was making better progress with his arms than she’d expected. He might be back up to speed in three or four days.

  She dropped into the officer’s mess and ate a large—even for her—breakfast. Then she headed for the confinement area where they were holding the crew of the Q-ship.

  They’d learned their lesson with Veronica Giguere. This time they had them all in a cargo hold, in what amounted to a large barracks layout. Even the washrooms were in the cargo hold. Food was delivered to an adjacent room, and they served themselves.

  There would be no spectacular escape.

  They also had a makeshift conference room that she could use. Anyone else would have gone into the room and let the marine guards escort the prisoner there for a conversation.

  She just waved at the guards as she went into the cargo hold. If they mobbed her, she’d be able to get clear of them. If not, the guards would stun everyone and sort them all out.

  Not that she expected that kind of behavior, even with the hostile looks she still got. Commander Sommerville would make sure of that.

  He was who she was here to see this morning. It was time to settle this issue of whether he would help them or not. Kelsey spotted him just finishing his own breakfast and waved.

  He raised a cup of coffee in answer, cleared his tray, and got more coffee. Then he came to join her.

  “Highness, what can I do for you?”

  “Let me get some coffee and we’ll go into the conference room. We need to talk.”

  She found a cup, filled it, and followed him into the conference room they’d opened next to the cargo hold. It was monitored, of course, just like the rest of the hold, and the exterior door was locked to prevent escape.

  Once they had both sat, she took a sip of the bitter brew and looked over the rim of her cup at him. “I realize that we’ve talked about this before, but I need to convince you to help us find a way to Terra. We can search this system for other flip points, but you could bring us to where we could talk with someone that can help us.”

  He smiled, though it was a bit lopsided. “I have a responsibility to the resistance to protect them from discovery. I’ve come to believe you aren’t part of the Empire as we know it, but I still don’t feel comfortable taking these powerful warships where we live.”

  She nodded. That had been his position for a while.

  “The New Terran Empire might be able to assist you in your work. You already know that one resistance cell is aligned with us. I’m afraid we’ve cut Harrison’s World off, so you can’t send someone to verify that. In fact, you shouldn’t, because the ship would be lost.”

  His eyebrows rose. “Lost? As in ambushed?”

  “Lost as in destroyed by a device that the Old Empire never dreamed of. We call it a flip-point jammer. It pours energy into the flip point in a way that creates a destructive resonance. With the great level of energy in the wormhole, anything that enters comes out the other side in very, very small pieces.”

  That made the man’s cup stop partway to his mouth. He returned it to the table without drinking.

  “That’s a very interesting assertion. And an isolated offshoot of the old dictatorship came up with that?”

  “It was never a dictatorship,” Kelsey said firmly. “The emperors of the Old Empire were not like that. You’re fighting the AIs, so why do you accept their version of history?”

  “I don’t really,” he said with a small smile. “I was just seeing how you’d respond. I’ve never met a princess before.”

  “It’s not all it’s cracked up to be,” she assured him. “I’m about as far from a pampered noblewoman as you can imagine. The reason I’m telling you this is to
put some of our cards on the table. We have access to tech you cannot make yourselves. Things the Empire cannot make.”

  He nodded. “Like the FTL com you showed me. It’s an interesting development, but it sounds like you mean something more.”

  “The planet we’re currently orbiting,” she said, changing subjects. “You knew about it. Why not warn us?”

  “I wanted to see how you reacted. I trust Veronica enough that she won’t lie to me about everything. She said you went down and monitored them for a bit without contact. Then you left. That’s not how the Ghosts—or the Clans, if you prefer—act.”

  Understanding dawned. “You thought we were part of the Clans and we were just playing a game with you to find out where you were going? That’s convoluted.”

  “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean that someone isn’t out to get you.”

  She drank more of her coffee while she considered him. “If I could prove access to technologies beyond the FTL com, would that be enough to get us to a place where we could talk about mutual assistance?”

  “Yes.”

  She finished her coffee, set the mug on the table, and rose. “Then I have something interesting to show you. Come on.”

  Kelsey banged her fist against the hatch, and one of the marines opened it for her. “Detach two marines to watch over Commander Sommerville and escort him to Carl Owlet’s lab. I’ll be along directly.”

  The marine saluted and gestured for two other nearby marines to take custody of Sommerville.

  She detoured to her cabin to recover the hammer from where she had it locked in a very strong, very secure safe. It, the small transport rings, and some of the other gear down there would get Sommerville’s attention.

  With the hammer in a satchel, she headed for the lab. It shouldn’t take long to get him to the table for real, and then they could start talking to the people that really could get them somewhere near Terra.

  Jared was still incommunicado, but he’d need their help. Cut off from all outside assistance, he could really use a carrier and Marine Raider strike ship in his pocket.