Freedom's Last Gasp

by M. A. Rothman

  Freedom’s Last Gasp

  The Exodus Series

  M.A. Rothman

  Copyright © 2020 Michael A. Rothman

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  Cover Art by M.S. Corley

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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  All rights reserved.

  Technothrillers:

  •Darwin's Cipher

  •New Arcadia (coming in late 2020)

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  The Exodus Series:

  •Primordial Threat

  •Freedom’s Last Gasp

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  Levi Yoder Series:

  •Perimeter

  •The Inside Man

  •Never Again

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  Epic Fantasy / Dystopian:

  •Dispocalypse

  •Seer of Prophecy (Coming mid-2020)

  •Heirs of Prophecy (Coming mid-2020)

  •Tools of Prophecy (Coming mid-2020)

  •Lords of Prophecy (Coming mid-2020)

  Special thanks go to:

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  Dr. Charles Liu, Professor of Astrophysics – I wanted to especially thank you for keeping me relatively honest from a physics point of view and also for giving this book its title.

  * * *

  I also want to thank Dr. Harold “Sonny” White, working out of the NASA Johnson Space Center, as well as Dr. Miguel Alcubierre for both inspiring key scientific elements in this novel.

  * * *

  And thanks to Marc Berte, one of the smartest guys I know who doesn’t mind having bleeding-edge science discussions at 5 a.m. in the morning.

  “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well-fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don’t do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like… when men were free.”

  —Ronald Reagan

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Author’s Note

  Preview of Darwin’s Cipher

  Addendum

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  “Ave Maria, gratia plena; Dominus tecum: benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui Iesus.”

  The pope’s recitation of the Angelus prayer was transmitted from Earth, across millions of miles of space, received by the mining colony, and echoed throughout the Chrysalis mental health hospital.

  Terry Chapper paused in the hallway and bowed his head. Ranger, his German shepherd, mimicked his reverential motion while remaining alert. Terry, too, kept his senses razor-sharp. Seeing as he was currently covering a shift for one of the hospital’s security officers, he had to—especially here in the green ward. This was the section of the hospital reserved for patients who were prone to violence, sealed off from the outside world by a minimum of three sets of biometric locks.

  As the prayer came to an end, a middle-aged nurse hurried toward him. “Terry, we’ve got a situation with Callaway. He looks like he’s about to—”

  “I got him,” Terry said, giving her a reassuring pat on her shoulder.

  He fast-walked to the east wing and found Josh Callaway in the hall. The former soldier was almost three hundred pounds of muscle, with a face that looked like it had been etched from stone. He was dressed like every other patient here—blue scrubs, footie socks, and a medical tag on his wrist—but he looked perfectly healthy.

  Looks were deceiving.

  Callaway was walking along slowly, brushing his right shoulder along the wall, and making hand signals that to most people would have meant nothing, but to Terry meant everything.

  “Hey, Josh, buddy. Are you with me?”

  Callaway didn’t respond.

  Ranger growled at Terry’s side, and Terry snapped his fingers. “Sit.”

  The dog obeyed, his ears lying flat, and huffed with frustration.

  Callaway’s gesticulations grew more animated. The soldier was in another place, another time. Suddenly he bellowed, “Carbon Outlaw Five Four, Hawkeye Thirteen at three four!”

  With the most authoritative voice he could muster, Terry replied, “Roger, Thirteen. Just got a call from three that LZ X-Ray is clear.”

  Callaway’s eyes widened and he stared into space, seeing something that wasn’t there. “Negative, Carbon Outlaw, I’ve spotted Charlie on the cliff rise of Chu Pong Massif. They’re setting up an ambush. I’m four klicks east-southeast and have visual. LZ X-Ray is not clear. Repeat, LZ X-Ray is not clear.”

  Terry had studied Callaway’s background. The soldier had never been off-colony, so whatever scene was playing through his mind was born of delusion.

  “Copy that, Thirteen,” he said. “Arranging with DASC to scramble fighters for LZ X-Ray.”

  One of Terry’s backups came around the corner down the hall, a stun wand at the ready. But Terry waved the backup away.

  “Arranging for dust-off at LZ Victor,” he continued. “Medics are on the scene. You copy?”

  The tension in the huge soldier’s face eased.

  Terry approached cautiously. “Sergeant Callaway, stand down. We’re holding the position.”

  The patient pulled in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Tears rolled down his cheeks, and he blinked, his gaze returning to the present.

  “I’m sorry, Terry.” He wiped his eyes with the heels of his hands. “I lost time again.”

  Terry swallowed hard and patted him on the arm. “It’s good, Josh. No harm done. Come on. Let’s go get you refreshed on your meds.”

  “The sedative will keep him under for at least a handful of hours,” said a blue-smocked nurse as she scribbled something on the holographic image of a tablet computer. “I’m impressed that you managed to penetrate his delusion. We usually have to stun him when he gets that way.”

  They stood at the entrance to Josh Callaway’s room. Even in his sleep, the twitching of the man’s fingers was a telltale sign of the traumatic brain injury that hadn’t yet healed. Terry felt a connection to the damaged soldier and his struggles.

  “Is he getting any better?” Terry asked. “What’s his prognosis?”

  The nurse made the tablet disappear with a swipe of her hand, then motioned for Terry to follow her to the nurses’ station. “Well, considering the whack he took in that accident practically caved in the side of his head, he’s doing fantastic. The nanites are doing their job. I figure in another month he’ll be back to normal, though he probably won’t remember a lot of what happened. That’s the stuff that we usually can’t get back, the most recent memories.”

  As head of security for the mining colony, Terry knew what had happened to Callaway, and it certainly wasn’t an accident. The UN had sent over another spy, who had somehow gotten past most of the security checks. But he hadn’t gotten past Callaway. The spy ended up ambushing
him with a blow that would probably have killed a smaller man.

  Terry vowed to never let another of those UN scumbags get past their perimeter. He just wished he knew what the hell they were looking for.

  “Hey, Terry.” It was Candace, one of the nurses, waving at him from the break room. “Up for a soda?”

  He walked in and joined her. “Hey, Candace.”

  She looked past him to Ranger, who had stopped just outside the doorway, an untrusting look on his furry face. “Hey, pup!” she said. “It’s okay. I think I can find you a treat if you like.”

  Ranger wagged his tail, turned around, and walked backwards into the room.

  “What in the world?”

  Terry chuckled. “When I first got him, he was a bit of a mess. The vet said he’d been found in one of the deeper mines, his nose broken because he’d run into a glass door. I don’t even want to say how many credits it cost to patch him up, but it was worth it. But as a result, he’s not very trusting of doorways.”

  “Oh, you poor thing. I’m sorry the glass door gave you an ouchie.” Candace knelt down and gave Ranger a dog biscuit. He ate it out of her hand, his tail a blur.

  Terry patted Ranger as he licked up the crumbs that had fallen to the floor. Then he grabbed the dog’s face, gave him a kiss on the top of his snout, and said, “Damaged goods or not, I wouldn’t have you any other way.”

  Priya lay in bed, listening through earbuds to the recording of the last lecture she’d given, her alarm clock beeping all the while.

  “Okay, folks. For those of you who weren’t awake last week, I’ll remind you that we covered the Seebeck effect and how it enables the conversion of temperature differences into voltage via thermocouples. As you know, we have decaying elements like Strontium 90 within these thermoelectric generator packs that power most of the handheld gadgets we own nowadays. By necessity, these long-lasting power packs contain strong beta particle emitters that need to be shielded, and the sheer act of stopping the beta particles produces bremsstrahlung, a more penetrating type of radiation, which needs to be dealt with as well. Today, we’ll cover how we calculate the thickness of the shielding needed and the different options we have…”

  Every time she heard a recording of herself, she was surprised by how noticeable her British accent was. It bothered her, but not so much that she cared to do anything about it. She was far more peeved by the professor who told her she came off a bit snarky when lecturing. If that was true, she needed to deal with it. Long term, it was probably a waste of time, but she needed to play the game if she was going to get her PhD.

  Her bedroom door opened and Aunt Jen turned the light on. “It’s almost seven! You’ll be late for school.”

  Priya had lived with her aunt since she was seventeen, just after her parents’ untimely death seven years ago. Aunt Jen had no kids, had never wanted kids, but she’d volunteered to look after Priya, and for that Priya was grateful.

  “I’m ready,” she groaned. She flipped off the covers, revealing that she was already fully dressed.

  Aunt Jen looked over her spectacles and sniffed disapprovingly. “Don’t forget you agreed to walk over to the tube station with Mrs. Peete’s little urchin. It’s her first day at school and I’m sure she’s waiting impatiently at her apartment.”

  “I’ll be out in a second.”

  Aunt Jen retreated, leaving behind a hint of rose perfume that made Priya a bit nauseated.

  She slapped the button on the top of her alarm clock, glanced at the mirror hanging above her dresser, and grimaced. Her thick mop of dark hair fell over her shoulders; it would need a good ten minutes of brushing if she was going to get all of those tangles out. Ten minutes she didn’t have. She settled for roughly raking her fingers through her unruly hair, then she grabbed her bag and headed out.

  It was a beautiful morning in South Florida. A breeze carried the scent of freshly cut grass and even a hint of the ocean, though the shore was a good ten miles away.

  “Priya!”

  She turned to find Anna Peete hurrying over to her. Anna was an adorable five-year-old with pigtails, a freshly pressed school uniform, and a backpack almost as big as she was.

  The girl smiled. “I was worried you forgot we were going together today.”

  “No chance, Jelly Bean.” The two walked hand-in-hand from their apartment complex toward the tube station. “Are you excited about your first day at school?”

  Anna looked up at Priya with big blue eyes. “I’m okay,” she said with a tremor in her voice.

  Priya gave the little girl’s hand a squeeze. “You’ve taken this kind of trip plenty of times. How about this? Let’s test how much you know. If you’re really ready for school, you should be able to pass this quiz. Want to try?”

  “Okay, I’ll try.” The girl brightened a bit.

  “Where are we, and where are we going?”

  Anna pointed at the tube station sign. “That’s easy. We’re in Coral Springs, Florida, and I have to go to Mrs. Robinson’s class at the David Holmes Space and Science Primary School at Cape Canaveral.”

  Priya frowned. “Hm. You’re right, that was too easy. I’ll have to think of a harder question.”

  Anna grinned.

  They walked up the stairs to the tube station, passing a matronly woman carrying an armful of groceries, and as they reached the top, a hologram of a smiling recruiter wearing a lab coat with a government logo blinked into existence just ahead of them.

  “Welcome, neighbor! It’s people like me who keep the tubes running efficiently and safely. Type *92-8374 on your SMS device to learn more about joining the team.”

  “Okay, let’s see how you do with this question,” Priya said. “How far away is our destination?”

  “Pfft. Still easy. Cape Canaveral is three hundred kilometers away. That’s one hundred eighty-five miles.”

  They had arrived at the arrivals and departures platform, and Anna stepped up to a control panel. It lowered by about a foot so it was easy for her to reach, and she pressed her hand on the touch screen. The display automatically switched to her custom settings, and a woman’s voice spoke with a British accent.

  “Good morning, Anna. I’m Lexie, your tube assistant. You have authorization for four different destinations on your account. Where would you like to go?”

  Anna turned to Priya and pointed at the screen. “See? It lists the distance to Cape Canaveral right there. It also says it’ll take about fifteen minutes, so…” Her face scrunched up as she concentrated. “Our top speed should be right around fourteen hundred miles per hour, and we won’t have any more than about a .3 G acceleration.”

  Priya smiled at her precocious neighbor. “That’s amazing. Who taught you how to calculate acceleration like that?”

  “Duh… it’s not that hard. It’s just delta v over delta t and then convert the value to G’s.” Anna tilted her head and frowned. “You taught me that. Ages ago.” She turned back to the control panel. “Lexie, I need to go to school. Priya is coming with me.”

  “Two passengers for the David Holmes Education Campus at Cape Canaveral. Please confirm.”

  “Confirmed,” Anna said with an exaggerated nod.

  The sound of rushing air grew louder behind the metal doors to the tube. “Establishing vacuum. Queuing request for transportation link between Coral Springs-North Junction and the main terminal at the DHEC-Cape Canaveral.”

  Priya put her hand on Anna’s shoulder. “See? You’re an expert at this stuff.”

  “Ya, I guess. But it’s still nice not going by myself.”

  “Link complete. The car is arriving in three… two… one…” With a loud hiss, the doors slid open, revealing an empty capsule with two well-padded armchairs inside. “The car is now ready for boarding.”

  They entered the capsule. As soon as they were both seated, the doors closed, and Priya felt the air pressure change.

  “We are about to depart.”

  The automatic safety harnesses built in
to their chairs activated, wrapping a gauze-like mesh around their legs and chests. Priya knew the harnesses provided only an illusion of safety. The truth was, at speeds exceeding Mach two, if they ran into any kind of trouble, no harness could keep them alive. There wouldn’t be enough of them left to scrape into a jelly jar.

  That was how Priya’s parents had died.

  Without a whisper of noise, they departed the Coral Springs Station, their capsule slowly increasing speed. Their seats automatically swiveled in the direction they were accelerating, and in less than a minute they began slowing.

  “Passengers, we are arriving at the main Fort Lauderdale switching terminal. Please remain seated. Your car will automatically be routed to the proper queue for high-speed transport.”

  A hologram of a safety technician appeared in the car. “Welcome, neighbor! You’re about to embark on a transport that will see you traveling across our great state at a velocity well in excess of the speed of sound. Some passengers may have moments of discomfort upon seeing the land streaking by at these rates, so be aware that all our cars are equipped with dimming portals if needed. And if for any reason you feel that you must interrupt this travel, please take note of the red emergency button on each chair. Hold it down for three seconds to request an emergency reroute. Are there any questions?”