The Terra Gambit (Empire of Bones Saga Book 8)

by Terry Mixon

  His expression turned skeptical. “The System Lords have eyes everywhere. All it takes is for my face to come to their attention and I’m a dead man.”

  Olivia nodded. “As I said, I can’t get into the specific details of the situation, but let me raise the bar to where I think it should be. You have information that I suspect is critical to our survival and our mission.

  “That’s worth quite a bit to me and my associates. In exchange for your full and complete cooperation, we can arrange for a life that might be considered luxurious in comparison to the one you’ve lived until this point. Even understanding your background lies in the higher orders. Does that interest you?”

  He watched her suspiciously for a long while before he continued. “How do I know that you aren’t lying? You could promise me anything and then take it all away once you have the information you want.”

  “You can’t know for sure,” she admitted. “I could promise you the moon and stars without meaning a single word. I could also simply mention the kind of pressure we could deliver to make you talk, but that’s not the kind of people we are.

  “I think you realize how difficult a spot you’re in. There’s no need to emphasize the potentially bad outcome. I’d much rather craft a realistic agreement we can both live with that takes our unfortunate situations into account. Wouldn’t you?”

  The man sighed. “I suppose so. No matter what happens to me now, the Lords will have no choice but to silence me. When I was part of a group as important as the other members of my party, there was at least some chance for me. Now I’m a dead man if they get ahold of me.

  “I suppose I should be bitter, but the odds of me coming out of this excursion in one piece were never that good. Once the System Lord selected me, I suspected my days were numbered. Particularly with this thing in my head.”

  She allowed him to stew a little longer and he sighed again. “I’ll just have to take you at your word. What do you want to know first?”

  “The cargo. What’s in it? Why is it boobytrapped?”

  “I don’t officially know since no one felt the need to brief me. I was selected for this mission because of my technical knowledge. Imperial Fleet technology is something I’ve researched all my life. I know it as well as anyone else in the higher orders. Probably better.

  “The Lord pulled me out of a life of relative quiet and gave me no choice in the matter. I was here to assist the crew in making all the systems function as designed. They have had intensive training in their specific areas of responsibility, but that only goes so far. I was here to bridge their gaps in experience.”

  “But you have your suspicions,” Olivia pressed. “The cargo is outfitted with antitampering systems and plasma charges. That’s pretty serious.”

  He shrugged. “I did overhear some people talking about the crates. Based on a few vague comments, I guessed the crates contained a bio weapon.”

  Olivia felt a chill run down her spine. “Obviously you’re not sure, but if it is, can you be more specific?”

  “Something that’s going to Terra. I think the Lords have grown tired of the resistance there and intend to eliminate it once and for all. Probably along with the entire remaining population.”

  31

  Elise listened closely as Olivia recounted what she’d learned from their now cooperative prisoner. His tale was horrifying on both a personal level and in the scope of the task that the Lords had set for these people.

  Jared leaned forward as Olivia wrapped up. “To summarize, these people were on their way to Terra to exterminate an unknown number of people. The cargo we’re carrying is probably the most dangerous and horrifying thing I’ve ever heard of.

  “The next thing we need to work out is how to get rid of it safely. Considering the paranoia displayed so far, it will probably explode if we attempt to move it.”

  “And if we don’t,” Olivia added. “These people were on a strict schedule. They’re supposed to meet some people a few systems over to assist them in their mission. They have to be there in five days maximum.”

  “That sounds ominous,” Elise said. “I hear an ‘or else’ in there.”

  “Very astute,” Olivia granted. “The cargo does have a self-destruct timer and it gives them no more than six days to get there. If the people they were meeting fail to enter the appropriate code, the cargo will explode.”

  “And what happens if it does get the code,” Jared asked. “What then? And who are these people? What skills do they bring to the party?”

  “Our guest doesn’t know. He wasn’t part of the cabal in charge of this mission. More like unwilling labor. The senior people on this ship were part of the Lord’s inner circle. True believers.

  “They had all the critical information in their heads. He only knew what he needed to know to keep everything working. They kept him in the dark as much as possible.

  “Personally, I think they intended to try to protect him when everything was over. Otherwise, why not tell him? They could kill him anytime they chose.”

  “These people sound like assholes,” Kelsey said from her chair in the corner behind Sean. “I’ve met more than my fair share of that kind of people over the last few years. No offense, Elise.”

  “Pentagar does have a few,” she admitted. “Are you speaking of Lord Admiral Shrike?”

  Kelsey’s eyebrows rose. “No. He always seemed stuffy to me, but he was polite enough. Why?”

  Elise shook her head. “When you get back to your universe, you might want to tell your version of me about him. He led a coup here that almost overturned the monarchy. His people left the other you to the Pale Ones.”

  The blonde woman’s expression hardened. “I have a very special place in my heart for traitors. Trust me when I say that I’ll see that you take care of him expeditiously. Make a note, Scott.”

  The Fleet commander beside her nodded. “I’ll add it to my action items. This visit is showing all kinds of people in a new light. Does anyone mind if I ask a question?”

  When no one objected, he continued. “Our options going forward seem somewhat limited. If we don’t meet with these unknown hostiles, our ship explodes with us in it. If we do, we have to bluff our way past a group of people that can find out we’re imposters the moment they see us, if they’re expecting people they know.

  “If they’re meeting this ship with no prior knowledge of the crew, there will be recognition codes. In either case, we’ll probably be exposed as soon as we meet. Lastly, does anyone want to place a bet that these new people don’t have a destruct code for the cargo?”

  He looked around the table with that last question. No one took his wager.

  “What are our options?” Jared asked. “The kind of information we need won’t just be lying around. The only place I envision it being is inside the heads of the expedition leader and perhaps her second. Heads that blew up in a rather permanent manner.”

  Elise sighed. “Is none of the implant hardware recoverable? If we can pull the data off the hardware, we can sidestep this issue.”

  Sean shook his head. “Trust me when I say that the charge was implanted in such a way and with sufficient power to make certain nothing was recoverable. The System Lord didn’t intend for any record of this mission to survive.”

  “It wasn’t the System Lord that killed these people,” she objected. “Their own leader did. Why? What would make someone commit suicide to protect something like this?”

  “Loyalty,” Olivia said grimly. “The leadership in the Rebel Empire can be fanatical. The Lord picked someone to lead the mission that it knew would have no objection to ending it under the appropriate circumstances. I’d wager there was some major payout to the leaderships’ families.

  “Let’s not delude ourselves. These people knew what they were doing and that they wouldn’t survive this mission. The System Lord at Terra would have eliminated them as soon as it confirmed their mission objectives had been met.”

  “Heartless monsters
,” Elise muttered to herself.

  Jared leaned back in his seat. “It might be possible to bluff our way through this, but I’d rather not have to. If there are any mission briefing chips, they might have data on the contacts and their codes. Hell, they might even have the codes to deactivate the bombs.”

  “I doubt that,” Kelsey said firmly. “These AIs don’t seem the type to allow their minions the ability to turn off the things driving them. Contact protocols are possible, maybe even a mission brief. Nothing more.

  “With implants, the chances of even that are almost nil. Why leave sensitive data just lying around when it could be locked up in your head?”

  Olivia smiled. “Here is where one of the quirks of the higher orders comes into play. We have implants, but go out of our way to not use them efficiently. Perhaps that is some kind of innate stubbornness on our part.

  “I’m not saying this means there is a data chip with incriminating evidence stashed somewhere. Even if there is, it will be heavily encrypted. We might not be able to get inside it. Still, it’s the best chance we have.”

  “We know every place the woman in command of the mission went,” Jared said. “If she had a chip on her, we’ll find it. We’ll need to do the same for every single intruder. We can’t make the assumption that anyone was ignorant of this critical information.

  “We have five days until we meet our new associates. I want everyone searching for any bit of data they can find. This has priority. We all need to be looking for as many hours a day as we can. Dismissed.”

  Kelsey did her part in searching for any concealed data chips, but came up dry. So did everyone else. After twelve hours of intense effort, it became clear that there were no hidden data chips.

  There was a lull in the search as most people got some well-deserved rest, but her Raider implants left Kelsey with a need for what only amounted to catnaps. So, in the middle of the ship’s night, she found herself wandering the corridors lost in thought.

  She should probably try to sleep more hours than she did, but the incessant nightmares tormented her. Memories of those few weeks as a Pale One, subject to whims and drives implanted by the mad computer on Erorsi.

  It angered her when these people told her that their Kelsey had nightmares, too. As if the two women shared the same horrors. As if their situations were the same.

  She tried to keep her animosity toward the other Kelsey to a minimum, but it was hard. That woman had gotten off easy. That woman’s trials hadn’t even come close to what she’d endured. It was going to be an effort not to punch other her in the face when they finally met. If they met at all.

  With her mind wandering, she was mildly surprised when she ended up at the computer center. Not exactly the place she’d hoped to see. Now the memories of the people she’d killed there clamored for her attention.

  True, they’d have died in any case and they’d been trying their best to kill her, but their blood was on her hands. Any other interpretation was sophistry.

  The main hatch was open, so she stepped inside. The man at the main console looked up and smiled.

  “Highness. Can I help you?”

  “I doubt it. I’m not even sure why I’m here.”

  “Couldn’t sleep?” he asked sympathetically. “Feel free to commandeer a console. I don’t mind the company. No need to talk, even.”

  That was better than meandering aimlessly through the corridors with only her own thoughts for company.

  “Thanks.”

  She picked the console farthest away from where she’d killed the intruders and sat. It came to life at her touch.

  What should she look at? The computer had lots of old files from before the AIs had captured the ship. The ones that had come later were probably not very interesting.

  If she’d been the other Kelsey, she could’ve looked at some old entertainment vids. She had no idea why those interested the woman. They made little sense and the special effects were juvenile at best.

  Lacking enthusiasm, she limited her search to files that had been modified or uploaded since their arrival in the El Capitan system. Others had already checked and found nothing, but it wasn’t like another check hurt anything.

  Most of the files seemed to be related to ship’s operation. That made sense, too. These people had jumped right into running the ship. None of them had even taken time to select quarters.

  The two leaders they’d identified had been located on the bridge and in engineering. Those two locations generated a lot of files, so she started excluding those generated by normal operations. That reduced the tsunami to something manageable, if one stretched the term far enough.

  She then sorted the remaining files by who had generated them. The number left for the two leaders was only in the hundreds. Plenty of time to glance at each one personally.

  A few minutes later, she came across one that puzzled her. The file was supposedly text only, but the contents were gibberish. Random letters, numbers, and special symbols. Not even a space to denote a break in the flow.

  She cleared her throat and waved the Fleet man over. “I’ve found something that I don’t understand. Can you tell me what this is?”

  He stepped over to her console and looked at the file. “Huh. Maybe it’s corrupt. Let me give it a closer look.”

  The man shifted one of the chairs over and began doing incomprehensible things to the file via the console’s interface.

  Knowing she wouldn’t be much help, Kelsey slid a little farther aside and copied the strange file into her internal memory. Her implants scanned it as soon as she selected it and ordered them to report on its contents.

  Moments later, they reported that the file was encrypted and asked if she wanted to run any decryption programs.

  Kelsey sat bolt upright. Encrypted? Shouldn’t the computer scans have reported this earlier?

  “Excuse me,” Kelsey said. “I don’t think I asked your name.”

  The man smiled at her. “No worries. I’m Commander Ralph Adonis. I’m the resident computer expert.”

  “Ralph, I’m Kelsey. Tell me, did you scan the computer for suspicious files related to the newcomers?”

  “Of course,” he said with a nod. “I finished that hours ago with nothing to show for my efforts. No encrypted files.”

  “Hmmm. That’s odd. My implants tell me this file isn’t corrupt. It’s encrypted.”

  The man frowned and focused his attention on the console while his hands flashed over the interface. “No encryption shown on the file. It’s plain text.”

  “I don’t know much about my implants, but I doubt they’d get this wrong. They are cutting edge Old Empire technology. I’m inclined to trust them on this.”

  The two of them stared at one another for a long moment before he spoke again. “What kind of encryption do they think this is?”

  A quick check told her that it was some kind of text cypher. She had to look that up to get the gist of the meaning. Plain text was run through some kind of filter and turned into gibberish.

  With an appropriate key, anyone could reverse the process and get the original text back. Lacking that, the file would remain unreadable.

  She passed the information on to Ralph.

  He scowled at the screen. “That’s crazy. You swap letters out until it makes sense? The ship’s computer could unlock something like that in a few seconds.”

  “It only sounds simple,” she said. “Without the correct key, there are probably places in the file where the substitution logic changes. The key tells it where to look for that.”

  “Hmmm. Let me see if I can do something about that. Are you really sure it’s a code?”

  “No, but my implants are.”

  “I should report this, then. Let the admiral know.”

  If she was wrong, she’d look like an idiot. Well, better to be thought a fool than to do something stupid and prove it.

  “Do it.”

  While he was working on the file, she instructed her imp
lants to decrypt the file contents. Her implants seemed more knowledgeable with codes like this than the ship’s computer, but they had far less processing power. It was anyone’s guess who—if anyone—would manage to get to the secret contents first.

  32

  Sean had the late shift so he got the call from the computer center about the potentially encrypted file. He briefly considered waking Admiral Mertz, but decided against it. At this point, it might turn out to be nothing.

  The last few hours had been filled with false alarms. They couldn’t afford to miss a single thing so they’d instructed everyone to pass along even the most minor oddities. None had panned out and this latest one would likely be the same.

  But he wouldn’t know for sure unless he actually went down and looked for himself.

  He gave the helm officer the conn and headed down to the computer center. When he got there, he found Princess Kelsey and Commander Adonis hunched over a console examining something.

  “What have you found?” he asked as he stepped behind them.

  The Fleet officer glanced back at him and shrugged. “I’m not sure, sir. Maybe nothing. Maybe something.”

  “A plain text file filled with strange characters,” Kelsey added. “It looks like gibberish, but my implants insist it’s an encrypted file.”

  That made him lean forward to look at the console more closely. “Your implants are a lot more specialized than the programs we have. If it says this is a code, it probably is. Can you unravel the thing?”

  She shrugged. “I’m running quite a few decryption programs, but it’s slow going. The programs might be amazing, but this is proving a bit more troublesome than I’d hoped.”

  He sent an alert to Admiral Mertz. If her implants insisted this was a coded file, it wasn’t a dead end. The admiral signaled receipt of the message and that he’d be there in a few minutes.

  “Is there any way we can offload some of the processing to the ship’s computer,” he asked Adonis.