Dark Space Universe (Book 2): The Enemy Within

by Jasper T. Scott

  BOOM! Superheated shrapnel went whizzing by her ears, and some of it bit into her back. She stumbled and cried out, but managed to keep moving. By now her security system had to have alerted the authorities about the break-in, but Nora doubted any officers would still be at their posts to see the alert.

  Nora reached the edge of the junction and lunged for the green circle of safety in the middle of the podium...

  She jerked to a sudden stop as if she’d hit an invisible wall. An unseen hand had grabbed her and pulled her inexorably back toward the open doors of the safe room. She twisted around to look, and saw a blue-skinned humanoid alien standing in the doorway with one, glowing hand raised toward her. He wore gray robes, a luminous golden crown, and a horrible grin. She couldn’t see a grav gun in his hand, but somehow he was pulling her toward him all the same.

  “Hello, Director,” he said over the whistling noise of air being sucked out and up the stairs.

  “Who are you?” Nora demanded.

  His grin broadened until she could see his black tongue. His palm glowed even more brightly, dazzling her eyes as she drew near. “Let me show you,” he said as her face hit his palm with a meaty smack.

  Stars burst inside of her head. A flood of awareness filled her. Suddenly she knew exactly who this alien was. She could see his every thought. She knew what he knew, and felt what he felt. They became one and thought as one. Her fear vanished, replaced by simmering resolve and a surety of purpose. She had an important mission to accomplish.

  Nora felt herself falling even as her consciousness faded. By the time she awoke, she was breathing hard, gasping for air in the thin atmosphere.

  This is what it is like to be human? she thought, her lips curling in disgust as she stumbled back to the quantum junction. Pathetic creatures. Once she was standing inside the green circle under the hovering dome of the junction, she used her ARCs to set the Resurrection Center as her destination, and activated the junction. The dome began glowing brightly overhead, and a whirring noise filled the air, quickly rising in tempo and pitch. Then the dome fell with a boom, and it became painfully bright to look at. The air inside the dome whipped around violently, ripping at her hair and clothes. Then suddenly the light vanished, and she was left blinking spots as it rose on four shimmering pillars of light once more. Now she was in the Resurrection Center, in the middle of the center’s ostentatious lobby on Sub Level 150.

  The lobby was deserted, and the facility was in the middle of a security lock-down. Nora strode through the lobby to the elevators at the back. A security bot moved to stop her.

  “Access to the center is restricted during lock-down, ma’am.”

  “Override. Code zeta, sixteen, forty-seven, nine, nine, seven six, alpha, one.”

  The bot scanned her with a flickering blue fan of light, and then stepped aside. “Welcome back, Madam Director.”

  “Thank you,” she said, and proceeded to the nearest elevator. Once inside, she selected the records room from the control panel.

  At the entrance of the records room she had to get past another bot and another routine security check. She pretended to look bored by the procedures, but once she was inside, she smiled. The plan was working flawlessly so far.

  When infiltrating an enemy base, the easiest way to do so was to have a man on the inside who already knew how everything worked. Sergeant Garek Helios just happened to be that man. Sadly, he was no longer alive to appreciate the brilliance of the plan he’d been forced to come up with. Thank you, Garek, for your insight—or should I say, thank you, Dad.

  Nora was, after all, Garek’s daughter.

  It took barely half an hour to reach the data terminal in the records room and to download her consciousness and memories to the Center’s records. Once she’d done that, she isolated the recent changes and copies them to the most recent records of all the others who’d been touched by Abaddon.

  Nora smiled as she finished her work. When she was done, she covered her tracks by hacking the last changed time-stamps on the records she’d altered, and then she left the records room as if she’d never been there. With everything going on, no one would even bother to check the Center’s surveillance tapes, and even if they did, she’d be able to explain herself easily enough. There’d been a sync error, and she’d come to make a manual backup of her own consciousness in case something happened to her. The changes she’d made to her own records would corroborate that. No one would think to look any deeper. They’d never suspect that she, Director Helios, would compromise the system.

  But really, it wasn’t her who had compromised the system; she wasn’t even a she, and her name wasn’t Nora.

  It was Abaddon.

  Abaddon smiled to himself as he went to Nora’s office in the Resurrection Center. He disengaged his mag boots and jumped up to float above the director’s desk, arms crossed behind his head, feet stretched out... basking in the glow of his plans.

  After billions of years of waiting and raging impotently against his enemy, it was all finally coming together. Soon everyone would know that Etherus was a fraud. Abaddon would return to Etheria, not as an exile, slinking back meekly, but as a conquering king come back to claim his rightful throne.

  Chapter 19

  Astralis

  —TWO DAYS LATER—

  Tyra answered the insistent trilling of an incoming comm call. It was from Winterside General. “Hello?”

  “Chief Councilor, it’s Doctor Fushiwa. I have your daughter’s probe results.”

  “And? What are they?” Tyra’s heart thundered in her ears.

  “She’s fine.”

  “Thank goodness,” Tyra breathed. “That is very good news, Doctor! You’ve just made my day. What about the others?”

  “Apparently all of them are fine, too.”

  Tyra’s brow furrowed. “Then what were those aliens doing to them? What was the point of it?”

  She could almost hear Doctor Fushiwa shrug. “To gather intel, if I had to guess. Their version of a mind probe. They must have been planning to escape Astralis with whatever they’d learned. Thankfully none of them did. Who knows how we might have been compromised if they had.”

  Tyra nodded slowly. It made sense. She’d also thought they might have been gathering intel. “We got lucky.”

  “Indeed.”

  “When can Atara be released?”

  “Your husband is already signing her out.”

  “Without me?”

  “I suppose so.”

  “I’d better go find them,” Tyra said. “Thank you for calling, Doctor.”

  “Of course.”

  Tyra hung up, and hurried from her office to the nearest quantum junction. It was expensive to use the junctions all the time, but she made six figures as a councilor, so she could spare a few thousand now and then.

  She arrived right outside Winterside General in front of the ER, behind a group of EMTs pushing a grav gurney with a burn victim on it.

  Tyra ran through the ER to the nearest bank of elevators. There she rode up to Level Four where she ran into Lucien, Atara, and Theola already on their way out.

  “Mama!” Theola said, bouncing in Lucien’s arms at the sight of her.

  “I thought you had urgent business to take care of?” Lucien said.

  Tyra shot him a look as she dropped to her haunches in front of Atara. “Nothing’s more urgent than taking my daughter home. How are you feeling, sweetheart?”

  “Fine,” she said.

  Tyra folded Atara into a big hug. “I’m so happy you’re okay.”

  “I wasn’t okay? What was wrong with me?”

  Tyra winced, and Lucien made big eyes at her. They spent the past two days erasing Atara’s memories of the trauma she’d been through, and here Tyra was trying to remind her.

  Atara looked to Lucien for an answer, and he covered his shock with a smile. “Remember how we said you needed to stay in the hospital and rest because you weren’t sleeping well?” he said.

&nb
sp; “Because of the nightmares,” Atara said, nodding.

  “Exactly. Well, now you’ve had enough time to rest, so you can go home,” Lucien said.

  “But I’m still having nightmares,” Atara objected.

  “They’ll go away in time,” Tyra said.

  “Promise?”

  She nodded. “I promise.” Tyra stood up and took Atara’s hand to walk her to the elevators.

  “Will I still get to see Troo?” Atara asked.

  “Yes, you will,” Tyra said. “She’ll be coming to our house to visit you.”

  “Forever?”

  “Well, no... just for a while,” Tyra said.

  “Can’t we keep her?”

  Lucien laughed, and Tyra smiled. “She’s not a pet, honey.”

  “But she’s furry!”

  Tyra punched the call button for the elevator, still smiling. How do you explain the difference between pets and sentient beings to a five-year-old? she wondered.

  The elevator opened and they waited while a group of doctors and visitors filed out. While they waited, an incoming call trilled in Tyra’s head, and she sighed. Ellis couldn’t get back on the job soon enough as far as she was concerned.

  “Acting Chief Councilor speaking,” she said.

  “Mrs. Ortane, it’s Director Helios from the Resurrection Center.”

  Tyra nodded, her brow furrowing at that. “It’s good to hear from you, Madam Director. I’m guessing this is about my clone’s data.”

  Lucien and the girls were about to pile into the elevator, but Tyra stopped them with a hand on Lucien’s arm. He frowned, watching as the elevator doors slid shut.

  “Yes. The judicial department has made a ruling.”

  “I see. And? What was their decision?”

  “It’s been decided that the data does not belong to you. Your clone has been granted equal rights as a citizen of Astralis, and she will be revived at once using the clone you have waiting in stasis. Of course, we’ll start growing another one for you immediately.”

  Tyra nodded, her head spinning with the thought of a copy of herself running around Astralis. “What will her legal rights be with respect to me?”

  “She’s entitled to half of whatever you owned at the time she left Astralis—minus half of the cost of your clone, which she will be using to resurrect.”

  “I see. And what about custody of my children?”

  “She won’t have any rights where they’re concerned, since they were born after she left.”

  “And I assume likewise for my husband.”

  “Exactly.”

  “So... how do we establish what I owned at the time she left?”

  “There should be bank records to help establish that, but she will have to appoint a lawyer to defend her claim to your estate.”

  “Of course,” Tyra nodded, meanwhile thinking: I’m getting a divorce from myself! That’s got to be a first. “Did the judicial department offer any justification for their ruling?”

  “You mean besides the fact that she and you haven’t shared the same life or body for the past eight and a half years?”

  “Besides that.”

  “They did offer an explanation as to why she would be given your clone rather than be forced to wait while we grow a new one.”

  “And that is?”

  “She’s thought to possess valuable information about the Faros, and about whatever went wrong during first contact. If there was some kind of misconduct that led to war, then she may be tried for negligence.”

  “They’re looking for someone to blame,” Tyra said.

  “Exactly.”

  Tyra sighed. “And I suppose I can’t be held responsible for whatever happened, since she’s being treated as an individual.”

  “Correct.”

  “Well that’s a relief at least. Thank you for the information, Madam Director.”

  “You’re welcome. Would you like to be here when she wakes up?”

  Tyra frowned. Usually only family members were allowed to be present during resurrections, but this copy of her wouldn’t have any family. “Is that allowed?”

  “Well, she is your clone, so I don’t see why not.”

  “Under the circumstances, I think that might be confusing for the both of us. She can look me up through appropriate channels if she wants to see me.”

  “As you wish. Give me a call if you change your mind. Resurrection is scheduled for one hour from now.”

  “That soon? They really are in a rush to find out what happened. I’ll let you know, Madam Director. Thanks again for the call,” Tyra replied.

  “Of course,” Director Helios said, and ended the comm call from her end.

  “What was all that about?” Lucien asked.

  Tyra explained everything as briefly as she could.

  The news left Lucien slowly shaking his head in disbelief. “This is crazy. How can they make a decision like this without consulting either her or you?”

  “They have to bring her back to consult with her, and I guess my vote isn’t worth much without hers. The ruling makes sense. We’re not really the same person anymore.”

  “No, you’re exactly the same person—just separated by eight years of life. She’s the old you, and you’re the old-er you.”

  Tyra glared at Lucien, pretending to be annoyed. “Cute. Never tell a woman she’s old. Especially when you have to live with her.”

  Lucien grinned and winked at her. “Sorry.”

  “Let’s get Atara home. I’m not sure how long I’ll have before Ellis calls an emergency meeting of the council.”

  Lucien’s playful grin vanished, and the light left his eyes. “Duty calls.”

  Tyra scowled. This again. “You of all people should get that. You’re the chief of security for Fallside, for Etherus’ sake!”

  “Etherus has nothing to do with it, and I’m not the chief of anything anymore. Fallside is a wasteland, remember?”

  “That’s like saying I’m no longer a councilor.”

  “It’s different. You still represent the interests of your constituents, whether they’re alive or dead, but the dead don’t need policing.”

  “They’re not dead.”

  Lucien waved a hand. “Waiting to be resurrected—same thing.”

  “The situation is temporary. We’re rebuilding. As soon as Fallside is permanently sealed and the atmosphere is restored, people will start coming back, and you’ll be back on the job.”

  Lucien shook his head. “We still have to find a planet with an appropriate atmosphere to supply the missing air. That could take some time.”

  “I’m sure that will be one of the first things we discuss at the emergency council meeting.”

  “Sure. And anyway, the argument is flawed. My job isn’t like yours. I don’t have to work all day and all week, never showing up to spend time with my family. If my job were like that, I’d quit.”

  “That’s what you think I should do? Resign?”

  Theola began fussing, and Atara jerked impatiently on Tyra’s arm. “Let’s go!” Atara said.

  Lucien nodded absently, and Tyra was left to wonder if he were nodding his agreement with Atara’s sentiment or hers. He punched the call button for the elevator, and they waited in a heavy silence. A split second later the doors opened and another group of people piled out.

  “So, where’s home now?” Lucien asked, changing the topic to ease the tension.

  They walked into the elevator together and Tyra breathed out a quiet sigh, wishing she could expel her frustration along with the air in her lungs. “I found us a three bedroom rental in Winterside.”

  Lucien’s nose scrunched up. “You couldn’t have picked a place in Summerside?”

  Tyra mentally selected the ground floor from the elevator’s control panel. “I couldn’t be sure how long Atara would be in the hospital, and I thought we’d want to be close to her. Besides, Winterside is the only city with enough vacancy to house all of the people who evacuated Fallsi
de, and I have to be close to my constituents.”

  “It has enough vacancy because no one wants to live there,” Lucien said. “They should just make it into another Summerside.”

  “Their economy would crash. They’d lose all the tourists going there to ski and experience winter.”

  It was Lucien’s turn to sigh. “Well, I guess I could take the girls sledding.”

  Tyra nodded. “That’s a good idea. It might take their minds off things.”

  “Blaba!” Theola interjected enthusiastically.

  “My sentiments exactly,” Lucien replied, and kissed her cheek.

  Chapter 20

  The Specter

  OUTBOUND FROM FREEDOM STATION...

  Lucien stared at his hairless blue skin in the bathroom mirror of the quarters he and Addy shared aboard Katawa’s ship. He slowly shook his head. “I think this disguise would even fool my own mother.” The words rolled easily off his black tongue, and he knew instantly what they meant, but it still sounded to him like someone else was speaking—a fact which the mirror seemed to confirm. Besides being blue his face was more angular than his real one, and his head was completely bald—along with every other part of his body. A holoskin did most of the work, projecting a hologram seamlessly over his body from the glowing golden bands on his arms and legs—Faro jewelry modified to conceal advanced holo projectors. As for his hairlessness, that was unfortunately real. He’d had to practically bathe in a foul-smelling depilatory gel, but Katawa assured them that the effects would last for at least six months.

  Lucien walked from the en-suite bathroom to the sleeping quarters that he and Addy shared aboard the Specter.

  They’d left Freedom Station just a few minutes ago, having spent the past two days since meeting Katawa sharing a hotel room at his expense while he stocked his ship and got it ready for visitors. During that time they’d used a helmet-shaped device that Katawa called a Mind-mapper to re-train their brains to speak Faro. After that, they no longer needed the translator bands to speak with Katawa, since Faro was his native language, too.