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

by Terry Mixon

  “Arcadia,” Kelsey said immediately. “A water world with huge undersea cities. Living in the shallow oceans always sounded so romantic. The things I could’ve explored.”

  The other woman seemed to sigh. “It really is you. I still hadn’t believed. Not deep down.”

  “I really am the same woman you are, with many of the same shared traits,” Kelsey agreed. “It sounds like you’ve had a rough few years, but I swear that we’ll do everything in our power to help you once we deal with our own problems.

  “And Jared really is an honorable man here, a true servant to the New Terran Empire. My father… oh crap, our father is alive here. You can talk to him.”

  “I did. It broke my heart—in a good way—to see him alive and well. He welcomed me like a long-lost daughter. Meeting him meant the universe to me. I’m sad that I’ll have to leave him and go back to a place where he’s dead.”

  “What about Ethan in your universe?” Kelsey said, changing the subject. “Is he well?”

  “He seems to be. Honestly, I don’t think he has the same issues your version of him had. I heard what you did. It horrified me, and I still don’t know what to think.”

  Kelsey nodded, even though the other woman couldn’t see her. “It just about killed me to have to do it. To keep my mouth shut while he ran headfirst into a lethal radiation zone. You’ve seen how ugly it was in the Omega system.

  “But I had no choice. He really had lost his mind. There was no doubt he was the man who tried to usurp the throne here. He almost killed my father and framed me for it. He was mad.”

  “I hope you get a chance to come to my universe and see him again,” the other Kelsey said. “That seems like a good trade for me seeing my father again.”

  “Nothing would make me happier,” Kelsey said, really meaning it. “You can trust Jared. You don’t have to like him—I get that—but understand he’s a good man here, not a monster.”

  A knock at the hatch interrupted her train of thought. A quick check of her implants showed Angela and Commander Sommerville outside. She’d thought they were going to have lunch. Something must’ve come up.

  “I’m afraid that I have to go,” she said. “Duty calls. We’ll talk again soon. Kelsey, I want you to remember this and hold it dear. I will do everything within my power to help you and your people. So will Jared. We’ll figure something out, I promise.”

  “I look forward to talking to you again, Kelsey. As silly as it is, you’re my only hope.”

  “I’ll be your Obi Wan.”

  A long beat of silence greeted her comment. “What the heck does that mean?”

  “We’re really going to have to work on your old Terra pop-culture skills. Talk to you soon, sis.”

  She killed the com connection and considered what she’d just said. She really did have a new sister. Someone closer than a sister. That was going to take some getting used to.

  Right now, she had other fish to fry. Using her implants, she opened the hatch and let Angela and Commander Sommerville in.

  27

  It took Olivia almost an hour to find where Fielding had hidden his stash of valuables. As expected, it was made up of high-density, small-footprint valuables. It also contained a number of false identities for Fielding. Tellingly, there were none for his guards.

  All the data units she found were heavily encrypted, so she had no idea what was on any of them. Probably access to wealth in some format or another. Well, he wouldn’t be taking them with him. She’d promised to release him but not his belongings. Let the man suffer making a life for himself without the advantages he so craved.

  She picked the least desirable of the identities—one to pass as someone in the lower orders—and left it while confiscating the rest. No money and no connections. She was keeping her promise, but he certainly wouldn’t be happy about it.

  “I found something,” Jared said. “A data unit locked into his desk.”

  Olivia put her haul into a handy bag and went to the office the Rebel Empire noble kept on the cutter. It was even gaudier than the rest of the small craft’s interior, and that was saying something.

  If something functional could be made from rare woods and polished stone, it was. If any padding could be constructed of rare fabrics, it was. Gold, platinum, and precious stones abounded.

  The desk Jared was seated behind was topped by a single slab of dark wood at least five centimeters thick and polished to a high gloss. It was almost too wide for the compartment and certainly too far across for even a standing person to reach.

  She stopped and shook her head in wonder. “Wow. I think that’s even more impressive than the one in my office back on Harrison’s World. How did they even get it in here? Build the cutter around it?”

  Jared grinned from his seat behind the desk. “It can be disassembled if one is careful. How do you think it would look in my office on Invincible?”

  “Impressive,” she admitted. “Are you keeping it as spoils of war?”

  “Actually, I think something like this would make me feel ridiculous. I’ll give it to Kelsey as a birthday gift.”

  Olivia laughed. “It’s big enough that she could lie lengthwise in the middle and not be able to touch any of the edges. I’m not sure she’ll like it.”

  “Seeing it make her uncomfortable will be part of the charm. I’m keeping the chair, though. It’s the most comfortable one I’ve ever sat in. I’ll have the marines come in after we’re gone and strip the damned cutter bare. I don’t want Fielding to be able to sell anything on it.”

  “That won’t keep him from selling the cutter itself, but I suppose it’s the best we can manage. You said you found a data unit?”

  Jared held up a standard data unit. “It was stashed in the back of one of the drawers. It’s not encrypted, but I’m not sure I understand what’s on it. Someone like Carl might be able to decipher it at a glance, but not me.”

  “Perhaps Austin can figure out what it is.”

  “I’ve already sent for him,” Jared admitted. “If this is what he took from the Lord’s data unit, it’s probably valuable and impossible to duplicate. Likely something the System Lords would kill to keep to themselves. Something he was willing to risk death to get his hands on. It has to be pretty important. That means we might be able to use it.”

  A rap at the hatch announced Austin Darrah. “You called for me, Admiral?”

  “I did. Set up your equipment on the desk and see what you can find out about the contents of this data unit.”

  He handed it over to their newest associate, and the young man got to work.

  “While he’s doing that, look at this,” Olivia said. She laid out the stash of data units and identity documents on the desk, well away from the area Austin was using.

  Jared picked up the identity documents. “Looks like he intended to vanish in style. He probably has more of his wealth scattered around in ways he can access it, too. Are the data units used for transporting money? If so, how secure are they?”

  “Probably, and I don’t know,” she admitted. “I’ve used ones like this before, but I’ve never had to break into them.”

  “They’re pretty secure,” Austin said, his tone distracted as he booted his equipment. “Heavily encrypted, they need biometric data and a passcode to open. Some use retinal scans, others facial recognition or fingerprints. The most secure use DNA. I’d count on that and a passcode.”

  “What happens if you forget your passcode?” Jared asked.

  “You’re screwed unless you know someone with the right skills to bypass that one part of the recognition process. It’s not impossible, but it’s not easy either. To reset the passcode, you need to have all the biometric data, the serial number of the owner’s implants, and a master code used by the financial institution itself.”

  “But you said some can be bypassed with the right skills,” Olivia said. “As in criminally accessed?”

  Austin nodded. “No security regimen designed by man is foolproo
f. It’s possible to use the hardware itself to guess at the master code. Then, if you already have the biometric data, you could reset the ownership. Not that I’ve ever spoken with anyone who’d done that,” he added virtuously.

  “What is it with you scientists and your latent criminal tendencies?” Olivia asked with a laugh. “So, what you’re saying is that you might get access to these if you tried?”

  “Possibly, but if I screw it up, I’ll dump the contents.”

  Jared shrugged. “It’s not my money. I was thinking a little cash might be useful in getting another load of drones. If we have to pretend to be distributing the Omega Plague, we’ll need some props. We could also use some intelligence on Terra itself once we get there.”

  “I’ll give it a try after I look at this,” Austin said, frowning at his screen. “I think this is a set of programs to generate encrypted communications. It’s very sophisticated and requires a code to even activate. One of the files on here leads me to believe it requires the serial number of a System Lord to operate.”

  Olivia and Jared shared a glance.

  “Maybe it’s how the Lords authenticate communications from one another?” Olivia ventured.

  “I don’t think so,” the young man said, still utterly focused on his screen. “It doesn’t convert anything. It looks like it just sends a predetermined signal with the heavy encryption when fed a valid serial number; otherwise it does nothing.”

  He looked up from his screen. “The name of the program is weird, too. It’s called the ‘Key to Shangri-La,’ whatever that is.”

  Angela frowned at Kelsey when she finally opened the hatch. “You okay? You look pale.”

  “I’m always pale. I was just getting an update, and it makes me anxious to get this next part over with and be on the way to Terra.”

  She knew that Kelsey had gotten a call from Admiral Mertz. Whatever they’d talked about must not have been positive.

  Kelsey gestured for them to come in. “I thought you two were eating.”

  She shrugged. “A call came in for Don that he was tasked with negotiating for the resistance to hammer out a preliminary agreement. We felt it might be for the best if we came straight here.”

  “Really?” Kelsey asked as she sat behind the desk. “If it came that fast, you have someone important on the other side of the flip point. There wasn’t time for a call to get to another flip point and be sent farther on and get a response.”

  “That was going to become apparent in a few hours anyway,” Sommerville said as he sat. “The next system over is the one we call Home. Literally. That’s the name we use for it.

  “It’s pretty safe as far as that kind of thing goes. One has to know there is a far flip point in Archibald, make it to search Razor and find the regular flip point leading to this system, then find the far flip point leading to Home. We’d normally have plenty of time to get warning of trouble.”

  Angela sat beside him. “That’s still not much time to evacuate if the Rebel Empire came looking.”

  He smiled. “There is a habitable world in the system, and we have people on it, but I don’t think they’ll find them that easily. It’s a water world, and the stations are deep under the water. That plays merry hell with scanners.”

  “Don’t we know it,” Kelsey muttered. “But that isn’t your primary base in the system. No way you could support ships with that.”

  Sommerville nodded. “The system has three asteroid belts and a host of massive gas giants in the outer system. We have a number of concealed facilities that would be difficult to spot even if one were parked right next to them. We’ve worked here for years to make sure than no one can find us by accident. Well, unless they have inside help or are really lucky, like you.”

  “Well, there’s luck and then there’s luck,” Kelsey said. “We’ve been pretty up front with you about what we’re looking for as relates to our current mission, but we both know that with the Clans on the rampage, we’ll be better off if we can work together more closely.”

  “That’s mostly true, but there are a few things that don’t make sense. The Pandorans and their world. There is no way you could get to it from Archibald. We searched the system thoroughly over the years looking for far flip points. We didn’t miss one, did we?”

  “No,” Kelsey said. “There’s a third kind of flip point. We call it a multi-flip point. It’s much harder to detect and, with the right equipment, opens up a number of potential destinations. We’re still figuring that out ourselves, but that’s the reason we hijacked your Q-ship. We had the Fleet shipyard build us a flip drive for Audacious and delivered it there, not knowing it wasn’t a freighter.

  “You see, it’s all frequency based. If you can control the flip drive modulation more carefully, you can get larger ships through some of the more restrictive branches.”

  “The Clans know about them, but they don’t know how to use them. The one we know they’ve encountered was a one-way trip without a modulator. They may know of others, but they never made the tech work, or they’d have already found Pandora.”

  “Because that battlecruiser made it there,” Sommerville said. “How did they do it?”

  “They made an experimental flip modulator. We also made one for Audacious. It got her to Pandora but burned out her drive. The Clans had decades to follow Dauntless but didn’t. That tells me that they really don’t understand how the multi-flip points work.

  “Pandora is not the default branch for the Icebox side of the multi-flip point. That one leads to an empty system near Dresden. We believe that’s where the Clans fled from. If they made tech to get a ship through the Icebox side of the multi-flip point, that’s where they probably went and didn’t find their former comrades.”

  Sommerville nodded. “We’re going to want to know more about that. It’s a security risk to us now that the Clans are attacking, and we need to know if we’re at risk.”

  “I’m willing to put that on the table,” Kelsey said. “After all, we’re learning about your secrets. You’ll want more, I assume. That doesn’t quite seem like a fair trade.”

  He smiled. “You’re right. Knowledge of our main base—or one of them at any rate—is worth more than even the multi-flip points. I’ve seen a few of the things you have Carl Owlet working on. The very idea of teleportation rings is amazing, but he says you are a long way from being able to reproduce them. Where did you find them, if I might ask?”

  “A system on the other side of a multi-flip point where the alien race moved on,” Kelsey said. “The only artifact they left behind was a space station with a lot of tech that’s way beyond us. I have no doubt that Carl will continue to make breakthroughs, but it is alien tech.

  “On the other hand, something like the hammer he built for me is a combination of his own genius and readily available tech. He’s come up with implant modifications that you’ll want. This is the time where I confess that we updated your implant operating code.”

  He blinked at her. “You did what? Why? Is that safe? Hell, is that even possible?”

  “The Rebel Empire implant code has secret triggers buried in it that can make you do things you wouldn’t normally do,” Angela said. “Finding out that there are humans that escaped the AIs’ control is one of those triggers. It’ll make someone go berserk against any such people.

  “We have the original Old Empire implant code, so we overwrote it that time we had you in the medical center. We also upgraded the hardware so that the AIs couldn’t change it back. Any future updates will require your explicit, informed permission or they don’t happen.”

  “We’d be happy to demonstrate that, but whoever gets told is going to have some issues to deal with after the fact. We can stun them fast and fix things, but no one wants to have their actions controlled by a computer in their heads.”

  He nodded slowly. “We’ll find a volunteer, but we have to see that happen. We’ll want one of our experts to go over the code you’re using, too. It’s going to make thi
ngs awkward when we get into the real negotiations. Our top leader is from the higher orders, and she’ll want to know everything as soon as we arrive. Hell, I’m obligated to tell her.”

  “Then you could ask her to volunteer,” Kelsey said. “We’ll give you the uncorrupted code, and you can send it ahead to be examined. You can even say in general what it is meant to protect against. That won’t trigger any issues.

  “The other item I’m willing to share the plans for is something that cannot fall into the hands of the Rebel Empire or the Clans. It’s far too dangerous. We’ve cracked the secret of faster-than-light communication.”

  “That’s not possible,” he said with a frown.

  “Oh, it is,” Angela said. “It’s not perfect, but we have a probe in the Home system right now gathering data.”

  Sommerville sat bolt upright. “You what?”

  “It’s a stealthed probe, and it went in quietly. The picket ship you have watching the flip point is too far back to have had any chance at detecting it. It was designed to get through guarded flip points, so it’s really hard to detect.

  “Once it moved out into the system, it started using passive scanners to tag planets, ships, and anything else interesting. You’re right about there being a lot of hiding places, but we’ve spotted a few likely candidates based on communications being sent to the picket ship and other inhabited locations in the system. Would you like to see?”

  He nodded immediately. “Please.”

  Angela forwarded him the real-time feed from the FTL probe. The layout of the system should be enough on its own to confirm that this wasn’t faked. They had no way of knowing what the system looked like without actually having eyes on it.

  “Holy crap,” he said after a full minute. “You really do have FTL capability. You’ve located several facilities I personally know about and a few I probably wasn’t cleared for. And your man Carl Owlet came up with this?”