“Caleb, you can’t turn it on inside the ship! It’ll rip us to shreds. Oh….” She crouched down next to him. “Mesme was right, you know. You are an astoundingly clever man.”
When he saw the glint in her eyes he briefly considered tearing her clothes off right there in the middle of the floor. Regrettably they were short on time, especially considering they were currently drifting around in some other universe’s lobby.
“I am, or I will be if I can puzzle out how to turn it on. You know, without actually turning it on.”
She settled fully onto the floor beside him and curled her legs beneath her. “The factory was mammoth in size. We have, what, four of these—or three if this one’s wrecked? Do you really think it’ll be enough?”
“That field threw the Siyane four hundred kilometers in under a second. It’ll be enough.” He paused, identifying a possible flaw in the plan. “You do have remote sensors or probes or something launchable on board, don’t you?”
In the corner of his vision she rolled her eyes at the ceiling. “Yes, I have a couple of those.”
“Good. Now I suspect these little guys were supported by one another and the larger field being generated, like an interlocking lattice. When I removed each of them from their slot in the network, they shut down. So we need to either simulate the connection, or trick it into believing the field is active.”
“I think tricking it is the more viable option, for it and my ship.”
“Probably.” He studied the internal layout of the orb. Physically it was nothing like any circuity a human would or ever had designed, but it was circuitry. Strands of a form of photal fiber wove in intricate patterns, interconnected at nodes and fed into a tiny euhedral crystal in the center.
The question now was which one maintained the power signal. He disconnected the strands from the crystal and grabbed the scope.
“Caleb….”
“It’s fine. I’ve disconnected the power source. It can’t switch on now.” He touched the probe tip to each strand and studied the readouts. Most of the results were crazy complicated, but he was searching for the one which was a simple on/off.
On the second-to-last strand, he found it.
He exhaled, relieved. No way should this have rightfully worked. Then he gave Alex an imploring gaze. “I need a few more tools.”
Identifying the nature of the signal which constituted ‘on,’ replicating it in the ship’s signaling system and attaching the orbs to one of the remote probes she used to take asteroid samples took an hour and change. Of course this was still an hour as it passed here, which meant in reality it took an eternity. But it was the best plan they had.
“Ready?”
He strapped into his cockpit chair. “Oh so ready.”
She retraced their path and reopened the portal back to their lobby. He braced himself against the expected vertigo as they flew through, but it was still dizzying to the point of nausea.
Alex growled beside him and set a course for the ship factory, then stood. “I’ll be right back, I’m going to go vomit real fast.”
His hand shot out to grasp her arm. “Hey…you all right?”
She flashed him a weak smile, but her face had blanched. “Fabulous.” She no more looked fabulous than he imagined he did, but he nodded and let her go.
By the time she returned they had almost reached their destination. The factory loomed large in front of them, continuing its relentless construction of monstrous vessels.
How many had it sent on their way to wreak destruction upon civilization while they were gone? Five? Ten?
It wouldn’t be sending any more.
The ship decelerated to drift nearly a megameter distant. There was no way to predict how big the explosion was going to be, but any further away and the signal might not reach the orbs.
“Here goes everything….” She released the probe.
Too small to see with the naked eye after a few dozen meters, they tracked it on the radar as it sailed toward the facility. None of the mechs noticed when the probe slipped through the scaffolding and inside. She halted its progress.
“…and here goes everything else.” In the same way her ship sent the gamma waves to open the portals, at her touch the ship sent the signal to activate the orbs.
The reaction was instantaneous. Every gram of powered machinery—the mechs, the ships, the equipment used to assemble the ships—exploded outward from the probe’s location with the force of a supernova eruption.
“Not a safe distance!” Rather than maneuver in reverse she flipped the Siyane over and accelerated away. They observed the destruction in the rearcam visual until it seemed likely they wouldn’t be ripped apart by projectile spears then arced back around.
The entire expanse of space before them was littered in jagged shards of obsidian metal, none larger than ten meters in length. The extent of the destruction was awe-inspiring in its completeness.
Alex was cackling wildly, a hand in her hair and the other at her neck. “That was amazing! I bet—oh boy.”
The dramatic shift in her tone was enough to distract him from the scene outside the viewport. “Dare I ask?”
“Our vandalism has attracted attention. I’m guessing the attention of the ships which hadn’t yet made it to the Metis portal. Or the ships which were still searching for us. Or both.”
“Run for our portal?”
“Uh…no.” She zoomed the long-range radar so he could see the metric fuck-ton of red blips assembled between them and the gateway to Metis.
“More squid.”
“God I hope all those aren’t the big ones. But the alien ships can’t see us, correct? So maybe we just sneak quietly past them? That’s an outrageous number of ships, though. One mistake and we’re in smaller pieces than the factory.”
“Go through one of the other portals. Sneak past them for real.”
“This is a good idea.” Her eyes darted with unspoken thoughts; then the Siyane was in motion. “Let’s go back through the one we did earlier to hide and I’ll figure out which portal will dump us out closest to our own.”
Their destination was under a minute away and they quickly traversed the portal. The world wrenched around—it wasn’t getting any easier to experience—and they angled another two megameters into darkness.
She stood and made her way to the data center, waving over her shoulder. “Can you stay and keep watch on the radar?”
“Yep.” He settled deeper in the chair. It was starting to break in nicely. He contemplated the blackness outside, and what it represented. It was enough—ten red blips materialized on the radar.
“Alex, I think they know where we went.”
“They must be alerted when we open portals. Will you fly while I work this out?”
No way had he heard her right. “Care to repeat that?”
She appeared beside his chair, rotating it until he faced her then leaning in to run a hand along his jaw and place a soft kiss on his mouth. “Fly my ship for me.”
He murmured against her lips. “I can do that.”
Then she was gone. He spun back to the HUD beaming like an idiot, desperate circumstances be damned. “So I’ll put some distance between us and these guys, but if they get too numerous I may need to traverse another portal.”
“Warn me first.” The plea sounded like it came through gritted teeth.
Creating distance from ships which were significantly faster than the Siyane wasn’t as easy as it sounded. The only factor in his favor was the pursuers didn’t know precisely where they were—a fact which would surely be causing their enemies much consternation had they possessed emotions.
It took time for their numbers to increase, but eventually this lobby grew thick with enemy vessels and his room to maneuver shrank to an untenable level.
“Jumping.” He drew as close as he dared to the location of the chosen portal before opening it then flew straight through.
“Oh my god that sucks!”
He stifled a chuckle; it would be mean to poke fun at her genuine distress. “Got an ETA back there?”
“An hour or two.”
“What?”
“Forty seconds, if you’ll quit interrupting me.”
“Gotcha.” He had never slowed after exiting this time, creating a fair degree of distance before the first vessels began to follow them. And follow they did, relentlessly tracking prey they could not see.
“I’m jumping one more time so we have room to maneuver once we know where we’re headed.”
The warning elicited a distracted grumble. “I hate you.”
He smiled to himself. “No…no, you don’t.”
He braced himself and slung the ship through another random portal, choking down the bile forcing its way up his throat. His equilibrium wouldn’t be steady for days.
“Ugh…0.0449 Hz….”
“Great, but I’m—”
She fell into her chair and strapped in. “Never mind. I’ll find it. Keep flying.” The spectrum analyzer bloomed to dominate the left side of the HUD. “Head a bit to starboard, it’s at bearing N 12.3°. Maybe I should take over now.”
He removed his hands from the controls with dramatic flair. “The ship is yours.”
“Thank ya.” She meandered around until they located the desired TLF wave and settled atop it.
“You realize what we’re about to do is geometrically impossible unless we’re traveling through more than three dimensions.”
Freed of duties for now, he shrugged. “The notion did occur to me. It didn’t seem relevant at the time.”
“Fair enough.” She eyed him without turning her head. “So when we get to our lobby I have a plan to get us past not only the ships here, but also those presumably waiting for us on the other side.”
“Am I going to like this plan?”
A corner of her mouth curled up. “Not in the slightest.”
61
FIONAVA
EARTH ALLIANCE COLONY
* * *
LIAM HAD A RAGING HEADACHE minutes after departing the transport. Or had the headache been plaguing him for hours now? He found he had trouble recalling.
The trip had been interminable, and he’d lost track of the hours passing somewhere around the mid-way point. A portion of the trip he spent considering his plan, then planning the steps to follow. But long after all productive work was completed there had only remained the endless waiting to land.
And now that he at last stood on Fionava, the headache throbbed painfully against his brow. The planet was sickeningly pretty, painted in lavender and baby blue and plum. Oversized flowers and colored fauna were planted in every available space of the burgeoning city and a white sun shone so brightly he was forced to squint every time he dared glance out the levtram window. Hence the headache.
It was everything Deucali was not. This supposed beauty was purportedly the reason it had been chosen to host the Alliance Northwestern Regional Headquarters, but he couldn’t imagine any soldier worth their salt enjoying this place.
At least he wouldn’t have to tolerate it for long. He expected to be on a ship—a real ship—within the day. And he did not intend to return to this atrocious planet henceforth.
The levtram slowed as the base came into view ahead. It was built in the middle of a God-damned meadow. If he saw a soldier frolicking through the tulips, he was going to shoot them on sight.
He closed his eyes to block out the meadow, and to ready himself. A vital facet of his plan consisted of him projecting absolute authority and a demeanor which brokered no questioning.
Then the doors opened and he walked brusquely forward. Passengers, mostly military, instinctively moved out of his way while tossing salutes in his direction. He ignored them to march purposefully to the security checkpoint.
The Warrant Officer looked through him without really seeing him as Liam placed his palm on the scanner. Presumably recognizing the identity which flashed on his screen, the officer’s gaze darted up, eyes wide. “Sir! General O’Connell! Apologies, sir. I wasn’t notified of your arrival. We…” the man frowned at the screen “…uh, sir, the system says EASC is requesting you report to Earth immediately.”
“Your orders are old, son. Everything’s been taken care of.”
“Yes, sir. If you’ll wait a moment, I’ll see to an escort for you.”
“Not necessary. I know the way.” He had never visited NW Headquarters before but had memorized the floor plan and layout on the eternal trip from Earth.
His first destination—before his presence began to stir everyone up—needed to be the Communications Center. While individuals handled most of their communications internally via the exanet, such a large volume of data flowed into and out of a Regional Headquarters that physical servers and specialized ware were employed to control, route and store the bulk of it.
Bitterness ate at his gut like a festering ulcer. He didn’t trust ware or the nuts who created it and the necessity of using it peeved him to no end. But there were more important matters at stake now. Matters like duty. Pride. Vengeance. He would use whatever tools were required to further them.
An officer sitting at the monitoring station in the front room of the Communications Center scrambled up to snap a clumsy salute, noting the bars on the uniform but not him. It was for the best.
“Sir…uh…General? How can I help you?”
“I need access to your control room.”
“Yes, sir. What is this in regard to?”
“That’s classified, Lieutenant.”
The skinny young man screwed his face up, then worked to tamp down the expression. “Understood, sir. Do you require any assistance? The setup can be tricky and—”
“Negative.” He walked past the lieutenant and stood at the inner door in a manner indicating he expected it to open immediately. And so it did.
The small crystal disk he fished out of his pocket had cost him half a year’s salary paid to a woman so morally abhorrent he had showered twice after leaving her company.
Her instructions were straightforward: locate the rectangular box, probably constructed of a brushed black metal and around two meters in length, with the most cables connected to it.
He found it along the left wall behind a bewildering maze of server racks and strange quantum cubes. Find the oval depression on the top and press it to open a physical data port. Somewhat to his surprise, it worked.
Place the disk inside. When the screen pops up asking if you want to run the ware, select yes. Wait for the screen to state the routine has completed.
Ironclad military discipline enabled him to stand at parade rest while he waited, forcing the violent urge to beat his foot or trod in circles into submission. Seconds ticked by at a rate slower than glacier flow.
He occupied the seconds by thinking about his father, about the shell-shocked, panicked look in his eyes when they laid his mother to rest. It was a look which had gradually hollowed over the months and years until it became an empty void.
The screen flickered as the words it displayed altered. Routine complete.
Remove the disk. Press the depression to close the port. Leave. Leaving he could most certainly do.
Foster’s office was located in the left rear corner of the Command Building. He proceeded as rapidly as he dared, for under no circumstances should he seem panicked or draw attention to himself beyond what his uniform and physical build did. Even so, he was stopped twice on the way by officers he marginally knew. He spat out the prepared cover story and urged them on their way.
Two turns before Foster’s office he entered the Security Center and glared over the counter. “I need two MPs to accompany me.”
The sergeant on duty looked as if O’Connell was expected; likely the checkpoint officer had commed ahead to alert her of his presence. “Yes, sir.” She tapped the comm panel. “Jenkins, Ramirez, up front now.”
Seconds later two men appeared. Thankfully, they weren’t overly young. It incre
ased the odds they wouldn’t wet themselves when ordered to take the action he intended to command. He nodded sharply. “Men, with me.”
They fell in on either side of him as he traversed the final two hallways, and the entourage arrived at their destination before the MPs were able to inquire as to what was going on.
The secretary gave a weak salute. “General O’Connell, welcome to Northwestern Regional Headquarters. General Foster is in a conference, but he—”
“I’m afraid this can’t wait. Open the door.”
“Sir—”
“Open the door. That’s an order.”
“Yes, sir.”
The door slid open to reveal a visibly startled General Foster. He dismissed the holos above his desk. “O’Connell, this is most unexpected. I was under the impression you had taken a leave of absence.”
And that was the key. The military leadership’s abhorrence of public scandal had led them to issue a cover story concerning his replacement on the EASC Board. The official word said he had resigned from the Chairmanship for personal reasons and taken an indefinite leave of absence from active duty; the request to return to Earth was ostensibly to wrap up technical matters.
He believed solely Brennon, Solovy, Lange and Navick—and possibly Rychen, since the man had tied himself in knots kissing Solovy’s ass for the past two weeks—knew of the charges filed against him under seal. But he’d had no way to be certain until now whether the other Board members had been informed.
“Not any longer. They sent me out here to get this disgrace of a Regional back into shape. You are relieved of command pending a summary hearing. Officers, escort General Foster to a protective custody cell.”
Foster’s face flooded beet red until his jowls appeared as though they might burst. “You haven’t the authority—”
“But I do.” The MPs’ eyes veered from Foster to Liam and back again, wavering. “Don’t ask me to repeat myself, officers, lest I make an effort to remember your names in an unfavorable manner.”
The taller MP moved toward Foster. “I’m sorry, General. I’m afraid I have to take you into custody.”
Vertigo: Aurora Rising Book Two Page 40