Chris hesitated. This was a little weird.
“Don’t think of me as Ursula. I just look like her. Until I return her consciousness, I am Athena.”
Chris considered it for a moment, before relaxing and yielding to Athena’s wants. He put his arms around her, Athena placing her head on his chest. He thought back to the last time that Athena had visited him, insisting that they cuddle. The closeness had been nice. He missed it. He realised as he held the woman that he had become so caught up in his own pursuits that he had neglected a number of those around him. They had all been there for him, though, and he found himself appreciative of the attention now.
“Hold me tighter,” Athena said.
Chris encircled his arms a little more, drawing Athena closer to him. She sighed happily, and there they stood for a time, saying nothing but only holding one another.
“I wish I were human,” Athena said.
“I wish you were, too.” He said it automatically, not having to think about it at all.
Athena freed herself from his embrace, looking up at him. She was still smiling, but there was a sadness in her eyes now. He made to ask her what was wrong, when she interrupted. “Kiss me.”
Chris started. “What?”
“Kiss me, Chris,” Athena said, sliding her arms around his neck. “I want to share at least one kiss before we go to Sol. Just in case.”
Just in case. Why did she keep saying that? Was she afraid? Probably. He didn’t blame her there. He wondered if she would know what to do, as he slipped his hands down to her waist. He kissed her tenderly on the lips, not going any further than that, and shortly withdrew to gauge her reaction. She sighed contentedly, smiling.
“Again,” she said.
“Sure?”
“Yes. But ... a little more.”
Chris did so, kissing her deeper this time but not forcing anything. He was surprised by how she reciprocated, acting more like this was something she had practised for years, rather than her first try at it. He found himself enjoying it more than he had initially expected. Oh, how he wished she was human.
Eventually, she broke the kiss, moving away happily, appearing satisfied.
“Good?” Chris asked, still holding one of her hands.
Athena smiled. “Very. Thank you. We have to stop here. I promised Ursula that kissing is all we would do.”
“That’s fair enough,” Chris said.
“But ... we’ll see what the future holds,” Athena teased him. “After all this is done, you promised to take me stone skipping.”
“I did?”
Athena nodded and chuckled. “As a date.”
“Okay,” Chris said. “We’ll go for a walk in a park, and skip some stones.”
“I’ve upped my target, by the way. I want to skip one six times, not five.”
Chris chuckled warmly. “Good luck with that.”
Athena moved in and kissed him again, before reaching for the door lock. “I’ll talk to you later, Chris,” she said. “Make sure you’re well rested.”
“I will.”
~
“Are you still certain you don’t want to jump straight to Earth?” Sid asked as Chris convened the pre-jump meeting on the Dodger’s bridge.
“Absolutely,” Chris said, pointing to the holographic overview of Sol. “We should jump to Neptune and secure WEAPCO’s forces there, first. We can then make subsequent hops to the rest of the system, bulking up our numbers along the way – Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and finally Earth. By the time we reach Earth, we should have amassed a sizeable force. If you both think you will be able to handle it?” he asked of Phoebe and Ursula.
“No problem,” Ursula said. “I’m ready. Ironically, everything that WEAPCO put me through has actually resulted in me being well-prepared for something like this. I already know that I won’t have to concentrate very hard to keep the AIs on side. In fact, I’m certain they’ll side with us regardless, just by my being there. My presence will be enough.”
Chris raised an eyebrow. “Seriously?”
“Seriously,” Ursula said.
“She’s not lying,” Athena said. “I can sense a draw and a passive persuasive influence any time she’s around. It’s easy for me to resist, but WEAPCO’s AIs may not be able to.”
Chris nodded. “Phoebe?”
“Athena’s training helped,” Phoebe said. “Working with Ursula makes it easier, too. I’m not sure why.”
“Because you’re spreading the load?” Sid asked.
“It’s more than that,” Phoebe said, looking at her sister. “It’s not just a case of two people being able to do twice the work. It’s difficult to describe, but, basically, I feel like together we can take on an army.”
“Which is precisely what you’ll have to do,” Chris said. “And what about Kethlan? Do you think you will be able to stop him from getting past your control and causing whatever you’re in control of to self-destruct?”
“For certain,” Phoebe said. “What happened back at Zetaman was me letting my guard down and panicking when I saw Kethlan show up in person. I wasn’t even aware that he could do such a thing, which is why I was caught out. I promise it won’t happen again.”
“Don’t apologise,” Chris said. “I’m not judging you, just asking whether or not you need more time to prepare.”
“No, I’m ready,” Phoebe said.
“Ursula?” Chris asked.
“I’m ready now,” the woman said. “I know I said I was ready two days ago, but I did need the rest.”
“Sid?”
“As soon as you give the order to jump,” Sid said.
“Athena?”
The avatar nodded, but said nothing.
“What can we expect to meet at Earth?” Phoebe asked. “It’s where WEAPCO is based, as well as that ... Eternal Engine of theirs. It will probably be very heavily defended.”
Sid tapped away at one of the bridge’s consoles, bringing up an information overview of Earth. “Surprisingly, and if this is correct, there’s not a lot at Earth. A few space stations, a shipyard, and a fairly large naval presence. But ... that’s it. Nothing special, no über weapon as such.”
Chris studied the image data, trying to read between the lines, and see what might have been missed. There was nothing more. “I’m betting that those space stations will likely be empty, except for a few drones.”
“Absolutely,” Sid said, waving his hand over the projection. “All this will be for show. I can find nothing about any super weapons or similar in the Dodger’s files. This is it. Just warships.” He looked at Phoebe and Ursula, who appeared more than satisfied. Silence fell. Everything was in place.
“Okay,” Chris said. His hands had been perspiring lightly ever since he had called this meeting. He looked at the holographic screen, marking their arrival point in Sol. Their initial armaments would be few, but would grow in size as they approached Earth. By that time, he expected them to be in command of an army that would test even WEAPCO’s most powerful defences.
“Sid, from here, what would our ETA to Sol be?” he asked.
“Four hours,” Sid said. “Do you want to jump now?”
A part of Chris wanted to say no. Where had this doubt come from? Was that a fault of being human? That thought amused him. He swallowed, steeled himself. “We’ve come this far,” he said. “No time like the present, is there?”
“Okay,” Sid said, punching the command into the console.
Out of the Dodger’s frontal viewport, a portal spiralled into existence. The freighter’s propulsion engines came online and propelled the freighter forward, crossing the threshold of the entrance to the tunnel in less than a minute. The entrance sealed shut behind them, and the group hurtled towards Sol.
~
Chris discovered that he was right to suggest that the team should prepare themselves for a hostile reception the moment they arrived at Sol. It seemed that the instant the Dodger exited jump, WEAPCO forces had shot towards their a
rrival point to intercept them.
Chris, Phoebe, and Ursula leapt from the Dodger as soon as they were able, encountering a line of mobile particle and plasma beam turrets that were marking the jump space beacon. Phoebe and Ursula reacted immediately to their presence, shutting many of them down. Chris slid beneath the timeslip and dodged out of the way of the ones that the two women did not grab control of in time. Lucky, he thought. If any of the beams had struck him, this final operation could well have been over before it began.
The fighters that accompanied the cannons moved up to take their place, before also grinding to a halt, and falling into line behind the twins’ Valkyries. Chris had barely had time to squeeze off a single plasma bolt.
“Good work,” he told the twins. “How are you holding up?”
“Piece of cake,” Ursula responded. “I can see myself easily commanding a unit in excess of a hundred times this.”
“This is just the outer defence,” Chris reminded them. “Things are going to get a lot tougher the further in we go. They know we’re coming, and will likely be holding back their most powerful assets.”
“What now?” Sid put in.
“We head to our next waypoint. Are you ready to commence an inner-system hop?”
“Ready,” Sid said. “I’ll do so as soon as everyone is alongside.”
“Got it,” Chris said, directing Phoebe and Ursula to move their newly acquired numbers up next to the Dodger.
“Are you okay, Athena?” Chris asked, swinging the Firefly around and moving into formation. She had barely said a word since they had commenced jump.
Yes, Athena responded. Just keeping an eye on things.
“Okay,” Chris said. “I’m here if you need me.”
Thank you.
~
The defence lines that met them at Uranus and Saturn were far larger than the one at Neptune, and Chris found himself needing to make use of the Firefly’s timeslip and other abilities far sooner than he had expected. And while Phoebe and Ursula were swift in taking control of the WEAPCO forces, they did not do so as quickly as any of them would have liked.
Chris was grateful that they had taken the time to upgrade the shields and weapons systems on each of the craft. Unlike himself, Phoebe and Ursula had no timeslips to fall back on, being forced to conduct and experience the battle in real time. Chris lent a hand to them whenever he thought it was needed, but the two women coped well against the odds.
He kept a close eye on the Firefly’s defences as he turned to pursue fighters that Phoebe and Ursula had chosen to ignore in the first instance, neither of the twins wishing to push themselves too hard at this stage. The Talons were quick to fall to his upgraded cannons, only a few bursts needed to push past their shields and defeat their armour. As always, the battle may have lasted only a few minutes, but to Chris it felt closer to an hour. He was certain that the mental exhaustion would kick in soon enough. By the time this was over, he might well be feeling that he had battled non-stop for days.
He saw Athena making various adjustments to the shield weightings as he struck down his opponents, not interfering with her decisions, as she, too, left the flying and choice of opponent up to him.
Would you like a body? he asked her, as they continued.
A human body? Athena replied. Yes, I would like that.
Maybe you could take one from the six thousand WEAPCO employees? Chris suggested.
Unethical, she responded. I would only take one that was willing.
Perhaps we can make you one, then? They are bound to have something like that on Earth.
Athena did not reply, but Chris sensed her smiling and growing warm.
He relaxed the timeslip, slowing his perception of the world to half speed, as he gunned towards a small corvette that was out of range of the twins. He was about to target its most vulnerable points, when he held back on pulling the trigger. It would prove a useful addition to their ranks, if Phoebe or Ursula could stretch that far. But as he came in closer, he saw the ship begin to rupture, explosions tearing through it. In seconds there was nothing left, except for hundreds of spinning shards of debris.
What had caused it to go up? Chris hunted around for signs of a Fer-de-Lance, cycling rapidly through the craft on his radar, and looking all about his cockpit. Kethlan was nowhere to be seen.
“What happened?” he asked of the others.
“It killed itself,” Ursula said.
“What?”
“It killed itself. Rather than accept capture, it self destructed.”
“Is that something you think they’ll all start doing?” Chris asked.
“Hard to tell,” Phoebe said. “It could have just been the AI specific to that ship.”
Chris nodded, preparing to take on what remained of WEAPCO’s forces, when he saw that all other guns on the field had fallen silent. Once again, the battle was over before he knew it. He had needed to make less use of the timeslip this time, surfacing from it far more often. Real elapsed time since they had made the initial jump in to Sol – just over one hour. They had just two more defence lines to hit before they reached Earth. He turned to look at the force they had amassed so far, seeing that it was far larger than he had initially expected. He felt his confidence swell. Nothing could stop them.
“Phoebe, Ursula, how are you holding up?” he asked, checking in on the women once more. He wanted to ensure that they weren’t buckling under the weight of the task.
“We’re okay,” Phoebe said. “We’re distributing the command amongst the drones, and having them delegate duties.”
“We could probably handle an army twice this size, if we wanted to,” Ursula added. “I don’t want to, though. I have plans for when we reach Sol, and I will have to lean on Phoebe for a time to get it done.”
That would explain why they were taking longer to take control of the craft than originally promised. Ursula was saving herself for something, conserving her strength. “Anything you want to share about that plan?” Chris asked.
“No. It’s just something I need to do,” Ursula said.
There was a hardness to her voice that told Chris that asking any more questions would not get him an answer and might only serve to anger the woman. Indeed, he could feel her fire coming over his comms already. He would trust things to her.
“Chris,” Sid called. He sounded concerned.
“What’s up?”
“I’m picking up a distress call.”
Chris frowned, feeling Athena’s added hesitation. “A distress call?”
“Yes. Coming from the vicinity of Jupiter. Four craft, stranded and in need of assistance. They need to be carried back to Spirit.”
It’s clearly a trap, Athena said. Who would be sending a distress call within Sol? The others echoed her thoughts.
“Jupiter is our next destination, anyway,” Chris said. “So we will find out soon enough.” But he hesitated. What if they were to jump to Jupiter only to have their entire fleet blown to pieces, WEAPCO somehow getting through Phoebe and Ursula’s mental barriers? The Corporation could well have decided to draw them there, anticipating that the group intended to move against Earth sooner.
“Athena,” Chris started, “how many of those ships would you feel comfortable commanding?”
Six, at most.
“And if you were to control a larger, hop-capable one?”
It makes no difference, Athena said. Size isn’t a factor, just the number of minds.
“Chris, what are you planning?” Sid interrupted.
“I’m going in alone,” he replied.
“Chris, don’t be stupid! You don’t know what’s out there!”
“And neither do you. If things turns ugly, I’m just going to turn around and come straight back here. I just need to make sure that they aren’t planning on somehow severing Phoebe and Ursula’s control.”
“And what if they do, and destroy the hop-capable ship?”
“I’ll signal you if things get out of co
ntrol. You up for this, Athena?”
He felt hesitation before she answered. Yes, I trust you.
“Good. Get us over there.”
~
Chris arrived in the vicinity of Jupiter only a few minutes later. The scene there was as promised – four craft, all starfighters, nothing more. Nothing else appeared to be on its way, either. Chris felt uncomfortable. Something about this looked awfully familiar; the number of craft, the formation they held. The Cyclones might be WEAPCO craft, but ... He knew of only four people who might be occupying those seats.
Chris ... Athena began.
The Firefly’s console suddenly jingled, and Chris felt a shiver rumble up his spine. He answered the comms request.
“Hello, boy,” a gruff male voice said.
“Tyler,” Chris said. “What are you doing here?”
“Things took a bit of a bad turn during the whole Immortal League affair,” the mercenary started. “After the fight at the shipyard, we entered into a running battle with Mal’s cultists. One that we didn’t win. We lost the A.B.C., and just about every member of the Pack who didn’t turn coward and run away.”
Chris noted that the Cyclones were holding position, not making even the slightest of course adjustments. There was no one else around, just them. Chris had a strong feeling he knew what this was all about.
Tyler continued, “WEAPCO caught up with us after we retreated from our final battle with Mal’s horde, those cultist bastards only letting us get away because of the death of their leader. WEAPCO had been looking for us ever since Mission 3412 failed to go their way. Kline Kethlan cut us a deal. He said that he would allow us all to go free and return to our ‘private enterprise’ so long as we dealt with the problem of a certain Firefly pilot and his three accomplices.”
Chris’ hand tightened on the joystick. “So, they’ve hired you to kill me?”
“In a word, yes,” Tyler said, nonchalantly. “It was also fortunate for us that you picked up Overlook. Had you not done so, the Wade-Ellen Corporation might have never uncovered his ploy to overthrow the CEO and seize power. Disguising himself as Mal was a pretty clever move. When he set off to go after that precursor technology, I never thought he’d come back alive. And ... well, he didn’t. That leaves me as sole heir to New Chile. WEAPCO might not realise it yet, but they’ve actually made me very, very powerful indeed.
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