Ayan laughed and turned to look at him. “That's what you're calling us?”
Oz shrugged. “May as well, you're both miracles when you look at it. The odds of him surviving out there for as long as he did were about as low as the odds of the Doc actually managing to bring you back,” his big hands took hold of her shoulders and he smiled warmly at her. “And we couldn't be happier that you both made it through, however you did.”
Ayan smiled back at him. “Regardless of the conditions, I'd be hard pressed to find better company.”
“I'm sorry Jonas couldn't be here, despite the conditions.”
She nodded; “So am I, but in my mind it's been over two years since he disappeared. I know, it's actually been about eight, but I'm still adjusting. What I mean to say is; I think not knowing what happened to him was what hurt the most. Now I know, and I miss him, but it's better. I feel lighter.”
“You know about Jake?”
“I heard. I want to meet him but I'm not getting my hopes up. I've seen some of the holos. He'll be different, I'll be different, maybe less so but,” she shrugged in conclusion.
“You're probably two of the most similar people in the galaxy, you know,” Oz whispered to her. “Laura says he remembers who he is and aside from being a little cuter, you act and appear pretty much the same. I've never met anyone whose had a body transplant and if things go well I might actually meet two soon enough.”
“Is he coming here?” Ayan asked, her eyes widening. She had told herself over and over again not to get her hopes up, to stay cool, collected, but the tightening knot in her stomach and light headedness told her that being rational where Jake was concerned was pretty far out of the question.
“We're hoping. If we can get a transmission out to the Triton and her cloaking systems are still up, it could change the odds just enough.”
“Do you think he'd actually come if we called him?”
“I wouldn't be surprised if he was already on his way. We sent him a message while we were on our way here. If he has scout ships on his outer perimeter he might get it soon.”
Ayan chuckled nervously and blew a breath of air out with widened eyes. “Nothing is ever simple when we all get together, is it? Thank God Laura's aboard the Triton.”
“Oh, now that's going to be interesting. She doesn't know anything about you or Minh.”
“I think it would be good for someone to give her at least a few seconds warning. Give her a chance to visit with Jason first. I can't wait to see her face, but still, I'd rather not give her a coronary.”
“Well, it's a long way between here and there even if the Triton is already on its way. We have jamming signals to bust through. Speaking of which, they want us at the strategic board.”
“Lead the way,” Ayan invited.
Oz walked through the doors as they opened, Ayan followed close behind. Jason, Minh, Alaka and Sergeant Roman were gathered around a large display table with a fully detailed hologram of the island. There were three red marked buildings and a pointer indicating that there was another point of immediate interest off the eastern side of the map. “Thank you for joining us Ayan.” Alaka said graciously. “I have been looking forward to meeting you ever since Oz told me a few stories about your shared experiences. My name is Alaka.”
“Thank you Alaka, I didn't know Oz had so many interesting stories about me. It's good to meet you too.”
“Alaka was about to give us his report,” Roman looked haggard, worn. Under the weight of coordinating a full on rebellion from within the mountain he looked past his forty years. He was a man shrouded in seriousness, and his success demanded the respect of the mountain rebels.
“Yes. The artificials are organizing in units with the few West Keepers that have landed. I expect they're the spearhead of a larger force.”
“I've been hearing that name a lot. Who are the West Keepers exactly?” Minh asked.
“Humans who paid for immunity from destruction before the artificials began attacking their masters. Many of them take care of human hostages, while anyone who is useful in a firefight have been sent to the front. They were patrons of an Eden Cult or Order of Eden as they call it. They believe that service in this world will get them closer to their promised land in this life or in the afterlife. A few we captured went on and on about it.”
“It must not have made it to Freeground or been taken seriously by Intelligence, I didn't see any record,” Jason commented.
“That doesn't help us. Anyone inside the mountain could be an Eden Cultist, or a West Keeper, whatever they're called.” Sergeant Roman said, shaking his head. “We have enough problems with the fall of two military bases just south of the island.”
“What kind of firepower can they bring to bear?” Oz asked.
“Enough to kill our shield in a month.”
“There are reinforcements arriving every couple of hours at the military port.” Alaka said. “Oz and I saw the ships descending. Soon there will be boats, we'll have to start firing on them.”
“Why wouldn't they use shuttles? They'd be able to land anywhere on the island.” Asked Ayan.
“Because our anti-air batteries are still operational. They won't risk that again. I think you and Minh arrived just in time. He says you can form a good team with Oz and Jason, what do you think your chances are of getting behind enemy lines and causing real damage are?” Asked Roman.
Ayan looked to Oz, Jason and Minh, who was the only one not looking back at her. Minh's attention was fully focused on the red marked post on the southern most point of the island. “We've trained extensively together and shared some very tense situations,” she replied confidently. Slipping back into a military stance was so easy, like an old, comfortable suit.
“I'm told you hold the highest rank here.” Roman said, making no efforts to disguise his appraising gaze.
“I was a Major in the Freeground Fleet and started as a cadet when I was a teenager. I'm also a fully qualified stationary and battleship engineer, pilot, boarding captain and infantrywoman.”
“That's my girl,” Oz said under his breath. All eyes shifted to him and he shrugged. “I met her while we were still in the academy, served as First Officer while she was the Chief Engineer on the same carrier.”
“I served as the Wing Commander on that ship,” Minh added. “Oh, and I served a tour in the All-Con conflict, planetside combat and demolitions.”
“And I was the Intelligence Officer before joining Fleet Intelligence and supervising several active operations.”
Alaka looked to Roman and chuckled. “We're both outranked.”
“Makes me wish the military wasn't the first thing to get knocked out on this rock. We have a couple of junior officers, some infantry that made it across the island before the fighting got serious, but everyone else is either police or a volunteer. Mostly volunteer.” Roman explained.
“So you're not military?” Asked Minh.
“No, I'm a police Sergeant. Served twelve years in the mobile infantry before joining the force.”
“Looks like you've kept this mountain together just fine, Sergeant. What are you planning from here?”
“I was hoping you people could come up with one. We don't have real specialists, and from the looks of it you're all exactly that, specialists.”
“Oz busts bots like they're firecrackers,” Alaka nodded. “No need to guess at what his speciality is.”
“Well, we need to take control of this main broadcast station,” Sergeant Roman said, pointing at the holographic map. “It's one of the stations being used to jam all communications on this side of the planet and they're directing system wide communications from the control bunker. There's a backup broadcast system in the nearby spaceport, but I'm hoping whoever takes control of the bunker can interrupt the jamming signals and send for help before the automations manage to override from the secondary control point. We could have a transmission to our nearest sister solar system in an hour using a micro wormhole.”
The six of them stared at the map silently for several seconds before Minh pointed at a spot just past the spaceport. “If we could somehow drop here, in this field we can get to the bunker no problem. We'll need everything we brought with us on the Warpig.”
“Is this the most powerful station on the planet?” Ayan asked, looking at the cluster of white dishes and thin transmission towers.
“It is, while that station is jamming everything in the air no one can use wireless. All the main hard lines pass through that station and the spaceport as well, so it's safe to say that's how they're stopping us from communicating outside of the mountain.” Alaka answered, bringing up a secondary map of the bundled cables deep underground leading off in every direction from the communications bunker. “There are many secondary stations on this side of the planet, like the one in this mountain, but they're easier to work around.”
“What kind of resistance can we expect?” Oz asked.
“It's hard to say, our scans can't be trusted that far past the shield because of the jamming signals, but there will be a fair number of Andies walking around.” Roman answered.
“Andies?” Ayan asked.
He brought up a hologram of an android. The weapons inventory displayed a low penetration pulse sidearm and a high powered particle rifle. If it weren't for a serial number that was written in a black strip that started in the middle of its forehead and ran over the top of its head to the back of its neck it would have been indistinguishable from a human. “This is a law enforcement android with an advanced AI that allows them to deal with any situation. More than nine out of ten of our officers were Andies. When the virus managed to change their programming everyone inside my precinct was killed. I was off duty at the time and when I got there they had stripped the armoury clean and started killing everyone in the mountain. If you're wondering why there are so few people alive on the mountainside, there's your answer.”
“I'm sorry Sargent,” Ayan sympathized.
“I'm getting used to telling the story, it's all right.”
“So you managed to kill them all?”
“No, most of them escaped into the city below. The first thing the Andies here did was organize themselves into well armed squads.”
“I've seen that. My platoon was pushed back for about five hours in the city by one group.” Oz said. “They're smart, heavily armoured.”
“How many are in their squads?” Minh asked.
“Eight. My platoon started with ninety one, we had taken forty seven casualties by the time we managed to take them out and collapse the buildings holding parts of the shield open.”
“You did better than most, Oz. Most of your casualties were wounded and had a chance at recovery,” Alaka said, putting one big paw on the humans shoulder.
“They waited until we were just about to set charges in the first building before jumping us. One of them was posing as a corpse in a pile of bodies. Stood up right behind me and nearly took my head off.”
“So they're smart, heavily armoured and most likely in force at the bunker.” Ayan concluded. “We're not going to be able to hold it once we've taken it, so we'll send a message through that wormhole generator in orbit and kill the systems inside with a zero rad micro-nuke.”
“I'll leave you four to plan it then,” Roman said with raised eyebrows.
The tone in the room had changed. Any joviality had gone, replaced with a heavy, deadly seriousness. Ayan caught the Sargent's arm as he turned from the table and looked him in the eye coldly. “Once we finish hitting this bunker and securing some method of viable longer term communications we probably won't be back. We'll have to take cover somewhere else or find our way off the planet from the spaceport to go in search of help. Returning to the mountain between strikes is a pointless risk.”
Roman's eyes went wide as he glanced at the map then back to the much smaller woman, who suddenly had the bearing of an eight foot tall battle commander. “What do you need?” he asked quietly.
“We'll have a list for you by morning,” she replied as she turned back to the table.
Roman and Alaka left the room so the old friends could plan a desperate mission to save the mountain rebels and everyone else fighting for survival on Pandem.
Mirrors
The training shifts on the bridge were more and more intense as Alice and Jake raised the difficulties. Between simulations she had started reviewing the results alone, she loved the night bridge staff but it always went faster if she could sync her mechanical eye up to a computer system and review the data over a digital interface without being interrupted.
When she entered the Ready Office attached to the bridge she stopped dead in her tracks and hurriedly slapped the button to close the hatch behind her. Captain Valance was sitting on the desk in his undershorts, his vacsuit was draped over one hand while the other gently ran his fingers over it. “She's really gone, isn't she?” he asked so quietly she almost didn't hear.
Alice hesitated a moment and asked; “what's that you have there Captain?”
“Just a scarf. Ayan made it for me out of a shawl that was ruined on the First Light. ”
She glanced at it again, just to be sure he was actually holding his vacsuit in the dim light, not the scarf that had been tied around Ayan's body before she was given a space farer's burial. Her cybernetic eye compensated for the low light and focused in on his face. His glazed eyes and openly mournful expression told her one thing; he's sleep walking, or whatever counts as sleep walking where Jake is concerned. He doesn't do anything small.
“Ayan, Minh, my parents, even Alice is gone,”
She was about to contradict him then a thought occurred to her; “Jonas?”
He looked up at her, his eyes focused on her only for a moment then glazed over once more. “Who else would I be? Then again, I don't know who you are, but you're familiar. Like everything here; strange ship, strange constellations when I look outside, even the operating system for the comm is different but all somehow familiar.”
“You should get back to bed sir,” she directed quietly.
“Why? Even my ship's gone, I don't even know what happened to the First Light after it escaped.”
“She made it back, they've rebuilt her as a carrier and now you're running a new ship. You should get your rest, you don't want to be tired for your duty shift on the bridge.”
“A new ship?” he stared at her dumbly, for a moment she thought he was coming out of it, then he looked away, to something in the distance. “Doesn't matter, there's not much time left.”
Alice walked across the room to him gently and took his arm. He was larger than Jonas was, but his bearing, his manner was every bit the Jonas she remembered. Urging him to his feet was easier than expected.
“It took him a while to stop resisting the integration process, but now that he's accepted that it's the way it should be my individual imprint is integrating. We'll be inseparable soon, the same person, and I can't let him take all this grief, all this anger,” he went on. “None of this is happening the way it was supposed to, he should have woken up, seen Alice and the imprint was supposed to take over, he was supposed to remember.”
“Who was supposed to remember?” she asked, placating him more than anything. I just need to get him back to bed, he'll probably just roll over and mumble his way back to sleep.
“The copy, he was supposed to remember me then learn to use the framework technology but the trigger went off too late and he had time to become something more, someone all his own.”
She stopped half way to the small shaft that would lead him back to bed. “You mean he became Jake.”
“That's what you call him,” he looked straight into her eyes and was suddenly astonished. “ You were the trigger, but you left before he woke up.”
“So he doesn't know how to use the framework technology? How does he learn?” she asked, not knowing whether what she was hearing was real or some rant born in a dream.
“By
using it, it's a natural function like breathing, only the first time it happens it might be unconscious, maybe dangerous,” he said as his manner changed completely. His vision focused in on her and he dropped his vacsuit. Automatically he stooped to pick it up then realized where he was. “How did I get here?” He was awake.
Alice hesitated for a moment, watching him to make sure that he was actually awake. “You were sleep walking,” she replied simply as she stepped away.
“Sleep walking? What was I doing? Did I leave the ready quarters?”
“Thankfully no. When I came in you were holding that as though it was the scarf Ayan made for you. You thought you were Jonas.”
The memory of a dream returned to him vaguely as he put his vacsuit on. But that's not my memory. It's one of my recollections from Jonas' past. “What did he-” he paused for a moment then corrected himself; “-I say?”
“You'd better watch the security footage,” Alice queued up the last ten minutes using her command unit and instructed the room's main player to display the time period in question. “Do you want me to leave?”
“No, stay.”
They watched it together and when it finished Jake Valance sat in silence in one of the chairs in front of the sturdy captain's desk.
Alice braced herself. She hoped she handled the situation the way he would have liked and she hadn't overstepped her bounds.
“It explains a lot, but what did he mean by using the framework technology? I've already come back from beyond the brink at least once, survived radiation poisoning, what else is there and why don't I remember it like everything else Jonas experienced?”
“I have no idea, I'm sorry,” Alice said quietly.
Jake turned to her, sitting in the seat beside him, and put his hand on her shoulder. “You shouldn't be, why would you have the answers?”
“I should have found my way back to you sooner after drawing Vindyne away from you and the Samson. The only reason why I didn't go back sooner was because I was afraid. I had a price on my head for three sectors and I didn't want to get caught. I should have waited for you to wake up, made sure you were all right before I moved on.”
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