Donovan was staring at the two. “Are you sure you’re just an AI? I’ve seen recordings of Lydia Smith, and she was fond of that saying.”
Mia smiled gently. “Aarlan and I worked for long months to extract everything he could remember of his wife. The two of us estimated that I am over a ninety percent accurate representation of Lydia Smith. Access to Fleet databases has allowed me to refine that personality and appearance, and include a nearly perfect voice recreation. While my physical attributes could be made more human through the use of a clone, I chose not to employ that option.”
Kelsoe blinked. “You could have made a clone of my mother?”
Mia nodded somberly. “G’Fleuf managed to save genetic samples, and there are, or were samples in the Imperial Archives. I should let you know that I have genetic samples available for both your mother and your father.”
Kelsoe shut her eyes. “I like you just the way you are, Mia, and without his mind, Aarlan’s body is simply a body.” Her voice was a whisper.
“Thank you Kelsoe, and as much as I cared for Aarlan Smith, I agree with you.”
“Who is this G’Fleuf you talk about?” Donovan asked, raising a dark bushy eyebrow.
“I am G’Fleuf.” The small grey Drugud shuffled through the doorway on swaying tentacles. “I have been a retainer to the Smith family for more years than I can comfortably count.” His small speaker was as tinny as ever, and Kelsoe vowed to herself that she would have it replaced with something better soon—when she had the time.
Kelsoe smiled fondly at the little creature. “G’Fleuf raised me for my whole life and taught me all I know, so if I’m a little rough around the edges…it’s all his fault.” Her grin widened as he came over to her other side and wrapped his tentacles around her narrow waist. Donovan blinked. It made a strangely moving picture of the young woman, with the tall beautiful AI on one side and the small strange Drugud on the other.
Mia interrupted the group hug. “Sunset will occur in fourteen hours, with full dark an hour later. I advise that you both get some sleep and a good meal before you leave. I will have everything else ready when you awaken.”
Kelsoe rubbed her eyes. “It has been a long day, but I’m a little hungry. I’d like a glass of red wine and a bowl of vegetable soup, the one with sausage, cabbage and tomatoes.”
“I know the one.” Mia murmured. “Would you like some, Donovan?”
He was frowning. “Aren’t you a little young for wine?” He asked, addressing Kelsoe.
G’Fleuf answered instead, pushing aside the straw he had been using to sip from a small bowl of water. “Rather than banning alcohol for young people, I let her drink wine in modest amounts from her earliest days. Since drinking wasn’t an act of rebellion, she never had an inclination to drink more.” The tinny speaker rasped out a short laugh. “She is also too much a control fanatic to surrender her actions to alcohol.”
“I hadn’t noticed.” Donovan returned dryly to the small Drugud, and then turned in his seat. “Wine and soup would be wonderful, Mia. If you’re as good a cook as you are a dresser, this should be a treat.”
Mia laughed brightly. “I like this one, Kelsoe.”
“You would.” The young woman answered.
Donovan’s wine and soup arrived, and he took a long sip, his face turning appreciative. “Very good wine, Mia.” He set the glass down. “Is there anything else that you might like to mention before we go into battle?” His eyes on her face were penetrating, and Kelsoe sighed.
“I told this same story to your father while you were outside.” She gave him an embarrassed look. “I had to get his permission to do something.” Donovan wasn’t quite frowning. “As my father was dying, he passed the command of this ship to me, as well as something else. Somewhere in all of his travels he became infected with an alien virus, a vector if you will. My father called it the Abreeza Vector, although the reality of what he had living in him defies any description I’ve ever heard.” Donovan’s eyes opened wide in surprise, and he involuntarily pushed his seat a little further away from her.
“Is this thing dangerous?” He whispered.
It was Mia that answered when Kelsoe sat silent. “Horatio asked the very same thing. Just the opposite, Donovan. As best as we can figure the Abreeza Vector is much more than a symbiotic virus. It will do its best to keep its host alive, whatever the circumstances. It will increase your lifespan, and it will take care of you.”
“What does it want?” Donovan asked stiffly. “I’ve found that anything that is too good to be true, usually is.” He snorted.
“Horatio said the same thing.” Kelsoe replied uncomfortably. “I really don’t know what it wants, other than to survive. Mia and Aarlan had some interesting ideas, but nothing that they could prove.”
“I might like to hear those ideas, when we have more time.” Donovan said softly. Kelsoe just chortled softly, having said the same thing to herself on numerous occasions.
“It does, however, respond to my wishes in some cases.” She continued. “To make a long story short, I asked this Vector, to infect Horatio’s grandson, after I got his permission. It was the only thing I could do that would save his life.”
“He has an alien thing living in him?” Donovan stared at the medical pod in horror.
It was Mia that laughed. “So do you, when you get right down to it.” Donovan turned white. “You have millions of alien bacteria living in you at this very instant, helping you to digest your food or trying to give you the latest cold. I believe that the relationship between Kelsoe and the Abreeza Vector will work out very well, even if she is hot-headed. Perhaps that will fade a little as she matures.” Looking up into Donovan’s eyes, she chuckled. “You will find out for yourself, fairly soon I’d imagine.”
“What??”
“I suspect the Kelsoe has every intention of having Séamas “infect” you with your own Vector as soon as he is able, while she deals with your father. One of the next two infections will undoubtedly be for Jasmina.”
“Me??” Donovan sounded dumfounded.
“Are you sure we couldn’t find someone better suited?” Mia asked frankly.
Kelsoe snorted a laugh. “I don’t think so. He’ll work out—I hope.”
“But what If I don’t want a thing in me?” Donovan complained.
“Not an option.” He couldn’t tell if it was Kelsoe or Mia that had replied. “It’s a small but very important addition that might ensure your survival.” Mia commented dryly. Kelsoe winced at the AI’s bluntness.
“We should sleep now.” Kelsoe announced, interrupting the conversation. “It’s going to be a long day tomorrow.”
“Not as busy as you might have thought.” Mia murmured lightly. “I’ve changed my mind. You can wait a day for your mission. You need to rest and recuperate from your last adventure. One more day won’t matter as far as the Vonuborg Armada is concerned, and your health is my concern.”
Kelsoe opened her mouth to complain, to point out that they HAD to get the message out now, and closed it again. Arguing with Mia was pointless. “As you wish Mia. We can spend the time checking out the Fleet Headquarters defenses.” Beside her Donovan gave her a dry smile.
It was just after midnight, ship’s time, and Kelsoe huddled in the command chair, unable to sleep. After an hour of squirming, she finally broke the silence. “Mia, we need to talk.”
The holographic form was suddenly at her side. “I thought that there might be something bothering you.” Mia murmured.
Kelsoe took a deep breath. “While I was captured several very strange things happened to me, and I’d like to get your feedback.”
“Go ahead, my dear.”
“When Howarth first interrogated me he gave me a shot of something. I assume it was a truth drug.” Kelsoe let out a small titter. “It didn’t stop me or even slow me down from lying to him.” She bit her lip. “Before that I’d been shot in the back with a stunner set on high, and I was in screaming agony. All I wanted wa
s for the pain to go away enough so that I could think, and it did, just like that!” She snapped her fingers. “After I managed an escape that was right out of the cheap spy holos, and after I captured and was examining Howarth I could feel each of his implanted weapons, as a tingle in my fingertips as I passed a hand over his body.” Her eyes grew wild. “I just pressed my fingers against him, and my fingertips sank into his flesh like it was putty, and I was able to feel and remove each of the items, WITH NO BLOOD!” She willed her pounding heart to slow down. “What the hell is going on, Mia? I’m getting scared.”
“Hmmmm.” Mia mused. “It seems as if the Abreeza Vector is much more pro-active with you than it was with Aarlan. The Vector gave him no special abilities that I was aware of, although he was never in any danger while we were together, except there at the end.” The form of Mia turned to give the young woman a long look. “The Vector may have been waiting just for you.”
“Me??” A chill ran up Kelsoe’s spine as she realized what that simple statement implied. “I’m a nobody!” She wailed.
Mia snorted a laugh. “You are the new Primus of the Staarkand Empire, my dear, and you have done more in the past few weeks than your father did in the past few years. You are spreading the Vector, which is what it seems to want. You are definitely a somebody.”
“But…why?” Kelsoe clenched the chair arms to keep from shrieking.
“I’m sorry, Kelsoe. I don’t know.”
The saucer drifted down toward the top of the dark blockhouse as slowly as a snowflake. Parabolic reflectors, tall antennas and weapon emplacements crowded the two hundred and fifty thousand square foot top of the building, leaving only one small spot open enough for Kelsoe and Donovan to drop soundlessly to the roof. Using small point defense lasers, Mia had carefully cut the power lines to the two hulking automatic anti-ship energy weapons that squatted on diagonal corners of the roof. Feeding Kelsoe’s own AI the information and using her corneal implants, Mia highlighted the section of roof they would have to cut. Despite the fact that she was unusually strong, Kelsoe grunted as she lifted her half of the heavy one hundred pound cutter and she and Donovan shuffled clumsily across the roof. Mia, unfortunately, hadn’t had time to fabricate a portable anti-gravity lifter for the drill. With ten foot ceilings throughout the facility, Kelsoe had set the depth of cut for five feet, to clear out any ceiling tiles below them, and had set the cut width to thirty inches. About to set the width to two feet, she had luckily cast one last glance at Donovan’s shoulders, and adjusted accordingly. Holding the driller over the spot on the roof, Kelsoe keyed the trigger. Below them a circular section of the roof ceased to be. Donovan bent down and shown a small light into the dark hole.
“We’re good to go.” He whispered. “You go down first and I’ll lower the drill.” Kelsoe nodded silently and slid down the rope they’d anchored to the base of a tall antenna. Her enhanced night vision let her see the descending drill before it hit her in the head, barely, and she mumbled a curse. Sixteen floors later she didn’t have the energy to curse as together they lifted the drill to begin their horizontal cuts through office walls. It didn’t take her long to realize that G’Fleuf and Mia had been right all along, and that she was not fully recovered from her session with the interrogator, despite what the Vector had done for her.
They almost dropped the heavy drill when there was a loud thump from the dark office before them. Kelsoe, her heart beating wildly, stuck her head through the newly drilled hole, to discover that their drill, set for a five foot depth, had neatly removed the corner of a heavy wooden desk, which had clunked to the floor. Cursing and laughing both, she sat on the floor in exhaustion, tears streaming down her face.
“What is it?” Donovan hissed, giving Kelsoe a small shake.
She took a deep breath. “We cut the edge of a desk off, and the rest fell. Luckily we didn’t slice open a bar, or a glass door.” She bent to touch the drill controls. “That won’t happen again. We were lucky.” She whispered. “Burglars we aren’t”
“We should go.” Donovan replied, hefting the drill. Groaning, Kelsoe slowly got to her feet and reached for the handle on her side. Eight offices later she and Donovan stood before FTL Transceiver. Filling half the wall of the small bare room, it had a single unpadded straight back chair that sat before the main console. Swallowing her fear, Kelsoe sat and forced herself to relax as the complex encryption Mia had hypnotically planted in her memory came to her, along with small but helpful details like where the power switch was located. As soon as Kelsoe placed her hand on the DNA recognition plate, the unit came fully to life, with its lights and screens glowing. A low hum filled the room.
Kelsoe trembled. “I’m so scared.” She whispered, feeling her hands tremble.
Donovan touched her shoulder. “You’re doing fine, but don’t waste any time.” He reminded her.
She shut her eyes, and let the long encryption key scroll in her mind’s eye as she typed on a small pad. Before her a screen lit, and after entering a unique address for the Fleet, she began to type her missive. It took her only a few minutes to type the memorized message to the Fleet, and then she touched the transmit key. Donovan touched her arm. “We should go—NOW!” He hissed.
“Not just yet.” Kelsoe pulled up the screen again, typed a new address and began to type a second message.
“What are you doing?” There was an edge of panic in Donovan’s voice.
“I’ve got to send an FTL to Admiral Bacheva, to let her know what has happened to the Smith family. The Admiral is a distant cousin, and is in danger of being arrested.” Her fingers flew over the keys. Although this message was longer than the first, she soon finished and hit the transmit key. “There. I’m all done.” She glared down at the heavy drill with something like despair. She’d forgotten that they had to carry it back up to the roof, and she didn’t know if she had it in her.
“Hush.” Mia soothed. “I worked that little problem out while you slept. Leave the drill near the FTL console. When you reach the roof the bomb in the drill will explode, destroying the FTL Transceiver and the alien technology of the drill. The Fleet will think the objective was to destroy the Transceiver, but all traces of your calls will be erased.”
Kelsoe shook her head. “That was good thinking. Thank you.” She turned to Donovan. “Leave the drill and let’s go. Mia will blow up the drill and the Transceiver both.”
A tired looking Donovan Smith just nodded. They were most of the way to the roof when Donovan looked at his wrist watch, and cursed.
“What is it?” Kelsoe stood puffing three floors below the roof. Donovan stood on the floor above her.
“I forgot to mention that there is a guard who checks all the rooms at midnight, every single day. He should hit the Transceiver room in ten minutes.”
Kelsoe growled. “Mia, did you hear that?”
“I did. What are your orders, Captain?”
Kelsoe thought furiously. “In exactly five minutes blow the drill. We’re almost up to the roof now, and you can pick us up.”
“As you wish. Five minutes from… NOW!”
Kelsoe dragged herself up to the next floor, and to the next. She stood beneath the roof and looked up, her arms so tired that she couldn’t climb another foot. “Just wrap the rope around your waist!” Donovan called down. “I’ll lift you up.” Kelsoe gritted her teeth, but wrapped the rope about her waist. She was just below the hole in the roof when the entire building shuddered, as if it had received a great blow, and alarms began to shriek. “Hold on!” Donovan jerked her out of the hole and they both went tumbling to the rooftop where they lay panting.
“Leave the rope.” Kelsoe pointed. “That’s where Mia is going to pick us up. Go! I’m right behind you.”
Strobing red lights under a black sky gave the rooftop a surreal look, and they were halfway to the pickup point when the hidden automatic anti-personnel weapons opened up. The crashing sound of the energy weapons made Kelsoe want to scream, as fire flashed and s
parked all around her. A forty foot metal antenna crashed to the roof in front of her, the cut end still bubbling and glowing redly. A spatter of molten metal burned her cheek, in air that smelled of ozone and burned plastic.
“Hurry!” The voice of Donovan called out of the swirling smoky madness. “We’re almost there.” She saw him make a crouched dash to the rendezvous point. “Just a few more fee…” He screamed as the energy weapons cut his legs out from under him, both of his legs folding at odd angles.
“Donovan!!” Kelsoe screamed, throwing caution to the wind as she ran, her tiredness suddenly forgotten. The bolt from an energy gun seared the edge of her arm but she ignored it. Bright bolts were raining from the sky as Mia’s point defense lasers pounded the building defenses. “Oh Donovan…” Kelsoe said in a softer voice as she looked down on his burned and broken legs. His head lolled to the side, and in the flickering light she could see that his face was white from shock. She took his arms and began to drag him up the extended ramp, ignoring for the moment, the thick trail of blood he was leaving behind him. Just as she reached the airlock door two blazing bolts from a last hidden gun emplacement struck her; one in the left hip, and one in the ribs, and in a tidal-wave of pain she knew no more.
Chapter 8
RECOVERY
The first thing Kelsoe noticed was that the air smelled fresh. The second thing she noticed was that the sheets felt clean and crisp against her cheek. She opened her eyes and frowned. The pale green walls of the room were angled strangely, as if they were all falling down against one another. Both window and door casings were kite shaped, with the long end pointing down. She brought up her hand in front of her face and was shocked at how thin and pallid she looked. Tucking her hand back beneath her covers, she took a deep breath. “Okay Mia, you know I’m awake. Talk to me.”
“Technically, you were dead for fourteen minutes and thirteen seconds,” G’Fleuf’s tinny voice murmured from beside her, “before Mia and I could get you into a medical pod and restart blood flowing to your brain.” Her oldest friend sounded incredibly tired. “That occurred a month and a half ago. For the last three weeks you and Donovan have been recuperating in the old Den, on Wrecker’s Moon. At my recommendation Mia took the Wyvern back to Wecarro, to pick up Horatio and one or two others, and bring them back here. In truth she was hovering about, constantly asking how you were and it drove me crazy. This, as you may have guessed, is the first time you’ve woken up from your coma.”
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