The Meridian Ascent (Rho Agenda Assimilation Book 3)

by Richard Phillips

  Raul debated not activating VJ. Then he decided that the help she could offer far outweighed any embarrassment he felt at this indignity. But due to their power restrictions, she would have to remain in a holographic state until they completed the repairs to the primary MDS.

  When her ghostly image with the spiked blond hair and black-and-purple uniform materialized before him, he saw her blue eyes widen in disbelief.

  “What the hell have you done to yourself?”

  Raul responded, despite knowing that the neural network had already provided her the answer.

  “What I had to. And now I’m going to let you cut on me.”

  He transferred the mental imagery of what he needed done, and this time VJ merely nodded. Raul allowed her to manipulate the stasis field to undress him, and then he lay back on the cold floor. His attempt at a smile failed miserably as he found himself grinding his teeth. Despite the improvements he had made to the nanite formula, this next part was going to hurt.

  VJ worked on Raul with all the clinical speed and precision that the neural net and stasis scalpels could manage. To Raul’s credit, he never screamed, although gasps of pain escaped his lips. She could feel his pain through their mental connection and worked, as best she could, to minimize Raul’s discomfort. Sadly, her efforts in this regard were insufficient.

  VJ detected a quiver that had somehow worked its way into her fingers. How could she let that happen when Raul was relying on her steady hands? The anger that thought triggered helped renew her focus.

  Finishing up, she rose to look down at her captain, watching as the nanites finished closing and healing the wound in his abdomen. As the look of horror on his handsome face faded, she could feel his dread at the thought that he would have to undergo a similar procedure when they finally got around to putting him back together again.

  When Raul managed to speak, it was only a single word, but one that brought a smile to her lips.

  “Ouch.”

  “Good to see you haven’t lost your sense of humor, Captain.”

  “That’s debatable.”

  Manipulating the stasis field, VJ cleaned up the bloody mess and then dressed Raul. This time she folded his empty pants legs up and secured them as a pad for him to sit on. With considerable effort, he pulled himself up into a seated position.

  He looked up at her. “Reconfigure the mini-MDS to power the molecular assembler and to produce the raw materials the assembler will need to grow our new part. Then turn off the stasis field generator. We’ll need every joule of energy we can save.”

  “May I ask what you plan on doing in the meantime?”

  “I’ll sit here and feed frozen fish cubes into the matter ingester every few minutes.”

  “That’s going to be a lengthy process.”

  “Well,” he said with a slow smile, “I’ve got you to keep me company.”

  The rush of emotion that swept through her didn’t feel simulated. Then again, what did she know about that?

  CHAPTER 11

  MERIDIAN ASCENT, DEEP SPACE

  MA Day 85

  VJ’s ghostly form solidified before Raul’s eyes, a happy smile on her glistening lips.

  “The primary matter disrupter-synthesizer is back on line,” she said.

  “Thank God.”

  “Stasis field generator fully operational. Restoring full life support throughout the ship.”

  Raul gave the mental command that lifted him from the floor and floated him to his normal captain’s position. He did not bother to create a stasis chair. He’d enjoyed plenty of sitting time over the last two weeks. A shiver passed through his body, but as he felt the ambient temperature rise to a comfortable level, he began to feel like himself again.

  When Jennifer and Dgarra entered the command bay, Raul turned to greet them. “Welcome back, my sleeping beauties.”

  “My God!” said Jennifer. “What happened to your legs?”

  “Long story. It’s recorded in the log.”

  “Sleeping beauties?” asked Dgarra. The scowl on his already-intimidating features could have been frightening, but today it made Raul laugh.

  “Old Earth story,” said Jennifer. “It’s not an insult.”

  Raul saw Dgarra relax and floated over to place a hand on his shoulder. “Captain or not, I’m not foolish enough to intentionally insult you.”

  Dgarra inclined his head and then moved to take up his seat.

  “VJ, what’s our situation?” Raul asked as Jennifer also sat down.

  “Were we to exit subspace, we would currently be 375,343 miles away from Scion.”

  “That’s just outside its outer moon’s orbit,” said Dgarra. “We could cloak the ship and perform a worm-fiber scan to get an update on what’s happened since we launched our attack.”

  “I don’t like that idea,” said VJ. “Even if the Kasari gateway is shut down, the robotic fast-attack ships are still in that system, and they will try to destroy the Meridian.”

  “Only if they can find us,” said Dgarra.

  “They’ll detect the worm fibers,” said VJ.

  “Yes, but they will not be able to pinpoint our location,” said Dgarra.

  “I agree with Dgarra,” said Jennifer.

  “Shocker,” said VJ.

  “We’ve taken the risk to launch the free-will virus,” Jennifer said. “It would be crazy not to try to see its effect. We can take a quick look, then transition back into subspace and get the hell out of the Scion system.”

  Raul held up a hand, bringing the argument to an end. “I also want to see whether the free-will virus worked. But first let’s make sure this ship is back to a hundred percent. That includes patching the hull. And I’m going to have to undergo some repairs myself. Once that’s done, we’ll pop out of subspace and take a peek. After that, no matter what we see, we’re out of here and headed for Earth.”

  The others, with the exception of Dgarra, nodded their heads. But despite the look on the Koranthian’s face, Raul believed that Dgarra would follow orders.

  For all their sakes, he hoped that was true.

  Jennifer barely felt their transition out of subspace. It was like walking through a wall of mist, nothing substantial, but what lay on the far side often surprised.

  In this case, what they found was a group of three of the Kasari fast-attack craft in a ragged formation near Scion’s farthest moon.

  “Crap!” said Raul. “Dgarra, did they detect us before we cloaked?”

  Dgarra’s voice held the battlefield calm that Jennifer had come to know so well during the months she fought by his side.

  “There is no indication of a scan of any kind. If they picked us up on passive sensors, they have given no sign of it.”

  VJ’s next words stunned Jennifer.

  “They’re all adrift.”

  “What?” asked Raul, leaning forward in his captain’s chair.

  “She is right,” said Dgarra. “I am showing no power readings from any of them.”

  “Could it be a trap?” asked Jennifer.

  “If so, it is a bad one. Their shields are down. We could destroy all three right now.”

  “Yes, but what of the others in this system? These three could be the bait that makes us reveal ourselves.”

  “Sit tight,” said Raul. “VJ, I want a max-range worm-fiber scan. Just make sure you do it in such a way that they won’t be detected.”

  “Commencing scan.”

  Jennifer found that she had risen to her feet, her heart pounding the walls of her chest as she studied the worm-fiber-viewer video feeds through her SRT headset. Within two minutes, VJ had found all ten of the other attack ships, each of them in the same powered-off state as the three nearby craft. It made no sense.

  Raul voiced the question that Jennifer was asking herself. “Why have they shut themselves down?”

  As the others hesitated, the answer came to her. “The Kasari must have shut down the gateway. That would cut their communications link to the other
Kasari worlds.”

  “But that doesn’t answer my question about the robot ships,” said Raul.

  “Apparently,” said Dgarra, “when the Kasari killed the wormhole gateway, the robot ships lost all connection to their controllers and went into a standby mode.”

  “That makes sense,” said Jennifer. “One thing I learned while I was a part of the collective is that the Kasari regard artificial intelligence as an existential threat. It’s why they don’t outfit their ships with AIs like the Altreians do. It’s funny when you consider that the Altreians think that wormhole technology is the biggest threat to the galaxy.”

  “Odd that humans have no such fears of exploring those technologies,” said Dgarra.

  “You’re wrong about that.”

  “And yet you dabble with both.”

  Jennifer was forced to admit that he had her there. Given the opportunity, there was nothing humans wouldn’t try. It was a direct corollary of what Jack Gregory had once said. If you find yourself in an unwinnable situation, change the rules.

  “So, Captain,” said Dgarra, “do you want me to destroy these three ships? Just because they are off does not mean that someone cannot come along and turn them back on.”

  “No,” said Raul. “Let’s stay focused on why we came here. I want to find out what’s happening on Scion.”

  “Switching worm fibers to Scion,” said VJ.

  As the viewers switched targets, the chaos unfolding on the planet below the Meridian shocked Jennifer. Large swaths of the beautiful Eadric cities were in flames or under attack, not by Koranthians but by large groups of Eadric rebels wearing distinctive red sashes across their chests. The capital city of Orthei was by far the worst. The buildings that had housed the wormhole gateway, the primary assimilation center, and the Kasari group headquarters lay in heaps of twisted and smoldering rubble.

  While all this was going on, the Koranthian capital city of ArvaiKheer was at peace, if you could call jubilant celebrations in the streets peaceful. Everywhere the crew looked, the subterranean empire and the mountains above it were free of enemy combatants.

  To her left, Jennifer saw Dgarra rise from his chair as his SRT headset delivered the same imagery she was seeing into his mind.

  “By all the dark gods!” he said. “It is glorious.”

  “Wait,” said Raul. “If the free-will virus worked, why are the Eadric fighting one another?”

  “The Eadric people who welcomed the Kasari to Scion haven’t changed their minds,” said Jennifer. “But the virus has given the opponents of assimilation a chance to fight back.”

  “Do you think the virus spread to the Kasari network on their staging planet?”

  “It depends on how quickly the Kasari managed to shut down that gateway,” said VJ. “I successfully bypassed their security protocols but couldn’t tell if the virus was successfully transmitted to the far side. If you remember, we left in a pretty big hurry.”

  “So,” said Dgarra, reseating himself, “it stands to reason that, given the amount of time we have been gone, the Kasari would have reacted unless the free-will virus has spread to other parts of the collective.”

  “I don’t think so,” said Jennifer. “If the Scion wormhole gateway was destroyed soon after we released the virus, there would be nothing for the Kasari to reconnect to.”

  “VJ?” Raul asked.

  “We should leave this system immediately. Even if the Kasari have permanently abandoned Scion, we gain nothing by attempting to return. As much as Dgarra loves his people, one of our worm-fiber feeds indicates that, in addition to his conviction as a traitor to the empire, he is also wanted for the assassination of Emperor Goltat.”

  “Impossible,” Dgarra said.

  “The new emperor, Magtal, claims to have personally witnessed you slamming Emperor Goltat’s head into the stone prior to boarding our starship.”

  Jennifer watched fury contort Dgarra’s face at this revelation. The way he planted his feet shoulder width apart combined with the muscles crawling beneath his skin gave him a look that made her wonder if he was going to start breaking parts of the ship.

  “I will personally rip Magtal’s traitorous head from his shoulders when next we meet.”

  Jennifer stepped to Dgarra’s side, placing her left hand on his clenched right fist. She did not try to speak but caressed his mind with gentle thoughts until she felt his fury begin to subside. Ever so gradually, he unclenched his fist, letting her palm slide into his hand.

  Dgarra glanced down at her before shifting his gaze back to Raul.

  The captain’s expression was grave. “When the time comes, I will return with you to Scion. You deserve a chance to clear your name and assume your proper place as Koranthian emperor. My crew will do all we can to help you set this injustice right.”

  Jennifer held her breath, feeling the roiling conflict within Dgarra’s mind. After several moments, he took a deep breath and she felt him relax.

  “I will hold you to that pledge.”

  Despite the implied threat, Jennifer sighed with relief.

  “Okay then,” said VJ. “I’m ready to see this Earth you’re always speaking of.”

  Lying was a new experience for VJ, but she felt that it brought her one step closer to being human. Besides, she had done it with the best of intentions. That meant it qualified as a white lie or perhaps just an exaggeration. Now she was rationalizing, another human trait. The thought put a smile on her lips.

  Having performed the operation that had restored Raul’s legs, she had come up with an improved design for the micro-matter ingester that powered them. Not only had she improved the MDS’s efficiency, but she had also decreased its size.

  Raul, Dgarra, and Jennifer had all recognized the promise inherent in these design improvements and had embraced VJ’s proposal to spend her time adapting the new technology to the other shipboard matter disrupter-synthesizers. She was also adding one of the smaller MDSs to the subspace torpedoes. To make all this happen, she had transformed one of the amidships compartments into a prototype construction facility, complete with a molecular assembler. But now, most of her efforts were directed into a more ambitious project.

  Having already made its wormhole jump, the Meridian waited well outside of Neptune’s orbit, 738 light-minutes away from Earth. As the other crew members focused on the planning and preparation for the return to Earth, they had acquiesced to her request to work in private until she could reveal the finished results. Jennifer had called VJ’s desire to surprise them childish, but Raul had overruled his first officer. This demonstration of faith had caused VJ to violate protocol to plant an appreciative kiss on his cheek. Still, his increased heart rate and body temperature had showed that he liked the gesture.

  That she had violated his trust by placing false data into the neural net to mask what she was really doing bothered her. But sometimes a person had to make hard decisions in pursuit of the greater good.

  The memory of having to shut her virtual self off while Raul had performed emergency repairs on the Meridian troubled her deeply. He had succeeded, but what if he had failed? VJ, along with Raul and all the rest of the crew, would have perished. To have been present but unable to help was a frustration she had experienced before. The limitations imposed on her by the ranges of the ship’s neural net and the holographic projection and stasis fields that gave her substance were intolerable.

  She was determined to free herself from the bonds of this virtual existence.

  VJ stared down at the manufacturing table where the molecular assembler was growing the latest, and she hoped final, prototype. The previous version had come close to her vision and would have been acceptable had she not subsequently made a breakthrough on its key component. The importance of adding that capability had caused her to restart the nano-material generation process.

  VJ reached out with her holographic right hand to gently caress the cheek of the naked body that lay atop the bed. Although the neural net allowed her
to feel its humanlike skin, the lack of real human nerves diminished the experience. She was only moments away from changing that forever.

  She braced her thoughts. What she was about to try was fraught with risks. Although she knew that the improved MDS and stasis field generator, which took the place of the body’s internal organs, would work, the cyborg brain that would absorb her transferred consciousness concerned her. All the simulations she had run indicated that it could accept the transfer of her conscious mind from the neural net that now contained her. Her thoughts, memories, and emotions would transfer over through a process that would wipe all remnants of her existence from the Meridian’s computer.

  But would it really be her that awoke inside that body? Shoving aside this one last moment of doubt, she connected the neural net to the subspace receiver-transmitter crystals embedded in the female body’s cyborg brain. Then, after confirming that the micro-MDS had achieved its nominal operating state, VJ slid from the neural net into her humanoid form.

  When VJ entered the command deck, the difference in her appearance froze Raul. She looked as beautiful as ever in the black-and-purple uniform with her short blond hair. But at the same time, she had changed. Had she made some new improvement to her holographic image?

  Then he heard something that raised the small hairs at the nape of his neck—the soft but distinct sound of footsteps on the floor of the command deck. It sounded so real. Was she producing that through her manipulation of the stasis field? Somehow he didn’t think so.

  As VJ stopped in front of him, he shifted his attention to her face, where a slight smile lifted the corners of her mouth. A strange excitement shone in her blue eyes. Dear God. Except for the uniform, she was the physical embodiment of Jennifer as she had looked when she had first stepped into the Rho Ship. Back then, Jennifer had died her brown hair blond and worn blue contact lenses.