“Which I would ace even without framework tech,” Alice said proudly. “Every time this thing rolls me back to a soft girl, I’ve been able to get all muscly and fit. I bet it’s no different when you’re just human.”
“I’ll tell you in a few months,” Jake said.
“Oh, right, sorry,” she replied.
“It’s okay. I started off right, let’s see if I can keep fit, or fall to flab in that Captain’s chair.”
“You’d better not. So, what’s the point of this training?” Alice asked.
“Some of our best officers are staying behind to train a new crop. Most of them are young, some as young as sixteen, but mature enough to attend. The next voyage the Triton and the Revenge take is going to be hard, because we have to train our people to work together. Many of our officers were trained by completely different military organizations, and even though we’ve adopted one uniform set of rules, most people won’t know them by the time we set out. Everyone is going to be learning at the same time, as fast as they can, and the commanders are going to have to prevent disaster on a daily basis because of all those differences. What we want going forward are graduating classes of Officers who know the rules, know how they are to be enforced, who can fight, and take command responsibly. You already know so much from Ranger training, and have been tested so many times that you’ve already qualified. The six months you spend in fast track training will count towards a three year term of service with Freeground Fleet.”
“So I’ll be in the fleet, training for command?” Alice said.
“Yes, and your performance in all respects determines your placement when you graduate. That’s something your framework technology can’t help with, not really. Sure, physical fitness won’t be much of an issue, but most of the factors in your placement are mental, so you’re going to have to work your brain.”
“There will be sims, right?” Alice asked hopefully.
“So many sims,” Jake replied. “But everything will be geared towards you and your class learning essential command skills. We want you to graduate and be better officers than most of the people on our ships. There’s going to be secondary training too, like a real Academy, but what you do after you graduate the primary Officer Program will be your choice,” Jake said, hesitating a moment before continuing. “Under the new uniform code, you’ll be considered an adult at that point. You’ll get the Clever Dream and Lewis back if he’s not committed to an important mission, and I won’t be able to tell you what to do unless you’re under my command.”
“Seriously?” Alice asked, all the moroseness replaced with excitement.
“Yes, but it won’t be easy. The fast track does in six months what nine months of training is designed to do, so there won’t be a lot of breaks. You’ll have to eat, sleep, and breathe Fleet, go to every therapy session. If any problems come up, you have to report them right away and do exactly what your instructors, commanders and therapists tell you to do.”
“I guess I’m selling my soul to the Fleet for a while at least. Wait, did you say something about three years?” she asked.
“Yes. By entering, you agree to a three year term of service,” Jake replied.
She thought for a moment, and he wasn’t surprised when she said. “Sign me up, but, there won’t be room for all of us when we graduate, it sounds like a big program.”
He stopped, turned towards her and shook his head. “No,” he said. “Only the best will be attending. The first class is capped at ninety, and the testing will require they prove that they are suited for a command position as an officer already. The test is in one week. You’ll have to learn the uniform code, look over your materials from the Rangers, and refresh on your pilot procedure. I’ve already sent a message to Lacey, she’s willing to help.”
“Lacey?” Alice asked.
“She’s agreed to help you with learning the law component of the test,” Jake said. “You have to pass it, or you skip the fast track class, who will graduate in six months instead of nine, and start with the normal entrants who get recommended for the next session in two months. They’ll be in the course for nine months, no fast tracking again for at least a year.”
“So, I could be an officer on a ship in six months?” Alice asked.
He couldn’t help but smile at the excitement. “Yes, or you could continue with the Rangers, take their Officer Program, or take a civilian position. I mean, it’s nice here,” Jake said, gesturing to the tropical jungle threatening to take the path back.
“Triton Fleet, I’ll study, take the tests, and you’ll see me on your bridge in six months,” she said.
“Oh, you think you’ll place that high?” Jake teased. “Ambitious, you’re going to have to work hard.”
“Not a problem,” Alice said. Resuming the walk to the port buildings, dragging Jake’s hand behind her.
Chapter 35
Lorander
Jake set the new Triton Fleet gunship down at the mouth of a large cave unevenly, cringing as the ship wobbled on its landing gear before adjusting and settling. “Any landing you can walk away from…” he said to himself as he climbed out of the cockpit seat and popped the top hatch open. He was still thinking of the tearful parting he’d had with his daughter.
Everything was fine from the path to the landing pad that had been cordoned off for Triton Fleet combat vessels. As soon as she saw the gunship he’d borrowed to get to his next destination, she began tearing up. She had no arguments for him, only questions. When did he expect to return? How hard did the mission look? Would his crew be ready? It all concluded in a tearful; “I’m going to miss you so much, Dad.”
He’d never felt a pang like that, even though he was sure he loved his daughter when he was still a framework. Leaving her behind never drove him near tears. “I’ll miss you too,” he told her. “Just be good to yourself. I’ll contact you when I can.”
He made an effort to focus on the moment. He was about to meet a Lorander representative. They didn’t tell him to come unarmed, or give him a list of precautions or protocols. They only told him to arrive alone and tell no one of the location of their meeting.
He slid down the front of the fighter and dropped onto his feet, something he wouldn’t have tried only three days before. Jogging with Ayan in the mornings was a great way to spend time with her, but more importantly it was the second-to-last phase of his rehabilitation.
He couldn’t help but think of Doctor Messana. He was furious with her, but she didn’t deserve to die the way she did. Someone in Citadel knew what was being done on that ship, possibly with the dimension drive, possibly with another experiment like the one Messana was running, and they wanted it to stop. Citadel was not an organization that planned its operations poorly. Whatever they intended to do aboard the Fallen Star was already done. Attacking Stephanie was the Citadel Operative’s method of committing suicide. Jake was fairly sure they could have found a way to escape if they wanted to, and killing one of his officers was not the most effective way to damage Triton Fleet.
With the operative from Citadel gone, they would have no more answers. All they were left with was that ship, and the experiments that led Messana to break the trust of her Captain and one of her patients. There were people investigating whether or not the cure for framework technology was really as safe as the logs showed. If Messana developed most of that solution, he owed her thanks, but he’d never forgive her for breaking ethical boundaries.
He’d seen the footage of the copy of his daughter awake, thinking that she was the real Alice, and questioning the medical technicians for a long time before trying to leave. She had been transformed into a late teens human girl who really did look like a split between himself and Ayan. Watching her scream for him, try to get to any communicator, then get overpowered was hard. Seeing her suspended in a stasis tube, dead, haunted him. His daughter got her wish, she could grow out of her teen years into a woman, mature, remember and feel like any human, only it was a duplicate, and
she died when everyone else on the Fallen Star did. He was happy the ship was being dismantled, most of the experiments carefully catalogued and stored.
Ayan took the sight of a girl who looked like her and Jake in the log footage just as hard. The revelation that Alice cared for her so much that she wanted to be linked to her through DNA was a beautiful thing, but the ruthless experimentation and testing with a duplicate was horrific. Ayan could not look at the failed versions of Alice in the tubes, or the corpse that represented a complete success. That young woman would have been a daughter to her if she survived and was rescued, Jake knew. That may have caused serious drama with Alice, but there was also a chance that the pair would see each other as twins eventually. The timing of the monument ceremony was perfect. Ayan and Jake had an opportunity to mourn that loss in secret, right in front of everyone.
Jake’s attention was called back to the present, as he took in the view from the mouth of the cave. He was still on Tamber, but on the opposite side from Haven Shore. Sometimes he forgot that Tamber was so large, less than two percent smaller than Earth, he was told. Not that it was a good comparison. He’d never been to Earth, and knew little about it. The light brown dust at his feet matched the flat lands that stretched out from the cave entrance for as far as the eye could see. Failed terraforming had coated the surface with a crust, and the sun baked it solid. The cave behind him was an anomaly at the base of a mountain. His scans revealed that there was a spring inside with clean water.
“Captain Jacob Valent,” said a calm, pleasant voice. “I am honoured to meet the commander, and intrigued by the man. I am Oru.”
Jake dusted off his lightly armoured vacsuit and tugged his black long coat straight. Ayan had another one made, since the old design didn’t fit. He walked into the cave, minding his step, and got a good look at the man he had come to meet. He was only a little shorter, and wore a white uniform with gold trim. “You look military,” Jake said as he shook the man’s hand. His grip was firm.
“I am, but not the same way you are. You go to fight a war, I will be retreating from it,” Oru said. “I sense that you’re a man who appreciates truth and brevity, so I won’t delay in telling you that Lorander is leaving the galaxy.”
“So you see us losing?” Jake asked, unable to be anything but calm in the placid space, under the influence of Oru’s mood. There was a still blue pool inside the cave, illuminated by unseen lights under the water.
“No, I can’t predict that. Even though there are people in my society that believe they can, I know the future is usually uncertain. We all see the coming of an all-consuming war. We can’t afford it. There aren’t enough of us in this galaxy to make enough of a difference, so we are retreating to a place we have a firm grasp on, where our existence will not be contested.”
“Where?”
Oru smiled at Jake. “You might find out someday. Survive this first, then we’ll see,” he took a deep breath and let it out in a rush before continuing. “But you come for help.”
“Yes,” Jake said. “We need to finish the research on something we found.”
“The dimension drive,” Oru said. “Something we’ve been trying to master for centuries. The one you are installing in your ship will work, but it’s still dangerous because you do not understand it. We barely understood the scans we took when the Fallen Star arrived in orbit. Then we realized, the Order of Eden stole that technology from the Edxians. That is their preferred mode of travel between stars. Once we discovered the origin of the technology, we were able to adapt it, and we have five working dimension drives, all of which have been tested.”
“They work?” Jake asked. “You were able to build them from scratch, and they work?”
“They do, all of them. We even tried weapon enabling one because we wanted to know why there was no record of an Edxi ship doing that very thing. We discovered what your scientists will soon find out from the records on the Fallen Star. Opening a single rift in dimensional space allows for random exotic radiation, most of which is difficult to measure or detect, to pass into our space. Much of it is not harmful, but there are types that kill organic life instantly, some will melt your hardest metals. The effect is unpredictable, and the dimension drives are not made to control rifts that way. They are made to open a rift, create a tunnel through the space between dimensions like a wormhole, and open another rift at the other end when your ship arrives. A balancing reflex in nature forces both rifts to close within seconds of a ship passing through, so no single rift is open for long. Your vessel is protected by the wormhole tunnel, which has a powerful directionality since natural laws demand the rifts close, and that your ship does not exist outside of its dimension. The forces that would act on a ship without that tunnel are destructive beyond anything we know.”
“So weaponizing the dimension drive is suicide,” Jake said, not at all disappointed. “But is it faster?”
“It is an invisible means of travel,” Oru said. “And it is so much faster that Lorander owes you its thanks. But, you know the dimension drive aboard the Triton will never work.”
“I didn’t until now,” Jake replied.
Oru laughed and sat down on the edge of the pool. “I think we would enjoy each other’s company, Captain Valent. We’ve been watching the dimension drive’s construction, and the copy aboard the Triton is missing a few things. It’s also being made in such a way that no one will ever be able to configure it properly. We’ll give you all the information you need to make dimension drives, and to fix the Triton’s system. There is one condition.”
“Name it,” Jake replied. The advantage they were being given was colossal. He was almost afraid to tell Ayan that he’d gotten as much help from Lorander as she did.
“Protect the technology, even from allies. The dimension drive has the potential to change the shape of the galaxy, and humanity on the whole is not ready. Besides, you should maintain this tactical advantage for Haven Shore for as long as you can. The destruction of Kambis was a blow not even we expected. Without this technology, Tamber will be unable to get supplies to and from trading partners fast enough to survive.”
“I can’t argue with that,” Jake said. “So, you knew I was coming here to ask for your help with this, and you just offer it freely,” Jake said.
“We want Haven Shore and Triton Fleet to have the best chance possible in the coming century. I would love to return some day and see this arid landscape lush with life. Tamber has so much potential, and Haven Shore has had a surprisingly good start, even though Ayan does not see it that way. I’m told she hides many regrets, and feels disappointed in her work so far. That is something you can help her with.”
“I didn’t know our relationship was a large concern for Lorander,” Jake said.
“It is for a few of our leaders, the ones who are more interested in watching than doing. I’m just passing some advice along. I’m more interested in the overall picture here in the Rega Gain system. The odds are against your people, but it is possible that this planet could become a golden civilization. Until I met you, I didn’t believe it, but now I know. You are not the war machine you once were, you are human, and better for it.”
Jake didn’t normally like being analysed, but Oru was only confirming what he already felt. “What else can you give us that will help?”
“We’ve already augmented several changes you were making to your new ship, working through the Solar Forge. Our specialists are certain that Agameg and Finn suspect that there are Lorander modifications to the ship, so we’re not worried about them understanding the systems. If they return from the mission you’re going on, they will have learned enough about the technology to apply it to designs the Solar Forge works from in the future. There is a lot to learn from the Solar Forge, protect it well.”
“I have a daughter,” Jake started, watching Oru’s reaction carefully.
“Have your medical staff review the experiments,” Oru said. “Don’t let that work go to waste, Doctor Mess
ana was willing to sacrifice her career to find a cure.”
“You really were watching everything here,” Jake said.
“That is how we learn these days,” Oru replied. “But it wasn’t always that way.”
“Lorander is more than a Corporation,” Jake said, sure that their meeting would end on that question.
“Why are the most important questions so seldom asked?” Oru asked no one in partucular, looking out to the water. “We are a different evolutionary branch of humanity. Hundreds of years ago, Lorander Corporation, a human exploration company, discovered the home world of my people, and discovered humanoid life that almost completely matched their own. The difference was an extra ten or so thousand years of evolution, and my ancestors were intrigued by your culture.
There were terrible cultural conflicts when Lorander Corporation ships began showing up in number. So many of my people wanted to embrace the vigorous lifestyle of humanity, but there were others who didn’t believe in the culture. They saw a tendency towards conflict stemming from ideas of religion and territory that we had left behind many generations before. The melding of cultures took a century, but eventually my people began exploring our small corner of the universe, because a culture of curiosity was the result of that turbulent time. People think we are powerful because we have advanced weaponry, but the few warriors in my culture prize protection and precision over brute force. They sent me because I have the dubious honour of being a warrior in a society of scientists and explorers. My entire career has been one of finding ways to protect my people while doing as little harm as possible to the people who would steal from us, or try to destroy us. I’m going off track, answering questions that are drifting through your mind instead of addressing your central curiosity.”
Jake nodded, that was exactly what was happening.
“I’m not used to being able to read a mind,” Oru told him. “I’m getting a great deal of assistance. Back to your central question. Lorander Corporation is a label our ships and our people wear when we’re near the races of this galaxy. We bring back wonders from the universe and trade for what we need, and we offer your people opportunities to join us so our cultural evolution can continue at a human pace. The best thing about this is that we look just like you, so gaining your trust is relatively easy. The exchange between cultures is easy now that we’ve been at it for so long too.”
Warpath Page 28