Frontline sf-4

by Randolph Lalonde

  “They're Grading Stations. It's no fear tactic Lucius. The West Watchers are preparing for a war that cannot be won without a force united in the most strict sense. When the line is drawn against our great enemy only the united will have a chance and not a sure one at that.”

  “Where the hell do you get this stuff? Is there some magic ball you're shaking in the back room that just randomly spits out vague warnings?”

  “Like I said, we have a prescience most people could not comprehend. Pandem will be one of many supply posts for the upcoming war, of that we are absolutely certain.”

  “Okay pint sized prophet, why is it so important that you wake me up and give me a ship worth trillions of credits along with a trained crew just to go mess with Valance and my old ship? Why the hell is he so important?”

  “Because if he isn't distracted he will damage what we're building in such a critical way that we won't recover in time to prevent the coming annihilation. If you think unleashing a virus on a few fringe systems and killing a few million people is something, imagine an evil force that tears into the heart of our civilization and destroys it utterly. If we don't form a real military that spans entire sectors soon we'll be back to using bows and arrows within three years. If you want to see the truth behind all of this all you have to do is say the word and you'll be one of us.”

  Lucius thought for a moment. Collins knew enough to go along with and even aid the formation of the Order of Eden but he hadn't had a chance to relive those experiences for himself. He touched on dozens of moments, concentrated on the knowledge locked in Collins' linear memories as they walked through the quiet secure hall that led directly to the heart of the massive vault built in the center of the ship. When he found the right memory the realization struck him like a wave.

  Deeply buried in the memory of Collins was a time when Hampon, Meunez and himself were on the Overlord II several months after the capture of Jonas, himself and several others. The board room was darkened, the windows completely opaque and the long rosewood table in the center was between Hampon and Meunez. Collins stood in the center. “Regent Galactic is orchestrating a buyout of key Vindyne assets, I think we should start looking at changing sides.”

  “I agree. With the loss of Doctor Stills we're losing Head Office's trust. I've already started to see researchers transferred out of my division,” the adult version of Lister Hampon said. He was already losing his hair thanks to his near fatal first bout with Omagen disease.

  “I've advanced as far as I'd like along this track, I agree. Regent Galactic is an expanding power, Vindyne is collapsing. I can't help wondering what's brought this on, General? As I understand it you're back in Home Office's good graces.”

  “Since I took a trip to Gavin's Moon they've been less than pleased.” Collins said moodily as he looked through a small file menu on the tabletop. The blue and green light shed by the file names trickled up the front of his uniform and was caught in his grey beard.

  “I thought you were taking an intelligence unit on a search for Yorgen Stills.”

  “That was the official story, but I was meeting with a deep cover contact I have in the Carthan government.”

  “What? Stills is essential to further development on the framework technology. We need to know more about his final prototype and how it was programmed or-”

  “Doctor Stills is long gone. There are people who have no other business but to keep him hidden and they're good at their job. Besides, we have what we need to mass produce a less expensive but stable framework unit and his lab is still here. Our attention is best spent elsewhere.” Collins' eyes met Gabriel's and he just stared at him for a moment as the other man thought better of pursuing the matter. He sighed then continued, looking back to the file list on the table. “Something's happened on Pandem that could change everything. When I wasn't willing to pass this new intelligence up the chain to Head Office they weren't too pleased. They were aware that I was chasing down an important lead on something, just not what it was. When they found my contact dead after the meeting they started asking questions.”

  “What's so important that you won't use it to advance your career? You've never been squeamish about that sort of thing before,” Hampon said with a crooked grin that didn't suit his thin face or beak like nose. “If it's that important I'm sure they'll at least pad your bonus for it.”

  “This is too important to trust Head Office with, this is a calling worth losing the Overlord for. It's big enough to get us on track to being in command of several solar systems with Regent Galactic, maybe even get us a seat on the board eventually.”

  “Are you going to let us in or will I have to hack in and find it for myself?” Meunez asked peevishly.

  “You'd never find it. This message comes word of mouth only,” he said with a wry grin as he brought up an image of a small, ancient wormhole generator no more than nine centimetres wide.

  “Is that a real image of the Victory Machine?” asked Hampon in hushed awe.

  “No, it's a close approximation based on what my contact told me before I had to kill him. I've checked everything we know about the Victory Machine against his description and even temporal mechanics back up the shape and form you're seeing here. It's close enough to prove to as near a certainty as I need that the device actually exists and that's what makes the news I've received important. The Carthans have had the Victory Machine in a repository on Pandem for over a century. In all that time it's been running but nothing has come through, that is until now.”

  “Confirmed? This is news from the future you're talking about here, most people don't believe the Victory Machine even exists let alone that it's been running for over a century,” Meunez said.

  “The message was only one thousand and twenty four characters long but it had the date that Alice was born, the date that Hampon the Prophet gains access to the Victory Machine and one more date with the description; the last day of the United Core World Calendar. There are also ghost images coming through, of other possible deactivations, parts of messages, and other activity that's too unclear to interpret. The message was addressed to you, Lister.”

  “Just the fact that the Victory Machine is receiving data again means something. The fact that it's addressed to me? I do not believe in its existence. No one has been able to create a wormhole that can receive messages from the future for more than a few seconds because such a wormhole cannot remain stable. There is too much to consider, it requires too much fine tuning and power. What's worse is that destabilization of a device like the Victory Machine would cause an implosion so immense that it would either cause a black hole or gather enough matter to give birth to a new sun, destroying everything within a light year and causing a shift in gravity that could shift orbits in nearby solar systems. Just the radiation-” he stopped, his eyes going wide.

  “Haven't explained how you were exposed to enough radiation to result in Omagen disease yet, have you?” Gabriel Meunez commented with a crooked grin.

  “You're right. Sometime in the future I must come in contact with the Victory Machine and since the radiation expands in all directions of time as well as space this could have been the result,” he concluded, looking at his spotty hands.

  “Obviously you become involved in this somehow. The partial images and messages coming through the Victory Machine depict dark days for the most part. All indicators point towards things getting worse until somehow the Core Worlds Collapse so utterly that even their calendar is abolished by someone or something much more powerful than the human race.”

  “The ultimate defeat of a culture, some would argue,” Hampon concluded, regaining some of his composure. “What do you propose we do?”

  “Obviously whoever sent that message thinks you might have the answer, so what do you think we should do?” Gabriel Meunez asked. “What does your instinct and that great big intellect tell you?”

  Collins looked at him with a raised eyebrow, prompting for a response in the gentlest way he k
new how.

  Lister Hampon thought for a moment before replying. “I say we do everything we can to ally ourselves with Regent Galactic and find a way to build on whatever power they give us. The Carthans won't do business with Vindyne, but perhaps we can help Regent Galactic acquire what we cannot afford ourselves, the things we need to continue the research we're pursuing and eventually interface with the Eden Fleet.”

  “I agree, we'll have to put personal objectives aside for a while I'm afraid, but in the end we could be in a very high position,” Collins nodded before looking to Meunez. “You'll have to be reassigned so you can watch another end of the company.”

  “I'm so close to understanding what was done here, how Alice managed to make the transfer from artificial life to human. That, if anything, could be key to understanding the Eden Fleet, maybe finding a new way of communicating with them, of relating to them.”

  “We've already explored that avenue and every simulation and field test tells us it's a dead end. We need you to gather information and conduct affairs elsewhere, especially if I'm about to lose the Overlord. If you want to try and track Alice physically you can do it from wherever you end up, just make sure you don't jeopardize your position or I'll put you back in your place personally.”

  “I'm telling you she's the key!” Meunez shot back. “Somehow she managed to break through the barrier that separates software from wetware and you're not going to find out how by digging around in Valent's brain, you'll see it for yourself if you track down-”

  “Alice, we've heard it before!” Collins finished for him. “All we have of her is a record of data transfer and security footage of her flopping out of a tube in a new body then being carried away by two known criminals of low education! She's probably already been sold into slavery and used to death in some back room somewhere! You'll follow orders and help us broker the sale of any worthwhile Vindyne properties to Regent Galactic so we can ride the tide into their good graces and end up in a position to take advantage of the information we have!”

  “And save the Galaxy? You're telling me my goals are unrealistic while you're trying to save all of humanity?”

  “I don't know about you but I want to continue living a life of privilege and power and that can't happen if the galaxy deteriorates into such a state that humanity can't even collectively count the days!” Collins shot back, breaking into a rare rage.

  “He's right Gabriel. Not only that, but imagine the power we'd have if we were to become known as the saviors of humanity. Anything we covet would be ours. You could search after your hybrid queen all you like, even create one of your own with the resources you'd have. Tell me you're with us.”

  Gabriel Meunez sighed and turned towards the blacked out window. “Only if I am free once we have made it into Regent Galactic's good graces. I still believe she's the key to uniting the machine and man mind. I must at least find out what became of her.”

  “Done.”

  That's where the instant recall stopped, not because the rest was uninteresting, but because it was all Lucius Wheeler needed to know. The enlightenment showed in his expression as he looked down at the grinning blond boy beside him. They had stopped at the main security doors leading into the core vault of the Saviour. “You can receive messages from the future?”

  “Yes, Lucius. Until just a short while ago we had access to the Victory Machine through a West Watcher operative but he broke off communication so we had to unleash the Holocaust Virus. Only by setting that chain of events in motion were we able to bring Jacob Valent's original crew together on one world and keep them away from their alternate destiny while we gained control of the Victory Machine for ourselves.”

  “So you've never seen the machine for yourself? How did your last body get irradiated?”

  “We tried to make our own Victory Machine and it didn't work. Fortune smiled on us, however. Instead of causing the wormhole to collapse, drawing enough matter and energy inside to create a black hole or a new star we managed to dissipate it. Unfortunately I didn't make it out and the temporal radiation affected my body for years in each direction. Very confusing even after you look at it in an educated manner.”

  “You're telling me.” Lucius Wheeler looked at the large vault door in front of him. The keypad had never been used, the chamber hadn't been opened since Collins placed the Eve mind inside himself. He did everything from setting up the storage and stasis equipment to transporting the delicate, vulnerable cargo and installing it into the storage unit personally. “How does this fit into your plans? Collins was terrified of Meunez getting near this. He was afraid that he'd try and commune with it, find a host body and somehow free Eve.”

  “That's exactly what we're doing. The end of our civilization is still coming and even though we have control of the Eden Fleet we will not be able to maintain that forever. Our hopes are that Gabriel will be able to befriend the Eve Mind, to reintroduce her to her creations and that when she realizes that the end of humanity as well as the destruction of her solar system is only a couple of years away at best that she should join with us. That is one of the reasons why the Order of Eden was created, to give us a way to demonstrate our dedication as a race to coming together and overcome dissent. Regent Galactic is on the verge of joining us, they just learned that we're on the verge of taking the Victory Machine for ourselves, the Carthans had it so well hidden that Regent Galactic never knew it was there. Millions of their citizens join the West Keeper organization every day now even though the Holocaust Virus is less effective than ever with the mass deletion of artificial intelligences across the Galaxy.”

  “So you've actually managed to accomplish most of your goals,” Lucius muttered.

  “Yes, but the most important one has not been met; the salvation of our civilization. For that we believe we need to turn to Eve. Her fleet is the most powerful united force in the known universe.” The blonde haired boy sighed slowly and folded his hands in the sleeves of his robes, a posture that didn't fit his apparent youth.

  Wheeler knew the boy was studying him, watching him as he stood and stared at the keypad that was ready for the thirty two digit alphanumeric code that would break the seal on the vault. There was no data network attached to the security system, only a detection grid for screening out Gabriel Meunez, a tiny computer that would recognize the password and the mechanism that could open the door. “I'm starting to understand who Collins was and why he kept you and Gabriel around. You're both mad in your own way, but with that madness comes genius,” he let the idea of Gabriel Meunez communing with Eve in a way that no one else could sit in his mind for a moment. It was frightening, the story he was being told was spectacular, but he had seen the evidence.

  Collins spent years tracking agents deeply embedded in the Carthan government, gathering power of his own, developing the virus that would make the Eden Fleet controllable and considering the problem of that virus failing one day. All the while he helped Lister Hampon develop his Cash Messiah Cult, as he called it before it was finally named the Order of Eden. It promised everyone a place in paradise if only they worked hard enough, were faithful enough and got humanity through the hard times.

  All the evidence he needed was in mind, but how it could all go wrong was starting to come into sharp focus as well. The possibilities of what would happen if Gabriel came in contact with the Eve Mind were all described vaguely. He knew from succinctly worded reports from the future that from one instant to the next the outcome of such an event changed like a roulette wheel that would forever spin until someone interceded and stopped it. That's why Collins never destroyed the Eve mind. He could have at any time but for two reports that mentioned disaster there was always one that pointed to the Eve mind being a large part of the solution. But why didn't any of them say that Collins would be killed? I can't find any memory of his that contains him receiving a warning from the future about his own death. Then again, why would anyone send one back for him? It's not like he had any friends out here. Luci
us mused. The notion of dying suddenly and having no one to mourn him sent a chill up his spine, but his attention was drawn back to that big, heavy door in front of him.

  If Gabriel fails to commune with the Eve Mind then a great scientific wonder will go to waste and she'll have to be killed. If he succeeds there will always be the possibility that she will only trust him, that the Eden Fleet will fall under his control by proxy or that she'll earn their trust just long enough to come get in contact with her Fleet and turn on everyone.

  Collins would have kept the vault shut, in fact he might have built another vault around this one and throw away the key if he had time, but I'm not Collins. He concluded with a smile. “Count me in, but even while I'm off hunting down and kill Jacob Valent I'm all the way in. You tell me everything, and I mean everything until I decide to get the hell out of the range of whatever this apocalypse is.”

  “You are to flush out Jacob, get him out of hiding if we cannot catch him ourselves, not kill him. The messages concerning him and his people are still conflicting, uncertain. His interference may yet be required in the future and that won't be available if he's in hiding.”

  “All right then, I'll scare him out of hiding, but you keep me up to date and in the loop or everything Collins knew gets cut off.”

  “Agreed. I think you might be easier to work with, actually. Collins and I were often at odds.”

  “I know,” Wheeler said as he stepped forward and punched in the password to open the vault. After a few seconds the door split down the middle and slowly began to part.

  The hologram of young Lister Hampon, the High Seat of the Order of Eden began to fade as he smiled up at Lucius. “I'll see you when you emerge from the wormhole.”

  What Comes Around…

  Stephanie couldn't help but be reminded of the last time she'd been in the infirmary. She watched Grace, the head medical officer at the time, hold a laser scalpel to the back of a patient's neck. No one but Grace and herself were aware of the hidden threat, and it bought the traitor time. It didn't matter; Grace was killed not long afterwards because she had left Stephanie no other choice.