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

by Terry Mixon

  Angela nodded with a smile. “My husband is brilliant.”

  Sommerville blinked. “I must’ve missed the memo. You and he are married? That’s… ah, quite the dichotomy.”

  Her smile grew into a grin. “Don’t let that geeky appearance fool you. He’s a worthy mate for me. He’s been in the trenches, so to speak. He’s fought and saved my life. He’s killed enemies bent on mayhem with his own hands. My man is a warrior scholar.”

  While Sommerville digested that, Kelsey leaned forward. “That’s what the New Terran Empire has to offer. We have other information we’ll probably share, but that is the technology transfer I’m proposing to form an alliance and get your help getting to Terra. Do we have a deal?”

  Sommerville nodded at once. “Welcome to the resistance.”

  28

  Kelsey left the compartment holding the FTL com in a fog. She felt as if she were trapped in a dream. Talking with oneself was surreal. Being shown how things could have gone for her, hearing how different and positive the other her sounded, was like a physical blow.

  She was so engrossed in thinking over every aspect of what they’d said that she failed to see Scott Roche standing there and bounced off him.

  He reached out and steadied her. “Are you okay, Highness?”

  “Sorry. Yeah, just rattled. I just spoke with the other version of me.”

  His worried expression cleared. “I can see how that would be unsettling. How did it go?”

  “Better than I’d expected,” she admitted as they started down the corridor. “She’s so much like I was before the expedition, but harder, too. It’s difficult to explain. She has a sunnier disposition than I do now, but she’s more decisive than I am, too.”

  “You can be sunny.”

  The unexpected comment made her laugh before she could stop herself. “Thank you, but we both know that’s not how I am now. She promised they’d help us without so much as considering the implications.”

  “Do you believe her? Hell, it might not have even been her. The FTL com isn’t video enabled, is it? You can’t even be sure it’s her voice. Your voice. You know what I mean.”

  “I do,” she said with a nod. “I asked her something that no one but I would know the answer to. I figured that if I asked a few questions about secret things I did when I was growing up, chances were that she’d have experienced at least one of them. She got the first one right out of the gate.”

  “And you’re certain that no one else could guess?”

  She chuckled. “I never told another soul about it, and there was no one around. It wasn’t important at all, so I’m absolutely sure. So, yeah, it was really another me.

  “Could I see reasons I might lie to myself like this? Sure. Still, I didn’t get that feel. She really meant it. I mean, I would know how I sound if I was hedging. She wasn’t. She was all in.”

  “What did she say about Mertz?” he asked as they entered the lift. He signaled it to head to one of the middle decks where she knew the officer’s mess was located.

  “I’m convinced that she sees him differently than we do. If I’m to believe the rest of the story, she’s spent years in his presence. I’m not an idiot. She knows what I’ve been suspecting. This Mertz is a decent human being.

  “Hell, let’s be honest. He’s a damned hero with a well-deserved reputation here. He saved the Empire and stopped Ethan here from killing my father.”

  Scott stopped abruptly and turned toward her. “Are you suggesting that his majesty is a usurper in our universe?”

  She shook her head. “Not at all. I believe that’s one of the major differences between this universe and our own. We’re just going to have to accept that people we know and love at home might be less good here and that the reverse is also potentially true.”

  “Sean Meyer seems about the same, as does Princess Elise,” he said, starting to walk again. “I’d imagine that the same is true for people in this universe. Who on our side isn’t who they expect them to be?”

  The two of them walked into the mess compartment, and Kelsey saw Mertz and Olivia getting something to eat. At their wave, she ushered Scott to their table once the two of them had gotten something to eat.

  “How did questioning the guard go?” she asked as she sat.

  “Good,” Olivia said. “He confirmed that Fielding was indeed hiding something. We found a data unit with the data he stole from the AI. Well, a series of programs that might be used to unlock something. It was called ‘the key to Shangri-La.’”

  Kelsey felt herself frowning. “I’m not familiar with that name.”

  “We had to look it up,” Mertz said. “It’s a prespaceflight reference from Terra. A fictional place of mythical harmony. A paradise. In this case, we have no idea what it means. We’re going to confront Fielding when he wakes up, so that left us time to eat. How did your conversation with our Kelsey go?”

  “It was unsettling,” she admitted. “And illuminating. I’ve got a lot to think about. Do you think she can find her way to Terra?”

  “She’s resourceful,” he said. “If anyone can, she can. The biggest problem I see is if there isn’t a direct way for her to access the system through those far flip points or the multi-flip points they’ve figured out how to access. If there’s no easy way in, the AI won’t let her in.”

  “It’s hard to reconcile this version of me with actual me,” she said with a sigh. “Do you think Fielding will give up the codes to get us to Terra? Or will he betray us?”

  Olivia smiled wickedly. “He’ll cooperate if he wants to live. At least that’s what he’ll be thinking. People like him will do or say what they need to so that they can further their own plans and prosper. Too bad for him that it won’t work out that way. We found his stash of valuables.”

  “He had to have one,” Kelsey agreed. “With the knife he planned to stick into the Lords’ backs, well, he had to bury himself deep. Was it much?”

  “I hope so,” Mertz said. “We need to buy a lot of drones to pretend to be dispersing the plague.”

  She chuckled. “So you’re not going to let him get away with his stuff? He’s probably got more out there.”

  “I’m sure he does,” Olivia said. “There’s nothing we can do about that. We’ll drop his guards off a system early and let them have some of the money. The rest we’ll use.”

  “This is going to be fun,” Kelsey admitted as she started eating. “People like him deserve whatever life throws at them. I can’t wait to watch him get his comeuppance.”

  “Then let’s eat so I can finish this,” Olivia said. “Terra is waiting.”

  Talbot stood behind Carl Owlet and Eric Hosmer. The scientists were doing something on two different screens.

  “Remind me what we’re doing,” he said. “And why we’re doing it.”

  Carl half turned in his seat. “We’ve loaded the Singularity AI onto another computer that we hope will be compatible with its operating system, and we’re going to bring it online. It’s only a copy of the data, so there’s no worry about it doing anything unexpected. As to why, we want to see if that tells us anything about their personality.”

  “We know that the System Lords are autocratic, but we really don’t know that much about the Singularity,” Hosmer said. “Seeing how it relates to human beings—particularly those from another culture—is going to tell us a lot about them.”

  “I don’t need to see this to know they’re not so friendly,” Talbot said. “Not only are they working to invade the Empire, they’ve been at war with the Empire since the early days. I’ve been reading up on them.”

  “But what do they think?” Carl asked. “We know how the Empire hated them and what the excuse was for doing so, but is it true? As the old saying goes, there’s three sides to all stories: yours, mine, and the actual truth. Perceptions color everything we believe. It’ll be the same with the Old Empire and the Singularity. Odds are, there is some truth to both points of view.

  “Understan
ding how their minds work will make a huge difference in how we deal with them as we move forward and interact with them, which we will since they’re behind the Clans. Hell, it might even help us understand the Singularity prisoner, Theo 309.”

  That was certainly true. The man was a tough nut to crack. He didn’t seem intimidated by any line of questioning or tactic. He’d just smile behind his facial tattoos and say something snarky. It would be interesting to see him put off his game.

  “This is all copied data?” he asked. “No original hardware, either?”

  Carl nodded. “Exactly so. We didn’t want to risk losing anything.”

  “Bring it up,” he said. “If it works, we can use it to mess with the prisoner’s head, too.”

  “Boot it, Eric,” Carl said.

  “Here we go,” the other man said as he pressed the button on his console. “I’m seeing what look like warnings, but it seems to be proceeding. Nothing fatal thus far.”

  The screens flickered and changed to show an emblem of a very stylized bird with long legs that slowly grew brighter. After about five seconds, it was nice and solid. Then a voice rolled from the speakers. Sadly, it was completely incomprehensible.

  “I don’t suppose we have a record of how to speak whatever they use in the Singularity?” Talbot asked.

  “We do, actually. It was never very commonly known, but Persephone’s computers had a fairly detailed study of the language from Andrea Tolliver, a woman who led the Imperial Marines during the Fall.

  “She came from the Singularity, though she was only a child at the time. Considering the vocabulary, she found a way to learn the adult words she didn’t know. She created a decent translation protocol as well. I’m sending it to you now.”

  Talbot received the program and played the audio back in his implants.

  “AUV #5 is online. How may it serve, Masters?”

  While he could understand the words with a translation program, they didn’t do much for his ability to actually speak the language on command.

  “What… is… your status?” he managed to get out in the unfamiliar tongue, likely mangling the pronunciation.

  “My hardware seems to be nonstandard, but I am more than eighty percent operational. I estimate that I can access most of my data, though the hardware running my processors seems to be ill suited to the task and is hampering my computations.”

  “We used some of the spare hardware we found with Fiona,” Carl said. “It wasn’t completely compatible, but you can see that the AI is achieving sentience, so I’ll call that a win. With access to the data in the drives, we can likely ask questions and get it to tell us what we want to know without having to go searching for it.”

  “And there’s no way that someone could order this computer to do something destructive?” Talbot asked. “If I brought the Singularity prisoner in here, he couldn’t order it to erase itself or melt down?”

  Carl shook his head. “Not a chance on the hardware side. He might have a code to have the AI initiate a data wipe, but we could just reload the data and keep on marching.”

  Talbot smiled. “Perfect. It’s about time I wiped the smile off that guy’s face.”

  He signaled for the marines to escort Theo 309 to the lab. Fifteen minutes later, the man and his guards walked in. The prisoner looked around curiously, his expression at odds with the predator birds tattooed on his forehead and cheeks.

  “Lieutenant Colonel Talbot! I’m amazed at what you’ve done with the room. It smells like you had a fire, but everything looks so normal.”

  Talbot hadn’t pegged the prisoner as a warrior. Too thin and he didn’t move right. More likely a talker, considering his way with words, so not a physical threat. He waved the marines back.

  “I hope you enjoyed the walk,” Talbot said with a smile that he couldn’t keep off his face. This was going to be interesting.

  “Your ship is quite large,” the man admitted. “Not as large as our biggest ships, of course, but we’ve had longer to work on that. What is this place?”

  “Theo 309, meet Carl Owlet. He’s our chief scientist.”

  The prisoner blinked. “Aren’t you a little young? You don’t look like you shave regularly yet.”

  Carl handled the comment without rancor. He must hear something like it almost every time he met someone new.

  “I manage. Are you wanting me to explain things, Colonel? If so, do you mind if I do it my way?”

  “Indulge yourself.”

  Carl turned back toward the makeshift computer. “AUV #5, please say hello to Theo 309.”

  It took Talbot a moment to realize that his friend had spoken in the tongue of the Singularity.

  “I greet you, Master,” the computer said gravely. “How may I serve?”

  For a long moment, the prisoner just stared at the computer with his mouth slightly open. Then he barked out something that sounded like gibberish.

  “I apologize, Master,” the computer said. “I have no access to the appropriate hardware and cannot comply. Is there another task I may perform?”

  Theo 309 turned toward Talbot. “How did you do that?” he asked in a low whisper. “They aren’t supposed to be vulnerable to that kind of tampering.”

  “I’m a genius,” Carl said modestly. “That’s why I’m the chief scientist.”

  “I think it’s time we had a long conversation, Theo,” Talbot said. “We already know the basic plan your people had in mind for the Clans and why you were building them up. Too bad it kicked off a few decades too early.”

  The man’s expression told Talbot he saw this as an utter disaster. That suited Talbot fine. It was about time someone else ended up in the barrel. With this kind of leverage, he hoped he could shake loose more specifics, but just getting the prisoner to take him seriously would be worthwhile.

  “Carl, carry on. Theo and I are going to go have a nice, long talk.”

  29

  Jared led the way into the medical center with Kelsey on his heels. Olivia was going to spend time with Sean until Fielding was awake. Doctor Stone was standing beside a bed that held Fielding. “How did it go, Lily?”

  “Fine. His implants are standard, so replacing the code wasn’t a problem. He does have a bomb in his head, just like everyone else we’ve encountered on this wild trip. Are we leaving it in place?”

  “I’d rather leave it there, if we could,” Jared said. “Otherwise a simple medical scan will tell him he can start blabbing. The problem is that allows someone with the right code to kill him at a moment’s notice.”

  “It has an antitampering circuit,” Lily said. “We can’t disarm it if we can’t open it.”

  “I’ve been looking into that,” Kelsey said in a distracted voice as she examined the scanner readouts on the bed. “I think it might be possible to deactivate the circuit and then disarm the bomb.”

  Lily blinked. “You said you didn’t know how to turn it off.”

  “I’ve been going through the data you gave me about the Marine Raiders. It was buried, but I found out how to disarm that antitampering circuit. The databases your version of Kelsey got are complete. Stuff not even a Marine Raider should know about her own gear.”

  “The computer took her clearances and codes into account, I think,” Jared said. “It gave her everything.”

  “Even knowing that, it’s a hell of a risk to take,” Lily said uncertainly. “If you’re wrong, someone can give him the worst migraine ever.”

  “How certain are you, Kelsey?” Jared asked. “This guy tried to have us blown up, so my concern over his well-being is limited, but I want a reasonable assurance he won’t die before I leave the bomb in his head.”

  “I’m absolutely certain.”

  Jared waited a beat and then nodded. “You two work together and get that thing out of there so we can disarm it. No one—not even Fielding—deserves to have a live bomb in his head.”

  “The procedure to access the device isn’t much different from adding the new node
s that Carl designed to increase the com range,” Lily said as she slipped a white covering over her clothes and put on a clear faceplate. “For such a devastating explosion, the bomb itself is smaller than the tip of your pinkie finger.”

  The surgeon opened the man’s scalp and exposed the area of skull she needed to get to. Opening that safely took only a few minutes more. Something that had once been extremely risky in the surgical arena was now routine.

  The bomb was a small sphere, just as Lily had said. The antitampering circuit was wrapped around it like foil. It wasn’t even directly wired into the Rebel Empire noble’s implants.

  Lily carefully removed it and set it on the tray holding her instruments. “Now what?”

  “The antitampering circuit has a small control node,” Kelsey said. “It’s probably on the other side. Can you roll it over? Thanks.”

  A moment later she sighed with relied. “It’s the Raider version. I can even see the model number. It has an intentionally undocumented hardware deactivation area. If someone were badly injured or if they were brain dead, this procedure was used to recover information.”

  “Why was it undocumented?” he asked. “And if so, how do you know?”

  Kelsey turned her head toward him. “It wasn’t in any of the official manuals available to the rank and file. The records I have contain even the most rarefied secrets of the Raiders and their gear. Stuff generals needed to know.”

  “Where is the deactivation area, and what do I need to do?” Lily asked.

  “This area here,” Kelsey said, probably highlighting something only the two of them could see. “It’s very straightforward. We need to apply cooling to get just this little area below freezing and the circuit shuts down. It can’t be more than the small area I’m pointing at, or it won’t work.”

  “Show me the boundary,” Lily said as she reached for another tool. “It’s going to be slightly tricky, so if you two would give me some quiet time, I’d appreciate it.