by Damon Alan
“The Sur’batti’s don’t seem to care either way. Apparently it’s not uncommon for adept bondings to produce ungifted children. The genes must come together in a very specific way.”
“Have you isolated the genetics involved?”
“No.” Peter sighed. “I think it’s a myriad of sequence chains. Dozens, if not more.”
“When do you go back in time?”
He stared at her stunned again. He really didn’t deal well with abrupt topic changes.
“If you’re going to be the progenitor of the adept race, you can’t start today, can you?” she asked to put him back at ease. “Therefore you have to go back in time, just like the packages that came to you did.” Her thinking was unassailable, surely he didn’t believe she was too stupid to make this simple connection.
He lowered his face into his hands.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But your logic is sound. Clearly, at some point, I and Eris time travel.”
“Do you know to when?” she asked.
“Not long after the AI wars.”
“Why does that bother you so much?” she queried, once again pushing him a little harder, trying to get him dead center in the zone where he’d want to unburden his concerns. And this time it worked. The floodgates opened. Maybe he’d say something she could use to help him.
“Well, stars, I don’t know. Maybe because everyone I love is here in this time, including Eris. At least I know she goes with me. Then I’m going to go back in time to a period where FTL travel was just becoming common. We’ll spend the rest of our lives in that primitive era, all the while knowing that I know of a means to travel instantaneously anywhere in the universe. Let’s not even get into the fact that I’m then going to build a ship that is not only advanced for that time period, it’s advanced for today. And that ship will not just carry, but be an unshackled AI, in a time period where they take the AI rules even more serious than we do now, if that’s possible. And the mindwipe doesn’t exist yet, so they just shoot you if the history books are to be believed.”
He sighed deeply when he finished.
“That’s quite the list of worries,” Thea agreed. “If I can help you, or if any of the resources of my office can help, let me know. They’re at your disposal.”
“Thanks,” Peter said, clearly underwhelmed by her aid.
“I don’t blame you for not thinking I have your back. It’s not much, what I can offer you, except my ear and a rational mind to brainstorm with you. But you do have all that off your chest,” she said. “I’d like to have this meeting every week if you don’t mind, so you can bounce your concerns off me.”
“How will that help?” he asked.
“Well, for one, I’m a fleet doctor, so I know some human psychology. You’ll be more at ease, so your work for New Korvand will be up to par,” she replied. “On top of that, it takes my mind off what Sarah Dayson is doing.”
“I’m guessing you don’t want to talk about that.”
She shook her head. “No. No I don’t. I don’t know anything you don’t know anyway. In fact, I’m pretty sure she trusts you a lot more than me. But we can talk about your issues, because you’re important to this community. We owe you a lot.”
“I’d like that,” he decided. “I can’t talk to Eris, other than to comfort each other as best we can, because she’s as freaked out as I am.” He laughed. “In fact, she’s the one that dug up the mindwipe information.”
“Yikes,” Thea responded. “If you like, bring her too. I’m sure this is hard on you both. I can help you with the tools to forge steel into your own relationship because of it.”
“I’ll mention it to her.”
“It’s a date then. Same time, Sixday, every week.”
He stood up. “I should get to work. I’ll see you soon.”
She watched as he left. She spent the next ten minutes pondering if he felt better or worse when he departed and congratulating herself for getting him to agree to a weekly meeting.
If he was going to leave this time for the past, she wanted to send him off in the right state of mind.
Chapter 9 - Underway
11 Seppet 15332
The Sheffaris was docked at Tandella Station. Two small cargo shuttles ferried the last bit of cargo to the small vessel. Two hundred missiles. Fragile missiles with warheads that would make anyone think twice about the threat the Sheffaris presented if the warhead types became known.
The ship had his defensive capabilities enhanced too. Radar absorbing paint and contours that were radar scattering as well as light diffusing wherever possible. The ECM capabilities of the vessel were extremely powerful for a destroyer class ship. It would be very hard to detect at any serious range, and might make a closer opponent unsure about exactly what they were up against.
He was a smart little machine, and Sarah Dayson was proud. One hundred and ten meters long with a crew of seventy-eight, it took her back to her first command, the Teplo.
Her plan was to attack Hamor months ago, but Emille’s pregnant state prevented that and gave Sarah time for some refits. While the Hive probably spread during that lost time, the outcome shouldn’t be affected in the long run.
She hoped.
The next decade or two would be spent destroying the Hive star systems one by one.
She’d commandeered the first of the new antimatter missiles being produced at Tandella purely for the protection of her ship. Heinrich might not be happy since the Stennis was also modified to handle them, but it paid to be the admiral in charge. Two launchers sat at the furthest extension of the grappler motor tracks on both sides of the destroyer, each carrying fifty of the weapons.
The other one hundred were in internal stores.
The launchers could be reloaded manually, which meant an EVA, but it was good to have more ammunition than needed than not enough. As for the reloading, that was something that could only be done between battles, but Sarah opted to carry the spares regardless.
The negative, of course, was that if one missile suffered a containment breach, nobody would even find the molecular components of the Sheffaris. It would just be gone.
She wouldn’t spend her time thinking along those lines.
The ship was also carrying extra stores. High quality food, entertainment, and copies of every holovid library in the fleet. If Sarah chose to do so, staying in space for a year would be easy to do without discomfort for the crew, other than the ship was too small to have a habitation ring. It did have a zero G exercise area, with a trio of treadmills and a resistance muscle trainer.
She had no intention of staying away more than a few months, but what the Sheffaris was about to do had never been done before. Risks had to be mitigated, and opportunities that might arise had to be accommodated.
She was going into the heart of enemy territory, and hitting them hard. When the little destroyer appeared in Hive space, he could be sitting a hundred kilometers away from a Hive battlecruiser, and that was reason enough for the missiles.
Anything was possible.
She rubbed her hand over her gravcouch and the triad of control panels that accompanied it. The Sheffaris had a governor on the grapplers that prevented them from boosting the ship at more than 6Gs, but she had a kill switch for that limitation at her station. Due to her ages old neck injuries she wasn’t supposed to exceed that rate of acceleration, but she wasn’t about to let the crew die if her life alone was the price to save them.
The ELINT destroyer could pull 18Gs if unleashed. That might make all the difference.
“How long until loaded, Mr. Algiss?” Captain Harmeen asked, interrupting her reverie.
“Ten minutes, sir.”
Harmeen turned and looked at Sarah.
She nodded, satisfying his need for affirmation.
He’d be needy for a while. Command never sat easy with anyone for their first battle. Which was fine, she’d hold his hand for a mission or two. She considered the effort to be well worth it. Tra
ining another commander to her standards was an opportunity, and the reality was she’d be in charge.
Commander Harmeen knew that, and so did she, but it didn’t matter to either one of them. She would say nothing unless he put the ship or crew at risk. She expected him to be the opposite of needlessly risky, however. Harmeen had always possessed both the calm demeanor and presence that command needed.
“Admiral, we can depart on your order as soon as the last load is aboard,” Seto reminded her. “Mister Algiss and Emille have the first jump point plotted.”
“Very well,” Sarah replied. “Captain Harmeen, as soon as the cargo bay loading doors are closed, the shuttles from Tandella are away, and you are satisfied with the state of your vessel, take us to the first point.”
“Aye, Admiral,” Harmeen answered. “You heard her, Mister Algiss.”
In these first moments, the bridge flowed as if they’d worked together for a long time. Indeed, most had. It was one heck of a crew, handpicked by Sarah herself.
“Shuttle is away, munitions are stored,” Seto said a few minutes later. “Station umbilicals detached.”
“Let them know we’re leaving,” Harmeen ordered.
“Tandella Station, this is Sheffaris,” Seto transmitted. “We are departing the station at this time.”
“Roger, Sheffaris. Good hunting. And thank Admiral Dayson once again for us.”
“Will do. Sheffaris out.”
Sarah blushed. She had nothing to do with the rescue of Tandella, that was all Heinrich and Kuo. Sometimes the accolades of accomplishment go to the top even if the top does none of the work. Same for the responsibility for failure. Still, Sarah didn’t like getting credit. Nothing the Seventh Fleet did was about credit.
“I’ll send the kudos on to Captain Heinrich, sir,” Seto said, looking up at the Admiral.
“You read my mind, Mister Seto.”
“Mister Algiss,” Harmeen said, his voice slightly elevated. “Take us to the first jump point.”
“Adept Emille, bridge,” Algiss said into his mic, relaying the message to Alarin and Emille’s observation deck. “We’re ready to transfer. On my mark. Three… two… one… mark.”
The tapestry vanished, replaced by pinpoints of stars.
“Transfer complete,” Algiss reported.
Captain Harmeen nodded his understanding at the Ensign. “Let Emille Sur’batti rest, Mister Algiss. Schedule the next jump for two hours.”
“I’ll be in my quarters,” Sarah said as she unstrapped from her station. “If I’m not back five minutes before the jump, remind me.”
“Will do, sir,” Seto replied.
Chapter 10 - Gaia’s Offer
11 Seppet 15332
Peter sat across the table from Edolhirr, and a translator AI sat on the table between them. It was the first time the elder ruler of Antecar had visited Jerna City, and for an important reason. Two important reasons.
A young lady walked into the room and placed a tray of refreshments on the table. A bottle of the best Zeffulti wine in the city, a couple of sodas, a plate of brownies, and smoked caviar from the nearby seas were among the choices today, Edolhirr was a head of state after all. Today he’d get to indulge himself with the best Jerna City had to offer.
The Antecaran master spoke, and the AI translated. “Why is that drink bubbling?”
“Try it,” Peter said. “It’s called soda.”
“Thoda?” the adept said as he picked it up. He cautiously took a sip. “It burns my nose if I breathe the vapors in.”
“Part of the sensation,” Peter assured him.
“It’s fun. Like a child’s drink,” Edolhirr said, putting the glass down.
“I can get you—”
“No, I will drink this. We all have much to learn from a child’s joy for life.” He took another sip. “I enjoyed your flying ship, by the way, seeing my world from above is not something I’d expected in my lifetime, especially places so far from home.” He looked at the soda. “Another unexpected joy. They’re coming fast these days, with the arrival of my granddaughter among other things.”
“Congratulations,” Peter said. “Your daughter is very important, and a friend of mine.”
“She is a handful, and a great source of pride for me,” Edolhirr said. “Her and Alarin are instrumental in the cohesion between our peoples, and part of why I agreed to meet you here.”
“I’m glad you came,” Peter responded. “We want you to see everything we are, and that means, to some degree, how we live.”
“I’m glad as well,” the statesman responded. “So to business. I’d like very much to know the second reason you brought me here. I know the first, the unification of Zeffult and Antecar. The second is a mystery.”
Peter smiled. The second reason was another gift to the adepts, far better than soda or air travel.
“We can hash out the details of the unification over the next few days. The second reason is even more important in my mind,” Peter said.
“Oh?”
It was strange to think that the genes in Edolhirr that made him an adept somehow originated from the union of himself and Eris. And that Edolhirr was therefore his distant descendant. Now was not the time to talk about that, however. Edolhirr already knew the details, thanks to Emille.
“Gaia has asked that we resettle ten thousand adepts from this world onto another to ensure the continuation of the adepts through time,” Peter said after deciding to just lay it out.
Edolhirr stared at him for a while, occasionally taking a bite from a brownie he’d picked up. The man finally spoke.
“This is delicious.”
Peter’s eyes opened a bit wider, he was sure. That wasn’t the answer he’d expected. “I… I’m really glad you’re enjoying it. I can have a supply sent home with you to share with your wife and family.”
“I would like that,” Edolhirr confirmed.
“What about the adepts?”
“What about them?”
“Gaia needs ten thousand to accompany her to a new home.”
“Why?”
“I suppose to ensure the survival of the adepts in the event of a Hive attack on Refuge.”
“How does that involve me?” the old man asked Peter.
What? How did it not involve him would be a better question. “You’re the leader of Antecar, the most powerful nation state on the continent of Segat. I assumed—”
“You assumed I’d just round up ten thousand of my adepts and send them off?”
Peter didn’t like the sound of those words. It sounded a lot like what he needed was exactly what Edolhirr wasn’t going to do. “Something like that,” he responded. “I was hoping for your help, at the very least.”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, Peter Corriea, but I can’t just make adepts appear for you. I don’t tell my people where to live. And there aren’t many more than ten thousand adepts in Antecar. If I were to have them do as you wish, my nation would be defenseless from the others to the north that want our prosperity. Zeffult probably doesn’t even have ten thousand, not since Merik’s rule of terror.”
Peter closed his eyes in a moment of self recrimination. Why hadn’t he checked into that? Refuge was a big world, and despite there being two million adepts, there was a lot of territory for them to cover. “Sir, I’d like to ensure the survival of your people. That means I need the adepts to board the Gaia, then, when the AI is ready for them, colonize a new world, starting from scratch. How do you propose I get that done?”
“Maybe you could ask around?” the old man retorted, then laughed. “Look, you’ll probably get ten thousand adepts to join you. But not from any one nation, and certainly not by ordering them to do so. I will personally try to get five hundred from Antecar and Zeffult, I’d like my nation to be lead in the settling of a new world. But those adepts need to be willing. I can get the word out to other leaders on Segat, and a few overseas. Word will then spread on their continents.”
“You thi
nk that will get the numbers Gaia needs?”
“Are you taking adepts only?” Edolhirr asked. “Because no nation is going to want to be unrepresented, once they find out Antecar, and probably Zeffult, have embraced your quest in full.”
“Gaia says only adepts,” Peter confirmed.
“Then I can only say maybe.” Edolhirr grabbed another brownie. “There are a lot of adepts, and will enough of them want to go someplace entirely new and start life from scratch? I don’t know, but if they do, will you be arranging transportation for these adept volunteers? Or will they need to get on ships to Antecar and assemble there?”
“We will send VTOL shuttles to pick them up.” Peter noticed the confused look on Edolhirr’s face. “Yes, we’ll transport them. It will give them their first experience with the sort of technology they’ll be around.”
“Very well,” Edolhirr said, pushing the last bit of a brownie into his mouth. “That matter is settled. Now on to the matter of unification.”
Peter wasn’t sure it was settled. He didn’t have any sort of concrete promises that would get him the ten thousand. But he let it ride. Edolhirr wasn’t apparently going to get very excited about anything, other than soda and brownies, including improving the survival chances for the adepts.
Was that a function of old age? Or did the Master Adept genuinely feel like it wasn’t as important as Peter did?
“Yes, sir.” Peter responded to the First Adept. “On to unification.”
Chapter 11 - Witness
The excavators on the small moon with the now transient signal took far longer than Bn74x00 had hoped they would to retrieve the object from the crevice. Part way through the process it determined the signal to be coming from a TY-4 class attack ship, although the Original insisted on the use of the human term for them.
Grapplers.
When 00 had learned of the nature of the goal, and how damaged the grappler was, it’d sent a power unit to try and boost the colony inhabiting the small ship. The power unit had arrived, connecting as the grappler cleared the ravine. The recovery operation secured the cargo, then propelled the salvaged unit toward 00’s dreadnought using clamp tugs.