“And this is Dgarra.”
Jennifer indicated the big alien to Raul’s left, who looked every bit the warrior. Ridged eyebrows extended outward and then up over the top of his brown-skinned, hairless head. His dark eyes studied her and Mark, his expression inscrutable. Noting that neither Dgarra nor Raul extended their hands, she resisted the urge to do so. Mark merely nodded in acknowledgment of the introductions.
“And finally,” said Jennifer, “this is VJ, our ship’s science officer.”
Heather froze as, beside her, Mark sucked in an audible breath. Except for the tight-fitting black-and-purple uniform she wore, this young woman looked exactly like Jennifer had when Heather had last seen her inside the ATLAS cavern.
This time, Heather couldn’t resist the impulse to extend her hand, a gesture that was met with a firm grip by a warm, human-feeling palm. Was this a projection, given form by her mental connection to the Second Ship’s computer? Her mind placed the probability of this at an unlikely 2.758 percent. And VJ’s smile looked authentic as well.
As Heather released her grip on VJ’s hand, Mark stepped forward to greet the AI, a look of pure wonder on his face.
“Is she real?” he asked.
VJ responded before Jennifer could answer his question. “I’m as real as you are.”
Jennifer’s laugh broke the tension that had been building in the room. “Don’t worry. It’s taken me a while to accept VJ’s new body, too.”
Heather thought she detected a blush on VJ’s cheeks, then discarded the thought. But when she played the sequence back in her mind, she had to admit that her first impression had been correct.
Inhaling deeply, Heather turned her attention back to her long-lost friend and sat down. Mark and Jennifer followed suit.
“I think that it’s time for us to hear your story,” said Heather. “Apparently, ours pales in comparison.”
“Yeah,” said Mark, his gaze shifting from VJ to Dgarra and then back to Jennifer. “And let’s hope it stays that way.”
Nikina stepped into the small conference room, and Janet gestured for her to sit down at the table as the door whisked closed behind them. Janet took a seat across from her.
“You mentioned a new mission?” Nikina asked.
In answer, Janet spun a thick manila envelope across the table to her.
Nikina dumped the contents of the envelope on the table. A thick dossier with a passport clipped to the outside of the folder spilled out. She unclipped the passport and flipped it open, not surprised to see her own picture inside.
“You work for the Federation Security Service,” Janet said.
Nikina had to work to keep from grabbing for her gun. How had she been discovered? She had taken every precaution. On the other hand, she was alone with Janet in this room, so she liked her short-term odds of survival. Then her eyes caught the name to the right of the passport photo: Anya Kashirin.
“And you’re Russian,” Janet said. “We’ve created a detailed new identity for you, inserting the numerous background investigations you’ve undergone and the missions you’ve completed into the appropriate FSS computer systems. For the past four years, you’ve been an FSS field agent stationed in the United States, successfully maintaining your cover but not doing anything so spectacular that your name has come to the attention of the higher-ups.
“Your complete background and new orders assigning you to the FSS headquarters in The Hague are inside that folder. I need you to memorize the contents on the memory card. We are going to be sending you through our Earth gate to the Netherlands. I want you to report in to your new FSS assignment and find out precisely where the UFNS has built their new wormhole gateway. You will need this to securely contact me.”
Nikina met Janet’s eyes, hiding the relief that left her with an adrenaline high. She accepted the new phone that Janet handed her, knowing that it must be another quantum-entangled model like the ones that SERE’s regional commanders used.
“How long do I have to get ready?”
“You are scheduled to meet your new boss thirty-seven hours from now. In the meantime, you will be staying in temporary accommodations inside this facility. If you have no more questions, I’ll have Eileen show you to your quarters.”
On cue, the door behind Nikina slid open, and she turned to see a petite, young Asian woman step in. With a shock, Nikina recognized her. This was Dr. Eileen Wu, formerly the NSA’s top computer scientist.
Nikina put the contents back into the envelope and stood. “I will be ready.” Then she turned and followed Dr. Wu out of the room.
CHAPTER 14
FRIENDSHIP CAVERN, NORTH KOREA
1 March
On the first of March, Alexandr Prokorov strode out of the assimilation center tunnel complex alongside Commander Drolaag, the four-armed Kasari towering over him. As they walked toward Friendship Cavern, where the upgraded gateway awaited, Prokorov felt a sense of frustration at the relatively limited access to the hive-mind he had been granted thus far. Then again, he knew that this was standard operating procedure until a new world’s assimilation process had been completed, and Earth was still in its very early stages.
But his cortical array of nanobots had delivered the knowledge that a new Kasari group commander had been designated to replace Drolaag and would be arriving through the gateway a few minutes from now. Drolaag hadn’t been demoted; instead, the collective had assigned someone with more experience to manage the next phase of Earth’s assimilation. Unfortunately, Prokorov wouldn’t gain direct communications permission with this new commander until the transfer of authority was official.
They stepped into the broad tunnel that provided access to Friendship Cavern, staying to the right to avoid the endless procession of alien military equipment that moved through this passage toward the staging areas. The regime that had ruled North Korea for all those decades before its absorption by the East Asian People’s Alliance had been hyperparanoid. The network of tunnels it had excavated beneath the country far surpassed the estimations of the world’s intelligence agency. Now the collective was putting these subterranean warrens to a greater purpose.
As they entered the recently expanded cavern, Prokorov noted that the flow of equipment and troops through the wormhole had been halted. Now, two dozen Kasari officers of Drolaag’s species, seven females and five males, stood in a tight formation facing the gateway that had replaced the original human-built version.
Drolaag led Prokorov past them, stopping five paces in front of the portal. As often as he had been here in the last six weeks, the sight still awed the minister of federation security. He was only a few steps away from that monstrous room on another planet, one whose atmosphere would have killed him back when his blood hadn’t been infused with the Kasari nanites. Although the stasis field that kept the methane-ammonia mixture contained on the far side was invisible, the ultrathin boundary between worlds shimmered slightly. And beyond it, another honor guard backdropped a four-armed Kasari female who stood even taller than Commander Drolaag.
Without hesitation, she stepped through the gateway, the stasis field modulating itself to allow her body to pass. Ignoring Prokorov, she came to a stop directly in front of her counterpart and pressed the palm of her upper right hand firmly against Drolaag’s left shoulder, a salute that he echoed.
“Group Commander Drolaag,” she said, “I relieve you.”
“Group Commander Shalegha, the group is now yours.”
Shalegha watched as Drolaag stepped through the gateway; then she turned her attention to Prokorov, who had been designated her human liaison.
She was fortunate to be here. After the disastrous events on Scion and her destruction of its corresponding gateway on the staging world, she could have faced summary execution. Instead, Kasari High Command had decided to quarantine her so that they could study the infection that had severed the connection between her cortical nanobot array and the hive-mind.
Reassimilation to the collective had
not been easy or pleasant. Her handlers had forced a new infusion of nanited blood through her vessels after they had purged the original nanobots from her body and brain with a flushing serum. Then they had connected her cortical array to an isolated diagnostic system and performed a deep scan. After reviewing the record of her memories, Kasari High Command had judged the decisions that she had made and the actions she had taken to be laudable.
As her reward for preventing the human-designed computer virus from spreading through the Scion gateway to infect the hive-mind, the High Command had placed her in charge of Earth’s assimilation. They had also decided to abandon the Scion system rather than risk reopening its gateway.
Shalegha turned her attention to the human, Prokorov. She had reviewed his record and found it satisfactory. He had facilitated an almost flawlessly executed initial phase of this assimilation. Shalegha issued the mental instructions that gave his cortical array permission to interface directly with hers, feeling the man’s gratitude at this promotion that made him the highest-ranking human within the collective.
“You have done an excellent job here, Liaison Prokorov. The time has now come to announce the Kasari Collective’s alliance with the UFNS and offer the benefits of assimilation to the rest of the people of this world.”
CHAPTER 15
KALASASAYA TEMPLE, BOLIVIA
1 March
Khal Teth sucked in a breath, feeling his body tingle at the sudden awakening. Technically, this was Jack Gregory’s body, but with that man’s mind currently absent, Khal Teth was in complete control. The sensation was completely different from what he had experienced as Jack’s rider, but as he flexed his fingers, he decided that he could get used to it.
He blinked several times as his vision adjusted to the dim magenta illumination within the chrysalis cylinder. Then, lifting his right hand to the control pad, Khal Teth traced in the codes he had pulled from the mind of the AQ37Z research vessel’s captain and commander all those months ago. With a small whoosh, the cylinder’s lid opened.
With an effort, Khal Teth climbed out of the cylinder and stood up, rolling his shoulders to work out a sudden cramp. Suspended animation had prevented Jack’s muscles from undergoing atrophy, but that did not mean the process of coming out of such sleep was painless. That pain would not have bothered Jack, but Khal Teth found it burdensome.
He glanced at the chrysalis cylinder containing Commander Broljen, the ship’s captain, and smiled. Unless someone entered a code that changed the suspended-animation setting, Broljen would sleep forever.
When Jack had first opened the portal that led into this research vessel, Khal Teth had been the rider in his head. Broljen had been waiting for them, and as a powerful Dhaldric in his own right, Broljen had expected to easily subdue a mere human with his psionic abilities. Khal Teth’s presence had come as an unpleasant surprise to the commander, one that had put him into eternal sleep.
Leaving the small chamber, Khal Teth walked back onto the command deck where he and Jack had first confronted the commander, stopping just long enough to retrieve the Incan Sun Staff from the nearest of the five command chairs where he had laid it. Carrying the staff in his left hand, he walked over to the research vessel’s command console and entered another of the codes he had extracted from Broljen’s head, this one relieving the captain of his duty and freeing his Altreian headband for assignment to the commander who would replace him.
Khal Teth sat down in the center command chair and opened the panel on the seat’s right arm. Without hesitation, he extracted the iridescent Altreian headband that was identical in appearance to the four that had attuned to Mark, Heather, Jennifer, and Rob a decade ago. Setting the Sun Staff across his lap, he leaned back and stared at the device that would alter Jack’s brain and give Khal Teth mental control of this research vessel.
But as he let the beaded ends settle over his temples, he was unprepared for the wave of agony that lanced through every nerve in this body. If he could have moved, he would have screamed, but he sat frozen in place, his vision scorched by a blinding flash of light.
Surely death would claim him. No living being could endure the endless waves of torture that ripped him apart.
Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the pain subsided, leaving Khal Teth gasping for breath and blinking tears from his eyes. More than a minute passed before the former overlord could sponge the horror of the experience from his mind and regain control of his thoughts.
New sensations bombarded him. He saw with a newfound clarity. Sounds that he couldn’t have heard a short time ago came through distinctly. His sense of smell, taste, touch . . . they were all in the midst of changing. But most of all, his thoughts were crisp and sharp. The information that rolled into his mind stayed there.
And, as he had known would happen, his mind was connected to the AQ37Z’s computer and to the AI tasked with operating it.
The question formed in Khal Teth’s mind. “What should I call you?”
“Commander Broljen called me Z. But you may assign me whatever name you choose.”
“Z will do. I have a task for you inside the medical bay.”
A nanoparticle door opened in the wall to Khal Teth’s left.
“Right through there,” said Z.
Khal Teth walked into the medical lab, unsurprised to see the five iridescent operating tables extruded from the floor. Without any hesitation, he removed Jack’s utility vest and shirt, letting them fall to the floor. Then he seated himself on the nearest table and lay back, feeling the surface conform to perfectly cradle his body.
Although he was determined to recover his own body on Quol, there was the distinct possibility that Jack would get himself killed before that could happen. Khal Teth would not run the risk of living out his days in a psionically crippled mind like this one. Therefore, he would undergo the genetic modification that the High Council had forbidden to be performed on any other species, the one that had granted the Dhaldric race their psionic powers.
Pulling the ancient knowledge from deep in his memory, he transferred it to Z. As the thousands of tendrils sprouted from the medical table to attach themselves to his body, he knew that the first step was to transfer some of Jack’s blood cells to the gene splicer. After that, things would get considerably more complicated.
During the three days that Khal Teth had waited inside the AQ37Z since undergoing the Lundola Procedure, he had hoped to see some sign that the operation was working. And using the medical table, he had seen the beginning of the development of a psionic lobe within Jack’s upper spinal column. However, he could not wait for the lobe to fully develop. That meant he would have to do things the Jack Gregory way.
Khal Teth lifted the Sun Staff from where it lay atop the command chair. Turning his attention to the smooth wall where Jack had entered the ship, he issued the mental command to open the door. It whisked open to reveal the airlock.
Khal Teth removed the headset and issued the command to close the portal. As he had suspected, nothing happened. Although these headsets were capable of altering the brain of a member of the Khyre race to grant him the ability to mentally connect to the ship’s computers without having to wear the headsets, an unaltered human brain couldn’t make that link without wearing one. He slid the headset back into place and walked into the airlock, closing the door behind him and bringing up the airlock’s magenta lighting.
He opened the external hatch and strode up the metallic ramp that led to the altar chamber. With the headset in place, he did not need to use the Sun Staff to open the top of the altar. A mere thought could accomplish that.
But first he focused his thoughts, activating the dormant telepathic ability within Jack’s headset-augmented brain, scanning the chamber above for occupants. Khal Teth knew that he could have queried the AQ37Z’s computer to learn the answer, but he needed to know the extent to which Jack’s human brain had been altered. The results of the experiment were a pleasant surprise. People were nearby, but none wit
hin the altar chamber.
Khal Teth issued the mental command, and the top tier of the altar slid open. He walked up to stand atop it. When he placed the base of the staff into the slot from which Jack had removed it, the top tier of the golden altar slid closed once more, carrying Khal Teth as well. The magenta glow from the passage below was snuffed out, leaving him standing in total darkness.
Retrieving Jack’s small flashlight from his pocket, Khal Teth switched it on.
He reached out to touch the intricate golden orb atop the silver staff and twisted the articulated clockwork rings until he felt the Sun Staff lock into place. Removing his Altreian headset, he put it into another cargo pocket. Then, without bothering to look around, Khal Teth climbed down from the altar and strode into the cavern system that led up to the surface.
As he walked, he took the quantum-entangled phone from a pocket and activated it. It was time to reintroduce Jack to his family.
CHAPTER 16
PARTHIAN, QUOL, ALTREIAN SYSTEM
TBE Orbday 11–14
The Keva Vault was not an easy place to gain access to. Located on the far north side of a warren of military bunkers, three miles beneath the Parthian, Jack was forced to navigate an entire series of guard booths and checkpoints. Of course, as overlord, he was allowed to pass, but each stop magnified his anticipation. Several military leaders offered to escort him, but each time he declined.
Jack could feel the curiosity, even concern, that this highly unusual visit roused within them. Not surprising, since no one had requested access to the Keva Vault in hundreds of spans. Khal Teth had visited the vault only once, long before he was imprisoned. But Khal Teth hadn’t come to the vault to examine secret historical documents. He and several other members of the High Council had accompanied Lundola, the Khyre geneticist whose discovery had led to the rise of the Dhaldric.
The Meridian Ascent (Rho Agenda Assimilation Book 3) Page 10