“There will be two of me… us?”
“Yes.” The President grinned in Adam’s direction. “How complicated will that be, if one of you lives in the Proteus galaxy and the other Adam Roh stays here?” He shrugged his shoulders indifferently. “There have already been Brotherhood clones living on Earth for many decades now… this time we’ll be among the people who have duplicates, along with a large segment of Earth’s population.”
“It will be interesting to see what Earth turns into without the intervention of the Brotherhood of the Dragon, will it not?” Noah posed the question with a growing enthusiasm that matched Thomas’ own. His eyes sparkled with a kindness and compassion that Adam took careful note of. “The time has come to liberate your own people, not simply strangers from a Wasteland galaxy.”
Thomas’ older brother remained skeptical. “What about this ship… the Lexington?” he asked. “If you’re going to set up command and control here, using a standard Sentinel monitoring system, you’ll all be caught up in any time changes we trigger as soon as they occur.” He studied Noah intently. “How do we get back?”
Admiral James Henry smiled, noting that the time had come for him to speak up. “We plan to position the Lexington well outside the Sol system, beyond the outer perimeter of Noah’s protective barrier,” he replied crustily. Henry was nearly seventy – a burly, gray-haired officer who had ended up serving Earth best as a leader long after its premature demise. “Since our staff assigned to monitor you – the Sentinels – will communicate through the usual micro-wormholes that float, unseen, above your head, we simply have to give them the same temporal adjustment as the transit portal utilized to move your mission team into the past. Your wife and brother have already set all of that up for us.”
“We’ve made the micro-wormholes even smaller, believe it or not.” Thomas told him enthusiastically. “There is no longer any atmosphere leakage. So if you manage to get yourself blown out of an airlock again – like you did in the Wasteland – you’ll be able to survive indefinitely. The implant’s protective shield is still skin tight, but it can generate an independently breathable atmosphere for as long as you need one.”
Pointing a stern finger in his brother’s direction, Adam felt his defensive nature rise to life. “You of all people should know that the airlock incident in question was partially intentional,” he reminded his brother firmly. “I was toying with that Wasteland ship’s Captain by allowing him to think he killed me off.”
Thomas remained amused while Adam regarded him irritably with more than a little annoyance. Frustrated and anxious to change the subject, he held his empty cup out and glanced quizzically at the Admiral. “I’m not used to long meetings like this one without donuts… or at least baked goods, of some sort,” he pointed out. “So, respectfully, what’s the problem, sir? Along with the President, my brother and I are about to go on a very dangerous mission critical to the future of Earth. Couldn’t you at least have arranged to send us a plate of turnovers or something?”
The Admiral harrumphed loudly in response to his statement. “Ever since you returned from that Wasteland outing, work crews from Tranquility have been overhauling the Lexington,” he replied while continuing to chuckle lightly. “For five long years, your teams have worked steadily to install an internal, fully self-contained CAS drive similar to the Pathfinder’s. They also added an invisibility stealth screen to our outer hull along with an offensive laser array, and they pretty much accomplished it all by removing everything that stood in their way without giving it a second thought. Those men knocked down bulkheads all over the ship. You should see how small our galley is now… I’m surprised that they still have enough room in there to make coffee.”
“Grab an MRE pack if you’re hungry,” suggested Kaufield with amusement. “Unless anyone has anything else to discuss, I believe we’re adjourned.”
“MRE,” growled Adam as they all stood up together. “Meals Rejected by Everybody!”
*
Two hours later, Thomas and Adam Roh stood next to a huge airlock in the Lexington’s port hangar bay. Thomas continued to appear happy and enthused, while Adam stood next to him with a tight knot forming in the bottom of his stomach. “For the record, I don’t believe this is a very good idea,” he ventured cautiously.
“There is nothing to worry about,” Thomas stated reassuringly. He opened the inner airlock door and casually waved his brother through. “You’ve already been out in open space once without a pressure suit. And as I’ve told you before, I’ve done this many times. It’s truly an exhilarating experience to float in open space, watching all of the shining stars around you. C’mon, let’s get going. We have to finish testing system enhancements – our mission into the past officially launches in a few hours.”
Sighing heavily, Adam glanced briefly down at his civilian clothes and black leather work boots. Nervously, he tucked in the front of his shirt and tried to suppress all of the wise ass replies that were forming on the tip of his tongue. He was usually the mature one, but when his brother held the upper hand – as he certainly did in this situation – it became much more difficult for Adam to maintain his demeanor.
“How do I know for certain that my implant’s defensive shield is in place? How do I know that it will protect me… that you’re not just going to eject me into the void?”
They were very dumb questions to be certain, but Adam was simply venting his considerable anxiety by sniping a bit. Part of each brain implant’s technology accessed the optic nerve of the bearer’s right eye, using it to project a “head’s up display” – or HUD – on the inside of each bearer’s eyeball. So Adam could already “see”, just by reading the information off of his optical display, that everything was on-line and functional. His brother responded to his verbal prodding by turning around and slugging him very unexpectedly in the abdomen. Caught by surprise, Adam flinched in response even though the impact of his brother’s blow was easily dispersed by his customized electronic shielding. Immediately a bright blue electrical discharge appeared around Thomas’ fist and expanded outward across his brother’s torso.
“It looks like everything is working just fine to me,” said Thomas with a sly grin. “Let’s go.”
Adam briefly surveyed the interior of the large, rectangular-shaped airlock. It was huge and dirty, with multiple scratches and dents along its surface – normally meant to allow easy access when loading sizeable cargo and heavy equipment. “I thought you already ran tests.”
“Not live tests – only simulated versions.” Thomas was focused on the airlock controls and he eagerly began stabbing at the various buttons with an index finger. “I need to verify that the enhancements to our wrist guns will allow us to more easily adjust and define the energy bursts for more precise strikes. I think you’ll approve of the changes.”
“We needed changes,” Adam told him firmly. “I didn’t particularly enjoy having to choose between blasting opponents with harmless bursts of heated air and blowing huge holes in them. There was a lot of ‘in between’ room that I simply couldn’t control on the last assignment.”
“The Wasteland mission was much different than this one,” pointed out Thomas. “You needed blunt force against the Kuth, and a lot of it.” He squinted while grabbing the airlock release control and smiled. “Hang on!” A loud alarm klaxon sounded in sequence with flashing red lights as the inner door behind them closed swiftly and the atmosphere began draining steadily out of the large chamber. “Just breathe normally,” Thomas stated, glancing briefly at his brother.
When the atmospheric indicator on the control console dropped to zero, Thomas pulled hard on the handle he held and opened the outer door. The black emptiness of space along with all of its brilliant, dazzling stars was revealed. For a moment, the two of them just stood there, holding onto safety handles that were clamped along the edges of the airlock, and admired the spectacular view.
Adam noticed his brother kick off first, floating gently away
into the void. The image was extremely surreal, since his brother was also wearing nothing more than civilian clothing. Without the usual pressure suit, he looked even more rail thin and vulnerable than usual. But he was smiling, breathing normally, and nodding assuredly. “It works!” Thomas grinned at him. “All we did was slightly expand the concave ‘bowl’ over the facial area just a little bit, enough for the wearer to breathe normally long enough for the implant to recycle the atmosphere contained within the electronic skin shield.”
Very slowly, Adam watched Thomas continue to drift away. “You look pretty helpless out there, floating all alone in empty space.”
“If you need subconscious reassurance, just add a little distortion into the mix,” suggested Thomas. He closed his eyes and concentrated, requesting subtle changes to the skin shield that immediately produced a soft electric-blue glow around his body. “If you can actually see the protective barrier, it might be more helpful.”
“Never mind… we’re not going to be working in space for long,” his brother replied. “One of my greatest advantages in the Wasteland was that my opponents considered me to be just another ordinary human. I’d like to keep it that way when we confront those genetically enhanced Brotherhood clones!”
Seconds later, Adam also launched himself softly away from the open airlock and out into space. He did his best to match his brother’s course and velocity, making certain that they stayed within visual sight of each other. Normally uneasy in the cold vacuum of outer space even while wearing a pressure suit, Adam ignored the bottomless, helpless feeling and struggled hard to adjust to the weightlessness. Many people never could completely adapt, even with hours of experience. “It was a lot nicer when we worked on the moon,” he commented idly. “There’s something much more satisfying about having solid ground beneath your feet.”
“This won’t take long,” Thomas promised him, eyes still closed.
Instinctively Adam decided to test the thought transmission process that had worked so well to keep him linked to far away friends while serving in the Wasteland. [“Is this form of communication still working too?”] he thought idly.
[“Of course it is,”] Thomas thought transmitted back to him. [“Stand by, I’m going to test fire my wrist guns.”] He held up his hands in front of him, revealing the small, cylindrical tubes attached to each inner forearm. Then he reached out in front of him, extending both hands in Adam’s direction. Smiling confidently, Thomas flinched suddenly, pulling both of his fists back toward his elbows. Twin bright blue bursts of energy exploded out of the wrist guns and flashed past Adam in a bright burst of color.
“Hey!” he growled irritably. “Why are you shooting at me?”
“I call it ‘cause and effect’ testing,” chuckled Thomas. “Both of us have sufficient shielding in place to deflect even the most powerful of attacks. After all, this is technology that was developed by the very same people who manufactured the Proteus galaxy. So I’m going to hit you with a varying series of EM bursts and then evaluate your implant’s telemetry once we’re back aboard the Lexington.”
Adam felt his mischievous nature rising. “Why don’t you examine your own telemetry?” he asked a bit snidely, snapping his own wrists back in a motion that felt all too familiar. Mentally, his thoughts automatically accessed the implant with a request for a ten percent wrist gun pulse.
The resulting blast caught Thomas by surprise, even though the impact and energy was completely absorbed by his defensive shield and swiftly dispersed. Fresh statistical data began crawling across Thomas’ eye HUD as the implant siphoned off some of the incoming energy for its own use. Beside him loomed the blocky, metallic lines of the nearby Lexington. The warship was running with its stealth shield fully in place, but his enhanced abilities allowed him to see its general outline anyway. He ignored the large starship and flashed an annoyed glance in his brother’s direction. “Quit screwing around!” Thomas snapped at him in response to the unexpected attack. “We have a lot of work to do, Adam.” His electronically filtered voice crackled through the interior of Adam’s own shield. “Stand by while I test the adjustment criteria recently added to the programming. You’re about to get your wish.”
Over the next ten minutes, Thomas Roh repeatedly fired a varied, continuous series of wrist gun blasts directly at his brother. He adjusted the settings each time, choosing every kind of energy blast he could think of. Some of the blasts were huge, powerful energy bursts while others were trimmed down to meticulously fine-tuned, razor thin cutting beams. Adam nodded appreciatively as he watched a new set of statistical results scroll across his own eye HUD after each hit. In the Wasteland, his usual approach had been to simply submit a percentage request when firing the powerful weapons. Five percent was enough to startle a human opponent, while twenty percent would temporarily stun them. Higher settings had been necessary when confronting the murderous Kuth, who had proven to be frighteningly fast and vicious opponents even while fully equipped with the precious Proteus technology that made him the next best thing to invincible.
“You’re starting to look pretty small, little brother,” Adam observed. The physical force from each energy burst impact was instantly dispersed by his shielding, but the two of them continued to drift apart as they slowly floated away from the Lexington. Despite his best effort, their departures from the airlock had obviously not been identical.
“Not a problem,” said Thomas in response. He concentrated, using his mind to access a new program, and suddenly he was moving back toward Adam’s position, growing visibly larger with each passing second.
“How did you do that?” wondered Adam curiously.
“There are new implant enhancements that you don’t know about yet,” his brother informed him. “One of them allows me to visualize myself moving toward or away from something. Tiny pinholes are then opened in the electromagnetic barrier surrounding my body, allowing some of the atmosphere to vent. The programming calculates exactly what is needed based on my thought pattern and then produces the movement requested. In a weightless environment, a negligible loss of air is all that’s needed to move you around.”
“Does that affect the pilot’s respiration?” Adam was hesitant at first to trust such a new concept without first knowing it had been thoroughly tested.
“The new program simply requests the prompt manufacture of the extra atmosphere needed,” Thomas told him. “There’s no danger.”
“This could utterly revolutionize the process of working in outer space,” his brother concluded. “No pressure suits to damage along with a protective shield to eliminate accidental injury or death. Along with the ability to move around just by visualizing where you want to go, who wouldn’t want to do things this way?” He shook his head with disbelief. “Working out here without the need for bulky gloves alone is worth the effort. I can’t believe we’re not already using these implants on more of our population.”
“Soon,” Thomas promised him. He swiftly fired off several more energy bursts directly at Adam. Each of them exploded against him colorfully, the energy dissipating rapidly in the vacuum of space. “There are a lot of people still pissed about the war… you can understand the President’s reluctance to equip our general population with the equivalent of super powers.”
“While I was in the Wasteland, I had a full-sized medical kit strapped to my left inner thigh. I also had an electronics tool kit attached on the right. Since we can keep our add-ons fully invisible to others, I’d like to take along something similar on this trip.”
“Just tell Nori know what you need,” said Thomas. “She’ll make sure it’s ready for you. I believe Karen Simmons is on board, so she’ll have all of the medical stuff in the Infirmary.”
“When do we leave?”
Thomas glanced down at his wrist chronometer. “Three and a half hours.”
“Good,” Adam responded crisply. “As soon as you’re finished shooting at me, I’m going to lean back and take a little time to enjoy the vi
ew out here. Then it’s right back into combat for us, I guess.”
“You don’t have to go,” his brother reminded him.
“If I don’t, Nori will want to take my place,” Adam told him grimly. “Believe me, we talked extensively about this, and I’m the one who is most familiar with the equipment. I knew what I was getting into when I first entered the Wasteland… in for a penny, in for a pound. Dr. Simmons officially considers my PTSD symptoms minimal.”
“I know,” nodded Thomas. “And I’m very happy about that.”
“Then get on with your testing,” suggested Adam. “The sooner we begin this mission, the sooner that it’s over and done with.”
Zero Hour
The departure ceremony was understandably brief, taking place in the very same hangar bay that the brothers had used only minutes earlier. Adam and his wife Noriana hugged warmly right up until the final minute. He whispered soft words of comfort to her and reassured her that he would be back soon. She, in turn, reminded him that she was fully committed to participating in Sentinel duty, and thus would be with him through the entire journey. “But… after this mission, you’re done with this,” she insisted firmly as they finally broke apart. “Take down the Brotherhood of the Dragon, put the Earth back the way it was, and then come home so that we can go back to our home and family and live out a normal life.”
“I will,” he responded confidently. “We’ve conducted ten years’ worth of probe surveys and know exactly where the Triumvirate headquarters is. Dennis, Thomas and I simply have to go back a point before the war broke out and depose them. After that, we’ll gain complete access to all of their computer systems and betray their undercover agents in every country in which they’re serving. With its head cut off, the body of the Dragon’s Brotherhood will die pretty swiftly.” He studied her suspiciously. “You’re not worried?”
“Compared to what you went through in the Wasteland, this should be a cake walk by comparison,” shrugged Nori. “I’ll worry if something goes wrong. Until then, it’s just a mission. Admittedly, this is a lot easier, knowing this time around that the technology you possess works just as well as promised.”
The Pathfinder Trilogy Page 86