Warpath

by Randolph Lalonde

  “He’s going to be leaving the Blessed Mission and moving in here with the rest of the crew this afternoon. He should be on the Solar Forge for a few days, I’ll send him a notice telling him to contact you,” Minh-Chu said.

  “Ashley just did,” Alice replied.

  Minh-Chu opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted as Alice went on. “I don’t know what the best thing for me is half the time, how does he know? What am I supposed to do with the Rangers here anyway?”

  “Help tame Tamber? Defend our favourite moon?” Minh-Chu offered. “Become a better soldier than anyone I know by the time you’re twenty?”

  “You’re no help,” Alice said. “I’m going to go see if I can find Governor Anderson. Maybe I can get this changed if I go from the top down.” She stomped off towards a side corridor that would take her to a shuttle bay.

  “They don’t make smaller boots for people her size?” Minh-Chu asked, noticing, not for the first time, how comically large the soles of her combat boots seemed on her.

  “I love it,” Ashley said quietly. “Sometimes she looks like she’s a kid playing in her dad’s shoes.”

  “I heard that!” Alice screeched over her shoulder.

  “She’s been rolling back for a couple days, resetting so she’s physically sixteen again,” Ashley said quietly after waiting a few moments for Alice to go around the corner and out of sight. “She’s rigged her medical tracker so she can see it now.”

  “I didn’t know,” Minh-Chu replied. “Haven Shore is the best place for her though. The Rangers will take care of her, and I think they respect her there.”

  “They do,” Ashley said. “She’s officially an Officer now, not just a returning trainee.”

  “Did she say Captain’s Mast?” Minh-Chu said, checking his command and control unit for details. The accused was an officer he’d never heard of.

  “Reason number two of three that I know I’m in the military, officially, like a real military,” Ashley said. “The Governor, Ayan, Oz, and Captain Valent are all going.”

  “You say that like it’s a social gathering,” Minh-Chu said with a smirk.

  “We didn’t exactly have that on the Samson,” Ashley said. “Captain kept things pretty informal but watched the whole crew. No one got much past him.”

  “Now, with a bigger crew, and war you know things will be different.”

  “I know, it really clicked this morning when reason number one I knew I was in the military came along. I got officer registration forms.”

  Ashley looked as serious as she ever did at the helm, and they stopped in front of the entrance to the Mess Hall. “What do you think?” He knew the forms she was talking about, he got a version of them before his patrol began and opted in for career registration.

  “Three year term with no babies, my age gets locked, my health gets monitored and my skill level has to fit in a margin this wide,” she said, holding her hands a few centimetres apart. “Unless they go up, then the margin moves up.”

  “There’s more latitude than that, and there are exceptions to that rule,” Minh-Chu said, leading her through the doors and to a table beside it. “I can walk you through the details, but you can think about this, you don’t have to serve in the military.”

  “You are,” Ashley said, sitting close to him. “I know there’s no question, you’re signing up.”

  “Freeground is where I come from. My family is safe, they’re not there anymore, but-“

  “I understand,” Ashley said.

  “You don’t have to sign up because I did,” Minh-Chu said. “It’s hard, military families live with a lot of difficulties, but I’ll serve to defend you, and Haven Shore.”

  They watched as the Blessed Mission locked into place part way in to the main manufacturing bay. The first thing a large manipulator arm did to the hull was scrub the name of the ship, OOE BLESSED MISSION, off. The hall was filled with the sounds of over two hundred people cheering.

  Minh-Chu learned a long time ago that women didn’t always need their problems fixed, sometimes they needed to be listened to while they worked their problems out themselves. It was that lesson from his sisters that he heeded then, and took Ashley’s hand.

  “You said military families,” Ashley said to him. “Is that me?” she looked at him, expectant and as beautiful as he’d ever seen her. “That’s me, for you?”

  “I love you, Ashley,” he told her. “Someday I’d like you to meet my family, we’ll go there, they’ll embarrass me, adore and adopt you. They’ll do that because my grandfather used to tell us that we should all be fortunate enough to have two families, the one we’re born to, and the one we choose when we meet someone we can’t live without. I know you don’t have the family you were born to, but I want to be the family you choose.” He wished, more than anything, that he had a ring in his pocket. That would be the moment to propose, the moment to demonstrate to her that he wanted to be with her forever, but there was no ring. There would be, he promised himself, and soon.

  “Minh,” Ashley said, hugging him as a tear rolled down her cheek. “Yes,” she said against his ear. “A family of two.”

  “A start,” Minh-Chu said. “A legendary start.”

  “But no babies for three years,” she said. “I want to sign up because I love Haven Shore, I love Zoe, and Panloo, and so many things I’ve seen here. I never even got to see Kambis, and it’s gone, someone did that.” She looked back towards the ship in the manufacturing bay. The windows ran the length of the Mess Hall wall. “I can’t believe it, people who hate us, people who want to take control of everything did that to us. They burned a whole planet. That can’t happen.”

  “You have two days to back out, so there’s time to think about it,” Minh-Chu offered quietly.

  “No, I’m going. Panloo is staying though,” she said. “For Zoe, and so there’s at least one good civilian pilot on Tamber. Most of the people I trained are signed up already.”

  “Welcome to Triton Fleet,” Minh-Chu said.

  Ashley smiled and said; “Thanks. Going to be a while before I get to wear anything other than a standard uniform. Or heels, no heels in the military.”

  “Thank God,” Minh-Chu said. “I could break an ankle trying to get to my fighter in heels.”

  She laughed. “I’d love to see you try to walk in heels.”

  “Watch what you wish for,” Minh-Chu replied.

  “No aging, either. We get our clocks stopped. Maybe you could get a rollback? You know, just far enough to get rid of the grey hair?”

  “I do not have grey hair!” Minh-Chu replied, feigning outrage. He knew he had a few creeping in. He’d coloured three only days before with gel. “And I have the constitution of a twenty year old.”

  “Well, I can confirm the second part,” Ashley said. “Do you think we have time to check out our temporary officer’s quarters? Are you off duty?”

  “I have to check on Samurai Squadron in about an hour,” he said.

  “Let’s go!” she said, practically pulling him out of his seat as she stood and leaned towards the door with his hands in hers. He did not offer resistance, and was impressed at how quickly she could walk in heels.

  Chapter 30

  The Legacy of Doctor Messana

  If there was one thing that Finn was grateful for, it was that he wouldn’t have to share his report with Jake and Ayan while they were standing in front of the stasis tubes they discovered. He was still uneasy about where they were presenting their information, however.

  Stephanie showed Liara, Agameg and Finn to the Captain’s Mast Room aboard the Blessed Mission. It was a small room with a table that ran the length of the middle. There was a door on either side of the table with five seats on one side and two on the other. Finn, Agameg and Liara stood on the side with two chairs in front of Stephanie.

  The other side of the table with five seats was empty.

  “Are we in trouble?” Agameg asked. Finn was thankful he asked first, it was
the question on his mind.

  “No,” Stephanie answered. “But you’re going to witness the first sentence passed on anyone in the new Triton Fleet. That is, after you give your report and answer questions.”

  “This is the room for examining people’s actions then assigning punishment,” Agameg said.

  “Yes, under the laws we have to follow now that our crew size is going up to about three thousand, yes it is,” Stephanie answered.

  “But not all bad things happen in this room,” Liara said. “The Uniform Code of Justice they’re using from Freeground designates this room for a lot of official functions that require multiple Officers. Don’t worry, Agameg.”

  “This is one of the only rooms that will not be changing at all when the Blessed Mission’s modifications are complete. I’m glad to hear it will have a broader purpose,” Agameg said. “Friends call me Aggie,”

  “Okay,” Liara replied. “Thank you. My friends call me when they need a lawyer.”

  “I do not like this room,” Agameg said, visibly looking around at the plain white table, the white walls, and the white ceiling.

  “I thought that was funny,” Liara whispered to herself.

  “It was,” Stephanie told her.

  The door on the other side of the table opened to admit Captain Ayan Anderson, Captain Jacob Valent, Governor Carl Anderson, and Admiral Terry Ozark McPatrick. They took their seats quietly, there was just enough room for them. “I call this session to order, everything from this point will be recorded and sealed. Bring the accused in.”

  The door behind Finn opened and Ensign Rinett was escorted in. He was still in his red vacsuit uniform. Stephanie guided him to stand beside her at the rear of the room. “You will be silent until all reports are made, and all testimony is given. Do you understand.”

  “Yes, I do,” he said, visibly worried. “I don’t recognize this court, or this process, for the record.”

  “This isn’t a trial, it is a review and sentencing under new Triton Fleet Law,” Oz said. “You will be silent unless called upon to speak or you will be restrained for these proceedings.”

  “I don’t recognize this court,” he repeated. “But I’ll listen.”

  “As required by our allies, the British Alliance,” Governor Anderson announced. “We are to have a Uniform Code of Justice in order to operate as a fleet in an area where they are posting defensive forces. In response, we have declared that we are operating under the Freeground Military Uniform Code of Justice with limited revisions, so it has been renamed the Triton Fleet Military Uniform Code of Justice, a copy can be provided upon request. After reviewing your actions, this command has examined evidence that calls your conduct into question. The Admiral will now lead the proceedings for Triton Fleet.”

  “In six hours,” Rinett scoffed. “You were able to review my actions and all the evidence in six hours? This is just a show you’re putting on so you don’t look like tyrants. It won’t work, everyone will know anyway.”

  “You’ll speak when addressed,” Governor Anderson said firmly.

  Oz looked to Finn and said; “Please render the report you prepared.”

  It took Finn a moment to gather his thoughts, he was just getting over the fact that he had been drawn into some kind of justice proceeding focused on Rinette. “Chief Agameg and I examined the use logs, testing information and technology of the D-Drive, or Dimension Drive that was found installed on the Fallen Star. It took us five hours today.”

  “What did you find?” Ayan asked.

  “I’ve only confirmed what the engineering teams that analysed it before found. It is what it seems to be, a drive that is made to open a rift in space to a place between dimensions where limits of normal space-time are not the same. It does not transit a ship into another dimension entirely. The drive then creates an elongated energy field, similar to a wormhole, to a plotted destination where another rift opens. It draws energy from the space it is in so it cannot run out of power before it transits back to normal space. If it builds up a charge and cannot release it by creating a second rift so the ship can transit back to normal space-time, it will open a rift at the end of it’s emitter’s range so it can expend energy, but some energy from the other side can be let through in this case. The drive didn’t have a connection to external emitters last night, because someone enabled the vault’s seal between the D-Drive and the emitter, so it released the energy inside the ship.”

  “Did you find any evidence that Ensign Rinett tampered with any systems that would cause this?” Jake asked.

  “No, he was not aboard when the tampering took place,” Finn replied. He wanted to go into more detail, to tell them it was a Citadel Agent, but he remembered what his instructors in college told him about justice on a ship. Only answer the questions you are asked, and give the details that are requested of you.

  “Chief Agameg Price,” Jake addressed. “Are your findings different from Chief Billy Finn’s in any way?”

  “My report came to the same conclusions, and did not find the Ensign at fault,” Agameg replied. “I did create an accurate holographic model of how the drive works, however, but the Ensign didn’t have anything to do with that either.”

  “We see this Ensign cleared of any involvement with sabotaging the D-Drive,” Oz said. “Now, on to the report we read half an hour ago from Lieutenant Commander Liara Erron. Please, relay your report to this panel.”

  “Sir,” she started officially, sharply, only regarding Admiral McPatrick. “I reviewed the logs left by Ensign Rinett, Doctor Messana and the rest of her team aboard the Fallen Star. Ensign Rinett was a member of the team assigned to catalogue the experiments and research materials in storage aboard the Fallen Star’s vault lab. He notified Doctor Messana that he had discovered one of the original labs where framework technology was developed, and proposed that there could be a way to remove framework technology from a subject. A week later Doctor Messana moved aboard the Fallen Star and began research. Over the next four weeks her team worked on a software solution to trick a framework into regenerating the entire body, then removing itself as part of the process, materializing human flesh and bone as voids appeared in the body. Doctor Messana called Officer Alice Valent in for a routine physical and used the opportunity to make a copy of the hardware device containing the patterns for her current form, and the next form she’d evolve into when she was forced to materialize most of her body due to illness or injury. Ensign Rinett stole framework skeletons from a Un-Tam, a Haven Shore military base using a security pass issued by Doctor Messana. They began using them as test subjects, since the software they were developing worked in simulation. Six failed, as evidenced by the inert frameworks we discovered in the vault, but the last one was a success.”

  “Can you detail the successful experiment for us, Ensign Rinett?” asked Ayan. Her expression may as well have been cast from iron, there was no emotion to be found there.

  Ensign Rinett stepped forward, dragging his feet. “What do you mean?”

  “How did this process you develop work?” Governor Anderson asked.

  “Oh,” the Ensign said. “We transplanted Alice’s data into a perfect copy of the hardware that we scanned in her, installed it into the framework platform, or skeleton, as most people call it. Then we put it in the stasis tube and activate it, making sure that the subject is perfectly sedated. Then we start the software patch-“

  “You are missing something!” Jacob Valent shouted, pounding the table. Ensign Rinett jerked backwards. Liana and Finn flinched as well. Ayan put her hand on his shoulder and he settled back in his seat.

  “The Lieutenant Commander’s report gives us one more detail before your software was installed,” Oz said. “Tell us what that is please.”

  “We installed a scan of Alice Valent’s memories,” he said quietly. “But we made sure the subjects never woke up, we needed that for proper testing, to make sure that the entire personality was transferred and that the subject didn’t suffer
any loss through the process,” he added in a rush.

  “Go on,” Governor Anderson said.

  “We made sure the memories were intact, that she was a match for Alice in every way,” Ensign Rinett said. “Then we applied Doctor Messana’s software and sent a false injury message to the framework itself so it would begin regeneration. She’s right, the first six were failures, and we euthanized all of them, they never woke up. They never knew they existed. The last one was a success. She was perfectly human, and we were surprised to see that even the change in DNA went through without any problems. As the original Alice we made, she had the parentage of an unknown female donor and Jacob Valent. She evolved, her DNA was exactly as if she were the daughter of Jacob Valent and Ayan Anderson. Doctor Messana said that it was built into the imprint, like a part of the subconscious’ wishful thinking.”

  “And three days ago, Messana woke her up,” Ayan said. “Were those the records you were trying to erase?”

  “I never tried to erase records,” Ensign Rinett said, shaking his head slowly.

  “Lieutenant Commander Vega?” Jake addressed, stone faced again.

  “I witnessed the Ensign trying to enter the vault ahead of us, and later trying to overload a battery so it would emit an electromagnetic pulse. I can only guess that he was trying to damage data inside the vault, even though I’m told that the damage that could do would have been minimal since most systems in the Fallen Star are hardened against electromagnetic interference.”

  “You cannot definitively state that this Ensign tried to destroy evidence?” Governor Anderson asked.

  “I cannot. I can testify to him attempting to enter a secured space, and that he attempted to improvise an explosive device, that is all,” Stephanie replied.

  “The explosive charge is serious enough,” Oz said. “Lieutenant Commander Erron, were you able to determine if the Ensign had anything to do with the death of Alice Valent’s copy?”

  “From surveillance footage and research reports that were Doctor Messana’s research team’s files, I determined that he did not have anything to do with her death,” Liara answered. She spoke even more stiffly during the rest of her statement. “Their research subject was awake for thirty three minutes before she objected to being confined to the lab and they had to sedate her. She believed that she was Alice Valent. She wanted to see Captain Valent, and Captain Anderson. They held her down, sedated her, and then put her back into stasis after a thorough examination. She was killed when the D-Drive overloaded. My findings were confirmed by Chief Agameg Price.”