by Terry Mixon
“Aye, sir,” Paula Danvers, his executive officer, said. “Lieutenant Ellis says she’s ready to go.”
“Excellent. Get them in motion.”
After he returned his attention to the main screen, Elise cleared her throat a bit. “Has your Princess Kelsey ever met Angela Ellis?”
Roche considered that for a moment and shrugged. “I don’t think so.”
“You should introduce them. In our universe, Angela has become her strong right arm. Really strong, considering her size.”
He smiled. “That would be kind of disconcerting. Her Highness is so short and Angela is damned tall. There must be half a meter difference between them.”
“Pretty much. Of course, she’s not much like her boyfriend, either.”
Roche raised an eyebrow. “Angela has a boyfriend? She’s always been so focused on her duty that I’ve never heard a whisper about her dating anyone. Who is he? A marine?”
“Not even close,” Elise said with a smile and a shake of her head. “I somehow suspect you’ve never met him. Carl Owlet.”
“The name isn’t familiar.” He turned to his console and entered the data. “No record of him in Fleet service either. He’s a civilian?”
“More so than just about anyone you could imagine. Do you have records for the science folks on the exploratory mission?”
“I do. He isn’t listed. Who is he?”
“A computer genius from Imperial University. A graduate student who isn’t old enough to drink.”
Roche’s eyes narrowed. “You’re having fun with me, aren’t you? That’s a good one.”
She raised her hands. “I promise, this is all real. I wish there was an interface so I could show you pictures.”
“Would a tablet work? Princess Kelsey brought one back from your universe and left it for us to examine in the lab.”
“Have them bring it up.”
Ten minutes later, an orderly delivered the tablet and Elise examined it. It wasn’t locked.
“This will work,” she said. “Let me transfer a picture.”
He took the tablet when she handed it over and laughed. “Now I know you’re joking! He’s not even shaving regularly.”
“No, but he developed the faster than light communications theory and hardware Kelsey told you about. That and a lot more. He saved Angela’s life in a firefight, too.”
Roche didn’t seem convinced, so she added a video of the dinner party the emperor had thrown the night before they’d all left for the reconnaissance in force. She had a short segment of the two dancing and laughing.
He stared at the tablet as it played. “I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. We’ll just keep this to ourselves right now. Did everyone hear that?” he asked in a raised voice.
A chorus of “yes, sirs” came from the bridge crew.
“A genius, you say?” Roche asked quietly. “One not afraid to fight? I can’t see it.”
Elise considered the situation for a moment. “I’m going to play something. It’s classified in my universe and I think it should be here, too. He built Princess Kelsey a weapon. One she forbade him from recreating. It hit a few rough patches during development.”
She played the recording from the Grant Research facility where Carl used Mjölnir to destroy the weapons lab.
Roche watched it through several times before looking at her with wide eyes. “What was that? What happened in there? It looked as if it went through a plascrete wall and vaporized an Old Empire suit of combat armor.”
“That’s exactly what happened. The weapon has a few high tech features. A partially collapsed matter shell, a grav/fusion power pack, a battle screen, and FTL com capability. It left his hand, broke the sound barrier on the way to the target, smashed through the wall, reversed course, and came safely back.”
“I wouldn’t call that safe. It really messed him up.”
“He did a little more work on it. I hear it carried him and Angela to safety one night at about Mach 15. And that hammer was a side project he worked on for the princess after hours when he wasn’t working on what he called ‘the important stuff.’”
He stared at her for a long moment. “Paula, make a note to have someone find Carl Owlet on Avalon and get him into protective custody. The man is obviously an Imperial treasure, even if no one knows about it.”
“Will do, sir. It looks like Lieutenant Ellis is arriving in the landing zone.”
Roche handed the tablet back to Elise. “Let’s hope they find something useful.”
18
Olivia stood behind Lieutenant Angela Ellis trying not to throw up at the sight of her ravaged home world. The images as they’d descended to the surface showed a world scrubbed clean of life, her once proud cities now empty and rotting.
The marine gave her a look of sympathy. “I know words are entirely inadequate, but I’m sorry.”
“I killed all these people,” Olivia said, her voice thick with horror. “Not in this universe, but my plans are the ones that failed here, too.”
She closed her eyes, more distraught than she’d expected. “If this world was like mine, it had a population of twelve billion people. That’s a lot of blood to have on my hands.”
“You did not do this,” Angela said firmly. “Not even my universe’s version of you. The AIs did. Never fall for that logical fallacy.”
“That’s cold comfort,” Olivia said with a shake of her head. “In fact, it’s no comfort at all. I was a fool.”
“Maybe, but that won’t change a thing. What’s done is done. You need to find a way to get some payback. I’ve deployed our drones and we’re jamming the frequencies you told us to block. No reaction from the machines here or in the nearest large city. What next?”
“We need to land in the small town long enough to get out. There’s a diner. Go directly in front of it.
“If we can clear the area of autonomous weapons platforms, that should make future operations safer. You’re going to need to do it anyway. The cities are filled with technology that might help you.”
“We’re a little short of people for that kind of thing,” the marine said with a shrug. “The Pentagarans can help, I’m sure. I’ll signal the pilot to take us down.”
After she did that, the officer turned toward her marines. “We’re going in hot. Be ready to take out any of these things if it gets interesting. And if Coordinator West gives you an order to stand down or to shoot something, do it without waiting for me to confirm.”
The pinnace jolted slightly and Olivia expected the ramp to begin lowering, but it didn’t.
“What was that?” she asked.
“Our gunner just took out one of the platforms. No reaction from the others at this point. They probably have assigned areas of responsibility. Whoever programmed them was an idiot.”
“How so?”
The marine smiled coldly. “Because they should’ve mandated they came looking for units that fall out of communication rather than relying on them to report an enemy sighting. If these things don’t react to losses, we’ll just clear an area and slowly expand, taking them out as we go. It’ll take a long time, but we can do that.”
The pinnace jolted a little harder and the ramp started down. The marines rushed out and set up a defensive perimeter before Angela allowed Olivia to start down onto the soil of the dead world.
The little town was a wreck. Most buildings were intact, but had been shot to hell. A few had burned down. Even a decade after the event, she could smell a hint of ash in the air.
More unsettling were the bones scattered in the street. The remains of people who’d died when the AI unleashed the autonomous weapons platforms.
“Incoming!” Angela said. “Take cover.”
Olivia wasted no time scurrying into the diner as the pinnace lifted off. A roar assaulted her ears as the marine officer and her people followed her in.
“Must’ve been another unit on patrol,” Angela said. “The pinnace took it o
ut with a missile. I wish we had some of those Old Empire pinnaces. Ours are pretty primitive in comparision. I’d love to have flechettes.
“Still no reaction from the other units in the area. That one must’ve been in a building. We didn’t detect it until it came out.”
“There might be more,” Olivia said. “Let’s get out of sight.”
She led them to a freezer in the back. The smell, even after all this time, made her gag. Rotted meat filled the sealed room. Now Olivia really envied the marines their sealed armor.
Without pausing, she rushed to the back of the freezer, lifted the lid of a container marked “malthar bites,” and scrambled down the concealed ladder. Only when she was fifty meters away did she try to breathe. Through her mouth.
“That was horrible,” she gasped at the marine officer. “Let’s never do that again.”
“Unless there’s another way out, we’ll have to do it one more time. What next?”
“This tunnel ends at a grav rail terminal. If the car isn’t here, we’ll call it. Then four of us go on a little trip.”
The rail tube stop did have a sleek car waiting for them. Dust covered it, but it looked operational. Olivia hoped it still had power and that the tunnel was clear all the way down.
“Flanders and Ulysses, you’re with us,” Angela said. “Everyone else spread out and keep an eye for trouble. Talk first with people. Shoot no one unless they start shooting first.”
The rail car still had power and responded to her codes. The track showed as clear, but they wouldn’t know for sure until they made the trip.
Ten minutes after she sent them on their way, they pulled up at a station very similar to the one they’d left behind. This one had a massive vault door where the exit tunnel had been in the first one. Dust and debris covered the platform. It didn’t look as if anyone had used it in years.
Olivia really hoped the people inside were still safe. So many of her friends had been here. Not all of the resistance, of course, but the Grant Research Facility had been their main base.
“Time to see if anyone is home,” Olivia said softly. “Keep your weapons down. These people will probably be nervous and I’d rather not have a shooting match at fifteen meters.”
She wondered if her codes would open the hatch but decided it would be safer just to signal for admittance. With a deep inhalation of breath, she tapped the grimy pad beside the door. The green light came on but no one spoke.
“I know this is going to be hard to believe, but I’m Olivia West and I need to talk with someone. Lord Hawthorne, Captain Black, or anyone at all.”
For a few seconds, she didn’t think there would be a response. Then the light went out and the hatch began opening slowly.
“Weapons down,” Angela ordered. “Hands out in a non-threatening manner.”
Armed men in Old Empire powered armor rushed out and covered them. Olivia kept her hands out at her sides.
Once several of the defenders had relieved the marines of their weapons and searched Olivia thoroughly, Lord William Hawthorne and Fleet Captain Aaron Black came out.
To Olivia’s deep shock, her dead fiancé, Fleet Captain Brian Drake, was with them. The sight of him was like a punch to the gut. From his poleaxed expression, the feeling was mutual.
Olivia steadied her nerves and smiled at the suspicious group. “I’m probably the very last person any of you expected to see. Particularly if there’s a version of me in there.
“I can prove my identity, but the short version is that I’m from an alternate universe and I’ve brought some people that can help you retake Harrison’s World. They could also use your help.”
William stepped forward and examined her for a long moment. “If this is surgery, I’m quite impressed. You even have the same implant serial numbers as Olivia, something I’d always thought was impossible.”
He turned to his companions and raised an eyebrow. “I can’t see the harm in talking at this point. They obviously know we’re here. Objections?”
The others shook their heads wordlessly and William returned his attention to her with a wide smile. “I’ve always enjoyed a good story. If you can somehow convince me that you’re telling the truth, I expect we’ll have a lot to discuss.”
Olivia allowed herself a sad smile and glanced at Brian. “Indeed. I’m looking forward to hearing what you have to say, too. Shall we find a more comfortable place to talk? Say the conference room on level 70?”
“You intrigue me with your knowledge of the base layout,” her old mentor admitted. “What else do you know?”
“This is the Grant Research Facility and you’re Lord William Hawthorne. The officers are Aaron Black and Brian Drake. He and I were engaged in my universe, before his untimely death.”
Brian swallowed. “Olivia is dead. Those damned weapons burned her down a decade ago. I don’t know who you really are, but this had better be really convincing.”
Nothing was ever easy, she decided.
“Then we should sit down and have a long talk. This is Lieutenant Angela Ellis of the New Terran Empire, by the way.”
“This should be fascinating,” William said. “By all means, do come in.”
“Incoming signal from Omega,” Marcus said.
Jared looked up from the reports on his desk screen. It had been three days and he’d started worrying after two.
“Put him on audio. Hello, Omega.”
“Hello to you as well, Admiral Mertz. Your compatriots have returned and await your transport.”
The relief that flooded through him was like a splash of ice water.
“Excellent. Are they alone?”
“No. It seems they’ve brought back all the suits you sent filled with people.”
“We’ll get some pinnaces on the way for them right away. Thank you for helping us.”
“Oh, it’s my pleasure. Life is so much more interesting with your people in it. I hadn’t realized how bored I truly was before.”
The connection ended and Marcus spoke. “I have a call from Elise for you, as well. I had her holding.”
“Put her on.”
The screen on the desk switched from a boring report to the camera inside his wife’s helmet. She’d see his face via her implants.
“Hey!” he said. “I’m glad to see you back. Really glad. Did everything go okay?”
“Nope. We were kidnapped and replaced by exact duplicates. By the way, I’m now a dominatrix.”
“That isn’t funny,” he said repressively. “Well, except for the last part.”
She grinned. “I have a different opinion. And I had to work my code word in there somewhere.”
“Tell me again why you picked ‘dominatrix’ as a code word?”
“Because I can’t imagine any version of me using the word in normal conversation. Why? Do we need to do some role playing?”
He laughed. “I think I’ll pass. How’d it go?”
“It took a little work to convince Captain Meyer to trust his doppelganger, but our Sean did very well. You might not approve of his methods, though.
“Olivia made contact with people in the Grant Research Facility, too. They had a hard time with her story, but they sent a representative along as well. Sean isn’t pleased, but that’s a different kind of problem.”
As much as he wanted to ask what that meant, Jared restrained himself. “I assume you have the people coming for training with you.”
“We do, but only half the load. Kelsey wants to have a total of two hundred. We’ll have to send the suits back, but everyone is ready. It shouldn’t take more than a few hours.”
Jared nodded. “Was Sean able to keep duplication down to a minimum?”
“Far more easily than I’d expected, actually. The vast majority of the people coming our way are from Ginnie Dare. Commander Roche will be in charge of them.”
Now he understood. Almost none of the crew from that ship had survived in his universe. There wouldn’t be many people to mix up.
“I barely had a chance to get to know the man, but I liked him,” Jared said softly. “This will be unexpectedly hard.”
“Just be glad we’re only dealing with other universes,” Elise said with a chuckle. “Imagine if time travel were possible. I’m reminded of one of those old shows Kelsey favors. Two versions of the same grumpy man standing next to one another saying ‘I hate temporal mechanics’ at the same time.”
Thankfully, that wasn’t possible. At least Jared fervently hoped it wasn’t possible. What a nightmare that would be.
“We’ll have pinnaces to Omega in a few minutes,” he said. “How did Sean convince them he was one of the good guys?”
“You know the hidden station at the gas giant near Harrison’s World? He led them to it and helped Kelsey recover the four battlecruisers there.”
Jared opened his mouth to object about not being consulted on something that important, but paused. Would he have done anything differently? Probably not. It wasn’t as if he was going to get the ships over here anyway. Or that he had any right to them.
Sean had made the right choice. It would make things difficult for Jared’s doppelganger, but he wasn’t even sure the man was a good guy.
“That’s fine,” he said. “Most of the people here for training need to go to Boxer Station. Those ships will need crew with implants and training to be effective. Captain Cooley will probably have to rotate them back to their universe and do multiple sets.
“Thankfully, we’re doing exactly that with so many Fleet personnel already that adding a few hundred more won’t even make the instructors blink.”
“That’s what Sean said,” Elise agreed. “He helped them get the ships into orbit around Harrison’s World before we left, so they’re already using the manual controls to start the familiarization process.
“Kelsey did some checking in the computers and verified a lot of the data we gave her about the Old Empire. She’s sent a ship back to Pentagar to meet with the people on Erorsi and bring back help from Pentagar. Since the Rebel Empire didn’t send a fleet like they did in our universe, they have a little more time to get ready.”